A Brief History of Animation
Introduction
From the beginning of the twentieth century, a time when the film genre, then called a cinematograph or cinema, was in its infancy, the idea of using drawn pictures rather than actual photographs for the technique has captured audiences around the world. The industry has since come a long way from the grainy pencil-rendered drawings of films like Krazy Kat (1915), Betty Boop (1922-25), and Gertie the Dinosaur (1913), most of which were based on newspaper funnies of the day. Today’s animated films are works of art in and of themselves, each frame executed as carefully as its live-action counterpart, and in most cases more so.
Early Animation
Early cartoons were closely related to their predecessors, the comics found in the day’s newspapers, affectionately called “the funnies”. With such close “bloodlines” to a notoriously outrageous genre, early cartoons were based on visual gags and jokes, usually of the physical kind. Characters routinely swallowed swords, fell out of airplanes, and were kicked into next Thursday by cows with over-sized udders; this was the sort of general crude humor that populated the twenties and thirties. Jokes regarding Prohibition were popular and often rooted out by the first few versions of censors.
Audiences didn’t want the quality or thought-out stories we have today; for in a country facing the Great Depression followed swiftly by World War II, they wanted to laugh and smile, not think about an engaging plot.
Truthfully, it was not until Walt Disney’s gamble in the late thirties that opened up animation’s potential as a valid form of expression. This gamble was, of course, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), the world’s first full-length animated feature. For this first and great achievement, Walt Disney was presented with one full-size Oscar and seven miniature ones by none other than child starlet, Shirley Temple. The simple fairy tale originally penned by the Grimm Brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, was handled in a sensitive and considered way. Most importantly, the characters were designed in such a way that they were inoffensive and charming to all audiences. The dwarves were not grotesque in any way and Disney animators even omitted the shuffling gait of most real-life dwarves to make them cuter. Snow White herself was modeled after an animator’s daughter and was not the Hollywood sex kitten that audiences were used to thanks to Betty Boop. Funny gags and visual pratfalls made audiences laugh, but what was more important were these drawings that made people cry when it looked as though the Wicked Queen had won. This treatment of a simple storybook tale was what helped Disney into the so-called “big time”.
Mickey vs. Bugs, Book One
From 1937 until recently, Disney was the name in quality feature-length animation, following up Snow White(1937) with Dumbo(1941), Bambi(1942), and the truly artistic Fantasia(1940). There were few, if any competitors in that particular section of the art. Many animation studios were not prepared to attempt a ninety-minute cartoon. However, Disney still had a major rival in the realm of animated shorts, an opponent who wielded a shield of blue and gold, the Warner Brothers Company. To this day, the two are adversaries who ride neck and neck, although the WB (as it is called) is often quieter in the news than Disney.
As long as Disney has been in the business, so has Warner Brothers. As much as the two are business rivals, they are also inseparable. Kirk Johnson of The New York Times had this to say of their perceived conflict in theme.
“The companies and their starkly different stock of characters, already paired in scores of malls, have a complex relationship that owes more to Edith Warton drawing room drama than Buster Keaton pie-in-the-face comedy. They are like two halves of a whole or two sides of the same coin… If Disney wants to make you cry, Warner’s wants to make you laugh.”[1]
The entire difference between the two companies rests there. The Warner Brothers Company, with characters such as Bugs Bunny, Pepe LePew, and Tweety Bird, are more interested in the comic beats and sight gags akin to the early comics of the twenties. Their characters are often based on predator versus prey humor; Bugs and Elmer Fudd, Tweety and Sylvester, Foghorn and the Chicken Hawk. Disney started out in the same vein with Mickey and Peg-Leg Pete, although their relationship was more true to a villain and hero theme than hunter and prey, even if they were a cat and mouse duo.
Disney lives by the idea of making an audience cry, then lifting them up and administering a hug to the soul. Take the meadow scene in Bambi(1942), the stampede scene in The Lion King(1993) or the opening scene of Tarzan(1999); both deal with the death or deaths of “good” characters (Babmi’s mother, Mufasa, and both Tarzan’s parents and a baby gorilla die implied gruesome deaths).
Serious Sides
Disney has successfully dealt with such heavy issues as the loss of a parent[2], sexual desire[3], slavery[4], environmental deterioration[5], child and animal abuse[6], racial and/or sexual discrimination[7], fear of maturity and/or aging[8], and even the idea of Hell[9]. The animators and writers tackled these points with grace and tact, a good example of which might be the Hellfire scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996). The original book by Victor Hugo called for a Catholic priest lusting heavily after a girl of the very race he had vowed to destroy; not exactly kiddy stuff. First off, Disney changed Claude Frollo from the archdeacon of Notre Dame cathedral to the Minister of Justice in order to appease the Catholic Church. In an effort to soften the rather blatant sexuality and lust the villain felt, it was expressed in song and the audience never saw anything more risqué than a clothed girl made of dancing flames. Adults in attendance understood the sexual implications concisely, but such insinuations were far above the heads of the under twelve crowd. When paired with the light, innocent Heaven’s Light sung by Quasimodo, Hellfire became artistic and captivating rather than lewd, as it might have been in Hugo’s novel.
As a general rule, traditional Warner Brothers characters don’t deal with such problems. It is rather difficult to see Bugs Bunny coping with a drug habit unless it’s a gag, and even if it was, the censors wouldn’t stand for it. However, this doesn’t mean that Warner Bros. doesn’t touch serious matters at all.
The New Breed
At a stark contrast with the zany likes of Animaniacs(1993-98) and Pinky and the Brain(1995-98) are Batman the Animated Series(1993-97), Men In Black(1997-2000), The New Batman-Superman Adventures(1997-2000), and Batman Beyond(1999-2000). These decidedly darker cartoons are more kin to Disney’s Gargoyles than to Bugs and Tweety.
Murder, betrayal, genocide, gunplay, drug trafficking, genetics, cloning, and many controversial matters come into play with these shows whose point is more in the story than in the gags. In fact, jokes and gags are few and far between; these are animated action shows, the Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Sylvester Stallones of the breed. These are more than just after-school or Saturday morning cartoons; most spawning full-length movies dealing with issues like organ donation, inter-racial or inter-species relationships, dark pasts and even darker beginnings. The animation is kept smooth and often more simplified than their cute counterparts, shadows are utilized to the utmost advantage, and silhouettes are a blessing in disguise.
What moves Batman, Superman, and Gargoyles is not the eye-candy, although they are very well drawn, it is the engaging story and plot twists. Adults are often attracted to cartoons of this sort, where there are journeys into the human psyche or into a character's less-than-stellar past. To put it simply, people identify more readily with Batman than with Daffy Duck. There are no black and white characters or plots; heroes can make mistakes and be caustic to other characters, villains can have redeeming qualities and reasons for doing what they do.
For instance, we all know that Batman is the hero of his series, but what he’s
doing in essence is vigilantism, an illegal activity. He lives a lie and is
often bad-tempered and cold. However, he is indisputably the “good guy”.
By comparison, one of Batman’s main enemies, Mr. Freeze, is a disarmingly
sympathetic villain; a man trying to save his dying wife even after suffering
a horrid accident at the hands of a ruthless developer[10].
Technical Developments
After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the Disney Company went on to advance the field of animation with record speed. Walt Disney and its sister-companies are responsible for most, if not all of the progress seen in the genre. Disney has been credited with the first full-length animated feature[11], the development and first use of the multi-plane camera[12], the first use of the Xerox machine[13], the first computer-animated sequence[14], the first animated feature to be nominated for an Academy Award for best Picture[15], the first full-length computer-animated film[16], and the first animated feature to be transferred to the Broadway stage[17]. Many of their films spawned Saturday morning or weekday afternoon television shows, including Aladdin(1993), The Lion King (1994), and Hercules(1997).
Leaps and bounds are now being made by many companies in the animation field; not only Disney, but Warner Bros., the new Dreamworks, and Don Bluth. In recent years, animation has gone so far as to use their advanced technology to attempt more difficult subjects for films. Dreamworks’ first animated film, Prince of Egypt, was the first time a mainstream company had taken on a treasured tale from the Judeo-Christian religion. A sequel for Toy Story(1993) was released in the theaters rather than straight-to-video; a resounding success.
Conclusion
With the technology available now, it’s difficult to imagine anything being impossible with this medium. An animator can send his character through Hell and across Niagara falls and the entire picture will appear as believable as a full-length counterpart… no stunt double needed.
The History of Monsieur Cyrano Savinien Hercule de Bergerac
General History
The early to mid-seventeenth century is often a mysterious time even to seasoned historians. Most individuals interested in history tend to skip over this period, being more interested in the preceding Renaissance or the proceeding Revolutionary period of the United States.
Edmond Rostand’s well-known play, Cyrano de Bergerac takes place over this time. Other plays or books which figure in this period are The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas. Set in France, Cyrano de Bergerac is full of sword-fought duels, wars between France and most every other country, and love letters sealed with pressed wax.
Cyrano’s Gazette
Cyrano de Bergerac is set in a time and place where honor was everything to many men, where poetry and playwriting were mainstream, and where a kind of people known as the precieuses[18] were popular and depended on.
The precieuses were the “beautiful people” of the day; spoiled, rich, snobbish, but intrigued by the written and spoken word. They frequented the many playhouses and poetry recitals and valued wit above all else. The heroine of Cyrano de Bergerac, one Roxane, is a precieuse of the highest ranking. Beautiful, intelligent, challenging, and spoiled, she is a test to any man’s heart.
In direct contrast to the precieuses are the Cadets of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, the young Gascon soldiers of Cyrano’s outfit. Less in the King’s favor than his beloved musketeers, the cadets were rambunctious and eager to fight anything that looked at them the wrong way. Duels and violent free-for-alls make-up an ordinary day for them. To them, if you couldn’t eat it, fight with it, or sleep with it, it wasn’t worth the attention. The other member of the love triangle that forms most of Cyrano de Bergerac’s plot, Christian, is such a man. He is a devilishly handsome fellow with no gift for the sweet words necessary to woo Roxane.
Our title character, Cyrano is almost the happy medium between these two groups. A master swordsman and poet in the same breath, he will challenge anyone who stares at his grotesquely large nose, but he will also stand beneath his true love’s balcony and soften her heart with seductive words in the name of another. This combination of traits may be best expressed in the duel where he fights a snobbish vicomte and composes a ballad about it at the same time.
Cyrano
I’m going to compose one as I fight with you, and when I come to the last line, I’ll draw blood.
Valvert
No!
Cyrano
No? Wait and see! (Declaiming) “Ballade of the Duel Between Monsieur de Bergerac and an Imbecile, In the Hotel de Bourgogne.”
Valvert
What’s all that now?
Cyrano
It’s the title. Wait, I’m thinking of how to begin… There, I have it.
(His actions match his words throughout the ballade)
I take off my hat and discard it,
I slowly abandon my cloak,
I draw my sword out of its scabbard,
Preparing to put it to use.
For the moment, I stand here before you,
Elegant, calm, and serene,
But I warn you, my impudent scoundrel,
When I end the refrain, I draw blood.[19]
Cyrano is a complex character by many standards; a proud and bitter Gascon in desperate love with his own cousin, but too afraid of having her laugh at him to say anything to her. He is an egotistical artist when it comes to his work, snubbing an offer to publish because editors have a habit of changing lines, but he is also a timid and self-depreciative lover, citing his enormous nose as the ultimate turn-off to women. He fights an actor with a powerful patron for no reason other than he looked at his beloved Roxane in an inappropriate way, but refuses to accept morsels of food from a charitable refreshment girl because of his pride.
Cyrano Savinien de Bergerac (1619-1655) was not a fictional person of Rostand’s imaginings, but a real person in history. A poet, playwright, and soldier, he was also the world’s first documented writer of science fiction. Born in Paris in 1619, he was at first a soldier, but abandoned that career in favor of writing tragedies. His most well-known works are two prose fantasies of the science fiction sort. These were combined and translated into Voyages to the Moon and Sun in 1923 by British writer, Richard Aldington. Rostand ran across accounts of Cyrano’s many flamboyant duels and wrote his well-received play in 1898, thereby assuring Cyrano’s place as a romantic hero of literature.
A Nose By Any Other Name
Cyrano de Bergerac touches its audience on several levels; the sword fights thrill, the balcony scene sighs, the final scene aches. However, the most basic principle of this story is the old theme of Beauty and the Beast; a beastly or homely man hopelessly infatuated with a beautiful woman and his dilemmas that ensue. The beast had his animalistic appearance, the Phantom of the Opera had his deformed face, Quasimodo had his hunched back, and Cyrano has his disproportionate nose.
Cyrano wants to be Romeo to Roxane; he longs to confess his deep love for her but is desperately afraid of her reaction. The only way he can express his feelings is through the guise of another, far more handsome man. At times, he is determined to play the martyr, acting proud and bitter to hide his pain. At other times, he is truly the lovelorn knight yearning for his lady’s smile.
Cyrano
Look at me and tell me what hope this protuberance might leave me! I have no illusions. Sometimes, in the blue shadows of an evening, I give way to tender feelings. I go into a garden, smelling the fragrance of spring with my poor monstrous nose, and watch a man and woman strolling together in the moonlight. I think how much I, too, would like to be walking arm in arm with a woman, under the moon. I let myself be carried away, I forget myself- and then I suddenly see the shadow of my profile on the garden wall.[20]
Cyrano, like many of us hides his vulnerability behind a façade of bravado and unerring courage. He seeks out duels and fights as his lungs seek air. He will slice one’s ego with his scathing remarks as surely as his sword will cut one’s skin. He is unable to see himself as he truly is, a charming and ultimately attractive gentleman. The audience sees this readily in the first act during his duel with Valvert and subsequently in the small scene with the refreshment girl.
The Refreshment Girl
(Coughing from behind her little counter)
Ahem! Sir, I… I can’t bear to think of you going hungry. (Points to refreshment table) I have plenty of food here… (Wholeheartedly) Take whatever you like!
Cyrano
(Gallantly taking off his hat)
My dear child, my Gascon pride forbids me to accept the slightest morsel from your fingers, but since I fear a refusal would offend you, I will accept… (Goes to refreshment table and chooses) Oh, very little! One of these grapes… (She tries to give him the whole cluster; he picks off a single grape) Only one!… This glass of water…(She tries to pour him a glass of wine; he stops her) And half a macaroon. (Breaks one and gives her back the other half.)
Le Bret
But that’s ridiculous!
The Refreshment Girl
Oh, please take something else!
Cyrano
I will. Your lovely hand. (She holds out her hand and he kisses it as if she were a princess.)[21]
This part is often cut from films and productions of the play, usually due to time and budget restraints. However, it is my feeling that this sweet end to Scene IV in the first act shows exactly how chivalrous and engaging Cyrano is to the opposite sex even if he doesn’t realize it. Cyrano is not trying to flirt with her or get anything from her; this show of charisma is natural to him.
Every person has something about themselves that bothers them and makes them self-conscious in social situations. For some it may be as trivial as that pimple that appeared out of nowhere last night. It may be that habit of babbling like a brook when put on the spot in front of others. It may be the inability to talk at all. Regardless, everyone has a flaw that is personally considered to be the worst possible fault to have.
Uncle Cyrano?
I have always identified with themes of “beauty and the beast” due to my lack of social acceptance. From the beginning of pre-school I was acutely aware that I was different, even if I didn’t know how. Naturally, my difference was not as obvious as Cyrano’s nose, but it was apparent enough to earn the attention of every bully in the vicinity. Artistic and apt to daydream, I was less in touch with reality than my peers. While they were playing on monkey bars and swings, I was busy being Anne of Green Gables or the Poky Little Puppy between the pages of a book.
I’ve always been far more naïve than my peers as well. I was close to high school before I learned what many of the cruder slang words meant. I learned about the birds and the bees from books rather than from friends.
In a way Cyrano de Bergerac echoes my own feelings and experiences. Each character carries a bit of me in them. Cyrano’s feelings of ugliness and loneliness, Roxane’s naivete and yearning for the perfect love affair, Christian’s inability to “think on his feet” in the presence of those he wishes to impress.
Cyrano’s aching heart is intensely familiar to me as the high school “nerd”. I never went on one date in high school and even missed out on my senior prom because of my difference. I had crushes of course, but I was afraid to approach them due to the risk of refusal. I did not have Cyrano’s witty comebacks to insults on a daily basis, although I had my moments. Nor was I nearly as charming to the opposite sex.
Roxane is unaware of Cyrano’s attraction to her, and it is difficult to tell how she would react if she did. She is the innocence to Cyrano’s brutal courage. I was immaturely naïve up until college and even now, I have been accused of being far too trusting. Roxane drops everything in Paris to travel across Spanish lines to Christian and Cyrano, who are in the front lines in a siege. It never occurs to her that she could be shot or captured by the Spanish and even goes so far as the flirt delicately with the Spanish officers in order to get through. When Christian is killed, she temporarily goes into hysterics. Her dream has been killed and she is unable to deal with it, having to be carried from the battlefield. In the face of adversity, my first instinct is to run away or ignore it and hope for the best.
Christian’s major flaw is not really a flaw at all; he merely gets tongue-tied around women. He certainly chose the wrong lady when he fell in love with Roxane, a precieuse with a penchant for impromptu poetry. He may plan out what he wants to say in advance, but the minute the spotlight shines on him, he becomes the deer caught in the headlights. While my stage fright has for the most part diminished with regards to my singing or acting, when my work is on display or I have a public talk to do, I end up apologizing for my lack of finesse more than I actually talk. I am also affected acutely when my work is criticized. While I may not say anything too defensive, I bristle internally, a trait that is both Cyrano’s and Christian’s.
Christian’s other problem is that one part of him attracts others and another turns them off. I’ve had this experience over the internet in chat rooms and such. People enjoy my personality, a thing affected greatly by the fact that I can’t see them and they can’t see me. I become flirtatious and confident in the privacy of my own home or room, a front that I cannot reproduce in person oftentimes. However, when someone asks for my picture, I hesitate to send it. There have been times when people stop talking to me after seeing my picture.
After identifying with our three major characters so strongly, Rostand’s play seemed the logical choice for my senior thesis subject.
Moving Pictures Inc. Presents
Take One
After seeing last year’s senior thesis presentation, I decided that, while I liked the idea of designing all of the necessary components for a restaurant, I wanted to do something more entertaining. Being the amateur Broadway enthusiast that I am, I am familiar with the designs needed for a musical on the Great White Way. My first idea was to devise the logos, sets, costumes and such for a Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac. There had been an attempt of a musical version of the play sometime in the seventies, which flopped before it ever got out of its previews in Australia[22]. The design I encountered for its CD and playbill was juvenile and badly laid out in my opinion.
Musicals for Broadway are complicated and quite a bit more in-depth than most of its audience members realize. Yes, there are the trials and tribulations of the actors and directors, but there are designers by the dozen behind many of the aspects. Someone decided that the mask logo for The Phantom of the Opera[23] would not match the actual mask used in the play. Someone had to design the seven different cast recordings for Les Miserables[24], keeping them similar enough to be associated with the same musical, yet different enough for fans to know which cast is international, which is Broadway, and which is London.
This was my most well received proposal for my thesis subject during Senior Seminar first semester, senior year. And I toyed with the research a bit, informally looking for books on producing musicals, costumes of the seventeenth-century, and fencing equipment. However, towards the end of the fall semester, my idea changed.
The Infamous Mouth
In Graphic Design III, I had been working on the system of music, which quickly transformed into more general terms with communication and the art of making drawings understood. Approaching the end of the semester and consequently the final project, I happened upon the idea of animating a rough mouth and making it talk.
This was a good idea in theory, but I grossly underestimated the time and skill involved. Two weeks and one pre-college class in cel animation at the University of the Arts did not prepare me for the task. The words I had chosen matched my drawings reasonably up until the actress’ first breath and the movement was very shaky at best, but with my given assets, it wasn’t half-bad.
This project opened up the possibility that perhaps a Broadway musical was not the best medium for Cyrano de Bergerac. A larger-then-life character wants to be on the big screen, not on a stage where the people in the back look like ants staring down at you.
Take Two
My basic idea remained roughly the same, but the genre changed from a Broadway musical to an animated film, preferably one that echoed the likes of Disney and Warner Bros. in style and quality, none of these ten dollar rip-offs from Sony or RCA.
After my experience with last semester’s project, I knew that the animation would have to be rough. Disney and Dreamworks can turn out an animated feature every summer, but they also have a hundred animators and more advanced equipment than a scanner, a Macintosh G3, and a 250 zip disk. A roughly animated trailer of sorts became my goal.
The decision to animate a trailer came from my knowledge of my own shortcomings. I am aware that I get bored easily with a subject, even when I love it. If I had chosen to do one particular scene, say the balcony scene, I would’ve gotten dreadfully tired of drawing Cyrano in the bushes, whispering furtively to Roxane. The object of a trailer is to show the extremities and the finer points of a film. They skip from high action, to high romance, to high drama, in five seconds. If I get tired of animating the sequence from said balcony scene, I can skip over to the duel with Valvert or the scene where Christian louses up trying to talk to Roxane on his own.
I set to work designing my characters, taking influence from my favorite animated pieces from several different companies, eventually arriving at my own happy medium between them. I continued researching costumes, history, weaponry, and different translations of the play. However, I dropped the theater books in favor of books on animation techniques and history.
Once again, however, my idea was altered to suit my time left and my skills. A trailer, although relatively brief and often sketchy even with top-notch companies, was becoming a difficult goal to consider reaching in three months. Plus, it was pointed out to me by several people that, while the idea was ambitious and entertaining, it had little to do with graphic design. Yes, I would have to design the characters and their placement on the screen, but when the time to look for a job comes, design firms are not going to take an animated trailer very seriously. While I would like to apply for training and/or employment with a major animation company, it would be wise to have something more attainable in my portfolio. Even if I insist on reaching for the stars, one needs a net. As Cyrano noted,
De Guiche
Have you read Don Quixote?
Cyrano
Yes, I have, and I take off my hat to you in the name of that scatterbrained hero.
De Guiche
You would do well to meditate on the chapter concerning windmills.
Cyrano
Chapter thirteen.
De Guiche
Because when one attacks them…
Cyrano
Do you mean to say that I attack people who veer with every change of the wind?
De Guiche
When one attacks them, their great arms often hurl one down into the mud.
Cyrano
Or up to the stars![25]
Take Three
The third idea became more of a mix between the first and second ideas. I would do the same work that I associated with the Broadway musical, but for an animated film and the mock-company creating it.
First of all, the infamous mouth came back with a vengeance, prompting me with name of my mythical animation company, Moving Pictures Inc. The company needed a corporate logo and an opening sequence, much like Disney’s sparkle over Cinderella castle or Pixar’s hopping lamp. The project from last semester will be finished and incorporated in part to become the introduction film. The animated mouth will start off and freeze into the corporate logo of a highly stylized mouth with the company’s name.
For the publicity and marketing aspect, I’ll need a logo for the actual film. For this, I’ve utilized the familiar image of two swords clashing, with the title laced where they intersect. I’ll also need two different posters, one for the children that features the characters and one for the more mature crowd that will be more abstract.
Most animated films are also musicals in and of themselves, so the soundtrack is an important consideration. Two CD packages and two matching cassette tape packages would be appropriate, since Disney often releases a normal soundtrack recording and a “limited edition” one. Another multimedia product would be the video package, probably in a clamshell case. In years past, the poster design and the video looked exactly the same, but ever since the Little Mermaid[26] incident, most companies have had completely different images for the posters, the CDs and cassettes, and the video/DVD cases.
In the interest of honing my illustration and layout skills, a hardback storybook would also be appropriate. This would tie in better with my desire to pursue a career as a character designer rather than an actual animator. I can draw my characters and place them on the pages in a way where type will also fit. This also allows me the opportunity to have character sheets available, 11 X 14 pages often featuring a central, finished image of a said character surrounded by emotion sketches and turnaround drawings.
Time allowing, I would also like to produce banners, such as those that would be displayed at the movie theater in order to promote the production. Furthermore, Having working in the Disney Store, I am familiar with the importance of merchandising. Two t-shirts, one for adults and one for children, might also be appropriate and let me use the skills I learned in screen printing class.
All in all, I am enjoying my project and finding myself motivated by success. I find this subject challenging, but not so much so that I get discouraged.
Take Four, Cut, Print!
The final idea became more focused on character design than anything else. While still using my extensive research on costume, the play, animation and its censors, I used my love for the stars of the shows… the characters. I designed and redesigned eight major characters; Cyrano, Roxane, Christian, Le Bret, De Guiche, Raganeau, Vivette, and Marie. I kept one of the posters I’d designed from the third idea and I added a section of twelve storyboards for the infamous balcony scene.
Each of the eight chosen characters had six sheets; a sheet of the original design, emotion drawings, a turnabout, two sheets of action poses, and a final full-color drawing. Taking what I had seen and read in the animation books, I was able to reproduce the process of designing a character eight times over.
Cyrano and his comrades were not all that difficult in the long run. The most difficult character to work on was De Guiche, the quintessential villain of the play and one of the three men in love with Roxane. My dilemma was how to mark him as the villain without resorting to the stereotype of putting him in black and making him able to laugh evilly. I did end up using dark colors, a dark purple-grey and black trousers, but this didn’t suggest villainy because most of the male characters wore black somewhere. De Guiche was separated from the other characters by virtue of the detail in his costume. As the only blue-blooded aristocrat in the cast, De Guiche has more than a little lace on his collar. His collar is larger and not only trimmed with ostentatious lace, but laces up the front. His gloves are also lace-trimmed and his hat boasts three ostrich feathers, a definite sign of status in those days. Also in direct contradiction of the villain being “dark”, De Guiche has the palest skin of the cast and the lightest hair among the men. He is not the villain at first glance, but his actions and expressions convey his cunning nature to the audience.
To the Library And Step On It!
Ruffles, Lace, and Ostrich Feathers
One of the main things that attracts me to period pieces both in films and in theater is the costume. The idea of cloaks, petticoats, signet rings, and plumed hats calls to my romantic sensibilities strongly. Cyrano de Bergerac takes place in seventeenth-century France, around the year 1640 for the main part of the play and in 1655 for the final scene.
My main source of research for the clothing worn back then came at fist from films taking place around the same time; Man In the Iron Mask(1998), The Three Musketeers(1994), Cyrano de Bergerac(1991), and The Scarlet Letter(199?). However, when I searched for more concrete information in the form of books, study material became scarce. Even at the extensive image library in the main branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, there were no entries for seventeenth-century fashion, even though the surrounding centuries were documented well. I was dismayed to find a deplorable gap in most books regarding this time period. Dozens of pages were spent on the late Renaissance immediately preceding Cyrano’s time and on the Revolutionary period following it. With such scanty research available, movies and other media remain my main source for costume research.
En garde, monsieur!
The weaponry, made up almost entirely of rapiers, was easier to research with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its armory nearby. I visited and sketched the swords displayed there several times coming upon a cross between several different styles for Cyrano’s quick-bladed protectress.
While books on weapons, specifically swords were a tad more difficult to find than the costume books, I was helped greatly by quite a few, including a book on stage fencing from Beaver College’s Stage Combat class. It was far easier to learn to draw the proper way to hold a sword and fight with it with both pictures and several duels on tape. Many people have been only to happy to help me with this aspect of research.
Do I touch, hit, or draw blood?
The original manuscript of Cyrano de Bergerac is of course, in French, a language I have studied to a certain extent but am not very confident in. Therefore, in addition to the original French, I have three other translations available to me; one from 1923, one from 1972, and the most recent from the 1991 French film. The main difference between them is this; both the 1923 translation and the 1991 translation try to keep the phrases poetic and in blank verse, much like Shakespeare, even though it does not quite work as well in English as it does in French. The 1972 translation chooses to ignore the idea of trying to make anything rhyme in the interest of directly translating the French into understandable English.
These translations are more readily apparent in Cyrano’s duel in verse, in the final line that repeats throughout the poem. In the original French, it is, “A la fin de l’envoi, je touche”. The 1923 translation interpreted this as “At the Envoi’s end, I touch”. This does not communicate itself well to an English audience when paired with a vicious stab to the ribs. The direct translation of 1972 reads “When I end the refrain, I draw blood”, a better suggestion of the action, but it is too awkward for our suave poet. The 1991 movie translation reads “And at the poem’s end, I hit!”, a simple and succinct version and the one most often used now.
Lights, Camera, Action
There have been several movie versions of the Cyrano de Bergerac theme, the two most direct one’s being direct productions of the play. The first of these Cyrano de Bergerac(1946), starring Jose Ferrer, was impossible to track down as it is out-of-print and rare. However, it also received mixed reviews and followed my 1972 translation to the letter. The 1991 version, starring Gerard Depardieu was far easier to procure and was also my first exposure to the tale. This lavish production received rave reviews and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Depardieu’s portrayal of Cyrano was sympathetic and alluring, bittersweet or brazen at the correct times and desperately lovelorn.
Two less-direct films are Steve Martin’s modern comedy Roxane(1987) and Michael Lehman’s The Truth About Cats and Dogs(1996). Roxane put Cyrano in a modern-day setting with Steve Martin as C.D. Bales, a witty but long-nosed fire chief, and Daryl Hannah as the astronomy student, Roxane. The Truth About Cats and Dogs is less obvious about it roots, not only putting the plot in a modern-day setting in Los Angeles, but reversing the sexes so that both model Noelle (Uma Thurman) and radio veterinarian Abby (Janeane Garofalo) are after English photographer Brian (Ben Chaplin).
Mickey vs. Bugs, Book Two
Taking a cue from emerging animation companies, I abandoned my usually Disney-inspired style in favor of a more streamlined cross between Disney, Warner’s Batman/Superman series, and Dreamworks’ recent films.
As with all of these styles, the eyes of each character will be the focal point for emotions and thoughts. However, in favor of color, I decided to use solid points of color for the eyes, much as Warner Bros. does. This will simplify the work and make it easier both for me to draw and for others to read. While Dreamworks and Disney oversize the eyes to a great degree, and Warner Bros. minimizes them, I only oversized the eyes slightly in order to make them more visible.
Color plays an important part in my work. I have always been attracted to bright, vibrant colors along with crisp blacks and whites. Perhaps this explains the fascination with animation to a degree. To color the “mature-audience” poster and for the full-color finals, I’ll be using Adobe Photoshop so I get large fields of color with no pencil strokes or marker lines. For the sketches, I’ll use the old-fashioned approach of pencil and pen. This way, I get a good mix of technology and craft.
Conclusion
In closing, I feel that this will be a good thesis, one that I enjoy doing and enjoy showing at the presentation in May. It promises to be a thesis with panache.
Bibliography
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[1] Kirk Johnson, “What’s Up, Bugs? It’s Mickey!” New York Times, March 15, 1996. The article then proceeds to discuss several prominent New Yorkers in terms of whether they are Warner Bros. Or Disney personality types: “New York City’s Mayor, Rudolph W. Guiliani, for example is a classic Warner Brothers: high energy, sometimes abrasive, often unpredictable. Former Mayor David N. Dinkins, by contrast, with his deceptively placid demeanor, was Disney all the way.
[2] The loss of a parent, through death or separation, occurs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves(1939), The Lion King(1993), Tarzan(1999), Bambi(1942), Cinderella(1950), Hercules(1997), The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996), Mulan(1998), Dumbo(1941), etc.
[3] Dealing with sexual desire occurs in Aladdin(1992) and to a great extent in The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996).
[4] Slavery is dealt with in The Rescuers(1977), The Great Mouse Detective(1986), Snow White(1937), Cinderella(1950), A Bug’s Life(1998), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996), etc.
[5] Environmental issues are addressed in The Lion King(1993), Tarzan(1999), Bambi(1942), Pocahontas(1994), and The Rescuers Down Under(1990), etc.
[6] The abuse of children and/or animals occurs in Dumbo(1941), The Rescuers(1977), The Rescuers Down Under(1990), The Great Mouse Detective(1986), Snow White(1937), A Bug’s Life(1998), Cinderella(1950), The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996), 101 Dalmatians(1961), etc.
[7] Discrimination due to race, sex, or other perceived difference occurs in Tarzan(1999), Aladdin(1992), A Bug’s Life(1998), Hercules(1997), The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996), The Little Mermaid(1989), Mulan(1998), Pocahontas(1995), Beauty and the Beast(1991), Lady and the Tramp(1955), Gargoyles(1995), Song of the South(1946), etc.
[8] Fear or denial of aging occurs in Alice in Wonderland(1951), Peter Pan(1953), Toy Story(1994), Toy Story 2(1999), Gargoyles(1995), etc.
[9] Images of Satanism or Hell occur dramatically in The Black Cauldron(1985), The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1996), Fantasia(1940), Sleeping Beauty(1966), Hercules(1997), etc.
[10] Episodes in Batman:T he Animated Series in which Mr. Freeze was explained are Heart Of Ice and Deep Freeze. In addition, there was a full-length movie about Batman and Mr. Freeze called Subzero(1998).
[11] Snow White and the Seven Dwarves(1937).
[12] The Old Mill(1937).
[13] 101 Dalmatians(1961).
[14] The Rescuers Down Under(1990).
[15] Beauty and the Beast(1991).
[16] Toy Story(1994).
[17] Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway on in 1995, to be swiftly followed by The Lion King on Broadway in 1997 and Der Glockner von Notre Dame in Berlin in 2000.
[18] In the French language, precieuses literally means “precious ones”.
[19] Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Lowell Bair, trans. Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY, 1972. This scene is from Act I, Scene IV.
[20] Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Lowell Bair, trans. Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY, 1972. This scene is from Act I, Scene V.
[21] Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Lowell Bair, trans. Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY, 1972. This scene is from Act I, Scene IV.
[22] The musical Cyrano! was ?????
[23] The musical The Phantom of the Opera by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, opened in London in 1987 and on Broadway in 1988.
[24] The musical Les Miserables , by Claude Boubil and Alain Schoneberg ,opened in London in 1986 and on Broadway in 1987.
[25] Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. Lowell Bair, trans. Penguin Putnam, Inc., New York, NY, 1972. This scene is from Act II, Scene VII.
[26] After the release of The Little Mermaid(1989) on video, it was discovered
on the video cover art that one of the castle spires in the background was actually
an erect phallus. The recall and banning that ensued was expensive for the Disney
Company and prompted the decision to have several different designs for different
packages.