Princess And The Frog

Here I am looking at the backgrounds from The Princess and the Frog. I always forget how much work goes into the background of an Animation, particularly with disney because the characters always move on top of the backgrounds. These images remind me of theater set designs, especially with the exaggerations of colour, and the way lighting is captured in the images.

One thing I noticed whilst looking at these backgrounds, is although the film is set in an early 20th century Charleston, to me it really does remind me of France. With Monet inspired lillies and gardens, and streets and gates, even the first picture kind of reminds me of the Notre Dame. I then went on to google Charleston only to discover that it does actually have a french quarter. I feel quite impressed to have observed that.

The quality I love most about these backgrounds besides the detail is the Mis-En-Scene created. Just from looking at these images you know that theres magic involved in the film and there's a bad person at some point, because of how dark half the scenes are.

I find it really strange how realistic the backgrounds feel in comparison to the characters, but thinking about it, it makes sense because they don't move the details don't have to move so they can spend more time on them to set the scene. It's important to have really effective backgrounds that set the scene because then it makes the animators job easier to convey certain moods and tones.

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.co.uk/