Horton Hears A Who: Meet Jojo

Precedents: Horton Hears a Who

Watch the trailer of Horton Hears a Who

The mayor's son Jojo even though a sub character in this story plays a very important role and one that takes a journey similar to my character. He is the son of the Mayor and therefore his father has high hopes for him to carry on the family tradition. Jojo is a weird boy who never says a word throughout the whole movie. Every time his father tries to talk to him about become the future mayor of Whoville, he tries but doesn't say anything as he doesn't want to shatter the high hopes and dreams his father has for him. In the begining of the story we see Jojo go to his secret happy place. We don't know what he does there or what this place is until the very end of the movie when the Who's are trying to make noise so that the rest of the jungle knows they exist. All of Whoville is making the loudest noise they possibly can to transmit the sound over the spec but it isn't enough. Jojo realizing the seriousness of the situation runs off to his happy place where he uncovers his secret sound machine that creates a noise so loud that the rest of the jungle can hear and finally believes that the whos exist. Jojo ends up saving the day and his father is proud of him. He finally speaks and he is no longer the wierd one anymore. His creative sound machine saved their lives.

The Mayor of whoville was never ashamed of Jojo. Being the only son, he wanted him to carry down the family name and tradition of being mayor. Seeing that his son never spoke to him started to worry him. He could never figure out what was on his mind. At the end when Jojo saves the Whos he starts to understand.

What works really well about Jojo's journey is that throughout the movie, he lives in the background, no one would expect that this weird, outcasted boy who never speaks would end up saving the village. The unexpected ending and solution to the dillema makes this story rewarding to watch.

For my story, I have to figure out how to give it a twist. How would I give this character a journey that is not typical and creative.

Precedents: Musicotherapie

Not only excellent animation but a perfect example of incorporating sound and music to the animation. Here the animation relies heavily on the sounds made therefore affects their movements and how they come about each movement. Here the sound clearly moves the story.

Precedents: Funkphonic - Rick Tank - 3D Animation

This is a thesis project by Rick Tank, an animation student in UK. The set design and character is extremely simplistic but as a concept of combining music and animation it works pretty well. I looked at it because it has similar elements that I will be incorporating in my animation, i.e. working with light and sound to move the story forward.

Thesis Statement

Traditions confine us to certain  expectations of acceptable professions that society expects us citizen to follow, however sometimes it becomes necessary for us to break these traditions.

My explanation of this statement:

As we grow up, we learn from our parents, teachers, elders about how to be successful in life. Along with these teachings, we are taught about what professions contribute towards being a successful person. These assumptions of "what career makes one successful" comes from tradition and also the wanting of our parents for us to be successful and happy in life. However as the times change and culture changes, it becomes important to re-evaluate this assumption of "what makes one successful". With changing times come new problems, ones that have never emerged before? When traditional solutions don't work, it is upto us to be creative about the way in which we think to solve these problems. Thus it then has to be acceptable to break traditional expectations. The youth of today are starting to solves world issues creatively through new media, gaming, art, music etc... As these efforts are providing solutions, society should embrace these new professions. 

Assumptions...

Some assumptions that I have right now are:

- Asian children still struggle with acceptance of non-traditional professions as far as society and tehir parents are concerned.

- The American Asian population of kids have an easier time with the whole acceptance issue

- Education has helped but culture and tradition are still influencing the thinking of the parents

Progress...

I have started my character modeling class for the summer at NYU and am super excited. We have already started modeling characters and will be learning how to rig this week. 

So I will start storyboarding this week and testing out my story next week. My cousin has two children ages 5 and 3 whom she reads stories to every night. She has offered to read the story to them to see if they understand and observe how they react. So the prototype for them will be in the form of a story book. If I am able to, I will also try and ask her to try the story on her friends kids so that i can get a wide range of responses.

 I will also start pitching the story to young teens and get their feedback. I hope to get in touch with SAYA this week.