For my long paper I want to discuss the Netflix reboot of Voltron: Legendary Defenders, which premiered in 2016 and ended in 2018. I watched the show during its short lived heyday at the recommendation of a friend and was bored at first but eventually got sucked in due to its likable characters. Mostly I wanted to talk about this show due to how it quickly went from being well liked to a disaster within just two years. While the animation itself was fine, the issues in this show lied within the creative team at Dreamworks. There is a lot to talk about with the lead executive producers, Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, who had previously worked on The Legend of Korra, who are often seen as the shows downfall for lack of planning the show out. I’d also talk about how this is a show that was probably brought back for the purpose of selling toys and banking on the nostalgia older viewers might have for the past series in 1984. Voltron absolutely has inspiration from Toei studios and other Japanese animations, also Transformers. It’s definitely interesting how the intent for this series was supposed to be for younger kids but it generally garnered an audience of teenagers and young adults, which is probably the reason why it was picked apart so much. Frankly, I do not think this show is that innovative and will probably just be remembered for the wrong reasons, but I think it was still a really interesting experience to have been a part of at the time, so I am quite excited to dissect it as I do believe there are many simple ways to make the show better (for example, not killing your only lead who is a woman of color…)
natalia
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“Rooty Toot Toot” is for sure an animated feature for adults, even with its simplistic style. All its characters are sort of geometrically shaped, like the Mr. Men cartoons, but differs in that it has a sort of water color look to it. The short looks as if it was painted then the lines were drawn on in a thin black pen, or vice versa. Because of its rather artistic look, I think this is what separates it from being too “child-like”, on top of what the characters are singing about. As for colors, everything is muted and moody; none of the colors in it could read as happy in anyway. Theres often monochromatic scenes, like one blue one for the past, where a character will just be fully white in order to stand out. I quite like the contrast of these scenes, as it makes me feel like thought was put into each design aspect. All the characters have some movement quirks to accentuate what they are saying, like the woman witnesses’ arms moving in a spiral as she sang. While this sort of thing would usually be attributed with kids cartoons, I think it just keeps the viewer interested by following the 12 principles of animation. I think all of this together makes the video fun to watch, and helps it hold up even today because of its unique style you don’t see much anymore.
I believe Jiří Trnka’s short film “The Hand” was viewed as subversive because of the moral of the story in this short film. To summarize, the puppet in this story is being constantly pressured by this hand to create more hand sculptures, whilst all the puppet wants to create is their own pottery. Eventually he becomes forced to create what the hand wants, and is eventually killed by the thing he loves. I think this story reflects how creatives at the time in Czechoslovakia were also being pressured to only create things that positively reflected their government and faced punishment for doing otherwise. So upon seeing this, I understand why the Czech government immediately tried to cover it up.
I’ve decided to talk about “Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse at the Circus” for my Short Paper. Initially, I was just drawn in by the characters, as I do enjoy an animated mouse, but after rewatching the language in it is quite interesting to me. Upon first glance you might just pass it off as old timey but when you look more into the background of the creator, George Herriman, there’s real intent behind how he writes each character. I realize I should probably be talking more about the animation of this piece, and while I will and touch up on some of Herriman’s influences, I think there is a lot to be said just about the language and the people behind the piece. If I could, I would like to maybe talk about why Krazy Kat was unpopular leading to their animations never exactly taking off as well. I’ve found a few different articles that gave me a lot of background on Herriman and the comics, so I almost feel as if I am not getting enough information on just the animations.
This one is about the language in Krazy Kat: https://artduckomagazine.wordpress.com/2017/02/16/a-look-at-language-in-krazy-kat-by-tyler-crissman/
This one just talks about Herriman, his influences, and who was inspired by his work: http://comiczine-fa.com/features/krazy-kat-modernism-and-influence
This one talks about the animations and different studios that worked on certain ones, although the people who made the piece I am talking about is not mentioned: https://www.intanibase.com/gac/reviews/2005/krazy.aspx
A similar form of storytelling such as shadow puppetry and cave paintings where the storyteller and the audience are in the same room is live theatre, such as plays or musicals. I’ve helped out in some musicals before back in high school, but normally I choose to be an audience member. When you’re on a stage I often found it to be a very polarizing moment to be looked at by so many people, but the feeling afterwards was always a bit of an adrenaline rush. As an audience member, I’m often caught between just experiencing what I’m watching and just being so excited to witness it, or I can get caught up in thinking what the performer might also be feeling as they are acting. I wonder, are they nervous or are they also enjoying performing. I think acting live on stage is a bit more vulnerable than shadow puppetry, but it still emotes the same feelings. Both require passion and talent for what you do.
Hi! My name is Natalia, I’m a VAT major in my last semester here at BMCC. I wanted to take this course because I’ve always loved animation even if I never necessarily wanted to be an animator. I really love claymation, like those old Christmas ones that come on every year, and especially Pingu. I think I want to work on writing in shows or just be an assistant on sets currently, but I am looking to transfer to New York City Tech in the fall for Technical Design. I love rodents and enjoy writing letter/collecting any sort of stationery. I’ve got a lot of stickers.
