I didn't just move them about, I gave them elaborate personalities and did voice-overs so real, the toys really seemed alive. There was Bowwow Bowzer Darling - only one to call Sis "Mummy", spoilt brat, liked to throw tantrums stopping only when given a potato chip, had a bank account with $1 in it, had a best friend called Fatty Chong Ah Boon. And my favourite - Wally, a little white bear in a clown outfit, very senstive and in touch with his feminine side, Sis's fashion consultant. There was also this other white bear who told the same joke over and over - "Are you hungry?" "No, I'm stuffed. Ha ha..".
Sis was my partner in crime. She did not animate the toys at all but she had a big part to play - the toys were alive only because she believed in them. At times she would tire of this childish nonsense and wanted out, and the toys would "die". Guilt ridden and perhaps missing the fashion advice from Wally, she would return to our make-believe world and all would be well again.
It wasn't easy having to animate so many stuffed toys. After the 20th one, you kinda run out of voices and personalities. And I didn't just animate our stuffed toys, even the bolsters were not spared - PoPo, PiPi and BoBo but they had very little personality those bolsters. The pillows were lucky to get away.
Lest you think I'm completely insane, I don't just animate any stuffed toy. I adhere to the Golden Rule of Stuffed Toy Animation. Look at the stuffed toys below. Two of them can be animated while the other two are inherently inanimate and you should not try to animate them. Figured it out yet? It's in the EYES!
*** Golden Rule of Stuffed Toy Animation: Animate only stuffed toys whose eyes comprise of only pupil and no eye white. Stuffed toys with eye white are completely lifeless and no amount of effort would bring them alive. ****
Some years ago, I saw an ad for a character voice-over artist for Disney Channel and I was quite excited until I saw that they were looking for someone with a Caucasian accent. Being the self-respecting Singaporean that I am, I don't put on a fake foreign accent; I speak proper Singaporean English ala Tommy Koh and Chan Heng Chee (well I try). Want me to talk like Ang Mo...? Cannot lah!
3 comments:
Wow, serious? Got golden rule of stuffed toy animation? I never knew until now. This is so interesting!
You mean you never heard of the Golden Rule of Stuffed Toy Animation?! Next time you look at stuffed toys, observe the ones with eye white - don't they look lifeless with their fixed stares? Cannot anyhow animate you know!
You're not the only insane mum! I, too, am guilty of animating stuffed toys, though I hate to admit it. I have been animating Lala's cabbage patch doll which I got her for Christmas. She's manipulative, sweet but self-centred. Her 5-yr-old older sister, a furry brown bear, is always getting bullied by her but doesn't fight back (hmm...sounds like us). I tell my kids about my bolster and they think I'm crazy! Weren't we good with names or what? - Bowwow Bowzer - so original. My golden rule for animation is - if it doesn't have a mouth, it can't be animated. All others are definitely possible!
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