Midterm Animation Revision

A. For a continued idea this semester, I've decided to go with a lab rat (named D337 as is dictated on his ear tag or "big D" in his head) that dreams of how the outside world is, imagining himself as free (only in his mind) and characterizing himself as the hero and winner of each story and situation, while in reality his life doesn't go beyond the importance of the lab.

For this project: What sparks his imagination is when one day the TV in the lab break room (just next door) gets left on, and the door left open. On the TV are the Emmy Awards. He imagines himself being received on the red carpet, stepping out of a limo in a tux. The women (female rats) are fussing over him and asking for his autograph. All the while, photographers are taking his picture. He wins the award he's nominated for and starts to give his acceptance speech on stage. Then in reality a gloved hand of a scientist picks D337 up by his tail and takes him out of his cage, destroying the rat's daydream.

Theme: The insignificant Playing the Hero (A rat who dreams of something greater)

B. Character: Subject D337 is a miserable creature in a lot of ways, who has been deprived of comfort and love and is simply trying to find that satisfaction in his life, even though he can never obtain it in any other way than in his mind. For that reason, he believes he's meant for something so much greater than being a lab rat--a task that is being forced on him and he knows that he doesn't like. He wants a warm place with lots of food readily available, which are both things he doesn't have in the lab. He wants to be free, but since he's already seen a glimpse of the human world, his dreams are larger than the normal rat. Instead of dreaming of what rats do, he dreams of doing what people do.

Because of the reality of his life, he needs some fiction in his dreams. What he thinks he needs is freedom. What he really needs is some love and variety in his life. As a result, he does the only thing he can do... he dreams.

What pushes him into action is the fact that his life actually really sucks in a lot of ways. It's boring, he gets poked and prodded on a daily ba

sis, and he's lonely. The TV is just an outlet that sparks him to think beyond his own tiny world. And yet, no matter how hard he attempts to expand this world, in reality it always remains exactly the same.

Structure: He sees the TV and it becomes a part of his world, he imagines his life in fictional representation of what the TV is communicating (him getting what he wants for once), and finally is snapped back to reality by his own real circumstances.

C.

D.