Function Of Supporting Role In Narration Of Animation Film

Abstract. The work studied animation film from the perspective of supporting role. It analyzed the function and evolution of supporting role in both traditional cartoon and three-dimensional animation. By doing that, it attempted to clarify the narrative function and features of Disney animation film’s supporting role in two-and three-dimensional animations. As is known to all, Disney animation film shines irreplaceably in the sky of animation history, and Pixar is more important in the history of Disney for it stood out among the Disney’s two-dimensional animation and brought to world the three-dimensional animation. Pixar was originally Disney’s cooperative studio instead of its member. Later on, Pixar’s animation made a hit, and was finally taken over by Disney to serve as a three-dimensional animation studio. That was when Disney quitted the traditional two-dimensional animation and began to take the lead again when switched to three-dimensional one.To begin with, the summary was mainly given to the research purpose and significance of the work, which was based on the case of Pixar film and made by the narratology method. Pixar’s film was targeted because it was an active player in the Disney history and initiated all three-dimensional animation films in Disney. The work dealt with the supporting role in animated film since it is yet to study fully. Animated film is one of the members in film and television. Therefore, it shares the same narrative features among film and television such as beginnings and endings, a series of events and plot, narrating through the skillfully-woven events and roles, and attracting the viewers via modeling language and plot development.The first chapter introduced the development and current situation of the supporting role in Disney film. From the idealized yet regular Disney role model and the typical supporting role, it concluded that the match of supporting and leading role in early animations featured characters as funny, lovely and good or evil at first glance; the supporting role served as the company and guide of narration. The second chapter discussed the function of combining the supporting role’s internal character and external action in plot development, which was based on presentation of the supporting role’s internal character and external action. The third chapter discussed features and functions of the supporting role, analyzed the two presentations in the development of supporting role, figured out the function of supporting role-when classified as cooperative, independent and mixed types--in narration, and studied the design features of supporting roles in two-and three-dimensional animations. The fourth chapter analyzed the relation between supporting role and plot, arguing that supporting role can condition narration atmosphere, regulate the narration rhythm, link between plots and drive the development of plots. The fifth chapter discussed the information transfer of supporting role in the plot, illustrating that supporting role has functions as suggesting information and transferring both visual information and language information in narration. In conclusion, the work was concluded into final analysis that the supporting role in animation was studied through narratology method. By comparison between the supporting role’s difference and evolution in functions and features in Disney’s two-and three-dimensional animations, the work tried to figure out their narrative functions and characteristics.