Animation: Genre and Authorship, Paul Wells

Chapter 4: Genre in Animation

Wells argues that recently, new 'sub-genres' have been added to the list of already existing and acknowledged genres, because there have become so many aspects of crossover and combination between them that they are becoming hard to clearly define.

He lists new plot structures/types which can be identified in self-evident genres like horror, romance and comedy. These are determined by the structure of the story rather than the mise-en-scéne or typical themes that distinguish genre./
Maturation plot is a coming-of age, right of passage story
Redemption plot contains the transition of a protagonist from bad to good
Punitive plot the main, good protagonist behaves badly and is punished
Testing plot story of willpower vs. temptation
Education plot protagonist develops a positive outlook of the world
Disillusionment plot protagonist becomes disenchanted with the world

While giving examples of genre as it usually found in live action films, Wells also makes a case for animated films having their own generic terms and conditions that will define their genre.

"Animation has inherent spectacle in the freedom of its graphic vocabulary, but it is a spectacle that has naturalised into its vocabulary in a way that enables the form to infiltrate generic conventions almost unnoticed."

 Richard Taylor attempts to place animated films into six distinct categories: dramatic, lyrical, didactic, comic, commercial, children's. Each of these function as genres in live action movies also. Wells makes an argument for constructing genres which are particular to animation. He gives 'fairytale' as an example, and cites works by Disney and the Fleischer Bros to make his case.  He says 'literary adaptation' may also be included as an explicit animated genre also.
He finally lists seven genres or 'deep structures' of animated film...
Formal: Animation that is determined by a conditional premise to its narrative or thematic concerns, in order to test and extend the aesthetic and technical parameters of expression distinctive to the animated form.
Deconstructive: Animated film that self-consciously deconstructs the artificial tenets of its making for critical or comic effect.
Political: Animation which makes a moral, ethical or political statement.
Abstract: Animation that explicitly explores new, experimental techniques and approaches to facilitate non-linear work, that resists traditional conventions of interpretation.
Re-Narration: Animation which reconfigures existing narrative in representations of time, space and perspective.
Paradigmatic: (personally, I don't understand paradigmatic..must look back into it!)
Primal: Animation which depicts, defines and explores a specific emotion, feeling or state of consciousness.