I recently wrote an article about 10 overused movie poster clichés. I noted how the phenomenon seems to exist partly because studios enjoy cashing in on formulas and strategies that are known to bring success. By mimicking the marketing strategy of a successful film, studios may be able to take advantage of the feelings an audience has for the project that used it previously. Movie posters are an instant way to tell your audience what you want them to know about the film: it's tone, subject matter, and basic plot. There are, realistically, only a handful of ways to do this, and repeat designs are bound to happen. Unfortunately, when it comes to animated films, Hollywood seems even more prone to resorting to the same handful of marketing tricks. We're all familiar with a studio's tendency of releasing virtually the same film, year after year, and there's no denying that animated films are often the biggest casualties of this Hollywood trend. We undoubtedly live in a golden age of animation, with studios like Pixar and Dreamworks constantly pushing the boundaries of the art form and proving that it's a tool, not a genre. But, for each innovative project, there seem to be a handful of mediocre films as well. No matter what the quality of the film, or what studio is releasing it, many of them fall prey to the same 5 movie poster clichés. In fact, we hardly ever see a design that doesn't utilize one of the designs in this article, and most posters contain several of them in one. Without further ado, here's my breakdown of the 6 animated movie poster clichés we're all tired of...