Non-linear history and Nature in Animation

Bill outlined  some history of animation and how the process of modern animation came to be, such as the start of Pixar marked the invention of motion-blur, bending characters/forms and particle systems for animation led by John Lasseter. Further on from this was realism coming into play as they were able to create characters with personalities and the pixar lamp marked a huge step forward in realism that can be achieved in animation.

I was reminded of Finding Nemo which John Lasseter also worked on at Pixar and remembered when I watched the making of Finding Nemo which had an interview with him and other animators. During part of this behind the scene footage John Lasseter discussed the issue they had in creating water for the movie. How they were going to make it look in and above the water. He said that they looked at a clip of a whale surfacing and they attempted to recreate it, which they did. However they looked at it and they had made it too real and too exact to this real clip so they had to find the balance of how to make the water look to make it believable but not too realistic that it doesn't fit with the movie.

He moved on to talk about how nature is represented in 2D animation and showed us clips from Bambi, one of many Disney classics. He said that we grow up with an idea of synthetic nature from movies.

Bambi had a very unique style for the natural environment and was a step forward in animation with multi planing camera which gave a sense of depth to the animation.

One of the most interesting parts of the lecture was when he spoke about ideology being transferred in movies and that it has led to ideological paranoia. Some people even debate and believe that disney purposely put in parts of movies to influence the children watching them. Some even go as far as to say there are sexual subliminal messages in disney and seek out frame by frame where it might be spelt in the trees etc.

As someone who has grown up with disney movies I highly doubt that there are purposeful subliminal messages in disney. I think it is purely because these movies are aimed for children that people become so paranoid and obsessive over keeping the movies 'pure'.

However I will agree that disney can sometimes be daring in what they produce especially many years ago when there wasn't such obsession over content. The most daring movie Disney has probably ever produced was the hunchback of notre dame, as his mother was killed, he was outcast for his looks, the mans lust for esmerelda etc. However this is a movie I watched as a child and a lot of these things I didnt particularly pick up on too much, I was only bothered about the story of the main characters. Quasimodo wanting to venture out and be accepted, befriending Esmerelda and saving her etc. The negative and dark aspects of the movie did not stick in my mind, only when I was older looking back did I realize quite how grim the story is.