New Series! Animated Scene Analysis

During my undergraduate senior year, I took a class about analyzing film for various elements such as mise-en-scene. I was intrigued by the many factors that are considered for just one shot, and how a collection of shots can tell a story. I have also seen videos, essays, and blogs on the Internet that analyze classics like Citizen Kane or North by Northwest or The Seven Samurai for cinematic storytelling. I also came across similar analysis for Pixar films, and so I decided to look one up for Disney animated films.

But as I looked, it became clear to me that such analysis was extremely hard to find. The most frequent ones that popped up were about racial stereotypes and sexism. Those two topics, no matter how valid, were constantly discussed to the point of cliché when it came to Disney animated films, as if those were the only things that stick out about Disney worthy of any kind of intelligent discussion. Thankfully, I’ve come across animation blogs by people like Michael Sporn, Andreas Deja, and Michael Barrier, Bill Benzon, and Mark Mayerson, all of which analyze Disney animated classics and other animated films and discuss what storytelling elements work and what do not.

However, aside from several exceptions, cinematic analysis of animated films overall seems to be sorely lacking compared to the abundance of serious lectures and essays about live-action classics, so I have decided to do one myself. This series will take a scene from an animated film and analyze how it uses cinematic techniques to tell a story. Bear in mind though, that this is based on my limited knowledge about animation and filmmaking overall. If there is anything that I said is erroneous, please feel free to correct me. And should some of you try to go on about the evils of Disney or whatnot, I want to make it clear that I am not here to discuss ethics and values (that’s for another time!) I am here to discuss animated films, Disney or otherwise, from a filmmaking standpoint.

So how about starting this series with a scene from the One that started it all?