Post #7 Animals
“Humans use animals to transcend the confines of self and species; they also enlist them to symbolize, dramatize, and illuminate aspects of humans’ experience and fantasy. Humans merge with animals in stories, films, philosophical speculation and scientific treatises. In their performance on many stages and in different ways, animals move us to think.” -The How and why of thinking with Animals
From Gertie the Dino to Nemo the fish and many others, the most dramatic and emotionally touching animated characters of our time have been animals or anthropomorphic. Even in the most modern films such as Avatar incorporate main characters with animalistic tendencies (the growl, the movement ect). Freud, in his book of dream interpretations would often say that animals replace us in dreams because they allow us to express our deeper emotions.
Maybe it is because of our association with pets but animals always evoke empathy in humans and through them we see emotions that may be taken for granted by us in an all human film. Adding a simple narrative can give an audience an experience with a genuine emotion. The death of bambie’s mother can be argued to be more powerful because it was a deer and not a human. This could also come into play in the modern generation because we are more desensitization to violence.
You can see the animal movement behind Gollum, a great movie character whos flaws were emphasised by this animal-esq action.
No matter if the main character/hero is human, mermaid, or princess…the furry,shell covered, feathery friend will always upstage them. When it came to making toys and icons for Disney movies it has always been flounder and Sebastian or thumper and flower or even toto who takes center stage.
Though many animators make their animals walk and talk as humans would it is not necissary and many of the best animated shorts have shown us this. Disney’s most recent animated short I have found has no diologue but the emotion of the bird within the film is easily recognized and apprectiated.
csoohoo said,
March 8, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I believe this is true too. By having animals in films, it gives a more powerful meaning. Most films we watch, animals do have this human like quality especially in cartoons. Animals with human qualities gives this a more than life feel to them. We know that in real life, animals do not act like the movies but rather exaggerated. It maybe ties in to how us humans are still animals and how connected we still are with them. I realize why they always bring up having a “Spirit Animal”
Blog Entry #7 – Clean Up Scenes With Animals « Chuck's Blog said,
March 8, 2010 at 8:13 pm
[...] commented on Jeannie A. Hilleary and Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Movie Review (Snow White and the Seven [...]
Samira Denardo said,
March 10, 2010 at 5:17 am
1. I agree with you in the sense that there is definitely some “dearness” to the animated animals or creatures –especially if they are small, chubby, and funny looking creatures, but I really think that the characters’ appeal depend strongly on the cartoonists and/or animators’ ability to create cute-looking animated creatures and how well they distribute the package –as in the voice, mannerisms, and the movement they give the characters. Some animators are extremely talented at giving animated creatures that extra human emotion that is going to make the character more appealing to our perceptions and feelings. Whereas another animators, who as much as they try, it is really hard for them to get the set of characteristics in one character right, and it just will not do it for us.
Cheers!
Specimen Posts « Kyluna's Blog said,
March 10, 2010 at 9:16 pm
[...] Post #7 [...]
danyaelrose said,
March 14, 2010 at 10:16 pm
I also love the animals in cartoons. They always have so much more personality, especially when they can’t speak. This is obvious in movies as early as Snow White. Great post!