The Body Out of Control

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People have a fascination with human movement that defies norms. Often it is the beautiful and extraordinary, such as dance or acrobatics, but it can also be the ungainly and strange. When we see someone moving oddly, we stop and try to comprehend what is going on.  Spasmodic, or erratic, motion has always had a certain use in comedy. The staggering drunk is probably the most common.  Jerry Lewis had an awkward running style that was one of his signature actions.  But lets focus on characters who really are not in control of their motor functions.

This music video for Fatboy Slim is both slapstick and really cool.  It was created by the Swedish firm Traktor. Plus it has cartoons in it!

Obviously their are wires yanking their bodies around and then the wires are removed in post production. But the effect is wild. It’s not unlike some moments in Ratatouille when Remy is manipulating Linquini.

Strange movement is one of the reasons zombies are so interesting to audiences.  I will confess, I have not seen the either of the Weekend at Bernie’s movies.  As far as I can tell, at some point the dead Bernie is re-animated through some sort of voodoo ritual. His odd motion became a dance craze.

And we must remember this modern classic. It has over 27 million views on YouTube for the very reason I am describing.

Paul Hunt – Comedy Gymnastics

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Here is an idea for a challenging animation exercise.  Instead of the serious parkour actions that are so common, have a character do some gymnastics, but screw it up the way Paul Hunt does in these examples.

Thanks to Chris Michael at New Slapstick for his tweet that introduced me to Paul Hunt, comedy gymnast. From wikipedia:

Hunt was a competitive men’s gymnast at the University of Illinois in the early 1970s. He won the Big Ten Conference individual championship in the floor exercise in 1971, and had another win in the floor exercise in 1973. He was the 1972 US National Floor Exercise champion.
Hunt has been coaching gymnastics in Utah since 1974. While demonstrating a backflip for a female student, he realized the comic value of a man performing women’s gymnastics. He performs his routines during gymnastics competitions for comic relief, wearing a skirted leotard and often calling himself Paulina Huntesque, Pauletta Huntenova or some similar variation. Often he would sport his thick mustache.

Jerry Lewis with music

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This is real sweet clip of Jerry Lewis from The Errand Boy.  Clearly it was plugged into the movie just for fun.  It does nothing to move the story forward, and I like that, because it’s all about character.  He has lot’s of strong expressions and hand poses.

It is powerful, brassy music which motivates Jerry to imitate a strong brassy character.  It’s also very interesting how certain instruments get interpreted into certain actions.  A Youtube commenter identifies the music as “Blues in Hoss’ Flat” performed by Count Basie.

This might make a great animation exercise, animating a character to interpret a musical track. Unless it comes out like this.

While I appreciate the fact that Family Guy is paying homage to Jerry, the limited animation gives us just a fraction of the fun.
Before animating, shoot reference, and judge the reference harshly.

There are much worse versions on youtube. The comparison is valuable to understand what Jerry is doing. He is a master.

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Cartoony humans

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Here is a great example of cartoony human acting.  These two are from the clown act Aga Boom, here performing in Cirque du Soleil’s “O”. The person in the yellow robe is particularly fun to watch. I now think this person is a woman. Her poses are very strong, nice crisp motion. Her big shoes give in a strong grounding the way Mickey Mouse’s do. The Iceberg looks like it came out of a Chilly Willy cartoon. There is no story, but they are silly, profane, frightened, imaginative and romantic in a limited space and limited time. Their character is greater than their situation.

Peter Sellers – Inspector Clouseau

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The team of Peter Sellers and director Blake Edwards brought some great slapstick to the sound movies. Every animator should know their work. Here are a few great examples from the Pink Panther films.

Clouseau paid his butler to try surprise attacks. It’s an interesting relationship, with the appearing to want to kill each other, then being all business.

This next one is classic struggle to solve a problem. It makes me think of Chuck Jones.

Just the idea is funny: Man with a full leg cast tries to use airplane toilet.