Is animation the perfect medium to film dance?

Teusday's screening was probably my favorite one so far. Triangles and The Though of You were definitely my favorite animations that we've seen. The animation is so fluid, and even though the models weren't very detailed, their movements and actions made them so expressive. Because of this, i've been wondering if animation is the perfect medium for filming dance. Of course, watching dancers perform live is impressive, because dancing is an incredibly taxing effort, but  I believe it's doubly impressive to see the fluidity and passion of dance translated through drawings. On top of this, animation is able to add effects (like the subtle electricity in The Thought of You) to heighten the experience. Dancing, I believe, is the perfect subject for animation too, as it allows animators to really flex their technical muscles and show fluidity and grace through their drawings.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 30, 2018 at 1:20 PM

    I was thinking the same thing with all of the dancing films we've watched, there is something about dance and animation that works really well together. I think a similar thing happens with music videos as well

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 30, 2018 at 3:35 PM

    There is a definite ethereal effect that dancing in animation is able to capture. In many of the films we saw at the screening, dances were acted as interesting visual interpretations of emotions and events and this is something that is really well captured in children's animated films. Two examples that come to mind are the 'Once Upon a December' dream/dance sequence from Anastasia, where being back in the palace sparks a small memory of her time there mixed with the fantasy of living a lavish life, and the 'Pink Elephants on Parade' sequence from Dumbo, where Dumbo hallucinates and the elephants bounce around the frame contorting and dancing in a way that shows how frightened and confused he is for the majority of the film.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 30, 2018 at 4:49 PM

    I love this idea and I think its true! Triangle was one of my favorites from this screening for that reason. The way the lines moved and changed really expressed the way we dance even though most of the time the frames were full of still, straight lines. The idea of drawing each frame singularly and them amounting to as much, if not more, fluidity than the dancers themselves, as you suggest, is really interesting to me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bratz: Rock Angelz is the movie I didn't know I needed

Image
This weekend, I watched the hit 2005 animated movie Bratz: Rock Angelz. This movie was one of the first Bratz films in CGI, and let me tell you- the plot is ALL OVER THE PLACE. The girls start a fashion magazine and use stolen passes to get into hot London punk clubs, but when they lose their passes they decide that the only way to get into the gig is to become a rock band? This movie can be considered capitalist propaganda- the Bratz shop in order to destress about their problems, and it's an implemental part of their lives. They don't have jobs either- Jade has an internship, but only for three hours until she is fired. Chloe meets a TRASH British prince and ignores her best friend Yasmin who finds celebrity judge Byron Powell's (I don't make this stuff up) dog, Ozzy. Jade and Sasha try to do a photo shoot for the magazine, but Sasha micromanages the whole thing and makes her friend feel bad! And this whole time, there's these two evil blond twins (Kaley Cuoco PLA
Read more

Does Animation Have to Make You Laugh?

Something that I have taken note of lately is how you barely ever find any mainstream animation that doesn't have some semblance of comedy integrated into it. For example, when was the last time you saw a Disney movie that didn't make you laugh (or at least try to)? And when was the last time you saw an adult cartoon that wasn't making a joke every 10 seconds. My point is, mainstream animation has seemed to simplify itself into a single tone: Comedic. Even in the films that are primarily covering serious topics there is typically a comic relief character to add some lighthearted fun to the film. But do all films need this? Is it necessary for all animation to try and entertain us in the exact same way? My answer is no and I wish that more animation studios and their production companies would realize this. One thing I don't think many people realize is that animation can be lighthearted without being funny. When I say you don't have to be funny all the time, that
Read more

She-ra is my new favorite gay icon

She-ra is a Netflix original spinoff of the he-man franchise. I was never a fan of the original show, but I thought I'd check she-ra out and I'm glad I did. It's a fun show, and I wish we had more like it when we were kids. It's one of the few kids shows where women outnumber men in the lead cast, and there's so much gay but it's not like "woah look at all this gay!" It's a lot more subtle, and I think that's great. Of course, there are more seasons to come, but I'm glad that the first one showed as much restraint as it did. I feel like if we treat LGBT people as special, it'll only perpetuate the idea that they're something "other" than straight people. It's important that our pop culture reflects the idea that gay people are just, you know, people. Take all that with a grain of salt though, I'm a straight cis white guy. I just wanted to start a conversation.
Read more