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  • Essay / Summary and Review of Understanding Animation by Paul Wells

    Table of ContentsAnimation and ComedyIssues of RepresentationAnimation and AudienceAnimation and ComedyThis chapter is about comedy in animated film, because comedy is at the heart of most animation and has the ability to laugh at the world. and show that things could be different. Animation expands the vocabulary of humor within the live-action film. People don't have the same sense of humor, so being funny is relative. From this perspective, “comedy can be silly or subversive, intentional or superficial, observational or offensive, but always possesses energy and “life,” the intrinsic imperative of animation.” Wells explains 25 Ways to Start Laughing to introduce the chronicles and evolution of humor in animated film and create a "typology of gags" and comedic structures. Some of these ways are “magical surprises, the power of personality, visual pun, waiting and exploiting, repeating it over and over again, literal, visual and verbal gags, everything can mean its opposite” , and so on. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essayIssues of RepresentationThe idea that animation is an innocent medium, especially for children, has prevented the issues from being properly discussed regarding representation. In this chapter, Wells problematizes the representation of gender and race in animation. Wells argues that in Cartoon "'male' characters are defined by what they are and how they behave, while 'female' characters are understood primarily by what they look like." and through a vocabulary of stereotypical mannerism.” In other words, in animation, femininity is conceived in relation to the primary representation of male characters. As a result, female characters are “mainly defined as a set of signifiers of femininity, namely skirts, panties, high heels, etc. », to only differentiate them from the male model. The chapter is “race in context”. The issue of the representation of race in animation is concerned with the obvious racism of cartoon caricature until the late 1940s. During World War II, "the enemy" became the inevitable delineation of “the other” and racism was acceptable among people. In this context, the discourse on false declarations is very important. Wells claims that the depiction of black characters in cartoons fits Arab and Oriental stereotypes. He mentioned Said's theory of orientalism which suggests that "orientalism is a discourse through which the West has colonized and reinvented the Orient as a mode of 'otherness'." Wells believes that race in animation is an important issue and requires careful consideration. Animation and audience This chapter deals with the relationship between the spectator and the animated film. Wells mentions that everyone has a memory of watching a Disney movie. Although Disney has a great influence on audiences due to mass viewing, in research, little attention has been paid to Disney films. The author submitted research to answer this question in particular: “how the Disney film affected and influenced children”. To answer this question, he surveyed a population of 435 adult subjects (45% men, 55% women) about their first memory of watching a Disney film, with as much detail as possible, such as location and the occasion when they watched the film, with whom, why, whatever they remember about the film. The aim of his study was to evaluate the experience.