Promoting Good Animation

Kelvin Thompson
Sep 3, 2018 · 1 min read

I chose this sequence from ‘Mawaru Penguindrum’ for my promotion because it exemplifies that which I think is truly unique to animation. It’s able to effortlessly express a shift between the visually real and the collective unconscious by virtue of the fact that both real and unconscious are surreal when expressed through the lens of animation. It takes full command of visual language without appearing to be unusual for it; specifically in metaphors such as a young woman, Himari, blooming from a flower as a penguin empress; a visual expression of her commanding her own inner divinity.

On top of that, it’s able to seamlessly integrate the elevated emotionality of a musical sequence by fusing it with the elevated emotionality that tends to accompany animation, regardless of what type it is. And it complements not just as non-diegetic sound but as diegetic dialogue.

BetweenTheFrames

Animated analysis from UMBC's Intro to Animation class

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