The first of my ideas for this unit comes from a film I watched a few weeks ago, a film that I enjoyed so much I decided to watch it again the following evening. I am of course talking about Frozen; Disney's latest animated production. I was taken back to when I was a young boy watching Disney films at my nans house, and so I have been inspired to take a closer look at the films. More specifically, a closer look at the castles. The way the light reflects off the ice castle walls and the fantasy architecture captivates the senses and creates an incredible place to escape to as a viewer. However, I can't help but think there could be more there, because the castle is created on such a severe slope on the side of a mountain there is very little space for more architecture and I feel this limits the castle itself. With that said, the use of light is still beautiful for this castle.
Looking at Elsa's castle from Frozen got me thinking about other castles that have appeared in Disney films. So lets have a look into those.
King Triton's castle under the sea is home to Ariel and her family in the popular Disney adventure The Little Mermaid. The castle itself has been constructed incredibly well, the architecture almost mimics the motion of the waves around the structure and the entire structure almost resembles a grand coral reef. The caste is cleverly constructed to blend in with its environment perfectly, and this is something that I need to keep in mind with my own structure. Moving on, colour is also used to great effect for this castle. The blues and greens of the waves compliment the colour scheme of the castle extremely well, helping to show the castle in all its vibrance and life. The only issue with using this castle as reference is if I try and replicate too much of the structure I will create a castle that would be more at home underwater than on the surface.
Aladdin was arguably my favourite Disney film as a boy, which is why I will be looking at Princess Jasmine's castle in Agrabah. The structure itself was based on the Taj Mahal in India, and therefore the architecture has strong links to Indian culture and design. The castle itself is a magnificent structure made up of high walls and numerous towers and columns, decorated with beautiful bright colours illuminated by a single spotlight. However, I think there is more to it than that. The spotlight only lights up the castle, leaving the rest of the city in shadow of this incredible castle, which could be seen as separating the life of luxury that those in the castle enjoy, with great expenses and unnecessary comforts, with the people that live in poverty in the city in he shadow of the castle. This is a strong example of how a powerful theme such as poverty and social segregation in society can be displayed in a castle.
Maleficent was, and remains to be, one of the most amazing villains in Disney (in my opinion). Her appearance in Sleeping Beauty was nothing short of terrifying for a much younger version of me, and I was also captivated by her castle. The giant structure is ridiculously poorly positioned, it looks as though it would fall from the rock it sits on as soon as a wind blew the wrong way, but that actually adds to the atmosphere of the castle as it emphasises the sense of danger around the structure. Unlike the other castles that I have looked at for this idea, this castle is for an evil queen, and the colour scheme, location and even the weather reflect this perfectly. Even the sharp towers and the tiny bridge reflect the fear in the atmosphere surrounding this castle. This is a strong example of how to create an atmosphere around your castle, in this case an atmosphere of terror.
I've had a look at 4 different castles from some of my favourite Disney films. There are many more, but I can't look at all of them in this post so this will do for now. This is definitely a strong idea that I could run with for BA3, but I want to explore other options before I commit to this idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment