Character Building

Who have I based my character on?...

I have chosen to base Abanaza on two different characters. The first being Maleficent, the reason I chose this character in particular is because of the way she catches the audience’s attention throughout the movie with her striking facial expressions and how she gestures to conjure up her magic which is what is needed for my magical character as she uses the ring to summon the spirit. Maleficent links to my character, Abanaza, as they are both the same gender and she must always stand out on stage, and keep the audience gripped by my presence. Also, she is a magical being which is a similarity to my caracter Abanaza as she is a magician, though a difference between the two characters is that Maleficent is against the king who is the bad guy whereas Abanaza is against Aladdin who is the good guy. This makes Maleficent a likable character as you can empathize with her situation. Because of this I have another character to take influence from when I play Abanaza.

I looked at another role to counteract the differences I had with Maleficent. This character is called Ursula the ‘baddie’ from the Disney movie, ‘The Little Mermaid’. I chose this character because of the personality and the outright evilness of her. These are  the sort of characteristics that I want to portray with my character. Also, Ursula is an animated character, she looks false and the audience knows she isn't real but believe in her existence in their imaginations. That is the illusion that I want to create with my audience of panto goers as panto land is not real either but like Ursula makes children believe in her existence in the real world I would like to achieve the same with Abanaza.

Another,  reason that I am basing my character
on Ursula is because of the similar themes between the two stories of Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Both Ursula and Abanaza plot to steal the leading lady/princess in their respective roles.

There are some physical differences between Ursula and Abanaza ie: Ursula is a huge sea creature half woman half octopus whereas Abanaza is an eastern human magician they have in common their greed. In both situations they get the princess through their cunning for a short time and in both the hero saves the day which is a classic Disney scenario which is why Disney have also made a movie from Aladdin.

Here are clips of both the films they were in, these are particular scenes that that helped develop my character...