From a child's story to animation films

An exhaustive exploration of the meaning and trascendence of children's novels brings us a series of conclusions. I dedicate this space to this exploration.


First, I stop at one of THE children's novels: Alice in Wonderland.

- Universal plots in Alice in Wonderland.

This way I explain the trascendence of the novel, which I use as the main example of a children's story, so frequently adapted for the screen.

Disney's version is the best known of all the cinema adaptations. However, it's not the best of Disney's films. So, to find examples of interest in some of Disney's classics, I review Beaty and the Beast and Jungle Book.

- A brief critical view of Beauty and the Beast.

- Aesthetic comentary on Jungle Book (available only in Spanish).

I concentrate on these two examples, which come from different Disney periods to construct my thesis. For more references it is interesting to study the development of feminity and feminism throughout the history of "Disney princesses" or cultural aspects for which Pocahontas and Aladdin provide good examples.

Going back to Alice in Wonderland, its transcendence inspires creators in various fields of the arts, in music for example. But the influence of children's stories goes beyond art reaching other subjetcs like politics and sociology.


- Transcripction of the radio musical program: Homage to Alice in Wonderland.

- The children's story as a satirical resource.

These examples show the psychological depth of some main characters in children's stories, novels and films. However, recently mostly CG animation films are made (Pixar, Dreamworks). In these films characters are much more simple and canonical. Probably this is due to the limitation of CG rigs, still in a research phase, which only allows animators to create a type of character that aesthetically looks like "a dumb doll" which is crutial to its psychological depth.

domingo, 20 de abril de 2008

Homage to Alice in Wonderland

Welcome to this modest homage to Alice in Wondeland. Nearly 150 years ago Alice travelled to Wonderland. Few do not know this story, if not because of the novel, then through one of the many film adaptations. Today Alice will bring us the music we are going to listen to. From classical music to hard rock, everyone wants to talk about Alice. The singer-song writer and actress Jewel calls her most recent album Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, in which she says goodbye to the inocent wonderland of childhood. Alice and the Wizard of Oz's yellow brick road provide the singer with an apt metaphore for her childhood and bring us this song:





Jewel has told us how she sais goodbye to her childhood. The novel establishes precisely this tension between childish fantasy and adulthood reality. But one of the novel's best features is how Carroll manages to explain serious issues based on nonsense humour. The Beatles, for example, chose the absurdity in Alice's story, which inspires one of their succeses "I am the Walrus":






The Beatles choose two of the most surrealist characters in the novel: Humpty Dumpty (the eggman) and the Walrus. Aerosmith is another mythical band (although maybe not on the same level as the Beatles), this time a rock band. They choose the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts instead in their single: "Sunshine".



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