Winnie and Vinni: Being Uncomfortably Creative
Soviet version of Winnie the Pooh, image from Wikipedia.org
Probably wildly different than the Disney-fied Pooh Bear that most of you are used to, take a look at this Russian interpretation of the beloved bear as animated by Fjodor Khitruk.
Aside from being ridiculously adorable, the animation style is fun to watch as well. It’s as though you are experiencing what it might be like in the imagination of a child listening to the story for the first time–not yet exposed to the insanely over-merchandised Winnie the Pooh as brought to you by Disney.
There are a lot of times in life where you have to stop and realize that what you know isn’t that case for everybody. Just like your initial reaction of the above interpretation of Pooh might be “Whoa! That’s weird/wrong/different,” sometimes it takes experiencing something outside of your comfort zone to understand how narrow our perspectives might be. This is the problem with turning books into movies–there will always be “those” people who complain about how untrue the film is to the book, how they pictures the characters differently and so on. And yet movies will continue giving faces and voices to books, branding them and re-issuing books to promote the movie instead of vice versa (I personally can’t stand this!), leaving little room for the reader to use their imagination. People, especially young kids, become used to Hollywood’s interpretation of a book and think that’s the way it should be. They don’t want to know anything different and think anything else is wrong.
Why are we afraid to use our imagination? Why are there only remakes and remixes, and never anything original anymore? Is it because we are so used to being told how we should see things, that we can’t see them any other way?
One day when I was teaching English to a group of young elementary school kids, I had them draw a picture of a squid, which was the word of the day (I am a weird teacher.) Right away they panicked and wanted a reference, complaining that it was too hard. I had a little print out of a squid, and they struggled to emulate it. Japan is notorious for having the “right way” to do everything, so I was not surprised I got that reaction. When I kept telling them that the squids didn’t have to be perfect, they started to break out of their shells–albeit slowly: they kept asking me “Is it OK to do it this way?” The end result was that each had their own squid, with crazy arms and cute faces. I could finally see their personalities, how each of them interpreted what a squid is like.
My point with all of this is, if you are a person who struggles with being creative and original, try to think outside of your comfort zone. Read a book that hasn’t been made into a film and draw your own interpretation of the characters. Don’t buy the latest fashion magazines and see if you can come up with your own spring/summer/fall fashions. Start from scratch with everything you do–no references, no inspirations, no influences. It doesn’t matter if what you come up with isn’t like what other people are doing–that’s the point of being creative and original! You will be able to express yourself best when you find your own rhythm, without outside voices.
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