Hw 30B: "Animation as Political and Social Constructions"

Three speakers, Jiwon Ahn, Sander Lee, and Mark Timney presented the symposium “Animation as Political and Social Constructions”. Jiwon made a presentation focusing on how gender domination is displayed trough paintings and animation. She provided many examples of different paintings and artwork, which portrayed a sense of a dominant gender. Sander was the next speaker who showed a clip made by Walt Disney. The clip included Donald Duck who played the character of a citizen in Nazi Germany. Sander explained that he found this strip interesting because Donald Duck is portrayed as a character who is known to have a temper yet in the film clip he is very obedient. He even says Hail Hitler thirty-three times throughout the clip. Sander feels that the film suggests that the Nazi government is so powerful that even those who are normally rebellious have no choice but to cooperate without resistance. He states that the film reinforces the fact that “The individual is powerless under Nazi control.” (Lee, Sander) He also showed another film clip, which was designed by The Warner Brothers. This clip includes the incident where Bugs Bunny encounters Hitler. This clip demonstrates the idea that Bugs Bunny is willing to risk his life to prove that the Nazi’s are cowards and Bully’s. Mark Timney gave the final presentation. He chose to introduce his topic by showing the audience a clip of an episode of South Park. This was an episode about the war in Iraq and the people who are for and against the war. The episode addresses the issue of good citizenship versus bad citizenship and what it wakes to be an active citizen. He explains that 55% of the shows actually have a moral theme and the others usually present a solution. This episode portrays the idea that people who want to be an involved citizen are willing to speak their mind and work hard to change something. In my opinion the most interesting part about this symposium was the presentation given by Sander. I was fascinated by how much meaning one-film strip can entail. I had never seen those filmstrips before and they were filled with so many different messages.