2. Pendleton
Ward
The reason I enjoy the work of PendletonWard is because all his shows have
very weird and original ideas, characters and plots. Most of his shows are
described as “Ahead of there time” and his most popular show has 100% on
RottenTomatoes. He knows how to achieve the perfect balance between
comedy, drama and evoking emotion. For example, the show “Adventure
Time” is a hilarious comedy show aimed at kids ages 12 and up and succeeds
in being funny and weird, although it has an in-depth story line that has been
developed in great detail over the 10 seasons. Some episodes are focused on
more plot driven storylines and more emotional but keep the comedy aspects.
Whereas a series such as “OverTheGardenWall” is a lot more plot driven and
emotional and focuses more on the serious side of things instead of just
comedy. Although the show is funny it has a lot more of a darker undertone
which can also be seen in the visual style. Adventure time has been described
”an epic saga”.Whilst speaking aboutAdventureTime PendletonWard said
“primarily we write the show to entertain ourselves” which I think is a good
thing to go by when creating a show as the creators are having fun making it
as well as still creating jokes funny enough to land well with the audience.
I also really like the visuals for all his shows his style of animation and
characters are instantly recognizable. He uses color very well to help evoke a
certain feeling when you see a character or location for example ”the candy
kingdom” from “AdventureTime” is all bright pinks and yellows and is a happy
utopia for all of its residents, it is usually a happy place which is used to create
shock in episodes where it gets attacked or takes a dark turn.Whereas in
“OverThe GardenWall” in places such as ”the old water mill” the colors are
really dark and unsaturated with shadows and black areas, creating suspense
and fear of the unknown, which is then brought to attention when the
characters explore it and find a shady character.
3. Pendleton
Ward
PendletonWard was interested in animation in animation from a
young age as his mum was an artist who worked with some
animators. He went to CalArts College and that’s where he met J. G.
Quintel who went on to helpWard create his firstTV show on
Nickelodeon.
In 2002-2003 he created his first animated shorts with the name
BuenoThe Bear that was later released by the company Frederator
Studios. He started to create more shorts for a section on Nicktoons
called Random Cartoons. His shorts were ”The BravestWarriors” and
“AdventureTime’ which released in 2006 and because an internet hit
by 2007.This leadWard to initially propose the idea of a full Adventure
Time show to the network at Nickelodeon.This idea was rejected by
them and then got picked up by Cartoon Network. He then got asked
by Cartoon Network to help on the show “The Marvelous
Misadventures of Flapjack” which he would go on to write and
storyboard with J.G. Quintel. He then created AdventureTime which
ran from 2010 to 2018 with a few hour long special releasing in 2020.
Ward grew up never meeting his farther and was raised by only his
mother, Betty.Ward says “I remember being really loving – and
putting my head on people’s shoulders when I was little until people
started telling me I was weird.” which sounds very similar to the way
Finn acts in Adventure time. He said the main influences for
Adventure time were Dungeons & Dragons andThe Simpsons. I
believe that his childhood and being more of a “Just superawkward”
and “weird” kid led to the very abstract and weird aspects of his shows
and also the comedy style and animation he uses.
4. RebeccaSugar
Rebecca Sugar went to Montgomery Blair High School and the
Visual Arts Center at Albert Einstein High School where she got to
the semi finals in the Presidential Scholar competition in arts. She
was a story board revisionist on the first serious of AdventureTime
but because she was so good at what she did, they promoted her
to storyboard artist.
Her main show is Steven Universe. She is known for expressing
and exploring LGBTQ themes within this show. She believes that it
helped her explore her own sexuality and she thinks its important
for kids to learn about these themes at a younger age. Rebecca
Sugars said “I love thinking of cartoon characters feeling really real
feelings” which is another reason her shows work so well as the
characters are somewhat relatable or the audience can have
sympathy towards them, which inspires me to try and create
characters with as much emotion and life as possible.
The reason Rebecca Sugar inspires me is because her cartoons are
very funny and have that quirky weird humor which I enjoy.This is
the same reason I enjoy AdventureTime so much, the random
humor just works with the aesthetes and style as it also does in
Steven Universe. Similarly to AdventureTime the show keeps its
humor throughout all of the series although some of the later ones
are more plot driven and have deeper and more serious meaning.
The Steven Universe film got 100% on rotten tomatoes and critics
say that the film is “love letter to the medium of animation”.
5. HenrySelik
Henry Selik would draw constantly from the ages 3-12 and got
very interested in animation after he saw Lotte Reiniger's stop-
motion movieThe Adventures Of Prince Achmed. He graduated
from Rumson-Fair Haven High School in 1970.Central Saint
Martins CollegeOf Art & Design in London, Selick eventually
enrolled at CalArts to learn animation.
He started of his career by doing freelance work on smaller
production films, before landing a job with Disney and then
collaborated withTim Burton to createThe Nightmare Before
Christmas.With the immense success of this movie he joined
LAIKA to make Coraline.This film was also another massive hit
and was nominated for a BAFTA and a GoldenGlobe both for best
animated feature.
The reason Selik inspires me, similar to another animatorTravis
Knight is because all of his films have that distinct style (being
stop-motion) that already makes the film stand out of the crowd. I
also enjoy his films because he manages to make them child
friendly but also fun for adults to watch that instantly increases
the target audience. I also think that he puts a lot of thought into
his characters and he puts a lot of effort into creating realistic
characters that can be related to by viewers. He makes the
characters have personality's that we as the audience can relate to
and all of his characters have reasoning and a story to them.
6. PixarStudios
The reason I like films created by Pixar is because they always
have a deeper meaning behind them or explore social issues etc.
for exampleToy Story explores the virtues of cooperation over
pitifulness. Nemo lets parents know the darker side of child
abduction.The movie Inside Out was directed by a doctor. "I think
that's one of the nice things about Pixar movies,” said child
psychologistOmar Gudino. "They really deal with something that
might be considered darker in tone or more adult in subject
matter in a way that's really accessible.”
I think that Pixar manage to create a similar feel as Henry Selik
does with his films where they are mainly aimed at children but
adults also find them interesting.The way that the weave a deeper
meaning and story line into the main story and it helps kids
understand these issues or situations at a younger age.Also these
films have both sad and happy moments which I want my FMP to
have and they all have potential to strike a nerve with adults and
kids.
7. InsideOut
Inside out uses color theory that I will draw inspiration from in my
project.The reason I find the color theory of this film particularly
interesting and inspiring is because the film has similar themes to
to animation I want to create.They use colors really well in this
film to covey emotions and show the audience what tone or
personality each character is going to have.Combined with the
look of the character the audience can clearly tell who is what
emotion.
Also similarly to all of the other films Inside Out has a deeper
meaning beneath it.This is also an inspiration to me because I
would like my short film make the audience feel something for the
character like sympathize or relate etc.
8. Style
Inspirations
I like this style because it is different and a sort of combination of
the anime style in films such as Ponyo and also the more simple
and regular style of the American show AdventureTime.This
episode of the show was one of few episodes to have a guest
director.This episode was directed by noted Japanese animator
MasaakiYuasa and his team animated the whole episode.This
episode was described to be a “Visual Feast” by critics and it
although it has a little more of a simplistic style with the simple
backgrounds etc.
Also the short ”The Night isYoung,Walk on Girl” also by Masaaki
Yuasa has a very abstract and unusual art style.The short is more
of a piece of art similarly to the AdventureTime episode was. I like
this because it feels different and will be taken a lot more seriously
by viewers and critics if the style is more thought provoking and
artistic.
9. Style
Inspirations
The was a short documentary shown on Cartoon Network about a
monster who lives in the human world and gets picked on for
being different by some people because they don’t understand
him.The monster is supposed to be a metaphor for anyone in
society that some people decide to take a disliking to even though
they deserve equal respect. In the short almost everyone apart
from one kid limes the monster and in the end the bully ends up
becoming friends with him too so it normalizes the monster into
society which is a good message to spread.
The main reason I enjoy this animation and take inspiration from it
is because it still has a lighthearted and kid friends approach and
appeal as well as having an important message in it. I also think
the audio style works really well. Although this has quite a lot of
speech in and it’s a documentary, I will draw inspiration from the
lack of audio sometimes in the film to set the tone and mood.
10. Musical
Inspiration
The reason I find this song inspirational for my project is because if
I choose a more realistic path it will set the tone nicely. I also think
it would be better to use a song without vocals as it would be hard
to find one that would fit with the visuals and make sense.
Sometimes you don’t need to hear words to feel a certain emotion
and I think it will work and be a fun challenge to create an
atmosphere with no or as little speech as possible.
This song in particular is also a royalty free song which means if I
were to try and get my video public and send it to places to gather
feedback it will not be able to be claimed for copywrite. I could
also just take inspiration from songs such as this one and then
create my own song which would be a lot more tricky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2SAPrPZVTjs&list=PLwI5HYmo
sZ9bd5E5oUGCYoWP8Vf8g52eW
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Anonymous. (2020). RebeccaSugar.Available:
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