ACTION ANALYSIS
ORPHANS' PICNIC
January 30

[...]     UGO: What is the sense of the Duck ducking
     branches of trees?

That business of the Duck jumping over the tree branches was
used to give variety to the action and show progress of the
truck, but it was forced in that his reactions were merely
physical - in jumping over the limb he didn't build into the
spirit of the picnic.

     UGO: He seemed to know what was coming.

It is possible to go that far in a cartoon .... in THE TORTOISE
AND HARE very much the same situation arose. As the tortoise
was going along all kinds of little things were built into the
scene to give variety to the action and to better portray his
character.

     D'ORSI: In this case it should have seemed accidental
     that the Duck missed branches. (About half the class
     agreed with this.) There should be more connection be-
     tween the act of the Duck avoiding the branches acciddent-
     ally and the hit. Also he anticipates the hit. It is
     important to show that he is a smart aleck in the first
     part of the picture, and that finally he does get hit
     because he is too smart.

He is a smart aleck and must also portray the spirit of the
action. Does he portray the feeling of gaiety up to this point?

     (General feeling - no.)

If he had portrayed more of the feeling of the picnic and
created more of a feeling of gaiety and of a happy-go-lucky
character in the spectator it would have enhanced the picture.

     MOREHOUSE: I think he remains in one spot all the time
     on top of the cab - he should have jumped about a bit and had
     more action.

By moving him around more you would have lost the feeling of his cockiness.

     (Agreement on this point is divided in the class.)

About the best way to kill a laugh is to tell someone to laugh.
The sign "Out for a good time" may make an audience react in
opposite direction, so that the animator may have to work
harder to build the feeling of a good time with this hurdle to
jump over. This hurts the action because it builds up the
wrong psychological reaction in the spectator for what follows.
One of the men outlined changes in the story that led to the
opening of the story as it is now.

This is not a criticsm of the story, but the way the action [...]