Appeal...
...is styling to achieve the cosmetically attractive as well as an engaging personality. This doesn't mean to say that all characters should be stereotypically beautiful or handsome, but that our villains are suitably villainous and our heroes worth rooting for.
MEGAMIND
An unsuccessful turned successful villain, separated from his parents as a baby and lived through bullying, who's now in love..paired with an oversized 'baby' head and vulnerably skinny physique = APPEAL. Especially for girls over the age of 12.
An unsuccessful turned successful villain, separated from his parents as a baby and lived through bullying, who's now in love..paired with an oversized 'baby' head and vulnerably skinny physique = APPEAL. Especially for girls over the age of 12.
BETTY BOOP
Fleischer's Betty christened the crossover between sex appeal and babied cuteness.
Fleischer's Betty christened the crossover between sex appeal and babied cuteness.
On the design of the characters in 'Tangled', Glen Keane commented during a Q&A at the BFI, that they made a conscious decision to ignore the 3D modelling 'mirror' function. Typically in the past, a character with a perfectly symmetrical face was desirable, but in todays age of hyper-realism within animation, the disney artists turned to the perceptions we have of actual beauty in females. It has been scientifically proven that facial symmetry is attractive to the human eye. This being the case you would think that this new-age disney princess would join the parallel perfect conveyor belt. Closer studies indicate that our levels of 'appeal' are not as simple as asymmetrical/symmetrical and that there are other distinctions, such as one eye being larger than the other, that can increase the appeal in someone's face. This applies to Rapunzel's character whose quirky charm also includes slightly crooked teeth. Around 80% people are attracted to bigger eyes, of which Rapunzel without hesitance ticks the box. They went the for 'off-perfect' appeal. Yes, she still maintains the Disney trend of a bone thin waist - but the contemporary interpretation of a fairytale teenager comes across as genuine and sincere, enveloping a likeable character.
Written by Madeleine Grossi