What started out as an interpretation of the meaning behind the words, has moved to other regions such as examining people's behavior, culture, and society, analyzing cultural products such as films, literature, art and recently becoming a methodology for researching and analyzing consumer behavior. No matter where the semiotic is, it's important to understand the context behind the sign that is communicated to comprehend its meaning and know what's going on around it.
In this task, we'll be analyzing the semiotic approach trough animated films and how they can be interpreted. In animation, semiotics are shown through visuals, dialogue, and non-verbal communication. The common signs of this approach are anthropomorphism, signified and signifier, referent, symbolic association, and sound illusion. The animated film of my choosing to analyze its semiotic approach is the 2007 CGI film adaption of TMNT. I could have gone the easy route of choosing a Disney film but I decided to go with the one that I watched so many times and how I remember every scene and line from it. Here's a trailer and a brief summary of the film.
It's about four brothers in which one of them went off to Central America and they have become lost and distanced from each other. All of a sudden a strange occurrence is happening in New York City in which an army of ancient creatures take over the world and it is up to the turtles to reunite and save it. The overall message of this film revolves around the relationship between the brothers and how they need each other to defeat the bad guys and save the world. It is filled with hardships and struggles after one of them left to do a solo mission, causing an imbalance between them. When they reunite, their first mission have failed and there was a conflict between the two brothers. The film primarily focuses on them and their character developments. I'll be showing some scenes of the film with the help of some clips on YouTube and screencaps to explain its semiotics.
The first scene is what people usually know from the film. It's a fight between two brothers. Here's a clip from YouTube;
The signifier is Leonardo, the blue-masked turtle, and Raphael, the red-masked turtle, having an argument and fighting against each other. This scene is to signify the expression of feelings, particularly anger and frustration as their conflict resolves to a fight which ended with Raph nearly killing his brother.
The second scene is Raphael coming home and meeting Splinter.
The signifier is Raphael and Splinter, the father of the turtles. This scene is to signify the regret he has that his brother has been taken by the monsters as Raphael apologized that he didn't help him and admitted that Leo is a better leader than him.
The signifiers are the brothers alongside their human companions and father. This scene is to signify the bonding of brotherhood as well as togetherness and family as they are ready to kick some bad guys butt and save the world.
These three scenes and their semiotic approaches are what makes them important and a focal point to the movie.
Resources:
Semiotics Definiton and Examples by Richard Nordquist (2020)
Semiotics in Animation by Josh Hoare (2017)
TMNT (2007)
TMNT 2007 Screencaps
What is Semiotics?
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