Friday, 25 April 2014

Representations And Ethics In Cartoons

Why does the writer of the article believe Rio 2 is problematic in terms of it's representations?
The writer believes Rio 2 is problematic due to it's racial hierarchy of voice actors with the white americans as the main characters and the Latin, mixed race and African Americans as the less significant characters. Jamie Foxx and Will.I.Am play to 'hip hop fluent' birds. Which the writer describes as stereotypical. Also the evil villain in the film is British as is the case in quite a few disney films.

What are the PEPS and why are they an issue for racial representation?
PEPS stand for Problem contexts, Entertainment contexts and Performance contexts. 
"Within PEPs, black people and other genotypes have to be associated with vexing circumstances," he says. "Strive to pacify, make others happy and be exceptional or extraordinary – far from 'normal'. Villainy, exoticism, jocularity and athleticism are common indicators of this malaise. Images of ethnicity do not need to be conveyed within the narrow scope of PEPs."
PEPS are an issue for racial representation because it follows the idea that ethnicity within animations are portrayed as a group of their stereotypical conventions of their background. Which basically throws a certain race into a group of stereotypes.

Why does Da Costa believe we end up with stereotypes in animation?
He says the decisions of the character and performance are rushed because the design and production processes must start and develop. It consciously and subconsciously weighs financial against moral obligations. So they always go with the safe representational defaults - stereotypes. 








Legal and Ethical Grid

Target Audience

Age: 9-14 year olds.
Gender: It is moderately male based but it isn't that specific to gender.
Media: consumption: Adventure time, The Simpsons.


Actual reader profile
Name: Sam
Age: 12

Average day: Goes to school and comes home and do some homework then eats dinner and watches TV until he goes to bed.

Hobbies and interests: TV, Social networking (twitter, facebook, instagram)                      

Spending power: His weekly allowance of 10 pounds.

Typical media consumption per day: 2 and a half hours of TV, 1 and a half hours of social networking.

Why the animation will appeal to him: Because he is interested in cartoons and general media consumption. The main character is funny to him because he's troublesome. But as he is a little older he can still think for himself so he isn't influenced by the actions he would see Brandal do.

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Voice Talent



Dream Casting
If the budget or the availability were not a consideration I would have Joe Pesci as my voice talent. I chose him because in Home Alone he has the same voice I imagined Brandal to have. He has the New York italian accent as well.