KT Shogun

As someone who loves to break down visuals to their core (and loves learning how to do it better) I have to give props to the folks at Dreamworks studios for their work on Madagascar 3. While the film overall is not something I would write home a bout (lots of jokes fall flat, too many tropes, can be downright annoying at times) the artists and animators never cease to amaze. I've been keeping a pretty sharp eye on the visual side of Dreamworks' films since the first Kung-Fu Panda film showed me just how much their artists understand color. But one scene in Madagascar 3 really hit home just how much fun these guys must have doing their job.

I'm talking, of course, about the circus scene.

There's just so much going on here that I scarcely know where to begin.

First, fun with line. The scene is littered with exciting and creative use of line, from the glowing hoops that the big cat trapeze artists jump through to the tight ropes the hippo and giraffe balance across (and even use as a slingshot once!). Even as the tiger raises the platform the artists are cleverly guiding your eyes and the scene upward, setting the scene for all of the delightful insanity to come.

Shape is fun, too. Very quickly the structure itself breaks down and becomes a formless shape upon which the others can move. The hoops are used interchangeably as line and shape, their colors and positioning playing off of repetition and other fun with composition. As one point cannons appear but are almost invisible save for a ring of color painted around their ends. You can't see the the cannons themselves but you understand that they're there. Spotlights become triangles, guiding your eyes from end of the screen to the other as the characters move.

The surreal qualities work very well for a couple reasons, primarily because this is a circus and it's their job to push boundries like that. Elevations will suddenly change, direction becomes ambiguous, up is down and down is up, quick camera pans keep you unsure but mesmerized. The colors play into this as well, even going so far as to pain the animals in bright hues that coincide with their portion of the act.

Overall it's just a great scene and I'm infinitely jealous of anyone who was around during it's conception. Even the storyboards must have been a blast to design.