Friday, June 20, 2014
Seeing is Believing
Or is it believing is seeing? I believe that was a famous line in the movie the Polar Express. Everyone loved that movie when it came out, but i was very uneasy, i just found something creepy and strange about the animated characters. Turns out I'm not alone in this uncanny valley. When watching all the films like The Polar Express and Beowulf, i just felt the unnaturalness quality and the creepy zombie vibe. I always wondered why they couldn't make it seem more real, and turns out his book had my answer, the human brain is literally wired to reject facial distortions. So while i can appreciate all the hard work ad thought out into the design team when constructing these films, i have an excuse for not falling in in love with the characters.
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Lauren,
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother used to collect porcelain dolls for some reason. She must have had at least fifty in glass displays in her living room. She must have preferred dolls with exaggerated faces because most of their eyes and mouths were too large for their faces. Their noses were usually very small and disproportionate to the rest of their faces. They used to really creep me out to the point that I would avoid going in her living room where she kept them all on display in glass cases and if for some reason I had to walk through that room, I would literally run so I wouldn't have to look at the dolls. For similar reasons that you disliked animated characters, I disliked the doll faces because they were unnatural (and creepy.)
Interesting post!
Tara
I also have a similar experience. My dad lives in Jersey, but his fiancee whom he grew up with lives in Texas right now. Because of that we always visit her and because I'm the guest, I'm always in the guest room where they have all the weird pictures of people and such. I always felt a little creeped out and had a hard time falling asleep, now I understand why! All of the people in the pictures were disproportionate and had large eyes. It reminds me of the scary movies where the creepy doll is sitting in the corner in the rocking chair. Until reading I never really understood the reason for why it always creeped me out, I just never thought it'd be because I was "programmed" to be creeped by it.
ReplyDeleteI have too have a similar experience. Growing up my step aunt had a collection of human size clowns. I was not terrified of them till a moment it came out and spoke words to me. In a fright at 6 years old I made a bee line out of the house. Turned out they were old carnival equipment. Ever since then I have not been able to stand clown faces.
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