Journal Entry – Week 4 (short paper outline)

I am planning to write my short paper about “Popeye,” which was the first animated series I grew up watching. I remember I was singing the Popeye theme song every morning when I woke up. The character of Popeye was created by Elsie Criser Segar in 1929, but the first cartoon in the series was released in 1933. I will research how it was created, which methods and techniques were used for the cartoon.

I will use the film “Disney Dumbo” in 1941. This became one of my favorite animated movies when I was young. Special effects took me back to how animated humans and animals interact with one another and how impactful I felt throughout the main character’s journey. As I grew older, I started to understand it more and what was the lesson behind the film.

For my short paper outline, I have decided that I will be focusing on a childhood favorite of mine: Dinsey’s ‘Pinocchio’ (1940). I will be looking into animation technique, cultural impact, source material comparison, and socio-political context of the film.

I will be using the film A Colour Box – Len Lye (1935) I’m drawn to the film due to its use of color, lines, and music the way the lines move makes it look and feel that it’s moving and gives a feeling to the music. These elements come together and create a very niche aesthetic. 

1. Music
2. Inspiration 
3. How was it made

• The name of the short or full feature films that you will be focusing on (it must be one that we’ve discussed in class between week 1 and week 5).
• Why are you drawn to this film – because of it’s story? technique? aesthetic? political context? etc.)
• An outline of elements you will be researching/writing about (this can be done in the form of a list or in a paragraph)

I will be working on Pinocchio from 1940. I’m drawn to this film because of its story and its original Italian origin. I find that Pinocchio has many renditions of its story and I am pretty eager to learn more about it. I want to hopefully demonstrate how it highlights honesty and transformation as its main topic, and how other media interpretations handle this subject. In other words Pinocchio at its base not only contains musical elements and carries historical cinematic Disney significance, but still remains relevant in addressing all the character’s personal growth and integrity.

I plan to write my short paper about ‘’Bambi,” which was released on August 12^th, 1942, by Walt Disney Productions. The animation in “Bambi” is one of the main reasons why I wanted to write about it; the animation is filled with so much life since the animators closely referenced real animals whilst making it. Secondly, I find the meaning of the movie fascinating and the impact it had on environmental awareness; even though the movie was not perceived that well because of its “criticism” of certain topics, it still managed to create a long-going discourse that persists till even this day. 
 
 

•   I will mostly write about the animation and its inspirations; whilst writing about how they managed to create such fluid, realistic animation that aged perfectly. 

• I will write about the allegories and why it was created as well 

I’ve decided to use “A Colour Box” by Len Lye since I liked how the movements of the shapes and colors sort of “danced along” with the music behind it. I greatly like the aesthetic as it is very abstract and the animation itself is pretty rapid. I’m going to look more into how this piece was made and hopefully find out why the artist chose to make it and why they chose to depict their animation this way. Possibly, mentioning their other works and comparing the two.

I am going to choose Tom and Jerry because Tom and Jerry was the first animated film that I’ve ever watched, and I’m sure most of us were too. The movements of each character are very smooth and interesting, also the expressions are very lively. I believe it’s the best animated film ever. I would search on information about the author and the methods he used and his techniques.

I am going to choose the skeleton dance because I really like that terrifying style in the animation and the way they deform the characters, making them look more striking. I will start by looking into the animators and how was the whole animation process

• I’m going to have to choose “The Three Little Pigs”
• Im going to have to pick this film because it is one of the most famous animations created. I feel like everyone should know about “The Three Little Pigs”. Growing up this was definitely one of those animations I remember. I always enjoyed watching this one.
• I would like to know more about who created the Film. Obviously Disney produced it but i’d like to know more about the animators and the making of the story of “The Little Pigs”. I would also like to know more about the influence that this film had in the animating industry. It definitely gave others many ideas.

The short film I will be working on is Dinner Time by Paul Terry. I decided to choose this film because it was able to implement a story with several characters without any use of dialogue. Its technique was able to keep me hooked with only the animation and actions of the characters. So for the topics I will research is how actions and animation can portray a story and about the difference of silent films and regular films.

The short film that i will be focusing on this project is Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse at the Circus. And the reason why i’m so drawn by this short is because the story is really funny and i love how it was animated like the speech bubbles when the characters are talking. it felt like a comic book on a screen. I will research about the whole animation process of Krazy Kat.