“Polygonal Perversion: Tomb Raider and the Feminine Identity
in Video Games”
Much like in
cinema, there is an interesting study in the representation of the feminine in
video games and it’s correlation to gender theory.
A) Given the immense popularity of video games and the
audience that they attract, a study into the representation of the feminine is
very appropriate. In the
action-adventure genre of video games there has been very little in the way of
representation of women as anything more than giggling princesses who need to
be rescued and act as trophies. However,
flawed as it may be, Tomb Raider did
a lot to change that. Tomb Raider featured a female (Lara
Croft) as the main playable character, and far from being a giggling princess,
she was an intelligent and ass-kicking character.
Now, if the description could end there, there would
be little issue to be had with the game.
However, sadly it doesn’t.
Besides being intelligent and tough, Lara Croft is also the
personification of the dominant make ideal of beauty. She is tall, slender and has a voluptuous
bust. Now, given that the target
audience for such video games is primarily made up of adolescent boys and
post-adolescent young men, it is not surprising that the developers would make
Croft so...developed.
However, it seems to be more than just a company
catering to its horny audience of breast-obsessed males. According to Anne-Marie Schleiner’s essay “Does
Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer
Adventure Games” the game takes on the viewpoint of Laura Mulvey’s conceptualization
of the Male Gaze. The `eye of the player
is drawn to the figure of Croft as she jumps, flips and attacks. And due to the nature of the gameplay the
gaze of the viewer is constantly on Croft, fixated and at times even fetishized.
In a personal recollection of the video game, though
I never played it very much, I remember the fabled “Nude Raider” code that
allegedly existed. As the legend told, a
friend of a friend’s older brother’s cousin found the code and entered it and
was greeted with the site of the adventures of Lara Croft without a top. However, few were able to say they personally
saw the code entered and the topless croft bounding across their screen. However, as time went one it has been known
that hacks have been made to the game but no such code existed on part of the
original programmers. However, this
legend travelled through the locker rooms of the Junior High School and became
a legend of mythic proportions.
B.) Given my
subject for the readings I recalled a video I saw for the upcoming installment
of the Tomb Raider franchise.
This video runs just over three minutes and is full of
breathtaking animation. It is orthodox
in nature and contributes to the readings due to its featuring of the character
of Lara Croft. She looks largely the same, although better
graphics are a given. However, she
notably seems to have under gone a breast reduction.
“Voices of Misrepresentation: The Presence of Blackvoice
Minstrelsy in Animation”
While the
tradition of Blackface Minstrelsy is not prevalent in its original form,
Michael A. Chaney argues that the tradition continues through the appropriation
of “blackness” in three prominent American animated series.
A) While chapter 6, “Animation and Audiences”, in Understanding
Animation by Paul Wells was an informative read, I am going to focus this
blog post on Michael Chaney’s article “Coloring Whiteness and Blackvoice
Minstrelsy: Representations of Race and Place in Static Shock, King of the
Hill, and South Park”. The
history of Blackface Minstrelsy is a certainly a negative mark in American
history, having the dubious misfortune of being one of the few purely American
art forms. Fortunately, the presentation
of Steppin Fetchit and Amos and Andy have ceased in the modern era, however,
according to Chaney, the concept still lives in animation in the forms of
Blackvoice acting.
For Static
Shock, a children’s animated program focusing on a black superhero, it is
not the misrepresentation of African American culture that is the issue, but
rather, the race-swapping that occurs. Race-swapping,
or the switching of racial tropes from an African-American to a Caucasian in
order to appear as multicultural and non-racially divisive as possible. However, Chaney believes that this is merely
a condescending attempt to wash ones hands of still utilizing this
stereotypical tropes and beliefs.
Furthermore, even when the stereotypical tropes are attributed to white
characters, still some stereotypical, if not racist tropes still make their way
into the series. Virgil, the superhero’s
alter ego is given the opportunity to join a street gang and handle a firearm,
he refuses, however, after becoming the masked Static, he enlists the help of
this same gang to assist him in cleaning up the streets. This shows that in this animated series it is
impossible for a black youth, even masked crime-fighters, to avoid involvement
in a street gang.
King of the
Hill, Mike Judge’s follow-up to the successful Beavis and Butthead portrays life in the small Texas town of
Arlen. Chaney argues that it is the
deterministic nature of the characters that drives the Blackvoice activity in
the series. As described by Chaney, the
main character, Hank Hill, discovers that he was actually born in New York,
rather than in Texas as was previously thought.
This completely changes his self perception as well as the perception
that others have of him. Chaney equates
this with the view that fueled the pro-slavery movement in the United States:
The place of one’s origin can be the most important factor in the ultimate
worth of that person. By not being an “official”
Texan, Hank feels less than human and this opinion is shared by those around
him.
South Park,
the coarse, abrasive, offensive, and wildly popular animated series, contains a
different problem as laid forth by Chaney.
Here it is the matter of exclusion that is the concern of Chaney. A majority of the characters in South Park are voiced by the show’s
creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
And although a majority of characters on the show are white, there was a
notable exception. The school’s chef, named, Chef, was voiced by
musician Isaac Hayes. Hayes was not
given the opportunity to explore his vocal range in the manner that the
creators were, but instead played essentially a more pronounced version of
Hayes’ supposed identity. This identity
was even used as fodder for humor in one episode. When Chef was marrying a white woman he sang
a song with her. This in and of itself
was not unusual as Chef sang in virtually every episode in which he
appeared. What made this song unique was
that the song was not sung by Isaac Hayes, but instead by Trey Parker,
emphasizing Chef’s incorporation with whiteness. This, combined with the exclusion of Isaac
Hayes’ opportunity to voice another character is a major cause for concern for
Chaney.
B.) Given my
subject for the readings this week I typed “Static Shock Racism into the search
bar for YouTube. I was immediately drawn
to a video titled “Static Shock is Racist”.
This video is short in terms of time, but heavy in terms of
content to be explored. The clip is
short, so contextual information is lacking.
However, it is clear that Static is in Africa and he calls his friend to
alert him to the fact that he feels free, unburdened and normal. He states than in Africa he is no longer a
black kid, but just a kid. However, the
area in which Static is flying over contains no African people but rather wild
animals. The inference clearly being
that the only place in which an African American can be normal is in the wild
of Africa, like the stereotypical savages of old. This clip is an example of Orthodox animation
and fits the standards defined by Paul Wells as such.
C) I have a
rough draft of my final paper completed and have given it to a faculty member
to review and comment on.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Matt Jones
Post Ten
“Animated Nightmares: Jan Svankmajer and Stop-Motion
Animation
Czech animator Jan
Svankmajer is a brilliant animator, whose work is at the same time satirical,
nightmarish, and wonderous.
A) Rather than summarize the whole of Ch. 8 in Furniss’ Art
in Motion, I have decided to focus on one portion of the reading. I have admired the work of Jan Svankmajer for
quite some time and I feel this is a perfect time to discuss his brilliant yet
troubling work.
Furniss describes Svankmajer’s work as horrorific,
yet he never blatantly attempts to be so.
His films do not feature explicit gore, nor do they offer chilling
glimpses into the world of the supernatural or the paranormal. Instead, his films seem to delve into the
horrifying landscapes of our nightmares, making them truly unsettling rather
than simply scary as most horror films are.
For this reason I always consider Svankmajer at the forefront of horror
directors for his ability to create images that unsettle the viewer to their
very core.
However, horror is not the whole of Svankmajer’s
oeuvre. He was adept at creating
symbolic texts that sublimate the dominant ideology of the communist regimes
that ruled over his art. His texts were
not understood by his would-be censors, and thus he was able to cast his
message out and reach a wide audience without being overtly against the
regime.
Svankmajer’s major trait was his use of stop-motion
animation on inanimate objects. His
reasoning being that objects have a longer memory than do humans.
B.) Given my
subject for the fourth animation assignment, I did a youtube search for Batman: The Animated Series. I found another interesting mashup. Someone took the audio from the Dark Knight Rises Theatrical trailer and
used footage from Batman: The Animated
Series.
This mashup is an example of developmental animation. It features the trends of orthodox animation,
but is experimental in its juxtaposition of subject matter.
C) I have a
rough draft of my final paper completed.
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995) is
a science fiction anime set in futuristic Japan. The film centers on Section 9, a division of
the Department of Home Affairs, and their attempts to locate a hacker referred
to as “The Puppet Master”. The
protagonist is a female cyborg named Major Motoko Kusanagi. The fact that she is a female in a primarily
male operation lends itself to examination of the role of gender in the film as
a thematic or stylistic choice.
The
first scene in which we see Motoko has her waiting outside a building, perched
up high observing her targets. She is
seen crouched down, listening discussing the assignment with her squad. When
the time comes for her to complete her mission she disrobes, revealing an
enhanced female body, covered in a skin tight, flesh-colored body suit which prominently
displays her large breasts. She then
dives off the roof as the angle changes, looking up with her breasts filling a
majority of the screen. The scene shifts
to the interior of the building as heavily armed police rush down the hallway
and barge in on a small room lined with screens displaying an image of an
aquarium. An exchange occurs between the
man in the room, a foreign ambassador and the head of the police operation,
regarding a hacker’s desire to seek asylum in a foreign land. Motoko’s voice is heard as the screens are
shot out, and the ambassador is violently gunned down. The police representative rushes to the
window to see Motoko, clad in her skin-tight, flesh-colored suit falling from
the building, with a grin on her face.
Seconds later she activates a thermal camouflage device and blends in
with the cityscape as she falls.
This
scene showcases Motoko as being two things: A very skilled agent and a very
attractive female. She is not only the
stone-cold operative who carries out the mission with excellence, but she also
does it with a huge does of sex appeal.
While it is refreshing to have a female heroine in Science Fiction who
does more than her male counterparts, the message is very clear. Motoko is the definition of perfection: she
is smart, efficient, and most of all attractive. Therefore, in order to measure up, the female
viewer must find themselves not only as a tough-as-nails operative, but also a
model-esque woman with physical traits that are impossible barring surgical
intervention. This fact is also hammered
home by the fact that Motoko is a cyborg, scientifically and technologically
enhanced in every conceivable way. Her
two main partners from Section 9 are the cyborg Batou and the human
Ishikawa. These two provide a stark contrast
to Motoko, while both are shown as incredibly adept at their jobs their
physicality is not shown on the same level as Motoko. Batou, a cyborg has modified eyes and these
are the only part of him that is discernibly enhanced other than his hulking
frame, which is covered at all times, unlike Motoko whose curves are shown off
throughout the film. Ishikawa is shown
as a human and is exceptional at a section populated by Cyborgs, the
implication being a male can come closer to achieving this perfection
naturally, whereas a female must have all the help available to her. Much like Batou, Ishikawa remains modestly
clothed throughout the film, his body hidden behind loose-fitting
clothing.
If
Motoko is to be viewed as a feminine hero, then one must make the assumption
that there is no real opportunity for this in the real world. Technological innovation not possible was the
only way in which Motoko was able to achieve this perfection. And if she is to be viewed simply as
eye-candy, then it is an insult to the character and women in the real world. If you are beautiful, smart, and good at your
job, you will still be viewed as something nice to look at, nothing more. Therefore, I believe that the film offers a
poor exhibition of the function of gender.
“Globalization in Animation: The Influence Between Japanese
and American Animation”
While the trend of
Globalization in media is nothing new, it can be exemplified in the convergence
of animation between Japan and the United States.
A) Luca Raffaelli
in his essay comparing the animation of Disney, Warner Bros., and that produced
in Japan offers examples of the similar aspects between them as well as key
differences, as well as possible explanations for those differences.
Disney
animation is typified by a reliance on sound to allow for an increased
complexity and realism. “Walt Disney realized
that by investing a lot of money, artists, time, and effort he could revolutionize
cartoons... Audiences will no longer merely laugh at their gags but, through
them, will be moved, suffer, feel sympathy.”
(115) Disney sought to do more
than merely make his cartoons funny, he sought to make his cartoons relatable
and as a result his creations, specifically Mickey Mouse became a beloved part
of culture. Disney characters were given
a level of maturity and introspection that was missing from other animated
characters. Disney films offer a happy
ending after the characters learn to work together against a common enemy. The characters act serious, or as serious as
they can in a film full of madcap adventures, and obeyed basic laws of physics
(they may have fallen from great heights, but they still fell.
In contrast, Warner Bros. cartoons featured characters who
defied the laws of gravity and stopped in mid air. The cartoons frequently drew attention to
their artificiality by having a narrator or even characters address the audience,
commenting on the cartoon that they inhabited.
And, as in the majority of animated films of the day, the films relied
on conflict between characters to propel their story. While Disney films had conflict in the form
of an evil villain, the Warner Bros. cartoons relied on adversarial
relationships between its main characters to set the story.
Finally, animated films produced in Japan feature characters
who are orphans or without a family.
Technology and children who must
learn to obey the rules of society often play a major role.
In
Brian Ruh’s essay, “Early Japanese Animation in the United States”, the author
traces the history of Japanese animation and it’s exportation to the United
States. Early Japanese animation was
heavily influenced by the animation that was being produced in America and in
turn it was then exported to America.
The first Japanese animated film to be broadcast in the United States
was shown on September 7th, 1965 on WNEW. The broadcast was altered with a narration
that explained an accident as the result of a technologically advanced
highway. This was not present in the
original show, as the Japanese culture was not afraid of technology, instead,
the embraced it. This could be a reason
why so much of the animation produced in Japan heavily features futuristic
technologies.
B.) I watched
a video that was kind of fun for this week.
It was a “mashup” containing the audio from the trailer for the Cohen
Brothers film The Men Who Stare at Goats
(Cohen Brothers, 2009) along with scenes from the anime series Full Metal Alchemist. This mashup was created as a student’s final
project.
The video is actually very well done, as the character’s
mouths are synced with the audio. There
is no real substance in the video, however, in light of the readings this week
regarding the copting of animation between the United States and Japan.
C) To be
completely honest, nothing was furthered regarding my paper this week. Between an increased workload and an illness,
my paper has remained at a stalemate.
“Aesthetics in Animation: Sound in Motion in the Animated
Film”
Animation is torn
between two aesthetic approaches, full and limited and each provide an opportunity
for expression.
A) The
readings this week focused on the two distinct aesthetic approaches in
animation, full and limited. Full
animation is focused on movement, with a minimum of recycled animation,
whereas, limited animation reuses animations and is more reliant on sound and
dialogue. The reuse of animation is known
as “cycling”, this process can be exhibited in animation produced for
television, such as those from Hanna-Barbara.
As two characters chase after one another, their movements are looped
and shown against a backdrop that is scrolling behind them on another loop. Full
animation emphasizes the movements of the characters, going to great lengths to
create a unique and original animation for every movement. Characters move through the axes of the
frame, gaining an almost three-dimensional quality to them. Limited animation also makes use of camera
movement which can mask the lack of movement exhibited by the characters. Limited animation is reliant on sound as
evidenced in Gerald McBoing-Boing
(UPA, 1950), and dialogue as evidenced in The
Simpsons. However, the term
“limited” is perhaps misused in this situation according to Furniss, as it
denotes that something is missing or of a lesser degree of quality. This is simply not the case; it simply has a
reliance on different aspect than does full animation.
The reading goes on to describe the formation of the UPA,
formed by artists who left Disney following the strike. As the studio was formed by unionized
animators many films produced by UPA had a strong liberal lean to the. As another differentiation between the UPA
and Disney was the UPA’s focus on developing films that featured Human
characters as opposed to anthropomorphized animal characters. Although focused on theatrical releases at
the inception, UPA turned its attention to animation made for television. Television animation exploded with cartoons
produced by the Hanna-Barbara studios, creating characters such as The
Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, etc.
One result of this cost-effective production was the movement of certain
animation tasks to low-cost laborers in other countries.
In the other reading, the animated show Ren and Stimpy is discussed.
The creator, John Kricfalusi was an admitted Animatophile or someone
with a fondness and appreciation of animation.
The show was hailed by genius by some and derided as juvenile, gross-out
humor by others. Despite frequent run-ins with Nickelodeon, the show became
immensely popular and successful. In my
opinion, as well as that of the author, Kricfalusi was a master at
deconstructing American society using the tropes found in the animated films
that came before, whether it is the hosts of children’s programming or the
superhero archetype featured in the Superman
cartoons of the 1940s.
B.) Given the
reading for this week I decided to examine Gerald
McBoing-Boing’s symphony (UPA, 1953)
This short features the eponymous Gerald McBoing-Boing, a
child incapable of speech other than sound effects played for humor. The film definitely falls under the category
of limited animation. Backgrounds are
reused as are character’s movements.
Gerald is hired to perform sound effects for a radio program and much of
the humor is derived from the sound featured in the film coming from Gerald. Eventually
he is asked to perform a symphony from his vocal articulations. The film is reliant not on the movement or
physical interaction of characters, but is instead derived from the soundtrack
and voice work. The movement is not
realistic, nor are the drawings, however as previously stated, this is not the
purpose of the film.
C) I have
begun the actual writing of the paper after compiling my notes.
This is my third animation assignment. It is a short video of a car parallel parking, getting run over by a tank and ending in a tribute to Monty Python and Looney Tunes.
“Uncle Walt’s Dream”: The Rise and Continued Domination of
Disney Animation
Although credited
for the first feature length cel-animated film, it was the business decisions
made by Walt Disney and his successors that made The Walt Disney Company an
entertainment juggernaut.
A) When one
thinks of animation, the name of Walt Disney is often at the forefront of the
discussion. And while there were many
individuals who contributed to the process and development of animation,
Disney’s saturation of the market deserves recognition. Although born in Chicago, IL, Disney’s family
moved to Kansas City, MO as a child and it was there that Disney began his
journey in animation by working at the Kansas City Film Ad Service, creating
short animated films which he called “Neuman Laugh-O-Grams” for a local theater
chain.
Soon
after, Disney moved to California and began a business relationship with
Margaret Winkler, a successful animation distributor in New York City. Winkler was fond of Disney’s series of
“Alice” films, which featured a combination of live-action and animation. Winkler was very fond of keeping the animated
films heavy on gags, and light on plot development. However, Disney felt he was capable of
creating more complex films. Eventually
the “Alice” series began to lose steam, and Disney introduced a new character,
the fully animated Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, now described as a combination of
Julius, the animated cat in the “Alice” films and what would become Mickey
Mouse. Eventually, after Margaret
Winkler married Charles Mintz, Disney was edged out of the company and away
from the character that he created, yet did not hold the rights to.
Ousted
out of the lucrative character that he had created, Disney along with his
brother Roy, Composer Carl Stalling, and Ub Iwerks created the animated short Steamboat Willie featuring the new character
that would become famous as Mickey Mouse.
While Disney partially recycled the appearance of Steamboat Willie, as
well as some of the gags contained in the short, the film was a rousing
success. Away from Mintz and Winkler,
Disney was free to structure his film in any manner he wished. This of course allowed him to further explore
narratives. This alone helped ensure
Disney’s dominance in entertainment. As
the sheer novelty of the animated film was waning, along with the preponderance
of simplistic sight gags in silent cinema, the rise of the sound cinema meant
that the audience expected more in the way of a narrative structure and a
comedy based in the spoken word.
This
success led Disney to produce the first feature-length cel-animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. The film was groundbreaking on several
levels, not only being the first feature length cel-animated film, but also
going to great lengths to realistically capturing movement in its
animation. Stand-ins were used for the
dwarfs and a ballet dancer was used to animate Snow White’s movements. The results were astonishing and the film
became an immensely popular and profitable film, allowing Disney to set the
groundwork for what would become one of the top media conglomerates of all
time. Disney continued his model of
basing stories on folktales, fables, myths, and legends until present
time.
Disney,
despite his success was not immune from the production code that swept through Hollywood
in the 1930s. Cartoon characters were
forbidden from spitting, animals were not allowed to be seen relieving
themselves, and the villain was not allowed to escape without punishment. In response to his combination live-action/animated
film Song of the South (1946), Joseph
Breen suggested that Disney “take counsel with some responsible Negro
authorities...As I have already presumed to suggest to you, our Negro friends
appear to be a bit critical of all motion picture stories which depict their
people, and it may be that they will find in this story some material which may
not be acceptable to them.” (120) To me, this statement is at the same time
hilarious and sad. It is hilarious that
someone could actually believe that African-American’s at the time simply took
offense at their depiction in cinema simply to be contrary. And unfortunately, it is sad for the exact
same reason.
During
the Great Depression, Disney’s success allowed for a great number of people to
be employed, however, as the economy regained strength however, tensions
between the company and its labor intensified.
Disney fired a number of the union organizers before any actual
picketing occurred; however as a result, Disney lost a great deal of talented
artists.
Despite
their success in the feature length animated film, Disney began producing
live-action films and later fully adopted the process by the end of the 1940s.
Their success in film production allowed the studio to open a theme park,
forever changing the business of media manufacture and marketing.
Despite Disney’s expansion as a
business entity, concerns still existed regarding their representation of
women. The country as a whole was
changing during the 1970s and 1980s and the definition of what was considered a
“respectable woman”. Between 1989 and
2005, Disney produced eighteen feature length animated films, six of the films
featured primarily non-human characters, and thus issues of female
representations could not be adequately evaluate. However, the remaining twelve films presented
three categories for female characters: The Princess, The Good Daughter, and
the Tough Gal.
The Princess is evidenced in
characters such as Ariel in The Little
Mermaid and Jasmine in Aladdin. In most cases the princess is presented as
having no mother and is often an only child.
The Good daughter is evidenced in
the characters of Belle in Beauty and the
Beast and the eponymous character in Mulan.
The Tough Gal is evidenced in the
characters of Esmerelda in The Hunchback
of Notre Dame and Meg in Hercules.
While the expansion of roles and differentiations
in character presentation provided better female representation than was seen
in the past, there were still problems. Ariel
for example was convinced that a fork was actually a tool called a dinglehopper
and was used for combing hair. Despite
all evidence that this information was in fact wrong, Ariel continued to
believe it. Whether this was simply for
comedic effect, or if it was a true issue in representation is very much up for
debate.
B.) Given the
reading for this week I decided to view a Disney animated short: The Art of Skiing (1943) featuring the
character of Goofy.
This is an example of orthodox animation and serves as
how-to video with Goofy’s ineptitude as a skier providing much of the
humor. However, the evolution from mere
sight gags is shown in this short animated film, as the conflict between the
narrator’s dialogue and the actions of Goofy.
The nature of the instructional video (a well-known convention) and the
failure of Goofy to be instructed by it allows for a great display of
comedy. The fluidity of Disney’s
animation is also evident in this short film, providing for more humor.
C) I have had
the chance to speak to several SIU faculty members about the study of
intertextuality and how it relates to The
Simpsons. I feel that these
discussions are almost as valuable as journal articles and book sections as it
provides me the opportunity of gaining instant feedback.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Matt Jones
Post Six
“Drawn Conclusions:
Race, Gender, and Sexuality Representations in Animations”
Much like
live-action cinema, the history of animation is rife with representations of
race, gender, and sexuality that typify the prevalent stereotypes of the time.
A) With the
air of political correctness so prevalent in modern society it is shocking to
look back on early examples of media and see such blatantly racist, sexist, and
homophobic imagery. Particularly in the
United States where the tradition of the minstrel show continued throughout the
1900s. White actors performing
incredibly racist caricatures of African Americans have the sad distinction of
being one of the few distinctly American forms of theatre. This tradition continued throughout cinema,
both live-action as well as the animated film.
Stereotypical blackface caricature was used to depict African Americans,
or African natives in popular animated films up until the 1950s.
Negative
issues regarding representation are not limited to race however, gender roles
are defined through animated film. Male
representations, for example is shown through two Fleischer brother animated
series: Popeye and Superman. Popeye, the
blue collar hero who exemplifies a moral character based in a common
ethos. Popeye’s moral character was
often secondary to his physical strength (although aided by spinach) in the
face of adversity. His brute strength
was typified by his physical transformation into machinery as he brutalized his
foe. Popeye, the idealized man (provided
he has a can of spinach handy) transcends flesh and blood and becomes a
creature of steel and strength. While
not created in the animated form, Superman (the man of steel) also exemplifies
the American male image: Strong, Moral, and unflinchingly patriotic. In the example given by Wells, Superman
rescues Lois Lane from the nefarious Nazis, who are so lost in savagery that
they are reveling in the idea and the practice of human sacrifice. It is not uncommon to demonize the enemy
during war (although, admittedly it is not terribly hard to demonize the Nazis)
and the strength of a man of steel is the only way to defend American values.
The sexuality of cartoon characters are shown in two
distinct ways. Male characters are
depicted in the way in which they act and the dominance they show, whereas
female characters are distinguished by their appearance. And the common occurance of a animated
character dressing in the opposite gender’s clothing for the purposes of either
deception or comedy only further muddles the issue of sexuality.
B.) Given the
reading for this week I decided to examine a video that showcases the racist
stereotypes prevelant in animation.
This short features Bugs Bunny dancing and extolling upon
the audience to support the war effort by purchasing war bonds. However, the patriotism gives way to a
blackface performance of a minstrel song by Bugs Bunny. The animation is orthodox in its style and
sadly, very racist in its presentation.
C) I have
found a few more articles concerning intertexuality across media so, I hope to
integrate them into my current research.
Abstract animation
relies on the relaxation of certain parts of the brain and the openness of viewer
to interpretation of the images.
A) In doing
the readings for this week, I felt that two concepts leapt to the
forefront. The first being the need for
the relaxation of the logic-centric left hemisphere of the brain to allow the
right hemisphere to open up and take in the images presented. The second is the importance of music in
abstract animation.
The
first concept is based on the theory that the left hemisphere of the brain
controls logic and is useful when watching a typical narrative film. This cause-and-effect, linear method of
presentation fits with this area of the brain which controls such logical
thought. However it can be difficult
when watching a piece of abstract animation.
The shutting down of the left hemisphere and the opening up is most
present when sleeping and dreaming.
Because of this, the right hemisphere-centric abstract animation is able
to operate “thematically, rather than literally”. (Furniss, 250) By offering nothing concrete for the
left-hemisphere to rationalize, abstract animation can cause an uninitiated
viewer a feeling of anxiety or immense confusion. However, if the viewer is able to allow
themselves to be put in the right (pun slightly intended) frame of mind, they
may be able escape into the film where interpretations are free to be made in
the mind of the viewer.
The
subject of mandalas also ties into this relaxing of the left hemisphere. Mandalas are symmetrical, often circular
images that “have symbolic meaning...and often are used to assist concentration
and meditation”. (Furniss, 253) Mandalas are thought to work on two levels:
one, allowing those viewing them to ease into a meditative state and two, as
they appear as a recognizable symbol of the subconscious that structures the
experience of meditation. Abstract
animation works in a very similar manner, particularly Opus No. 1 by Walter Ruttman, which will be covered in greater
detail.
Music
in the abstract animated film is an incredibly important ingredient. Many films use known pieces of music to aid
the viewer in the accessing the right-hemisphere of the brain and the
meditative state that it can produce.
The music also acts as a companion to the animation, often in a synchronized
manner. The combination of the visual
and the aural senses was studied by Greek philosopher and mathematician
Pythagoras. Although famous for his eponymous
mathematical theorem, his efforts were conducted to find a connecting the
essence of all matter and life. This
search for connectivity exists in the melding of the abstract animated film and
the music or soundtrack that accompanies it.
B.) After
reading the Moritz essay I became intrigued and sought out Walter Ruttman’s Opus, No. 1:
A full
description of the video would be pointless and would do a great disservice to
the work. It exists as a hypnotic series
of shapes dancing across the screen. The
images exist in a patternless pattern consisting of circular shapes, spectral brushstroke-like
images, and blobs of color crawling along the bottom of the screen. All shapes are accompanied by a string
quartet. The pace becomes more frenetic
as the soft, sometimes amorphous shapes are replaced by a sharp-angled,
triangular shapes penetrating into the screen.
Later, rectangular shapes swipe through the side of the frame,
resembling meat cleavers. This work is
incredible to watch in that it is very hypnotic, yet never grows boring.
C) As
discussed in my second assignment, due to a lack of research on the material, I
have switched my final project slightly.
Now I am writing about the intertextuality found in The Simpsons. There is a
wealth of information on this topic and I believe I may have found a new angle
to the idea of intertextuality as it relates to The Simpsons.
In order to
understand the history of animation, one must consider all the innovations that
came at the outset, as well as those who innovated and were largely forgotten.
A) In the
second chapter of his book Before Mickey:
The Animated Film 1898-1928, Donald Crafton examines some of the precursors
to the animated film and the influences they may have had on the evolution of
the animated film. He gives an example
of how the western film was influenced by several forms of media which predate
the invention of the film (“Dime Novels” and “Gaslight Melodrama” for instance). Crafton is quick to point out that while the
assumption may be that early films borrowed their narrative structure from
comic strips, he declares this assumption to be a false one. Instead he posits that early films borrowed
their narrative structure from vaudevillian theatre in their approach to
storytelling. The stationary camera
prevented excessive movement from the frame, and the application of
cross-cutting in editing had yet to be implemented, therefore early films
primarily consisted of staged actors or subjects and a camera capturing their
movements on a small stage-like frame.
In much the same way as a vaudeville show would perform their act from a
single stage, the film had little room for depth and movement. However, early cinema did borrow small gags
and jokes that had previously been seen in comic book strips. For example Arrodeur et Arose (Tables
Turned on the Gardener) (Lumiere, 1895) featured a gag wherein a gardener
is watering his garden with a hose when a precocious boy steps on the hose and
stops the flow of water, the gardener examines the nozzle of the hose and is
met with a spray of water from the now unblocked hose. This joke had been previously seen in several
newspaper comic strips.
One of the
pioneers in the world of trick-photography and animation was James Stuart
Blackton. Crafton brings to light his
first dalliance with the motion picture industry as he was called upon to
sketch the “Black Maria”, the revolving studio built by Thomas Edison to film
his kinetoscope pictures. Although
Blackton is seen as a pioneer and early contributor to animation he later grew
to abhor the art form he had such a great hand in revolutionizing.
Crafton
also mentions a form of theatre which would soon be incorporated into motion pictures
both in appearance as well as underlying theory. The lightning sketches, a show wherein the
artist would stand beside an easel and begin to narrate a story. As the narration progressed he would draw a
picture which would be added upon and become a picture of another subject. This would continue until the image and the story
had reached their conclusion. Soon after,
several films appeared some featuring Blackton himself, that featured these
shows unfold before the eye of the camera.
These shows were incredibly important to the development of animation in
that it showed the artist as a magician, as a controlling entity who brought these
drawing to life. This underlying theory
can be found in many animated shorts such as Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953).
The
history of the animated film is filled with those who pioneered and paved a way
for modern animation. Unfortunately,
while some such as Walt Disney or Chuck Jones are forever remembered for their
contributions others are forgotten and relegated to the back pages of dense
books. One such luminary was Lotte
Reiniger, who is the focus of William Moritz’s essay “Some Critical
Perspectives on Lotte Reiniger”.
Reiniger
was born in Berlin at the end of the Eighteenth century. She developed a hobby of cutting silhouettes
out of paper. After deciding to become
an actress she was able to help fund her tuition to Max Reinhardt’s Drama
School by cutting out silhouettes of the stars of the day. This led her to become employed by Paul
Wegener to animate the titles for his films Rubezahls
Hochzeit (Rumpelstilskin’s Wedding)
(Paul Wegener, 1916) and Der Rattenfanger
von Hammeln (Pied Piper of Hammeln)
(Paul Wegener, 1918). From this work she
was given the opportunity to create several short animated films, all of which
were met with critical and commercial success.
It was the success of these shorter works that convinced financeer Louis
Hagan to invest in a feature length animated film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Ahmed) (Lotte Reiniger, 1926) which
predated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(William Cottrell & David Hand, 1937) by eleven years. Reiniger continued to make films inspired
by fairy tales and folk lore to great success.
Sadly,
however, Reiniger has not enjoyed the mass acclaim that was afforded Walt
Disney. Moritz offers an explanation for
this oversight. Unlike the films of Walt Disney, few quality copies remain of
Reiniger’s films, which is unfortunate given her extensive filmography.
B.) After
reading the Moritz essay I became intrigued and sought out some of Reiniger’s
animation. I found what appeared to be
the title sequence to The Adventures of
Prince Ahmed.
I was simply amazed. For something so
early the movement was so incredibly fluid and crisp, the silhouettes adding to
the mystique of the tale. I believe this
would be considered an early example of Orthodox animation. The short clip shows the reliance on
configuration as well as a logic in the movements of the characters.
C) My final
paper still has yet to complete itself, however I have discovered some research
done regarding Clerks: The Animated
Series and its subversion of the medium of television. I have not found a wealth of information but
several articles which have provided a nice start to the research.
“Orthodox Animation,
Experimental Animation, and What Lies Between”
There are two
contrasting forms of animation, Orthodox and Experimental, however there are
ways in which they bleed into one another forming what is referred to as
Developmental animation.
A) In Chapter
Two, “Notes Towards a Theory in Animation” in Understanding Animation, Wells describes that in beginning to form
a working theory of animation it is important to divide animation into two
distinct categories, Orthodox and Experimental.
However, there exists some examples of animation which blur the line
between the two; this would be classified as Developmental animation. Orthodox animation is categorized by its
reliance on “configuration”, or the use of recognizable character models of
people or animals. Specific continuity
and the use of a narrative form, both featuring a “logical” (in the realm of a
cartoon world) cause and effect story are found in Orthodox animation. In terms of the aesthetics of Orthodox
animation, the unity of one style, i.e. two-dimensional or three-dimensional,
rather than a blend of styles or formats as well as the absence of the artist
and the “invisibility of its aesthetic achievement and its industrial context”
(37) are prevalent in Orthodox animation.
Finally, the emphasis placed on dialogue, while not existing in every
example of Orthodox animation, is a distinguishing factor between Orthodox and
Experimental. Wells described Orthodox
animation “cacophonic”, full of noise and chatter.
In
contrast, Experimental animation often shows a reliance on music, whether
through a composed or integrated musical score or simply through the very
movements and beats featured throughout the piece. As Wells states, “it may be suggested that if
music could be visualized it would look like colours and shapes moving through
time with differing rhythms, movements and speeds” (46). Experimental animation does not rely of
configuration, instead it focuses on abstraction, and are therefore concerned
more with the concept of “rhythm and movement in their own right as opposed to
the rhythm and movement of a particular character” (43). Experimental animation also eschews the
logical cause and effect continuity of Orthodox animation as well as the
narrative form, in their place exists a specific non-continuity and an
interpretive form, which forces the audience to interpret the work on their
own. Experimental animation is heavily
reliant on its own aesthetic from the evolving method in which they have
created their work to the incorporation of several styles to the inclusion of
the artist as an integral role in the presentation of the animation. Experimental animated are very personal,
meaningful works of art which are meant to be viewed and discussed.
In
between the poles of Orthodox and experimental animation exists a third form,
whose definition is nebulous at best as it can only be defined as sharing
traits of the other more dynamically opposed styles: Developmental
animation. As stated by Wells, “Developmental
animation, by definition, harks back to tradition aspects of the animated film
but also seeks to embellish or reform these traditions with contemporary
approaches” (51). As a blending of
styles, Developmental animation also works to transition from the traditional
two-dimensional approach to animation and move toward a three-dimensional
approach.
B.) After
completing the assigned reading for this week I was interested in viewing some
of the animated films that I have seen before, at a younger age and compare
them to the information from the readings.
I took advantage of the subject
of the class to seek out the Disney animated short “The Art of Self-Defense" (Jack Kenny, 1941) featuring Goofy. Although I was always a
bigger fan of the Looney Tunes, this particular short was one of my favorites
as a child. It part of a thematic series
for Goofy cartoons, taking the approach of documentary shorts that may have been
screened at a school or before a feature film.
Several topics were covered, skiing, playing golf, fishing, etc. and all
were told through the help of an invisible narrator commenting and correcting
Goofy as he attempted to complete the task at hand. In this particular short, the history of
self-defense is shown, from the early clubbing of Neanderthals to the pugilism
of boxers. The short goes on to examine
some training and exercise methods such as the punching bag and shadowboxing
(where Goofy’s shadow becomes an overzealous training partner). I feel this is an interesting film to discuss
with regards to the readings for this week.
While it is clearly not an example of experimental animation, it does
blur the lines somewhat in regards to the traditional definition of orthodox
animation. It’s aesthetic, calling to
attention that it is a manufactured film, in this case acting as a documentary
film even though it makes no honest attempt to convince viewers that what they
are seeing is real. However, the style
acts as a vehicle to show Goofy or Goofy-like characters fighting it out to
comedic results. I feel that this
aesthetic choice worked well for the material presented and the effect desired.
C) So far my
final project as not completed itself, so it appears I will have to step in and
work on it. I have decided on a subject
for my final paper. I believe I will be
examining “Clerks: The Animated Series” and how it attempts to subvert the
mediums of television and animation. Should
be a blast.
My experience with animation is fairly limited. I worked on two animated films with classmates as an undergrad. One a short claymation piece and the other a cutout animation. I have a small amount of experience with desktop animation software, but nothing that I would call myself well-versed in.
My fondness for animation grows back from childhood. As a child of the Eighties I was inundated with spectacular animated television shows such as Thundercats, He-Man, Silverhawks, GI Joe and Voltron. Of course I included a steady diet of Looney Tunes and Disney shorts as well as the aforementioned Japanese influenced action-adventure cartoons. However, in 1990 when I first saw The Simpsons, I became hooked on the possibilities of animation to not only showcase the extreme and spectacular, but also the banal minutia of everyday life. Then I saw Street of Crocodiles by the Brothers Quay and I truly learned what an expressive art form animation could be.
I am looking forward to the class as it will give me the opportunity to view more animated films that I have not seen, revisit some that I have seen with a more critical eye, and understand more about the overall theory of animation.
