Auteur is the French term for Author. The word auteur came actually from its literary source; it is used to describe the authors and writers of the books and the novels.
The word auteur itself is used to describe the film directors who had a special and unique style which could be spotted out easily on their directions of films and animations.
When the word auteur is used to describe some directors, it may be contested by some critics who may see that he/she is undeserved. It has always proved to be an area of contention through all the film history.
Film auteurs has always benefited from the presence of good screen writers and cinematographers unlike animators who are known as auteurs that actually benefits from good animators and other members of the production team… they are also the ones who supervises the whole process of the creation of their animated movies, starting from the storyboard to the block until the final production of the final animation.
A good example of animation auteurs is Walt Disney who was discussed by Paul Wells in his book (Animation Genre & Authorship).
"He may be seen as 'a person who offers direct statements and explanations about artistic and thematic intentions of a film, within an evolving narrative about film-maker from work to work, which constitutes a personal vision." - Animation Genre & Authorship – Paul Wells
Another great example is Hayao Mayazaki whom I chose to write about considering him one of my favourite and I believe he is also one of the world’s most favourite animators of all time.
Hayao Mayazaki
Hayao Mayazaki is one of the greatest animators in all time, he is on of the most respected animators of the Japanese animated films.
He started his career in 1963 when he worked as an animator at the studio (Toei Douga), he was involved in the earl classics of Japanese animations.
After making a bright name for him in the animation industry, Miyazaki established his new animation studio (Ghibli Studio), at...