The "real" in animation

In Part One of Detheaux - Communication and the Anti-Disney Aeshestic, written by Jean Detheaux from Animation World Magazine  discusses the interpretation of "realism" within non-disney animation studios used to animate their projects.

Disney animators look for inspiration from real world anatomy, props, and locations before adding rubber hose effects and stylization to their animations. Other animation studios follow similar steps, but not in the same formula as Disney to make themselves distinguishable from the big corporation.

“There seem to be two major options here: either one believes "the real" is a known, quantifiable and finite entity and it then is common to render it according to societal models ("photo-realism"), or, as is more often the case with "artists," to "improve upon its assumed-to-be-known appearance by manufacturing a style." ("What can I do with/to that?" which inevitably leads to "manufactured styles.")”

With these two options to start a base one, artists and animators outside of Disney try to set their own style of animation, just like the creators of Heavy Metal. The studio of this movie opted in to make the film's characters more closely resembling actual humans, and all the mythical creatures being more detailed than most of the creatures seen in Disney films.

I believe that the way that studios decide to take inspiration from the real world, whether is be photo-realism or simplifying beings and environments, it's a defining choice that would make audiences remember the film or show, and will more likely remember the studio that created it wasn't Disney.