AF201 Animation - Research 2 - Aladdin

Aladdin has always been a childhood favourite of mine, upon watching it recently there is a great scene that I want to analyse.

Around 1/3 through the film when Aladdin enters the Cave of Wonders he comes across the magic carpet that we all know and love.

The Magic Carpet from Aladdin

Aside from the brilliant animation for a 1992 movie what really impressed me was the level of emotion the animators managed to get into an inanimate object, in this case a rug.

As you can see in the screenshot above Abu (the Monkey) suspects that he saw the rug move but assumes he was seeing things, as he does the Magic Carpet creeps up on him and goes to tap him with one tassel, the animator has done an incredible job at making it look like a limb of a human, the tassel on the end is the hand and the gentle curve is the arm joining to the torso which is the main part of the carpet.

Again the Magic Carpet tries to sneak up to Abu this time the animator has bent the Carpet in such a way that gives you the impression its crouched or sneaking trying to look as small as possible.

Abu turns round and the Magic Carpet assumes what would be a 'normal' pose for a unused carpet, rolled up and put into a corner which is very comical gives a great entertainment value to this scene, Abu looks on the floor and cant see anything, completely fooled.

This is the scene that captures it all into one for me, the Magic Carpet on its third and final attempt tries to sneak up behind Abu the Monkey, by this stage its clear to the audience but not Abu that he's being followed  which gives it a pantomime "hes behind you" humor style which has always appealed to children. Was also needs to be said is that the Magic Carpet has subtly been shown as trying to play, or annoy where as this could all change if just a few aspects were altered, for example the if the colour of the rug was red/black and had larger tassels it could been seen as a threat/enemy so the attention to detail from the animator is brilliant ensuring that the right message is conveyed all of the time as first impressions with a new character can make or break its appeal.

Looking at the actual position of the Carpet in this scene is so well done, it might seem obvious to make the tassels act like feet but wouldn't be obvious if you weren't already shown it. It has one leg back poised ready to move and the right foot forward with the tassel stretched out like someone trying to tiptoe and be as quiet as possible, meanwhile the upper body/carpet is held back like its taking a risk and its hands are handing in anticipation ready to move quickly at any moment, with the twisted body of the carpet this all creates a fantastic effect of a creeping Magic Carpet trying to get close to someone without them spotting them. 

I'd really like to achieve a similar effect/feel in my animation and whilst previously I only had animation of a human to compare and take inspiration from, this scene gives me a great creative way to animate something without any arms or legs or a face and give it incredibly obvious emotion/actions. As I go through my research I will constantly be looking back at this scene to try and take some inspiration from it and hopefully incorporate it into my short film.