Animated Feature Films: Life Lessons v Entertainment?
Skwigly
Original article: “Send a message” by Ed Hooks
Kenneth Turan, in a favourable May 27th Los Angeles Times review of DreamWorks’ new film “Madagascar” observes that the movie “…benefits from not having any heavy moral to impart or life lesson to teach. It simply wants you to crack a smile…” This set me to considering whether a life lesson in a movie is, in fact, a liability now. Certainly Mr. Turan is not the first person to take that view. Hollywood mogul Jack Warner famously said of a script he was rejecting, “If you want to send a message, send a telegram.”
Carefully sidestepping the larger – and endless – debate about whether film is primarily art or primarily entertainment, I think we can all agree that they are a very big business. The decision to green light a movie is heavily based on an estimate of whether it will make its cost back and get into the profit column. The entertainment industry is not now nor has it ever been altruistic. I’ve heard it said that there is art in entertainment and entertainment in art, and that probably comes close to the truth.
It seems to me, however, that in an effort to maximize profits, studio executives in 2005 can be too often tempted to reduce their green-light decisions to formula. Look at whatever worked last time and do it again, with a twist. Combine movie star voice-over talent with an Elton John sound track and then tie-in deals with Burger King and Toys ‘r Us, and voila! You have the makings of a financial success regardless of whether the story is well told or has a point to it. The inescapable third rail of the contemporary film development process is the profit motive.
Over the past eight or nine years, the industry has lived through a tumultuous debate about whether or not 2D should occupy the shelf next to buggy whips in museums. The major studios proclaimed its demise and said that the public taste favours 3D now. At least that was the argument made in justification of shutting down 2D production. Many critics of this decision, however, contend that the same people who made weak 2D movies will make weak 3D movies. 2D was the fall guy for formula-based decisions that fell flat. Disney’s “Treasure Planet” would have been a failure even if it were 100 percent 3D because the script and high concept are weak.
So, where is the balance on a scale that measures story on one side and profit potential on the other? Hayao Miyazaki makes very few movies because he has to have a reason for making one in the first place. Disney and DreamWorks want to turn out x-number of movies a year just to keep the machine well-oiled.
WALT DISNEY KNEW
Walt Disney was primarily a storyteller. If you had told him that he would never make any money from his movies, I have a hunch he would have made them anyway. This is a major difference between Walt and the folks that run Disney and DreamWorks today. Animation is a division rather than the reason for existence. Executives answer to boards of directors and stockholders rather than an artistic vision.
At this point in time, I contend that John Lasseter is Walt’s true heir apparent, and that is the main reason Pixar has an unblemished string of financial successes. It is not because Pixar mastered 3D animation; it is because, at Pixar, story comes first. The trap for Pixar is, of course, that the fun company has become something of an 800-pound gorilla in the industry, and it is going to be increasingly difficult for Lasseter to make movies only if they have a point. Pixar stock is up, and the pressure will be to turn out even more movies to satisfy Wall Street. Start thinking like that, and you start thinking formula.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF STORYTELLING
Movies are branches on a theatrical genealogical tree that has roots in ancient shamanism. Thousands of years ago, when nomadic tribes followed the herds in Mesopotamia, shamans would step forward whenever the tribe got into trouble. Perhaps the weather would turn extreme, or the herd would get sick; the shaman would put on a mask, paint himself blue and gather the tribe around, chanting to the animal gods or weather gods. The point was to give the tribe cohesiveness, hope for getting through bad times.
Most university theatrical history courses today will trace theatre’s roots back only to Greece, but the Greek theatre was simply an extension of the shamanistic tradition. In ancient Greece, there were five tribes, and each of them was represented by ten members of a large chorus. All of the tribes would gather together and the chorus would chant to Dionysus, the wine god, the god of life and love. It was still shamanism, but it was more structured.
As Christianity emerged, shamanism shifted into the drama as we know it today. Actors appeared on stage and began to talk back to the chorus, and the subject matter began to focus on the relationship between men rather than on man’s relationship with the gods. The drama began dealing with topics like greed and lust and love. It revolved around the choices that we humans make in order to live a successful life.
Fade out, Fade in 20th century. Film becomes an offshoot of the legitimate theatre. And, in due time, animated film becomes an offshoot of live-action film. Enter Walt Disney.
“Snow White”, “Pinocchio”, “Dumbo” and all of the other wonderful early Disney features carried life lessons. After all, many of them were taken from fairy tales. Yes, the audiences were drawn to the new art form of animation just for the beauty of it, but beauty alone would not have kept them there. The audience is the modern day equivalent of the ancient tribe, and there needs to be some reason for gathering together in the first place.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
This is not to suggest that every movie carry a message like “The Last Temptation of Christ”, but the lack of message exposes how vulnerable is the underbelly of high-concept and “formula” pictures.
Perhaps the issue is not whether or not a movie should have a life message, but how that message is conveyed. According to the American Film Institute list of most popular movies ever made, “Some Like it Hot” (1959) is near the top. It is indeed one of the funniest movies ever made, in my opinion, but underneath its madcap surface is an exploration of the male and female in us humans. All of that cross-dressing makes a point, the same as Dustin Hoffman would later in “Tootsie”.
The jury is still out about the financial fate of “Madagascar”. It had a pretty good opening, maybe enough to satisfy Wall Street analysts. Jeffrey Katzenberg has a lot of pressure on him to follow up the “Shrek” franchise with something – anything – else that is profitable. So far, he hasn’t had a lot of luck. And “Madagascar” may or may not have a life lesson in it. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton (May 27th) said in his review: “Fortunately, this (“Madagascar”) isn’t a National Geographic nature documentary. The … film’s point — that friendship, if strong enough, can overcome any obstacle — comes across.” For Kenneth Turan, the lack of life message is an asset; for Paul Clinton, there is just enough life message to provide a motive for the movie.
My sense of things is that there is much to be learned from Walt. Rather than starting with an imperative to produce x-number of movies per year, it would be better to begin with the shamanistic impulse. When you make a movie, you are drawing a circle in the dirt and calling the tribe together. The people that make production decisions for the big studios would profit from taking into account that they are answering not only to stockholders, but to the tribe.
ABOUT ED HOOKS
Ed Hooks is the author of “Acting for Animators” (Heinemann, revised 2nd edition 2003). He has been a theatre professional for three decades and teaches acting to both animators and actors. He has taught for many companies, including Disney Animation (Burbank, Orlando and Sydney, Australia), DreamWorks/PDI, Lucas Learning, Animal Logic, Rising Sun Pictures, Microsoft (X-Box/Fasa Studio), Will Vinton Studios, Valve, Midway Games, Big Idea, BioWare, Tippett Studio, Wild Brain, OddWorld Inhabitants, Mondo Media, Scanline Productions (Munich Germany) and Crystal Dynamics. He is a yearly guest instructor at Ringling School of Art and Design (Sarasota, Florida) and has taught at Ohio State University, Nanyang Polytechnic Institute in Singapore, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg Germany and HFF in Potsdam. He was a featured speaker at Animex 2001, 2002 and 2003 at the University of Teesside in England, at FMX ’99, ’02 and ’05 in Stuttgart and SAND/2003 in Swansea, Wales. He has twice taught at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia and was a 2003 visiting artist at Victorian School of Film and Television in Melbourne, Australia. Ed’s newest book is “Acting in Animation: A Look at 12 Films”. You can learn more about Ed’s work by visiting his web sites, www.ActingForAnimators.com and www.edhooks.com.