The Academy Museum Unveils a ‘Fresh Redesign' of Its Amazing Animation Gallery

The Annie Awards, which have long paid tribute to those talented innovators working in animation, will mark a major milestone on Feb. 25: It's the 50th anniversary of the celebrated ceremony.

It's an acclaimed event that shines an admiring light on talented writers, artists, and everyone who brings new, surreal, and often wonderful worlds to the small and big screens.

While we await word on the evening's winners, and hatch plans that involve viewing the full complement of nominated shows, shorts, and films, we can turn our animation-obsessed gazes upon the Miracle Mile, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

That's where the "Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation" display is, a comprehensive repository of oodles of cartoon-tastic creativity housed in the museum's "Stories of Cinema" galleries.

And the cinema institution's animation area just benefited from a freshen-up, which came courtesy of a gallery rotation that took place at the museum earlier this month.

"Stories of Cinema" is a "core exhibition" at the story-celebrating spot, and animation is most definitely a central pillar of that considerable core.

Which means that the gallery spotlights "(n)early a century of animated filmmaking," with models, puppets, maquettes, animation drawings, cels, illustrations, character designs, and other materials" on display.

These artifacts and intriguing items help provide "... insight into the visual styles, themes, and approaches of animation moviemakers."

Call the gallery a film-strong feast for the senses, one that invites visitors to experience a wider universe populated with unknown worlds. For it is the unknown world that is so often explored in animation, making every fan of the form an adventurer of sorts.

Some of the gallery's treasures include a treat for "Pinocchio" people — it's a Jiminy Cricket maquette — and concept art from 2018's lauded blockbuster "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse."

Tim Burton buffs will be drawn to the stop-motion puppets seen in "The Corpse Bride." Shorts are also celebrated — tributes to the beautiful "Bao" are part of the collection — as are venerable works like "Alice in Wonderland."

It's true that animation regularly ventures to spaces and places that are at the very edge of possibility, but those realms have real-world connections, giving we viewers a chance to reflect upon what we're enjoying and how it relates to the world we live in.

But that earnest reflection is also paired with a rollicking spirit, one that cheers us, makes us laugh, and fills us with joy. And perhaps that's what animation does so well: Mix the unreal with the real into a scrumptious stew, one that is both tasty and true.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (2018), Sony Pictures Animation Inc., © & ™ 2018 MARVEL. ©2018 SPAI.