You must answer question one or two. Do not answer both. [Course Description] [Schedule and Course Outline][Lessons (Resource Questions)][Mid-Term Exam] [Paper Assignment (and Examples)] [Final Exams]
You must answer question one or two. Do not answer both.
1. "In animation filming," write Bordwell and Thompson, "the camera stays in one position, but through the drawing of individual 'cels' frame by frame, the animator can create the effect of camera movement (B&T 221). Describe how animation in The Lion King is constrained--or at least shaped--by the Hollywood Formal Paradigm. Use specific examples from the film to make your point.
2. One pleasure available in watching an animated film arises when we notice its ability to provide us with images and, sometimes, sounds which cannot be achieved in live action. Describe some of the ways that The Lion King exploits the potential of animated film as a unique medium. Organize your answer to substantiate a thesis, one that directs our attention towards the area of filmmaking--mise-en-scene, cinematographic properties, editing, sound--that The Lion King most fully exploits to artistic ends.
If you choose, answer one of the next two questions, but do not answer both.
3. The Lion King is an unrestricted narrative (which means that its story is controlled by an unseen, omniscient narrator). But as B&T write: "Narration is never completely unrestricted. There is always something we are not told, even if it is only how the film will end" (65). How then does both knowing and not knowing affect or structure our viewing experience?
4. For the most part The Lion King uses objective means to create psychological states for its characters. Why do you think this choice was made? Identify an exception to this generalization about depth and explain how it (as a plot cue) alters the story we create in our minds.
Answer no more than two of the following three questions.
5. Using vocabulary you've learned in this course (e.g., William Labov's theory and plot/story distinctions), explain the story-telling function of The Lion King's pretitle sequence. What does it accomplish?
6. Use Labov's concept of "evaluation" (both as a specific point in a narrative and as a structuring device spread throughout a narrative) to explain how The Lion King is able to prompt emotion in viewers.
7. Pick a secondary character in The Lion King and thoroughly explain how he, she, or it is given a personality. Keep in mind that fairy tales (myths) always evoke stereotypes and that film tends to emphasize particulars.
Everybody must tackle one, and only one, of these final questions. They center on the assumption that nobody enjoys film for purely formal reasons. Content always matters.
8. Develop a thesis that accounts for the popularity of The Lion King. Argue that it makes all the right arguments--pulls all the right strings--at just this "right" moment in America's history. Above all, be sure to tell readers exactly what arguments the movie is making.
9. Provide a structuralist account of The Lion King by arguing that its drama arises from the tension articulated by two of its musical interludes: "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata."
10. Using Comolli and Narboni's typology of movies, classify The Lion King. Is it a quintessential recounting and reinforcement of conventional American myths (the stories that enable us to be us, to be Americans), or does it function as a cultural critique, slyly undercutting American myths?