Idea 4- Dolls in the Dark

Previously Meg and I here at Grumpy Moose had decided to try and run with the following idea for our Atomic era inspired animation.

'A day in the life of a dolly housewife. The husband is waved off to work with his lunch. The daughter helps out cleaning the house and making apple pie. The dolls world flickers away to reveal the reality. A little girl sits utterly alone in a bomb shelter playing with the dolls. Over the sounds of a radio playing music, the room shakes with what sounds like a bomb impacting.'

In our brainstorming session over the idea and how it would work I drew up a storyboard, which in the space of a few hours completely evolved again. However all the same we wanted to record its progress. In the images below, the main figure is the housewife doll until reality is exposed and the dolls world is seen to be the little girls fantasy.

The storyboard changed as we realised this was the fantasy of a young girl who is now very alone in a bunker. And her fantasy would be as biased to her dreams as possible. Therefore it would make it more likely that the 'daughter' dolly character would be another version of herself. And like any small child would love to spend time with her mother, learning how to be a good housewife for her future husband.   So with this in mind we devised a script, building on this newly evolved idea.

Dolls in the Dark- Initial Script

The New Idea's- The 3 Act Structure

As was mentioned in the previous post. A three act structure was the new aim of the game and below are a series of ideas revolving around the Atomic Age.

1. A fifties housewife straightens up the perfect suburban home. Playing super-mum, gourmet chef and welcoming home home the husband with a peck on the cheek. As the door closes however you realise its a vaulted door and then come to realise 'home' is a bomb shelter buried below ground.

2. A pair of children pretend to be news reporters, sitting behind fold out tables and reporting on the mundane and mildly amusing, making fun until their mum appears with their food on trays. They settle to watch a real news broadcast consisting of an atomic bombing and shattering their playtime.

3. A giant dinosaur attacks a pretty suburban town- In reality its the clashing of a brother and sister at playtime. The young boy crashes about playing Godzilla, disturbing his sisters perfect village. He goes to trample one of the dollhouses when the toys topple before he can reach them. Looking to the window, all that can be seen is a mushroom cloud rising in the distance.

4. A day in the life of a puppet housewife as she goes about her daily business. The husband is waved off to work with his lunch. The daughter helps out cleaning the house and making apple pie. The puppet world flickers away to reveal a little girl playing with dolls. She sits alone in a bomb shelter as the light bulb flickers and the room shakes with the impact of a bomb.

After discussion with Meg we found ourselves leaning more towards idea 4. Having such a massive contrast between the fakery and plasticised lifestyle of the puppet/ doll's apple-pie lifestyle and the grim reality of the girl playing with those dolls, hiding out in a bunker as a sole survivor, really covers the duality of the fifties. the optimism in the face of the dark reality that man could now destroy itself.