Two months ago, give our take, we were given our first taste of performance/acting classes. The entire thing toom me back to my school days of ‘Drama’ and ‘Dance’ periods. At the end of that class we were asked to go and study an animal, the way a certain species moves, behaves etc. and come back on the very last week of the semester and emulate these movements so that people can guess what animal you are.
Deer are some of my favourite animals, so naturally I picked them. It’s just as well that there’s an entire 1942 animated movie dedicated to the naturalistic movements of these creatures, so much so that the movie’s release date was moved from 1938 to 1942 as animators strived to study and capture the movement of real deer. Look at the deer in Snow White and then go and watch Bambi. It’s incredible what a difference five years of studying deer in the wild will do for your drawing.
The scene where Bambi’s mother creeps out onto the meadow to check that it’s safe enough is of particular interest to me. Much of the acting and movement of the character comes from her ears and the slow turning of her head. She doesn’t move especially quickly for the most part, and tends to keep her entire body still while scanning the area as her ears rotate in various directions.
Antlers are an appendage that humans sadly lack, but in a mime class can be substituted with outsplayed hands on top of one’s head. The same goes for ears, which don’t move in humans as they do with deer.
Stags locking antlers in combat have a particular energy that differs greatly from a cautious doe.
The fawn Bambi of course, is a clumsy and spindly character; a lot of his movements and emotions come from his legs.
And then there’s the walk cycles etc.