When we were told to critically analyse some animations in terms of Environmental Storytelling, the absolute first one that popped into my mind was the latest set of Tinkerbell films, (starting 2008). However I will only be analysing the first one, yet the others do also follow the same patterns. The reason why it came to my head so fast I think was because it was the mis-en-scene/environment that fascinated me the most when I first watched those films. The absolute vibrancy of each individual setting, the combination of textures and the compositions, were absolutely stunning.
Immediately when you look at this particular scene, which is during the first sequence of the film, you are instantly captivated by the highly saturated and intense colours presented to the audience. They have taken real life and multiplied it so that it looks more attractive, appealing and just overall more desirable. I personally think they did this not just because it is an animated films and everything has to look shiny and new, but the whole essence of the film is conjured around the element of 'magic'. Magic is what Tinkerbell is all about and what gets her through these films, so wouldn't it make sense for the environments to all evoke a sense of magic in them too? The settings are so stunning because they are almost magical themselves, there is something about them that isn't real, yet makes you also want to be there.
The use of environments I also believe are to show just how small she is in comparison to the real world. You know she is a fairy, but due to her personality and characteristics you often forget, however the audience is constantly reminded when she is put in an environment that illustrates everyday things. For example, here she is sitting on a lily-pad, which to an average human, would be about the size of their hand if not a little bigger, but to Tinkerbell, the audience can see that she is probably a 1/5th of the lily-pad's surface area. This means that the team had to pay a lot of detail to texture and sharpness of the environments, because that would be the audience's focus. There can either be extreme long shots of Tinkerbell flying, or extremely closeups where Tinkerbell is next to something. I especially love how the focus is to the bottom and the left hand side of this scene and then the background is a soft focus. It is as if the camera is pointedly focussing on the plant in the water, and then everything else becomes a blur.
Here is one of the long shots that I mentioned where Tinkerbell is flying. She is practically a blur in the scene and if you can't see her she is just off the centre. She almost blends into the trees if there wasn't a little 'gleam' of magic to instigate her presence. Again, this shows just how small she is in comparison to her environments, but it also illustrates the world in which her character lives in. The colour of the sea is such a gorgeous colour combination, and the beach is so pristine. Her world is perfect and her character is one of which is imperfect and causes havoc. But I really like this aspect and I really like the environments to which this film is set in because they compliment the story as well as help tell it and I think this is a very successful animation.
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