An investigation into the codes and conventions of Disney animation Essay Example

characters to life, it makes it seem more realistic and makes you seem as if you are in the film.Disney's target audience is aimed at families with children and young children themselves. Each Disney film has a moral and teaches children that good always wins over evil, every Disney film has it, that's why Disney films use things like the colours to help young people realise who is who. For example, the villain always has dark surroundings and dark features like shadowy eyes whereas the hero will be shown in bright places and is normally clean-shaven to show he is good.The bright colours in Disney films help to attract the attention of the target audience.

The fact is that most animated Disney films are aimed at young children because when the film is animate, you can make anything appear real. The voices of the animals and people are designed to make the audience laugh, therefore attracting their attention.The music in Disney films wont have swearing or bad language in them as it would not be good for the children, also it would never be rock music or heavy metal etc so it will always be classical or pop as not to scare or disturb the children.Tarzan is a stereotypical Disney hero because he is kind, generous and always defends his friends and family.

His iconographic feature is that he is always shown with nature which implies that he is kind o it and respects it, unlike Clayton's iconographic feature which is a gun which implies the opposite. He is rugged, yet has a shaven face which is almost angelic because although he has strong features

like a pointed nose and a strong structured chin, his tanned face and the contrast between that and his deep blue eyes makes him seem nothing but good. When he is on screen in the film the mise-en-scene is always the sun shining or bright green leaves behind him, all of this makes him again stand out in the screen as a good person.He is always shown with a smiling face and never a frowning or evil expression on his face unless it is to the villain, which is understandable. Some of the camera shots used in the film involve a close up on a picture of Tarzans family during the middle of the film, this shows he is recognising the picture. At the end when Tarzan shows Clayton and Jane the gorillas part of the forest, there is a long shot so it can fit in all the gorillas' nests into the picture.

Some examples of Tarzans kind and caring behaviour include a tie in the film where Tarzans family is going to get approached by the leopard so Tarzan battles with it despite its sharp teeth and claws, because he is the good one and is the main character of the film he cannot die so therefore beats the leopard and saves his family.The villain in Tarzan it Clayton, we can tell he is the villain because of his iconographic features such as his dark coat and the fact he always carries a gun. His facial features are also rugged like Tarzans but are not as soft like his eyes are brown and shadowy, his nose is long and pointed and his chin

is strongly built. The first time we see Clayton he is chopping through the trees so is therefore being harmful to nature. Also Clayton is very pale in comparison to Tarzan who is tanned; the contrast in his pigment can imply a contrast in personalities or character roles. Some of the shots used to look at Clayton during the film involve a close up of his gun which implies it is something that is going to get used later in the film or it is something that we need to keep an eye on, it also involves several medium shots of him with dark surroundings showing he is a bad person.

The sidekicks in Tarzan are Tantor and Turk for Tarzan, the pirates for Clayton, and Archimedes the crazy old man for Jane. Tantor is a huge, hilarious, clumsy elephant, Turk is an ape, Archimedes is a crazy old man, and the pirates are mean and stupid. Tantor is an elephant and when the film starts he is small, the first time he appears in the film he didn't like the water and saw Tarzan swimming and started shouting piranha and screaming, this makes young children laugh because they know it is not a piranha and so find it really funny because he was getting so frantic and exaggerating everything. Turks voice is very funny as it is played by the famous actress, Whoopi Goldberg so it would appeal to the older target audience like the children's parents.The sidekicks in the lion king are the hyenas and one of them is played by Whoopi Goldberg like in Tarzan so is well known for playing sidekicks in

Disney films, the hyenas add the comedy in the film because they all have hilarious voices and do really stupid things so children and adults find them funny.Throughout the film Tarzan, Tarzan changes a lot from the start, he changes from a young innocent baby boy to an adult that saved all the gorillas.

Then he changes again from a life saving man who is respected by all the jungle creatures and Jane to a man who is going to leave it all behind to become a proper gentleman in London rather than the gorilla that he has been brought up to be, but soon realises that he is meant to live in the jungle, it is where he lives and was brought up as it is his life. This is like in the loin king where samba leaves pride rock, then realises at the end of the film that it is where hw is meant to be and goes back to live with his friends and family.The villain in Tarzan is Clayton and he dies at the end through no fault of Tarzans. He is trying to kill Tarzan and gets tangled in the vines and dies by hanging himself, Tarzan shouts at him 'no' so was trying to save him and stop him hurting himself. Disney's ideology tries to enforce that good always wins over evil, this is shown by the death of Clayton because they have equal strength but because Tarzan is the good person or the hero he survives and Clayton dies. Clayton slips and falls and Tarzan tries to stop Clayton from the cutting the vines around him but he

doesn't listen so he ends up dying.

It obviously doesnt show home dead or dying, as not to scare or startle the children who they don't wasn't to happen. Disney also tries to tell the audience that it is bad to destroy nature, it does this by showing only Clayton the villain and the pirates destroying it and at the end they lose so it is bad to ruin nature so it is trying to say that if you are bad you will lose.The heroine in Tarzan is Jane, she is tanned, has a small nose, brown eyes, light brown hair, big hips and a small waist, all these things show that she is petite, and may not be able to stand up for herself, her hair is long a d flowing and she is made like a china doll and made out to be very precious, but although it may come across as her being fragile and vulnerable, she is actually very independent and well educated.Snow white however is shown as being petite, with black hair, pale skin, blood red lips, very well shaped with big hips and a tiny waist, she is shown as being very fragile and needs rescuing by a prince, which is very typical of classic Disney heroines. Although all Disney heroines used to be very similar, they have changed due to a change in society as Disney was being accused of being racist and sexist so they made films multicultural such as Mulan and Pocahontas to show they were multicultural. They used Mulan as she has a Chinese origin and was a war fighter with brown eyes, short dark

hair and a manly figure.

At the beginning of Tarzan when the audience first sees Jane she is in a very inappropriate dress with white gloves and neat hair, she was made to be very stereotypical of an English lady and her accent is very strong. During the film she gets to know Tarzan and at first was scared of him, swinging on the vines, and sliding along the branches, but at the end of the film you see her swinging and gliding through the jungle wearing nothing but a piece of fabric.In Mulan, the film starts with Mulan wearing a very traditional Chinese style dress and having long flowing hair, although not having the characteristics of other traditional Disney heroines. She wears dresses made f satin and is close to her family. Later on in the film she cuts all her hair off so she can go and fight instead of her father, she pretends to be a boy and fights in wars, trains hard and ends up with a manly figure, muscular body and short hair.Disney present women as damsels in distress, incapable of looking after themselves and needing the help of others to survive.

Women in Disney films are always pretty with a typical hourglass figured body with a small waist and big hips; they almost always wear pale coloured dresses and dainty shoes to make them look more woman like. Heroines always have pale skin and are always very pretty with bright eyes and smooth skin.When Jane was in the jungle in Tarzan and she had neared the end of her visit, her clothes were still clean and although she clearly hadn't

been able to shave her legs during the time she had been there her legs were still smooth and tanned like before. This shows that the women in Disney films never look rough, they always look neat and tidy.Todorovs theory of how a film should structure is, equilibrium, disequilibrium, restoration, in Tarzan the film starts with a disequilibrium as it shows Tarzan and his parents jumping out of a flaming boat into the water, then there is equilibrium as it shows them at home in their house, then it goes back to disequilibrium for the whole film when they are in the jungle and Tarzan is living with the apes and the whole concept of Tarzan and Karla being family is disequilibrium, but then at the end of the film there is restoration when Tarzan and Jane are singing through the vines together, the villain is dead, and the gorillas are safe.In the lion king the layout of the film is different, it is equilibrium, disequilibrium, restoration, that is how the traditional Disney film is supposed to be played out according to Todorov.

They use this layout as it is the easiest for the young children watching the film to understand, it starts with Simba being born and everything being fine, then it goes onto Simbas dad, mufasa dieing, samba running away, and everything goes wrong, then it finishes with samba coming home, scar getting killed and everything is fine again.In both films the disequilibrium's last for the whole film like in Tarzan he is living with the gorillas, and in the Lion King scar rules over pride rock, and also they are very similar

as both the heroes start off as babies and grow up with animals.The mise-en-scene of the opening scene of Tarzan is very typical of a Disney film as it is a bad thing that's happening so the background is dark and the sea is very choppy, and the weather is stormy and rainy, which is pathetic fallacy, used in Disney films a lot to set the scene, the people end up in ragged ripped clothing which also shows that bad things have happened.In the lion king the film starts with the sun shining, the sky bright blue, and everything is cheery. This is typical of a Disney film to show everything is ok and good there will often be bright colours used and bold shapes, there will always be a dark dull background when there are bad things happening, and a bright background when good things are happening.Some examples of iconography used in Tarzan to give particular ideas would be Claytons gun, this shows he is clearly the villain there is no possible way that in a Disney film someone with a gun is a good person or the hero, it is only the villain and the villains sidekicks that carry a gun.

The fire of the gun at the beginning of the film indicates bad things are happening are going to happen and people are in trouble. The fat that Tarzan is clean shaven also implies Tarzan is a good character as Clayton has stubble which makes him look more aggressive than Tarzan like more of a man and some typical views of a man with stubble is that he is a villain or

not well liked. Tarzan also has long luscious locks that are brown so shows he is good compared to Clayton's short black hair. The fact Archimedes wears glasses makes him seem like a clever old mad a bit like a mad scientist and could be a bit mental.

Propps theory helps fit eight character roles into the narrative structure of the film because the hero always saves the day and will normally win a heroine, that is two characters already, the hero will always have a villain to fight with, the lady will have a sidekick of some sort, like a father or mother and someone often there to help protect them when they are on their own as they are a lady. The hero will often have two sidekicks to add comedy and humour into the film and the villain will have a sidekick to help fight the hero in the end that altogether makes eight characters that will all fit into the plot of the film. As well as the main eight characters there will always be a few additional characters to keep the film going and to tie things together, they are also there to keep the audience interested.The Disney corporation has affected my life by teaching me the things I learned when I was very little like good always wins over evil, and that destroying nature is a bad thing, and although I am not always good, I am sometimes evil without Disney films to keep me occupied when I was smaller I would have been causing havoc round my house so I think my mum and dad benefit from the entertainment

purposes of Disney films as well as young children.Many people will never grow out of Disney films as they appeal to all target audiences and include a range of all different characters like in Tarzan it has a man living in the jungle, talking animals, a typical English lady, a crazy old man, a big strong evil man and pirates, but putting all these different types of characters on the Disney films they will always appeal to all different people.

Mothers and fathers with young children will also enjoy Disney films, as they will keep their children occupied for hours so they will perhaps sit and watch the films with their families. Also when people get older they may sometimes like to revisit their childhood and they may be able to do this by watching Disney films.