In the time before the avatar, we bent nothing but the energy within ourselves.So, barring any extreme returns, Avatar is over.
- Lion-Turtle, Avatar: The Last Airbender
In a similar vein to enjoyment of dichotomy between texture and text in music, I find the blending of genres in other media to be quite fascinating. I'll be the first to say that what I'm mostly referring to is mixing science fiction and fantasy.
The first time I think I really ran across this was as a young child, watching a cartoon that I doubt anyone remembers (especially my very few readers): Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light. Take a high-tech society and bust the tech, then mix in some semi-Arthurian stuff with magic that can power the tech and BAM! You have series that lasts only 13 episodes (there were some toys though - I know this because I had some of them).
After that I'd say I didn't encounter quite what I'm thinking of here until I started reading Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. I've only read the first 3 books, but the point is this: despite the initial introduction in the first book, until they found the last remnants of the colonization ship, I had the feeling that "this is fantasy that doesn't feel like fantasy." To which I eventually said, "Duh! They're space colonists who've lost touch with the technology they showed up with!"
In the further realms of animation, the series Scrapped Princess applies Clark's Third Law to blend the two genres. For those too lazy to follow the link, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
So, when I was writing my bit on Avatar the other day, a I had a thought I hadn't had in a while. It annoys me to no end that people can't see animation as a valid and serious art form. In a way, the same problem plagues the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres regardless of medium, but part of that concern is a topic for another post.
As I understand it, the argument goes something like this: "It was only used for kid's programming in the past, it can only be used for kid's stuff now." That's just a silly point though. It's the same kind of problem that actors run into when they have one major defining role: they get typecast.
Anyway, it's something that gets under my skin. Perfectly serious stories can be told in any medium, the same goes for funny/sad/exciting/etc. stories.
