At least it is according to the New York Times:
At the box office, animated films, which have recently been Hollywood’s most reliable genre, have fallen into a deep trough…
Animation encompasses many genres which is why it should not be considered one. It is part ignorance, part misinformation, but there are very few, if any excuses for such a sweeping generalisation an artform.
Besides, the films have been “reliable” because they’ve been good and have more often than not out-performed their live-action counterparts, not just because they are animated.
Neither genre nor artform -animation is a process of filmmaking (the artform). That form can be considered with generic subsets.
Ah, thanks for the clarification Richard 🙂