DreamWorks Animation, Metalepsis and Diegetic Deconstruction
DreamWorks Animation, Metalepsis and Diegetic Deconstruction
Chapter Nine applies a framework drawn from Gérard Genette’s (1983) notion of “metalepsis” (recently recovered within contemporary animation studies) to explain the behaviour of computer-animated film characters who freely ascend from the fictional world into the surrounding promotional spaces. Although animation has a long tradition of deconstruction and self-reflexive practices, this chapter offers new space to consider how the seamless worlds of computer-animated films can equally be conceptualised according to a deconstructive comedy of metalepsis. This chapter argues that computer-animated film characters are able to abruptly intrude into company logos, corporate signatures, credits sequences and even features of film form. It maps such repeating comic devices onto wider historical developments in studio signification, digitally-assisted logo design and the promotional strategies of contemporary Hollywood cinema. This chapter also affords the specific opportunity to focus on the cycle of feature-length computer-animated films produced by the Dreamworks Animation studio, which exhibit an unprecedented and widely-operational mingling of promotional space with the animated activity of its digital characters.
Keywords: Metalepsis, Dreamworks, logo design, corporate identity, promotion, credits, comedy
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