Ed's Newsletter - October 2003

Due to the lengthy Craft Notes this month (an acting analysis of "Dumbo"), I am reluctantly abbreviating my thanks to those that have hosted my Acting for Animators workshop during the past few weeks. Cyber hugs to the folks at Ringling School of Art and Design (Florida), Disney Feature Animation (Florida), all the animators in Denver (special salute to Anne-Elizabeth!) and Ohio State University/CCAD. I had a wonderful time with everybody and deeply appreciate being a part of your extended family!

HAVE YOU SEEN THE WEBSITE FOR 'BELLEVILLE RENDEZ-VOUS"? Heh. http://www.bellevillerendezvous.com/

ED HOOKS ARTICLE COMING UP in "Game Programmer" Magazine, December issue. Topic: The relationship between mocap and animators.

PAUL EKMAN told me in an e-mail that, if an animator is going to purchase only one of his books, it should be What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding System (Facs (Series in Affective Science)

LESLIE BISHKO (http://asifa.net/+/bishko/) will teach a 3-hour Laban for Animators workshop in Toronto on November 26th. It will be held at Max the Mutt Animation School. For more details, phone the school at 416-703-6877 or e-mail Leslie directly at lbishko@eciad.ca. Leslie will also participate in LIMS 25th Anniversary Celebration on November 22nd n New York City.

The trade paperback edition of MICHAEL BARRIER'S wonderful book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age is now available.

ED HOOKS' S UPCOMING SCHEDULE

November 1 The College for Creative Studies, Detroit
November 6-9 - Cineme, Chicago's first International Animation Film Festival (http://www.Cineme.org)
November 19-21 Projector Animation Festival, Dundee Scotland
November 26-29 - Swansea Animation Days, South Wales, UK - http://www.sand2003.org.uk/
Jan 26-30, 2004 Animex 2004, Teesside England

CRAFT NOTES

"DUMBO": AN ACTING ANALYSIS Sometimes it is good to go back to the well. If you want to see animation at its early best, rent the DVD of Disney's 1941 masterpiece, "Dumbo". I did that a few days ago and have been grinning ever since. What a lovely piece of work! And of course the list of credits is a Who's Who of animation. Ben Sharpstein was the supervising director, Joe Grant and Dick Huemer wrote the screen story; Norm Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Bill Roberts, Jack Kinney and Sam Armstrong were sequence directors. Bill Tytla, Fred Moore, Ward Kimbell, John Lounsbery, Art Babbitt and Woolie Reitherman were all animators on it. Wow! And the DVD features a wonderful extra in John Canemaker's optional historical narrative. John is himself a treasure in the animation industry, but that is subject matter for another newsletter. Right now, I want to talk about the flying elephant.

I have keyed the acting analysis to the DVD, chapter by chapter. It is easy for you to follow along if you will simply put the DVD on and click to each chapter as you read my notes.

CHAPTERS

1, Opening Credits

2. "Look out for Mister Stork" The storks deliver babies to the circus. At the end of the sequence, we first meet Mrs. Jumbo, whose baby is late in arriving. She stretches her trunk into the night sky, searching in vain for her baby. Note that her gaze and thought processes is quite specific. She focuses on the incoming baby/parachute to her left and follows it hopefully as it descends from the sky. When it floats into another animal's area, her thought process is, "That's not my baby...". Then she returns to searching the sky. Another baby/parachute descends to her right and she hopefully follows that one as it, too, floats into another animal's area. Then she again searches the sky. No more baby/parachutes. Her thought is, "My baby is not coming tonight..." And she sags a bit in disappointment. (Acting notes: A scene is a negotiation. Mrs. Jumbo is playing an action (searching the sky for her baby), in pursuit of an objective (trying to find her baby) while overcoming an obstacle (conflict with the situation). Also: Play an action until something happens to make you play a different action. She follows each baby/parachute, first with hope and then with disappointment. When she is certain that one of them is not hers she returns to the search. One thought and action at a time.

3. "The Circus Moves On" Mainly a series of connective and expository sequences, establishing that the circus is on the move.

4. "Delivery for Mrs. Jumbo" Also a series of connective and expository sequences, but these have slightly more conflict (obstacles). The stork sitting on the cloud has conflict with the situation as he searches for the precise location of Mrs. Jumbo down below. Once he finds the moving train, he has further conflict with the situation as he searches for the particular car that holds Mrs. Jumbo. Once he finds Mrs. Jumbo, there is slight conflict between the stork and Mrs. Jumbo. She wants to get on with mothering her baby, and the stork wants to go through formalities first, singing Happy Birthday and so on. This is, by the way, an adrenaline moment for Mrs. Jumbo. An adrenaline moment is one that the character will remember when she turns eighty-five years old and looks back on her life. Mrs. Jumbo will always remember the day her baby was born on the moving train. When the stork departs, the level of conflict (between characters) increases as the other elephant matrons make fun of Dumbo's ears. Mrs. Jumbo physically swats them away with her trunk and then sweetly cradles her baby.

5. "Setting up the Big Top" Expository/Connective sequences with very mild conflict as Dumbo learns how to do his part in the circus migration. He is in conflict with the situation due to his small size, big ears and unfamiliarity with the process. At the end of the chapter, he trips on his ears and falls in the mud. Again, conflict with the situation.

6. "A Bath for Dumbo" This is an important series of sequences. It begins by establishing a zero-conflict loving relationship between Dumbo and his mother as she bathes him and plays hide-and-seek. In that sense, this sequence is mainly a connective scene. The audience is lulled into empathic comfort. Then the scene arcs sharply as the human children arrive to taunt Dumbo. Mrs. Jumbo first has conflict with the situation; then as the redheaded boy physically grabs Dumbo and blows in his ear, conflict with situation changes into conflict with another character. Mrs. Jumbo turns red-eyed and defends her baby. She turns the red-haired boy over and spanks him. The circus ringmaster comes in with his whip, which further escalates the conflict between characters. Mrs. Jumbo is subdued with ropes and is separated from her baby. This scene is surely an adrenaline moment, too.

7. "Mrs. Jumbo in Solitary Confinement" The sequences begin by establishing the emotional pain of separation. Conflict with situation. Note that Dumbo tries to be even smaller, hunkering into a corner. That is a status transaction. He comforts himself by gently swaying back and forth, the same kind of movement involved when his mother rocks him. This was foreshadowed at the end of Chapter 4. Emotion tends to lead to action. The emotion is sadness; the action is to comfort himself. Conflict/obstacle is with the situation. Then we meet Timothy Q. Mouse. He is immediately established as an ally of Dumbo when he scares the cruel and gossipy matron elephants. When Dumbo moves to join the older elephants, they close ranks, blocking him out. His action remains to comfort himself, but the kind of conflict involved shifts from conflict with the situation and onto conflict with other characters. He then plays an action until something happens to make him play another action. When he is blocked from the group, he changes direction and goes off to hide under some hay.

8. "Dumbo meets a new friend" Mainly an expository/connective scene in which the relationship between Timothy Mouse and Dumbo is cemented. We then overhear the circus master concocting another act for the Big Top, this one a "pyramid of pachyderms". When Timothy Mouse sneaks underneath the tent flap and whispers into the circus master's ear, there is conflict with the situation.

9. "A Pyramid of Pachyderms" Further establishment of the insensitivity of the circus master as he announces the pyramid of pachyderms in a Big Top Show. When Dumbo runs out to the springboard, he trips over his ears. Again, the conflict is with the situation. As Dumbo tumbles into the ball, and topples the pyramid, the resulting calamity and bedlam reminds me of the payoff in "Squirrelly in the Diner" in Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant".

10. "Dumbo's Disgrace" Dumbo experiences shame and embarrassment when he is used as a circus clown. He also experiences fear when he is forced to jump off the burning tower into the net below. Audiences only empathize with emotion and, in this case, the emotion is fear. We feel sympathy (literally, "feeling for") for Dumbo, but we also feel a lot of empathy (literally, "feeling into"). Timothy Mouse subsequently tries to cheer him up. By the end of the sequence, Dumbo is perfectly miserable and in tears. Conflict with the situation.

11. "Dumbo Visits his Mother" This is one of the most famous animation sequences of all time. No dialogue passes between Dumbo and his mother, and there is no side narration from Timothy Mouse. We are left to watch mother and child try to touch one another even though they can't see one another. Their trunks touch and entwine lovingly. The action on both parts is to touch, and the obstacle is with the situation.

12. "Dumbo Gets the Hiccups" This is a fun and expository sequence. The animators had to get Dumbo, a baby after all, drunk and still make it all seem harmless. The acting lesson would be in the way that Timothy Mouse and Dumbo react to the champagne. Neither of them has ever been drunk before so they don't know anything about trying to preserve their dignity while drunk. They are simply taken along for an alcoholic ride. Note the relaxation in their bodies and the shifting power centers.

13. "Pink Elephants on Parade" This is a colorful big-orchestra, extended "Fantasia"-like sequence and there is very little acting involved. The humor is based on improbability and morphing (elephant trunks turn into trumpets; elephants turn different colors...). It's the kind of lovely stuff that we no longer see in animated features.

14. "Up a Tree" We meet the crows, brilliantly animated by the great Ward Kimble. Once Dumbo and Timothy wake up and realize they are up a tree, they both have conflict with the situation. Dumbo's action is to hang on and not fall. The obstacle is gravity. In any negotiation, there is a way to win and a way to lose. If he can regain his balance in the tree, he wins; if he falls, he loses. He falls of course.

15. "When I see an Elephant Fly" The crows perform a show-stopping musical number in which they mock Dumbo for thinking maybe he can fly. The sequence is exuberant and fun and good-natured. It's just a marvelous a showpiece. After the singing stops, Timothy Mouse shames the crows for having made fun of poor Dumbo. The crows shed tears of empathy, and we know for sure they are going to be friends.

16. "Dumbo Flies" The crows give Dumbo a "magic feather"/placebo and shove him off a cliff. Dumbo's initial emotion is fear as he approaches the precipice. Once in the air, the emotion changes to happiness and delight.

17. "Dumbo's Surprise" Back under the Big Top, Dumbo is dressed as a clown and once again poised to jump from the burning building into the net below. This time the perch is several times higher than it was last time, creating the possibility of real danger. As Dumbo plunges toward earth, he drops the magic feather. Timothy Mouse slides to the end of Dumbo's trunk and pleads with him to spread his ears and fly even without the magic feather. The acting note is that emotion tends to lead to action. Dumbo is falling rapidly. If he will not fly, he will likely die. The stakes could not be higher. It is an adrenaline moment. That is why Timothy Mouse is so agitated. When Dumbo narrowly avoids disaster and soars into air above the circus audience, we feel relief and joy. Then Dumbo gets back at all the people and animals that have made fun of him. They are caused to trip, fall in buckets of water, go tumbling and so on. At this point, it is they that have the conflict with the situation, not Dumbo. They are acting to protect themselves and the conflict is that Dumbo is on their case.

The final sequence in which the circus train moves on to the next town simply ties up the theme in a nice package. The underdog has prevailed. Lesson learned.

OVERALL When "Dumbo" was made in 1941, the style of animation contained much more pantomime than it does today. Notice how Timothy Q. Mouse, for instance, continually illustrates the spoken word with generic gesture. There was evidently no consideration at all of such things as Chekhov's Psychological Gesture. Dumbo's tears are also interesting. Vladimir (Bill) Tytla animated Dumbo, and boy did he ever capture the illusion of emotion! Elephants are rumored to cry but my research is that they do not in fact cry. According to "Crying: A Natural and Cultural History of Tears" - W.W.Norton, 2001 by Tom Lutz - only humans cry tears of sadness. Reflection of reality or not, animal tears are often used in animation to elicit empathy.