I have always been fascinated by early flight.
I have fond memories from childhood of a book my older brother used to have about early flying machines, some of which even managed to leave the ground.
So I was looking forward to the release of ‘The Aeronauts’, starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne. Because of my interest in the subject matter, the film didn’t even have to be a particularly good one, the content was enough for me. Besides, I can always find something in a movie that I enjoy, regardless of everything else.
Okay, so the film contained balloons rather than fantastically and fatally flawed flying machines, but that was close enough for me.
I also liked the idea of a large chunk of the film being set in a very confined location - a hot air balloon. Not many other films have done that - just off the top of my head, only really Locke, starring Tom Hardy, comes to mind. I won’t say too much about that particular film here, but it’s basically set in his car with him driving.
Anyway, this occasional series of Movies and Cartoons is about helping to generate ideas for cartoons.
In this article we’re going to cover
Borrowing scenes from movies
Using an idea in a different situation
Recycling previous cartoons
Borrowing scenes from movies
It was while scratching my head trying to think of other films that had featured balloons and early flight, that I recall a scene from the 1964 film ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew From London To Paris in 25 Hours and Eleven Minutes’. Bit of a long title that…
The film is set in 1910, in the early days of aviation. A Newspaper offers a prize for a cross-channel ark race which attracts flyers from all over the world.
Two of the rival aviators are Pierre Dubois played by Jean-Pierre Cassel, and. Count Manfred Von Holstein, played by Gert Frobe, who many will recognise as ‘Goldfinger’ from the James Bond movie.
The pair end up having a duel, with the rather novel duelling weapons of balloons and blunderbuses.
Dubois’ balloon ends up being shot down first, and he lands in a pond. The Count stands up in triumph at his rival’s mishap, only to to have the spike on his helmet puncture his own balloon, which results in him also descending into the pond.
That got me thinking about what else could result in a balloon being punctured, which make me think of the following cartoon:
I could have also made a list of 10 things that could puncture a balloon. Making a list is a good way to generate a bunch of ideas. The first few are usually easy, but after that you have to use your imagination to come up with some more interesting and unusual possibilities.
Anyway, this is a good example of how you can take a scene from a movie and then swap out a character or element. You can do with scenes from books, even advertisements
Before movie on from ‘Those Magnificent Men…”, the film also features a wonderful animated sequence accompanying the opening credits, featuring the work of cartoonist Ronald Seattle.
Using an idea in a different situation
Another technique is to take an idea from a movie and then apply it to a completely different situation.
So this got me thinking how balloons might be useful as a means of transport, or how they might help people to get into awkward to reach spots.
Gerald popped up again, this time using balloons to help him to reach a particularly appetising and hard to snaffle flower. I wonder if the balloons survived the trip?
Recycling previous cartoons
I’m a huge fan of recycling previous cartoons and seeing if I can come up with any new ideas based on them.
While looking over some old cartoons, I came across a series of ‘tortoise and hare’ ones I’d drawn a couple of years ago.It made me think about taking the race up into the skies, and so added balloons to the characters and off they went!
Here’s what we covered in this article:
Borrowing scenes from movies
Using an idea in a different situation
Recycling previous cartoons
Back to earth
We drifted off somewhat from the film we started out with, which was kind of appropriate seeing that balloons have a habit of doing that and you’ve just got to see where you end up.
I hope that you’ve ended up with a few techniques you can use to generate some more ideas for your own cartoons.
I couldn’t resist also throwing in one more cartoon, with a nod to Tom and Jerry…
What’s next
I’m currently putting together the ‘Storytelling for Cartoon Strips Course’. If you add your name and mail to the orange box below, I’ll add your name to the Cartoon Newsletter, and also keep you posted of the course as it takes shape.
