Both films had their own agenda for propaganda, “Bust the Axis”, made in the UK and directed by an American puppeteer. The short film was representing the Axis powers and how evil they are and how Hitler was taking several nations. The film mocks the Axis powers by showing how incapable the leaders are like Hitler and Mussolini, and Hirohito is wicked and dumb. This was done in stop motion when creating the short film. While “Momotarō no Umiwashi”, was made in Japan and directed by Mitsuyo Seo. The short film was done in 2D animation. The film illustrated the invasion of Pearl Harbor and made it as if their attack was justified. It shows the glory of the Japanese planes attacking Pearl Harbor and showing the Americans as weak, incompetent characters running away and being cowards.
Yusuf Aldacher
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The most well-known film from Studio Ghibli that represents the conflict between man and the natural world is Princess Mononoke. The story of Princess Mononoke is about how the peace between humans, animals, and gods would start to fall which resulted in conflict between the humans and gods. The main character, young Ashitaka, is infected and cursed by an animal attack. He is trying to seek a cure from the deer-like god Shishigami. In his travels, he sees humans devastating the earth, which results in causing anger among the wolf god Moro and his human companion Princess Mononoke. At the end of the film, Ashitaka breaks the curse and finally achieves peace between all. The film represents the Man vs Nature theme of how humanity would use its technology to destroy nature and thus the nature would punish humanity with its natural disasters.
The reason Disney and other big studios decided to move away from 2D movies and work more on 3D animated movies is that 3D animation was becoming very popular around the world. People saw the 3D CGI to be more immersive and something new compared to 2D animations that they used to see for decades. It seemed to be a good decision for their marketing because there was a huge competition with big studios trying to create new 3D animated films. Of course, Disney didn’t fully abandon 2D animation but it’s only used for TV series like “The Owl House” and “mickey mouse”. However, their 2D animated films didn’t show a lot of detail because it doesn’t require as much effort compared to creating a full animated film.
The animated series that I would like to cover is a famous cartoon network series called “Gumball”. The reason is that Gumball brought animation to a different level throughout the series. Their animation would change from 2D animations to 3D animations then stop motion animations and more. It took a lot of great animators to make Gumball and make this series very iconic to Cartoon Network. Here is where I would research:
- The important people who worked on it
- Animation technique, important technical and stylistic developments
- What studio made Gumball? Where was it made?
- Ben Bocquelet’s role in the animation of Gumball
- All characters in Gumball and what makes them unique
- How is it visually distinct/similar to what came before it?
- What are its influences outside of animation?
- How did it influence what came after it – technically and/or aesthetically?
- How is the series very entertaining for children?
The most popular anime in the US is Demon Slayer. The genre of the anime is mostly action and adventure. The story of the anime is about the main character trying to fight off the demons and save people including his sister. The anime is distributed on Netflix or 9anime or Crunchyroll which are popular platforms in the US to watch anime. Demon slayer is very popular in Japan as much as in the US because the Japanese already read the visual novels before the anime is released on TV.
The UPA cartoon studio animated short films for advertising products like snacks and drinks. One animated advertisement “Nabisco Snack Crackers Triscuit” advertised a diverse amounts of crackers by Nabisco company that was being advertised by UPA cartoon studio. The reason that these animated advertisement worked is because they appealed to younger audience that were children. The simple cartoon characters, the black and white background was something that entertained children even during the time of 1950’s where cartoons were very popular amongst children. The whole focus of the animated advertisement were the products that were being held or shown by the character of the animated film.
The reason the government saw the film as subversive is because they thought this film was a threat to their communist system. Despite the short film being simple just for children considering it was a puppet film, the message of the short film was worrying for the Czech government. The story of the film illustrated a sculptor was being bothered by a giant hand and that the giant hand wanted him to bend his will which the sculptor refused to submit in the end. The film was giving a message that nobody should force you to do something and to never bend your will over something. This kind of message could’ve sparked a revolution against the Czech government because the government was an oppressive communist party. That is the reason they refused to let this film get released due to its story and message.
After watching Snow White meeting the seven dwarfs, there were only two characters that stood out to me. The first dwarf Dopey, has a clumsy and sloppy characteristic amongst the seven dwarfs. His immaturity and deaf are what makes his characteristic stand out. The way Dopey is drawn is that his body is sloppy, his facial expression is silly, and his movements are very unpolished/sloppy when he moves. The second dwarf is Happy, the funny and jovial dwarf amongst the seven. He is energetic and cheerful traits is what makes his characteristic stand out. He has very quick movement and quick body language when he moves his arms around while talking. He also has a humorous voice and laughs.
The film that I would like to focus on is the Disney movie “Bambi”. the reason is that the movie Bambi was very revolutionary in its animation even with how the characters interact with the environment. Not only the animation but the dedication it took to create such an amazing animated project. Here are what I want to research are write about:
- How the film was inspired by the novel “Bambi”
- How the studio was set up with the dear as well as with other animals to make an observation of animal movement for the animation
- What was the artist Tyrus Wong’s role in the movie?
- How many drawings and years did it take to create this movie?
- What animation technique did they use? Why?
The reason that many early animated films were based on print comics is because comic books were very popular with a lot of people and it was very enjoyable to read comic books at the time. Also, it was relaxing to remove thoughts of problems and times of war like the First World War. Comics used to be on newspapers illustrating comedy or even war comics that had funny political figures. Creating an animated film based on print comics was a brilliant idea because the film is based on comic books that people already recognize through knowing the main characters or superheroes that they like.
If I was living in 1791 and I as an audient watched Gaspard Robertson’s “Fantasmagorie”, I would’ve been shaking in fear. The first thought is that what I’m watching is very horrifying and real. I would even go and tell everyone in Europe about what I just witnessed. When I tried VR (virtual reality) in a plaza in Alexandria where the arcade section was, I was fascinated but mostly terrified because the VR was showing me zombies and monsters running towards me. This would be very similar to how the audience must have felt when seeing Gaspard Robertson’s “Fantasmagorie” at first sight.
Hello everyone! My name is Yusuf Aldacher. I am a sophomore in BMCC and this is my last semester in which I’m soon going to be graduating in this Spring of 2022. I am majoring in Studio Arts. My career plan is to be a character designer or background designer for the gaming industry. My hobbies of mine are just drawing anything that includes modern military and medieval characters. The reason I chose this course is that I always admired how animation reached different levels throughout the years and always had a curiosity about how it all started. The animations of anime are what first inspired me to go for drawing. The Japanese animations of their “anime” cartoons were way ahead of their time or even more advanced than the Disney or western animations. I’m very interested in learning how did the Japanese make their animations so immersive.
