She looks forward to exploring the old lodge where she stays each year, with its cozy library and maze of passages and rooms. It's obviously meant for children, but the way the feelings of wonder and magic are conveyed are so stunning that anyone with any appreciation for good illustration and animation would immediately feel drawn to it.Twelve-year-old Alexa Daley is spending another summer in Bridewell with her father. An animated adaptation of The Dark Hills Divide would probably end up looking something like The Secret of Kells, which falls into the same sort of category. This frees up the character designers and other artists/animators to really delve into creative freedom without worrying about how well it will age.īut even going beyond the demographic point, animation can be so different and so stylized compared to live-action that it's visually gripping no matter anyone's predisposed biases against it. Good animation is something that seldom goes bad with the passage of time, unlike some effects and costume design. Live-action is undoubtedly also capable of doing this, but as stated in the header, there's less freedom involved. So it stands to reason that animation would be the best at holding their attention.

Related: Best Voice Performances in Disney Animated Movies, Ranked In a live-action medium, the audience is more acutely aware of how things appear to the characters, and space is expected to operate just as it does in our world. Both of those scenes carry with them a feeling of discovery and mystery. For example, take the underground tunnels in the book or even the mountain where Alexa discovers the magic stone that lets her speak with animals. Related: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Why Studio Ghibli Should Adapt the Novelīut in specific regard to The Dark Hills Divide, animation provides the chance to bring its world to life in an extremely atmospheric and stylish way in order to accentuate the feelings of mystery and intrigue. Especially since animation is so closely associated with children's entertainment, in no small part due to Disney and Disney properties such as Pixar. And so, just as the imagination can be anything on a whim, so can animation. However, imaginations, especially that of a child, are fluid things. Plenty of live-action films can tap into a child's imagination, such as Narnia.

The dark hills divide book