Contemporary and Technical Influences

An overview of my final project:

An adaptation of a recent event, presented as a nursery rhyme, using various hand-made methods of animation.

Contemporary Influence:

Many nursery rhymes are said to be inspired by news-worthy scandals of the day. These theories are usually apocryphal, such as Jack and Jill being a retelling of the rise and fall of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. However, historical inspirations, and disproving them, seem to be a prominent element within the study of nursery rhymes. 

For my project, I am writing and animating one or two nursery rhymes based on the scandals of our generation.

The first is the story of Lorena Bobbitt and John Wayne Bobbitt, an infamous news story in the mid-nineties. John Wayne was an abusive husband, and after returning home drunk and forcing himself on her, Lorena chopped off his penis with a carving knife, went for a drive and deposited the dismembered member in a remote field. It was later recovered and reattached. Lorena Bobbitt was acquitted due to a defense of "temporary insanity" caused by abuse at the hand of her husband and the psychological aftermath of a forced abortion 3 years prior. 

John Wayne Bobbitt cashed in on the notoriety of the case. He appeared in two adult films, "John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut" and "Frankenpenis". He also spent some time working as a minister in a Las Vegas Wedding Chapel.

Lorena has been hailed by some in the feminist movement, and her name lives on as a threat: "Don't do that or I'll bobbitt you!"

Technical Influence

I am looking to use early forms and pre-cursors of animation, such as the toy theater, the thaumatrope, zoetrope, flipbooks and stop-frame animation. Many of these early forms of animation were used not only to entertain children, but also adults, with many naughty mutoscope (a flip-book style precursor to the nickelodeon) presentations, leading to them being called "What-the-butler-saw machines".

I am also looking at stop-frame animations by Lotte Reiniger and Ray Harryhausen, both stop-frame pioneers who amongst other subjects, created animated fairy tales and nursery rhymes.