Daily Archives: April 15, 2025

4 posts

Michael Sarria W8 – Prompt 2

Jiří Trnka’s short film “The Hand”(1965) was seen as subversive by the Czechoslovakia’s community party at the time, due to the hand in the film being seen as an oppressive entity that exerts their expression over the main character, which can be seen as an allegory for the oppressive Czech government exerting their own opinions over artist like Jiří and hindering their creativity. This can be seen in the actions of the hand within the film, such as when the hand barged in uninvited and changed the main character’s clay pot into a clay hand, and would break his clay pots when he refused to conform to the hand’s ideas.

Michael Sarria W7 – Prompt

The Private Snafu series was able to simultaneously inform soldiers while also making light of a serious situation through the use of jokes and cartoony animation. I believe humor was used because it was a scary time for a lot of young men, and while the military wanted to inform their new soldiers, they also wanted to bring up morale. The cartoon has some slapstick humor and he talks in a funny voice, but a lot of the humor comes from Private Snafu himself, as he’s often depicted as a dim-witted GI private, who often gets into trouble for neglecting his duties and not listening to his commanders. The moral of the story often comes down to not be like Private Snafu, and to do your duty as your are told.

Michael Sarria W5 – Prompt 2

Although the seven dwarfs in Snow White are made to be very similar, each one has a key difference tied to their personality that differentiates them from one another, and their personality often is shown through the characters movement, facial expressions and speaking patterns. For example, let’s compare Grumpy and Sleepy; Grumpy is animated with a lot of quick and sharp movements, which shows aggression and helps sell his persona of always being somewhat angry. He also always has a frown on his brow, and when he talks, his words come out very quick and antagonistic like. Compare this to Sleepy, who is animated with very slow movements and has constant droopy eyes to show how he’s always tired. He doesn’t speak as much as Grumpy, but when he does, it’s very mumbly and lacks energy. Seeing these traits combined and you would almost never confused the two of these characters.

Nate Ragland W9

“Rooty Toot Toot” tells its story with a really bold, stylized approach that stands out from typical animation of its time. The colors are loud and purposeful—bright reds and yellows pop during intense moments, while cooler shades set a calmer mood. There’s not much realism in the backgrounds; instead, they’re made up of abstract shapes and patterns that create a vibe more than a detailed setting. The characters themselves are drawn in a super exaggerated way—sharp angles, stretched limbs, and expressive faces—so you immediately get a sense of their personality just by looking at them.