Major Post 14- A Da and UPA

Posted on by Sydney McPherson
Figure 1: Super Soap by A Da

In class we talked about Chinese animator A Da, who created funny and ironic narratives in his animations. He created Super Soap in 1986. The animation features characters that have thin black outlines and bright colors on their clothes. They are all placed on a simplistic, gray background and the buildings and environment are very minimal too (fig. 1). It is interesting to see A Da use the flat color style as the topic for Super Soap as all the characters no long want to be bright and unique once they see that the soap can make their clothes white. It is kind of a comment on how in society, people will follow the bandwagon when there is a new trend and then move onto the next trend, like at the end, when the man creates “Super Color”.

Figure 2: Rooty Toot Toot by UPA

A Da was inspired by the simplistic designs that UPA used in its animations. A good example of this is Rooty Toot Toot. UPA used the same thin black outlines and bright colors for its characters and used a simple brown background (fig. 2). The environment is drawn only with lines and tends to blend into the background.

Another small thing I noticed in A Da’s work was the use of the same character in two different animations. In Super Soap and The New Doorbell, a little girl wearing a pink pinafore appears! (fig. 3 and 4)

  • Figure 3: Super Soap by A Da
  • Figure 4: The New Doorbell by A Da

Super Soap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-N8aBYY7g

The New Doorbell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ4TF6JLrx0

Rooty Toot Toot https://vimeo.com/121033862

Sydney McPherson