FInal Blog Post: The American Tale, and The Real American Dream:

As for my last blog post for the semester, I am going to end it on a good note and talk about the movie that we watched in class last week and how it compares to real American history. The movie that we watched was “An American Tail.” This film follows a family of rats that flee from oppression brought on by cats in their home country of Russia, and end up making their way to the west to America in hope to start over with the idea that there are no cats in America. On their way over on the ship, one of the youngest in the family gets separated from the rest and ends up having to fend for himself for most of the movie. The youngster who is known as Fievel starts looking all over the place in the city of New York for his family who at this point think he is dead. Well push comes to shove, they end up reuniting and all is well. This is just a quick synopsis of the story so anyone that hasn’t seen it can be caught up. What I am going to delve into for this post is the message that this movie gives off and how it is very similar to what the people that immigrated to this country had to go through.

Well first, what is interesting to me about this film is that the rats that are coming over to America have just about the same feeling towards America as people did during the immigration period. The rats thought that they would be free from the oppression of the cats, just like people thought that they could escape the things that were happening in their own country. This whole idea that the rats had about there being no cats in America and the streets were paved with cheese is not as ridiculous as it may seem. When people were immigrating over to America they all had this concept of what was known as the “American Dream.”

But when they got over to America, there was still a lot of hardship. The rats still had to work hard to provide for their family just like the people did, and there were cats as well. Now, based on the cats being there they represent a good message. That message is hardship. Whether it is rats or people they both wanted to get away from the hardships that plagued them, but when they made it to America the hardship continued. But even though there was hardship, that did not stop the rats from doing what they needed to do in order to provide for themselves this is the same for the people that immigrated to America they didn’t stop just because it got a little hard.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about is the idea that this movie seems to be directed more to older kids who are in a middle school or high school History class, but does have a story for younger audiences as well. For the younger audience, it is about a little rat that has to find his family. That is pretty cut and dry and is easier to understand. For the older crowd, there is a bigger picture which is, the idea that a family is facing the hardships that I discussed earlier and there was this idea of what we discussed in class, the “American Dream.” I believe that this film does a very good job conveying that message over. And also, it seems to be more accurate in the story than that of what Disney did with “Pocahontas”.

When Disney made “Pocahontas”, there were many inconsistencies with it and the real story. I have a blog post that you could refer to that would show you all of these inconsistencies. As for “An American Tail,” even though it is about a bunch of rats trying to go to America to escape cats and start over, it is more accurate as to what happened back when immigration was a big thing. Even though this film is much darker than “Pocahontas” I think that it is the better of the two because of its historical significance.   

With that I will close out this blog post and leave it open for discussion and will be willing to read your comments.

Blog Post 12: Pocahontas: Did Disney Do it Right?

Well I have to say that when we watched Pocahontas in class the other day; I could see how that film could be shown in a classroom for educational purposes. BUT after further research, I have to say that almost this entire movie is totally inaccurate. The reason for this rant is because following the viewing of the film I did research and the movie does not ad up to the real history and also the depiction of the Native Powhatan tribe was completely botched. When I looked up the real history of Pocahontas I was surprised to see that her name was not even Pocahontas and also she was in fact married to Kocoum. In the movie she is about to marry Kocoum, but ends up falling for Smith. But in real life, she was married to Kocoum when she was in her teens and when Smith arrived she was around 10 or 11. This is interesting due to the fact that most of the Disney princess movies including Pocahontas make all of the princesses look like they are older that way they don’t send a message to kids. This is understandable, but still needs to be taken into consideration when making a history movie. Also there is another thing that is interesting about this film. Due to the fact that we all think that she is going to run off with John Smith. Well this obviously is completely messed up it isn’t John Smith that she ends up with. She ends up getting captured and gets taken back to England and was converted to Christianity. Following this, she ends up marrying John Rolfe who was known for his introduction of tobacco to the settlements. The last thing that in my mind at least I found to be a little offensive was the way the Powhatan Indians were depicted. There was a discussion in class that brought it to my attention that the image of the Native Americans in the movie looked more like the Mohawk tribe rather than the Powhatan. In a way I feel like this is a little offensive due to the fact that I am half Native American and I know quite a bit about my own heritage based on research that I have done. I feel like that there could have been more research done on the different tribes in order to have a more authentic feel to the movie. In my opinion I think that this is one movie that could be redone just because of all of the things that were done wrong. But that is just my opinion. I had only watched this movie one other time aside from class and even then I had mixed feelings about the movie, and after seeing it a second time I can safely say that it is definitely my least favorite.    

Blog Post 11: Appreciation for Animation:

          

         Well I have to say that following the project that was assigned to the class on creating an animation I have developed a greater appreciation for animators and their jobs. I mean even to create a thirty second animation, give it story, give it sound, and make sure it all flows well it did not seem like much to me, but I could not believe how much time was involved in each scene that I created. I constantly found myself tweaking my animation here and there making sure that it was the best that I could make. (Yes I may be somewhat of a perfectionist.)  But I guess animators need to be perfectionists with their own work in order for them to sell their work.  The program that I used had everything that I needed in order to create my animation. The site that I used was “GoAnimate.com.”  This site had everything that a beginner needs to have in order to create an animation. There was a downside to it though. The downside was that I was only allowed as a free user to create a thirty-second video. But there was an upside to it. The upside was that it really tested me as a beginner to cut down timeframes on different scenes in order to create a good animation. Also there was a great tool that enabled me to have a good conversation between the two characters. I was able to use this to do a scene-by-scene conversation, which in my opinion turned out great. I know what I created is very small-scale in the big scheme of things but I was amazed as to what my finished project looked. There may be a few chops in my video, which is to be expected. But I was happy nonetheless. If anyone that has kids that need to do a project or just want to be creative, this is a site that has everything that they would need and has a very simple tutorial to teach you everything you need to know. I highly recommend it. Also by the way I am posting a link to my video following this. you may have to watch it more than once to see the text but like I stated earlier It was very difficult to work with thirty seconds. Hope you like it.

A Fighter's Worth

Blog Post 10: Educational Animations During the Cold War:

“There was a turtle by the name of Bert

And Bert the Turtle was very alert

When danger threatened him he never got hurt

He knew just what to do”

            Anybody that grew up during the Cold War may remember this little jingle. This was a message on how we could prepare ourselves if an atomic bomb were to have ever been dropped on the United States. The message was created by Civil Defense Administration to show just what you need to do in case there ever was an attack. Following our discussion last class on wartime animation, I went looking for this little educational video because of when I saw it in my high school history class. This always interested me due to the fact that based on what we know now, I know that even though we might listen to what Burt the Turtle did and ducked and covered more than likely we would end up being blown to smithereens anyway. But do you want to tell a bunch of kids that? I highly doubt that. So with that being said, this is why this little gem came to be. What is interesting about this is that it shows the kids in the classroom and people around the country just in fact that there could be a possible atomic bombing at anytime and it could come without warning. So how should they go by relaying this message? Well, look no further than Burt. Even today we are still faced with the real situation that there could be an attack, but we are far more prepared than we were back in 1951. What interests me even more though is the fact that things escalated so quickly during World War II and afterwards. If people would have heard someone talking about a weapon like this prior to World War I perhaps, they may look at you like you have three eyes. Fast-forward what really is not too much time when thought about and you have this. It really is amazing that something like the atomic bomb was created, and then to have to find a way to relay that message to kids, well it seems near impossible to do due to the fact that if you told a kid that everything they had could be gone in a literal flash it would scare them to death. So I applaud the creators of this film due to the fact that it gives kids a way to deal with something as real and as monstrous as a nuclear attack.        

Blog Post 9: Toy Story 3 Review:

             Over the weekend I went back and watched a movie from a series that many of us in class grew up watching when we were kids. That movie was “Toy Story 3.” This is the third installment in the series that many of us have come to know and love. For the purpose of this blog I will attempt to give a review on the film and convey the message that I took away from the movie.

            In this film, we see the characters that we have all come to love trying to deal with a situation that was inevitable. The situation is that their owner Andy has grown up and is leaving for collage. The toys have no idea what will happen to them because of this situation and their hope is that no matter what they will trust Andy in making sure they will have a good home. Following this, the toys end up almost being mistakenly thrown away in the trash, but end up in a daycare facility where they think they are safe. But, this feeling would soon go away due to the fact that there is a toy that is running the show there and makes sure that the toys are dealt with in a way that the toy does not have to worry. Oblivious to this situation the toy that we have all come to love Woody is able to get out of the daycare and manages to get out and find his way to a little girl’s house where he would find out the truth as to what is going on there. Having found out, Woody gets back into the daycare where he proceeds to break the other toys out and try to get back to their owner Andy. Woody manages to free them and following this there are a series of events to follow where their demise seems to be almost certain. But the toys end up making it back to Andy’s house the day he is leaving for collage. Woody gets the toys all packed up as if they had never left and leaves a message to Andy. Andy reads the message, which happens to be the address of the little girl that Woody was carried home by. Andy ends up going to the little girl’s house and gives her the toys he loves and grew up with. But there is one that he does have a hard time letting go of that toy being Woody. Andy ends up trusting her with him and the other toys and ends up having one last playtime with them before he leaves for collage.

            This movie is downright one of my favorite movies of all time. In my opinion it was a great way to end the series that we have all come to love. This movie is the most polished and refined of the three using the evolutions in animation that have happened over the course of the 15-year period that these movies were produced. What I really enjoyed about this movie is that even though there were a few toys that had absolutely no affiliation with the other movies, they were able to give them all just enough back-story to make them seem like they belonged in the film. Following a quote that I read in the “New York Times” review, the action scenes have a look to them that you may see in a movie out of the “Bourne” series. Also one other thing that I have to agree with that the ‘New York Times” says about the film is that even though the movie is about a bunch of junky plastic that many of us never bat an eye towards now that we are adults it is a movie all about love. Love being the love that a boy found within these toys and the love that the toys gave back unknowing by the owner. I am sure that most of us had at one point in our lives a toy that we loved and didn’t want to let go, but this movie has a message to those of who did.

            The message is that it is ok to let these toys go and that they will be ok with someone that we can trust them with and they will be able to love them the same way that we did. The final scene is one that yes even though I am a grown man the kid in me cries every time I see it. The scene is the little girl who was trusted with the toys puts Woody’s lifeless arm up and waves to Andy. When Andy sees this it saddens him to know that this part of his life has come to a close, but he knows that he can trust the girl with them to be the owner that he once was. In conclusion, “Toy Story 3” is a ride that if you have not been on you need to go on. It was a great way to end the series that we all love and that even though I am giving this movie a great review it still does not do it justice. You have to see it to appreciate it.

          

Blog Post 8: Frozen Barriers Broken:

           

            Over the weekend, I was conned into watching a movie by my fiancé that I thought I would never watch in a million years. Being the Disney freak that she is she wanted to watch frozen with me. When I sat down to watch it I couldn’t help but think that feeling of “Awwww here we go again.” The feeling that I have gotten from watching any Disney princess movie. The feeling that of course the girl is going to find the prince and live happily ever after. But with this movie, I was in for a rude awakening.

            The movie is about a young princess Elsa, who takes the seat of her parents’ throne following a tragic event with their parents. When this happens, she is forced to come out of hiding and ends up showing a secret that she never wanted to have known about her.

            This movie was revolutionizing in the ideas that were conveyed. First of all whenever I watch a movie like this it always has the same premise. That being the girl finds prince charming and the whole happily ever after takes place. Well the first part dose in fact take place but… The latter never occurs. It comes to be found out that the prince is all smoke and mirrors. He is deceiving, a liar, and many other things. In my opinion this teaches girls a valuable lesson. That lesson is that this idea of running off with the “perfect one” may not be all it is cracked up to be. There may be a case where instead of the frog turning into a prince, it is the other way around. This is a good thing because it dose not say that there is no perfect one, but what it does say is that girls should wait and see if the guy is all that they are cracked up to be. 

            The second thing is that true love is not just what the prince expresses to the girl in order to save her. True love can come from a number of different places. This one in particular is the love of a sibling. At the end of the movie as a result of the cold feelings that she has the princess acts out in rage and strikes her sister. When this happens, her sister’s heart is turned cold and it ends up resulting her sister being frozen solid. The only way out of this is that there must be an act of true love that can break the curse. Someone very unexpected breaks the curse. That person being the very one that placed the curse on her. This was interesting because unlike other Disney movies, this one dose not have a prince saving the day, but instead the sister. This in my opinion shows that it is not always the love of the prince that saves the day but the love someone that can be someone you are with everyday and would do anything for you.

            Lastly, the one thing that this movie did that no other Disney movie has ever done before. That is the fact that there was a hint of a same-sex relationship. Following the movie’s release, there was criticism that this was an issue that was a little too complex for kids to understand. But the way I see it, it would be better for kids to learn about it in an environment that is controlled rather than see it in the way that the biased news channels can show it to be. It goes on to show that times are changing and that from early on kids should be tolerant to the ideas of any relationship.

            I think that this movie has broken many barriers and because of this there is evidence based in this movie that supports the idea that there is a change in the style of Disney movies that are going to be produced. So I have to say that overall this movie really opened my eyes to these situations and after looking into it farther has led me to understand these ideas better.          

Blog Post 7: Animation Marketing; is it always a good thing?? Midterm Submission:

When I thought about the post that I wanted to submit for my midterm I couldn't think of one that that was more interesting than the one I wrote the other week on Animation Marketing. This is the origional post below.

In class last week, we looked at a cartoon character known as Buster Brown. What was interesting about this was that it was the first instance in which an animation was used in the marketing of a product. This was a revolutionary way to be able to get consumers to buy a product. This has since been used to promote what seems as an infinite amount of products. Everything from cereal all the way to types of clothing are being advertised nowadays by animated characters, there are even some characters that are thought up just to market that one product. This is all fine and dandy, but there is one thing that happened with marketing and animated characters that was a setback.

This instance that I am referring to is the character that was created to advertise Camel cigarettes known as Joe Camel. Throughout the 1990s when I was a kid I could remember seeing this character always looking as cool as possible with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth. Now I am not against smoking, I know plenty of people that do, but these comics did look like they had a likeness that could appeal to children. These ads were in any magazine that an adult would usually read and some of them do in fact look amusing, but when you are dealing with kids who try and hang on to everything that they read or see on television it becomes a problem. The problem that usually generates out of these ads is that the kid wants to look as “cool” as the character on the ad. Due to this they are convinced that in order to be “cool” they need to smoke. The point that I am trying to make out of all this is that things like this should not fall into the hands of kids it is just another thing for them to try and hold on to. This is why advertisers need to be a little more careful as to what they use in order to advertise to people. So, this poses the question is animation marketing always a good thing? 

Following this post there were a few comments that were posted to this that I would like to take time to acknowledge. 
The First is the comment on The Flintstones advertising for Winston Cigarette company https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHSIquSHMw. I do agree that animation does appeal to all, but this particular commercial was in a time where many things were not known about smoking. But as time went on, more research was done and now we are trying to make sure that our kids don't pick up the habit. It is very interesting as to how these commercials make you think. On one hand you see your favorite cartoon character getting ready to light up, but nowadays it is something that almost seems to be taboo for television. It really is amazing as to how times have changed. 
As for the second comment, I could not agree more with the fact that there are some cartoon shows that are all about pushing product. that video game cartoon is a very good example. The show is titled "Captain N: The Game Master." I did not even have to get through the opening segment when I saw little hints of marketing. Part of the title was written in the very same characters that Nintendo uses to brand themselves. So I can see where there is a way that advertising through animation can appeal to all, but both of these cases are not the best for children. For the cigarette ads, there has been enough research conducted to show that yes they can kill you, and now we see all of these ads for smoking and what it takes away from you. Obviously this is so kids do not even want to start. As for the video game show, this is a problem that has been taking toll on kids since I was growing up. Yes video games are ok but, there needs to be moderation and time taken for physical activity. This is why there has been an ongoing spread of the idea of the World Wide Day Of Play idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImEuVrgK8Qg. This was started up by Nickelodeon and has some animation mixed in with live action to show just how much fun it can be to get out of the house. So have there been instances to say that animated advertising is not too god of an idea, which is what I agreed to before. But now I am having second guesses I believe that there is a massive sweep in animated advertising that is leading to healthier lifestyles based on what is being shown. With that being said, I believe that there was a lot of bad in animated advertising but now there is a new wave of advertising coming in trying to repair that of what most of us saw when we were all kids.