With the increasing theory developed on art over millennias, we perceive art and even reality in dimensions. The introduction of animation and then TV media is no different–it is a 2D medium but in recent years there has been a development and fascination with 3D animation. Yet, there is a concept that helps us perceive the spaces that the characters and the audience can occupy. We call them “walls” and the one of most interest is the fourth wall, but even more interesting is when movies, films, shows and etc. break that wall. The breaking of the fourth wall is when a character in a story argues with its creator or talks to the audience–basically when a fictional character understands that it is in a fictional world and brings up this concept to the creator or audience. This has been used on multiple occasions for different reasons and in different mediums, such as the Deadpool character in the Marvel comics universe who knows he is in a comic book world and will, for example, point out speech bubbles. Even in live action performances such as the original Peter Pan play by J.M. Barrie, where Peter calls out to the audience to clap so that Tinker Bell may live. Yet, in Walt Disney’s interpretation of Peter Pan in his animated film, he chose not to use this device from the uncertainty in audience participation in the animated medium (Peter Pan DVD extras). Although, animation has heavily used this technique in the early years of its conception, where Felix the Cat will wink at the audience or when the animated characters will interact with the artist in many of the shorts we have seen in class. Yet, what is the point of breaking the fourth wall for animation, since it serves a different purpose in each medium, is it pure comedy like Deadpool or is it to allow audience participation and interaction like in the Peter Pan play, or something else?
Two articles I found have analyzied and broached this topic as well, “Breaking the Fourth Wall” and another titled “When Characters Speak Directly to Viewers: Breaking the Fourth Wall in Television.” The first article is a shorter summary of the concept and origins of the fourth wall, he concludes that it is a concept created first on theatrical stage where an “imaginary “fourth”-wall located at the front of the stage” is broken by the actor to talk to the audience and that its primary use is comedic (Breaking the Fourth Wall Paragraph 5). While the second source is an academic article written by Auter and Davis about characters breaking the fourth wall on television. These writers conclude that audience react well to comedic forms that breaks the fourth wall, but feel that more reseach is needed to fully analyze “complex audience-program relationship[s]” to fully interpret television programs that break the fourth wall and their acceptance (Auter and Davis 171). I will explore varied uses of the concept in animation instead and see whether it is only a comedy gimmick.
First, a very easy use for characters to break the fourth wall is simply for narration purposes, such as when Jiminy Cricket from Disney’s Pinocchio and Jacquimo from Don Bluth’s Thumbelina opens the story with an introduction.
Yet, there is also its use as a comedic tool for funny, childish animation series, such as Looney Tunes:
This scene where Bugs Bunny as a plot device, informs Gossamer about the people (the audience) watching him and hence how he scare the monster away. An interesting use that, like Peter Pan, is important to the story. Yet, unlike Peter Pan it is purely used to make the audience laugh, although that is the main point of the show in the first place anyway.
Daffy Duck goes through a similar process where he acknowledge the existance of “who’s ever in charge here” and knows he is a character in “an animated cartoon.” The whole plot revolves around things going wrong for Daffy and the artists are just messing with their own fictional character. Its comedic but also shows off the artists drawing abilities and the writer’s abilities to write hilarious plot for an animated show. Although Bugs goes through the same torture in Rabbit Rampage. It also recalls the early years of animation when artists had a direct hand in the animation story such as in Phantasmagorie.
Although, there are also just characters, like Deadpool, who are created to break the fourth wall, such as Bat-mite in the Batman series. He appears in the final episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Where he works to wreck the show and get it cancelled since he finds the show boring, yet not only Bat-mite but with the show ending even the whole cast is allowed to talk to the audience for a final farewell, aware that the show is ending. A bit comedic at heart but instead of using it to introduce the audience to the story, characters breaking the fourth wall is used here to finalize the show.
There is also a number of strange concepts that occurs when characters break the fourth wall too. In Batman: Under the Red Hood, a film I have written a paper on and therefore analyzed it too heavily, I noticed that Joker speaks to the audience towards the end of the film as well. The Joker, being what he is, this is clearly meant to be a comedic use of characters breaking the fourth wall and this makes sense. The Joker can rarely take things seriously yet this climax clearly has him involved in the outcome so why does he talk to the audience instead of his captor (Red Hood) and savior (Batman)? There is an odd shot at 0.23 seconds when the camera is behind him and he turns back to no one (but the audience) and asks, “So, who’s got a camera?” and continues to blather in his own little world that seems to interact more with the audience than with the characters in the film. Thus, in this instance, the destruction of the fourth wall is more than just comedic, Joker is also being interactive with his audience. Batman and Red Hood are boxed in this little apartment room and this little world that revolves around them but beyond this Joker goes further, he goes outside the box (so to speak). It makes the scene psychologically complex and the film more interesting with this added element to a serious film, not to make it comedic but calls out to the audience and pulls them into this issue that revolves solely around the characters and includes the viewer in the fued between mentor and mentee.
Yet, just to simplify things again, this technique could simply function as a comedic routine for the audience to laugh at and for them to feel included when characters talk directly to them, such as in Emperor’s New Groove, where Kuzco, the main character, throughout random parts of the film will narrate or stop the film to inject a comment in.
It generally seems like breaking the fourth wall is comedic yet when films such as Fight Club use it, it is a serious use of narration that is pivatal to the audiences understanding of the film. Maybe because the animation medium is yet to be fully taken seriously or maybe I just have not found the right examples yet, but this concept seems more comedic than anything else, even if it is a tool to invite the audience in. Characters that break the fourth wall still serve to make the audience laugh more than invite them to be apart of the story. As both articles above have shown in their own writings, the fourth wall being broken is an aspect better accepted in comedic forms yet like in Batman: Under the Red Hood and with characters like Jiminy Cricket, this concept is also slipped into animation as a serious form of contemplation and narration that is not as popular as its comedic variation. Yet the audience accepts this form, where characters break the fourth wall as a serious device either without notice at times or accepts the use in the story/animation.
