Because we animate, make non-living drawings appear to have the quality of life, it is worth looking at "The Uncanny Valley", the concept coined in the 1970s by a Japanese roboticist for the point when humanoid robots cease to be cute or interesting and instead cause humans unease. This article in Smithsonian Institute's magazine examines why dolls cause this reaction. Humans need to be on thealert for danger and they also need to be socially aware. So when someone gives mixed signals that aren't overtly threatening, humans go into a state of alertness that we now call feeling "creeped out". It essentially leaves us in a state of heightened awareness without rocking the social boat. Dolls can trigger the creep because they mimic the human form and give off some social cues (their seeming ability to make eye contact being the most often cited) but aren't "doing" anything. Robots, as they become more sophisticated, can mimic human form, behavior and social cues. The image below shows where moving and still things that mimic humans fall in regards to the Uncanny Valley.
3D animated characters are more likely to attract negative association with the Uncanny Valley than 2D. 3D is working really hard to make on-screen reality better than real life and the technology isn't quite there yet. An example that made me wish the film makers hadn't gone there was the "young' version of Jeff Bridge's character in Tron: Legacy. It looked like a death mask of the actor without the spark of life. I would have happily accepted a younger actor playing the character next to the older, real Jeff Bridges over this:
Jeff Bridges in the original Tron (1982)
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