The Divine Cartoon

All of my previous blog posts have pertained to some piece of artwork relating to the Divine Comedy so this week I wanted to get away from all of the paintings and sculptures depicting the poem. Instead I stumbled upon this short animated piece depicting the Comedy. You can see the cartoon on YouTube by clicking here.

                First of all, I think the cartoon does an excellent job of depicting Dante’s vision of Hell in only five minutes. The animated pilgrim and Virgil are shown in every circle of Hell, even though some sub-circles and bolgias are missed, and many of the punishments are shown. The cartoon even hits on some of the more subtle details of the poem. For example, while watching the cartoon you see Virgil throw dirt up to Cerberus to allow them to pass and a soul from the Styx reach up to the pilgrim while he is on Phlegyas’ boat. One scene of the cartoon that I found to be very interesting is how the pilgrim and Virgil can see all the layers of Hell clearly defined from their high vantage point immediately after they enter under the Gate of Hell.

                While the animation does do a good job of hitting some of the major events in the poem, it falls short in many regards. The downfall of the cartoon is that in only five minutes it is absolutely impossible to refer to everything that Dante writes. Because of this only two bolgias are shown, none of the souls punished in Hell are named, and none of the punishments are explained. The most glaring aspect that is missing from the cartoon is the poem’s subtext that constantly refers to such major themes as the problems in Florence and the corruption in the church. As I mentioned, these are all due to the fact that the cartoon is so short.

                However, there are also flawed details in the cartoon that have nothing to do with the film’s brevity. In the fourth circle reserved for the greedy we see a demon whipping souls as they struggle to push various objects. Yet in the actual Comedy there is not a mention of a demon brandishing a whip until the pilgrim reaches the first bolgia of the eighth circle. Also, it only depicts the greedy souls pushing items in one direction while in the poem these souls struggle to push a heavy object around a circle only to have it come crashing into the object that their counterparts, the prodigals, were pushing. I believe that having both sides of the sin depicted here is crucial to this circle as a whole, and the cartoon gives no indication of this. Along with leaving out the prodigals, the cartoon also glosses over the spendthrifts, residing in the seventh circle along with the suicides. And finally, once the gates to Dis are opened the cartoon has Medusa glide from the background to the front and center. While the Furies mention Medusa in both the poem and the cartoon, she never materializes in Dante’s original work.

                In the end the cartoon has a number of shortcomings. While some of these flaws stem from the brevity of the film and seem therefore permissible, there are also a number of omissions and additions that obscure the true message in the Comedy. Still, I feel like I must give credit to the film for remaining as faithful and clear to the poem as it could in only five minutes. This cartoon may be fine for people who have already read the poem because they can remember what has been left out. But people who have not yet read the poem should stay away from the video because it could cause some serious misunderstandings about Dante’s work, if they are able to get much of an understanding of it at all.