M1 - First Submission

Omniya Tajni

M1: Assess the suitability of animations for the target audience

1.    Frozen (2013)

This film was created & produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film is a 3D computer-animated film and is categorised under the musical, fantasy & comedy genre. The film was distributed by Walt Disney Studio Motion Pictures. The length of this film is 1 hour and 49 minutes.

The film is about two sisters who must find a way to survive without their parents who have passed away. However, one of the sisters has special powers which she can’t control and tries to hide it away from her little sister and so she runs away after becoming the Queen. It includes some violent scenes but not too explicit such as; men with weapons, wolves, snow monster, severe storm by the Queen & a character (the little sister) who freezes to death. However regardless of this scenes, under the BBFC rating, the film Frozen is rated PG.

This film uses adventure to appeal to children, sophisticated comedy that adults can understand, soundtracks that all the audience members will appeal to & comedy presented by the snowman Olaf to release the tension for children given throughout the narrative. Research says that it is target at children aged 5+, with families, however some families consider it to be targeted at 7+ due to the violence, frightening and intense scenes. Figures show that 81% of the audience that went to watch frozen was families and 19% were non-families, mainly in the older age sector. It is said that the target audience for this film is mainly females, because in most Disney movies, there is usually a vulnerable female that falls in the hands of a strong male, whereas this film does the complete opposite. It has a lead of 2 independent female characters, who are powerful, adventurous and brave. Although Anna did fall in love twice, the film still showed the characteristics she had without relying on a male character.

The mise-en-scene used in this film is aesthetically pleasing and creates meaning and genre for the audience:

The colour contrast between the two sisters creates clear profiles. We see Elsa in the snow scenes wearing a dress that is the same colour of the snow and castle, this clearly suggests that this is where she fits in due to her powers, providing a clear understanding of the narrative. Whereas her sister Anna is wearing bright colours in the snow scenes and you can clearly tell she doesn’t fit there as she belongs in the castle. The contrast of bright colours also shows the contrast between the characters and who is guilty and innocent. Although Anna had no clue about Elsa’s powers, she is still going out her way to try to help and convince her sister to stop, even though she has no clue what she is doing. She is brave and strong and cares for her only family member left.

This is the scene where Elsa runs away from the castle once they discovered her powers. Here we have a medium close up focusing on Elsa’s face and the snow coming out of her hand. The main source of light is coming from the snow in her hand and it is reflecting on her face. In this shot as an audience we can identify that clearly her powers are her only hope and now that everyone has discovered what her hidden powers are, she believes that there is no harm now to use it, make and build things with the power. This creates meaning because we can tell from her facial reaction that she is finally free and able to do things that she has always wanted to do now with her frozen powers.

1.    Simpsons (1989)

Simpsons is an American animated sitcom. A sitcom, short for "situation comedy", is a genre of comedy centred on a fixed set of characters who carry over from episode to episode. It was created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting company. Each episode is around 22 minutes each, the series is a portrayal of working-class life presented by a family of 5; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa & Maggie.

Although under the BBFC rating it is rated PG. The cartoon series was a game changer for all the cartoons that have been made before it, because usually individuals would associate that cartoons is usually suitable for children. However, this cartoon is known for being one of the first cartoons to deal with very adult situations and real life situations, including alcohol, sex and violence. Parents were worried that children would get bad ideas from seeing the content it had and didn’t think that this series belonged in an animated cartoon. Regardless of the concerns, the show became successful and proved to the world that cartoons are not always made for little kids.

The Simpsons is TV series and is usually aired at 8:00pm on Channel 4. Viewers aren’t happy with this because of the fact that they believe that families would still be watching TV before 9 and parents still believe that it is inappropriate for their children to watch the series, so they argued that it should air after 9 where the children would at least be asleep. 

The audience for Simpsons is very varied and extremely broad. Although shows like Family Guy, is unsuitable for young viewers. The Simpsons doesn’t contain profanity, unsuitable scenes or anything seen as inappropriate. It has a lot of humour. Although it is like this, parents still don’t believe it is a suitable cartoon for their children. Although it focuses on Homer’s life, it also focuses on his children’s lives too.

This is a wide shot taking from one of the episodes in Simpsons. The narrative of Simpsons is about a working nuclear family, where Homer is the head of the family however he isn’t a typical family man, due to his status. He tries his best to lead his family but often it’s the other way. This shot presents his emotions getting to him, he is isolated in a car park, looking at the sky, dealing with his thoughts. People tend to do this when they want to be alone and clear their minds. This shot provides meaning to the narrative because it demonstrates the struggle a working class individual goes through, regardless the effort they put in. in their eyes or someone else’s it will never be enough.

This is a wide eye level shot of Homer (the father) strangling Bart (his son). You can see by Homer’s emotions that he is angry and clearly Bart has done something that made him that way. In the shot you can see Marge and the two girls in the background looking shocked and unhappy because they clearly don’t like what they are seeing. This is an example that is supportive to the parents that don’t agree children should watch this because it shows abuse parents give to their children and parents wouldn’t want their children to think badly of them or think that they would do such a thing.