ABSTRACT
Body language is the nonverbal essence of a character. Popular opinion, caricatures and prejudices, however, are not based on understanding of the emotional language of the soul. They focus on physique, disabilities, and body structure and are mainly fed on stereotypes. In history, personality typologies and friend-foe modes of thought were based on such superficial expectations. Greek humoral pathology although disproved still is going through countless people's minds albeit in modern disguises. An animator needs to understand what the body tells. He has to watch and read people with the eyes, not the ears. Psychological and emotional processes are transformed into movement. Even tiny gestures count, such as a facial shrug or the drooping corner of the mouth. Many of the old-time animators, including Disney and his staff, adored pantomime. Pantomime is a beautiful art that demonstrates what we can express without words.
