Unpredictable Villains

Visual literacy is associating visual elements to interpret certain meanings, which we unconsciously pick up and use on day to day basis. Two of the most used elements of visual literacy in animation are colours and forms.  Both of them are used to represent the role of character so that we can easily distinguish the protagonists and the antagonists in many Disney's classical cartoon animations. For example, we will immediately know that Ursula from Little Mermaid and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians are villains from their purplish skin tone and menacing facial features because that is how we stereotype villains. 

Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1990) Walt Disney Feature Animation, United States.

Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians (1961) Walt Disney Feature Animation, United States.

However, producers have recently used an unconventional approach to portray their villains in the recent Disney Animation feature films. Instead of using the classic depiction of villains as mentioned above, they choose to blend the villain in with the rest of the character and expose them at some point of the story. Some examples are King Candy from Wreck It Ralph and Prince Hans from Frozen. This plot twisting technique does not involve the principles of visual literacy yet it worked really well and brought out the realistic side of the story.

King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph (1931) by Walt Disney Animation Studios, United States.

Prince Hans from Frozen (2013) by Walt Disney Animation Studios, United States.