Close reading Assignment- Film terminology- Animation

The animation in the opening of grease is one of the most important parts of the opening of grease. As it is only the opening credits sequence that is animated, animation is clearly an important part of the opening credits and is there for a reason. Not only is the animation itself important but the way it is done is too. In the animation there is some things that are very realistic for example there are posters on the walls, radios,  socks thrown everywhere etc but in other parts of the animation there are things happening that are impossible for example grease has a face, Rizzo's neck when she is trying to put on her sweater gets impossibly long, and surrounding Sandy when she wakes up and gets out of bed are cute little animals (birds, bunnies, deer etc...) So there is a mix of the impossible and the purely possible. The cartoon form and the quirkiness of it helps us to get into that happy mood that the film wants us to be in. 

The animation in the opening credits also really helps us to keep watching and be entertained and as stupid and as obvious as that sounds in a lot of other movies you don't watch the credits therefore people like the executive producers name goes unnoticed. Whereas because the animation in grease keeps you drawn to the television the creators have got you recognising the names of the people that you normally wouldn't. The entertainment sounds obvious a lot of movies don't think about it in regards to opening credits.

The animation also helps with introducing the characters by the use of symbols etc... for example Sandy being surrounded by birds, bunnies and deer show us that she is a very kind, good girl as we can make references to other movies that these "woodland" creatures have been in e.g. snow white and can see the similarities in the characters. Another example is the items of clothes they are wearing for example the t birds all the wearing the leather jackets that say t birds on the back. The leather jackets give us the impression of rebellion and the names show us that they are a group. The animation helps to give us clues of not only the characters and the tone of the movie but also the storyline of it. For example the use of the car for the title of grease is symbolic because that is not the last time we see that car.

The animation in grease is generally made the people look very similar to their characters so that we can recognise them but in some cases they have also made them amusing and a little bit funny looking to try and not only keep our interest but start to like the characters because grease is very much based on the fact that you like some people and you don't like others and generally they have given the main characters kind looking faces but they amuse you because of the animation.

During the opening credits most of the time we are seeing animation but a couple of times to show us real people instead of animating it they have shown us a real picture of them for example during the transition between Sandy and Rizzo a Marilyn Monroe picture is flashed past us showing us the contrast between the real and the animated.

The animation also helps us to realise that this isn't a part of the movie and to help keep/ gain our interest. It is a quirky and more entertaining way of getting the things they want us to know out there. The animation helps to get some things to do with the 50s that they couldn't really pull off using real people/ props and it also helps give a positive and upbeat connotation to everything that is going on.

The animation helps to show messages that if animation was not used we as the audience perhaps wouldn't have understood or really thought about, it is a good contrast to the rest of the movie and it helps give the unrealistic and impossible views on some of the things showing to make the audience/ viewer entertained. The opening credits quirky and feel good cartoons keep us watching.