March 15, 2019
The Popol Vuh : Mayan Creation Myth Animated by Patricia Amlin
After watching the animated video there are a couple differences between the video and Popol Vuh book that I saw. A couple of the first differences I saw were that in the video, it talks about how the evil lords of the underworld would kill and sicken people and that they wanted a ball. In the book, the evil lords are more annoyed by the stomping of the ball game so they call upon the twins. In the video it also has the evil lords talk with deep voice so it kind gives an idea of how evil they were.
In the video it left out how they lords would play in seven days because in the book the lords wanted to play the ball game against the hero twins in seven days. In the video it also forgets to put a scene in the book were the falcon gives out a cry to notify the ball players of his presence which was, "Wak-ko! Wak-ko!" and afterwards in the book they hero twins actually shot the falcon with a pellet from a blowgun which is not shown in the video.
One other difference was when the Seven Macaw was shot in the jaw he called upon old people to help him but in the book it was actually a grandfather and grandmother that helped the Seven Mccaw. In that scene of the video it also doesn't talk about how the grandmother and grandfather planted maize in the Seven Macaw's jaw.
In addition to the section where the Seven Macaw was introduced, the book has that scene in the beginning section way before the Hero twins enter Xibalba where is the video it has the defeat of Seven Macaw right before. When the Hero Twins arrive to Xibalba they came to four crossroads which were the Black, White, Red, and Blue Road but in the video it only talks about how the Hero twins passed over the Pus and Blood River on their blowguns.
In the book where the scene of the Twins and lords of the underworld play the ball game they use a ball that has a skull drawn on to it but in the video it shows them using an actual skull in the ball game. In the second trial that the Hero Twins go through which was in the House of Blades in the book but in the video it was called the House of Knives.
In the video when the Hero twins are in the House of cold they use tree stumps to make a fire to prevent them from dying but in the book it just says that the twins dissipated or exhausted the cold. Soon after the House of cold was the House of Bats but in the book it first talks about the House of fire which was skipped over in the video by the House of Bats. In the video the house of Bats was a scene where Hunahpu was beheaded and then jaguar deer called upon animals to bring food and then a pumpkin was replaced for the head and then the Heart of sky added brains and finished the face of Hunahpu but in the book a squash was used by the coati.
With all the changes in differences between the book and the video I still feel that the video did a great job at describing the stories of the Maya. I think that having voices for the characters gave a sort of humor to the stories and the animations were really well done for it's time. I felt like the animations gave a better understanding because although the book gives a fair description of what's happening, I felt like the video make the descriptions in the book come to life and gave more meaning to them.
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