ANIMATION PRINCIPLES - SCENE ANALYSIS #4

For this scene analysis, I'm going to look at a clip from The LEGO Movie 2, released in 2019 and directed by Mike Mitchell.

(A scene from the film involving Emmet and newcomer Rex Dangervest - credit: Warner Bros. Animation)

STAGING
There are a few shots with really effective staging. One example that really stood out to me was a bird's eye view looking down on Emmet and Rex, from the point of view of a tentacle creature about to try and grab Emmet. This communicates to the audience about a danger approaching the characters that they aren't presently aware of, reinforcing the rule of letting the audience know more than the characters. 

Another good example of staging is after Rex "master breaks" some Plantimals and the ground, the camera pans out to reveal just how far the damage he'd done spread to. It ends up panning out to a full wide shot, with Rex taking up the smallest part of the frame.

EXAGGERATION
The characters move and morph in various ways that add a lot more appeal and humour to scenes they appear in. One fairly simple example of exaggeration is when Emmet needs to turn around to look behind him, and instead of turning his whole body, he just turns his head around 180 degrees.

Another example is when Rex is flying down to the ground, preparing to punch the ground. For a few frames, his hand changes from a regular minifigure "claw" hand into a more human looking hand, commonly used by LEGO for bigger characters (or Big-Figs). It's only used for a couple of frames right up close to the camera, presumably to give a fleeting look at what's going on with Rex's hand.

ANTICIPATION
When Rex is fighting off the Plantimals as Emmet builds a getaway vehicle, we get various shots of Rex bouncing around, jumping off of things and leaping into the air to shake off his opponents. For each of these, we see a brief look at his pause on the ground (or whatever surface he's on) as he recoils down to build up energy, then makes a much bigger movement up.