The Little Prince - Research
In this blog post I decided to look at a book that I think ties well with the concept of my project. I have mentioned it before when I was getting the first ideas for the project and now, when I am really thinking of the backstories and putting it all together, I decided to really look into the world of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his great book 'The Little Prince'. I will also look into the movie version of the book because it is an extraordinary animation.
'The Little Prince' is a book published in 1943 but still is highly relevant, especially when talking about friendships and imagination.
The book tells a story of a grown up who meets his inner child and that is The Little Prince. (The Little Prince, 2017). The book can be understood by both - adults and children and what is crazy is that both adults and children will understand it differently. I think it is beautiful about this book. It is for everyone and that is also what makes a good cartoon. It is obviously targeted at one specific age group but it is also understood by everyone and everyone finds it fun to look at. I think 'The Little Prince' is truly a masterpiece when it comes to being for all ages.
What I mostly decided to look at is the aspect of imagination and mainly children's imagination. I mentioned in one of my posts that I believe that children are capable of understanding more than adults give them credit for and I stick with that but I also believe children have an incredible imagination and sadly it is lost over the years.
At the very beginning of the book there is an illustration which is not very famous. Here is the illustration:
This image in particular focuses on the difference between the imagination of children and adults. Most adults if they saw the image on the left, would think it is a hat, where in fact it is a boa digesting an elephant. It does sound ridiculous, but what is shows is that children can really create something out of nothing and it will make sense in their heads.
This image also opens this big conversation about adults' problem solving skills. There are multiple ways to see this drawing but they choose to see a hat every time (Hora, 2016). The same way problems can be approached. Multiple ways of seeing it - but adults find it difficult to change their perspective, to think outside the box. This is a skill children do not struggle with. Children are capable of so much, so I believe their minds should always be challenged to improve. I do not like the school system though, because schools often kill that creativity and imagination in children. They create forms and make kids fit in those frames they have created. This is where people lose the ability to see more and that also ties with the lack of capability of problem solving in the future. I think if schools are killing and ruining those amazing things about young minds, cartoons, books and other media should try to keep those things alive and that can be done for example by creating ridiculous and extraterrestrial cartoons. I was thinking about that. I was thinking about how can I challenge those minds to make them understand a concept without making it realistic. How to balance the surrealism and the realia we live in so it is not completely meaningless but it is still making kids use their minds to imagine a new world. I think keeping that fire alive in those young people is important because that can make their future life easier.
There is this one moment in the book that truly shows the child's thinking process and their abilities to imagine. The narrator is asked my the Prince to draw a sheep and after creating a bunch of 'inadequate' drawing they draw a box with holes and explain that the sheep is inside (Murris and Kell, 2016). The Little Prince likes the drawing of the box because then the sheep can be whatever they imagine. It leaves space for creativity and the Prince is not limited by the adult's idea of a sheep. The idea of how a sheep looks like is definitely well known to every adult and everyone would probably sketch it in a similar way, but in the child's imagination they may have something completely different in their mind. They may want just space where they can use their imagination or creativity. I think it is a really interesting concept to just leave something to their imagination to challenge them a little bit mentally. This is the sort of simulation of the mind that I mentioned before,
When writing down the concept of my cartoon I came up with an idea of neighboring planets that are not so friendly so the characters are scared of fighting with them. In a fight like this, the grandpa died, I wanted the grandpa to really be a hero and I thought about sometimes showing the neighboring planets and creatures that live there, but now when I think about it. The characters and the places that are only mentioned could be the box with the sheep. Could be talked about and mentioned several times but never shown to leave space for children's imagination. I think this could be the element I would leave for the viewer, so every kid would imagine the characters and the places differently and they all would be correct because there never would be an answer for them. It would be something for them to create in their heads.
The next thing I would like to look at is the movie version of the book which came out in 2015.
This is the trailer for the animation and I think it is brilliant because it not only shows the world of the Little Prince and the narrator but also shows a girl who is already being put in those frames that would make her an adult. All her imagination and creativity is taken away, there is no time in her life for spontaneous events and actions. Everything she is doing is because she is already looking into the future, instead of living the moment as a child should. The older man is opening a completely new world for her where he shows her how to be a child and tells her those ridiculous stories. Those stories trigger her imagination and makes her become a child that she really is.
I want my works to be like those stories. I want them triggering emotion and imagination. Making adults feel like children and making children remember that they are children and the world is theirs. I think it is important to keep that imagination alive because as I said it can be helpful in for example problem solving but it also can be helpful in enjoying everyday life as an adult.
I think this research opened my eyes wider on the issue of institutions killing children's imagination and creativity and it made me realize that as a film maker - animator it is my role and mission to keep that imagination alive in those little minds. It also helped me develop the concept for my cartoon that I like and I think it would work well with those young minds.
Reference list:
Hora, M. (2016) '‘Le Petit Prince’, and Why Imagination is Essential To Problem Solving', Medium, 16 July. Available at: https://medium.com/@mananhora/le-petit-prince-and-why-imagination-is-essential-to-problem-solving-6ff6b2b30eaf (Accessed: 09/03/2021).
Murris, K. and Kell, C. (2016) 'Imagination and literacy: Introduction to the special issue', Reading & Writing, 7(2), a136. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305320162_Imagination_and_literacy_Introduction_to_the_special_issue
the special issue
The Little Prince (2017) The Book. Available at: https://www.thelittleprince.com/#the-book (Accessed: 09/03/2021).
You say you want your work to trigger emotions in the way that the Little Prince does - how will this reveal itself in your work? I think you can use the backstory or the explanation of each character to show an aspect of their character which the audience will SYMPATHISE with.
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