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I'm a motivated story artist with 3 years practical experience in storyboard creation, visual effects animation and Illustration. Successfully led and participated in various multi-media and film productions. A creative and gifted team player with an exceptional work ethic. I have a strong passion for traditional animation and spend a great deal of my time reading, drawing and drafting new scripts. I'm skilled in Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator and edit with Adobe premiere and Final Cut. I hope you enjoy navigating through my website, please comment on anything you find interesting. Thank You.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Top Five Tired Cartoon Cliches: 5 - Animals acting like a different Animal


His face explains it all. 
Let start off the top five worse cartoon cliches with this tired tool for comedy. If your character is an animal, don't change it's attributes. If your character is a dog, let him act like a dog. Not a bird, not a elephant, a dog. I admit there are acceptations to this rule which is why it is at the bottom of this list.

If your character is anthropomorphic (animal with human characteristics) or if the style of your cartoon requires your animals characters to do stuff out of the norm ,such as Tom and Jerry or the Looney Tunes, I think it's well called for your animal to be different.
There is no way Bugs can pull this off by just being a rabbit. 
 However if your world requires your animal to be normal,  than don't change it's characteristics for comedy.  It's so distracting when you have this animal character acting like a different animal or give out human gestures. There are so many times in the theater where I 'm just asking;  Why is that horse sniffing for tracks? or Why are these dogs keep switching from walking on four legs to two legs? It's confusing. One example will be the animals in "Mulan". While Mulan's horse and the cricket act normal, Mushu doesn't act like any dragon. He acts like Eddie Murphy.

Seriously? Mushu created the toothbrush.  
Before someone defends that it's part of the comic relief, I argue that you can get in your comic relief without forcing the animal to act out of it's natural traits. Many of the characters from "Bolt" or "Oliver and Company" are able to bring a lot of comedy to the film just by their expressions and delivery. Even with silent animals characters, such as Sven from Frozen or Miko from Pocahontas, the comedy is brought on how they interact with others or their environment.

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr Demille"
I think what bothers me is that the comedy feels forced. The animal itself is dull, so make the character interesting by placing it in a situation where it has to push itself beyond it's expectations or give it a neat advantage to overcome it's limited nature. Instead, we'll have the character act like a dog, because dogs are funnier. We will have the cats play instruments because that will make them cute. To me forcing an animal to act out of it's normal qualities feels like they are forcing comedy onto the audience. That is why it can become a very tired cliche.
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Top Five Tired Cartoon Cliches: 5 - Animals acting like a different Animal


His face explains it all. 
Let start off the top five worse cartoon cliches with this tired tool for comedy. If your character is an animal, don't change it's attributes. If your character is a dog, let him act like a dog. Not a bird, not a elephant, a dog. I admit there are acceptations to this rule which is why it is at the bottom of this list.

If your character is anthropomorphic (animal with human characteristics) or if the style of your cartoon requires your animals characters to do stuff out of the norm ,such as Tom and Jerry or the Looney Tunes, I think it's well called for your animal to be different.
There is no way Bugs can pull this off by just being a rabbit. 
 However if your world requires your animal to be normal,  than don't change it's characteristics for comedy.  It's so distracting when you have this animal character acting like a different animal or give out human gestures. There are so many times in the theater where I 'm just asking;  Why is that horse sniffing for tracks? or Why are these dogs keep switching from walking on four legs to two legs? It's confusing. One example will be the animals in "Mulan". While Mulan's horse and the cricket act normal, Mushu doesn't act like any dragon. He acts like Eddie Murphy.

Seriously? Mushu created the toothbrush.  
Before someone defends that it's part of the comic relief, I argue that you can get in your comic relief without forcing the animal to act out of it's natural traits. Many of the characters from "Bolt" or "Oliver and Company" are able to bring a lot of comedy to the film just by their expressions and delivery. Even with silent animals characters, such as Sven from Frozen or Miko from Pocahontas, the comedy is brought on how they interact with others or their environment.

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr Demille"
I think what bothers me is that the comedy feels forced. The animal itself is dull, so make the character interesting by placing it in a situation where it has to push itself beyond it's expectations or give it a neat advantage to overcome it's limited nature. Instead, we'll have the character act like a dog, because dogs are funnier. We will have the cats play instruments because that will make them cute. To me forcing an animal to act out of it's normal qualities feels like they are forcing comedy onto the audience. That is why it can become a very tired cliche.