Implausible Possibility: Freedom and Realism in Live-Action/Animated Gag Comedies

IF 0.3 2区艺术学 0 FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION

Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal Pub Date : 2023-07-01 DOI:10.1177/17468477231187029

Luke Holmaas

{"title":"Implausible Possibility: Freedom and Realism in Live-Action/Animated Gag Comedies","authors":"Luke Holmaas","doi":"10.1177/17468477231187029","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"While often unacknowledged, gags and gag comedy remain a vital part of Hollywood cinema. Following the runaway success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), an increase in the production of films combining live-action and animation has helped them become a central venue for gag comedy. However, while live-action/animation hybrids can be enormously successful, they are also extremely difficult and risky ventures, both in terms of their technical challenges and production costs. Given this, what is the rationale behind combining live-action and animation for comedy at all? As the author argues, both theoretical considerations of animation and hybrids as well as the discourse from creators of such films frame live-action/animation as particularly well suited for gag comedy due to its ability to balance the freedom of animation with the grounding realism of live-action. Films such as The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) serve to highlight the interaction between cartoonish animation and realistic live-action as well as key tensions that arise in combining the two forms. Examining the opportunities and challenges provided by these combinations helps explain why hybrid films remain a common vehicle for gag comedy today and an important subset of Hollywood comedy as a whole.","PeriodicalId":43271,"journal":{"name":"Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":"102 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477231187029","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

While often unacknowledged, gags and gag comedy remain a vital part of Hollywood cinema. Following the runaway success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), an increase in the production of films combining live-action and animation has helped them become a central venue for gag comedy. However, while live-action/animation hybrids can be enormously successful, they are also extremely difficult and risky ventures, both in terms of their technical challenges and production costs. Given this, what is the rationale behind combining live-action and animation for comedy at all? As the author argues, both theoretical considerations of animation and hybrids as well as the discourse from creators of such films frame live-action/animation as particularly well suited for gag comedy due to its ability to balance the freedom of animation with the grounding realism of live-action. Films such as The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) serve to highlight the interaction between cartoonish animation and realistic live-action as well as key tensions that arise in combining the two forms. Examining the opportunities and challenges provided by these combinations helps explain why hybrid films remain a common vehicle for gag comedy today and an important subset of Hollywood comedy as a whole.

查看原文本刊更多论文

难以置信的可能性:真人/动画搞笑喜剧中的自由和现实主义

虽然经常不被承认，插科打诨和插科打诨喜剧仍然是好莱坞电影的重要组成部分。继《谁陷害了兔子罗杰》(1988)大获成功后，真人和动画相结合的电影数量不断增加，使它们成为了搞笑喜剧的中心场所。然而，虽然真人/动画的混合体可以取得巨大成功，但从技术挑战和制作成本来看，它们也是极其困难和冒险的冒险。考虑到这一点，将真人和动画结合起来制作喜剧的基本原理是什么?正如作者所说，无论是动画和混合动画的理论考虑，还是这些电影的创作者的话语，都认为真人/动画特别适合插科打诨喜剧，因为它能够平衡动画的自由与真人的现实主义。2000年的《洛奇与牛头怪历险记》、2003年的《兔宝宝历险记》和2015年的《海绵宝宝》等电影都突出了卡通动画和现实真人电影之间的互动，以及两者结合时产生的关键紧张关系。审视这些组合所带来的机遇和挑战，有助于解释为什么混合电影仍然是当今搞笑喜剧的常见载体，也是好莱坞喜剧的一个重要子集。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Animation-An Interdisciplinary Journal FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION-

CiteScore

0.70

自引率

25.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Especially since the digital shift, animation is increasingly pervasive and implemented in many ways in many disciplines. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal provides the first cohesive, international peer-reviewed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice. The journal"s scope is very comprehensive, yet its focus is clear and simple. The journal addresses all animation made using all known (and yet to be developed) techniques - from 16th century optical devices to contemporary digital media - revealing its implications on other forms of time-based media expression past, present and future.