Topic > Summary and Review of Understanding Animation by Paul Wells

IndexAnimation and ComedyRepresentation IssuesAnimation and AudienceAnimation and ComedyThis chapter is about comedy in animated film as comedy is the core of most animation and has the ability to laugh at the world and show that things could be different. Animation extends 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, proactive or superficial, observational or offensive, but it always possesses energy and 'life', the intrinsic imperative of animation”. Wells explains 25 Ways to Start Laughing to present the chronicles and evolution of humor in animated film and create a “gag typology” and comedic structures. Some of these ways are "magical surprises, the power of personality, visual wordplay, expectation and exploitation, telling it over and over, literal, visual and verbal gags, everything can mean its opposite", and so away. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIssues of RepresentationThe idea that animation is an innocent medium, particularly for children, has inhibited the proper discussion of issues surrounding representation. In this chapter, Wells problematizes the representation of gender and race in animation. Wells argues that in cartoons, “'male' characters are defined by what they are and how they behave, while 'female' characters are essentially understood by how they appear. and through a vocabulary of stereotyped mannerisms”. In other words, in animations, femininity is thought of in relation to the primary representation of male characters. As a result, female characters are “predominantly defined as a set of signifiers of femininity, i.e. skirts, panties, high-heeled shoes, etc.,” to differentiate them only from the male model. chapter is “race in context”. The issue of the representation of race in animation is troubled by the overt racism of cartoon caricatures up 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 issue of false declarations is very important. Wells states that the portrayal of black characters in cartoons matches Arab and Oriental stereotypes. He cited Said's theory of orientalism which suggests that "Orientalism is a discourse through which the West has colonized and reinvented the East as a mode of 'otherness'." Wells believes that race in animation is an important issue and requires careful consideration. Animation and Audience This chapter discusses the relationship between the viewer and the animated film. Wells says everyone remembers watching a Disney movie. Although Disney has a great influence on the public due to mass observation, little attention was given to Disney films in the research. The author presented research to specifically answer this question: “how did the Disney film influence and influence children”. To answer this question, he asked a population of 435 adult subjects (45% male, 55% female) what their first memory of seeing a Disney film was, providing as many details as possible, such as the location and the time they watched the film, with whom, why, whatever they remember from the film. The goal of his study was to evaluate the actual experience of watching Disney films from an adult's perspective.