T-Rex: The Uncanny Valley is the name given to the idea that as we build robots that look more and more like real people, the more we approach a point where we all say "oh God oh God what is wrong with that robot where did it all go wrong OH GOD".
T-Rex: This also applies to animation!
T-Rex: The idea is that crudely-realized characters don't look like real people, but we can see some qualities of real people in them, so they're cute! But as you add more and more realism without quite reaching perfection, you reach a point where suddenly instead of cartoons that look real, they're real people who look TERRIBLY WRONG. Cuteness is replaced with the same reaction we'd have to a putrid, retching, animated corpse: revulsion, and the question "Why??".
Utahraptor: But if you can make the characters look even better, you get past that!
T-Rex: True!
T-Rex: Hence the "valley" - you accept the creature more and more, then are suddenly repulsed, then you accept it the most.
Utahraptor: Perhaps... a powerful metaphor for LOVE?
T-Rex: Hah! I don't think I love the way you do!
Narrator: LATER, AT HALLOWE'EN!
T-Rex: There! My costume looks like a failed corpse that still makes a blasphemous claim to life. Thanks, Uncanny Valley!
Off panel: No problem, T-Rex!
T-Rex: It's so upsetting that you got personified, Uncanny Valley.
