Applying the 3 narrative theories to my childrens film

Propp's Theory

1) The Hero - The Police
2) The Villain - Ben Dover
3) The Donor - ?
4) The False Hero - ?
5) The Dispatcher - Police
6) The Helper - ?
7) The Princess - ?
8) The Father ?


I can use Propp's theory to establish the characters in our childrens film. The hero is obviously the police as they are the people that are stopping the criminal. The villain is Ben Dover as he is the criminal that's being chased by the police. There is no donor as no one is assisting the police. There is also no false hero as there is no one that appears to be good but isn't. The dispatcher is the police force as they are the ones that sent the police out to catch the criminal. There is no helper as the police are working alone. There is no princess because there was no need for one. There is no father as this is not needed either.

Propp's theory can describe the story but it does not cover the whole range of characters and leaves many blank (such as the donor and helper). This is because the theory generalises to bigger films that have a larger range of characters.




Straws Theory
Hero = The Police, Villain = Ben Dover
Moral = The Police, Immoral = Ben Dover
Police = The Police, Criminal = Ben Dover

There are not many other binary opposites in the children's film(e.g. popular/unpopular, human/alien etc). Straws theory is not overly useful in analysing the film as there are not many binary opposites and characters are very much independant.

Todorov's Theory
The state of equilibrium would be at the beginning of the film as there is a news story about pandas which isn't particularly shocking and leaves the film in a calm state. The disruption to that order would be the breaking news that Ben Dover has escaped from jail. This diverts the viewers attention away from the previous news story and focuses them on this new stage of disorder. The recognition that the disorder has occurred is when the police are chasing Ben Dover. The attempt to repair the damage of the disruption is when the police finally catch Ben Dover. The restoration of a new equilibrium is when the onlookers shout "Yay!" as it lets us understand that the criminal is now captured and people are safe. This theory works the best as it can be fully applied to the childrens film.