Blog Archives
Animation ain’t always for kids: Madagascar 3 day- June 16, 2012
The highlight of today was the ambitious expedition to watch Madagascar 3. Many kids, a few parents and a fair showing of grandparents.
3D effects aside, the film didn’t quite do justice to the endearing characters of Alex, King Julian and the gang. I was disappointed frankly.
Udai was excited but the funny lines dried up in the first half. The second half was flat and mainly showcased special effects. Aadyaa’s gang was completely lost. English is tough on young kids, especially with the heavy accents! Frankly, the dialogues were written by adults for grown ups. Yet another animation film that’s pitched at adults more than for children. Sadly for kids, this is the general trend.
Anyhow, it was a fun outing. Bubble gum flavoured ice cream made up for the trauma of watching cavorting animals through 3D glasses! Here’s the gang ready to head back home. For us, we were only happy to escape Fun City, the noisy mindless madness of rides and shiny video games that unfailingly gives me a headache.
Stretched imagination: The wonderful world that children have inside their heads! May 21, 2012
Udai attended a 6-day art workshop this past week. Conducted by Sonal, a dear friend of Rahul and mine from the good old days in Lucknow, he had the time of his life exploring and discovering in himself new abilities and talents. Ten kids varying from age 7 to 11 and a wonderfully involved and talented teacher- Here’s a short run through of what they did…..
Exercise 1 was learning to put together the background, mid ground and foreground. Kids had an inherent ability to portray different moods and a very clear visualization of the scene was apparent. This one is Udai’s.
Exercise 2- Think of up of your own character. They made these fantastic character sheets describing these characters (Caroto the warrior carrot and Lion the Monkey are on this pic’s foreground), what they do, what they like, dislike, etc.
Udai created Matrix (inspired by summer holiday reading of Asterix) the Tribal Man. Lives in a cave in Africa. Hunts mammoths and eats mammoth heads. Dives backward flip into water and loves swimming. Wields a deadly spear!
Step 3 was creating a wire frame of the character. Some kids changed their characters but our man stuck to Matrix loyally all the way through!
Next: They built on the skeleton to add flesh and skin and clothes and accessories. This was most exciting. That Sonal Bua had so much fantastic stationery and material…wow! Do note the red loin cloth and the neck piece worn by our smart man Matrix! The important lesson at this point was to exaggerate the special characteristic, in this case Matrix’s leanness.
And that’s how Matrix turned out. He is broke at the neck but he adorns a wall in our house! Bua has got some stronger wire to remake him 🙂 In the final version, he got 3 bracelets on each arm also!
The most involved teacher with another talented student. During the presentation, Sonal had something special to highlight about each child. Made the parents day for sure!
Aadyaa thoroughly enjoyed the display and was much inspired. We went home and made a masterpiece of our own!!
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