The Analysis On The Animal Costars Beside The Human Protagonists In American Animated Movies

The character design in the animated movie plays a vital role of the success of the film, so it is a task of great significance. American animated movies pay much attention to the creating of the characters, many of which are quite popular, including some classic animal costars which have a great influence to the film and protagonist. Because of the images and characters, people think that the animal costars are cute and are amused by their actions as well as the behaviors, and without them the film will be eclipsed. It is believed that the animal costars play an important role during the American animated movie development. This thesis starts with the American animated movie history, mainly focuses on the animal costars interactive with protagonists, brings in the concept of imaginary symbol and explores the role it plays in the animated movie. Through comparing the works of the famous animated movie production companies, this thesis studies the following four contents from the perspective of animal costars.I. Extract the animal costars from the historic perspective and imaginary symbol. The character constitution in the American animated movie can be classified into person role, animal role, inanimate role and fantasy role. Since the first animated movie Snow White was produced in1937, animal costars have been the fixed symbol in a series of animated movies. During the development of the American famous animated movie production companies, such as Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Blue Sky Studio, etc., the animal costars play a vital role and help to make up various group portraits of animal costars.II. Shape the animal costar image. The American animated movies use the exaggeration and imagination to shape the cartoony modeling, together with the comedic performance and personification, to create the popular animal costars. All these animal costars which are sincere, cute, vivid and funny attract the audience.III. With the birth of the computer animation as the demarcation point, explore the influence on the shaping of animal costars after animation creation entering into the new century. In1990s, the appearance of the computer animation production technique was the important reform to the animated movies. It shifts from the traditional two-dimension manual production to the three-dimension computer production, which makes the animal costars more vivid and their individuality also more energetic. Meanwhile, the animal costars’entertainment function have also shifted to narrate the story, set off the theme, promote the plot development, and all these changes bring about the demand to reform.IV. From the perspective of human protagonist and movie narration, explore the function of the animal costars in the animated movies. American animated movies influenced by the Hollywood mode have formed a stereotype narrative strategy, while the human character-animal costar mode also becomes part of it. Animal costars complete the defect of the human characters to make them more believable, add the story enjoyment, become the important plot factor affect the plot development, and sublimate the movie theme.Animal costar images are of great significance to the American animated movies. The cartoon modeling, comedic performance, personate character and modeled combination affect the movie. The cultural connotation and entertainment spirit them express help the American animated movies present the unique narrative style and artistic aesthetics value.