Animation Analysis 2!

The original short film is not on YouTube but this is a link to it:http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/40355/Partly-Cloudy-Pixar-HD-short-film/ 

Partly cloudy is a story about a cloud that doesn’t fit in with all of the other clouds just because he is different. The opening scene for the short film is of storks delivering animals and babies to the door steps of homes. You then follow these storks back to where they get their babies and animals from. They are made from clouds that look a lot like humans. They make these babies and animals by making the shapes out of the clouds, then electrify the clouds and the baby or animals are under the clouds. They then wrap the baby and animals up and the storks take them for delivery. However there is a grey cloud that is below all of the other clouds because he is different. This grey cloud has a worn out, old looking stork. This grey cloud only makes the dangerous and scary animals and the stork delivering them always gets hurt. Then one day the stork looks across at another cloud to see them playing with chicks and having fun and decides to fly to the white cloud. The grey cloud gets upset and starts to cry (rain). But then the old stork comes back with a full set of body armour to protect himself.  

Mise-en-scene:

·     White fluffy clouds

·         Stork birds

·         Houses

·         Animals (cats, dogs and people)

·         Humanized clouds

·         Grey, humanized clouds that is rubbish at making things

·         Worn out, old looking stork with works with the grey cloud

·         Dangerous animals that the grey cloud makes

·         Nice, cute animals that the white clouds make

·         Rains when grey cloud is upset

·         Protective gear on old stork bird

Cinematography:

·      Establishing shot of stork birds flying in the sky

·         Long shot of the birds dropping the babies/ animals off

·         Behind tracking shot of the birds flying to the clouds

·         Long shot of how the babies/ animals are made

·         Pan down to the grey cloud (lonely)

·         Mid shot to show the grey cloud at work (not good at it, only makes dangerous, scary animals)

·         Pan across of the old bird arriving then a two shot of the cloud and bird together (showing their friends)

·         Mid shot of the bird (shows he is worn out)

·         Mid shot of the grey cloud (shows that he is happy about what he has made)

·         Zoom out of the grey cloud to show how alone he is

·         Close up of the old bird to show his emotion (sad, but pretending to be happy)

·         Pan up to the white clouds (sees how much fun they are having)

·         Low angle to grey cloud with the thunder to show dominance

·         Close up to show that he is sad

Editing:

·         Jump cuts through out

Sound:

·         Non-diegetic background music throughout

·         Noises from the clouds and animals

·         Sound effects

There isn’t a great deal of mise-en-scene in this short film. The majority of this is based high up in the clouds. The opening scene is very different as you have a lot of houses and details to make it look like a street of homes. The reason that they open up with this is to set the scene for the story as without the audience seeing that the storks deliver these animals/ babies to people homes, you would not understand why the clouds are making the animals/ babies. You then have these very humanized clouds. The majority of the clouds people that you see are very friendly, mothering, female clouds. This is done because women are normal the creators of life and the process of making the animals/ babies are like giving birth. Also females are stereotypically more mothering, making the younger audiences more comfortable to watch as they can relate to that better. Those clouds are also a very pure white which connotes that they are pure, happy, full of life and joy giving them a positive vibe to the audience. Then you have the juxtaposition of the grey cloud below them. The grey immediately connotes dullness, lack of joy and life making this character seem quite dull, but at the same time you feel sorry for him as he is very lonely as he is the only grey cloud. This grey cloud also makes dangerous and scary animals such as alligators, porcupines, sharks and eels compare to the cute joyful animals of puppies, kittens, babies and chicks that the white clouds make. With that grey cloud you get a very worn out, old looking stork. This also reinforces that the grey cloud is the outcast because this worn out stork is clearly an outcast of the other storks and they look pure and healthy compare to this old stork that looks worn out, sad and not full of life.   

You get a variety of camera shots and angles in this short film. It opens up with an establishing shot of the street where the storks are delivering to. This is done so it sets the scene for the short film. The most commonly used shots are extreme long shots, two shots and pans. You see a lot of extreme long shots in this short film as extreme long shots are very commonly used to show loneliness. They are mainly used on the grey cloud as he is meant to be shown as very lonely so the extreme long shot is perfect to show that. You also get these extreme longshots used with a track or pan so you can see everything around as the birds fly through the clouds to help set the scene. There are also a lot of two shot used. These are most commonly used to show the paring of the clouds to the storks to show that they are partners/ friends. You see this a lot with the old stork and the grey cloud to show how good friends they actually are and they the old stork will stand by the grey cloud no matter what he does. You get a lot of pans in as well in this short film to show what the characters are looking at. The best example of where a pan is used is when the old stork looks at the white cloud and the camera pans up to that cloud. That is also a low angle shot to show that the white cloud is the more dominate cloud and shows how the old stork wants to be there.