I think I got a bit carried away with writing my revised short story. It's more of a mini novel. It's going to run over the time allowed so I guess I'll have to rewrite it but at least it's a start. The next few paragraphs are a bit of background info on how I got the idea, or at least how I transferred the first story to another setting.

Over the years I’ve watched countless wildlife documentaries, many of which have been about lions in Africa. It’s a subject I feel I know enough about to base my animation short story on. Obviously I know a lot about people too, having been one myself for a number of years, but I want to take the gist of my present story away from it’s human setting. Our original short stories tended to concern humans as we were given phrases to use which mainly apply to human activity. Naturally a story could be twisted slightly to apply it to animals, or maybe inanimate objects, which might lead to a more interesting animation. My previous story was based on a one time champion wrestler who fades into obscurity. Old and alone, and by now wheelchair bound, he takes it upon himself to watch over the kids as they arrive and leave from the school next door to his house. This activity doesn’t go unnoticed and he earns himself a reputation as a creepy old weirdo. Imagining the kids to be under attack from a wild bear, he rushes to their defence, only to suffer a fatal heart attack from the exertion. Only then is it discovered that he was the champion wrestler. Famed not only for his skill, but also his kindness and generosity. Hopefully the reader/ viewer initially feels sympathy for him. Old, weak, an neglected by society. Then possibly suspicion, at his apparent spying on the kids. And finally anger, at the way he was automatically misjudged by people, who perhaps should have shown concern for his generations wellbeing. Again there may be sympathy for him at the end as he dies, trying to do a good deed, though nobody else knew it. We’re drawn to the fact of how alone he is by the closing scene which shows his daily newspaper landing on the front porch (the newsagent unaware of his passing) and as the camera pans inside the house (front door still open) and we realise that his radio is still on, announcing his death. So I’m rewriting this tale but applying the old man’s situation to an old lion.

 Lions certainly have a tough life, especially the males. I know it might seem the opposite if you’ve watched them too. They lounge around all day, mostly sleeping, and then when the lionesses make a kill, they step in and literally take ‘the lions share’. But they have a tough life where only the strongest survive. They are in constant danger from the day they’re born. For instance when young males mature, they leave their pride and go in search of lionesses to make a new pride of their own. If they successfully defeat the existing pride leader, they will then kill all it’s male offspring, so that it’s bloodline will be finished. The new leader, or leaders, as brothers often form an alliance (strength in numbers), will then take over the prides lionesses as their own. The threat from attack by other lions is constant throughout any males life, and only his courage and strength will ensure his survival. Naturally all lions that live long enough will grow old and weaker. Any position of authority they might have will eventually be lost to a younger, stronger lion and they become outcasts of the pride. When mature, all members of the pride need to contribute to its survival. If any member becomes a burden they naturally weaken it and so get driven away. Left to fend for themselves old lions survive for a while on small game and scraps from other animals kills. Eventually they grow weaker and unable to hunt and eat, and they starve to death. It may sound cruel but it’s survival of the fittest in the animal world. Anyway I think the gradual decline of the wrestler character in my previous story can be applied to a male lion for this version. Also there is little dialogue in the previous story and I think I might be able to add some to this version, maybe inject a bit of humour. The very notion of animals talking is a useful tool for animation, something that I’d like to exploit.

 lions go almost unchallenged on the African grassland with one main exception, the water buffalo. Lions do attempt to attack their calves or older, weaker buffalo on occasion, but the buffalo gather in a protective circle around their young, which is usually impenetrable. The larger bulls will then retaliate and chase away the lions. In fact it’s not uncommon for them to injure and then kill full grown lionesses. If the lion cubs are unfortunate enough to be close by, the buffalo will hunt them down and kill them. This must be some natural instinctive behaviour. As my main character will carry out some heroic deed – saving the cubs from danger – I might use a water buffalo as the threat.

The setting for this short is the savannah grassland of Africa’s central plains.

As is customary among the pride, the young lionesses are in charge of the cubs, while the older lionesses go off to hunt. There are three of them and they have something of a rival in that a very old male, who has taken to watching over the cubs also. He doesn’t watch alongside the lionesses though, preferring to stay hidden in the long grass. He is under the impression that the lionesses don’t know he’s there, as it would be quite embarrassing for a male lion to be ‘babysitting’. This fact can be introduced during their conversation about his presence. Their conversation can also be used to indicate that the old lion has been doing this for regularly. They wouldn’t normally tolerate the presence of a male lion near the cubs, as babysitting the cubs is strictly the role of the young lionesses only.

(I saw a good visual that could be useful on an animated serial called ‘Adventuretime’ recently. The main character, who’s called Finn, and his best friend Jake, a dog that speaks and can change shape at will, are in a girls bedroom. She’s a short-tempered vampire teenager and a friend of theirs. They’re not supposed to be there and are trying to sneak out while she’s asleep. As they make their way towards the door the dog gets bitten on his forehead by a spider. He mimes a loud scream of pain, mouth open wide and body shaking, yet doesn’t make any sound. I’m sure I could use a similar visual in this short)

Another thing I’ve just thought of is that one of the young lionesses could say that the old lion may be of some help should they need him, and her companion could ask what’s he gonna do? Suck dem to death (he’s got no teeth left). The pigeon English used by Africans and west Indians who’ve settled in Western Europe could make a good accent for the animals. Or better still, I remember a movie called ‘Coming to America’, I think, starring Eddie Murphy. Murphy plays the part of an African who visits America for the first time and is amazed by everything he sees. It’s a long time since I’ve seen the film but I do remember his accent in it, and it would be perfect for the characters in this animation.

The story begins with the old lion crawling on his belly through the long grass that surrounds a clearing where the cubs are with the young lionesses, their babysitters, keeping an eye on them. I’ll call him Leroy, for now, as it’s a bit like Leo and is a common enough name amongst male African immigrants. He’s making his way to a spot where he too can watch over them, without being seen by the babysitters. As usual they spot him straight away and start discussing him. Unaware that they can see him, he believes that he can do a better job of protecting the cubs and has made this his daily objective. His inability to be quiet can be highlighted here by things like twigs cracking loudly as he crawls over them, him leaning on a big thorn. His bodily noises could also be used to indicate his presence i.e. grumbling stomach and fart sounds.

There are three young lionesses babysitting the cubs. They are lying together under the shade of a tree while the cubs play nearby. Their names are Molanni, Sinda and Nimbey. Molanni is chubby, deep voiced and short tempered. Sinda is gangly and fretful, with a high pitched/ squeaky voice and Nimbey is the sensible one. Softly spoken and laid back.

THE OLDEST LION IN AFRICA

The cubs gathered around the old lion, anxious for him to start his story. ‘There was a time, long ago, when an old lion like me wouldn’t have been allowed to remain with the pride. Back then, when you got old, you were considered a burden. When this time came you got driven away and had to fend for yourself. No one lasted more than a few weeks on their own. That’s just the way things were back then. That is until a very special lion came along. His name was Leroy….Leroy brown’.

 The crack of a dry twig cracking alerted them to his presence. The girls turned towards the sound. They’d been expecting him….again. ‘Tut, tut, tut, ; I don’t know why dat ol’ fool haff to come here ebery day?’ said Molanni to the others. ‘Hush,’ said Nimbey,’you’ll wake de babies’. ‘Iss true tho’ said the third girl, Sinda,’ he’s goin to get someone killed the way he carryin on’. ‘ Dass right’ replied molanni,’ he make more noise dan a whole bull elephant’. ‘ Oh let him be’ said Nimbey calmly, ‘ maybe he be useful sum day if we need some help’. ‘Help?....Help?’ molanni was getting annoyed, ‘what help he gonna be? He aint got no strent, no roar, no claws an no teeth, what him gonna do? Suck sometin to death’.

They were talking about their daily visitor, Leroy. Leroy was an old lion, and exactly like Molanni had described him. Thinning grey mane, almost toothless, going deaf and with failing eyesight he had indeed grown weak, having been reduced to surviving on leftover scraps after the others had finished eating. He got so little meat these days that he’s started eating berries from the local Beeno tree’s. Just to add to his problems the Beeno berries are renowned for causing wind, but they’re very nutritional so he can live with that.

As for the girls, well, they’re actually young lionesses. They’d be the equivalent of teenagers, which is why they get the job of babysitting the cubs, while the mature lionesses go off to hunt. They look after two litters, the most recent being ‘the babies’, and last year’s babies, ‘the toddlers’ which are more of a handful. Luckily the babies spend most of their time sleeping, but the toddlers are more adventurous, tending to explore and climb and more worryingly, disappear from sight.

As Leroy was no longer a useful member of the pride he knew his time with them was running out. Natural selection dictated that you had to earn your place, or leave. His presence was only barely tolerated, due to the fact that he was the pride’s leader for many years, but he knew that soon he would be driven away, left to fend for himself. He figured that by watching over the cubs each day, he was making some sort of contribution to the pride, and therefore earning his keep. The trouble was that male lions didn’t, under any circumstances, babysit. If the other lions found out he’d be a laughing stock, and definitely driven out for such odd behaviour. So he had to watch in secret, hiding in the long grass each day, hoping for a chance to prove his worth.

Of course the girls knew what he was doing. He was growing deaf and hadn’t realised the amount of noise he made as he crawled around. They pretended not to notice him though, as they knew how embarrassing it would be for him, plus it was comforting to have a grown up around, just in case. They also agreed not to tell the others, it could be their little secret.

Leroy was finding more difficult each day to get close enough to the cubs without being seen or heard. He knew he occasionally broke the odd twig. He often wondered why the girls never heard them breaking, he hoped they weren’t going deaf. They wouldn’t be very good guardians if they had trouble hearing. On this particular day he was having a few problems while trying to get closer. He’d just snapped a fourth twig, luckily they’d gone unnoticed. Then, he’d leaned on a long thorn which caused him to leap in pain, and took all of his willpower not to scream in agony. And now, thanks to his poor eyesight, he’s managed to lie on some fresh elephant dung. After crawling another few yards Leroy settles down in a good spot. He sees that the babies are still asleep, that’s good he thought, they can be very noisy. He also sees that Sinda is drawing something in the sand with a stick. It’s a water buffalo, perhaps the only real threat to lions here on the plains. She must be giving the toddlers a lesson. Leroy’s stomach starts to rumble. There had been no leftovers for him last night and he’d had to fill up on Beeno berries.

It wasn’t long before the tranquillity of the group was disturbed by a loud, rasping fart.

‘Oh for de Lion King’s sake’ said Molanni, ‘are you not embarrassed that your grandfather behaves dis way Nimbey?’ ‘I am not embarrassed Molanni, he is old, that is what old lions do, you will be the same too when you get old. Antway, why don’t you have a word with him, he’s your grandfather too’. Molanni blushed at this reminder while Simba started to laugh. ‘And yours’, said Nimbey. Simba stopped and looked embarrassed too.

Another loud fart ripped through the air.

See?, diss is what I mean’, Molanni is getting on her high horse again. ‘What we gonna do when sometin happen to de cubs an we’re all passed out from de stink? Nimbey laughs quietly, ‘Oh stop it Molanni, you are forgetting easily what a great leader Leroy was. Most of us wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for him’. ‘And we won’t be here much longer if he keeps doing dat’ replied Molanni, ‘I just wish he would do what all de odder old lions do, and go off by himself and die’. ‘Dat’s right’ said Simba joining in, ‘he is being most selfish by staying here wid us and living’. Nimbey rolled her eyes in despair.

Meanwhile, in the long grass, Leroy is experiencing another problem…. ants. He had taken up position lying on the entrance to their nest, and they had been gradually crawling over his body. Now they were starting to bite. He started to crawl backwards until he felt the rough, jagged rocks he’d passed earlier. He began to rub his hindquarters against the rocks to relieve the itching caused by the bites. He really needed to scratch himself against a tree. He backed up again, knowing there was a small copse further back. Feeling the tree at last, he began grinding his buttocks against it. A thunderous gush of hot air from above his head almost knocked him over. He slowly raised his head to see where it came from, only to be faced with a giant, upside-down, buffalo’s face. He looked back at his tail end and realised he’d been rubbing himself against the leg of the biggest water buffalo he’d ever seen. This was not good. Lions and water buffalo don’t get along at the best of times, so rubbing your buttocks against their legs is probably a bad idea. Leroy quickly swung around and backed up a little, smiling sheepishly. ‘Er, hi’ he said, ‘I suppose your wondering what I was doing back there?’ ‘Amaze me’ boomed the water buffalo, as he stared at Leroy menacingly. ‘It’s juss dat I thought you were a tree’, said Leroy, still smiling. ‘And you go around rubbing your buttocks against trees?’ the buffalo asked, ‘Yes, yes…I mean no, only when it’s itchy’ Leroy was starting to get flustered, ‘I mean I rub all of me against trees….when I’m itchy, and I would have rubbed all of me against you only….no, that’s not coming out right’. ‘Wait a minute’ said the buffalo, ‘don’t I know you?’ ‘No I don’t believe I’ve had de pleasure’, replied Leroy. ‘Now I remember’ said the buffalo, ‘Leroy brown – the baddest cat in the whole darn Serengeti plains, You probably don’t remember me do you? After all I was only a little calf when we met. I seem to remember you carrying me….in your JAWS. Planning to have me for dinner where you?’ ‘No, no, no, no’ said Leroy ‘you must have misunderstood, I was carrying you to safety, what with all them lions attacking your herd’. ‘Hmmm, it looks to me like the tables have turned Leroy brown. This time the herd will be attacking your little lions.’ Leroy noticed more buffalo shuffling up behind the big bull. His stomach rumbled loudly. ‘Nervous Leroy?’ said the bull, ‘your pathetic, a has been, I’m not even going to waste my energy killing you’. ‘That’s very good of you’ said Leroy ‘and if you spare those harmless little cubs, I can guarantee that your herd will never again be harmed by any members of this pride’. ‘Leroy’, said the bull, ‘we both know that’s never going to happen. It’s my natural instinct to kill those cubs, and their babysitters. I don’t really want to, they’re just so cute, but I can’t help myself. At least I won’t be killing you. No…. I’ll leave that to my little girl’, at which point he called to his daughter. ‘CLARISSA’ he yelled. Leroy looked past the bull to see his daughter, Clarissa. Though not yet fully grown, she was almost as big as the bull, and twice as ugly. ‘CLARISSA, I promised you your first lion kill today and you can start with this old fart’.

Leroy called out to the girls, urging them and the cubs to run. Then an idea struck him. Old fart? he thought, that’s it. His stomach was rolling around with pressure by now and he sprang into action. He dived at the big bulls right horn and swung his body around its head, landing perfectly with his buttocks squarely over the bulls mouth. Holding on with his front paws on the bulls horns he strained with every muscle and tendon until his heart nearly burst. Finally the pressure inside his bowels erupted and the big bull started to shake, as his body filled with nauseous gases. Without hesitating he extended his one remaining nail, swung his body underneath the bull and stabbed the nail as deep as he could into it’s stomach. The Beeno berries gas had a chemical reaction with the bulls own gastric gas expanding each of it’s four stomach’s to bursting point. The sudden rush of air from the puncture wound to it’s first stomach caused each stomach to explode almost simultaneously. The big bull burst apart, body parts flying in all directions. Clarissa and the other buffalo, fearing for their lives, turned on their hooves and fled. Leroy, along with many chunks of buffalo, was propelled back towards the girls and cubs. He landed in the clearing where the cubs had been playing, and lay there motionless, in a heap of blood and guts.

The girls and the cubs had been hiding under the trees and made their way slowly to where Leroy lay. ‘Ohh grandad’ sobbed Molanni, ‘you sacrificed yourself for us you silly old brave fool’. Nimbey and Simba were trying to hold the cubs back, along with their own tears. ‘Poor grandad’ said Nimbey, ‘I knew he’d save us one day’. Simba just burst into tears. The babies didn’t know what was going on, though they were frightened by the big bang. The toddlers, on the other hand, were more curious and rushed over to Leroy’s body. The girls began nudging him with their noses, looking for some kind of reaction. The cubs wondered if he might be their next meal and started licking the blood and entrails stuck to his fur. Leroy couldn’t contain the laughter any longer, their tongues really tickled. He roared with laughter, ‘I did it!’ he yelled, ‘did you see? ‘Grandad, your alive’, Nimbeys tears turned into a wide grin. The others stopped crying and started smiling too. ‘I’m sorry for teasing’ said Leroy, ‘I wondered if you’d be sad if I died and I’m glad that you were, but I’m afraid you might be stuck with me for a while longer’. ‘Grandad!’, Nimbey had just realised something, ‘when we tell the others how you saved us, they will want you to stay with us every day from now on’. ‘Of course’, said Molanni, ‘if you have a useful role it means you can stay’. They all cheered and hugged Leroy.

THE END

O.k. I know it’s a bit long, and the ending isn’t great, but it’s something to work from.

        A very quickly drawn idea for the visual.I should have a more polished version for the next post.

Some of the contextual research that has influences my choice to try a stop-motion style for my animation short. I will also be experimenting with hand-drawn animation, as I haven't tried this yet, just in case there are studio space issues with the scale involved in stop-motion.

I haven't seen this movie in a long time but Murphy does a great African accent in it, ideal for the characters in my short.

I had to google some images for waterbuffalo as I wasn't 100% sure if I had the drawing right. It turns out that I wasn't that far off.

It's actually hard enough to find images of old lions, I guess most of them don't get to live long enough. They aren't really like I expected them to be. I thought there might be some grey hair at least.

I remember Aardman studios making a series of shorts years ago for television adverts. They recorded conversations of people and applied them to animated animal characters. They are very entertaining because you immediately associate the animals with the voices, i.e. you overlook the fact that they're animated animals, probably because it's real people talking, as opposed to actors.

The second image gives an indication of the scale required in this stop-motion technique. The work of Nick Park and those at Aardman have been a big influence on me and my interest in making a stop-motion animation short.

  

Illustrations by great artists such as Walter Crane and Gustave Dore were used, before the invention of the camera, to described a story in a similar way to comic books and graphic novels of the twentieth century

A preliminary drawing for Jason and the Argonaunts by Ray Harryhausen

 Animation still of a rocket landing on the moon shows how inventive the early animation pioneers had to be

Edward Muybridge's photographical studies of motion are a valuable reference source.

The character of Gromit (Wallace and gromit) required a sophisticated armature. My animal characters will also need armatures, but they will have to be a bit simpler i.e. cheaper.

The physical scale of the characters and sets for some of the stop-motion animation is something that needs to be considered at an early stage. The bigger a characters head is, the easier it is to model different expressions etc. but then everything else has to be scaled up in relation to the character so I guess keeping them simple is the best route to start with.

A multi-jointed human armature

Image showing how the armature fits inside the character

Armatures for human and animal (dog) characters

Simple armature used by Aardman studios for the movie Shaun the sheep.

 

Large scale set created by designers at Aardman studios. The foreground, mid ground and background areas are separated to allow the animators easy access.