CJ Film Opening: Teen

Superbad (Mottola, 2007) is an American teen comedy film.



The Superbad opening sequence is reflective of the style of many teen movies - the brightly coloured, animated and comedic opening sequence sets the mood of the rest of the film and lends a light-hearted overtone to the movie before it has started.

The creative use of animation to start the film is effective because;

• It uses bright colours and recognisable human figures to simply illustrate the tone of the movie.
• It adds an element of comedy to the film. The inclusion of animation is one of many ways of lightening the tone of a movie.
• We are partially introduced to the main characters; for instance, one is obviously larger than the other, and the taller one is made to seem more nerdy simply through clever use of camerawork.

Looking at the mise-en-scene in the opening sequence, we can see that;

• The colours used contrast with each other. This is used to emulate an eighties feel, as is the...
• Inclusion of a grain and image noise filter to the video. This gives the sequence a retro feel.
• Also notable is the inclusion of the eighties Columbia screen, another attempt to lend a retro feel to the opening.
• The characters move around the screen, and are consistently moving throughout the sequence.

Finally, looking at the sound, the only notable sound in the opening sequence is the soundtrack (Too Hot to Stop - The Bar-Kays). It has a funky rhythm, which is parodied by the dancing animated figures on the screen. This sort of music is usually associated with either awkward, nerdy characters or hipsters in the modern media, and it gives us a pretext as to how these characters are going to behave and act before the movie has started.