"Howls Moving Castle" By Studio Ghibli
Over
Saturday and this morning I decided to take a look at movies discussed at my
meeting with Lynn, The purpose of this was to Identify movies that could be
good case studies coming from different studios and possibly cultural
backgrounds. While watching these movies I took notes on areas that stood out
toward my observations while also trying to relate it What I believed to my
critical framework. However, Throughout all these moves instead of watching for
particular things such as Gestures and Body Pose. What I was paying attention was Honesty of
Character, Consistency, Character Rhythm
Actions and Reactions. I feel that
Honesty And Consistency was the attributes i noticed most. To summarize what I
mean about this is: when are first introduced to the character we automatically
start to judge the type of person that character is. Honesty and consistency
are if the character is acting on their own thoughts or demonstrating
themselves coming to their own conclusion and then acting on that conclusion
while also staying true to the character that we were first introduced
too.
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| "Howls Moving Castle" By Studio Ghibli |
Howls Moving Castle
Sophie
At the beginning of the movie seemed to be a more distant character one that
would do allot of thinking without verbalizing those thoughts. However, After
she was curse she became a more expressive character with these traits Calm, Humorous, Cunning, Practical, Fearless, Curious, Positive. This was consistent
in her character throughout the rest of the movie and the only moment these
were broken was the moment of sadness after feeling she might have killed Karushifa and Howl. These also carried out through her transformations but these
change in age also changed he body posture and walking styles. Even while Old
she still exerted the same energy from her character as if she was young.
One
thing that was noticed within the character of this film was how things would
not always be directly consistent but this was sometimes related to visual
design over the performance. The walk & Running cycles stood out the most
in this film as the characters often performed these actions the same way and
also in movies in previous films. This makes the run cycle of Studio Ghibli
seem more like a signature run to the studio.
Sophie
Was probably the only character within the movies I managed to clearly identify
her characters traits. Which may be because Howls Moving Castle was the final
movie I watched before now.
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| "Over The Hedge" By DreamWorks |
Over the Hedge
RJS
Actions were constantly consistent with
how he was establish it reached a point when he could not be evaluated
regularly but only to key points in the story or during the revelation of his
character arc. RJ also had the most
identifiable Psychological gestures out of the four films they made it clear
when RJ was at a conflict with himself in his mind along with conflicting his
spoken words.
The
overall character was identified as an
Opportunist Without luck on His side 2mins and 35 seconds into the movie and as
said before he was consistent to this throughout the movie. Other than
Psychological gestures the movie itself demonstrated Status exchange and
Rhythm. Generally around the interaction of RJ and Verne the movie also made
use of the Double Bounce in RJs Walk cycle.
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| "Belleville Rendez-vous" by Les Armateurs |
Belleville Rendezvous
Belleville
Rendezvous is still very open there was barely anything I could take note of as
I wasn't entirely sure how to interpret my framework to this movie. It did for
a matter of fact stay Honest and Consistent to its characters. However, the
characters movement and style of movement was very original to my own
experience. This is particularly why I
struggled with this movie, The boy felt rather absent as his only actions were
walking, clapping , looking, Cycling, Moping. Which was consistant throughout
the whole movie, I did question whether he stuck to a strict schedule.
The
older woman gave out more as the whistle blowing began to seem like it would
defining her mind set and Rhythm. Comparing the earlier moments of the movie it
done a great job of setting a scene for the later half for example: When she
was chasing after the boy on a small bike while the larger boy was also on a
larger bike. Later you see her in a Small Pedal boat chasing after a large
steam boat and in my opinion it is a statement toward the woman's stamina and
dedication to a task. There earlier scenes established her as a caring woman
toward the boy and this continue throughout the film.
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| "The Prince of Egypt" By DreamWorks |
The Prince of Egypt
Out of all the movies Moses was the most inconstant
character, At the beginning of the movie he was established as a Free,
Mischievous and "Doesn't care to much" character. However, Finding
out he was not born of royal blood completely changed his character or mainly
as his Values which throughout the movie didn't add up. The movie itself
summarizes the issue itself when Aaron says
"In fact Moses.. When did you start caring about Slaves?...Was it
when you found out you where One of us?" ................. Moses Says
"I Did not See cause I did not wish to see"
I feel that this movie was particularly interesting as it
broke more or less every part of my frame work I was looking into. It also
reached the point on when I question Moses as an individual character with his
own thoughts and personality and ended up classifying him as a puppet. The only
time when I identified Honesty or Consistency from him was in the presence of
his Brother Ramses in which he began to resume the traits he had from before.
The movie itself if it had been structured slightly
differently has Amazing examples on how Moses values as a prince could have
changed to value Slaves. This in my own opinion would make the Moses character
Arc more believable and credible. However the Issue that can be explored is
whether or not "The
Prince of Egypt" is considered a good movie despite the theory's that are
being broken. If it is why is that ?, Is it Visual effects or possibly the age
group its aimed at.
Conclusion
The Four movies have their own merits towards become case
studies, This is because they all don't exactly line up toward my critical
frame work but each contributes their own individual areas. I am looking for
personality and how the character stays true to that personality by what mostly
their body and eyes for thoughts. However that removes the voice from the character
which is also a way to identify personality. Take Karushifa from "Howls Moving Castle" as an
example he looks like a fire with two eyes and occasionally two hands and
identifying his personality came from his actions and reactions through his voice.
Howls Moving castle After establishing the character traits
of Sophie as an older woman stayed consistent to those traits a clear
demonstration of Honesty in character. It in some sense broke that all
character have their own Rhythm theory as it adopted the same Rhythm as other
characters mainly in walking and running.
Over The Hedge had RJ a Consistent character through the
whole film and it displayed a great deal of RJ inner conflicts through the use
of psychological gestures. However, He was so consistent that identifying
anymore of his personality called for
waiting until pinnacle moment of the story over the more subtle ones found in
Sophie from Howls moving castle.
Belleville Rendezvous was also consistent however it felt
unique and also relied more toward the subtext and context that the situation
were happening in. The Woman having her own characterization of Fixing her
glasses in a repetitive motion. The
earlier moment also justifying the later actions and possibility.
The Prince of Egypt broke everything I was looking for as it didn't have the same constancy, Anticipation or sense of personality as the other Three movies however the movie itself was still engaging the characters being somewhat likeable. The main issue here is that This problem was only identified with Moses, Tzipporah and Ramses were the complete opposite they proved the things I was looking for and even become great examples of it.
After note
There are still other movies such as Spirited away and Arthur and the Invisibles that i would like to take look at however Those can wait a few days as two days have already been spent investigating this area and i feel that i am beginning to Lack in the creation of my own materials, Areas i plan to focus on are my Story Beats and Test animations.
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