Life is but a dr...drawing

There is something mesmerising about animation films. Watching them always takes me back to being a kid watching the roadrunner cartoons on a Saturday morning and things like that. There is an innocence in animation that comes so naturally to the art form you can't help but love it.

As I write this I'm watching Up, not for the first time yet still that opening has left me with a tear in my eye - and a few on the floor but who's counting! What a truly magnificent start to a film. The way it just floors you in minutes, animation shouldn't make you cry!

Or should it? After all there are scores of animation films that have been known for their sad scenes. When Mufasa dies in The Lion King - since the invention of DVD I have skipped that scene and will continue to do so because that is bloody upsetting!

Bambi's mother dying is another such tearjerker. All Dogs Go To Heaven again is ridiculously depressing at times.

Right let's move away from admitting that animation upsets me because that is not a good look nor why I wanted to talk about animation.

Disney animation is of course brilliant and since the creation of Pixar, animation has gone to a whole new level but for me the two types of animation that draw me in most are Anime and stop motion.

Studio Ghibli has produced some of the most beautiful examples of anime in history and Spirited Away is up there in my list of greatest movies of all time. This film is spellbinding. The vision of director Hayao Miyazaki is awe-inspiring. You can't help but be immersed in the fantastical world that Chihiro finds herself sucked into and some of the other worldly creations are sublime. The talent to make a film like this is mind blowing considering every single scene is hand drawn and if you have never seen a Studio Ghibli film then start with Spirited Away and I recommend Howls Moving Castle and the moving Princes Mononoke.

Stop motion animation is an altogether different type of creation but equally as stunning as anime. The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first time I'd seen a stop motion animation and I just fell in love with the whole look and atmosphere of the film. Yes I do love Tim Burton but that's not why I love this film. The painstaking patience it takes to make a movie like this is amazing. It's not just what's going on centre frame that is amazing it's the background and scenery of the entire film that is magnificently created. Christmas town is a place I would love to visit!

Animation allows you to envisage a story that is not possible to create in the real world. It's escapism in the truest sense of the word. Sometimes we all need to just get away from the reality we live our lives in and submerge ourselves in Halloween Town or mythical Japan.

I could really go on about animation for hours, I will be coming back to this magnificent art form on many occasions here at The Armchair Director.

I've decided the next time I throw a party it will have an animation theme. So fans I ask you this, which animation character would you be?

The crying game

Now I'm man enough to admit I cry when watching some movies. There are some scenes in films I still have to skip through so as not to end up in a blabbering wreck - the scene where Mufasa dies in The Lion King, truly horrific. Cannot watch that scene otherwise I'm sobbing like a baby. I think we can all relate to that, unless you are dead inside!

From an early age I was having to hide the fact I cry at films, E.T - the ending, again in tears, snot everywhere! It's not pleasant. I used to walk out the room, pretend I was going to the toilet or something. It fooled no-one, everybody knew what I was doing and the mockery started!! Joy!

So I started to ask myself is there something wrong with me or am I infact just becoming immersed in films and finding that connection that so many people don't?! - now of course I didn't ask myself this after watching The Lion King, I was nine, but you catch my drift.

So I gave into the whole crying like a child thing and let it happen. I opened a gate and now it's impossible to shut. Literally a flood of tears has happened since.

Good Will Hunting, the whole 'it's not your fault' scene. Yep, streaming tears. Now they way I see it, if Matt Damon is crying his eyes out, it's ok for me to as well, right?!

Now when Titanic came out, everybody was crying at that film so I figured I was probably going to too. You know what, I didn't! At all. That was a big breakthrough for me, showed I only cry when a film is that powerful. I'm not an unstable person who cries when they forget to turn the light off on their way to work. Progress!!

The last film to have me in tears was Up - clearly animation is a weak point for me - but I defy anyone to watch that opening scene and not shed a tear. That is a magnificent opening to an animation film, hell any film! It's beautiful, moving and very poignant and I read in Empire they were crying too so I knew I was in good company!!

Well thanks for letting me share that little, if you know me badly kept, secret and I'm sure I'm not the only one to cry at films. Just know it's not a bad thing! It shows you have a heart.

Unless you cry at Serendipity.

That's just pathetic!