So Dear Self

Dear Self,

So as you are probably aware, you and I decided to watch Puss In Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale for this assignment. The reason was because we were curious about how exactly they were going to achieve making the show “interactive”. In the beginning of the show, netflix uses a cat meow and purr to clue the audience in that the story involved a cat. Then they used a combination of cartoon animation and music to introduce Puss in Boots by displaying the general behavior of the character. The music was composed of guitars, tambourines, trumpets, and maracas. This was a subtle clue that the story was set in Mexico, the first lines in the show are “EL GATO!!!!”. Even the maiden that PB saves is in Mexican clothing. It was an interesting choice that they made with the maiden because even though she is wearing Mexican clothing she has red hair, pale skin, and a small beauty mark on her cheek. Even the roughians that are in the very first scenes are all red or a dark blue. Which I found a very odd choice considering that our hero is orange but I guess it was a way to convey that PB is a robin hood kind of hero. The colors at the beginning were bold and strange because they seemed very decisive without connection. They used the red for when PB was saving the maiden, yellow for when he was fighting a bad guy, the blue for when he was a thief, purple/pink for when he was being beaten, and then a yellow/green for stunts. Then we have a jump cut to a close up of Puss in Boots’s boots from the back and then a shift up to his face where he faces the audience in the animation that is primarily used for the episode. The pauses in the music were interestingly timed, typically the music would pause during a character’s lines but only during longer lines and almost as if it were for dramatic effect. In the first scenes they use the music to convey PB’s heroism and after he is finished doing what his character is known for (i.e. fighting) they use the music to support curiosity that they are portraying in the next scene. They used an angelic sort of sound when PB found an object of interest, which is quickly thwarted when they used a yellow/orange light and a magical sound that emitted from said object of interest while PB yelled in distress to have the audience conclude that PB had been magically transported. They used breaking the fourth wall all throughout the show to make it interactive by giving the audience the options to control pieces of the plot. Even the narrator was interacting with PB whilst being the faceless godlike overseer. They used a zoom out and back in during the part where the audience chooses the plot and a similar animation to the intro. During the options: PB discusses the options, argues with the narrator, and even pleads with the audience. It was a new experience, it was fun.