I wonder if some of it is related to prosopagnosia, which isn't an uncommon comorbidity. Cartoons and cartoony CGI generally make characters far more easily distinguishable from each other (and from the background), making the action, facial expressions, and individuals easier to parse and keep track of.
In particular, facial expressions in animation are easier. Anything on an animated face has to specifically be put there by the animators - there are no extraneous expressions, no subtle microexpressions that the audience is supposed to be able to follow, and nothing which is the pinnacle of complexity of the actor's art, let alone anything which an actor tossed in over and above the explicit command of the director. For those of us who aren't good at picking up complex, fleeting, and even near-subliminal expressions and body language, animation is often far clearer in what it's trying to convey.
On top of that, animated faces and bodies in a production are usually deliberately very different from one another, in part to assist with this clarity. They can be exaggerated, or not limited to strictly human proportions, colors, or even shapes. Having a camera shot move from one face to another will hardly ever result in confusion about which character is onscreen, even if the lighting is shadowy/murky. Live-action, on the other hand, can easily have several characters who have similar clothing, similar facial appearances (including similar coloration of skin and hair), similar hairstyles, and so on.
25 May 2023, 11:35 am
