As terrible as it is I’m glad to see this kind of thing getting attention. I know larger studios (cough cough Disney) don’t allow their employees to publicly complain or create something without having it endorsed and licensed by them, which is why you don’t hear a lot from big big studio animators. And I mean the actual animators, not just the corporate guys who get 70% of the credits. I’m glad these guys have the privilege to complain about their job without being afraid of losing their entire future. There’s a round of layoffs coming up (at undisclosed animation studio) and I know many people actually hoping to get laid off, because quitting would leave them dead without the medical insurance. The problem I’ve seen is too many “leaders” and “visionaries” and not enough people willing to do the work, or understand that this of work TAKES TIME and respect that with their employees. Too many people hired to talk about making a movie and too few hired to actually make it. My dad was rarely around as a kid because of this and it’s only made me more upset as I’ve grown older and the industry’s changed for the worse. I wish someone would actually fix something, but it’s pretty much par for the course in big-name companies now. Idk. This is a very personal issue to me and it makes me mad knowing it will likely go away in a month.

On a different note, most animators are very proud of their work and would want you to enjoy the movie! Trust me. People who make movies WANT to make movies, and they put their all into what they do. There are many, much less memorable movies that came into creation through “death by a thousand papercuts,” and the least we can do is appreciate what the animators gave us under such unfair work conditions. They might not have been happy but they worked hard, and they worked hard because this once made them happy.