Post #6 The boondocks

The above clip is from the show The Boondocks. The Boondocks is a satire, and the clip above is a satire of certain films such as Soul Plane. The clip is saying that the perfect terrorist plot would be thwarted by idiosyncrasies of African-American people. Soul Plane 2 on a larger scale is making fun of certain aspects of black pop culture, for it’s use of highlighting and glamorizing stereotypes and ignorance. This is seen several times in the clip; when the man checking the x-rays for the bags becomes distracted by a  lady, when the ticket taker is joking with the terrorist, and when the check in lady becomes upset at the terrorist and abruptly goes on her lunch break.

The show itself speaks about African-American society through its characters. There is an African-American character named Tom. Tom is a successful prosecutor, who primarily puts African-American people to jail, and is married to a Caucasian woman. His name “Tom”, is derived from “Uncle Tom” for he is a straight laced black man who has turned his back on his race. Another character, Riley Freeman, is an 8 year old who is obsessed with gangsta rap, and routinely references females in a derogatory way. In one episode his grandfather’s car is stolen, and he knows who did it, but refuses to cooperate with police because he is “not a snitch”. Riley is heavily influenced by what he sees on the media. His older brother Huey, on the other hand, is almost an exact opposite. He views himself as a revolutionary, he supports black causes, but sees black pop culture as a detriment to the greater good. While Riley tends to be rash in his decision making, Huey is the voice of reason. The show also has an anime influence, which can be seen in this fight scene, with the use of a speeding background . The characters also have large eyes, which is very common in anime. The people behind The Boondocks let it be known how they feel about certain issues pretty bluntly in episodes, but also mix in random action so it does not feel like they are beating a drum.

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Post #5 Parnoid Android video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHiGbolFFGw

When I was younger, a music video that had always stood out to me was “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead. The animation of the video itself is rather unimpressive, but it follows the tone of the song very well. Most music videos that use animation use rotoscoping ,where the animators trace over live action movement from frame to frame. This video, however, is fully animated. The video does well emphasizing bold colors; like his friend wearing pink pants, or the the background will just be a single color during some parts.

The video itself is very dark, and humerus. It chronicles the day of two young boys, who first go to a spot to see a women topless, and last fly in a helicopter with an angel. I feel as the video for “Paranoid Android” and the flow the of the song match up well for each other. In the beginning of the song it starts out rather gloomy; and in the video it starts out with the main character lying on the floor of his house doing nothing, and then crying in the bathroom. Around 2:45 of the video when a heavy guitar riff starts in the song, there is a bar fight happening in the video. Then around 4:40 of the song, when the song is in a choral vocal arrangement, the main character is flying around in a helicopter with an angel.

The song changes tempo several times, and the video does so as well. I would say that the nudity, violence, and randomness of the video is very complimentary of the song, not because the song is particularly violent, but how the song is arranged. Even with all the effects they are able to do now with technology, sometimes the simplest things stand out.

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Post #4: Computer animated commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVh0n03DnjQ

The video above is from a few years ago, back in a time when Michael Vick and Terrell Owens were in commercials. The commercial itself has a simple storyline, a fictional football team losing the game with one play left.  The commercial illustrates the last play in high drama. This commercial has always stood out to me for it is very detailed oriented; from players breath’s showing, shoe marks in the snow, and random comments from players. It also captures the moment very well, a person can feel the desperation the players on each team are going through in this play, which is highlighted with someone trying to throw a gatorade bucket at Terrell Owens. The players that were used in this commercial may have been through embarrassing dilemmas after this commercial was aired, but I feel as the effects still stand out .

The part of the commercial that stands out most to me, is around the 55 second mark when Owens scores a touchdown, gets pom poms, and the camera pans up and it captures the fireworks going off, and the snow falling down and the stadium lights. This commercial I remember very well, I also remember that it is not the first of its kind. Coca-cola really paved the way for computer animated commercials, this one was made in 1993, over ten years before the Nike one was made. Animation has always been used in commercials, and with computer animation becoming more popular in movies and such, one could expect more commercials involving computer animation to be more common.

Post #3: A response to Up

The excessive amount of snow over the weekend gave me the chance to catch up on Pixar’s latest movie, Up. This post will analyze some of the themes in the movie. A major theme in Up was of never giving up on your dreams. In the beginning, the audience is introduced to Carl, who always wanted to go to Paradise Falls. Eventually Carl gets old, and loses his wife, and seems to be living his life in regret. Carl decides that he will go to Paradise Falls, using balloons to lift his house up. The balloons are an ode to his wife Ellie, for she returned his balloon he lost in her house when they first met.

Another theme in the movie is of role models. Carl, Kevin, and even Dug have their own role models in the movie, and in the movie each of their role models lets them down. Carl has looked up to Charles Muntz his whole, and his voyage to Paradise Falls was inspired by Charles Muntz. When he comes across him, he finds out that he is not the man he thought he is (and Charles Muntz also wants to kill him), and he stops idolizing the man with the dog army. Kevin is a kid who seems to strive for his father’s affection, but his father is never there for him. Dug the dog is part of Muntz’s dog army, but becomes an outcast to them. These three characters though find what they are looking for within each other ; Carl wanted to be a father in his early life, but never had the chance, he gets a chance now to be a father like figure to a chubby Asian kid. Kevin gets the father figure with Carl, and Dug gets good masters, and people to take care of him through Carl and Kevin.

Overall I thought that Up was a very endearing film, and from a visual standpoint I felt it was stunning. I think Pixar has this whole  moving making thing down a bit.

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Post #2 Got a no no

The video above chronicles former MLB pitcher Dock Ellis as he pitches a no hitter on LSD.  The video is able to hypothetically recreate what  Dock Ellis was experiencing pitching through psychedelic animation and exaggeration. In the beginning of the video when Ellis takes LSD, the screen turns red and while his eyes get bigger and smaller, also random colors and images appear. The animators are trying to show what he might have been experiencing. The animation itself follows Dock Ellis’s tale closely,and it also adds humor to it. The animation short itself is very simple, with hardly any motion of characters, rather it has movement in specific body parts, like eyes, arms, or legs.

The animation succeeds in telling his story for the fact that his story itself is a wacky story, so the animators have good material to work with, and it leads the animated short to be very wacky and random. The animators did a good job with facial expressions, when Dock Ellis is on the mound, through his eyes you can tell that he is under the influence of something, and that he looks very fatigued. The animated short also makes great use of colors, it is in black and white itself, but it uses colors to make a point, and to add humor and exaggeration to something.  An example of this can be shown when Dock Ellis tags the base, and the screen turns to black, and yellow fireworks fill up the air spelling out “Touchdown”.

Commented on Kartherine Danoy’s blog and James Davis’s blog.