Genre in Animation

Genre is a classification of film that is there for the audience to be aware of what the film is, for example a horror wouldn't be suitable for a five year old. There are many types of genre, such as horror, drama, comedy and action, and these can be merged, a cross genre, such as a dark humour.
Genre is very stereotypical and it needs to be, to be able to label what the film is based on, such as a romance is linked with females whereas action is matched with males.

Animation allows much more stronger violence with less graphic scenes, for example, an Anvil hits someone on the head. In an earlier era, this is portrayed, in animation as a cartoony design, the stronger violence can be tolerated as it is a clear form of fantasy and does not depict reality. (Examples of these cartoons are Tom and Jerry, and Looney Tunes.) However due to changes in society, there is hardly any violence in cartoons for kids, for fear of repetition of the actions portrayed.

The violence portrayed in the Tom and Jerry videos seem not to be shocking through the use of the cartoon style of the animation, however if it had been more realistic with added gore then it would not be suitable for a young audience. The character 'Tom' appears scary, through the use of shadow and expression on the cats face which is done very well as it portrays the mad scientist and the devious intent to catch the mouse, Jerry.
The storyline of Tom and Jerry is easy to notice, Cat verses Mouse, with the mouse always winning. This is done to make the cartoon appeal more to kids, showing a small character win over a towering villain, makes the victory that much more exciting.

Generic Plots - in animation

• Maturation - coming of age/ rite of passage
• Redemption - transition of main character from bad to good
• Punitive - main, ostensibly good character behaves badly and is punished
• Testing - willpower verses temptation
• Education - main character moves from negative to positive perception of the world
• Disillusionment - the reverse of education, from positive to negative perception