Like most things that intrigue me, I immediately wanted to analyze it. Initially I wanted to break down its narrative phrases, maybe write about acting patterns (because this has a good one), but that made me want to write up a quick post about something that I've been thinking about more and more-- character arcs. Specifically, the way in which a character's emotional arc is mirrored in their physical arc.
Now, there are countless great examples of this sort of thing in both live action and animated films, and maybe I'll write more extensively on the subject later on, but for now I'm just going to dig into this one piece.
Short as this shot is, it provides the character with a nice emotional arc-- he starts off hushed and timid, gains some backbone, becoming tenacious and inquisitive, before escalating into straight-up enraged. There's your character arc. Easy peasy, lemon squeezey (I heard that in a movie once).
Now, what makes this piece so well done is the manner in which that character arc is manifested physically. Check it out:
Quiet, timid, feels his fate is at the mercy of external forces...
Gains some backbone (literally and figuratively)...
Acquisition of backbone begets inquisitivity, no longer so timid, determined to take control of his fate...
Escalation...
Frustrated, Enraged.
Aside from the poses being so well constructed, and the arcs being so beautifully clean, the character moves seamlessly through this progression of poses, these physicalisations of emotion. You can't animate emotions, after all. Only actions. But that's another post entirely...
Anyway, it's something to be mindful of-- mirroring a character's thought process through physical action. It's the sort of thing that separates the good stuff from the really good stuff.
-Lucas
