Review of "Once Upon a Time: Narrative Strategies" by Paul Wells

This chapter supports the idea that there are two schools of thought about narrative strategies in animation. First school believes that each animation, no matter how short, must have a story with a sequence of events taking place over a period of time, informed by a chain of causes and effects. The second one think that animation possesses the capacity to create new modes of storytelling without using a linear plot but instead using symbolic or metaphoric effects. Considering these two schools of though Wells defines terms associated with the narrative processes with respect to animation.

Metamorphosis is the ability of changing an image into the completely new one. Metamorphosis resist logical developments, put it differently, it allows the animator to narrate by connecting apparently unrelated images. In consequences metamorphosis combines “horror and humour, dream and reality, certainty and speculation” together.

Condensation is one of the first strategies in narration. Animation was always in the short form, so animator needed to “compress a high degree of narrational information into a limited period of time through processes of condensation”. Features of condensation is to conflate the narrative premise and its outcome.

Synecdoche is a figure of speech or object in which a part is made to represents its whole or vise versa. This can be like the use of “metonymy” which is the substitution of an image for its action.

Symbolism and Metaphor: Symbolism is when something is used as part of the image vocabulary to suggest a meaning. It is the way in which an audience interprets elements of the animation and understands the film. Otherwise speaking, “a symbol invests an object with meaning”. On the other hand, metaphor, is similar to symbolism, in the way that it invites interpretation but “insists upon openness”. Metaphor essentially grows out of symbolism, in metaphor an image is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, as they intend that the audience has an engagement with the symbolic over and above the actual. Fabrication is defined as reanimation of materiality. That is to say, it is the idea of redefining the material and objects. Three-dimensional animation is directly concerned with the expression of materiality and create uncanny images. Considering this definition, the meaning of the object is determined by common historic dimensions and creates the associational environment for the viewer.

Associative Relations is when the suggestion or the allusion is used to bring together seemingly unconnected images. Sound inspires feelings and emotionally narrate the storyline. Sounds not only create the mood and atmosphere of an animation, and determine its pace and emphasis, but also, most importantly, create a vocabulary by which the visual codes of the film can be understood. Sound can be composed of a voiceover, monologue, dialogue, instrumental or lyrical music and sound effects. Acting and Performance is another narrative strategy. In an animated film there is no character but instead the relationship between the animator and the figure. The animator must decide on the character's range of movement, modes of expression and behaviour. The character is limited by the conditions and possibilities of the medium it is created in. In the early days, characters were referred to as “performers” rather than “actors”, as they were controlled to perform rather like a puppet.

Choreography as the dynamics of movements is another principle of narrating. Choreography in animation is like ‘staging’ for theatrics. Unlike dance choreography, animation is liberated from the constraints of space and weight; thus, it is open to manipulation. “Action moods” are subject to act as a catalyst for very distinct types of movement from the figures. Penetration is the very last strategy Wells explain in this chapter. This is “the ability of animation to evoke the internal space and portray the invisible”, or the “soul.” It is used to reveal conditions that would otherwise be hidden from the viewer. So, “narration in this mode is very much determined by the intention to reflect the immediacy of sensual experience”.