Describe and discuss the significance of film form using the Bugs Bunny cartoon Wackiki Wabbit (1943)as your chief example. Video link
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xuSob6PAZc)
In your response, analyze the function and motivation of each major formal pattern in the cartoon. Are there important narrative or stylistic motifs that are developed over the course of the film? Your response should run about 500 to 600 words.
The setup: two shipwreck survivors are adrift at sea on a makeshift raft. Suffering from starvation, each of them begins to imagine the other as a source of food. Espying a distant tropical island, the pair make landfall and are greeted by Bugs Bunny. The castaways try to capture Bugs with the intention of cooking and eating him.
Hints for viewing and analyzing film form:
• Identify three or four particular motifs in the film and trace their development from the film’s beginning to its end. Some of these motifs may involve particular story elements. Other motifs may involve techniques of film style. What motivates the presence of each motif? How does each motif function in the film? How do these motifs contribute to the sense that the film is narratively and stylistically unified?
• Is there a pattern of similarity and repetition evident in the development of these motifs? Or are there some differences and variations in the way they develop? Do these patterns of repetition and variation create formal parallelisms that structure the film?
• Compare the film’s beginning and ending. Do the opening and closing scenes create a parallelism that is evident from this comparison?
• Your previous experience with Bugs Bunny cartoons may create certain expectations about how the story in the cartoon develops. Besides those specific story elements, your experience with other cartoons may also create expectations about the style of the images and sounds that you see. Did the cartoon fulfill those expectations? Were there aspects of the cartoon that you felt were unconventional?
