How many times have you heard an audience marvel over the amount of detail and scrutiny involved in making an animated masterpiece? How smooth the movements are, how realistic the rendering? The value of animation nowadays does seem to lie so often in its ability to capture as much reality as possible. Another contention argues that that its ability to escape reality holds more significance. However, like many things, animation is multi-faceted. When we delve into the history and many separate elements of animation that make animation what it is, what makes it such a unique and appealing niche is its capability in having versatile balances in reality and escapism. Animation at its very root is an art form dealing with synthesis of motion through a series of images displayed one after another. This opens the doors wide for any animator’s imagination. The rules of reality can be broken and bent to any extent within animation. But just like any art form, where the line should be drawn (and hence the value of the art) is completely subjective. Richard Weihe, a contributing author to ‘Animated Worlds’, states that “The animation film is not an ‘interpretation of dreams’ from the perspective of Freudian reality, but rather an interpretation of reality from the perspective of the dream”.1 This encompasses the essence of animation - it is created by viewing reality through a distorted lens, the ‘dream’, so to speak. Like dreams, it is the element of reality that grounds animation, but dreams are different for everyone. The level of reality is contingent to the height of imagination the animator wishes to employ. In Windsor McCay’s 1914 animated film, ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’2 the eponymous dinosaur lumbered towards the audience from a distance, performing actions that McCay appeared to instigate in real time. The sense of perspective, weight and apparent intelligence of Gertie is what imbues reality in the animation. The