- C O M E DY G E N R E

ME & MY MOVIES

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE- David Silverman (2007)

The Simpsons Movie is an American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons, focusing on the Simpson family of Homer Simpson, his wife Marge, and children Bart, Lisa and Maggie, and the town of Springfield.After Homer accidentally pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpson family are declared fugitives.In the end, Homer saves Springfield with the help of Bart by throwing the bomb out of the dome that was intended to destroy the town. The bomb explodes, shattering the dome and freeing the town. The townspeople then begin restoring Springfield back to normal.

SHREK - Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson (2001)

The film is about an ogre, Shrek, who lives in a swamp away from the town. His home is then threatened to be interrupted unless he travels to save Princess Fiona in order for Lord Farquaad to be king. He meets an annoying donkey who goes on the adventure with him, making the donkey his side-kick throughout the film.

MONSTERS INC.- Pete Docter (2001)

The film is about Monsters that generate their city's power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted.

COMEDY GENRE

• I like the comedy genre because they use a lot of intertextuality from other media. • Comedy films also usually have a good cast in

their films and there is likely to be more than one A-List celebrity in a comedy film as they use the star theory. • Most people, including me, are more attracted to

the film depending on who is in it. This is because people watch other successful comedy films which makes the actors more liked and there is more chance of their films attracting more of an audience.

INTERTEXTUALITY

Intertextuality is when a type of media takes something from another. For example, Shrek uses characters that are familiar to the target audience.

Sleeping Beauty may not look like the Disney original but in Shrek she is always portrayed as tired to hint to the audience that she is sleeping beauty. Rapunzel has long hair, Cinderella wears glass shoes and the Ugly Sister is ugly. These intertextual references repeat in all the Shrek films to familiarize the characters with the audience as they know them from other media texts. The Gingerbread man, from the children’s rhyme is also used as a character in the film which will appeal to the younger children that know him from the rhyme. This appeals to the target audience, being families, as they will recognise the characters from other media texts.

In terms of Monsters, inc. Rex from the Toy Story franchise is featured as a monster at the start of the film. This appeals to the audience because they will recognise Rex from Toy Story and be encouraged to watch the film because they recognise the character.

STAR THEORY

The star theory is when someone is attracted to a film based on who is starring in it. Usually, an actor becomes well known after they have starred in a particular film as a certain type of character. If there is another similar film that they play the same type of character, people will be attracted to the film because they know how successful the actor is in playing the part. The simpsons is a successful, well known tv series. The characters from the tv series are the same in the movie. This encourages fans of the simpsons to watch the film because the same characters are in it, which relates to the star theory. Shrek also features comedic ators like Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz. They are A-List actors who are most famous for starring in comedy films. The audience will be drawn in to watching the film because they are very well known and also known for starring in comedy films, the genre of the Shrek films. John Goodman plays Sully, the top scarer at Monsters, Inc. He is well known for playing parts in disney movies therefore it is effective and persuasive to the target audience for him to play a main part in the film because it will appeal to the audience as they have seen him in other successful animated family movies and they will want to watch the film because they know how good he plays the different characters as its audience familiarity.

MONSTERS, INC. TRAILER

• This screen shot in the monsters, inc. trailer shows the characters Sully and Mike.

• The convention here is the characters. In other comedy films there is always a comedy duo and these characters are a clear example of this.

• Medium – long shots are also a convention of comedy films therefore you can see the movement and expressions of the characters.

• This shot uses both high key on one side and low key on the other side. High-Key lighting is a convention of comedy films as its bright and is used in happy scenes whereas low-key is used in horror films.

SHREK TRAILER

• Iconography is a big convention in comedy films. Sometimes they interpret other films in a funny way, more of a parody and sometimes they use different elements from other films to attract their target audience.

• In this shot, it shows Shrek, the ‘hero’, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The creators of shrek have used these characters as iconography as the target audience will notice the characters and be familiar with them.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE TRAILER

• Another popular convention in comedy films are featuring very accident prone characters. This appeals to the target audience because people find it funny when people do stupid things; just like Homer Simpson.

• Featuring this part in the trailer will attract the target audience and appeal to them because people already watch the simpsons and know his personality.

MEDIA LITERACY

• There are many ways that you can find out about movies. Advertising is a main way that movies get across. This includes adverts on TV, the internet, Billboards, magazines, radio and newspapers.

• Interviews are also a promotion that actors often use to talk about the film they have recently starred in which will appeal to the target audience.

• Social networking websites are also a big element when it comes to getting information and hearing about movies. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are the main forms of social media where films are promoted.

• Apps are also an upcoming type of media that you can find all different information about films. Apps like ‘Flixster’ are popular as you can find anything out about any film on the app.

RECEPTION THEORY

• Reception theory is all about how the audience reacts to a film based upon our age, gender, ethnicity, social class.• For example, ‘The Hangover’ appeals to younger

adults with a middle class background however it wouldn’t appeal to a younger adult with a different cultural background as they have different beliefs and wont find things funny compared to people of other cultural backgrounds.

ACTIVE SPECTATORSHIP

• The active spectatorship theory suggests that each viewer is different and many people in the audience will question the film and react to it in different ways to others, finding different meanings behind a film.• Active spectatorship also relates to the idea of

‘fandom’. This is where the audience for a particular film adopts it as their own e.g Twilight (‘Twi-hards’)