A caricature is, by definition, "a
picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain
striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or
grotesque effect.” In animation, this
applies to a character, background, or object that takes its real-world
properties and effectively stretching them to make them unreal or largely
out-of-proportion to its real-world counterpart (for example, a standard butter
knife in reality could be stretched to be an unwieldy sword). This, in turn, gives the work a more
interesting and original feel to it that otherwise would go unnoticed by the
audience or by the creator himself.
What is interesting to note,
however, is that caricature and realism are both opposites of the same coin in
a sense. On one hand, caricatures focus
on the absurdity and out-of-proportion features that differ them from realistic
properties and equivalencies. Realism,
though, differs in that it takes what we perceive to be real and keeping those
proportions within the same boundaries.
To compare, think of a sword from an
animated short or film and then think about a sword that you would see in a
museum. While we perceive them to both
be swords, the animation version will differ greatly from the real-life
counterpart. For instance, the
caricature version of the sword might focus on a larger hilt or the blade will
be comically longer or heavier looking.
In that sense, caricatures are - depending on your view - truer than
realism in that the creator has more freedom with how to carve these objects
out than he would if he based them exactly like their realistic versions down
to the most minute detail.
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