Peter Pan - Before and After

Walt Disney's Peter Pan was first released in 1953 and almost 50 years later, Disney studios released a sequel called Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland. Both films were huge successes despite being released so many years apart. One big difference between then though is that the first film took only $4'000'000 to make were as the second took $20'000'000.

The main thing I wanted to talk about here is the design, graphics and animation of both films; 50 years later and better technology, does the second film really look any better than the first?

Above you can see the difference between the two picture and most likely tell which one is from what film. The very top is the first film and the lower is the second.

Looking at this picture, there isn't much difference apart from the clearer drawings and higher definition look which, I think, is something to praise as Disney have kept all the original looks and feel about the story. The colour's may be more vibrant and Peter's outfit is slightly different coloured, but the style is still the same which is a huge plus for the film.

The first thing I want to talk about is the difference in the characters attitude and overall 'acting.' In the second film, the characters are a lot more open and involved; they act a lot more childish and you get this fun feeling every time you watch them. In the first film, although fun, they act more 'simple' and more traditional. By this I mean that back in the 50's, children were more 'behaved' and groomed at a early age to be presentable and although Peter was childish and adventurous, you cant help but notice he still has this groomed feeling about him when comparing him to the second film. I don't think was intentional, I think the main reason is because there is a big difference in the attitude between children from the 50's and children today and that reflects upon the acting of the children in the film.

The second thing is the flow of the animation. The first film definitely holds that traditional and Disney style to it    and really makes the film feel special, but the second film is more up to date and flows a lot better so the film looks more appealing.

So, is the second film better than the first?

I guess you could say yes ever so slightly, only because the flow of the animation has improved and the detail is a lot better, but the first film definitely keeps that traditional Disney feel which makes a great classic movie.

Week 3 - More on Sound

There isn't much to say this week as what I wrote last week for sound, was spoken about this week. I guess the two mostly fresh things in my mind are two videos we watched today; a little film about a cheating couple, with the actors all being insects and a remix version of Disney's Snow White called 'Wishery'.

The insect film was a humorous one; a husband who leaves for work, but actually goes drinking and cheating whilst the wife stays home and invites her lover round. Ironically, her lover is an artist and the character who reveals the cheating husband is a cameraman. The sound in the background was instrumental music all the way through; the music was carefully written and well adapted to the mini movie.

Snow White became Disney's first major Princess in an animated feature in 1937. Many people doubted the films success and tried to discourage Walt to give up it entirely, but after completion, the film went on to be the number one best animated film of the year.

The music in this film really is amazing, every tone, key and pitch are perfect and suit every scene. Even if this video is a remix version of the original songs mixed together, you can still enjoy and appreciate what Walt created many years ago. The beats that mix together with the vocals and sounds from the film create an almost '21st Century' version of the songs, but keeps true to the original music.

Snow White's voice is exceptionally suited to her character, young and sweet; being a princess, she sings almost opera style. In fact, a lot of her notes are opera like. Her voice actress was Adriana Caselotti, daughter of Guido Caselotti, a teacher of music and a vocal coach and Maria Orefice, an opera singer, so naturally, she would have a beautiful voice.

To accompany Snow White's sweet singing was the seven dwarfs and their uplifting 'cheeky' singing. Their renditions of  'Dig, Dig, Dig' and 'Hi Ho, It's Off To Work We Go' and two of the greatest songs in Disney history; they're two of the type of songs that people randomly sing today jokingly.

Snow White is one of my favourite Disney films; I prefer the older versions when they are hand drawn as everything seems in so much more detail and helps me to appreciate the long process it took to make it. The sounds and vocals are perfectly assigned to each scene making everything spectacular.

Week 1 and 2 - Early History, Blogging and Early Sound

Last week I started a blog that covers all my lessons during the week, but I'll be using this one to keep a more detailed track of my Theory and Research class.

Since I started last week, I have already written what we learnt in week 1's lesson so I'm going to use that here now.

Week 1:

Today we started our first module, From Pencil To Pixel.

We started with the definition of animation:

(Merriam-Webster) Etymology: Middle English, from Latin animatus, past
participle of animate to give life to, from anima breath, soul; akin to Old English
ōthian to breathe, Latin animus spirit, Greek anemos wind, Sanskrit aniti he
breathes.

(Chambers) liveliness; vivacity. 2 a the techniques used to record still drawings on
film in such a way as to make the images seem to move; b any sequence of these
images.
Animated Cartoon: (Merriam-Webster): a motion picture that is made from a series of
drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of inanimate objects (as puppets) and
that simulates movement by slight progressive changes in each frame.

For me, the definition of animation is to bring your imagination to life. There are ways to animate something you have found online, but to truly feel close to your animation and the joy it brings, you animate something you have created. Animating from scratch brings you closer to your work and allows you to make the most of your imagination and ideas. Early animations were incredibly enjoyable because it was a way for adults to act like children in a professional way.

We looked at some early animations from the early 1900's. They were very interesting and very funny. The animation was some of the best I have seen to be honest. Animation first came around in the early 1800's, with Peter Roget presenting his paper 'The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects' to the British Royal Society. Animation quickly became popular and the film industry was changed forever. Many famous faces created different forms and ways of projecting animation for the public to see, but it wasn't until 1895 that the first cinematograph (1) was created by Louis and Augustine Lumiere, a device capable of projecting moving images. Then 1896 when Thomas Armat designed the vitascope, the projector that shoots film onto a large screen, like in the cinema, which showed the films of Thomas Edison. This machine had a major influence on all sub-sequent projectors. Then in 1895, the first cinematograph was created by Louis and Augustine Lumiere, a device capable of projecting moving images.

(1)



In 1923, the brothers, Walt and Roy Disney founded Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which went on to be one of the most successful animation studios. During that year Walt extended Max Fleischer's technique of combining live action with cartoon characters in the film "Alice's Wonderland". In 1927, Warner Brothers, another extremely successful studio, created 'The Jazz Singers,' which introduced combined sound and images and in 1928 Walt Disney, who was never far behind, created the first cartoon with synchronized sound called 'Steam Boat Willy'.

All these important dates were just the beginning of what animations were to achieve and how far they would develop. Each development was as important as the other and each step taken led to today's thriving industries to produce some of the greatest animations ever created. I wanted to talk about these dates in particular because of how important they are to animation; without each of these steps happening in history, we wouldn't have the amazing animations we have today.

This is mostly what we've talked about so far on the history on animation. We also talked about blogging and why it's important to keep track and regular updates of your work. University is a very independent place of study, so it's the perfect opportunity to keep a blog; I've started keeping both this blog for my Theory and Research and another foe my other lessons and I'm happy that I am as it's allowing me to review each weeks progress and keep any lessons fresh in my mind. Also, I can share my experience and knowledge with others on the internet as I learn and I can learn from theirs too as blogging is very popular and is easily accessible.

The past two weeks have been rather interesting and it's only the start of the module. I'm sure there is plenty more to learn and although at times things may seem slow, each lesson is going to be important.

References:

Each reference used was found on 20-10-11 so I'm not aware of any changes after this date, unless stated so.

http://joshuamosley.com/UPenn/courses/Ani/AnimationHistory.html
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