Initial Research

Below are some of my initial ideas for my COP topic

Study Task 1

LAUAN501 Preparatory Task

How do aesthetics and style reflect the content, function and audience of animation?

1. Jan Svankmajer - Food (1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJObamrXEc
I did some research into the animator and found out that while his work is noticeably political in content, Svankmajer is quick to point out that he maintains an inherent commentary and perspective which is not tied to any particular school of thought. 
The dissolution of Czechoslovakia took place the year after Svankmajer released this film, this split the state of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. 
Globally, Germany had been reunited after 45 years of separation and Nelson Mandela had been freed.

2. PES - Western Spaghetti (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM
This short film by PES won a 2009 Sundance Film Festival Award. He is an American stop motion artist. In America in these years the first black president, Barack Obama, was elected into office. This was a big step in US history. Ongoing financial crisis and recession which began in late 2007 continued with many calling it the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s causing house prices to decline, and unemployment to increase. In 2009 governments in the US and around the world pumped trillions of dollars into the financial system and into the economies hoping to avert another Great Depression and by the end of 2009 although unemployment had continued to increase, markets had recovered and most thought the worst was over.

3. Salvador Dali/ Walt Disney - Destino (1945 - 2003)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzhAB7ZKE8
Production began in 1945 but the film wasnt released until 58 years later in 2003. Dalí’s first visit to Hollywood came in 1937. He was keen to create an animated film, a medium he saw as ideal for bringing to life the metaphysical. Writing to the French founder of Surrealism, André Breton, Dalí noted that Surrealism’s influence had become so “enormous” that “creators of animated cartoons are proud to call themselves Surrealists.”“I have come to Hollywood and am in contact with the three great American Surrealists – the Marx Brothers, Cecil B. DeMille, and Walt Disney,” he told Breton. I find it interesting that he referred to Disney as a surrealist. The project had to be abandoned when Disney could no longer afford to employ Dali.

4. Studio Ghibli - Spirited Away (2001)
The movie earned 30.4 billion yen, making it the highest grossing film in Japanese history, overtaking Titanic at the box office. The year 2000 in Japan saw the end of the 'Lose Decade,' the last 10 years had been a recession in Japan in comparision to the economic boom they experienced in the 1980s. Technology was still expanding at a high rate, but this made more jobs obsolete as new technologies replaced the old. 
The growth and widespread use of the Internet also began during this time, which connected the world and made way for faster communication, as well as internet culture.

5. UPA - The Tell Tale Heart - (1953)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8evph2fw4Y
This animation is based off the 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe.  The British Board of Film Censors made this the first cartoon to receive an adults-only X certificate in the United Kingdom. 
In America in 1953 the first colour television sets are available, selling for $1,175. Elsewhere, the Korean war had ended and Queen Elizabeth II was crowned the queen of England.