Promoting good animation with The Legend of Korra
The Legend of Korra is an interesting pick for me, because I’ve watched many shows that have taken my breath away or broken the rules that my mind had put on animation (Mob Psycho 100, The Amazing World of Gumball, etc). The Legend of Korra however is a most fresh in my mind because I was recently watching earthbending scenes to use as drawing reference. I stumbled upon the scene above, and perhaps it’s because I was rewatching something I hadn’t seen in years, but I felt a new appreciation for the show.
The clip starts off with a weapon firing. Now I’m not an expert on this, and I rarely notice when it happens, but the weapon is actually a 3D object (I’m 98% sure). This isn’t exactly a new technique, but it makes me think about the artists behind the show who didn’t have to hand draw frames upon frames of this complicated machine, and it makes me a little happier.
It’s hard to do this next part justice with a screenshot but it also makes me happy.
In this part, Suyin and Lin Beifong earthbend together. This shows that even though there has been much strife between the two sisters, they can still work in sync with one another. To me this is a nice story element and a very cool shot.
The next fight sequence is a 1v1 between Kuvira, the antagonist, and Suyin and I just think the whole sequence is cool. I’d like to point out that the movements that these fighters use when earthbending seem more grounded and strong (not sure how to explain it) while when metalbending, their movements are more fluid and blade-like(?). This change is also complemented by the sound design. When there is metalbending, we hear blades and wires, while earthbending is marked by rocks and dust. This helps emphasize the notion that metalbending is a more refined version of earthbending.
Can we appreciate this use of the rule of thirds? The focus also changes from foreground to background, before switching to the people on the ground’s point of view.
So, I love smears. I. Love. Smears. Smears… are so great. They’re subtle and easy to miss but they make everything seemmore dynamic and I feel like they are a must for any animation that involves combat or quick movements. This show has tame smears compared to others, but I appreciate them nonetheless. Please let me know if I overdo my smears over the course of this class.
There aren’t many negative elements in my eyes. The only ones I can think of are related to sound and are pretty nitpicky.
Firstly, the backing score is almost imperceptible and sounds quite generic. Maybe that’s for the best. I’m not an expert, but in my mind, a fight like this should be backed by an epic score to get the audience pumped up. Obviously there are some fights that benefit from a lack of sound (see Naruto and Sasuke’s final battle), but I doubt that kind of intensity is what The Legend of Korra producers were going for.
My last nitpick is the voice acting when Suyin is throw off of the giant weapon. Again, I’m not a VO expert, but in a fight sequence that had very little voice work in it, these groans are pretty noticeable and feel off to me.
That’s the end of it. GO watch the show if you haven’t already.
