Mise-en-Scene in Cartoons?

Dear Barton,

For my blog post today, I decided to try to replicate the activity that we did for Mise-en-Scene. I found this rather challenging. In class, we used stills that you had selected. The one aspect that was the same with every still you choose was that they were all live action shows with actors, props, and costumes. We didn’t broach the topic of can Mise-en-Scene be applied to a cartoon or animation. In LEGO Elves: Secrets of Elvendale, the artists have a lot less they need to manipulate to get their point across. I choose a random still where it looks as if a dark green haired male elf is talking to two human girls. The girls seem like they might be siblings, one bigger than the other but the same hair color. A purple haired female elf looks like she wants to speak with the dark green haired one. And the bodies of three other elves are visible, one red and orange with tanned skin female, one dark blue and light blue with light skin female, and one green and brown with light skin male. The female with tanned skin has an outfit that seems based off of fire. The blue one probably water and the green one probably earth. The purple haired girl is in all purple which leads me to believe that she is in some sort of group with the others. The dark green haired male elf previously mentioned is wearing mostly brown. The red, blue, and green ones are all standing next to one another. I would guess just because of the general nature of fantasy that they have powers that involve the elements previously mentioned. The dark green haired male might be a leader, friend, or there for helping everything go smoothly. The two human girls are both wearing stripes with their backs to the audience perhaps to show the dark green haired elf speaking or the purple one talking to him. The ground has mostly grass and some rocks but somehow we get the feeling it is set in the forest.

So after watching the episode, a good number of my guesses were accurate. I didn’t really like the episode too much. The characters were too trusting and naive but I guess that is to be expected with a kids show. I was right about the guesses when it came to the powers of the elves. The purple one controls wind though. Apparently, with the group, they are friends that all live together.  I think that Mise-en-Scene is more for live action pieces but I wanted to see if I could apply it to this piece. Perhaps in pieces that are more creative like Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle, this would have been a more interesting and applicable exercise. In those pieces, there are a lot more details and unique scenes. I am really excited to apply this exercise to some of the Hayao Miyazaki films I have not seen.  

Til next week,

happylittlepenguin