COMM 3560 Assignment 8

COMM 3560 Assignment 8 | Tulane University

In Well’s chapter “New Disney, Old Stories?” he says, “that audiences recognize andparticipate in the difference afforded by the animated form... most notably in relation to theiremotional reaction to the films, locating the representational tendencies of the films in personalrather than political ways.”  What he means is the cartoon form facilitates the audience’s abilityto connect emotionally with the work.  Wells speaks in a language of feeling oppose to thinking.He focuses and pinpoints the emotions the animations create in the audience.  The Disney formdoes not operate in the same way other cartoons do.  Disney’s films desire a fierce surreal andemotional connection from its viewers.  There is a strong emphasis on childishness in Disneyanimation.  It aims for a universality of human emotional representations.  There is noconsideration in the context of how the films are produced.  There is an assembly line productionthat cranks out as many cartoons as it can, often repeating already produced storylines.  There isa thoughtlessness in the production process.  There are so many little decisions that go into theprocess often the director's ideas are lost in the name of efficiency.  Wells suggests this is one ofthe ways mass production takes away the element of political awareness within a cartoon.Audiences return to Disney movies with the purpose of entertainment, not politicalcommentary.  Disney is too sentimental to critique.  Disney is everywhere.  It’s hard to contest itdue to its universality.  It is hard for people today to distinguish the Disney ‘magic’ producedversus the Disney corporation’s profits produced.  Disney has been so influential over youth; it’s

tough to go back and think critically.  Disney has a critical role in shaping and inspiring people.The audience doesn’t ask itself “how am I being manipulated by this?”.  Disney wants theaudience’s loyalty to the brand at the end of the day.  At the end of it, they are a brand.Entrepreneurs want to be Walt Disney; animators don’t want to be Walt Disney.Reiniger’s ​The Adventures of Prince Achmed​ profits off the European concept ofOrientalism.  It was a tradition where films would focus on an unknown, mystical land.  Thisfilm relies on a fantasy about the East.  It was a kind of otherness Europeans and Americanscould fantasize about.  In this kind of fantasy, they could imagine exotic elements and people.However, this furthered the colonial idea, and it made cartoon aesthetics the primaryassociations.  It relies on an imagined version of the people who live there.The Adventures of Prince Achmed​’s paper cut out silhouette animation is a particularstyle.  During the creation of the horse, the background morphs and then a distinct switch ismade to the actual horse paper cut out.  It looks similar to watercolor in the forming of the horseand the genies magic.  The audience never gets a head-on view of the characters.  The papercutouts make it, so everything is 2D and profile shots.  The still backgrounds make the horse’sflying look very artificial.  The yellow background was a good choice because it simulates lightand the cutouts are all so dark.  The film later switches to a blue hue in the background.  Thischoice shifts the mood to a more serious one