Rationale

The most popular interpretation for the rhyme ‘Ring o’ Roses’ is the black plague interpretation – The roses being the rash that came from the disease, the posies resembling the herbs used to ward off the disease, A tishoo! Representing the sneezing and we all fall down resembling death. I think this interpretation is very believable and I personally believe it.

My interpretation of the rhyme shows a story of bullying. The character Rosie is the bully who sees the innocent Sunny swinging on the swing that Rosie wants to swing on. (Rosie represents the plague and sunny is the victim of the plague)

Rosie tries to bully sunny off the swing, but sunny uses her inhaler to try and protect her self. (The inhaler represents the herbs that ward off the plague).

This makes Rosie angrier and he bullies Sunny more. Sunny uses her stronger inhaler to fight off Rosie and this time it works.

In the original interpretation, the plague takes over and kills people, but in my interpretation, the plague (Rosie) loses the battle. I did this because my animation is aimed to tell younger children that bullying is not okay, and to show them not back down.

I tried to use the music as a tool to help portray the characters feelings/ emotions.

I chose to do a hand drawn styled animation and font to make it appeal to a younger audience. I also used a bright colour palette to keep the attention of a younger viewer. I got the animation and aesthetic style and character style from the popular children’s cartoon, Dora the Explorer

Font

This is the hand drawn font I am going to use in my animation.

Final Background

I made some changes to my background because i felt it was too bright and the characters didnt stand out as much as i would like them to so i made it a bit simpler and faded it a little bit.

Test of swinging

This was a test for making sunny swing. It didnt really work out haha. I need help!

Animatic

My animatic. Very simple and has no sound but is just an indication of timing

FINAL storyboard

I Changed the ending so that sunny ends up winning with the help from his inhalers that his mum packed and so the message is that bullying is not okay.

My Characters

                         

Create...

For my animation i will have to create:

- The back view of Rosie
- The back view of Sunny
- The butterfly prop
- The  blowing posies

Some fonts I could possibly use

This font could be used for the happy, chirpier moments of the animation like 'A Tishoo! A Tishoo!'

These two fonts could be used for the darker parts of the animation like 'Ring o ring of roses' or 'we all fall down'

Incorporating text idea

My Background

This is my background I have created for my animation. 

These are some screen shots from the dora the explorer clip I posted earlier to show where i got inspiration from. 

Colour Palettes

Some colour palettes I have created on COLOURlovers for my two characters and the two moods i want - good sunny chirpy day and a grey gloomy dark day.

More character movement.

This flower animation is cool and i like how the flower flows but i think it could be too 3D for my animation i would like to stick to more of a 2D look.

Character Movement

I like the way this flower moves to show different feelings and emotions. this is basically how i want my flowers to move. I also like the way they have made the clouds roll over and darken to change to mood - could be useful for a couple of my scenes.

Some Direction..

Here are some pictures I have collected off Google to help give me direction as to how my characters should kind of look.

Background

I like the style of the characters and background of this animation. I also really like the colours of the background. I think this is the style of background I would like to use.

Mickey Mouse And Winnie The Pooh

The two characters i really like the style of

My Finalised Story Board... I hope

Disney...

Here are a couple of pages I have scanned out of a Walt Disney book that show some character styles I could draw my characters like.

Inspiration from Disney - Winnie the Pooh

I Like the style that Winnie the Pooh is drawn in

In this animation i like the use of the animated book telling the story. This could help me incorporate the text of the poem.

Inspiration - Backgrounds

I have found some animations on you tube that have some cool background styles that I could incorporate into my animation.

I really like the background of the outside of the house in this goldilocks animation. Since my setting is outside I could create something like it for my animation.

I really like the simple background in the first part on the animation and I like how it uses different shades of one colour. This could be a style of background I use in my animation.

I also really like the style of background in this animation but it could be a little hard for me to do.

Improved Story Outline

I have re-thought my story and changed it around a bit still using the same two characters but also adding in another character 'Sunny' the sunflower to try and relate my re-interpretation to the black plague interpretation of the rhyme Ring 'o' Roses. 

Three characters could be a bit much to animate in the short amount of time so I may combine Posie and sunny so that there are posies in sunny's pot.

Story outline using new sunny and no Posie so it is easier to animate.

More Interpretation...

Sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_a_Ring_o'_Roses

Ring 'o' Roses interpretation

Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

It all seemed to me just a rhyme , until I watched season finale of C.S.I Miami Season 8 , It is tempting, of course, to see a plague as the source of the rhyme . As said , the history lies in every corner , in classic poems , in many forms….

The interpretation goes somehow in this way : The “roses” could plausibly refer to the rash that always accompanies the disease, the “posies” to herbs and spices used to sweeten the air, while “a-tishoo” would represent the sneezing, and “we all fall down” would imply inevitable death. A related conjecture would have it that the “ring” referred to the red spot that marked the onset of the disease.

The line “Ashes, Ashes” in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims’ houses, or blackening of their skin, and the theory has been adapted to be applied to other versions of the rhyme.

Once the disease took a hold it spread with frightening speed. Those who could, the wealthy, left London for the comparative safety of the countryside. No such option existed for those who lived in the slums. In fact, militiamen were paid by the city’s council to guard the parish boundaries of the area they lived in and to let no one out unless they had a certificate to leave from their local parish leader. Very few of these certificates were issued.

Cures for the plague were pointless but sought after if someone had the money to pay for them. Nathaniel Hodges believed that sweating out the disease was a sound approach and he encouraged those victims he came across to burn anything they could to create heat and smoke. In view of the fact that Londoners lived in wooden houses then, this was not particularly sound advice even from a proper doctor. However, many were desperate to try anything.

The end of the plague as a major killer only occurred with the Great Fire Of  London – the city’s second tragedy in two years. The fire devastated the filthy city areas where rats had prospered. The rebuilt London was more spacious and open. Never again was the city going to be affected so badly by this disease.

Altogether there are also many folklore scholars which do not agree the link between the rhyme & the Great plague , so i want comment on that , but to me this interpretation seems quite convincing , but it might happen to be a coincidence that it got all match with the words.

Sourced from http://iiteeeestudents.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/ring-a-ring-oroses-more-than-just-a-nursery-rhyme/

Potential Backgrounds