Part 2 - The Characters and Voice Acting
Animated feature films are theatrical performances that include storylines. A storyline outlines the main events and character developments that occur throughout the story, typically structured with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Books have storylines, and some of you may know that books are often made into feature films. There are lots of books that have been made into popular and award-winning films. A few of them are Jurassic Park, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Alice in Wonderland, The Godfather, Forrest Gump, The Sound of Music, Shrek, and the latest, How To Train Your Dragon. In each of these films, the story from the book was adapted, or changed, and made into a feature film.
Although Madagascar was not adapted from a story in a book, it is an animated film with a storyline like other feature films. Stories for films are written as screenplays so that they can be made into a film. A screenplay is a written document that serves as the blueprint for a film or television show. It details all the elements needed to tell the film’s story, and guides everyone that is involved in the making of the film. The screenplay includes the scripts, provides information about the scenes, and includes the dialogue for the actors. A script is a story plan for an animated films or television show. It tells the characters what to say and do in each scene and describes the setting and action. A scene is an individual part of the story that is being told, and this often takes place in a specific location. The dialogue in a film refers to the words spoken by the characters in a story. It helps us understand what is happening in the story as we see and hear the characters interact with one another.
Animated films are different in that the characters are not real or alive. They are animated in some way either as traditional drawings and paintings, as puppets, or with other materials such as clay or mechanical devices. We remember that the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park film franchise were either CGI-animated or they were mechanical structures that were operated like puppets to make them move and look alive. But since they were not living dinosaurs, the sounds that the filmmakers wanted them to make had to be added in some way to make it seem like they were alive and like the roaring and the screeching and howling was coming from them. In animated films such as The Princess and The Frog, the characters in the drawings and paintings are made to look like they are alive and talking but the sound, or the audio, is added to the film separately. This process of synchronizing the audio and the video in the film is what happens when the film is edited.
Animated films need voice actors to portray the characters in the films so that we will see and hear them talking and interacting with one another in the finished product. A voice actor is an individual performer or actor who uses their voice to create characters. In the Madagascar films, the voice actors for the main characters are Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, David Schwimmer, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Cedric The Entertainer. These are the actors whose voices we hear as the characters in the films. While making the films, the actors are given screenplays and scripts that have information about each scene. It is the voice actor’s job to become familiar with their character and portray that character’s voice so that the audio that is recorded can be edited to match what the viewers will see on the screen during the film.
Your Assignment
Your assignment for this week’s lesson will help you to understand how scripts are used to make an animated feature film. First, you will need to download and/or print out the script for the following Madagascar film escape scene. Then, follow along in the script as you watch the scene on YouTube. There are a few lines missing in the script. Fill in the missing lines to complete the dialogue between the characters.