A documentary animation series that I find very inspiring, is Viceland’s Party Legends. One of the videos from this series that I found particularly interesting was “Margaret Cho in ‘Going Down to Anna Nicole Smith’s’.” Party Legends are videos in which a celebrity tells a funny story from a party they went to, and an illustrator animates over it to enhance the story. This specific story is about Margaret Cho going to a party at Anna Nicole Smith’s house, getting drunk, and making out with Anna Nicole Smith.
The audio recording of Margaret Cho telling the story is played over the animation, as well as additional sound effects going along with movements; for example, a car starting up. Cho’s imitations of the other people in the story an what they said at the time are matched by their animated selves lip synching the words. The signs within this animation are primarily iconic and symbolic, for the people and things within the story are represented accurately, as well as being bizarrely exaggerated or altered. The animation includes cycles, line wiggles, still images, and warps. Stylistically, this animation is very colorful and simplistic, while also being humorously strange.
Telling this story through animation was a lot better than doing a live action recreation because it perfectly captures the absurdity of the situation. Also, even though the story was bizarre, without the crazy animations over it, it really wouldn’t have given off the right amount of humor or craziness if it were live action. Additionally, animation is arguably the best way to capture a character’s perspective reality under the influence of drugs or alcohol; where as, live action can’t properly embody this mind set.
