... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
... heebie jeebies, anyone ?
Published on August 18, 2004 By mignuna In Entertainment

The 'Uncanny Valley' is not a physical place, but a confusing emotional state entered by people who see on-screen overly-humanlike computer generated or animated characters in life-threatening situations.

When creatures possessed of ‘human features’, (such as the taking fish ‘Nemo’ or the computer-generated figures in 'The Polar Express') become disturbingly real, audiences over-identify with their plight during action scenes.

The term was coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, who noticed that the more human-like a creature behaves, the more positive feelings are generated in the human viewer.

Yet there arrives a point when it all becomes a bit too lifelike, and the responses take an uncomfortable nosedive into what is known as ‘The Uncanny Valley’.

The reason for the discomfort is that your brain believes it is seeing a human figure and focuses only on the minor differences, and not the remarkable similarities. If you take away those differences, you have 'The Uncanny Valley'.

The phenomenon also extends to clowns, zombies and corpses of any kind. "The Uncanny Valley is a bad place to be", an animator was quoted as saying in The L.A Times last year during a piece on audiences getting the ‘heebie jeebies’ over on-screen characters.



Comments
on Aug 18, 2004
I seem to remember reading something about this in reference to Shrek. When they were making the first movie the animation was so life like audiences were responding unfavourably. As such they had to make the characters more cartoonish!

on Aug 18, 2004
audiences were responding unfavourably. As such they had to make the characters more cartoonish!


isn't it bizarre, suz ?. i found it enthralling (i'm so boring !) lol.

thanks for your comment

vanessa/mig XX
on Aug 18, 2004
That is so interesting! So what happens with these men that 'fancy' these cartoon ladies???? I liked shrek....maybe I'm just to pretty to relate badly to him, hehe! Great article Mumsy xxx
on Aug 18, 2004
So what happens with these men that 'fancy' these cartoon ladies????


sal, this may work in the reverse somehow ? or something ? hehe

I liked shrek....maybe I'm just to pretty to relate badly to him,


well, of course you are, my word you are !

Great article Mumsy


thankyou, treasure !

mumsy XXX
on Nov 23, 2004
Great article! I don't like puppets (the Team America ones) for this reason. It freaks me out -- they look so real as though they are human but yet they are made of wood. I can't even look at the movie poster or I'll get traumatized.

However, when I saw "The Incredibles," the animation still had a cartoonish quality but yet made the characters larger than life. However, the animation for Polar Express is just freaky. They are meant to look like the illustrations in the book, however, the movements are jerky and it's just plain weird.
on Nov 24, 2004

thanks so much dusk. i'm in here doing the dreaded spam-cleaning, and it's such a pleasure to find a genuine comment. thankyou for reading - polar express hasn't even been released in australia yet !

vanessa/mig XXX