Market Research

In order to assess what most strongly evokes an emotional response from animation and film, I conducted a public survey on a holistic range of people asking a variety of questions on the subject. I felt this would help me to better understand why different people can feel moved by emotional events in fictitious circumstances, and also to help me develop a storyline accordingly.

The first question I asked, past gender and age, was 'do you often feel effected by emotional scenes in films?' The results show that 89% replied with either 'occasionally', 'often', and 'very often', with only 11% answering with 'rarely'. Despite several people describing in later questions that they do not feel very emotional towards films, it was reassuring to see that no one replied with 'never', and that the majority of people despite age or gender still feel emotionally attached to movies.

In questions four,  five, and six, I asked about movies that are able to bring people to tears. Crying is one of the strongest human reactions a person can have towards a situation, and is therefore a good measure of a strong emotional response. 55% answered with occasionally or above, which I found to be a surprising majority, considering the strength of connection a person must feel to be moved to tears by a story that ultimately has no correlation with their own lives. In question five I asked people to list the movies that made them cry, and in question six I asked them to name the number one film that had the largest emotional impact upon them. The most frequently recurring movies were: 'Up', 'Dumbo', 'Toy Story 3', and 'Grave of the Fireflies'; all of which are animated movies. I was quite surprised to find this, as the majority of those interviewed were adults and therefore not the target audience of most animated movies. I was not aiming to target my animation towards children specifically, and instead feel it should have a more universal appeal, and this has reassured me that adults can still feel a strong emotional investment in cartoon characters. This is further confirmed by question 8, in which I asked 'do you believe you are more or less affected by emotional scenes in movies than when you were younger?' To which the majority voted 'mostly more' and 'more'.

In question seven, I asked the participants to describe the impact of these films with the options of 'happy', 'sad', and 'happy and sad'. 42% replied with 'sad' whilst only 3% replied with 'happy', but the majority of 55% replied with 'happy and sad'. This has confirmed my theory that bittersweet scenes, with an emphasis on the negative side, have a stronger emotional impact than just one or the other. Bittersweet endings and scenes with more than one level of emotional complexity were also frequently mentioned in my final question about reoccurring themes that evoke strong emotional responses.  This is the feeling that I hope to achieve in my own animation.

For question ten, I asked, 'Do you find it more easy to connect with a realistic character or a personified one?' The answers were fairly evenly spread, with 'neutral' taking the majority vote. Again, I was impressed to see that a personified character could weigh up against a realistic one. However, whilst a realistic character has the advantage of familiarity, I believe a personified character can have a different advantage of naivety and an appeal to an adult's inner child. This can often give the audience a desire to protect personified characters, and therefore feel strongly empathetic when something bad happens to them.