Tuesday 15 February 2011

Research:- Tom And Jerry: Piano Rhapsody Episode

Whilst thinking of new ideas for my ballet animation, I decided to think deep about anything I knew about that has already been used in media which related to opera or ballet. I was specifically looking for film or cartoon that shows some sort of creativity, chaos or comedy within the ballet/opera performance besides the performance itself.

I remember in my earlier days I always used to watch Tom & Jerry (I think Ive seen all the episodes) and I remember a specific episode being about a stage performance which Tom being the pianist and Jerry being the one trying to ruin everything. After a quick search I have found out that the music is actually a real symphony called Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 2 by Franz Liszt. This Tom & Jerry episode was simply an expressionistic take made to show how the musics highs and lows could be expressed visually in a cartoon, from one persons opinion/point of view (this being Fred Quimby's take). This was all nice to figure out as, of course, I didn't know this when I watched this episode for the first time as I was only about 6 or 7.









Now, how can this be used for my animation?

Well when I watch this I find it very inspiring. Although it has no ballet in it, I still see this as relative reference material because its set in a theatre or opera house, which is where a ballet is likely to be. The music they would dance to is also similar. The main reason I like this though is because it gives me ideas for how I could turn my simple ballet performance idea into something funny, chaotic and generally interesting to watch. This episode is a good example of how a simple concert could be turned into catastrophy and i will be refering to it to to create some ideas for my project.

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