At the Annecy International Animation Festival in France, del Toro said how impressed he was with the modern state of animation. He loves the visual creativity of a movie like “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and the upcoming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” He also noted that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was doing a lot of financial pull; at last count, the Illumination/Nintendo collaboration has grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide. All three films in question required a handicap of well-worn IP. Perhaps, del Toro is implying, a massive, high-paying success can now be achieved that is entirely original. He said:
‘The Three Hits’spider worms,’ ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And ‘Mario’ shake things up, giving a little more leeway, but there are still big fights to be fought. […] To me, animation is the purest art form, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to save him. [And] I think we can make a Trojan horse out of a lot of good bullshit in the animation world.”
The “thugs” in question appear to be mainstream animation studios like Disney and DreamWorks, whose animated production is generally safe, kid-friendly, and easy to consume. Indeed, de Toro feels that modern animated fare has become overly preoccupied with a certain type of “sassy” character that is now prevalent in the mainstream of the medium. He says modern animated characters are too often “coded into a kind of teen romantic comedy, almost emoji-style behavior.” He continued:
“[If] I see a character raising their fucking eyebrow, or crossing their arms, having a sassy pose – oh, I hate that shit. [Why] does it all feel like they’re in a sitcom? I think it’s emotional pornography. All families are happy, sassy and fast, everyone has a line.”