Characters in Walt Disney and Pixar animations live in the present with their diverse memories, regardless of whether they are anthropomorphic objects or people. That memory can be a nostalgic longing for the past, a cause of inferiority and frustration felt by constant comparison with the present situation, or a traumatic character that one does not want to remember. This, in turn, is linked to a specific emotion and can function as a utopian model for the future, defining and specifying the identity of the subject of emotion as a kind of emotional memory. Mainly based on the main theories in the book Memory and Emotion: The Making of Lasting Memories (Maps of the Mind), published by James L. McGaugh in 2006, this chapter focuses on analysing emotional memories, one of the significant signatures of Disney and Pixar films, from several cinematic perspectives. It involves how the emotional memories of characters in movies, defined as memories related to previous experiences and emotions necessary for evaluating new emotional experiences, are represented through film language and what characteristics and functions they have in the overall narrative structure of films. In addition, this chapter investigates how the emotional memory representation in those films could be amplified from the animated characters on the screen to the collective emotional memory of the audience, and how the aesthetics of emotional memory could be a powerful driving force that made the 100-year history of Disney animation possible.

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Animating Emotions: Exploring Emotional Memory in Disney’s Pixar Films, Focusing on Its Representation Forms, Meanings, and Effects

  • Kyoung-suk Sung

摘要

Characters in Walt Disney and Pixar animations live in the present with their diverse memories, regardless of whether they are anthropomorphic objects or people. That memory can be a nostalgic longing for the past, a cause of inferiority and frustration felt by constant comparison with the present situation, or a traumatic character that one does not want to remember. This, in turn, is linked to a specific emotion and can function as a utopian model for the future, defining and specifying the identity of the subject of emotion as a kind of emotional memory. Mainly based on the main theories in the book Memory and Emotion: The Making of Lasting Memories (Maps of the Mind), published by James L. McGaugh in 2006, this chapter focuses on analysing emotional memories, one of the significant signatures of Disney and Pixar films, from several cinematic perspectives. It involves how the emotional memories of characters in movies, defined as memories related to previous experiences and emotions necessary for evaluating new emotional experiences, are represented through film language and what characteristics and functions they have in the overall narrative structure of films. In addition, this chapter investigates how the emotional memory representation in those films could be amplified from the animated characters on the screen to the collective emotional memory of the audience, and how the aesthetics of emotional memory could be a powerful driving force that made the 100-year history of Disney animation possible.