bobbinfire - Tumblr blog

bobbinfire · 1 month ago

Text

Animation Student Analysis of: K-pop Demon Hunters

Sony Pictures Animation wasn’t always the every film out of the ballpark, animators dream job company that they are today. Starting with their first animated film Open Season back in 2006, they weren’t exactly the grandest of the crop. They very much barely had their own style to them. Over the years they progressed, working mainly in franchises like The Smurfs, Hotel Transylvania, as well as other films that while weren’t Oscar winners they at least hold a place in someone’s childhood heart. It was when Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse released did they finally see a real spike in their popularity. Drawn into the experimental animation style and impactful visuals, audiences and artists alike are constantly eager to see what the company will produce next that is unique.

That is where I believe K-pop Demon Hunters comes into play. A Netflix original film, this movie about K-pop idols fighting demons in their spare time is more than unique. To analyze what truly has the fan community raving about it I will look at its main areas of strength being Music, Cinematography, work from the Concept Development stage, and of course most importantly, Animation.

With this film, K-pop Demon Hunters has taught us that even when fighting a demon boy band, anything is possible through the magic of songs and carbs.

Music

Let’s be honest. It was a 2 hour music video.

This is not a bad thing, nor should the notion be. Music is a fundamental part to our lives whether we realize it or not. Be it the physical benefits such as learning and development, or the perfect thing to match your mood; music finds a way to have the right beat drop when we need it to.

Like there are many types of people, there are many types of music as well. Korean pop, shortened to K-pop, is a Korean adaptation of the international generalized genre of pop. Kicking off its subculture in the 1990s, K-pop artists developed the energetic choreography and ear worm tune to meet the upbeat persona that would build over the decades. Since then it has become a staple on any teenage girls playlist. K-pop is known for its same gender 3-6 group idols who grace the stage with visual appearances and harmonizing chords.

Most often with musicals song have one goal. This is telling a story through music. However with the likes of K-pop Demon Hunters, I feel we have an interesting route in another direction: using story to explain music. While I am not well versed in the world of K-pop, I do understand the artistry that goes behind their songs and the music videos with them. While musicals use the songs, music videos (especially in the K-pop genre) use a story to explain and elevate their music. Listening to a song is a different experience than watching a story play alongside it.

Why bring these varying points up?Because overall the K-pop Demon Hunters soundtrack takes all of these elements to make an animated musical for K-pop fans and general music lovers alike. Their catered music matches the story enhancing elements of a musical while having diverse songs that could be listened to and enjoyed on repeat without the context of the film being necessary. Members of K-pop idol group TWICE and other creators in the genre had roles in helping bring the soundtrack into a K-pop reminiscent sensation.

Also when you have a boy band that seems like there designs were centered completely around a song like “Soda Pop”and not the other way around, it is clear the creators knew their type of audience.

Cinematography

A main point about film is there are many different visual styles to play with. Experimentation has led to the general audience finding what type of style they like based on the individual product and genre, because with as many developments over the years there is a wide variety to choose from. Our brains can subconsciously pick up on the factors that make each different, be it frame rates to camera angles. It helps us choose our preferences for each medium. The music video medium of film, for example, is known for its dramatization. Shots equal in length to beat percentage of the track, extreme high and low key lighting used to direct eye movement, dramatic angles, and a sprinkling mix of frame rates all play a part in this version of filming experience. This video (If Educational Videos Were Filmed Like Music Videos ) done by Tom Scott breaks down easily what you might find in music video cinematography.

When considering films that showcase bands or other performance groups whose work is often showed through the music video style of shooting, you might notice there are not a lot of times films actually use that style on the big screen. If a band or singer is featured in a movie, most often than not it will show them performing through social media or handheld devices recording, or even the rare actual music video (those typically being short and cheap looking). But as it is a different style of filming, it is not used often in movies as it can be jarring when switching between the two mediums.

K-pop Demon Hunters actually manages to use the style of music video cinematography to the film’s benefit. A good portion is actually dedicated to not only showcasing the characters and their motions the same as how a music video would, but really plays up the uniqueness belong to the K-pop genre’s version. Emphasis on one individual at a time, slow camera motion with low key lighting versus fast movement with high key lighting, motions that hit directly on the beat. It is beautiful and refreshing to see as it is not the norm.

Other points of cinematography work that are worth bringing up to mention are the fight sequences. When a song ends, then the filming style will return to the classic movie style with a subtle enough transition it is not as noticeable. In these sequences we tend to have fight scenes as this is an action related film. Here the camera always stays with whatever is the main object moving; this can be one of the girls, an object they are using to punch a demon, or said demon flying back after being punched. With staying with one object as it follows through its motion, we can pick up on the weight or even weightlessness it is trying to represent and therefore we the audience can feel it when it hits.

Concept/Visual Development

Research is an important aspect of any film, because there are great chances you are basing it on an element of something. Research done and even raking in details to put in the film that goes above and beyond is a good way to get the nerds in the audience drooling at the mouth. The film is a fantastic example of this done right. It is an American film but they go through the work to make the story feel in a pop version of Korean. Looking deeply into both Korean culture and the world of K-pop idols drives the like-ability of what is portrayed on screen. How they incorporated it also is a big decider. In his humor aiming review of the film, The Korean Comic goes on to explain the lack of real world scenarios and likelihoods found in reknown K-pop idols groups. While it is side steeped for both the story and viewer’s comfortability, he point out that the creators tend to redeem themselves with the harsh nature as well as hiding oneself found in the K-pop industry through Rumi and her guardian.

Korean culture is one of the major building blocks of the film as well. Not always with culturally based media do we get all the details or effort incorporated to make us feel we are experiencing the culture shown. This film however managed to put as much effort in the early stages of product to add every little thing to the point when the final film came out we the audience were spoiled. Environment design and props were amongst the few treats we were given. This article over k-culture by Jae-Ha Kim, minorly discusses what Korean mythology was incorporated into the story and look of the film. He goes into the details of the grim reaper designs for the boys and the pride-ful connections of the meaning behind the Saja boys.

Color theory is important anywhere and using the right palette, even more so. Looking at the color scripts alone proves how much consideration was used to make such bright colors that could be overly contrasting in the film work. Details in color in stretching cityscapes to the work of designing each of the girls’ weapons helps give a great indication of the visual mastery the artists behind the film held.

Animation

When a studio produces a “masterpiece” such as the Spider-Man into the spider verse films, fans tend to crave and outright demand that future films have what made it so great. In Sony Pictures Animation’s case it is the use of experimental animation. However this is rarely good. Demanding elements will not always bring the desired outcome, especially if it is pushed to get the next wave of popularity. With the approaching premiere of the 2025 The Smurfs film, my confidence in 2D 3D mix and varying frame rates associated with experimental animation being pushed has only lessened. Nevertheless, with the arrival of this new film, I believe there might be hope for the Spiderverse animation style in the industry yet. Even if it’s still an overused example.

We also see visual and timing elements often contributing to the aesthetic found in most anime media. Hard cuts, scratches marking up the effects, major foreshortening, extreme facial reactions and features, then of course the longer exposures in the animation timeline. Combining this with the seen traits of the Spiderverse animation style bring each animation sequence in this movie full circle.

The animation team also play up their use of heavy and light moments in the timing. Most often, fight scenes and abrupt motion calls for heavy hits. This means less inbetweens and directly putting key frames right in line with the hitting beats to make the effect heavy. Moments calling for a softer approach means more inbetweens, allowing the animation to be more fluid. While it may not land directly on beat, it’s not necessary for it too, as we achieve a floating affect that adds to the light feeling. This is best portrayed in “Free”.

Visual effects lighting only does to add on to the impact frames of animation. Bright lines, contrasting colors, anything to make the exact point of contact pop within the animation.

The animation does well to work in tandem with the other elements mentioned previously that make this film great. Because of this we get a visually and audibly stunning masterpiece by Sony Pictures Animation all of its own.

This film is just are reviewers are saying: It’s beautiful. It’s catchy. It’s unique. Honestly anything that can start a meme trend and have people making TikTok edits till the end of time for it because “the characters were just that hot” probably has something going for it. While I am disappointed it didn’t have a theatrical release, I do believe it was beneficial to have it on a popular streaming service known for good original movies like Netflix. With the current wave of desolate theater spaces, a theatrical release would have probably hindered its immediate impact if it was put out at the same time. The film you can tell was also not the type of creation meant for the big screen and rather had more effort put into the overarching crowd pleaser it was. In the perspective of business it was a rather good choice to work with Netflix.

I also did not need to be yelling at my trainees at the movie theater to quit dancing to TWICE’s version of “Takedown” playing during the credits and get back to sweeping.

Going forward I hope for more out of the blue, one-off showstoppers that make me love the animation industry. My music loving soul was very pleased at the work produced. A film can be marked good if the audience is willing and even craving to go back to look at the hard work that produced a wonderful end result like K-pop Demon Hunters.

I think I might do more of these as stuff releases. If you want to encourage such, hope over to my Ko-fi or Patreon to tip towards a ticket and make a request.

In the comments put your thoughts on the film’s animation.

Click here for my previous analysis over Transformers One.

#animation student analysis #animation #bobbinfire #kpop demon hunters #sony pictures animation #K-pop #artisits on tumblr #netflix animation

13 notes · View notes