D1 - First Submission
Omniya Tajni
D1: Compare the different styles of animation across global cultures
Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is about a wicked queen, jealous of the beauty of her stepdaughter. The queen then disguises herself as an old lady and brings Snow White a poisoned apple that makes her fall into a death sleep. Howl's Moving Castle is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film that has been written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is about a young girl named Sophie that has been turned into an old woman by a witch's curse. She then meets up with a wizard named Howl, and gets caught up in his war with the king.
The main character in the film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, is of course Snow White herself and other characters include the seven dwarfs, animals, the wicked witch and the prince. Snow White is presented as an young, innocent, pretty girl that just wants someone to love her and save her from being trapped at her stepmothers house. Snow White is seen to be innocent, and she never loses hope that one day her true love will come and rescue her from the wicked stepmothers house. Regardless of her living situations and the way she has been treated she always tried to remain cheerful and kind, no matter how poorly her step mother treats her. She helps the 'old lady' that was the Queen in disguise, even though the animals were trying to tell her that she was evil. She always tried to see the goodness in everyone, as we know that she is a good person with a huge heart and can please everyone, even grumpy. She builds a stable relationship with the animals and the seven dwarfs and we as an audience can tell that she is friendly and anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend.
In the film Howl's Moving Castle, there are two main characters. There is a young girl called 'Sophie' at the start of the film we see that she is quiet about who she is,
and she feels like she doesn't have a purpose in life as she's trying to keep her dad's business together, while her sister and mum are busy having fun and enjoying their lives. One day she gets cursed by a wicked witch and then transforms into an old lady, so she needed to leave her house, eventually she meets up with Howl and begins to identify who she is as a person and builds another family with him and the other characters. The other main character is a young wizard called 'Howl'. In his first appearance we see that he is full of himself and confident about who he is and what he does. As the narrative goes on, we identify its the complete opposite, as he is terrified from the people controlling him. With the help of his love 'Sophie' she identifies that really he still has that heart of a child and he just wants to live a normal life and she helps him achieve that.
The film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, is character driven because we are shown Snow White's life; how she is being treated by her stepmother, how she managed to escape, when she met up with the seven dwarfs, ate the apple from the old lady, went into death sleep and then getting saved by her love. All these different scenes, include Snow White or includes other characters talking about Snow White. The narrative is quite fast paced because we know from the very start that the Queen is clearly jealous of Snow White's beauty and doesn't want her to defeat her so she sends her off to kill. Throughout the film, as an audience we are able to attach ourselves to Snow White and emphasise with her. This film does follow the three act structure very well; it starts off with setting the mood with Snow White and her stepmother, she then runs away as she finds out she's going to get killed, the queen finds out she's alive and changes herself into an old lady to poison her, Snow White gets poisoned, falls into a death sleep and then gets saved by her prince and lives happily ever after. Its a simple three act structure which allows the audience to identify and understand the narrative very well.
The film Howl's Moving Castle is event driven. It all started off when Sophie had to leave her house when she was cursed as she became an old lady, she clearly couldn't stay at her house as nobody would've understood and she needed to find a way to break the curse. She then wanders into Howl's castle and ends up making friends with the people that live there. We don't get that emotional attachment to any of the characters and don't understand how they are feelings. Especially when we see Howl hurt and Sophie trying to save him, we understand that they are in love but we don't emphasise with them as the writers of western films are much more focused on the plot of the film rather than the characters emotions. The narrative is very fast paced, as there's action happening everywhere and constantly, and as an audience its hard to keep up due to the amount of action, that's why we don't get that emotional attachment with the characters. Although there is a three act structure in the film, its not as simple and clear like it is with Disney films.
The themes in the film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs are Jealousy, Love, Fear, Friendship, Fulfilment. With this film its easy to spot the themes, due to the fact that the narrative is so straightforward and simple. They all presented throughout the film from different characters; jealousy is of course presented by the queen, fear is presented from both the queen and Snow White, as the queen fears that Snow White will be the fairest of them all and Snow White fears what the queen is capable of doing to her. Love is presented in different ways by Snow White; her wanting love from a prince, love for animals, love for the seven dwarfs, here we get the emotional attachment to her as a character because she is loved and loves others.
However when it comes to film Howl's Moving Castle the themes are complex compared to the Disney film. The themes that I was able to identify from this Studio Ghibli film was; love, fear & courage. Love is presented in different ways as well here, the love between Sophie & Howl, the love the wicked witch has for Howl, the love the new family have for each other. Fear is presented mainly through Howl and how he is scared from the people trying to control him due to his powers, Sophie scared for Howl, Calcifier fearing that the house will collapse without him so he tries his best to maintain and stay alive. It was very hard to identify these themes for the Studio Ghibli film as the film is very complex but the whole film is all based around love.
The main character in the film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, is of course Snow White herself and other characters include the seven dwarfs, animals, the wicked witch and the prince. Snow White is presented as an young, innocent, pretty girl that just wants someone to love her and save her from being trapped at her stepmothers house. Snow White is seen to be innocent, and she never loses hope that one day her true love will come and rescue her from the wicked stepmothers house. Regardless of her living situations and the way she has been treated she always tried to remain cheerful and kind, no matter how poorly her step mother treats her. She helps the 'old lady' that was the Queen in disguise, even though the animals were trying to tell her that she was evil. She always tried to see the goodness in everyone, as we know that she is a good person with a huge heart and can please everyone, even grumpy. She builds a stable relationship with the animals and the seven dwarfs and we as an audience can tell that she is friendly and anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend.
In the film Howl's Moving Castle, there are two main characters. There is a young girl called 'Sophie' at the start of the film we see that she is quiet about who she is,
and she feels like she doesn't have a purpose in life as she's trying to keep her dad's business together, while her sister and mum are busy having fun and enjoying their lives. One day she gets cursed by a wicked witch and then transforms into an old lady, so she needed to leave her house, eventually she meets up with Howl and begins to identify who she is as a person and builds another family with him and the other characters. The other main character is a young wizard called 'Howl'. In his first appearance we see that he is full of himself and confident about who he is and what he does. As the narrative goes on, we identify its the complete opposite, as he is terrified from the people controlling him. With the help of his love 'Sophie' she identifies that really he still has that heart of a child and he just wants to live a normal life and she helps him achieve that.
The film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, is character driven because we are shown Snow White's life; how she is being treated by her stepmother, how she managed to escape, when she met up with the seven dwarfs, ate the apple from the old lady, went into death sleep and then getting saved by her love. All these different scenes, include Snow White or includes other characters talking about Snow White. The narrative is quite fast paced because we know from the very start that the Queen is clearly jealous of Snow White's beauty and doesn't want her to defeat her so she sends her off to kill. Throughout the film, as an audience we are able to attach ourselves to Snow White and emphasise with her. This film does follow the three act structure very well; it starts off with setting the mood with Snow White and her stepmother, she then runs away as she finds out she's going to get killed, the queen finds out she's alive and changes herself into an old lady to poison her, Snow White gets poisoned, falls into a death sleep and then gets saved by her prince and lives happily ever after. Its a simple three act structure which allows the audience to identify and understand the narrative very well.
The film Howl's Moving Castle is event driven. It all started off when Sophie had to leave her house when she was cursed as she became an old lady, she clearly couldn't stay at her house as nobody would've understood and she needed to find a way to break the curse. She then wanders into Howl's castle and ends up making friends with the people that live there. We don't get that emotional attachment to any of the characters and don't understand how they are feelings. Especially when we see Howl hurt and Sophie trying to save him, we understand that they are in love but we don't emphasise with them as the writers of western films are much more focused on the plot of the film rather than the characters emotions. The narrative is very fast paced, as there's action happening everywhere and constantly, and as an audience its hard to keep up due to the amount of action, that's why we don't get that emotional attachment with the characters. Although there is a three act structure in the film, its not as simple and clear like it is with Disney films.
The themes in the film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs are Jealousy, Love, Fear, Friendship, Fulfilment. With this film its easy to spot the themes, due to the fact that the narrative is so straightforward and simple. They all presented throughout the film from different characters; jealousy is of course presented by the queen, fear is presented from both the queen and Snow White, as the queen fears that Snow White will be the fairest of them all and Snow White fears what the queen is capable of doing to her. Love is presented in different ways by Snow White; her wanting love from a prince, love for animals, love for the seven dwarfs, here we get the emotional attachment to her as a character because she is loved and loves others.
However when it comes to film Howl's Moving Castle the themes are complex compared to the Disney film. The themes that I was able to identify from this Studio Ghibli film was; love, fear & courage. Love is presented in different ways as well here, the love between Sophie & Howl, the love the wicked witch has for Howl, the love the new family have for each other. Fear is presented mainly through Howl and how he is scared from the people trying to control him due to his powers, Sophie scared for Howl, Calcifier fearing that the house will collapse without him so he tries his best to maintain and stay alive. It was very hard to identify these themes for the Studio Ghibli film as the film is very complex but the whole film is all based around love.
According to the research I have taken, the film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is the very first feature-length colour cel animation. It is said that the inkers and painters, worked an 80-hour week shifts, including nights and weekends, just to paint backgrounds and characters. The characters were more detailed and thought about than they were in the Studio Ghibli films. Studio Ghibli prefer more detailed animation, they prefer traditional 2D animation as they like their drawing to be as detailed as possible. The film Howl's Moving Castle is a 2D animation film. The backgrounds in every eastern film are always drawn in lots of great detail, where they look like paintings, nut when it comes to the characters and objects they are drawn in less detail compared to the background drawings.
In conclusion, based on my understanding and research, western and eastern animations are made very differently and the animators, writers, editors have different ways on how they think animation films are supposedly made. Although for Western films we get more attachment to the characters and get a simple noticeable storyline, the Eastern films allow us to focus more on the events that the narrative includes.
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