Fairytale influences and Lotte Reiniger

One of our Media Studies teacher gave us a booklet out of The Guardian/The Observer on "Great Fairytales". It contains illustrations for some fairy tales, which are very similar to how our imagery looks in the animation, with the similar black image against a white background. Here are some pages from the booklet to show what I mean. A particular shot in our animation included the wolf walking through a hole (in a tree) and the border of trees or opening of a bush (in the booklet) inspired us to use a similar image.













Our animation consists of scenes which have animals, such as birds which can be seen carrying the banner with the tracks name: "Moon Song" and when the wolf walks over the hill with the house. We also formed generic conventions by creating a small saxophone and trilby hat as they are used and worn by folk indie artists and bands such as, Paolo Nutini, Mumford and Sons and so on.



Little Red Riding Hood is a very traditional and well-known fairy tale based on a young girl who comes under the attention of a Wolf. The tale has had many alterations and different adaptations by writers over years. I can remember being told the story when I was younger so I know one adaptation.
The Wolf character is often used in fairy tales and is represented in different ways. The Wolf can be interpreted as being a phallic symbol as the Wolf tries to lure the girl by being friendly and helpful, in Red Riding Hood's case.
Our Wolf won't be represented as a dangerous character, just one who minds his own business and enjoys being on his own. When he comes across the other world however, he enjoys the band's company and follows them down the street... So in a way, we are challenging the usual representation of a Wolf character.
Below is an animation by the amazing Lotte Reiniger and the second clip shows her creating one using the silhouette animation technique too.