Analysis Of Female Character Design In Different Animated Movies

Character design is an integral part of visual storytelling, especially in animated films like the ones I’ve chosen to compare. However, this is usually overlooked and not paid much attention to by the average viewer. Character design - such as the composition, color scheme, etc. - conveys implicit information about the character to the viewer while also contributing to their development throughout the animation.

In Howl’s Moving Castle, Sophie Hatter, as stated by Studio Ghibli, is an 18-year-old woman whose appearance is seemingly a reflection of her lifestyle. She is depicted as an innocent young woman characterized by fairly thick eyebrows, big brown eyes and brunette hair tied into a long braid, these matching brown features are a contrast to the pink ribbon that adorns her straw hat. She is commonly seen wearing a cerulean dress designed with a white neckline and black buttons. Her rather plain appearance is quite peculiar due to the nature of her job - creating beautiful and intricate hats and even more peculiar because, unlike the hats she creates, her own straw hat is very plain. However, this could be due to Sophie’s reserved lifestyle and the theory of her belief in absolute pacifism. When Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, she inevitably undergoes physical changes that influence her character’s growth.

Personality wise, Sophie is depicted as gentle, quiet, reserved and a woman who lacks in confidence, however, when Sophie takes on the image of an old woman, her appearance is now a literal reflection of her character’s emotional growth and journey. As a 90-year-old woman, her brunette hair has turned into a shimmery silver-like color and her plait is a shorter length compared to her 18-year-old self’s. Her once wrinkle-free face is now full of it and she experiences pain in her spine. As briefly stated earlier, emotional honesty is one of the many motifs that can be observed in Miyazaki’s film. Sophie now embodies Wabi-sabi 佗寂 (Imperfection), she has to deal with the struggle of confidence - if she felt as if she was ‘ugly’ before, much more now that she is an old woman. Whenever Sophie’s character experiences moments of emotional honesty, her physical appearance returns to her original teenage look, but when her lack of confidence and self-doubt resurfaces, she reverts back to her cursed image. This change shows how Sophie’s character experiences literal changes through self-growth. She undergoes trials of maturity and proving herself which lead to the recognition of her self-worth.

At the end of the film, Sophie has changed back to her 18-year-old appearance but with shoulder-length hair, the silver-like color is all that remains from the curse; aside from appearance, her clothes also serve as a representation of her maturity, at the end of the film, she’s swapped her cerulean dress for a bright yellow one. Sophie’s physical changes serve as the visual representation of her character’s growth - from a reserved insecure girl, she becomes self-confident and sure of herself.

Meanwhile, Princess Kaguya challenges the norms of visual representation, as animation films are increasingly dominating the movie industry, releasing a hand-drawn film is a bold move. There is a limbo between the figurative and the abstract in The Tale of Princess Kaguya - while the characters are manifested as concrete people in the story capable of emotion and movement, the chosen animation style acts as a constant reminder that these characters aren’t real. The visibility of the brushstrokes also acts as the visual representation for Kaguya’s emotional journey and state of mind. In scenes where she is happy, the strokes are very minimal and light, accompanied by a lightly saturated color palette. However, in scenes of intense motion and feeling (such as when she runs away from the palace), the charcoal lines are roughly drawn and a dark color palette is used. Along with the sounds in the background, this lets the viewers experience what Kaguya feels, frustration, urgency, despair, the desperate want to escape. With the film being very minimalist, the movie and Kaguya both adhere to the Japanese aesthetic of Shibui 渋い or Shibusa 渋さ (simplicity). The charcoal lines are never finely drawn and the watercolor never fills up or is retained within their designated borders, these details all lead up to the film being presented in a loose manner.

There is a contrast because, despite the depth of Princess Kaguya’s story and the emotional turmoil she undergoes throughout the film, it is visually presented in such a simple way. These soft, sometimes rough and hard, lines and muted colors contribute to the simplicity that Takahata tries to convey throughout the film. This change in the thickness of lines and color palette follows the Japanese aesthetic of Jo-ha-kyū 序破急 (Modulation and Movement). This aesthetic is focused on how things start slowly, similar to Kaguya’s naivety at the start of the film, and then the build-up (her emotional journey), the climax (when she runs away), and the end (wherein she displays her growth on Earth and returns to the moon, albeit with no memories, she has been changed). Takahata’s choice to go against the norms of animation were praised by critics all over the world. His decision to pursue a ‘dead’ animation style reaped numerous benefits and paved a way for other artists to consider the same decision. When she had to go back to the moon, she was reluctant to leave Earth because of the memories she made and the love she experienced. Princess Kaguya’s character design allowed her to be portrayed as a simple countryside girl who was capable of sophistication and emotional maturity.

In Toy Story 3, Pixar seemingly continues its male-dominated theme. Barbie is first seen being discarded by Andy’s sister and she has minimal appearances throughout the film. She is next seen hysterically crying over being placed in Sunnyside Daycare and this sadness does not dissipate until she meets Ken. In the movie, she has blonde hair tied up with a hot pink scrunchie into a high ponytail, she wears a blue-green skin tight seemingly spandex jumpsuit that accentuates her breasts and her legs. Her physical features accompanied by a high-pitched voice inevitably categorizes her as your ‘typical dumb blonde’ - feminine and emotional. This ‘typical dumb blonde’ category is further supported by how she naively leaves her friends to spend time with Ken with no idea that her friends are actually being abused by the other Sunnyside Daycare toys such as Latso - the main male antagonist. There is one scene wherein her intelligence is shown - when she says “authority should derive from the consent of the governed, ” English philosopher John Locke’s popular saying. This statement, however, is met with laughter, reinforcing the idea that women are not smart but when they are smart - it’s funny because it’s so rare and not ‘normal’.

Straying from what I predicted her do, though, when she finds out that her friends are being abused - she immediately severs any relationship she had with Ken, showing that she is not selfish enough to remain sheltered and ‘safe’ while her friends face a dangerous fate. Unfortunately, as Barbie is not the main character, her development or her character, in general, is not fully focused on in-depth, she is just presented as an emotional girl who has somewhat of a moral code.

Visually comparing these three animated women, we see an immediate difference. Sophie is drawn in very thin and fine lines. No line remains open or unfinished with the colors solid and within their borders. Despite displaying a Japanese aesthetic, Miyazaki’s animation style in characterizing Sophie leans more towards a Western animation style. Princess Kaguya is drawn in a completely different style. Takahata goes back to the ‘dead’ drawing style that can be observed in traditional Japanese (and Chinese) paintings. She is drawn in charcoal lines of different lengths depending on how she feels and these lines are not always fully closed. Colored in watercolor, it gives her character a simplistic feel that is reflected in her personality. Barbie in her computer-animated glory. She is moderately tan, possessing blue eyes (very Western) and blonde hair. The three styles of these women are all very different which reflects on how diverse their characters are - in the rest of this comparative analysis I aim to further investigate these differences in their character design and animation style and what it’s affected by.