Animation: What is a Caricature?

             What is a caricature?

My first introduction to caricature was when I was in middle school and attending a state fair. A caricature artist was there and my friends and I got a little portrait made. And then years later, one at my high school graduation party. The point of the sketches, of course, is to take features that are unique to you and exaggerate them. I have large teeth, something that was exaggerated in both sketches. When I think of myself, I tend to exaggerate these features in my mind and perhaps I feel so affectionately about these sketches because I feel that there is a sort of sense of humor in this distorted sort of lens that pokes fun at not only how others see us, but how we see ourselves.

 

When asking which is more real, realism or caricature, there is not really an easy answer. The softer, simpler shapes of realistic characters are more true to life, but flatter than caricatured characters, which might make them less interesting to the audience and perhaps less identifiable.

But there is something in slight caricaturing that gives the illustrations charm and that endearing quality. A good example of this type of caricature being being the couple Anita and Roger in “101 Dalmations.” Their bodies are perhaps a little too gangly, their hair a little less realistic their features exaggerated (Anita’s small waist, Roger’s big nose,) but I think this tends to be more believable than say, the rather straight and realistic characters of Snow White and Prince Charming. This type of animation is more real to an audience that because you can Identify so strongly with those sorts of characters and their movements. A slight caricature in animation makes characters exaggerated enough to add excitement, but real enough to remain identifiable.

                So, both styles can be considered “real,” I think, but caricature is a much more interesting and powerful form of animation, which is something that can capture our attention and really become endearing to us as an audience, making the character that much more real.