STYLIZED Animal Faces : Sad Dinosaurs & Anxious Rabbits
Figure 1. Here is one sad Brontosaurus. | Cartoon animals have been a staple of animation since well before Mickey Mouse. Winsor McCay’s "Gertie the Dinosaur" (Figure 1) made her debut in 1914, and right from the start this gigantic animated sauropod was depicted with very human expressions, like joy and sadness. Dinosaurs, like all reptiles, have no facial musculature whatsoever. It would never occur to the viewer, however, to question the “rightness” of McKay's expressive creation; our human bias is overwhelmingly in favor of accepting animal faces as capable of expressing emotion in the same manner as human faces. |