LO1: Uses Of Animation Report

          Uses/Genres of Animation Report

Animated movies can come in the form of lots of different genres and can have different purposes. In this report, I will be reseaching a few different genres of animation and their puopose, what target audiences each genre is aimed at and what animation techniques are common for each genre. Lots of movies have a cross between genres, however I will still talk about the movie if it is in the genre I am researching.

                             Comedy animated films

Animated comedy movies are great at making us laugh (main purpose) and keeping us entertained, they make us feel happy when we are down and they are a fun escape from reality thanks to the animation; these are some of the purposes of animated comedy films. Comedy is so varied that everyone can find at least some comedy they would enjoy. For comedic animated films, I believe they cater more to a family friendly audience. I believe this because not only do they use jokes and comedy the children can understand, they also contain sneaky jokes that teenagers and adults would understand too so they can enjoy watching the animated movie just as much as their children or younger siblings in the family. Another reason I think animated comedies are targeted towards families is they always have some kind of hidden meaning in them about friends, family and loved ones, sometimes members in the family might relate to the animated comedy movie.

 

 Some examples of comedic animated films are The Bad Guys, The Mitchells VS. the Machines (which is baed around a family), Despicable Me and Hotel Transylvania.

 

 

 

 The Bad Guys is a comedy adventure animated movie about a group of bad guys going on heists to rob banks and steal the highly secure golden dolphin award when every bad guy before them had been caught. They were caught at the last minute and the characters try dodging a prison sentence together.

 

The Mitchells VS the Machines is an adventure comedy animated film about an imperfect family, with a dad and daughter that argues all the time and has a damaged relationship. When robots terrorise the world, the Mitchell family are the only humans left to save the world from the robot uprising.

 

 

 Despicable Me is an animated family comedy film about the villan, Gru, who wants to prove he is the best supervillan by taking the moon. He tries to use the orphans as bait for his nemesis Vector, but ends up creating a family.

 

 

 

 Hotel Transylvania is a family comedy animated film about a hotel for monsters also including the main characters: Dracula, his daughter Mavis and his group of friends who he calls family. When a human wanders upon the hotel and falls in love with Mavis, Dracula tries everything in his power to "protect" his daugher and the other monsters by trying to get Jonathan to leave the hotel and never go back there. However this backfires and he has to make things right.

 

Common themes and techniques in animated comedy films

Nearly all animated comedy films are 3D animated to help bring the characters and comedy to life and to help us connect with the comedy more. The character's words, actions and the environment can be exadurated to make the movie more fun and interesting. They usually use bright and vibrant colours (expect Hotel Transylvania which uses darker colours for its mise en scéne) to capture the attention of younger children and to show the lighthearted comedic appeal of the films.

 

 The characters are relatable with their quirks, they are also funny such as Katie's geeky obsession with film making in The Mitchells VS the Machines, Dracula's famous "Blah blah blah" phrase in Hotel Transylvania, Agnes is obsessed with unicorns in the Despicable Me movies and Wolf is very sarcastic in The Bad Guys movie. In these comedy animated genre films, characters have funny dialogue, jokes and they get into funny situations.

However we can also relate to these comedic characters and their situations. The main theme in these animated comedy films is the importance of friends and family, being yourself and finding the joys in life. Some examples are: Dracula is very protective over his daughter because he doesn't want to loose her like he lost his wife, Wolf, Snake and the gang learn how important friendship is because friends are the family we get to choose and we should treasure them, Katie's family (especially her dad) learns to let Katie go to university, Katie and her dad realise how to work together and the family learn that working together is the most powerful thing, Gru realises how important family is, how to take care of others around him and he changes his ways for good.

                                       

                                         Superhero films

Everyone loves a classic superhero movie where the superhero saves the day with superpowers we wish we could have. The main purposes of superhero animated movies are to inspire us to make changes in our lives, to give help us escape from the real world where many of us struggle with daily problems that superheroes also have to cope with, this makes them relatable to us in a way. Lots of superhero movies have real life themes such as poverty, being orphans, losing loved ones, family issues and so on.

 I believe non animated superhero movies are targeted more towards teenagers and adults; lots of marvel and DC films have a PG 13 or over rating. However, most animated movies are targeted more towards kids and some are targeted towards teenagers.

Some examples of superhero animated short films aimed towards children are Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Incredibles, Big Hero 6 and Megamind. Some examples of teenage superhero animated films are Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1. 

 

 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 3D family/action superhero movie about Miles Morales being bit by a spider and gaining his powers. He meets others like him in the multiverse and they team up against Kingpin and the other villans to save the multiverse. This is a 3D animated movie, however it has a comic book style to it.

The Incredibles is a 3D animated family adventure superhero short film about a family with superpowers that lives in a world when superheroes are forbidden. They have to save Mr Incredible and rise up to Syndrome.

Big Hero 6 is a a 3D animated family adventure superhero movie about Hiro who loses his brother to a fire. His brother created a robot called Baymax, they create a superhero team and go up against the villain.

 

 Megamind is a 3D animated comedy superhero film about a supervillain called Megamind who always looses against the superhero Metro Man. Megamind finally destroys Metro Man and takes over the city only to try and create a new superhero to fight against which backfires.

 

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 is a 2D action animated superhero film about Bruce Wayne putting the bat suit on once again and fighting the villains of Gotham.

Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam is a 2D animated superhero movie about Superman and Shazam fighting Black Adam.

Common themes and techniques in animated superhero films

Animated superhero films are usually 2D or 3D animated. Big Hero 6, Megamind, The Incredibles and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are 3D animated movies rated PG or U by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification regulates what films and TV shows are appropriate for each age group). However, Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 movies are both 2D animated and are both rated 15 by the BBFC. I think this is because the 3D animation is more childlike and draws their attention however 2D animation looks more mature. An example would be Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1: it is a dark animated film, it has lots of violence, a bit of swearing and drugs present which would be highly inappropriate for children's animated movies.

 In superhero movies including animated superhero movies, they usually include a tragic backstory of the hero and villain. For example, Megamind's planet was destroyed, he was brought up in a prison, he went to a school for gifted kids where Metro Man always overshadowed him and made him feel left out then Megamind realised he was destined to be a supervillain. There are lots of fight scenes between the superhero and supervillain. The heroes and villains would either have powers or know how to create weapons like Batman has his batarang and the batmobile, they usually have sidekicks or a group of heroes to accompany them. For example in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles has the help of the other spider people from the multiverse to defeat the villains, The Incredibles have each other, Megamind has Minion, Hiro has Baymax.... Another key thing we see in animated superhero movies is they deal with real human problems such as Megamind gets left out, Hiro grieves his brother after his death.

 

To conclude, animation isn't just for kids as some people believe, the animation style and mise en scéne can relate to the countless genres of animation. There are lots of different animation genres out there that have their own uses.