Analysis of existing animations (P1, P2, M1, D2)
P1: Explain the different techniques for animation
Learning Outcome 1: Understand the types and uses of animations
Stop Motion
Stop motion is a technique used by animators. It is the technique of moving figures (usually clay to ensure the joints are movable) or objects little by little and by taking a picture every time it moves. When edited, all the photos come together to make one smooth line of animation.
When making these projects, animators use 30-60 frames per second meaning that for every second on screen, 30-60 photos were taken to ensure the project was as smooth as possible. Stop motion is usually used for comedic purposes and is generally taken lightheartedly by its audiences, most likely due to the large use of toys and childlike objects in the animated projects.
Examples of comedic ways studios make animated shorts are through projects like the Robot Chicken television series produced by Adult Swim or the Wallace and Gromit series of films and shorts animated by Aardman Productions.
Stop motion is often chosen over other animating technique because it automatically gives what's on screen depth when camera angles change making the production seem more realistic than other modes of animating because of other animators not bothering with changing depth unless there are large movements of the characters on screen.
The first stop motion production was credited to J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith for Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus which was released in 1898, however, the style was most likely done with little regard to the benefits of the genre but rather to be experimental.
Line Boil
Animators use line boiling when making their projects by drawing an image then drawing over the original image one or two more times. This technique ensures that when there is dialogue between characters in the project their movements seem a lot more natural. Animators would use this technique of animating to make their project seem more like a cartoon and to give it an innocent connotation (the line boil technique is used in the majority of Red Bull's advertisements).
From a technical stand point, an animator may want to use the line boil technique when making their project. They may find it easier than other techniques such as stop motion either because they are more used to animating on a computer or because they wouldn't need to have as large of a frame rate as stop motion films because of the natural look of the line boil compensating for the lack of frames ensuring that the project continues to have a natural flow similar to that of other animations.
Because of the imperfect look of the animating style resulting in seemingly unnatural movements, when the animating style was first made, production houses were encouraged to keep it at a minimum. Later on, however, production houses started to use the line boil unnatural style to their advantage. By having purposely low budget unnatural films, creators of line boil productions can ensure that their audience don't take the production too seriously adhering to the comedic and family friendly audiences that they're targeting.
P2: Describe the uses for digitised animation in the media
Stop Motion - Comedy Genre
Stop motion is generally associated with children's TV programmes and comedic projects, mainly because of the large use of toy related objects in the genre and for the large part, the association is correct with massive studios like Adult Swim and Aardman Productions showing the way for the genre to move forward with productions like Robot Chicken and Wallace and Gromit becoming classics within the genre.
Adult Swim tends to display comedy in Robot Chicken by parodying characters that their target audience has grown up with such as Superman and the rest of Justice League. Because the characters are shown in a way that they wouldn't act in their traditional modes of media such as television shows and blockbuster films. Because Robot Chicken uses a type of animation that is usually associated with the 4-11 demographic and its use of seemingly ironic characters, it creates a sense of comedy by making their production seem innocent only for new viewers to realise the raunchy nature of the show seconds into the production. Adult Swim makes Robot Chicken in a traditional stop motion manner by taking pictures for 30 frames a second, however, because of seemingly lack of attention to detail towards the characters when compared to productions such as Wallace and Gromit, Adult Swim purposely leave the joints of their characters exposed to add an extra layer of innocence. That these are toys and they're doing raunchy things.
Aardman usually cater to a younger primary audience aged between 4 and 11 (with the studio having a secondary target audience being their primary's parents who watch the films with them) and Adult Swim's target audience consist mainly of 13-24 year olds because of their edginess, however, the undeniable similarity between the two studios is their use of humour. Because both studios use digital animation, they can both rely on slapstick comedy that would be impossible using normal physics. Aardman uses clay based figures for their productions. however, because they have been around for such a long time and have created a style associated with their productions, they keep this clay style despite making productions easier for themselves with the advances in editing technologies. Comedy is established in the majority of Aardman productions by having large amounts of easy to understand slap stick humour for their primary target audience to understand. There are also small amounts of innuendos for adults to understand allowing the productions produced to cater to their secondary demographic as well.
Line Boil
The most notable examples of studios that used the line boil animating technique would be the large use of said technique in Red Bull's animated line of commercials and in the popular children's show Ed, Edd N Eddy which was produced by Cartoon Network. The primary target audience of this production are children aged 8-11. This is established by the relatable characters who are shown to be the same ages as the show's primary target audience with situations relatable to children of the same age. The line boil method in this production is done in the traditional manner in which the animators drew the same frame three/four times with few changes to make there seem like a wobble effect in the final production.
Both studios used the line boiling technique in order to make their productions seem more light hearted. Ed, Edd N Eddy did so to bend the laws of physics in order to seem more appealing to their audience which mainly consisted of children. Red Bull also used the technique to bend the laws of physics and to emphasise their slogan "Red Bull gives you wiings" by giving the characters in their commercials similar attributes. This accompanied with a mainly white background made the long advertising campaign seem more light hearted than it actually was. The target audience of Red Bull and therefore its commercials are 18-30 year olds. Because of the large range in age of the target audience, it would make sense for Red Bull to use line boil in their advertising campaign as it reminds the viewers of cartoons therefore their childhood; an easy marketing ploy.
The use of the line boil animating technique is also prominent in the 2003 Manga cartoon Fullmetal Alchemist.
The show is a drama adventure cartoon aimed at children and teenagers who have shown interest in similar Manga shows of the same genres. The show's producer's most likely chose the line boil animating technique as during the time the show was released, a large amount of similar manga shows were also being made with the intention of being consumed by a Western market with shows such as Dragon Ball Z, Yu Gi Oh and Beyblade, all of which had similar production techniques. By combining the line boil animating method and the manga style of drawing in a way audiences have never seen before, Fullmetal Alchemist could introduce viewers to a style of show they would have never been exposed to before.
The original target audience of the animating technique, however, is the reason why the 13-24 year old target audience works so well. By being offered something familiar with familiar characters with a familiar animating style with the twist of having slightly edgier content. The original target audience of 5-10 year olds is obvious. Stop motion can bend the laws of physics in a way that a live action film or television show would have to invest in multiple times more to achieve the same action less effectively (in the sense that someone jumping off the top of a building in a stop motion could be construed as comedic but would be tragic if the same thing were to happen in a live action product.
Line Boil
Animations that use the technique of line boiling tend to have target audiences similar to that of stop motion animations being 5-10 year olds and 18-30 year olds. The 5-10 year old target audience can be shown through the production of the highly popular television show Ed, Edd and Eddy, the premise of which was three characters of a similar age group to its target audience (to achieve relatable market) and their childhood exploits. The animating technique appeals to 5-10 year olds because of the unnatural moving characters and images on screen. Similarly to other animations, because of the absence of human actors and the large presence of slap stick comedy available to the writers and animators, its very easy to captivate young audiences in relatively comedic circumstances. The other target audience being 18-30 year olds only see the line boil technique in one medium that is targeted towards their demographic: the Red Bull advertising campaign. Red Bull most likely chose the animating style of the line boil because it links back to the original target audience, similarly to stop motion's target audience. The majority of Red Bull's target audience grew up watching television shows that used the line boil method of animating and the company takes advantage of this fact by associating their target audience's childhood with the sweet, fruity taste of Red Bull (a taste also associated with childhood).
D1: Compare the different styles of animations across global cultures
Bushworld Adventures (2018)
Bushworld Adventures is an 11 minute internet short produced by Adult Swim that is a parody of Adult Swim's highly popular television show Rick And Morty. However, the key difference between the two projects is that despite being bought by an American company, Bushworld Adventures was originally made by an Australian production team, with Australian voice actors in Australia (the majority of the comedy streaming from the fact that the production is almost identical to Rick and Morty). Apart from the fact that Bushworld Adventures took place in an exaggerated version of an outsider's interpretation of Australia, the aspects of the show are very similar to that of Rick and Morty including the same family relationships, characters and similar personalities.
Lego Batman Rises (2019)
Lego Batman Rises took the creator, Forrestfire101 almost three years to make. While animating and filming the project, Forrest Whaley (the creator of Forrestfire101) released snippets of the film timed at around 2-3 minutes each all of which were going to contribute to the overall plot of the project. Because the director has been using his version of the character since he started the channel in 2007, he gained a large following and in that time, the animating technique evolved from an immature 12 year old taking pictures of Legos making a production which at most was 10 fps to a film maker with animating credits making a passion product. Because of these factors, Forrest Whaley most likely posted the first three parts of Lego Batman with a two year interval to raise a tremendous amount of hype for his most ambitious project yet and because of the significant increase in length that the fourth part had in comparison to the first three thus suggesting a significant increase in time it took to animate the fourth and final part. Forrestfire101, similarly to Robot Chicken, mainly uses pop culture characters that the majority of its fan base is aware of and portrays them in a way that the companies who own them would never, usually by putting them in a negative light by having them act and behave immorally.
Characters
Bushworld Adventure's main protagonists contain Rick and his grandson/sidekick Morty with whom he goes on an adventure with to Bendigo to retrieve a mysterious scientific cube. During the adventure, Rick often makes a lot of jokes towards his grandson, pranking him and even holding him hostage with a real gun/portal gun. In Lego Batman Rises, the main character is none other than Lego Batman. The way he treats his sidekick Robin is initially similar to how the writer has made their dynamic since the making of the channel in 2007 which is Batman treats Robin terribly by making fun of him by making jokes about his sexuality, intelligence and dismissing his ideas as his own when its for his advantage. Lego Batman, unlike his film counterparts, kills Jokers, shows very little remorse for his actions and lets crimes take place without intervening. However towards the end of the short, Batman finally treats Robin (Nightwing at the end) with the respect that he deserved after 8 years between the beginning of the film and the end. In Bushworld Adventures there was no character arch for Rick (despite being led to believe there would be one by the writers due to the lack of insults and the seemingly happy ending) who at the end blamed Morty for the mishaps that took place during their adventure and wrongfully accused Morty of being the reason the pair went to Bendigo in the first place. Overall, the characters in Lego Batman Rises end up becoming more rounded individuals with character archs than those in Bushworld Adventures. However, in Bushworld Adventure's defence, Forrestfire101 spent 12 years building up its characters in dozens of shorts before having any of them make seemingly permanent changes in their characters while Bushworld Adventures was only a one off eleven minute short.
Themes
Bushworld Adventure's recurring theme throughout the short is that its a parody/satire of not only the popular show Rick and Morty but also of Australia by incorporating the two into one project that takes the exaggerated parts of both mediums and combines them (potentially becoming canon in the Rick and Morty universe because of the series' acknowledgement of alternative universes and the purchase of the short by the studio that produces Rick and Morty).
Lego Batman Rises, however, has the main theme of it also being a parody/satire, but rather than being a parody of DC's characters and ridiculous behaviours that are very rarely addressed (such as the absence of the group's bullying of Aquaman/The fish guy) but also is a parody of Forrestfire101's earlier work which is shown in story plots that have already taken place (Robin/Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing), the first acknowledgement from characters that they're made of Lego, the footage of earlier projects dating back to 2007 gradually having better animation as well as the film's ridiculous plot and the first semi- serious ending the studio has ever produced.
Both projects make fun of the studios that own them, however because of the 12 year old build up before Lego Batman Rises was released as well as the maturity of the creators rising and the attention to detail with the time put into filming the project increased, Lego Batman Rises was the only one of the two with a satisfying conclusion at the end. The two projects have very similar themes throughout their stories, however this can only be apparent when the audience is shown the work they're based off of (however this shouldn't be an issue because both projects' main viewerships came from people who have already seen what the studios were parodying). If there is a lack of intertextuality with the audience then when shown both products it would appear that their themes would have nothing to do with one another.
Environments
Bushworld Adventure's entire storyline takes place in Australia including Morty's suburban home, a petrol station on an Australian road, the outback, a cave in the outback and Bendigo. Because Bushworld Adventures is meant to be a parody of both Rick and Morty as well as Australia, all of these locations in the project's purpose is to make fun of Australia and show its negative sides complete with dangerous animals, angry stay at home husbands with dementia and a desert that's 6,000,000 acres with absolutely nothing in it. Lego Batman Rises, however, is set in a fictitious place: Gotham City. Despite this, because the film is parodying all Batman entities and because the the original Gotham City is based off of New York City (the creators of Gotham City and Metropolis revealed that the two are based off of New York City with DC Studios even filming in the real life city), Lego Batman Rises is therefore a parody of a parody.
ForrestFire101's version of Gotham City is complete with crime (like in the comics), however because there was an eight year absence of Batman, it is much worse despite Nightwing's best efforts to keep said crime off the streets. The environments in Lego Batman Rises are very similar to its source material which differs from Bushworld Adventure's adaptation of Australia, not to say that the dangers shown in the project aren't realistic, just exaggerated to make Australia seem like a worse place than it actually is. Therefore both environments present in the two projects, because of the fact that they are parodies, take pre exsisting places and bring the worst out of them in order to create more plot devices and therefore more comedic value to the projects.
Narratives
Lego Batman Rises' plot begins rather slow with very little dialogue and no plot starting to take form, the decision of which was most likely made when the director of the project was dividing the script into four parts and realised the first quarter of the project didn't have as long of a time to set up the plot as the other three quarters. The film starts picking up speed and starts developing a plot, and by the second half, the viewer has a clear view of how the film is going to play out (with Batman and the Justice League defeating all the Jokers Nightwing brought with the portal). Bushworld Adventures immediately starts with the main protagonist, Rick, recruiting his grandson Morty for an adventure with both Morty's mother and sister trying their hardest to prevent this from happening immediately showing the viewer, who is most likely a fan of Rick and Morty, that in this short Rick's behaviours are going to be a lot more unpredictable and chaotic than in the television show which is demonstrated by the exaggerated relationship between Rick and the rest of Morty's family. The rest of the short goes similarly to the tune of a normal Rick and Morty episode (because of the short's satirical nature) with the protagonists having a clear goal (to retrieve a cube from Bendigo) and meet wacky characters along the way and causing trouble. Both animations have non sensible narratives and use actions that characters would usually not have in the original subject material as plot devices like Nightwing bringing in Jokers from alternative universes to get Batman out of retirement in Lego Batman Rises and Rick becoming best friends with Barry within seconds of meeting him in Bushworld Adventures. Overall, because of both of the animations recognition of being parodies, they can get away with lazy writing because as they realise that they shouldn't take themselves seriously, the audience is motioned to do the same.
Learning Outcome 1: Understand the types and uses of animations
Stop Motion
Stop motion is a technique used by animators. It is the technique of moving figures (usually clay to ensure the joints are movable) or objects little by little and by taking a picture every time it moves. When edited, all the photos come together to make one smooth line of animation.
When making these projects, animators use 30-60 frames per second meaning that for every second on screen, 30-60 photos were taken to ensure the project was as smooth as possible. Stop motion is usually used for comedic purposes and is generally taken lightheartedly by its audiences, most likely due to the large use of toys and childlike objects in the animated projects.
Examples of comedic ways studios make animated shorts are through projects like the Robot Chicken television series produced by Adult Swim or the Wallace and Gromit series of films and shorts animated by Aardman Productions.
Stop motion is often chosen over other animating technique because it automatically gives what's on screen depth when camera angles change making the production seem more realistic than other modes of animating because of other animators not bothering with changing depth unless there are large movements of the characters on screen.
Line Boil
Animators use line boiling when making their projects by drawing an image then drawing over the original image one or two more times. This technique ensures that when there is dialogue between characters in the project their movements seem a lot more natural. Animators would use this technique of animating to make their project seem more like a cartoon and to give it an innocent connotation (the line boil technique is used in the majority of Red Bull's advertisements).
From a technical stand point, an animator may want to use the line boil technique when making their project. They may find it easier than other techniques such as stop motion either because they are more used to animating on a computer or because they wouldn't need to have as large of a frame rate as stop motion films because of the natural look of the line boil compensating for the lack of frames ensuring that the project continues to have a natural flow similar to that of other animations.
Because of the imperfect look of the animating style resulting in seemingly unnatural movements, when the animating style was first made, production houses were encouraged to keep it at a minimum. Later on, however, production houses started to use the line boil unnatural style to their advantage. By having purposely low budget unnatural films, creators of line boil productions can ensure that their audience don't take the production too seriously adhering to the comedic and family friendly audiences that they're targeting.
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| A GIF from the Ed, Edd and Eddy children's show |
P2: Describe the uses for digitised animation in the media
Stop Motion - Comedy Genre
Stop motion is generally associated with children's TV programmes and comedic projects, mainly because of the large use of toy related objects in the genre and for the large part, the association is correct with massive studios like Adult Swim and Aardman Productions showing the way for the genre to move forward with productions like Robot Chicken and Wallace and Gromit becoming classics within the genre.
Adult Swim tends to display comedy in Robot Chicken by parodying characters that their target audience has grown up with such as Superman and the rest of Justice League. Because the characters are shown in a way that they wouldn't act in their traditional modes of media such as television shows and blockbuster films. Because Robot Chicken uses a type of animation that is usually associated with the 4-11 demographic and its use of seemingly ironic characters, it creates a sense of comedy by making their production seem innocent only for new viewers to realise the raunchy nature of the show seconds into the production. Adult Swim makes Robot Chicken in a traditional stop motion manner by taking pictures for 30 frames a second, however, because of seemingly lack of attention to detail towards the characters when compared to productions such as Wallace and Gromit, Adult Swim purposely leave the joints of their characters exposed to add an extra layer of innocence. That these are toys and they're doing raunchy things.
Aardman usually cater to a younger primary audience aged between 4 and 11 (with the studio having a secondary target audience being their primary's parents who watch the films with them) and Adult Swim's target audience consist mainly of 13-24 year olds because of their edginess, however, the undeniable similarity between the two studios is their use of humour. Because both studios use digital animation, they can both rely on slapstick comedy that would be impossible using normal physics. Aardman uses clay based figures for their productions. however, because they have been around for such a long time and have created a style associated with their productions, they keep this clay style despite making productions easier for themselves with the advances in editing technologies. Comedy is established in the majority of Aardman productions by having large amounts of easy to understand slap stick humour for their primary target audience to understand. There are also small amounts of innuendos for adults to understand allowing the productions produced to cater to their secondary demographic as well.
Line Boil
The most notable examples of studios that used the line boil animating technique would be the large use of said technique in Red Bull's animated line of commercials and in the popular children's show Ed, Edd N Eddy which was produced by Cartoon Network. The primary target audience of this production are children aged 8-11. This is established by the relatable characters who are shown to be the same ages as the show's primary target audience with situations relatable to children of the same age. The line boil method in this production is done in the traditional manner in which the animators drew the same frame three/four times with few changes to make there seem like a wobble effect in the final production.
Both studios used the line boiling technique in order to make their productions seem more light hearted. Ed, Edd N Eddy did so to bend the laws of physics in order to seem more appealing to their audience which mainly consisted of children. Red Bull also used the technique to bend the laws of physics and to emphasise their slogan "Red Bull gives you wiings" by giving the characters in their commercials similar attributes. This accompanied with a mainly white background made the long advertising campaign seem more light hearted than it actually was. The target audience of Red Bull and therefore its commercials are 18-30 year olds. Because of the large range in age of the target audience, it would make sense for Red Bull to use line boil in their advertising campaign as it reminds the viewers of cartoons therefore their childhood; an easy marketing ploy.
The use of the line boil animating technique is also prominent in the 2003 Manga cartoon Fullmetal Alchemist.
The show is a drama adventure cartoon aimed at children and teenagers who have shown interest in similar Manga shows of the same genres. The show's producer's most likely chose the line boil animating technique as during the time the show was released, a large amount of similar manga shows were also being made with the intention of being consumed by a Western market with shows such as Dragon Ball Z, Yu Gi Oh and Beyblade, all of which had similar production techniques. By combining the line boil animating method and the manga style of drawing in a way audiences have never seen before, Fullmetal Alchemist could introduce viewers to a style of show they would have never been exposed to before.
M1: Assess the suitability of animations for the target audience
Stop Motion
Stop motion's two target audiences consist mainly of children aged 5-10 and young adults aged 13-24. The younger of the two target audiences have displayed themselves as the target for the genre through productions such as the Shaun the Sheep series, Wallace and Gromit films and Early Man. All of which have come out within a seemingly short amount of time and made by the production company Aardman Productions. The reason why there is such a wide range in the audiences who actively watch stop motion animations is partly because of the simplicity of the concept causing amateurs who have never worked in the industry to make content that could potentially go mainstream (similar to how studios such as Adult Swim and Forrestfire101 Films gained success). Adult Swim have found success in the stop motion genre primarily by releasing raunchy content containing pop culture figures in their Robot Chicken series.
The reason why these amateur studios achieve such a high success rate is because they use childhood objects and characters that their primary target audience are nostalgic for and create adult content, in a way parodying what these 13-24 year olds idolised not too long ago. Adult Swim do this by making the majority of the animations centred around pop culture icons that appear in front of us everyday while Forrestfire101 Films gained the majority of their success by parodying characters such as Batman and Superman while mainly using Lego pieces to make the characters, backgrounds and vehicles.
The original target audience of the animating technique, however, is the reason why the 13-24 year old target audience works so well. By being offered something familiar with familiar characters with a familiar animating style with the twist of having slightly edgier content. The original target audience of 5-10 year olds is obvious. Stop motion can bend the laws of physics in a way that a live action film or television show would have to invest in multiple times more to achieve the same action less effectively (in the sense that someone jumping off the top of a building in a stop motion could be construed as comedic but would be tragic if the same thing were to happen in a live action product.
Line Boil
Animations that use the technique of line boiling tend to have target audiences similar to that of stop motion animations being 5-10 year olds and 18-30 year olds. The 5-10 year old target audience can be shown through the production of the highly popular television show Ed, Edd and Eddy, the premise of which was three characters of a similar age group to its target audience (to achieve relatable market) and their childhood exploits. The animating technique appeals to 5-10 year olds because of the unnatural moving characters and images on screen. Similarly to other animations, because of the absence of human actors and the large presence of slap stick comedy available to the writers and animators, its very easy to captivate young audiences in relatively comedic circumstances. The other target audience being 18-30 year olds only see the line boil technique in one medium that is targeted towards their demographic: the Red Bull advertising campaign. Red Bull most likely chose the animating style of the line boil because it links back to the original target audience, similarly to stop motion's target audience. The majority of Red Bull's target audience grew up watching television shows that used the line boil method of animating and the company takes advantage of this fact by associating their target audience's childhood with the sweet, fruity taste of Red Bull (a taste also associated with childhood).
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| This Red Bull cartoon shows sports culture, to continue the idea that Red Bull improves sports performances. By bringing out character's features, such as their noses, Red Bull is conveying to the viewer that they don't take their cartoons seriously and neither should the viewer in question. |
D1: Compare the different styles of animations across global cultures
Bushworld Adventures (2018)
Bushworld Adventures is an 11 minute internet short produced by Adult Swim that is a parody of Adult Swim's highly popular television show Rick And Morty. However, the key difference between the two projects is that despite being bought by an American company, Bushworld Adventures was originally made by an Australian production team, with Australian voice actors in Australia (the majority of the comedy streaming from the fact that the production is almost identical to Rick and Morty). Apart from the fact that Bushworld Adventures took place in an exaggerated version of an outsider's interpretation of Australia, the aspects of the show are very similar to that of Rick and Morty including the same family relationships, characters and similar personalities.
Lego Batman Rises (2019)
Lego Batman Rises took the creator, Forrestfire101 almost three years to make. While animating and filming the project, Forrest Whaley (the creator of Forrestfire101) released snippets of the film timed at around 2-3 minutes each all of which were going to contribute to the overall plot of the project. Because the director has been using his version of the character since he started the channel in 2007, he gained a large following and in that time, the animating technique evolved from an immature 12 year old taking pictures of Legos making a production which at most was 10 fps to a film maker with animating credits making a passion product. Because of these factors, Forrest Whaley most likely posted the first three parts of Lego Batman with a two year interval to raise a tremendous amount of hype for his most ambitious project yet and because of the significant increase in length that the fourth part had in comparison to the first three thus suggesting a significant increase in time it took to animate the fourth and final part. Forrestfire101, similarly to Robot Chicken, mainly uses pop culture characters that the majority of its fan base is aware of and portrays them in a way that the companies who own them would never, usually by putting them in a negative light by having them act and behave immorally.
Characters
Bushworld Adventure's main protagonists contain Rick and his grandson/sidekick Morty with whom he goes on an adventure with to Bendigo to retrieve a mysterious scientific cube. During the adventure, Rick often makes a lot of jokes towards his grandson, pranking him and even holding him hostage with a real gun/portal gun. In Lego Batman Rises, the main character is none other than Lego Batman. The way he treats his sidekick Robin is initially similar to how the writer has made their dynamic since the making of the channel in 2007 which is Batman treats Robin terribly by making fun of him by making jokes about his sexuality, intelligence and dismissing his ideas as his own when its for his advantage. Lego Batman, unlike his film counterparts, kills Jokers, shows very little remorse for his actions and lets crimes take place without intervening. However towards the end of the short, Batman finally treats Robin (Nightwing at the end) with the respect that he deserved after 8 years between the beginning of the film and the end. In Bushworld Adventures there was no character arch for Rick (despite being led to believe there would be one by the writers due to the lack of insults and the seemingly happy ending) who at the end blamed Morty for the mishaps that took place during their adventure and wrongfully accused Morty of being the reason the pair went to Bendigo in the first place. Overall, the characters in Lego Batman Rises end up becoming more rounded individuals with character archs than those in Bushworld Adventures. However, in Bushworld Adventure's defence, Forrestfire101 spent 12 years building up its characters in dozens of shorts before having any of them make seemingly permanent changes in their characters while Bushworld Adventures was only a one off eleven minute short.
Themes
Bushworld Adventure's recurring theme throughout the short is that its a parody/satire of not only the popular show Rick and Morty but also of Australia by incorporating the two into one project that takes the exaggerated parts of both mediums and combines them (potentially becoming canon in the Rick and Morty universe because of the series' acknowledgement of alternative universes and the purchase of the short by the studio that produces Rick and Morty).
Lego Batman Rises, however, has the main theme of it also being a parody/satire, but rather than being a parody of DC's characters and ridiculous behaviours that are very rarely addressed (such as the absence of the group's bullying of Aquaman/The fish guy) but also is a parody of Forrestfire101's earlier work which is shown in story plots that have already taken place (Robin/Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing), the first acknowledgement from characters that they're made of Lego, the footage of earlier projects dating back to 2007 gradually having better animation as well as the film's ridiculous plot and the first semi- serious ending the studio has ever produced.
Both projects make fun of the studios that own them, however because of the 12 year old build up before Lego Batman Rises was released as well as the maturity of the creators rising and the attention to detail with the time put into filming the project increased, Lego Batman Rises was the only one of the two with a satisfying conclusion at the end. The two projects have very similar themes throughout their stories, however this can only be apparent when the audience is shown the work they're based off of (however this shouldn't be an issue because both projects' main viewerships came from people who have already seen what the studios were parodying). If there is a lack of intertextuality with the audience then when shown both products it would appear that their themes would have nothing to do with one another.
Environments
Bushworld Adventure's entire storyline takes place in Australia including Morty's suburban home, a petrol station on an Australian road, the outback, a cave in the outback and Bendigo. Because Bushworld Adventures is meant to be a parody of both Rick and Morty as well as Australia, all of these locations in the project's purpose is to make fun of Australia and show its negative sides complete with dangerous animals, angry stay at home husbands with dementia and a desert that's 6,000,000 acres with absolutely nothing in it. Lego Batman Rises, however, is set in a fictitious place: Gotham City. Despite this, because the film is parodying all Batman entities and because the the original Gotham City is based off of New York City (the creators of Gotham City and Metropolis revealed that the two are based off of New York City with DC Studios even filming in the real life city), Lego Batman Rises is therefore a parody of a parody.
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Narratives
Lego Batman Rises' plot begins rather slow with very little dialogue and no plot starting to take form, the decision of which was most likely made when the director of the project was dividing the script into four parts and realised the first quarter of the project didn't have as long of a time to set up the plot as the other three quarters. The film starts picking up speed and starts developing a plot, and by the second half, the viewer has a clear view of how the film is going to play out (with Batman and the Justice League defeating all the Jokers Nightwing brought with the portal). Bushworld Adventures immediately starts with the main protagonist, Rick, recruiting his grandson Morty for an adventure with both Morty's mother and sister trying their hardest to prevent this from happening immediately showing the viewer, who is most likely a fan of Rick and Morty, that in this short Rick's behaviours are going to be a lot more unpredictable and chaotic than in the television show which is demonstrated by the exaggerated relationship between Rick and the rest of Morty's family. The rest of the short goes similarly to the tune of a normal Rick and Morty episode (because of the short's satirical nature) with the protagonists having a clear goal (to retrieve a cube from Bendigo) and meet wacky characters along the way and causing trouble. Both animations have non sensible narratives and use actions that characters would usually not have in the original subject material as plot devices like Nightwing bringing in Jokers from alternative universes to get Batman out of retirement in Lego Batman Rises and Rick becoming best friends with Barry within seconds of meeting him in Bushworld Adventures. Overall, because of both of the animations recognition of being parodies, they can get away with lazy writing because as they realise that they shouldn't take themselves seriously, the audience is motioned to do the same.
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