Wow, just wow.
Very high quality short animation with a simple story. Two aristocrats are competing for the affection of the same lady. The situation escalates and eventually gets blown completley out of proportion, to hilarious measures.
Firstly, the character designs are fantastic. Stereotypical English lord versus Pompus French lord fighting over unrealistically beautiful lady with enormous breasts. The costumes of the two men reflect directly aspects of their personality. The englishman is wearing a smart brown outfit composed of lapels and a tie. His hair is combed neatly and his moustache is long and thin. There is a huge amount of expression from his eyebrows, which are large and extruded, which shows a lot of how he is feeling through their exaggerated movements. The frenchman is dressed much more outrageously, in much brighter colours and style, with bright gold buttons. In contrast to the Englishman we can see that he spends his wealth differently, is perhaps a lot more excentric. His hair is long, tied back in a low ponytail, adding to the typical fairytale hero look. Facial wise, his nose is very large compared to the other characters', as well as his entire chin and jawline. Although this makes him look more tough, i'm sensing more that it adds to the pompus attribute. So although the two main characters are very different, in many ways they are the same. They both want the same thing, after all. Even the robots that they use to battle with are reflective of their personality. The englishman has a steampunk style industrial design whereas the frenchman has a medieval, knight-in-shining-armor look to it, with cushions.
Moving away from design and looking at character animation, we see the two sides to the men first start to show as they begin to argue over the lady. Both begin with very smart, regal auras, straightening ties, holding hand behind back as he walks. The englishman's movements quickly become very rushed and jerky as he begins to get jealous and try to fight back against the frenchman's superior charm. The frenchman never quite matches his level of speed, always staying the more calm of the two, with slower movements with larger arcs. Little things like the frenchman being able to realign his own moustache without touching it add to the humor of the story as well as the character depth.
What seems to interest me most about this animation is the differences and similarities in the two main characters. They are both lords of some wealth and power, and both desire the affection of the breasty lady, yet their designs and personalities are different enough for them to stand alone.
As an excercise, here is a list of unique traits that belong to each character:
Sir Dingleberry
Skinny - design, pointy
Fumbles - says the wrong words, corrects himself
Polite - kisses hand
Smart - attire, straightens tie, Dull - colours
Childish - insults nationality and mother
Jumpy - moves quickly, hardly any inbetweens
Weak - fails to remove his glove first time, is surprised
Irritated - Has a growl to himself
Language - simple, to the point, posh
Unable to come up with comebacks
Neat - wipes mouth after tea
Marquee de Manstrumpet
Built - design, rounded
Charismatic - spins chair, invites
Flashy - colours of attire
Smooth - moves in arcs, slowly, carefully
Persuasive - continues to woo lady ignoring insults for a while, eyes on her
Calm - watches as the glove is removed, barely winces at the slap
Proud - only begins to care when he notices that his moustache is affected
Language - suave, illustrated words, talks to his dog
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