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| An American Tail | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 4 2015, 09:22:30 AM (328 Views) | |
| Hardback247 | Sep 4 2015, 09:22:30 AM Post #1 |
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Ruby
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There is one thing about An American Tail that always grinds my teeth. Could anyone please explain Warren T. Rat's inconsistent size? First, he's the size of an adult mouse, and later on, he's the size of the cats he works for! |
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| WeirdRaptor | Sep 6 2015, 06:37:46 PM Post #2 |
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WeirdRaptor
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The animators done goofed. |
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| DarkHououmon | Sep 6 2015, 06:54:26 PM Post #3 |
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"Be prepared, Snappy boy. Your luck has run out..."
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This is a common thing in animation. For example, in the sequels, Littlefoot is always changing sizes depending on where he is. |
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| Animeboye | Sep 6 2015, 07:54:01 PM Post #4 |
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Ducky
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As someone who's studying animation (and writes his own comic series) I can tell you that keeping proportions consistent is very hard to do. In animation it's even harder since you have to draw the same character(s) so many times. Comic artists thankfully have more leeway in that regard. I haven't seen American Tail since I was real little so I don't remember too much about it but it seems pretty strange to me that a rat character would end up being as big as cats, especially since the cats in American Tail are supposed to be anthropomorphic. It could be done to make the character seem more intimidating. Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece does this often with his villains. He'll make them look much bigger in certain panels to make them appear more threatening. |
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| Hardback247 | Sep 7 2015, 01:37:11 PM Post #5 |
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Ruby
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Does Warren T. have potions that make him grow and shrink? |
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| DarkHououmon | Sep 7 2015, 01:38:55 PM Post #6 |
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"Be prepared, Snappy boy. Your luck has run out..."
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Likely not. As noted before, it can be hard to keep the porportions of a character the same. It's not as easy as you might think it is. |
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| Hardback247 | Sep 7 2015, 04:02:56 PM Post #7 |
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Ruby
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Yeah, but this mistake is so obvious, I'm surprised no one caught it during production. Whatever happened to using height comparison charts? |
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| DarkHououmon | Sep 7 2015, 05:13:33 PM Post #8 |
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"Be prepared, Snappy boy. Your luck has run out..."
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It would have been hard to re-animate, especially during the time that this was made. There was a chance that they noticed, but were unable to go back because it would have required an extra ton of work. Animation is a painfully long progress, and to fix the size of one character would call for reanimating other parts as well, racking up the amount of time needed to finish it. |
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| Hardback247 | Sep 7 2015, 06:38:55 PM Post #9 |
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Ruby
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I just talked to one of An American Tail's animators on the phone, and he said the size change to Warren T. was intentionally made depending on the scene he was in. But the movie still doesn't bother providing an in-universe explanation for this. It feels like a plot hole. Maybe he really does have growth and shrink potions, and we just don't see him use them. |
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| Kor | Sep 7 2015, 07:54:52 PM Post #10 |
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I've seen that sort of thing a lot in some cartoons. I just always put it off to it's hard for animators to keep the exact proportions the same between different characters and objects. Like in the 70's Godzilla cartoon series he kept changing size all the time. |
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| Hardback247 | Sep 9 2015, 05:30:10 PM Post #11 |
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Ruby
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I asked this question once again on the Don Bluth Films Facebook page, and this was their response:
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| ARAJediMaster | Jan 7 2016, 02:46:16 PM Post #12 |
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Chomper
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Hmm, interesting insight on Mr. Bluth’s part. Yes... I only saw this film several months ago, nearly a year, and it was so... so incredibly hard on Fievel for him to go through all of those things, and still find his family while meeting new friends blew my mind for me. It was just overwhelming.
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