ABSTRACT
The most important consideration when designing characters is creating different body language and movement. This consideration is not unique to animation.
The Great Dictator: Charlie Chaplin’s Character Acting Charlie Chaplin made THE GREAT DICTATOR as a rebuke to Adolf Hitler. In this film, Chaplin plays two parts. His Barber character bears an amazing physical resemblance to the Dictator. They never meet. The lives of the Barber and the Dictator intersect only in the last ten minutes of the picture when the Barber replaces the Dictator after appropriating the latter’s uniform. Yet all through the film the denizens of the Ghetto and the “Tomanian” bullies who oppress them do not notice that the barber resembles the Dictator. The Barber does not see this resemblance himself. Are all the characters, friends and enemies, equally ignorant? The situation, though fantastic, is believable to us and we never notice that the comparison is never made. This is because Chaplin, as the Barber, moves in a completely different fashion from the Dictator. The characters’
stance, silhouette, actions, and facial expressions are as opposed as their politics. The Barber smiles often. His short, graceful movements resemble those of a small mouse or bird. The Dictator tilts his head up and back in an arrogant pose or raises his shoulders in an almost feline fashion. He usually has a scowl on his face. His movements are forceful and reminiscent of a predatory animal.
