In 'duck amuck' we see that the animator/s are trying to show us that animation doesn't just focus on the character performing on screen, but the world in which the character is placed and how that character interacts with it's surroundings. In the animation the character on screen is faced with the removal of any setting/scene and so he addresses the animator in charge of providing that setting to do so accordingly, animated brushes and pencils come in and out of shot producing a chaotic series of different scenes, the character on screen asks why this is happening and asks the animator to cooperate with him in constructing the usual linear formula of story telling.
At the end of the animation it is revealed to the audience the reason why the animator was not cooperating with the character on screen, it is revealed to us that another character -who's personality gives the character tendencies to be uncooperative- is the one who was animating the different scenes.
The way Daffy Duck asks the animator what he is doing with his world makes me grasp on to connotations associated to the historical context from which the animation comes from, perhaps the animation carries with it a message to the public to question authority on what they were doing at that time in 1953, close to the beginning of the cold war, where there were many covert operations and paranoia amongst the government agencies of the US.
In 'fresh laid plans' it becomes apparent that the animation is a propaganda cartoon aimed at children, which uses the agricultural industry as an example of how having a centralized authoritarian system - such as communism- can affect the participants within that system.
The animation explains simply how having prices, wages and profits fixed with commodities rationed for the purpose of an equal society can backfire with the criminalisation of the free market which becomes 'the black market' -there is a segment in the animation where a sinister character crosses out a 'free market' sign with the words 'black market'- as businesses collapse due to illegal trading, the economy suffers and this angers the public to the point of an uprising against the oppressive regime.
The message in this anti-communist propaganda film is that through communism comes tyranny- economic tyranny whereby people are trapped/ unable to progress economically as wages are stagnated and profits are limited.
This is interesting, as if we compare this paradigm/ narrative to what is the current paradigm -that being free market fundamentalism- we see that what was thought to arise from communism has presented itself under capitalism. This is due to massive inequality caused by large corporations forcing out small businesses who are unable to compete with their higher productivity, higher prices, low production costs and immense profits. And as people are unable to compete in the market they struggle to progress economically.
When comparing the two animations I ask myself: How do the animations differ? What are the similarities between them?
'Duck Amuck' & 'Fresh Laid Plans' both share a similar aesthetic in their animations that was popular in the fifties, I think this caters more to a young audience due to the sense of playfulness and slapstick comedy within it.
The two animations differ in their subject matter, however I feel the subject matters of the two are connected by, one could say, the historical context from which they both come from(1950's, cold war era, anti-communist propaganda, covert ops, etc)
Inherently the two animations share a similarity in the way they communicate their message, you could say that the messages that these two animations are trying to communicate are communicated to the audience almost subconsciously- covertly.
Another comparison can be made between the two in regards to the techniques behind them. Both animations, I think, use the process of straight ahead animation combined with pose to pose animation. I come to this conclusion due to segments in both animations where movements are transitioning from ridgid movement to movements that have more fluidity in the way that characters/objects move.
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