'Brain Divided' animates conflict between id, superego
The Cartoon Brew website has announced the closing of its fourth annual Student Animation Festival. The Grand Prize winner is “Brain Divided”, a five-minute CGI film directed by Josiah Haworth, Joon Shik Song and Joon Soo Song at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.
Can animators anthropomorphize the brain functions known as the id and the superego? Surely, going back to Disney’s Reason and Emotion (1943), probably most famous today for the animators’ caricature of fellow Disney animator Ward Kimball as the caveman Emotion. There is also the 1956 s-f feature Forbidden Planet with its “monsters from the id”, although the id there technically is not anthropomorphized; it’s just shown running amok. It’s not done often, thank Roscoe, or it would get old fast; but Haworth & Co. have done a fine job of it.
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
Comments
There's an inconstancy here, When the guys two sides work together they're able to get what they want in a smooth manner. When the woman's two sides make a consensus action at the end they seem to act in a manner that is outright crazy; like when the guy's "right side" is acting alone, as showcased earlier in the animation.
True, and this is something of an issue in Reason and Emotion as well. Animator bias? I guess for the time it's pretty tame.
There are times 'reason' can shut down a conversation if it goes to far as well. You ever have one of those conversations with a stranger and you start nerding out and over-analyzing something.
For instance:
Your date goes "That's a beautiful sunset."
And you go: "I know, isn't Rayleigh scattering wonderful?"
*Awkward silence*
"Oh--- sorry, I mean, not as beautiful as you!"
*Date storms off with disgruntled sigh*
Though the animation does address this better the older one does.
Reason and Emotion was going great until it started getting into propaganda territory. :-/
I'm a reason lover, but yeah, emotion isn't useless or evil. You can't learn anything without emotional curiousity. Some of the stories I make hear are because I realize that there's an emotional desire to find out what's going on and to try and explain it using the facts I have.
You can bet your bottom dollar, while Emotion may have been the driving seat in the soldier, Hitler's reason was very much in control. His reason knew irrationality, he knew how to make people go along with his plans because to do so would be unreasonable.
Let's take their first example, the baby going down the stairs for instance. After the baby is in pain and goes down the stairs, "Reason" is born. That reason... if you charge down the stairs you'll get hurt.
Likewise, the fear is used in the same way by Hitler. Teach the people that to not follow him was equivalent to going down those stairs by making examples of others.
So while fear was used to make reason born in the cartoon, fear was also used to manipulate reason. To make it about survival, I'm doing this because if I don't I'll die. In fact reason was sounding rather emotional when he said "You don't have to listen to that madman!" And emotion was seeming rather 'reasonable' by thinking, "Don't speak up, because you'll die."
So interestingly, the lines between the two are kind of blurred. The target of this propaganda may have been Hitler but the attack on emotion was far more devastating.
Left and right brain huh? Oh who cares about the most basic aspects of physiology.
The psychological theory is probably botched as well.
"caveman Emotion"
"caveman" would never be used these days, hopefully. Hunter-gatherer societies (who's cultures modernity are quickly destroying) DO have morals and inhibitions.
That post... those words... you must be--- the Geico caveman?
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