Literature Review 4/4- Tunes for 'toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon

Tunes for ‘toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon, 2005, By Daniel Goldmark, University of California Press

Tom and Jerry is one of the two texts that we get to refer to when talking about comedy in animation. It also happens to be one of my all time favourite animations. I have seen all the Tom and Jerry shorts from the William Hanna and Joseph Barbera Era (creators of Tom and Jerry for MGM) to the Giene Deitch era and the Chuck Jones era, as I was a massive fan of the cartoon when I was young and I still do enjoy it to this day watching the new Tom and Jerry films and brand new ‘Tom and Jerry Tales’ broadcasted on Boomerang.

As many would know Tom and Jerry is a cartoon involved no dialogue, bar a few exceptions. The cartoons were mainly based on the visual comedy (slapstick) and the sound effects/music to anchor the scenes. ‘Tunes for ‘toons’ covers Tom and Jerry in depth as the book overall examines the music used in animated cartoons from Hollywood from the early 30s to the 50s. Tom and Jerry, which began in 1940s comes in between this period and is notable for its use of music.

My focus in the essay is about the comedy. Although the book is mainly about the music in animation, it does discuss the nature of Tom and Jerry and its slapstick comedy. It talks about how animation is not restricted by ‘physical limitations of the human body’ and how Tom (formulaically) is always the one who ends up going through pain and how his body is used and exaggerated when he is hurt, where a humans cannot. It also talks about the formualic success of Tom and Jerry, with the simple concept of a Cat (Tom) chasing a Mouse (Jerry), and whilst they all have the same concept, the use of relfecting the zeitgiest ('spirit of the times) and the use of other on/off screen characters such as the dog and the maid, all help contribute to the cartoons comedy.

Overall, this is a very good text for me to refer to as I have watched a lot of Tom and Jerry meaning I can refer to specific points in the animation when giving examples from the text combined with theories and research on comedy, I feel that I can really discuss this text in depth in terms of its comedy.

10 interesting/useful links

1. http://www.answers.com/topic/animation

gives a broad overview of animation. It talks about animation and its history, technqiues and how to make an animation, types of animation, and it gives dictionary and thesaurus definitions of terms whilst containing lots of hyperlinks to other areas.

2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1112203/How-belly-laugh-dispense-belly.html?ITO=1490

This article about ‘Laughter’ by the Daily Mail, will be useful when it comes to talking about laughter as it also has interesting facts that I could reference when talking about laughter itself.

3. http://www.animationmagazine.net/
This website is an online magazine which gives you the latest up to date with the animation world.

4. http://www.answers.com/

Generally this website is fantastic and is one I always refer to for research. It is like an encyclopedia with dictionary definitions and thesaurus, refers to other encyclopedia s and it even has Wikipedia inside of the website.

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR9BsLERi4c&feature=PlayList&p=76FFDCC206091100&index=0&playnext=1

Not leaving out the ever popular and at times useful YouTube which contains videos of animations such as ‘Tom and Jerry’ which, if you do not have access to can watch from here.

6. http://www.imdb.com/
The Internet Movie Database is always a great site when it comes to searching films, TV series and all other forms, whether mainstream or independent. Each film is full of details including its directors, casts, release dates, genres and just about anything you need to know about a film.

7. http://www.theage.com.au/news/Arts/Its-no-joke/2005/04/03/1112489345525.html

This article tells us that ‘children loved visual jokes because they were simple and easy to understand’. This article titled ‘making children laugh is no joke’, talks about what makes children laugh and gives the perspective of one of animations main audiences, children on what it takes to make them laugh and this can help me explain why an animator may choose to do a certain ‘gag’ in order to generate comedy and make the audience laugh.

8. http://www.aniboom.com/

This is like a YouTube for animation. This website is interesting as it shows you lots of animation from a wide range and its interesting to watch.

9. http://www.animationblog.org/

I feel that this is an interesting blog in that the blogger critically evaluates animated shorts, whether it be classic, new and on-line. Its interesting in that it has a critical eye and also the range of animation they talk about could help the onlookers imagination or find out interesting animations you may have not heard or seen. They even have divided into which countries they were made e.g. Spanish animation, British animation etc.

10. http://www.kidzdom.com/tutorials/
Whilst it’s child-like interface (layout) may fool you, this site is interesting and in fact teaches you about animation and making animation in a fun child like way. Using animation, it is a very interesting mini-online tutorial.

11. http://www.zenonic.demon.co.uk/zenocgi.htm
I have look at this site a lot, particularly when writing my year 13 independent study essay. I feel that this website is very engaging as it discusses animation in terms of types of animations, audiences of animation, and the impact of each type of animation and the future of all types of animation. I just feel that this is a very engaging read about animation which is why I find this site interesting.

Literature Review 3/4- Understanding Animation

‘Understanding Animation’, 1998, By Paul Wells, Routledge

My view is that this book is also one of the key books that will help me with constructing and answering my essay. In general, the aim of Paul Wells within the book is to divert the initial view from the public that animation is for kids and that it is a cinematic art that has been overlooked.

The book in general contains a large amount of information about animation as a whole. This includes well argumented and constructed case studies (which are really engaging), theories, narrative strategies, methods of comedy, representation within animations, history and its connection with the audience.

In terms of what I require for my essay the book covers comedy in animation. ‘Comedy (in animated film) is assumed to be at the core of most animated film’ thus the book has a large chapter title ‘ways to start laughing’ as the book has a lot to discuss about comedy in animation. This chapter goes through the construction of comedy techniques such as surprising the audience by building up tension and surprising the audience to give them a shock which in turn would make the audience laugh (what make the audience laugh), theories such as the characters in animation and how their personalities is the key to success of comedy in animation ahead of the actual ‘gags’ according to two Disney animators Thomas and Johnson. Also, how ‘accidents’ (referring to slapstick comedy and using Tom and Jerry which is one of the two texts we have to refer to within the essay)create humour. Parody, Black humour, satire and other forms of comedy are also touched on meaning my essay can also explore various types of comedy in animation.

Literature Review 2/4- 'Animation Writing and Development'

'Animation Writing and Development', 2005, By Jean Ann Wright, Focal Press

This book allows the reader, whether student or professional, to go through and understand the art, craft and business of animation, whether it’s from creating original characters and ideas, to learning how to pitch ideas to history of animation to making the reader a better writer.
It also explains ‘Animation comedy and gag writing’ in Chapter 12, and goes through ‘what makes you laugh?’ showing that it is coming from the perspective of the creator and with views from experts. Within the chapter it also talks about how comedy in animation (which is what my question focuses on), is unique from others. It even demonstrates the codes and conventions of creating a comedy script and comedy techniques.

The question is asking us ‘how does animation generate comedy?’ Whilst what we see on the screen on screen is what makes us laugh the most as animation is a very strong visual medium, makes us laugh, so does the script. This book will allow me to cover the view of the animator and scriptwriter as to their mind frame when it comes to developing animation and dialogue in order to generate comedy in the animation. The book goes through comedy techniques and gives a example of how someone may design a story to be funny.

It allows my essay to have a variety of perspectives from the audience and the effect it has on the audience (laughter), to examples of what we actually see in the animation, e.g. visually seeing the slapstick comedy to the mind of the person behind making the animation and the tools (codes and conventions they use in order to create comedy in their animation. I feel that this book will be very useful when I come to writing my essay.

Literature Review 1/4- Bupa Article

Laughter is healthly! This article from the global health and care organization, Bupa, who having been helping the public with their health from the 1940’s, demonstrates using statistics and facts that laughter might just be the best medicine. Laughter has many benefits to the human health such as faster blood flow through the circulatory system, reducing stress, lifting our moods to happiness, boost our immune system, helps our bodies become more tolerant to pain, and it even keeps diabetes under control!

In terms of how useful it is to answer my essay, as I am covering Q.3 (how does animation generate comedy?...), I feel that looking at laughter, the emotion that comedy generates to the audience, can allow me to explore the effects laughter has on the audience after being made to laugh. ‘Laughing is one of the first things we do when we are born along with crying. It is the most powerful form of communication and is the most basic universal language’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3075191.stm),

I feel I can use the topic of laughter and its effects on the audience to open my essay. For example,

(this paragraph could be used in my essay but it demonstrates how I could use this article to help construct my essay)

‘It is even advised by doctors that laughing is something that you should even make time for. ‘We could perhaps read something humorous or watch a funny video and try to find ways to take ourselves less seriously," lead researcher Dr. Miller’. Animations are ‘funny videos’ which contain a large range of comedy for all ages to enjoy. Examples of such comedy could be such as ‘Tom and Jerry’, which contains a large amount of slapstick humour (‘involving exaggerated physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense’, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapstick ) such as ‘Jerry slamming the window down on Tom who yells in pain’ or ‘Tom’s face turning into the shape of an iron after being by Jerry, who placed the iron in the pie’. It is the exaggerations of the physical violence which generates the comedy.’

Tate Modern Art Review 2- Paul Nash 'Landscape from a dream' (1936-8)

Surrealism (a cultural movement starting from the early 1920s) was formed through Dada’s protest against the middle class, the norm. Dada used performances, collages and anti- art to destroying the normal way of thinking, for example, vandalizing one of the most famous paintings in the world, ‘Mona Lisa’ by painting a beard on the Mona Lisa.

Nash puts forwards his views of surrealism in this attractive artwork by relating to ‘Freud’s theories of the power of dreams to reveal the unconscious’ which is also reflected within the title of the painting ‘Landscape from a dream’.

The unconscious is also our dream world as Nash is trying to demonstrate. One way to help understand Freud’s theory of the subconscious is through the image of an iceberg (from A levels)

From a human perspective above water, when we see an iceberg, it is large, we are conscious of this however as we cannot see the bottom of the iceberg, which shows that it is far larger that what we can consciously see, it represents our the unconscious mind and our repressed feelings (feelings which are pushed away that we don’t know about themselves and not admit)

The unconscious is also our dream world as Nash is trying to demonstrate.

Using a surrealist technique of ‘convulsing joining’ (two objects that do not fit), Nash has put together a landscape with a mirror and a falcon. From first sight the painting may not make sense; ‘In Surrealism, composition becomes a painted organization of free associated ideas, as in a dream where suggested meaning is more important’, however Nash’s painting has symbolic elements such as the sphere’s in the mirror represent the soul whilst the ‘Falcon represents the material world’. To add, Nash’s artwork tended to be notable for English landscapes, which is why this painting of ‘Landscape from a dream’ has an English coastline of Dorset (Swanage, Dorset is the location nearby where Nash lived).

In addition, as an artwork, I like the balance of colour’s used within the painting along with the tones of the sand and textures such as the cloud in the sky.

Sources

Primary Research
· Visiting the ‘Tate Modern’ and view the paintings first hand
· Lecture on Surrealism (Monday 16th February 2009)

Secondary Research
· http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue6/nash.htm
· http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=10544
· Referring back to my studies at A Level (Freud theory, iceberg example)
· ‘Learning to look at Modern Art’ ,2004, by Mary Action, Routledge, pg. 5

Essay Question

I have chosen to focus on essay question No.3:

How does animation generate comedy? What might be the codes and conventions and how have they evolved since the beginning of cartoons? Produce a comparative analysis of 2 films that you have seen this term or taken out of this list, and discuss how theories of humor are constructed in these films (e.g parody, satire, black humor, slapstick, absurd etc)

Keywords/points:

• How comedy is generated? The Codes and Conventions
• Evolution of comedy (historical)
• Comparative analysis of 2 FILMS
• Look at Theories of humor and explain and expand on by using examples to demonstrate theories (Theory)

Film Reviews 4/4- JAWS

Characters:
Jaws (left)
Gnasher (right)

(The text of the conversation has been added on the right of the image in the case that you cannot read the text in the image OR Click on the image to see a close up)

Jaws: Gnasher, where’s Nipper?

Gnasher: (Sob) dead! The humans captured him; they blame him for the death of the 2 humans that have happened over the last month. Apparently we are protected however if we kill a human, the authorities are allowed to kill us! The worst part is Nipper didn’t even do anything!

Jaws: GGGR! Those humans are going too far. They just perceive us as mindless killing machines and its all because of that Steven Spielberg film ‘Jaws’ (1975).

Gnasher: Don’t forget that Peter Benchley guy, he wrote a novel about us that inspired Spielberg to create that film, but what I don’t get is how did Benchley get the idea to make a novel about us killing humans?
Jaws: And in terms of the film itself, they make me look fake was so unsuccessful for me, although the ways in which Spielberg constructs the film to make me look the like the villain is effective, but I hate him, I would love to get my Jaws into him

Gnasher: Likewise, however you have to admit one thing, our theme tune is catchy! Da Da Dun, Da Da Dun, Da Da Dun, Dun, Dun…

"Shut it Gnasher!"

Film Reviews 3/4- The Big Combo (1955)

Film noir (French for ‘black film) is a film genre which is distinctive through its low key lighting, urban settings, a femme fatal character, mystery etc. the genre has an artistic aspect as the films use the contrast of light and dark ‘chiaroscuro’ effect and use the lighting and shadows to express emotions. The genre’s style is particularly used in thriller’s, detective and gangster films.

The synopsis for ‘The Big Combo’ involves Police Lt. Leonard Diamond, who is on a personal quest to bring down the sadistic gangster Mr. Brown, whilst at the same time being obsessed with the gangster’s girlfriend Susan Lowell.

A conflict of good vs. evil is once again in the narrative. The shot above shows the conclusion of the film with its use of stereotypical film noir’s lighting effect. The single shot alone can tell a lot about the film such as use of fog in the background creates mystery and suspense, which is further reinforced by the audience not being able to see the characters close up .This in turn engages the audience during the film as the fog covers up what will happen next. Also stereotypical characters of film noir can been seen in the shot as well, the femme fatal and the detective.

My view is that the film is engaging and full of suspense particularly the torture scenes. John Alton really uses the lighting to great effect and are really good at adding emphasis to a scene such as the torture scene.

Film ReviewS 2/4- Looney Tunes Cartoon (Bugs Bunny)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeY561iXxjA
  

Warner Bros. Looney Tunes is a popular animation which contains lots of comedy and is full of laughs. Unlike with other comedy shows such as BBC Mock the Week or the famous ‘Two Ronnies’, where the writers scripts are funny, intelligent and witty, not that scripts in animation are not. Animation is a very visual media and it’s what we seen (combined with other factors such as the script, the characters personality and sound effects) in the animation which contributes to creating comedy.

“What’s up doc?” Bugs Bunny (BB) is one of the most notable of all the Warner Bros. characters. Always involved in conflicts with a range of other Warner Bros. characters e.g. Elmer Fudd, Bugs uses a range of tricks to cause chaos for his opposite number at the same time making the audience laugh. This can be seen in the episode (click on link).

One example of where these factors can be seen to create comedy is when Bugs Bunny places a stick of dynamite in Rocky’s mouth as though it was a ‘cigarette’ and then imitating Rocky’s voice to get Mugsy to light up the “cigarette” (with Mugsy thinking that he’s back in Rocky’s good books again) which in consequence leads to Rocky being blown up. The use of sound effects such as the dynamite being lighted and then blown up further adds to the comedy in the animation. The formula of Mugsy messing up and Rocky punishing him afterwards further adds to the comedy after Rocky is blown up.

Film Reviews 1/4- The Dark Knight (2008)

The Record breaking Box Office hit The Dark Knight (2008) is the first ever Batman film which does not feature the name ‘Batman’ in the title. The narrative involves Batman (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent joining forces to rid Gotham City of all criminals and battle the criminal mastermind The Joker (Heath Ledger) who Introduces “a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos”’. Overall, the storyline comes down to a typical narrative of Good V Evil (Vladimir Propp).

Sequel to ‘Batman Begins (2005)’ which restarted the Batman franchise films from the beginning, The Dark Knight has been highly successful. The Director Christopher Nolan wanted to push the boundaries and this was the case when he decided to blow up a real life hospital in the film rather than using special effects. Nolan also seems to draw inspirations from other films, for example the interrogation scene involving Batman and The Joker paying homage to ‘HEAT’ (1995). Lucis Fox (Morgan Freeman) demonstrates Batman’s gadgets to Batman as though he was ‘James Bond’.

The list of top actors in the film such as Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman further helped the films massive successful. However whilst it was a Batman film, the main attention of the film was the 5 star performance from Heath Ledger as The Joker. In addition, the sound of one note getting longer and tighter as it plays which in turn helps build tension, which is anchored to the joker, works extremely well.

Sources:
· http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/
· http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/dvdsite/
· The Dark Knight film and DVD: Bonus features
· http://cielos.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/the-influences-of-the-dark-knight-iii/

Tate Modern Art Review- Claude Monet 'water lilies' (1916)

‘Water-lilies’ by Claude Monet is one of a range of very well know paintings the founder of French art impressionism has produced, others including:

And it was Monet’s ‘Soliel Levant’ painting that brought about the title of the 19th century art movement ‘Impressionism’. There are various aspects which characterize an impressionist painting. One involves the painting having an open composition as can be seen in ‘water-lilies’. Looking at the painting, Monet has covered the entire canvas to portray the surface of water (with water lilies). By doing this, the painting allows the audience to feel a sense of another world, ‘a world in itself’. Furthermore, looking at the painting as a whole, the open composition combined with the use of soft colours, textures and blending of the colours makes the audience feel a sense of with the immersion into the painting. ‘Impressionist paintings incorporate the qualities of sketches’. This ‘sketchy’ aspect is shown through his brush strokes made in the painting which illustrates that Monet has made ‘no attempt to blend the pigment to create smooth tonal gradations and the optical accurate scene’.

Selecting an aspect of the painting, we can see that perspective is also visible in the painting through the positioning of the water lilies along with the directions of the brush strokes giving a real sense of a surface to the audience.

In addition, Depth is given to the painting by the use of blue below the brightly painted water lilies.

Sources used:

Primary Research

· Visiting the ‘Tate Modern’ and view the paintings first hand

Secondary Research

. http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=21993&searchid=9860

· http://www.artofmonet.com/Home_Page.htm

· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression,_Sunrise

· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet

· http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aSV_y8aSbycC&pg=PA701&dq=claude+monet&as_brr=3
(‘Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective’, 2005, By Helen, Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, Thomson Wadsworth, p.g 701)