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.

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.’