Blog Post #2: Veggie Tales

In class this past week, we discussed the twelve principles of animation and used many different examples.  When watching the Owl series, it reminded me of  the cartoon I used to watch as a kid, Veggie Tales.  All of the characters in this series are a fruit or a vegetable, so the animators are able to use the shapes of the vegetables to give them each a distinct personality and while the animators are able to use some of the principles of animation to their advantage, there are some elements where they are not as successful.

The use of squash and stretch is the principle that they use the most to give the characters personality.  The characters are constantly being shaped and molded to show different ranges of emotion while still keeping the characters in their typical shape as a vegetable.

squash and stretch is not the only principle that Veggie Tales has going for it.  The feature that stands out the most on each of the vegetables are their eyes, and I believe that the animators do much with showing emotion in their eyes.  The animators, like with the Owl series, use the eyes to show the different feelings of sadness or happiness.  They manipulate the eyes to give the vegetables a range of emotions.

However, what the Veggie Tale animators do not do well is exaggeration.  Although there is some element of exaggeration in each of their episodes, I believe that more could be done to exaggerate the movements and emotions of the characters.  I think that this exaggeration could help fill the void that I am feeling watching this animation back as an adult rather than as a child.

ETA: I commented on Mike Morse’s blog and David Dennison’s blog

Blog Post #1: Carl and Ellie

One of my favorite movies of the past year has been Disney’s Up, a Pixar animated film. The first ten minutes of the film are the most heartwarming and heart-wrenching first minutes of any film, but I have recently noticed that there are a few details that the animators throw into these first few minutes that help to speed up time and offer a little foreshadowing into the story. Take a look….

A subtle way that the animators show that time has progressed during this clip is in the tie sequence.  At the beginning of this sequence, we see Ellie as we have been seeing her put on Carl’s tie.  After a few cuts of just the ties, there is a quick cut back to Ellie putting on Carl’s tie for him, but this time her hair has grayed.  After this cut, it goes back into just cuts of the ties.  The cut back to Ellie during this sequence is very subtle, but it is that quick cut, that you might not even notice, that places into your mind that a time shift has taken place.

Another subtle nuance is the difference in the ways that Ellie and Carl are seen going up the hill to have their picnic.  In the first scene of them climbing up the hill, Ellie has run up ahead and Carl is seen to be struggling a bit to get to the top.  After they have aged, you now see that Carl has made it to the top first and that Ellie is the one struggling.  It is in this moment also that the viewer knows that something is wrong.

There is also some foreshadowing found in the scene of Ellie in the hospital bed.  She is seen reading “My Adventure Book,” but what is not noticed is that there are scrap-booking tools on her bedside table: tape, an eraser, a pencil, and a pair of scissors.  It is not until near the end of the movie do you find why that is significant, but looking back after seeing the movie, it is fun to catch the little foreshadowing that the animators throw in.

After finding these little nuances in this short clip, I am curious to go back and watch the whole entire move again and see just how much more the animators throw into the story, wether subtle or not, that give more insight and direction into the story line.