Bugs Bunny’s Use of Space in the Looney Tunes World

 

Warner Bros.’ Loony Tunes opened up a new meaning for cartoon by introducing a more free and unrealistic environment, in which they were able to explore the characters’ and worlds’ potential forms. Chuck Jones, an animator best known for his work at the company, along with the other artists, challenged the mainstream way of animating, which emphasized a sense of realism in terms of the characters and space. The use of negative space was creatively applied as it had an important function in the Loony Tunes world. The space is used to make visual puns, surprises, and to challenge audience expectation.

One of the most iconic characters, Bugs Bunny, known as a trickster and for his witty personality, has what seems to be magical abilities of appearing and disappearing whenever he likes using his surroundings, most commonly through his rabbit hole. This hole and Bugs Bunny’s warping ability rejected the mainstream animation world and show the deconstructing facility and powers he has over the cartoon’s space, as well as the unrealistic aspect of the scene.

In this episode, Bugs Bunny is being threatened by Elmer Fudd, a hunter whose gun is pointed into the rabbit hole. The camera pans over to reveal that the rabbit surfaced through another hole, slipping out of danger and showing that he has complete control over the situation and the environment. Throughout the scene, he is not harmed once thanks to his ability of tricking Daffy Duck through language.

Additionally, the rabbit hole seems like an underground tunnel that runs everywhere off-screen, which emphasizes the nature of and is possible due to the set. This can be seen in the following video:

As Bugs Bunny appears on screen after leaving a trail of dirt behind him from digging underground, he mentions that it is not the destination he has been looking for, further implying his tunnel can go to more than just that location. Furthermore, he is constantly appearing and disappearing from the screen, in attempt to avoid the bull. Eventually he gets rid of the bull by manipulating the environment this episode is set in, getting the animal stuck in a wood panel. Bugs Bunny is finally safe once he decides that it is over by holding up a cape that reads “The End.”

The term “Cartoon modern” was coined by author Amid Amidi to describe the stylized world of the Looney Tunes. It is said to had been inspired by art movements such as cubism, surrealism, and expressionism, which all rejected realism and spatial illusions. Due to the art style, the unrealistic aspect of the cartoon works well and makes such jokes possible and enjoyable.

 

What Pinocchio Did For the Animation Industry

Pinocchio, a 1940’s and the second Disney animated feature had its great impact on the animation industry. This fabulous looking animated feature not only had a great budget to start with but also had all of the talents of the time in terms of animating, character design, music and etc to work on a masterpiece. The success of the Snow White brought enough money and attention to the Disney studios to put Walt Disney under the pressure for making an even more astonishing work this time.

The original story was picked from Carlo Collodi’s series and developed further in terms of the plot and the characters. Then they got model makers to make 3D models in order to give the animators the ability to study the characters furthermore and got actors to act and be recorded in live action for reference of their movements. The most eye-catching aspect of Pinocchio’s production is by far it’s use of special effects.

The animation of the water and the waves in the whale sequence, for instance, became a great case study for the studio and they used it multiple times after in films such as the little mermaid. The attention to its sound design and music is the second influence it had on the future films to come and it won the academy awards for the best original score. Although one might say Pinocchio was not as big of a success for the Disney studios as their Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in terms of the profit, but the achievement in terms of the technique in all aspects, from the character design to the special effects and sound design taught them well enough of a lesson to make the work behind it worth its while and it sure served its industry for the years to come.

Watch the full movie online at:

 

Disney’s Golden Age, the Animation Trendsetter

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/nine-eras-disney-animation

What we know as the ‘Golden Age’ of Disney animation was kick-started with the introduction of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first full-length animated film; a film which solidified the legitimacy and potential of the animated medium.

Throughout the short period of this era, several classic full-length films were produced, such as Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo. These films showcased flowing traditional animation with hand-painted backgrounds, a technical combo that would be favoured in many more animated features throughout the later ‘Silver Age’ of the 1950’s and 60’s such as Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. Even as hand-drawn animation began to shift into digital production with computer-generated backgrounds such as in Beauty and the Beast, they continue to emulate the look and feel of painted backdrops the Golden Age.

Bambi is an example of an early full-length animated feature where the protagonist is an animal rather than a human, certainly a challenging choice, even just considering it from solely an animation standpoint. The character needs to have a variety of gestural expression as well as the ability to express emotion facially in a way that the human viewers of the film will understand. Over time, the depiction of animal characters in Disney films split, with The Lion King maintaining the more animal-like movement in the characters as shown in Bambi, and the recent film Zootopia making the animal characters more anthropomorphic by walking bipedally, wearing clothes, etc.

Another theme that Golden Age Disney animation pioneered is the adaptation of fairy tales and fantastical literature into features such as Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland. Many classic fairy tales (especially Grimm stories) retain many darker themes and aspects in the story, and Golden Age films did not appear too shy to include the death of characters (particularly villains, such as in Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.

Throughout the last century of animation production, other studios have adopted many of the techniques, styles, and themes put forth by Disney Studios, assuring its ability to set trends in traditional animation.

Blurring the Lines: Early Disney and Surrealism

“The art of the animated film is in the action.” – Richard Taylor, 1996.

Animation allows for filmmakers to achieve visuals that are impossible by any other means. It allows for a certain freedom for fantasy, magic and transience and creates a synthesis between the reference of real-life movement and abstraction.

From its growth in the 1930s, Walt Disney Productions sought to push the medium of animation, and is regarded as one of the chief influences of animation as we know it today. One such reason for their renown is their usage of surrealistic themes and imagery in the scope of their early feature films that was, frequently, quite dark in nature. Typically, this marriage of surrealism and animation is used as an innovative way to show hallucinations, dreams or the dreamlike, and elements of fantasy.

Below are a couple of examples of Disney’s brief foray into the strange and dreamlike realm – a trip that leaves the audience anywhere between a state of calming repose to unrelenting feelings of unease.

Eisenstein’s plasmatics are best displayed in one of Disney’s first feature-length films, Dumbo (1941) – showing Technicolor elephants that parade to and fro across the eyes of a drunken Dumbo. These hallucinations follow after he sees his mother in her cage, and he does not know when or if he will ever be with her again. This scene is meant to be a muddled dream sequence of his overwhelming new life in the circus. The animation is instrumental in these shape-shifting elephants, whom multiply, split and reform themselves into several different iterations of elephant, but none of which can be said definitely as their one true form, as they just keep changing shape.

It is evident in these examples that a frequent use of surrealistic themes is when a character is undergoing some sort of emotional trauma: Dumbo for his grief over his mother and being bullied for his enormous ears, and below, Snow White after she is told to run away by the huntsmen. In Disney’s first feature film, Snow White (1937), Snow White is the described not only as “the fairest of them all”, but it is said that “in her innocence, [she] cannot see any evil in the world”. As she runs farther into the dark forest, the flora around her begin to transform into long grabbing hands, claws and teeth that tear at her dress and leave her terrified. What we see here is her loss of innocence, shown through this surrealistic animation of plants that would never truly come alive, but they are coming alive because of her sheer terror – but it is all in her head.

Naturally, just as there are nightmares, dreams can be wonderful as well. Oksana Bulgakowa described the work of Disney as “unstable stability” – relating again to Sergei Eisenstein’s plasmatics, “Disney’s state of continuous self-dissolution […] form solely defined by a line’s contour […] music providing impetus for the movement.” That is precisely what Disney meant to do. Blending classical music with the likes of animated abstraction, he and his team produced Fantasia (1940). The surrealism in this instance is through the subject matter itself. The entire film hosted many different fantastic and mythical creatures: Centaurs, fairies, magic, and true to their legacy, more anthropomorphic animals and living plant-life. This sort of movement – the dancing, the weightlessness, the existence of these creatures, could have only been achieved at this time through its creation by the artists. Its beauty and pioneering in the likes of animation, and musical melding have certainly left its mark on the history of animation.

Finally, a mention must be given to Destino (2003), a more contemporary example of the union between surrealism, animation and Disney. This short film was the result of a collaboration between Disney, and one of the most well-known surrealists of the 20th Century, Salvador Dalí. Here, Dalí’s famous vision comes into play. The desert setting morphs into a labyrinth, the protagonist wears a dress that had come from the shadow of a bell – diving into the desert rock to reach the shadow, her lover emerges from a bed of stone and granite, while distant creatures crawl and melt across the landscape.

Animation and surrealism paves the way for an existence of what could never be in reality. Its ultimate fusion made plenty of sense for an entrepreneur and artist such as Disney, who always sought at this time to push the boundaries of animation.

Blog curation; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/exploring-true-origins-snow-white-and-seven-dwarfs-004150

Some Disney movies have their origin story that were omitted and embellished as were inappropriate for young viewers. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, brought by Grimm brothers in 1812 from an old European tale,  used to be written as a story related to princess Margarete who was born in Germany of 1533. The existence of her stepmother and the huntsman (killer) is similar to the Disney series, but when it comes to the dwarfs and prince, it seems to be targeted as political critics generated from the old Europeans when expressing such thoughts were dangerous back then. When the princess was forced to move to Wildungen in Brussels by the new evil queen Katharina of Hatzfeld, she met prince Phillip II of Spain. Her father, king Phillip lV of Germany disapproved of their relationship because of political issues. However, we know that a 16-year old teenager girl wouldnt listen to her parents and would keep her relationship with the guy. As a result, after five years princess Margarete was suddenly found dead, believed to be killed by poison. What about the dwarfs? Back in Germany, children labor was severe that the king ordered every children to put themselves working in his copper mine. The extreme condition of labor led the poor kids to be unable to grow normally and would stay short with bent upper body.

Weird Kids’ Videos and Gaming the Algorithm

interesting watch