Animation Elevation is a series of animated films presented by the Williams Center Art Director, Michael Olivo. This particular set of movies focuses on Japanese animation of the ‘80s and ‘90s with a heavy slant towards space opera and cyberpunk science fiction. The series selections balance high adventure with adult themes while opening the viewer to completely original worlds.

Anime, and by extension animation as a genre, has the power to create dazzling realms only limited by the creator’s mind. Olivo explains that this inventiveness can’t be matched by live action film.

“Every line in animation and drawing is soaked in the creator and that can be tangibly and intangibly felt. Live action is always fundamentally a part of this world, whereas animation has the potential for the creator to visualize their own personal world from the ground up.”

Olivo’s love for animation permeates the Williams Center: from the Soldato Books & Records logo to the designs of Sly Man Surf Club his influence and, the influence of animation as an artform, is ubiquitous. This year’s first annual Rutherford Film Festival even included a category for Best Animated Film, generally not common in independent film festivals, and especially uncommon in their inaugural year.

That affection for the artform began many years ago, in Olivo’s youth, when he saw the Miyazaki classic Princess Mononoke for the first time.

“I recall seeing it on HBO (I think) in my aunt and uncle's basement. I must have been about 14 years old, and I had no idea what I was watching. It was so clearly superior to anything I had seen in animation before, and I still feel that way. To me it's Miyazaki's most complete film and without question a top 5 film within anime. It opened my eyes to the potential of animation and anime…”

“Studio Ghibli Sundays” will continue in the Fall as well as more selections for “Animation Elevation”.

“It's looking to be a pre-1980's anime programming block,” says Olivo, “that also covers some of the first examples of anime ever made. Some tentative highlights would be Panda and the Magic Serpent, which is a film that sparked Miyazaki's love of animation, and Namakura Gatan, a 4-minute short from 1917 about a dull-edged sword and a foolish rōnin's attempt at tsujigiri [the act, by a samurai, of testing a new weapon on a random person].”

Animation Elevation selections are playing Tuesdays through August at 8:00pm

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise - August 6th

Patlabor: The Movie - August 13th

Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie - August 20th

Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy – August 27th

Wicked City – September 3rd

Studio Ghibli Sundays are playing Sundays from August to September at 6:00pm

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind – August 4th

Castle in the Sky – August 11th

My Neighbor Totoro - August 18th

Kiki’s Delivery Service - August 25th

Only Yesterday – September 1st