(Warning, this column contains a few small spoilers about Ratatouille, so if you haven't seen that movie, you might want to stop reading now) Sometimes, when you watch movies, the weirdest questions pop up. You might wonder why Donald Duck is wearing a shirt and a hat, but not pants, but sometimes the questions go a little deeper. Like this new one that struck me: Does every animated movie really need a Bad Guy/Woman/Creature? Of course, they are more or less common practice in animated movies, ever since Disney put that horrible witch in their debut animated feature Snow White, and many kids have been scared witless by the many baddies in later Disney movies. It's almost a rite of passage, it seems. The first time you go see a movie in theaters, which is mostly an animated movie, there is a bad guy that gives you nightmares. I guess I was lucky that my first animated movie in the cinema was The Aristocats, which had a baddy that was more clumsy than scary, but I can remember plenty of little girls and boys clinging to their mothers, and becoming really silent, during the final battle between Ariel and Ursula in the showing of The Little Mermaid where I first saw that picture.
Evil bad guys are more or less Disney's trademark, and most of the other animation studios have been more than happy to follow this model and come up with their own evil wizards/dragons/goblins and whatnot. And of course, these bad guys give the movie an extra edge, an extra reason to root for the good guy, and a satisfying climax at the end of a movie, when the bad guy is disposed of, never to be seen again (or at least not until the Direct to DVD sequel).
Still, if you look at the movies made by Studio Ghibli, then you see that they have several movies that don't have a bad guy, but still they have a highly satisfying buildup towards the end, even without a threat to kill off. Take My Neighbour Totoro for instance, a beautiful movie that thrills you as a viewer, and keeps you entranced, even without the obligatory evilness. And in the early days Disney has had a few movies like this as well, with Dumbo, and to a lesser extent Bambi (there was a more or less evil presence in the movie, but never really with a face to it, and also without an end boss battle).
Now you might wonder: But why would you want to dispose of the bad guys? Many times, the bad guys are the most interesting characters in the movie, plus they give the movies an extra recognizable face, besides just the hero(ine) and his or her sidekicks.
Let me counter that with another question: Does every animated movie really need a bad guy?
Take, for instance, Ratatouille. If you have seen it, you know that it's a magnificent piece of animated entertainment. The story of the little rat Remy trying his best to make it in the kitchen, with the help of bumbling dishwasher Linguini, is very inspired. But I wondered after watching it: do we really need the character of Skinner to be portrayed as a cliché bad guy? If you haven't seen the movie: Skinner is the new Chef in the kitchen of famous restaurant Gusteau's, taking over from the big man Gusteau himself after his untimely death. He is scheming to use Gusteau's name for a frozen foods business and does not need either Remy or Linguini to mess up his plans. Ratatouille is a movie that is packed with storylines. You have Remy and Linguini working together as a cooking team. You have Remy and Linguini trying to restore the restaurant to it's old fortunes. You have Linguini falling in love with co-worker Colette. You have Remy trying his best to hide the fact that he, as a rat, is doing the actual cooking, because, well, who wants to eat in a restaurant where there is a rat in the kitchen? You have food critic Anton Ego sharpening his pencil to write a scathing review of the restaurant that he once tore down so badly verbally, that it lost one of it's Michelin stars. You have Remy trying to decide where his place is: In the kitchen, or with his family. You have Linguini feeling the burdens of fame, and not being able to cope with it.
All these storylines are interesting in itself and would make a great movie as it is, so why portray Skinner as a cliche bad guy character? For me, Anton Ego is so much more interesting, because he is not cliche bad guy evil, but more a man who is so enamoured by his own status, that he has started to think of himself as a God-like creature, all the while being readied for a cold shower that wakes him up and shows him what life is really about. Ego is three dimensional, Skinner very much 2 dimensional. He has no redeeming qualities, and throughout the whole movie you are being primed to hate him, ready for the moment that he gets what he deserves.
But the thing is that the movie really doesn't need him. No, let me rephrase that: The movie does need him, but in a more interesting role. Sure, let him be critical of Linguini, and shocked at the appearance of Remy, but he would have been so much more interesting if he wouldn't have been shocked for personal gain, but because he was afraid of what would happen to the restaurant and the people working there. I hate to use the word cliche in connection to this amazing movie, but losing the cliche bad guy and turning him into a three dimensional character would have added another layer of depth to Ratatouille, instead of detracting from it.
I hear you cry: It's only a bloody kids movie! But I think it's important for kids to also realize that nobody is just strictly good or evil. Besides, doing away with the standard bad guy gives less talented movie makers more of an incentive to also come up with something new and refreshing, instead of just building up towards a gratuitous fight at the end of the picture.
My point: You don't need those cliche bad guys to make a good animated movie, try to come up with something new for a change. And this doesn't just go for animated movies either...
p.s. I know Cars also didn't have any real bad guys, but that effect was more or less ruined by the fact that they did use every other cliche in the book...
Comments