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 A Sarria
8 posts
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.
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.
My paper will be about Popeye the Sailor Man, specifically the episode titled “A Date to Skate” directed by Dave Fleischer. Although I didn’t grow up watching Popeye, my mother did, and I remember me and her watching it together sometimes when I was a kid. This episode in particular I remember so vividly, so for sentimental reasons, it makes me want to talk about in my paper.
The elements I will talk about in my paper will include:
- The history of the character Popeye and its influence
- Animation techniques that were used which solidify the fundamentals of animation still being used today.
- A comparison of American culture/setting from 1930 to modern
- Early use of audio and audible dialogue, and how that influenced the animation.
I believe many early animated films were based on print comics because many comics were already popular and have established characters that transferring them to a new medium was a safe way to ensure people will come to see your new film. Another reason I believe film were based on comics are that comics as a visual medium made it easier to draw the keyframes that would be needed to tell the films story. If you think in modern day, a comic strip works similarly to a storyboard where the pictures layout the framework of how the story will playout, and the role of animation is to create the motion from one panel to the next.
I could imagine myself as one of the audience members for Gaspard Robertson’s “Fantasmagorie” shows since I am a fan of horror and supernatural things, and at the time this show must’ve felt immersive and terrifying. During a time before true film and projection was invented, I think I would’ve been amazed and curious about how the show was being produced, since I always like to discover the behind the scenes for my favorite pieces of entertainment. With todays technology, we have the power to be even more immersed with virtual reality experiences and 4D shows. The reaction people have for those shows were probably the same reactions people had for the Fantasmagorie shows back in 1797.
One of my favorite shows is an anime series called Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which came out in September of 2022. The show was actually an adaptation of a videogame with the same name, however I haven’t played the game at the time so I was going into the show with no expectations. On the other hand I saw it was animated by one of my favorite animation studios, Studio Trigger, which are known for exaggerated over-the-top motion and flashy animation which I am a huge fan of, so I was still excited to watch the show, and they did not fail to deliver on the style. Besides the animation I really enjoyed the story, and as someone who wasn’t familiar with the source material I liked that that didn’t really hinder my enjoyment and understanding of the story. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has it’s own self contained story with its own fun and interesting cast of characters. I liked the show so much it made me decide to check out the game so that I can get a better feel for the world this character live in and have a better understanding of the referencing made within the show.
My name is Michael Sarria. I chose this course because I’ve always had a deep appreciation for art and animation and would like to learn more about the history so as to understand how the world of animation today came to be. I’m majoring in Animation and Motion Graphics with the goal of getting into the animation industry and becoming a Character Animator. My goals in life are to work in a studio where I can create movies, tv shows, and/or video games, and gain the necessary experience to eventually create my own show that people can enjoy. Some other fun facts about me are: I was born in LA and moved to NY when I was 6, I’m an artist who’s been drawing since elementary school, I enjoy cooking and like to learn new recipes, and my favorite Disney/Pixar film is Ratatouille.
