Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Overview:
Beauty and the Beast is a romantic fantasy musical produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Animated in the traditional hand-drawn style, the film is an adaptation of the old French fairy tale “La Belle et le Bête,” and is considered part of the “Renaissance” era of Disney’s films. The story goes that a prince is transformed by a magical spell into a monstrous beast as punishment for his arrogance, a spell that can only be broken once he learns to love and be loved in return. Terrified by his form, the beast locks himself away in his castle, away from the outside world. Until a peculiar woman from the village named Belle stumbles upon his castle after he imprisons her father. Belle takes her father’s place in the castle, and she and the beast begin to fall in love over time, facing many deadly threats, until he is finally changed back into a man. He and Belle are then married, and the enchanted castle servants return to normal as well.
The film opens on a long shot of a forest, almost surreal in the way it is illustrated like a painting, filled with bursting colors and fine, pristine, detail. The shining beauty in these details is emphasized by the art style. A mystical forest is a conventional setting seen in countless other films in the genre, and this first image establishes the fictional fantasy world in which the story begins — one that is not like our own in its overwhelming magnificence. This artistic animation style persists throughout the entire movie, but it is especially striking in the opening. The shoot then zooms in on the Beast’s castle in the distance, introducing a key location in the film. Every single transition to the next shot uses a slow fade-in, adding to the mystical feeling in the scene.
The music heard in this scene is grand, dramatic, and elegant, doing a lot to pull the viewer in with powerful and emotional sound, and establish the tone as mysterious and magical yet also somber and suspenseful. Exquisite orchestral scores are a common convention in fantasies in order to reflect the large-scale storylines they typically follow.
Much of Beauty and the Beast’s opening is dedicated to setting up the backstory and character of the Beast, and other important story information such as the magical rose and the curse placed upon the arrogant prince. It uses intricate illustrations in stained glass windows on the enchanted castle to provide this information, which both serves as a creative and unique method of visually telling the story that took place in the past and also reinforces the opulent and artistic tone of the film. This alternative style, which is drawn in an ornate and slightly abstract way with polished curved lines and sharp edges, creates a disconnect between this story from the past and the current world that the narrative takes place in when it transitions back to the present, where the Beast is ripping up the portrait depicting his human form. This aggressive act captures the bitterness and anger inside of him.
The beautiful stained glass illustrations are assisted by a voice-over narrating the Beast’s story using complex words. This narrator’s deep, elegant, and refined accent as well as the complex and meaningful language which he uses to describe the situation builds upon the mystique, the intensity, and the impact the sequence leaves on the audience. It is a key element of the opening, providing essential context for the film through narration such as the Beast’s selfishness and lack of love being the cause for his punishment — information that also sets up a change in his character later in the film. It explains the meaning behind the enchantment and the function of his rose. The implementation of expository voiceover is yet another recognizable convention of the fantasy genre.
When the scene fades away to show the Beast in present day, the bright color scheme changes to become much darker, highlighting and the grim atmosphere that the opening adopts at the end and how the character has fallen from grace. The camera pans away from the his fit of rage to present the magic rose. The shot lingers on the dying flower for several moments, emphasizing its importance to the plot. It seems that it is hopeless for the Beast to break the enchantment, especially after the final line of the voiceover. The last moments of this opening are incredibly gloomy and despondent, with a conclusive zoom-out from the castle which is now surrounded by a grey thunderstorm in the background. These elements accentuate the dark depressive tone that replaces the beautiful wondrous tone from before.
The primary purpose of this opening is to explain the Beast’s tragic history and his terrible actions to the audience, information that is very important considering how the rest of this movie unfolds. It sets up the stakes of the story, that being the Beast and his servants remaining cursed forever, as well as the internal conflict that he must grapple with, overcoming his anger and hatred. Even so, this opening establishes the tone and genre very well as fantastical elements are placed in the Beast’s backstory. Beautiful enchantresses, castles, magic spells, and surreal forests are things that cannot be found anywhere else but in a fantasy. The tone is also very typical of the genre, emphasizing wonder and magic, and the music in this opening is grand and imposing, adding to the effect. In essence, the film follows a convention of fantasy by simply being an adaptation of an ancient fairy tale. I adore the style of animation in this and other classic Disney storybook films, and my own personal art style has certainly been shaped by these movies. So I can definitely see that being a part of my own film opening. I also want to try and imitate the way in which the film uses divine powerful music to create a strong feeling and add more emotion to the visuals.
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
Overview:
Set in a island populated by vikings who are constantly under threat of dragons attacking their villages, How to Train Your Dragon tells the story of a young boy, an outcast in his own village, befriending a mysterious black dragon. After finding the creature injured and unable to fly, Hiccup, the viking boy, bonds with the dragon and helps it to fly again, as he forms an unbreakable friendship with the dragon who he names “Toothless.” He discovers that dragons are misunderstood creatures and are forced to feed a giant queen dragon or be killed otherwise. As the story progresses, the friendship between the two is revealed challenged by the rest of the vikings, who capture Toothless. However, the pair are reunited, defeat the large dragon, and bring the worlds of the vikings and dragons together. The film was produced by Dreamworks Animation, though this analysis focuses on the more recent, reimagined version rather than the original film from 2010.
The opening of this How to Train Your Dragon is extensive yet remarkable in how it establishes so much through a variety of filmmaking techniques. Most notably, it introduces the protagonist and his connection to the world and characters around him.
The film begins with a voiceover from Hiccup describing the main setting of the story, Berk, a small distant island. His narration is present throughout the sequence, providing insight on the village, it’s inhabitants, and Hiccup’s thoughts, feelings, ambitions, and inner workings. This technique effectively introduces the protagonist and his personality, and the ending of the movie ties back to it later on. Though these lines provide some information as to what Berk is like as well, the moving establishing shots looking over the village gives a look into the set design of the entire location. The small wooden huts with their unique cultural designs and the presence of primitive machinery and tools hints at the film being a fantasy, which often take place in the past or are inspired by a certain period. The tall grassy cliffs and soft wind instruments in the score alludes to the Northern European influence in the movie’s setting.
Hiccup’s narration builds up to the threat of dragons along with fast-paced editing that creates suspense, until a dragon dramatically shoots flames at him from outside his house. The whole opening scene consistently highlights the danger of the dragons and the threat they pose to the village through the many special effects used to bring the creatures to life. After the dragons arrive to attack the town and kill their livestock, the music suddenly becomes much more intense, louder, and faster.
Costume designs with horned metal helmets, animals fur or leather clothing, thick matted facial hair are extremely representative of the typical Hollywood portrayal of a viking, effectively communicating what type of people inhabit this village. The props include steel weapons like axes, swords, hammers, and shields carried by the vikings in the background, establishing their violent, rugged nature and physical strength. This is further explained by Hiccup’s monologue. The entire setup for the opening sequence is that the village is being attacked by a horde of various types of dragons, and the scene is very frantic and fast-paced. This is a perfect setup for the opening sequence because, as the people rush to defend themselves and their town, it allows for the movie to show the intense war going on between the vikings and the dragons, the raw power possessed by these fire-breathing winged beasts, the mechanisms that the people use to fight them, and the importance of physical strength and combativeness in this world — all very important to the story. Hiccup, the main character, stands out against all of this, with his smaller build and lack of any armor or weapons. This establishes him as a bit of an outsider, and not fitting in with the rest of the vikings.
The opening scene continues to establish Hiccup as a misfit boy through dialogue, and his interactions with the other inhabitants of his village. The other vikings appear especially bothered by his presence. Wide shots are used to show his clumsiness as he stumbles around, running through the battlefield.
The scene then dedicates time to introducing another important character, the chief and leader of the village — through more of Hiccup’s narration describing his feats of strength — then through his actions, as he hurls a large shield into the air to fend off a dragon. A lingering close up is used to indicate his prominence. However, much like everyone else, he expresses irritation towards Hiccup during their brief interaction, and quickly dismisses him. This establishes Hiccup’s poor relationship between himself and the other members of his village, and he is often disregarded and pushed away by others because of his awkwardness and inability to fight. The chief, named Stoick the Vast, starts to shout orders, displaying the command and power he has over everyone and his ability to lead.
Hiccup then runs into the forge, and the following interaction between him and his blacksmith mentor, Gobber — who is described and shown through his dialogue to be sarcastic and humorously sneering — establishes Hiccup’s eagerness to join the fight against dragons despite his physical limitations. His desperation illustrates his true desire to simply fit in and find a feeling of belonging amongst his others like him. He shows off the machine he has built made to capture dragons from a distance, a prop that shows off his ability to craft intricate and functional tools, work and study, and his intelligence. Although, once again, he is shown to be quite clumsy, firing it off too soon, which Gobber scolds him for and continues to diminish him.
The scene then introduces the other teen vikings, as they extinguish the fires. Hiccup’s inner monologue reveals his desire to belong with them and be helpful, along with his affections for one of his fellow teens, their leader, a girl named Astrid. The film also uses a close up, slow motion shot of her to further capture Hiccup’s enamored feelings, and cleverly uses the smoke in the background as an aesthetic to emphasize Astrid’s beauty. The music suddenly swells, and becomes more romantic and emotional than the heavy, quick music from before. The other kids mock him and make cutting remarks as they pass by him, showing how, even with others his own age, he is still an outsider.
After his exchange with Gobber, highlighting their contemptuous relationship, Hiccup’s voiceover narration begins to describe the different species of dragons and their unique features as they appear on screen to cause chaos. This illustrates the variety among these creatures and also Hiccup’s talent for analyzing and evaluating information. Most notably, this part of the opening sees the introduction of one species of dragon in particular, the Night Fury, which is shown to be incredibly fast, powerful, and mysterious. A lot of emphasis is placed on this one individual dragon, as it shoots a blast of fire at one of the vikings’ towers. An air of mystery surrounds the creature, as it is never shown on screen after causing the fire and the dialogue explains that it has never been seen and never misses its target. Only the sound of it whooshing past is heard, and the scene cuts between many different shots using high angles and low angles, displaying the discordance that its mere presence is creating. This mystique is engaging to the audience in this moment, as the other characters express the severity of the situation. However, this also serves as setup for the proper introduction of Toothless later in the film.
Hiccup defies his instructions to stay in the blacksmith’s workshop, conveying his willingness to ignore orders and do whatever it takes to be accepted, taking his machine upon a cliff to try and capture the Night Fury. The music becomes softer and quiet, adding to the mysterious feeling. The sound effects of the dragon, heard but mostly unseen, are almost haunting, reminiscent of a shrill ghostly shriek while also being hushed as if the sound were coming from far away in the distance. By utilizing other elements like audio, fast-paced editing, and fire effects, the film creates an air of mystery surrounding the dragon, which intrigues the viewer.
After successfully striking down the Night Fury, Hiccup’s victory is interrupted when he gets chased by an extremely large dragon, showing that despite his impressive and underestimated cognitive abilities, he is still inexperienced and physically inept. The camera movements become handheld and shaky, complementing Hiccups clumsy movements as he runs away from the dragon, which sets a large portion of town ablaze. Stoick stops the fire-breathing beast before it can attack Hiccup and drives it away, as an action sequence begins where he delivers punches to the giant dragon with his bare fists — an astonishing display of strength that is engaging to the audience and displays the character’s physical combat capabilities.
An extreme wide shot, tilting upwards, shows the extensive damaged that Hiccup’s chase with the dragon has caused. Stoick looks at him with anger, and it is the revealed that he is his father.
This opening perfectly shows Hiccup's struggles. He is an outcast in his village. Though he means to be helpful, he constantly messes up because of his lack of physical strength and awkwardness. For this reason, he is disregarded and pushed away by the other vikings, including his father. This only motivates him to try to be more like them and slay dragons. This sets up his internal battle with not feeling like he is a true viking. This outsider status serves a perfect setup for him to connect with a misunderstood creature and form his own identity. The dragon attack is a masterful setup for the scene, as it is a multifaceted situation that allows for the involvement and interaction of multiple characters and the audience understands the personalities and relationships between them. It also establishes the central idea of the war with the dragons and vikings. This is a masterful opening, and though I’m not sure if I would attempt to pull off the professional techniques used in this scene myself, dragons are one of my favorite conventions in tye fantasy genre, and therefore I think I would look to this film as an example for how to employ them into a fantasy story so that they don’t just feel like accessories to the setting.
Shrek (2001)
Overview:
Shrek is one of the most influential animated movies ever released and marked the debut of Dreamworks animation. The first entry in the franchise, it is a comedy fantasy that acts as a deliberate subversion of the animated musical fairy tale adventure formula that was popularized by Disney in the 1990s. The story centers around a grumpy, reclusive, and unkempt ogre who is forced to rescue a princess after a bunch of displaced fairy-tale creatures overrun his swamp. Although it features classic storybook characters, Shrek functions primarily as a parody of traditional fairy tales, overturning many conventions associated with animated fantasy genre. The protagonist is not a handsome prince but a monstrous ogre, and the princess embraces the ogre form she was cursed with as her true self rather than having the spell broken. Instead of original theatrical broadway-style musical numbers, the film relies heavily on existing contemporary pop songs to set the stage. Its style of humor is another defining aspect, leaning heavily into crude jokes, risqué innuendos, and pop culture references. Released at a time when CGI was still a fairly recent development in technology, the film’s characters and environments are designed to look more realistic, with rough grimy details, complementing the film’s tone. As opposed to earlier animated fantasies which embraced their cartoonish art style with clean, exaggerated aesthetics. Before Shrek, most animated films, fantasy or otherwise, were more earnest and solemn, with an overall emphasis on spectacle and wonder. But the film’s massive success would go on to change the way that studios approached production of animated movies, especially after the release of its sequel.
Shrek’s opening is a perfect example of establishing tone, and the bit where the title character steps out of the outhouse is one of the most memorable moments in popular film culture. It masterfully captures the fundamental idea of subverting the typical fantasy adventure.
The film opens with a fade-in to a brightly colored storybook filled with intricate medieval-style drawings, a classic convention seen in so many fantasy movies such as Sleeping Beauty. This immediately signals the genre to the audience. The storybook acts as a framing device to deliver expository information that is relevant to the plot: a cursed princess locked away in a tower and guarded by a dragon. The images are accompanied by soft voice-over narration and pretty orchestral music. These visual and auditory elements are all very reminiscent of traditional fairy tales, and reinforce a mystical, elegant tone.
This atmosphere is then suddenly broken when Shrek tears out a page from the book, depicting a heroic prince, and uses it as toilet paper, punctuated by a toilet flushing sound. This crude action creates sharp tonal whiplash, and instantly communicates that, despite the familiar fantastical imagery, the film is not at all what one would expect from a typical fantasy feature. The defacing of the fairy tale storybook for the purposes of something gross and inappropriate establishes the film’s rude and irreverent humor, which is further emphasized by the dialogue that includes a brief joke about profanity and bodily functions.
Much of this opening is dedicated to introducing the protagonist, Shrek himself. Much like the film’s tone, he is brash, dirty, ill-mannered, unruly, rough, abrasive, and openly taking pleasure from what is typically considered foul and disgusting. He is shown touching, bathing in, and even consuming substances such as mud, slime, and pond water, among other lewd unpleasant conducts which he delights in. This sequence presenting Shrek’s regular behaviors is unfolds in the setting of a murky swamp, further illustrating his preference for filth and muck, as well as living in solitude. These conventionally unappealing traits sharply contrast with the noble heroes found in most fantasy narratives.
Animation style and character design are also tools used to further contribute to establishing the tone and character in this opening. As stated before, the textures are very rough and realistically unclean and imperfect, with the grime and decay in the swamp being emphasized to make the world look more grounded and unpleasant and less fantastical. Shrek’s physical design reinforces this: his big, lumbering stature, large pudgy features, and rotund body convey both physical power and lack of refinement. Details such as the dirt on his skin, body hair, thick saliva add to his unpolished appearance. Though this design is certainly monstrous, those small ear-like appendages and iconic shade of green are instantly recognizable and memorable when paired with his distinctive Scottish accent, and help to portray Shrek as a beastly creature who most people find fearsome and unsettling.
One of the most notable things about Shrek is his association with the color green, which can be seen in abundance throughout the film’s opening (as well as in its marketing). The forested background is full of highly saturated shades of green in the plants, foliage, water, and mire. And of course, Shrek himself has very green skin. Earthy browns are also used in mud, wood, and his clothing. These colors form a cohesive palette; green and brown, when paired together, commonly represent nature, or filth and grossness. Both concepts that align with Shrek’s character.
Undoubtedly, the most well-known element in this famous opening is the non-diegetic use of “All Star” by the band Smash Mouth, which was incredibly prevalent at the time of the film’s release. Again, the inclusion of contemporary songs from popular culture was fairly unusual in the world of animated fantasies at the time, but it further distinguished Shrek from films that came before it. This was another unique subversion of the genre, and served to reinforce the comedic tone of the film while also functioning as the introduction to the character, Shrek, as the beat of the song accompanies the moment when Shrek first appears on screen. Beyond setting the mood, “All Star” also highlights Shrek’s importance as the central character in the movie, and to this day, the song is almost exclusively associated with this film.
The scene concludes with a mob of villagers attempting to hunt Shrek chase him out of his swamp, though he is able to easily frighten them away. The simplistic medieval architecture, props, and clothes on the townspeople help to once again ground the genre firmly in fantasy, in spite of all of the subversive elements that have been shown so far. The wanted posters establish the fear and disdain directed towards ogres. As the men enter the swamp, several pieces of dialogue provide some meaningful information. The men relay their exaggerated assumptions regarding what ogres are like, suggesting that the creatures are dangerously yet misunderstood by humans. As Shrek approaches, he begins to threaten and taunt the villagers in a light-hearted manner, showing a more witty, sarcastic, and self-aware side of his personality. This interaction also implies that being harassed by the townsfolk is a common experience for Shrek, to the point where he gets amusement from scaring them off.
Overall, the opening of Shrek especially succeeds in establishing the rude, coarse nature of both the movie and the character, as well as show beyond doubt that the film is most certainly a subversion of the typical fantasy genre through its tone, soundtrack, and set and character design. Something that I find impressive about this opening is how it does very clearly incorporate elements of a fantasy film, with the presence of ogres, dragons, magic spells, and the aesthetics of the village, yet it ultimately communicates it's subversive intentions in other aspects of the filmmaking. In my own fantasy film opening, I hope to also effectively establish the genre while also being able to stand out if my film were to be lined up among other fantasies.
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