The premise of this project was to work within a team comprised of roughly 5-6 animators and 2 writers to produce a production animatic for the fictional board NUFSED. We were told to adjust or adapt an existing fairytale to improve the public image and awareness of fairytale creatures. Each group was given a different genre to work from, ours being Dramatic Narrative.
The group that I was working in decided to choose Goldilocks and the Three Bears for the fairytale to adapt. The idea behind ours was that we would try to subvert the audiences existing opinion of fairytale bears, to make them seem less dangerous, more humorous and ultimately much more approachable.
The working title for the piece was “Goldilocks and the Three 'Gay' Bears”. I should point out that although the bears in the piece are incredibly camp and lively, and there are obvious inferences of the bears sexuality there is nothing in the script or finished animatic that describes or defines that they are homosexual.
The script follows Goldilocks through a slightly altered version of the original telling of Goldilocks story, though there are some distinct differences in some of the story elements. For example – the porridge bowls are now martinis, the beds now a sauna – the idea is that at the end of the piece the bears invite Goldilocks to join them in a party as opposed to chasing her away. The writers aimed the script towards a more adult audience by using language that had it been avoided would have made the piece viewable by a larger age range.
I found the project quite stressful, but enjoyable for the most part. The tight deadline was exciting as well as daunting and it gave us a good idea of working in a busy, last minute environment. I must admit that I became less interested in the projected on the second and third day of production. At first I was excited about an intensive creative experience in which we might produce something that I could be proud of enough to put in my portfolio. However, as we got closer to the end it became clear that we were not going to produce something that I was particularly proud of. I began to feel as though the whole piece had deteriorated into getting cheap laughs by doing banal, stereotypical accents (which I admit I did enjoy, and had fun doing the voice acting, but it is not what I wanted from the experience) based around a flimsy and contrived moral teaching.
The final piece is – at least for me – something that I don't feel at all proud of, nor am I terribly fond of it. The bears are roughly and and quickly drawn and painted (by me and others) and do not reflect any of the work that went into designing them, and they went through several simplifications throughout the finishing process. I feel as though the story is clear but in the end poorly executed. Watching it back, I feel as though without the small parts of (dubious) narration that it would not have been clear to anyone unfamiliar with the original story. I feel that the speed at which the piece flows is slightly uncomfortable, and without the ridiculously over the top voice acting provided by Matt.L and Myself that it would have left people cold in terms of entertainment. I feel as though the choice to make the bears more accessible by making them 'gay' is potentially offensive, although it is meant to be taken in good spirit and neither the writers or the animators were attempting to offend. However I feel that the “misrepresentation of bears in fairytales” idea was contrived and almost just a cover for the fact that it was a chance to get laughs from people by playing on the “gay bear” idea. Also there was no character building in terms of Goldilocks to explain why or for what reason it furthered the story for her to be “a bit of a slut” as it says in the narration. I also think the premise is transparent and that people can see through it to the cheap laugh barebones of the project. I am not saying that I disapproved or feel we should have been more sensitive, I was part of the process after all, I just feel - with hindsight - that we took the wrong path with this project, and made it tacky in the process.
The above might seem like I had an awful time on the project, and that I am in some way angry. To clarify, I enjoyed the project a lot and we got on with our writers very well, I just don't think that I got what I wanted from this project, which to be honest, probably is mostly my fault.
