“Neighbours” by Norman McLaren

The animation that I have chosen called “Neighbours”, it was produced at 1952 and it was created by Norman McLaren. Norman McLaren was a Canadian animator working for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also was a pioneer in few numbers of areas of animation, including the techniques and technology skills had used in “Neighbours”.

“Neighbours” from Norman McLaren, the first President of ASIFA, was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Memory of the World Registry on Friday, July 31, 2008, according to the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It’s an anti-war film produced during the Vietnam War.

“Neighbours” had used a sores of techniques and technology objects in it, first, it using stop-motion to made this animation, and using live actors (Jean-Paul Ladouceur and Grant Munro) as the objects. Second, it had used the technique of ‘pixilation’. Pixilation, a stop motion technique that using live actor, where performers change their positions slightly between exposures of one or two frames each, to obtain a comic effect of jerky movement when the film is projected at normal speed. The pixilation matter in the animation that using two other films using a similar combination of pixilation, live action, variable speed photography and string-puppets, so it would qualify as either a documentary short or an animated short.

This story is talk about two people (Jean-Paul Ladouceur and Grant Munro) who live as two lovely neighbors and with peacefully in adjacent cardboard houses. One day, there’s a flower blooms between their houses they fight each other to the death over the ownership of the single small flower. This is a currently a standard story which have normal structure with any story also have, but this animation does have its own meaning in it. It has brought out a message that people should be live with peace. At the ending of the animation, the two men were death fight for the flower, it means people who keep fighting, they all will be the loser, pay a lot but nothing gain.

To concluded, the ‘Neighbours’ can be very affect the animation nowadays, these types of animation that has bring out important meaning ‘inside’ the animation has been use at lots of anime nowadays, for example, the anti-war anime, in Japan, lots of animators had using this idea to created their anime, first it can be more interesting and second, some addional education in the anime can make a better impression to the people. Second thing, in my opinion, the critical meaning brings by ‘Neighbours’ was a good idea that can be used by other animators. Nowadays, we are living in the peaceful world that does not have war, and the people nowadays hate war, so the animators can catch the point and create the animation, having the meaning about the goods of peaceful, and the way to be peaceful, it can using one sentences to bring out all ideas. For example, “peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding each other.” .