Experimental Madness

Post #6
I left animation on Monday seeing dots. After three hours of what I can only describe as circles flying at me, my head was beginning to hurt. Once I had time to let the animations settle in me (and my eyes stopped feeling like shapes were attacking me), I began to be able to see all the ways experimental animation have affected and relate to none experimental.

One way I saw that the experimental animations we saw related to other things is in segments of other animated films. The one I thought of was the trippy acid section of Dumbo. The way the elephants morphed and moved in Dumbo's drunken dream reminded me of the way some the animated shapes morphed and moved about the screen. Particularly in the kaleidoscope like one.

Another thing I thought has been affected by experimental animation is music videos. The relation of many of the animations to music makes them "music videos" in some ways. I can see how the way images relate to sound effects music videos today.

Up!

Post #5

In the spirit of The Academy Awards, I recently watched Up I usually don’t bother watching Disney movies unless I am with a little kid or one of my friends wants to watch it. I have nostalgia for Disney but usually I would rather watch a film that doesn’t include talking animals. However, I kept hearing great things about Up so I thought why not give it a try.

The first thing I was struck by in Up was how quickly I found I cared about the characters. The movie begins with a five-minute montage of the old man, Carl, and his wife, Ellie’s, life together. I find that usually montages in any film, live action or animation, are not necessarily very effective. Montages often can come off across as cheesy cliché summary. In Up I found it to be tremendously affective. I was able to instantly see the love between these two characters. They highlighted upon all the right moments like something as simple as fixing up a house, cloud watching, having dreams like the wife’s South American adventure, and losing dreams like not being able to have a child.

One of the things I felt was so affective about the montage was the use of recurring images. The most obvious is the use of the balloons. Carl as a young boy loses his balloon, Ellie returns it to him, Carl sells balloons, and later when Ellie is in the hospital Carl sends a balloon in the same way Ellie did for him. Later in the film Carl flies his house away using tons of balloon. They also used other images to go along with the theme of “up” like clouds in the sky and going up a hill.

Another interesting thing about the montage is was entirely non-diagetic sound. The only sound was the beautiful score. It fit so well and carried the mood perfectly. All of these things sucked you into this world so much that you almost believed if you had enough balloons you really could carry your house away. I think what made the montage in Up work so well is that every image, sound, and note counted and meant something.

Walking on Pins and Needles

Post #4

For this blog post I wanted to talk a little about something from a couple of weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to put in my blog yet.

As I have been exposed to more and more animations in this class I am struck by how possible it is for anyone to do at least simple animations, the time, talent, and effort that goes into all animations, especially the ones like Prince Achmed and pin board animations, and admiration for the patience it has to take. Maybe it is just me, but the thought of how much patience and time went into animations like Prince Achmed and the pin board animations makes me tired just thinking about it. I found both types very beautiful and extremely impressive but while watching both of them I wondered what it would take for a person to want to put that much into something.

The pin board animations particularly struck because of how much detail the animators were able to get from just shadows. It was remarkable to me the knowledge someone would have to have about the way light works, they way pictures are made, and how each individual pin incorporates into the piece as a whole.

I personally am an awful artist and am a little baffled by how anyone can even make dog not look like a painful square with things sticking out of it. The pin boards go far beyond just bafflement I have for art. At the same time I have this admiration I have trouble understanding how someone could and would want to do something like a pin board animation. Even making a single frame of one would probably frustrate some much that I would throw it all on the floor, walk away pissed off, and drink instead. For the person how can do it for all 5,000 or whatever frames would be in a seven minute animation, my hat is off to you.

Betty Boop Bopping Around

Post #3

Of course I have heard of and knew who Betty Boop was, but it wasn't until Monday's class when we watched the two Betty Boop cartoons that I realized how sexists it was. I think what surprised me the most was the unrealistic expectations of a woman's body that were instilled even in the 1930s. In todays society unrealistic expectations for women's bodies is a given. Video games and cartoons show impossibly proportionate cartoon women, models are air brushed to death, and movie stars are starving themselves to meet the expectations. In some ways I think of these images as more modern day images but the Betty Boop cartoon showed me it started a long time ago.

Betty Boop is the quintessential "ideal" woman figure. She has big bobs, big hips, long legs, and an impossibly small waist. If there was a woman with those dimensions in real life she would topple over because her body wouldn't be able to support her. This is the same way cartoon females are represented today. Even though, it is so common I don't think it will ever stop being at least mildly shocking to me the way they are drawn. Air brushed models are one thing but the cartoon females take it to a whole new level.

If Betty Boop's body proportions weren't bad enough she is also apparently without a brain. All she really ever says is "boo boo bop." No matter what the situation is that is Betty Boop's line. She is given the intellectual and language skills of a baby. This is even more shown in the flashback portion of the Betty Boop cartoon. Betty Boop is shown as a baby saying the same thing "boo boo bop." Poor Betty was never allowed to advance beyond the baby talk stage.

Perserpolis

Post #2

Typically animation is a children’s film requirement. If you see animation most people almost immediately think it some Disney kids movie. While many children’s movies are loved and admired by all ages the genre is still made to entertain children. I think when adult films use animation they play off the childlike innocence animation has to drive their point home.

The French film Persepolis, directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, and a section of Kill Bill, directed by Quentin Tarantino, are two very non children’s films that use animation in them. I think each film uses the animation in a variety of ways to benefit the film as a whole. The black and white animated film, Persepolis, derived its look from the original comic book autobiography of one of the films directors, Marjane Satrapi. Tarantino’s Kill Bill slips into animation only once when telling of the childhood of the psychotic Oren Ishi. Both films use a very comic book style of animation. I would assume this style stems from the roots of the directors’ personal tastes.

By using animation and the comic book style of animation I think it allows the directors to make a point that is more easily digested through the unassuming animation. Persepolis makes its political point about Iran and Kill Bill gets to play off its bloodiness against the rest of the film.

Persepolis also uses the animation to allow humor into a very serious situation. I think it can more easily fall back to humor because the animation allows you to always fall back to the innocence animation has.

Technology and Animation

Post #1

As technology forms and grows so does forms of entertainment. Animation has made its way into the hearts of many. All the way back to thaumatropes, zoetropes, and flip books animation has been a deceiver of the eye. As it continued into the 20th century Disney became a power force in the animation world. Warner Brothers gave us the wonderful Silly Symphony and between the two they took the market on children's entertainment. The more technology improves the more it has an effect on everything. In many ways animation has become more about the technological advances then the magical mysticisms that it once was.

One of the most beloved things about animation is the magic of it. It takes inanimate objects and animates them. Chairs and brooms can dance, mice and dogs can talk and wear clothes as well as any human on earth. Early animation were crude and unrealistic but the magic was not in reality but in the unreality of what you see. As technology has improved and our knowledge of the world animations have become more refined. The motions are more believable, the faces share as many expressions in one scene as any human would. With animations becoming so advanced you have to start wondering if the original magic of animation is being lost.

Todays video games are almost scarily realistic. It seems that in some areas of animations it so much more about what technology can do then art and magic of old hand drawn, beautifully painted animations of Disney princesses and others. If animations can become as realistic as live action then where does that leave either industry.