Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their help with this project: Mike Smith for his handy tutorials, with advice on improving my academic language for this essay, and how I could improve my practical response to it. Annabeth Robinson was a huge support for this as well, and encouraged me to pace myself properly and take breaks whenever I needed them. Jeff Maddison for their clever advice on research and what I should make sure to do in order for this essay to be effective. I would also like to thank them for taking the time to proof-read this for me, as it was a tremendous time-saver. Lastly, Richard Miles for his interesting and useful presentations, and making them feel not as tedious as I would have felt they would be.
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Contents
Introduction...………………………………………………………………………………..3
Chapter
1...……..…………………………………………………………………………….5
Chapter
2.…….….………………………………………………………………………….16
Chapter
3……..….………………………………………………………………………….27
Conclusion………..………………………………………………………………………...41
Practical Response..……………………………………………………………………….42
List of Illustrations….………………………………………………………………………45
Bibliography…………..…………………………………………………………………….50
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Introduction “Peter Brook, the famous Shakespearean director gives an important lesson about
character and performance animation when he advises that “no matter how much you feel, your character feels more. No matter how much you love, your character loves more”” (Hooks, 2000, pg 25)
What is an animated performance? In simple terms, it is a performance that is purely dedicated to exaggeration. It is the practice of performing a scene by showing the audience what the character is thinking through non-verbal communication, and is normally a means for telling a visually-focused story in a stylistic manner. A performance such as this is often mistaken by audiences and critics as “over-the-top” or “overacting”, however, this is a somewhat inaccurate way to describe this. An audience's investment in a character's performance can dwindle when it fails to follow the correct method of approach.
My aim for this project is to pinpoint and investigate what can be considered the more important aspects of animated performance, why this style was introduced during the silent era of film, how these elements are applied animation, how characterisation is a strong factor in this subject, leading to an analysis of a series that has perfected animated performance. This will decide how important dialogue is to a performance, and whether or not an animated performance can benefit without it - how much can be expressed through a character through actions alone. How character design is an application to this, by creating the character, giving the animator a set of rules for the character to be animated, alongside developing their personality.
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I will research the origins of animated performance in film to establish why it is a style that has not been rendered an obsolete approach since then, and how it even influenced modern animation. I will then look at an animated character of my choice and breakdown their design to see how the characterisation affected their performance, with reference to theory regarding the technique of character animation, and how storytelling is an important element to giving characters their life. I wish to apply what I had learned through this research to critically analyse the original Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera made ​Tom & Jerry shorts, by comparing their performances in those to the justly lesser appreciated ​Tom & Jerry: The Movie. This will conclude with what is truly important to animated performance and why it is a benign style to use in animation.
My method for informing this subject is to look mainly at observational material, such as books by animators, videos, and critical analyses. I also will not limit my input to only practitioners of higher regard. All well-balanced and thought-provoking views from practitioners of any academic level are necessary.
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Chapter 1: Silent Performance
The first idea to mention regarding this topic is animation’s relation to film as a whole, so it should be looked at from the very beginning of film, the silent era. This era was a particularly fascinating one for film, because there was no reliance on synthesised sound - the primary audio they produced and applied was music, as medium that had been used in storytelling for centuries, such as in theatre and ballet. Rather than suffer through the technical limitations, filmmakers worked around them very cleverly, by focusing instead solely on what was happening on-screen, what the camera revealed to viewers. Films were limited to black-and-white due to the new technology, which among other thing resulted in poor visual quality. Again, like most great art, the technical limitations were acknowledged and dealt with well. This was normally accomplished through engaging storytelling, bold visual styles, and energetic performances. Animation thrives on this style, and borrows a lot from film in this period.
A notable film to focus on is ​The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a silent film that follows an artistic direction, popular in its country of origin at the time, known as German Expressionism. This film is not the only example of this, however it is well regarded by critics today for its ground-breaking use of the style. Film scholar Mike Budd explains in detail some of the performance elements of the film in his audio essay/DVD commentary. He specifically refers to the fact that the architecture was
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distorted and made no sense in terms of structure and perspective, and is one of three key factors that make the film a considerable piece of modern art.
“Onto this realist and easily consumable story, the film “grafts”, as it were, three
carefully limited elements of modernist art: Number one, a distorted world created by settings, in the theatrical and painted style of German Expressionism...” (Budd, 2000)
These visuals were chosen to hint at the storyteller’s broken mentality, and they effectively do that, as well as adding appropriate visual interest to the film to create an unnerving, surreal atmosphere. The visuals perfectly reflect the movie’s abnormal nature, being one of the first examples of film that uses the “unreliable narrator” trope, and using a non-linear narrative. It was an easily consumable film despite this complexity. The performances of two major characters fit into this world that was built around a surreal setting and atmosphere.
“...two characters, Caligari and Cesare, whose costumes and behaviour, make them
the only ones who fully belong to this insane world.” (Budd, 2000)
The characters of Dr Caligari and Cesare (see figure 1) are both played maniacally in their own unique ways, with Caligari generally expressing somewhat eccentric body language throughout the film, which is fitting for his character as he is portrayed in the narrator’s mind as a mad man; Cesare, on the other hand, generally has a calm composure, with occasional breaks from that during the scenes in which he starts attacking people, and therefore has an eerie and unpredictable aspect to him. Budd explains this further in his essay:
“The settings introduce the most disturbing and modernist elements. The makeup,
costumes, and acting, by Werner Krauss as Caligari, and Conrad Weidt as Cesare, are also stylised and expressionistic. 7
Their costumes are ominous. Caligari’s gestures are furtive and compulsive, while Cesare’s are eerily slow or murderously sudden.� (Budd, 2000).
Cesare has features that make him less human, such as black around his eyes and over his mouth, and the completely black outfit. He was threatening due to his unusual demeanour and make-up. The actor portrayed him in a manner that made Cesare quietly sinister, and stylised. A particularly menacing moment being his awakening where the audience is given a close up of just his face after the cabinet is first opened and he slowly opens his eyes, giving the audience a hypnotic death stare. The performances of these two characters added an element of strange human behaviour to the surreal visual aesthetic the film was trying to establish. It is a visual spectacle, brought on by the very intense performances from the characters.
Figure 1 Still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
However, in animation the expressive and surreal style of this artistic technique is often used to add appeal. Lotte Reiniger is an animator that was directly 8
inspired by this style through her history as a special effects artist in the lost German Expressionist films Apokalypse (1918) and The Pied Piper of Hamlin (1918). This influence combined with her fascination in Chinese Silhouette puppetry resulted in the interesting development of her animation. Reiniger's pioneering work in multiplane tricktisch (a table with multiple layers of glass for each asset of a scene, similar to Walt Disney’s multiplane camera) added depth to the animation, and the exaggeration added character to it. Her characters were always designed with pronounced features on paper before made into puppets. More prevalent characters in the film were given complicated, distinguishing features in their design, and since they had no facial features, or varied facial expressions, there was much more emphasis on their body movement to establish non-verbal communication. The magician (see figure 2) from The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), for example, was given a jagged yet flamboyant design, his performance captured this essence of his character. The performance is indeed very unnatural, however it is understandable, given the fledgling technology in this method of filmmaking. There were no voices and facial expressions for the characters to rely on, but Reiniger's puppets still communicated to the audience what they needed to with only their bodies, and this makes the method into less of a technical limitation, more of an advantageous aesthetic for this kind of animation. What makes this style of performance technique blend seamlessly with their environment.
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Figure 2 Still from The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Magician character to the right.
In ​The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the performances are played in such a way that fits the darkly surreal world that the movie takes place in; the animated performances of Lotte Reiniger’s films feel natural to the more whimsical German Expressionist style that they use.
One style of film performance that particularly holds an influence to animation today is a style commonly found in silent comedies. Silent comedy films use the same principles for performance; telling the story through mostly non-verbal communication, but when compared to the more dramatic films in the silent era, there is a lot more focus on characterful performances. The following examples are actors that typically used these as selling points in their respective films. They may play different people in their work, but there are particular archetypes associated with these actors, making each of them more of a persona.
Buster Keaton was a renowned silent comedian, for working mostly with stunts, as well as having a particularly creative and surreal sense of humour in his
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films. His performances are fascinating, as he always put himself into very dangerous, even life-threatening, scenarios, but his face never shifted from the usual flat expression for the duration. Despite this, however, he still establishes his emotion through his performance effectively, and still manages to be funny in process. Keaton’s lack of facial expression might seem like it contradicts the idea of animated performance, since it lacks one element of exaggeration, however it can also be argued that this method in his performance actually contributes more to the surrealism in his movies, since he looks calm under extreme circumstances, which in itself is strange but also funny because the audience expects him to show emotion in his face and he plays with that expectation.
Figure 3 Pinky from Animaniacs (1993) Warner Bros.
This style of comedic performance is known today as “deadpan�, and it normally accompanies actors or comedians that tend to be sarcastic, like Bill Murray 11
is in Ghostbusters (1986) and Groundhog Day (1993), or within the context of parody, Leslie Nielson’s performance in Airplane, where characters react seriously to ridiculous scenarios for humorous effect, and Pinky from Animaniacs (1993) parodies Orson Welles using this type of performance. Keaton essentially pioneered this style of acting, but implemented it differently to how it's used today. He still exaggerates his performances a lot like any other silent actor, with a background in acrobatics, theatrical work, and circus performances greatly influencing his work. This was possibly what made him so confident towards his stunts. As mentioned earlier, his style is known for being quite surreal, and the character he portrays in his films is rather accustomed to this. The humour often focuses more on what the audience expects to see happen to him, and the tension being built within the scene leading to the unexpected conclusion, occasionally in the character’s favour. An example of this is a gag in The General (1928), in which a cannon, that is ready to fire, is pointed right at him and he appears to be unable to avoid it the whole time. As the fuse burns down, Keaton gets visibly more scared, building the tension and increasing the levels of humour for the audience, however it ends up firing at the antagonists of the scene instead.
There is also a particularly famous stunt in Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) where part of a building falls directly through Keaton while he casually stands at a particular spot, and narrowly avoids getting crushed by it (see figure 4). His relaxed demeanour during this event, and the idea that the side of a house would break so neatly off is surreal, and his fear after the impact, as well as the authenticity of the danger he was in, is the humorous part.
Another theme throughout his films, is where the scene is shot to look flat, so that scenes such as this make sense how we look at it, but still make no sense logically. It looks, to the audience, as if Keaton is about to be crushed by the wall because of how two-dimensional the shot is, and thus the audience is surprised 12
when it does not happen. This joke is very similar to cartoon law number one, in which a character is calm despite being suspended in the air, until realising they are about to fall, much like Keaton’s calmness during the building falling and switching to immediate surprise and fear after realising he had nearly suffered greatly. This may not be a direct reference to that law, but the visual surrealism of the gag, its effect on the character, and the character’s response to it seem related.
Film practitioner, Tony Zhou, describes in his video Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag, what this sort of gag what this gag is, that Keaton describes as “Impossible gags”, and how the humour of the scene is affected by the laws Keaton places in his own worlds.
“Buster’s world is flat and governed by one law: If the camera can’t see it, then the
characters can’t see it either. In Buster’s world, the characters are limited by the size of the frame, what is visible to us. This allows him to do jokes that make sense visually, but not logically.” (Zhou, 2015)
Figure 4 Still from Steamboat Bill Jr (1928). Keaton referred to this type of gag as “impossible gags”, due to their logic-defying, rule-breaking nature.
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“Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.”
(Dgp.toronto.edu, Year not specified).
Figure 5 Wile E. Coyote, from Looney Tunes, demonstrating a version of an impossible gag, that follows cartoon law
Charlie Chaplin is another particularly significant silent comedian, and possibly the most well renowned silent actor of all time. He has influenced many filmmakers, mimes, and actors, but has also had a particular effect on animation as well. While Buster Keaton shared similar ideas with the principles of animated performance and other related stylistic elements, Chaplin had a distinctive presence that correlates finely with animation. As an actor, Chaplin was always very focused on making his performances visually appealing, and he would achieve this by using exaggerated mannerisms and facial expressions to establish emotion. He preferred telling his stories this way, through nonverbal communication.
Chaplin’s character traits are clear to the audience, without the need to use dialogue. It was his method of acting around the technical limitations of the silent era, 14
by being a character that is distinctive and shows what he is thinking, rather than tells. For example, when he started acting in film, he was told look like an older man for his role. To create this illusion, he wore white make-up on his face, but added a fake moustache, then typically used a bowler hat and tuxedo for his costume, and walked with a cane. He did this so he could get away with maintaining youthful looking skin for his face, letting audiences see his facial expressions, while still looking like the older man he was supposed to resemble. Chaplin is the most associated with this look because it has appeal. Everything in this costume reflects every element to his personality. It’s a friendly, non-threatening, and simple to understand look for the character, designed for black-and-white cinema. It could be interpreted that, the big shoes he wears draw emphasis towards his fascinating walk cycle, and iconic backwards kick. His hat gives him a mature but silly look, and he normally tips the hat to be polite, as a more subtle component to his positive character traits. The baggy pants place emphasis onto his lower body movement. The jacket and shirt tie the outfit together while still allowing for plenty of upper-body movement, and lastly, he has a cane, which gives Chaplin a more gentlemanly demeanour with the added benefit of a prop to play with.
Moving on from how Chaplin’s persona looks, his actual performance of the character is what also makes him influential. Chaplin always saw himself as a mime in his films, and disliked the idea of talking, so naturally he played his roles with the intention of telling the story through non-verbal communication. There was a visual style to this kind of performance that directs back to animation.
A particular sequence in Modern Times (1936) illustrates Chaplin’s method towards performance greatly. In this sequence, his character is forced into a situation where he needs to sing for people, forgets the lyrics for the song, so his partner simply tells him to sing regardless. Instead of memorising the lyrics, he improvises the song by singing gibberish that was supposed to sound like French. This would be the first 15
time Chaplin’s voice is heard on film, but despite this, Chaplin decided to continue to focus more on his actions, rather than his dialogue. This scene reflects the Chaplin’s dedication to visual appeal in performance, because, as was mentioned earlier, he was more engaged with the style of acting, reflective of a mime artist, than a contemporary, conventional actor. The whole film was a reflection of that, being one of the very few silent films to be released in 1936, during the talkie era, with the only dialogue throughout the film coming from machines. There was still a reliance on sound, which was not uncommon during the silent era, with many films incorporating sound effects into their orchestral accompaniments, but in the case of Modern Times, it would create scenarios that relied on synthesised sound, without detracting from the visual appeal, and even complimenting it.
Silent film overall has had a profound effect on animated performance, both in the context of animated and live action cinema. Chaplin is well regarded for his effect on animated performance.
“Chaplin helped to create a particular vocabulary in the live-action context, which has profound echoes of, and was profoundly influential in, developing the specific conditions of animated film.” (Wells, 2011, p.18)
Chaplin, Keaton, and many other silent actors demonstrate animated performance in film. The energetic nature, mannerisms, characterisation, and the spirit of this style of performance would both define and influence acting for animated and live action film.
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Chapter 2: Characterisation and Performance “Bugs is simply, and only, trying to remain alive in a world full of predators.” (Jones, 1999, Chuck Amuck) After the silent era ended and film was more focused, live action cinema was free to experiment more with their performances, with many of the films relying on dialogue and sound, with an increase in popularity for the musical genre. Some animated films followed this trend too, but were still more focused on being mainly visually appealing. Max Fleischer helped introduce the talkie era of animation with Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop shorts as part of a series of animated cartoons by Paramount Pictures known as Talkartoon. They use characterisation in animated performance, as these are characters whose actions are reflected in their designs; Popeye being a tough and aggressive sailor, he naturally has the physique for this character and large bottom jaw that is commonly associated with this masculine trait, as well as his constant frown that blends into his overall look. Betty Boop is a flirtatious and glamorous character, whose design was rather controversially modelled after the real life singer Helen Kane (1921 – 1954), and even performs in a manner that captures said singer.
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Figure 6 Simple breakdown of Popeye's character model
Figure 7 Betty Boop's model broken down into shapes with facial expressions.
Figure 8 Mouth sheet for Betty Boop.
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She uses the singer’s distinctive long eyelashes and high-pitched voice, as well as a short dress and overall low height to establish her more innocent sexuality. Both of these characters established a theme of animated performed defined by their features. A character with more joyous actions would have a bright appearance that reflects this, and one with more antagonistic tendencies would be designed to look more threatening. This was touched upon within the first chapter of this essay when talking about Charlie Chaplin’s appearance in film, however this is a topic worth further investigation. Upon analysing any famous animated character’s designs, it is very clear that they are usually designed in such a way that specifies how they are to be performed in film. Eric Goldberg refers to this in his book, Character Animation Crash Course (2008). “How does he walk? Rest? How can you show what he is thinking and feeling through his movements? (Sir Laurence Olivier said that when he was realizing a character, the first thing he would crack was the character’s walk). How does your character interact with other characters in the show? How does he compare and contrast with them? What properties of movement make your character unique to others around him? In Song of the South, Brer Bear is big, heavy, and stupid, and his movements are correspondingly slow and ponderous. Brer Fox is cunning, excitable, talkative – and his movements are quick and slick. How old is your character? What is his weight and mass, and how does that affect his movement? How physically fit is your character? How weak?” (Goldberg, 2008, pg. 18)
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Figure 9 Illustration from Character Animation Crash Course This is basic physical characterisation. A character that is designed to perform in a particular manner should aesthetically fit their mannerisms. The above illustration demonstrates this, as there are clear distinctions between each of the people in the picture, their actions resembling their personalities. The reason this is the case is to distinguish the characters from two-dimensional drawings to give the audience the illusion that they are real. Their proportions are unrealistic by all means, but because they are made up of simple shapes and have personalities, their actions become more convincing. The audience has a clear idea on what each of these characters’ personalities are, simply based on how they are designed, how they are moving, and what they are doing.
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Figure 10 Cobra Bubbles, from Lilo & Stitch (2002). A serious and intimidating presence with appropriately large and jagged shapes to create an intimidating presence.
For further detail into this theory, Ed Hooks, in his book called Acting for Animators, refers to the importance of characters with personality. A character that has personality is one that is given a purpose. A character can have traits, yet without a story for them, they have no purpose, and therefore no personality. “You can’t just say a character is cute and cuddly and has a great personality, especially if you expect to carry a lead role in a feature film or television series. Indeed, you can’t get away with it even in video games anymore. It makes a difference if the character you’re animating is from San Francisco or the Bronx, if he’s thirteen instead of sixteen years old, if he likes to play basketball more than he likes to play chess, if he’s shy around girls, or if he’s deaf in one ear” (Hooks, 2000, pg. 21) Upon further inspection of this chapter of Hooks’ book, he talks about primal analysis of characters. Apart from giving the character a story, their actions must also be justifiable, in terms of how close the universal relationship between the character on-screen and audience is concerned. If the character follows simple human values, than the audience can relate to them more. This can be the case for both protagonists and antagonists; as long as the audience understands the character’s motivations, they will be able to empathise with their actions.
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“All humans act to survive. The first thing we do when we are born is try to live, and the last thing we do before we die is try to live. And we have to propagate ourselves if we are going to continue living for another generation. It is this shared survival mechanism that is at the heart of empathetic response. When you feel sympathy for someone, you simply feel sorry him, and may or may not empathise. When you feel empathy, you identify with him. A primal analysis leads directly to an empathetic response.” (Hooks, 2000, pg 28) A combination of these theories by Hooks and Goldberg can provoke a character with fascinating performance methods within their design. Courage, from Courage the Cowardly Dog, is an example of this. A Youtube channel, by the name of Plague of Gripes, contains an in depth analysis on the design for Courage, explaining how the character is built up to reflect the character’s personality, and how the design allows him to perform based on his characteristics.
Figure 11 Still from Plague of Gripes video, showing the smoothness of Courage's face.
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Figure 12 Mr Katz from Courage the Cowardly Dog, an example of an antagonist with a more jagged shape for the head.
He explains that as the protagonist, the appeal of the character is marked out, as it were, by the simple shapes used to construct his body. As the Youtube video points out, a circle is used for the head because it is a visually smooth, and simple looking shape, which makes characters, on the whole, look more easy-going; as opposed to a more antagonistic character, which would be constructed with more edgy shapes, with another example from Courage the Cowardly Dog being a recurring villain called Mr Katz, who has a triangular shape for the head and overall more jagged, more edgy, shapes for his body. “It’s very fitting that [Courage] has a circle - circles are visually very soft, very giving, very non-threatening in a way, whereas if someone were a more villainous design, they would tend to have a triangle shape for the head, as far as basic characterisation goes. And actually, there’s a character named Mr Katz, within Courage the Cowardly Dog’s universe, and he happens to be a villain that has a triangle for a head” (Plague of Gripes, 2015.) This point can be backed up by Bryan Tillman, in his book Creative Character Design (2011). He talks about how people associate shapes particular themes, and mentions what people think about when they see triangles and circles. 24
“What do you think the triangle is trying to convey? Generally speaking, a triangle conveys the following: Action, aggression, energy, sneakiness, conflict, and tension.” (Tillman, 2001, pg. 72) As established, the triangle contains some more negative connotations, so it would be appropriate that Courage would not have that shape for his head. “What do you think a circle could possibly be telling us about itself? If it could talk, it might tell you that a circle can be viewed as: Completeness, gracefulness, playfulness, comforting, unity, protection childlike” (Tillman, 2001, pg. 72) Just like the Plague of Gripes video says, circles are simply non-threatening shapes that establish more comforting characteristics. This is still only basic characterisation, however it applies to Courage’s character design. The video’s analysis on how the character is constructed is relevant to the points made by Hooks and Goldberg, and this is why: Courage’s character traits can be described using Ed Hooks’ biographical breakdown. “Creature Character Analysis: Physical Attributes? Defence Mechanisms/Strategies? Locomotion? Age? Life Span? Diet? Physical Health? How does he procreate? Relatives? Sense of humour? Fears? Goals? Culture? Intelligence? Education? Relationship to other characters in the story? Source of income? Name?” (Hooks, 2000, pg. 24)
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Courage is a young dog that was adopted by Muriel as a puppy, after being left abandoned, following an incident with his parents. After that experience he began to fear everything, but when it comes to the safety of Muriel, he is able to face his fears to rescue her. Even though Eustace, Courage's secondary owner, is cruel to him, Courage is not afraid of him, and even comes to him for help in certain instances. Though he does dislike Eustace a lot, that does not stop Courage from coming to his rescue. He is a soft little dog, with pale pink fur and brown spots. He has a huge mouth from screaming a lot, and his eyes are big oval shapes that stretch the more frightened he gets. He also has tiny arms and legs that prevent him from defending himself. They are also not attached to one part of the main body, figuratively speaking, so they tend to move all around the body, because the ability to move his tiny limbs - the arms more so than the legs since they are used a lot more anywhere around the body gives his body language more flexibility, and over-the-top expressions. The simple shapes that build up Courage make the more flexible poses more authentic.
Figure 13 Courage's arms, when compared to previous figures, are loose and move all around the body.
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Figure 14 When Courage screams, his arms and feet can flail around as much as possible.
After observing Courage’s design, it is a clear example of a character whose design had the relevant details in consideration. For instance, his arms and legs are tiny, thin, and rope like, and this serves two purposes. First of all, Courage performs a lot of his actions with his arms, so their simplicity gives him more flexible lines of action for his poses. Since he is such a simple character, the fact that his arms are never dedicated to only one spot on his body is more convincing, than if a more complex or human character was to have this be the case for them. The audience does not question or notice this for that matter, since the fluid performances and personality given to the character make it more convincing. The second reason his limbs are this meagre is because they exaggerate his weakness, contributes to the fearful aspect of his personality. He is short and light-weighted to further emphasise his weakness. If Courage appears weak and unable to defend himself then the audience will empathise with him when he feels scared.
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Figure 15 Plague of Gripes outlining the form Courage's eyes take when he is especially scared.
Figure 16 Showing how his are normally shaped and are always showing a worried expression with his eye brows.
Figure 17 A demonstration of all the simple shapes that construct Courage's main body, a bean shaped body, round head, and oval eyes. Also showing what happens when there is more space around Courage's pupils.
Courage’s head is also appears to be designed in a manner with flexible performance in mind. While his body is simple looking, it also has a lot of negative space for his mouth, and this is particularly important for his design since he is a character that has a tendency to scream in the show and this is an effective way to exaggerate this. When he does, the animators have more freedom to alter his appearance without going outside the limitations of his model, and this leads to some effective poses for the character. The huge teeth and long tongue add a touch of
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appeal to his screams, and poses in which the mouth opens so wide it covers his whole body are convincing. As the Plague of Gripes video points out, Courage’s eyes put a lot of white space around the pupil, because whenever the pupil is moved to the centre of the eye, it happens to make him look more terrified. At moments of pure terror, in which he screams the most, his eyes tend to grow bigger, while his pupils stay the same size. A lot of cartoon characters do this, but it could be said that Courage benefits the most from this because his design is clearly built around him being scared, so this detail is particularly necessary since it helps with exaggerating that aspect to his character. With Courage’s adjustable actions and exaggerated terror as character traits, it is clear how his design is fit to be performed to match this personality. Hooks’ mention towards giving a character personality through storytelling is what makes this possible. As far as Courage’s basic characteristics go, he is not very different to a character like Scooby Doo at all. They are both dogs who are thrown into horror-themed settings that are easily frightened and cannot describe the horrors with words so they mime them instead. What sets Courage apart from Scooby Doo, however, is how much more detailed his personality is. The stories in the series take full advantage of Courage’s anxieties, they give him his own wants and needs, motivations, and primal urges, making his actions more plausible. The danger towards Muriel is his main motivation, and he does this while trying to survive. Furthermore, the series has a particular visual art style, which helps build the world designed to frighten Courage. It is visually similar, in terms of surrealism and warping perspective, to The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, although in an interview with the Youtube channel called Rebeltaxi, he mentions that the series was more inspired by Salvador Dalí and Charlie Chaplin, and just like Chaplin, Courage presents a distinctive presence through his looks and performance.
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Figure 18 The colourful twisted world of Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Figure 19 An equally twisted world of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
The world is dark, surreal, and colourful, but as it is built around the animated performance of Courage, it still sets the necessary rules to allow Courage to exaggerate his actions and emotions in a solid manner. His design fits this world while also allowing him to perform in a fluid manner that fits his personality. Courage’s performance, upon being broken down and analysed, has a specific style of animated performance already established for him. There is effectively a feeling of realism to Courage’s animation, since he was designed with his weight, emotions, personality to allow the audience to respond to his character.
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Chapter 3: Performances of Tom & Jerry: Is Silence and Technique a Benefactor? Two characters that follow the important principles of animated performance intricately are the classic cartoon duo, Tom and Jerry. They have stood out among many of the more famous cartoon characters throughout history, through their unique method towards slapstick comedy. This chapter will analyse the performances of these characters and why exactly they are as effective as they are. Due to the series’ cultural impact, there have been multiple reboots and movies based on Tom & Jerry. The original short movies made by Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera were the most ground breaking out of the multiple series’ over the past decade, and in order to establish this, a comparison between the original series of short films and Tom & Jerry: the Movie (1992), one of the more unappreciated reboots, should effectively emphasise how much Hanna and Barbera followed a more effective direction for the characters. One significant difference between the movie and shorts is that both Tom and Jerry are given full dialogue, whereas in the shorts they are mostly silent. On Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, Roger Ebert criticises the direction the movie took by giving the characters full dialogue. “By making Tom and Jerry talk, the movie loses the pure comedy of the cartoon shorts, where everything depended on situations and actions” (Ebert, 1993)
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This is the reason the movie is criticised the most. There is a different focus due to this change than the slapstick the original series had. Tom & Jerry did not speak because the shorts were focused on how the characters treated each other. The stories were simpler, as a result, focusing purely on what could be seen as important within the series – the cause of the actions, and the consequences of those same actions. The focus was more on what the characters were doing as opposed to their motivations for doing so, so giving the characters dialogue shifts the focus more to what they are saying, flipping the table as it were. This affects the performances too. Since Tom and Jerry rarely spoke, their actions were emphasised to a greater degree. Tom and Jerry’s performance style was unique due to their lack of speech. The website, Channel Awesome, contains an analysis, by comedian/critic Doug Walker (under the persona, Nostalgia Critic) of the original shorts, titled Why is Tom & Jerry Genius (2013). He explains that when Tom and Jerry used their voices, it was only when it could be timed well. “They knew when to have them use their voices, they were never overplayed. They were just used at the appropriate time when the scene needed something particularly silly to up the humour.” (Doug Walker, 2013). That is why when Tom screams, it is unexpected and more likely to trigger a humorous response. When he screams in the movie it is not as unexpected because it is already established throughout the film that Tom can talk. On the other hand, Tom and Jerry’s lack of dialogue might have been due to the fact that when Hanna and Barbera first made the shorts, back when Tom and Jerry were named Jasper and Jinx, they looked and acted more like real animals, so giving them dialogue would have been inappropriate. When their designs were changed to feel more human-like, they kept silent to stay in character, but still with the occasional one-liner. They still managed to handle storytelling better without any dialogue, and the humour is more effective. 32
This point is further emphasised within the movie itself, because the opening sequence of the film sets up a simple narrative, in which Tom and Jerry are forced out of their homes and need to fend for themselves. The sequence is purely focused on the two main characters escaping and finding their way through the city, and Tom deciding whether or not to help Jerry. The entire sequence is portrayed without any dialogue and the characters maintain most of the spirit of the original performances because of this.
Figure 20 Tom (left) and Jerry (right) about to get separated from their owners.
Figure 21 Tom's refusal to let Jerry accompany him.
Ironically, after Tom and Jerry start talking, a new character is introduced, Robyn, who becomes the main focus in the story. The film’s core develops into a 33
story about an orphan that tries to search for her father who is lost during an expedition and is presumed dead, but her corrupt aunt, alongside her lawyer, try to take Robyn back because she is apparently worth a lot of money. Tom and Jerry have less screen-time as a result. There are moments throughout the main story where Tom and Jerry are given some screen time, and they do sometimes help move the story along, but usually when they are given some screen time it is to add a sequence where the characters start to attack each other. Those scenes were usually played silently, but were not as strong, due to the alternative technique the film used for the performances of Tom and Jerry. These scenes were usually call-backs to jokes from the original shorts. This scene is an example of one.
Figure 22 Tom getting bit in the tail in Tom and Jerry the Movie.
Figure 23 Tom getting bit in the tail in the Tom and Jerry short. The jokes are the same, the fact that Tom’s tail is used as a fish hook, however the joke in the movie (figure 22) is not as effective because the fish does 34
not have any teeth, so it is not solid enough to work as a prop for him to interact with in this manner, therefore it makes too little sense to be seen as authentic. The original joke (figure 23) is effective since the fish has sharp teeth so the suffering is more convincing. This is an important trait, as Goldberg points out in Animation Crash Course. The properties of matter is important to consider during slapstick. “How densely packed are its molecules? Is it like an anvil, a piece of wood, some styrofoam? Does it have any “give” in movement, like drapery or a lump of mashed potatoes, or is it solid at all times?” (Goldberg, 2008, pg. 136). The teeth of the fish come across as solid sharp objects that would physically hurt someone, whereas the toothless fish would appear to have a softer grip on Tom’s tail, that is unlikely to cause any harm. One of the contributors to Tom and Jerry’s performances originally was the techniques Hanna and Barbera used for their actions. Their technique developed over time, but followed similar ideas. As mentioned before, Tom’s design in the first short Puss Gets the Boot (1939) was more closely related to real life cats. This resulted in a different kind of performance, while still following the personality of Tom’s character. Hanna would sometimes perform for Barbera to use as reference, which would help incorporate the more humanised expressions and body language for the characters, and this was one of the ways they both worked around making realistic looking animals more relatable.
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Figure 24 Puss Gets the Boot (1940). Tom (here named Jasper) exhibiting a more realistic cat style.
Figure 25 Bill Hanna (right) showcasing Tom's expression for Joseph Barbera (left)
Tom was given humanlike expressions, modelled after Hanna’s, to make the character seem relatable, and adding some weight to his performance. It could be said that Tom’s first design was actually the right decision because it made Tom seem more threatening. When compared to Jerry’s smoother design, Tom’s used more of a forceful jagged shape, with multiple hairs sticking out of his main body. In terms of caricaturing the animals Tom and Jerry represent, cats normally contain more prevalent hairy features, whereas mice’s hair is smoother by nature. Similar to
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the point made by Michael D. Mattesi in his book Force: Dynamic Life Drawing For Characters (2006).
Figure 26 Mattesi's example of forceful shapes. Has the same jarring effect as the spikier look for Tom, alongside Jerry's smoother design.
“One shows us a hard, pointy aggressiveness while the other is soft and placid. Nature has done a tremendous job of designing its world.” (Mattesi, 2006, pg. 103) As the series developed even more, the character’s design was updated to one more human-like. Their characterisation and performances developed the techniques Hanna Barbera used as a result. Their actions became more defined by the solid shapes used for the characters, and that complimented the action - the slapstick – even more. In terms of characterisation, the point made earlier about how cartoon characters are usually made up of simple shapes is applicable. The simple shapes used for both of the characters by this point had an effect on how convincing the characters felt. Their technique is very reliant on the use of a line of action and solid drawing principles, as well as exaggerated facial expressions. Preston Blair shows what line of action is, and how it adds the right level of exaggeration to poses in Cartoon Animation (1994), and The Illusion of Life (1981) explains the benefit of following the solid drawing principle of animation.
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Figure 27 Blair's visual demonstration of Line of Action from Cartoon Animation (1994) using a character very similar looking to Tom.
Figure 28 Johnson's and Thomas' explanation on why Solid Drawing is important in animation in The Illusion of Life (1981).
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Tom and Jerry is usually very reliant on these within their shorts
Figure 29 Jerry happily eating cheese, unaware that he is falling into one of Tom's traps.
This shot of Jerry (figure 29) can be broken down in order to demonstrate how Hanna and Barbera’s this performance style.
Figure 30 The simple shapes that construct Jerry's body, as well as how the pose varies where the body parts go. Jerry’s shapes show a simple structure, but create the illusion of 3D space. His appeal as a protagonist is established through the smoothness of his shapes,
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with a circle shaped head and pear-shaped body. The pose varies where his arms and legs go, making the drawing more solid.
Figure 31 The line of action, plus smooth outline around Jerry's bodily features. The line of action extending from his rear to the arm reaching for the cheese. The bodily features are also very smooth, corresponding with his smoother, and cuter design. The body language is bouncy and emphasises his joy even more.
Figure 32 Jerry's facial expression plus facial features outlined. The facial expression exaggerates the joy even further. His facial features show very small and non-threatening features, and the small tufts of hair add to his silhouette. His characterisation as a small, joyful person is clear in this shot. 40
The same level of technique can be explained with Tom.
Figure 33 Tom laying down the trail of cheese for Jerry. Tom’s pose in this shot establishes the characterisation in his design performance, and how Hanna and Barbera establish a different kind of intention and emotion from the character using the techniques.
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Figure 34 The simple shapes used for Tom, and construction of arms and legs to feel three-dimensional. Tom’s body shapes are very similar to Jerry’s, a circle shaped head and pear-like body, except with an emphasis on scale, among other differences. Tom’s ears are shaped slightly like devil horns, which is likely not intentional but would be appropriate for Tom’s more malicious personality and somewhat more spiky design.
Figure 35 Tom’s line of action and spikier details highlighted.
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Tom’s body textures are simplified from his design in Puss Gets the Boot. It follows the same concept by giving him sharp details. The simple shapes make him less threatening while the forceful shapes on his body add a villainous element to it.
Figure 36 Tom’s expressions and facial features. Tom’s expressions were intensified by his wrinkles and frizzed eye brows. His smile and body language strongly emphasise his confidence. Walker explains even further why this design change was a more appropriate direction to take. “As people, we understand a human-being being hurt, more than we do an animal. Animals don’t communicate with us the same way we communicate with each other, so naturally we’ll be able to find the humour easier with something that acts more human despite the fact that they look like an animal.” (Walker, 2013). This relates to Hooks’ point about primal analysis. Tom’s predatorily and primal need it to hunt a mouse. Jerry’s primal need as an animal in danger is to survive.
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“The justification for a primal analysis is closely related to the mechanisms of empathy. It is not an optional manner that we propagate ourselves” (Hooks, 2000, pg. 27).
Figure 37 Tom's smugness when he assumes he has won relates to how humans respond to victory, making the oncoming suffering easier to find funny.
Their humanity is closely related to Hooks’ point about emotion and empathy. Tom’s triumph towards his assumed victory, and the suffering he faces upon getting fought back against, alongside his human-like scream, are all factors that lead to the anthropomorphic characterisation. Jerry’s need to survive is an instinct people have as animals. His desire to have fun while doing so is a human emotion. “When we speak of creating the illusion of life in animation, it boils down not to mannerisms and naturalistic movement, but to emotion. The audience empathises with emotion. Actors are athletes of the heart.” (Hooks, 200, pg.36). Returning to the points about Tom and Jerry the Movie, Tom and Jerry’s side story, focused on developing their dynamic into a kind-hearted friendship, as opposed to the usual conflict between the characters. Every detail regarding their primal instincts as a cat and a mouse is left vague through this choice of characterisation. This could imply that the relationship was simply that Tom and Jerry hated each other, but this is not the case. While the motivation behind the shorts was the 44
primal hatred cats have towards mice, as characters, they still relate to each other in such a way that makes them a duo. Their personalities are summed up effectively in the book Hanna-Barbera Cartoons (1998) by Michael Mallory, and explain why the two characters are still friendlier than they might seem.
“Tom may be selfish and a bully, but he is a strangely likeable one who is not so much a foe to Jerry as an opponent, a partner in a chase. Jerry is fun-loving and mischievous, especially when his mischief can be staged at the expense of Tom. But underneath it all he is good-hearted, forgiving, and never malicious. Theirs is a complex, endearing, best-of-enemies relationship” (Mallory, 1998, pg. 18-19) Even though Tom and Jerry fought each other, their relationship was more complex than simply being enemies. This was how their motivations as a duo benefit their personalities. In the shorts, they both relate to each other’s sense of fun and enthusiasm, so they normally teamed up whenever some force would rise to separate them, for example in the short Old Rockin’ Chair Tom (1948), the plot is that after Tom gets kicked out for failing to stop Jerry so much, his owner, Mammy Two-Shoes, adopts a more capable cat named Lightning to stop Jerry, and he manages to disrupt the dynamic between Tom and Jerry, so they both team up to defeat Lightning. It could be said that the difference between Lightning and Tom was that he was an antagonist, whereas Tom is, as Mallory described, an opponent to Jerry. There is one particular scene in the movie that follows this characterisation accurately. During the opening sequence, Tom traps Jerry inside a house. The house begins to collapse and as Tom escapes, he stops and turns around to save Jerry. By this point, the audience is still familiar with the characterisation of Tom and Jerry being a dysfunctional duo that will help each other out during extreme danger, so they can empathise with Tom’s decision to rescue Jerry during this scene. Tom’s performance during this scene perfectly reflects the emotions his character would feel during this situation – his character development from somebody seeking vengeance, transitioning to his need to rescue them. 45
Figure 38 Tom's moment of guilt when he realises Jerry is still in the house that is about to collapse.
Figure 39 Tom and Jerry share confusion towards Tom's sudden, heroic actions.
Characterisation was a pure factor in Tom and Jerry’s performances. These elements were highlighted by the concerns of ​Tom and Jerry the Movie. The techniques used for the animation, characterisation, and storytelling, lead the series in the right direction, and they happened to use many of the aspects talked about earlier in this essay. The silent performances allowed the focus of the series to be on the energy of the performances, with exaggerated emotions and nonverbal communication. The characters were designed with specific performance methods in mind and as a result, their personalities easily affected their performances. The portrayal of their dynamic in the shorts was a benefactor to their enjoyment factor, and relatability.
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Conclusion Technique, energy, and character all seem to be important factors to animated performance. The silent movie era had an ongoing effect on cinema, and the charisma of the acting from that era was a clear contributor to what people know as animated performance today. Silent acting places focus on the actions of the characters as opposed to their dialogue, despite this, it is not the most important aspect of animated performance.
Characterisation is a very strong element to this. Courage from ​Courage the Cowardly Dog was a character that spoke, but there was still a strong emphasis on his visual performance. This was due to his design fulfilling the appropriate performance methods to express his fearful character, and his use of pantomime when communicating with Eustace and Muriel. The story also offered Courage his personality, allowing him to act in such a way that not only follows the design aspects of his character, but utilises those aspects effectively for an exaggerated performance.
Tom and Jerry are a combination of the ideas that silent film uses and the characterisation talked about in the second chapter. Tom and Jerry are both constructed out of simple shapes with anthropomorphic performances in mind. They have animalistic tendencies mixed with human traits. The silent acting helped emphasise the quality of their visual performances, which was necessary for the style of slapstick from the shorts.
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Practical Response
It is a short called “Valerie Shorts: Pie”, starring a mute character named Valerie, and featuring a rival neighbour of hers named Dahlia. Their relationship is reflective of Tom and Jerry’s, being somewhat of a duo that fight each other, but have a dynamic that makes the two inseparable, on top of being a slapstick comedy as well as Tom and Jerry. They are silent performers, and the greyscale look in the short is inspired by the black-and-white films from the silent era, and their performances are reflective of the energy, and exaggeration they used for performances in those days. They lack speech to emphasise their nonverbal communication.
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The characters are both designed with performance methods in mind. For example, Valerie is a cocky, selfish, and malicious character, with little common sense, and often gets her comeuppance. She is still a lovable protagonist character due to her clowning ways. So her motivation in this short is purely fueled by greed and lack of common sense, leading up to her downfall. Her design is smooth and blob-like, to allow for flexibility in her poses. Her triangle shaped head is smoothened to resemble the antagonistic nature of the shape, but making it less jagged to resemble a more welcoming character. Her feet are big and heavy, to emphasise her feet movement, similar to the shoes Chaplin wears, and her eyes are big to emphasise emotion. She has no nose because it would get in the way of her expressions, but it adds a touch of humour when she smells the pie and it causes nostrils to appear and disappear.
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Dahlia is designed with more welcoming, some have said “motherly�, features, with more sophisticated clothing and smoother shapes for the head. Her character is on that appears soft-hearted, but has a tendency to get riled up, particularly by Valerie, and she is normally a victim to Valerie’s shenanigans. The rage-filled tendencies are more unexpected and therefore easier to find humorous because of her usual soft demeanor.
The short follows all of the rules and aspects relating to characterisation and technique.
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The key frames in this shot, for example, demonstrate the emotions of the character in relation to the surreal logic and cartoon law within the universe of this short. She presents the exaggeration and human emotion that are appropriate for her personality, and the story of the short gives her this personality.
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List of Illustrations Figure 1: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (1920) Silent Film. Directed by Robert Weine.
[DVD] GER: Weimar Republic. Figure 2: The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Silent Animated Film. Directed by Lotte Reiniger. [DVD] GER: Commenius-Film Figure 3: Wikipedia, 2015. Pinky and the Brain. [online]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_and_the_Brain [Accessed December 17, 2015]. Figure 4: Steamboat Bill Jr.. (1923) Silent Film. Directed by Buster Keaton and Charles Reisner. [DVD] USA: Buster Keaton Productions. Figure 5: Lee, B. 2013. Wile E. Coyote’s Guide to Navigating Cliffs | Northwestern Flipside. Northwesternflipside.com [online]. Available from: http://www.northwesternflipside.com/2013/01/02/wile-e-coyotes-guide-to-navigatingcliffs/ [Accessed November 9, 2015]. Figure 6: 4-designer.com, 2013. 4-Designer | Popeye official who set up vector a. [online]. Available from: http://4-designer.com/2013/07/Popeye-official-who-set-up-vector-a/#.VpEcvhWLTIU [Accessed December 1, 2015]. Figure 7: Michaelspornanimation.com, 2016. Michael Sporn Animation. [online]. Available from: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3168 [Accessed December 1, 2015].
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Figure 8: Michaelspornanimation.com, 2016. Michael Sporn Animation. [online]. Available from: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3168 [Accessed December 1, 2015]. Figure 9: Goldberg, E. 2008. Character animation crash course!. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press. Figure 10: Lilo & Stitch (2002). Animated Film. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. DVD [USA]. Walt Disney Studios. Figure 11: Plague of Gripes (2015). Griping on Picarto: Courage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21KM0URH3A (Accessed at 18 December 2015). Figure 12: Villains Wiki, 2016. Mr. Katz.png. [online]. Available from: http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mr._Katz.png [Accessed January 1, 2016]. Figure 13: “Dr. Le Quack” (1999). Courage the Cowardly Dog. Season 1 Episode 2. Cartoon Network. 19 Nov. Figure 14: “The Shadow of Courage/Dr. Le Quack” (1999). Courage the Cowardly Dog. Season 1 Episode 2. Cartoon Network. 19 Nov. Figure 15: Plague of Gripes (2015). Griping on Picarto: Courage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21KM0URH3A (Accessed at 18 December 2015). Figure 16: Plague of Gripes (2015). Griping on Picarto: Courage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21KM0URH3A (Accessed at 18 December 2015).
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Figure 17: Plague of Gripes (2015). Griping on Picarto: Courage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21KM0URH3A (Accessed at 18 December 2015). Figure 18: “The Demon in the Mattress/Freaky Fred” (1999). Courage the Cowardly Dog. Season 1 Episode 2. Cartoon Network. 3 Dec. Figure 19: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (1920) Silent Film. Directed by Robert Weine. [DVD] GER: Weimar Republic. Figure 20: Tom and Jerry The Movie (1993) Animated Film. Directed by Phil Roman. [DVD] USA: Turner Entertainment Co.. Figure 21: Tom and Jerry The Movie (1993) Animated Film. Directed by Phil Roman. [DVD] USA: Turner Entertainment Co.. Figure 22: Tom and Jerry The Movie (1993) Animated Film. Directed by Phil Roman. [DVD] USA: Turner Entertainment Co.. Figure 23: Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 24: Puss Gets the Boot (1940). Short Film. Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. [FILM]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Figure 25: Mallory, M. 1998. Hanna-Barbera cartoons. [New York]: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates. Figure 26: Mattesi, M. 2006. Force. Amsterdam: Focal Press. 54
Figure 27: Blair, P. 1994. Cartoon animation. Tustin, Calif.: W. Foster Pub. Figure 28: Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. 1981. Disney animation. New York: Abbeville Press. Figure 29: Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 30 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 31 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 32 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 33: Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015].
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Figure 34 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 35 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 36 (edited by author): Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 37: Channel Awesome, (2013). Nostalgia Critic Editorial: Why is Tom and Jerry Genius?. [video] Available at: http://channelawesome.com/nostalgia-critic-editorial-why-is-tom-and-jerry-genius/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2015]. Figure 38: Tom and Jerry The Movie (1993) Animated Film. Directed by Phil Roman. [DVD] USA: Turner Entertainment Co.. Figure 39: Tom and Jerry The Movie (1993) Animated Film. Directed by Phil Roman. [DVD] USA: Turner Entertainment Co..
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