ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - SCENE ANALYSIS #3

For this scene analysis, I'm going to look at a scene from Gravity Falls, which aired from 2012 to 2016 and was created by Alex Hirsch.

 

(A clip from season 2 episode 11, titled "Not What He Seems" - credit: Disney Television Animation) 

STAGING
There are a few examples in this clip where staging is used really effectively. One of the most notable ones to me is when Agent Powers' car and a police car are being lifted off the ground in all the strangeness going on. We get a worms eye view directly up, something not seen very often in any medium. We see the under-side of both cars, and Powers' face poking out the window, scared and yelling. This staging is used  to emphasise just how weird and unusual this scenario is; using an unconventional camera angle feeds into that.

Another example of effective staging is when Stan gets pinned up to a wall with a pipe. This ties in with elements from his character arc across the episode. The beginning of the episode shows Stan's inner conflict on whether he tells Dipper and Mabel about what he has hidden in the Mystery Shack's basement. Midway through the episode, Dipper, Mabel and Soos discover Stan's been hiding secrets from all of them for years. This gives the shot of Stan pinned up against the wall, all on his own, a bit more emotion and depth to it. It shows Stan at his most vulnerable, and at the brink of losing everything he's worked for.

WEIGHT AND EFFORT
We see hints of weight and effort across the entire scene, especially when characters are colliding midair, pushing each other, and generally interacting in a rougher manner than usual. A good example is when Dipper floats toward, and then collides with, a large beam. We see the impact the beam has on Dipper; it's a lot heavier than he is, so it's less of what he can do to it, more so what it can do to him. During the impact, we see that the beam causes Dipper's body to be thrown to the side a little bit. So much so that he has to bounce back a little bit, he hit the beam that hard. This impact can most be seen in his head, as it lowers down and squishes his cheek up.

SECONDARY ACTION
Most of the secondary actions the characters experience is as a result of the wind blowing. This means that Dipper, Mabel & Soos' hair and the rope on Stan's fez flow about. 

Characters also communicate with their hands quite a lot. As Dipper tells Mabel to "listen to her head", he points towards his own head. Characters also make small gestures with their hands when they're just talking in various scenes.

EXAGGERATION
This scene is more serious in tone compared to the more fun, adventurous feel previous episodes and scenes have had. In this vein, you wouldn't expect any exaggeration to heighten any kind of humour or make movements seem more cartoony. But there is a moment when a character has their facial features exaggerated to show extreme emotion. Mabel decides to do the opposite of what Dipper was hoping her to do, which could potentially "destroy the universe". So he's pretty angry; and the transformation of his face shows it. His face elongates, his angry eyebrows raise in a mixture of anger and disbelief, and his eyes grow bigger .

EASE IN / EASE OUT
The major scene where easing in and out is showcased is after Mabel presses the red button and causes a massive flash bang. After seeing it spread throughout the town, we see all the debris floating about slowly stop ascending, and then very quickly fall to the ground.