AA: How Sugar Affects the Brain

How Sugar Affects the Brain is an interesting documentary that gets its point across well. At first I thought it might just be another motion graphic type of documentary that has you reading most of the information yourself, but I soon found out that isn't the cast. Text is used in conjunction with imagery that changes constantly, keeping it new and interesting. A lot of the text is mostly labels, which helps to explain the illustrations and doesn't take your concentration away from the narrator's voice, which is younger and slightly more interesting than other narration voices I have heard in documentaries.

The style of the animation itself is quite bright and still somewhat graphic-y, with what little detail they have standing out a lot. The images are easy to read and nice to look at, without looking too much like it is for a childrens' animation. Occasionally it switches to bits of 3D animation for different points which helps to change the subjects and stop you from getting bored.

I still think that at times there is probably a bit too much going on in the animation - especially if you watch the video without sound, in some parts everything happens a little too fast to follow, and too fast to figure out what the point was in the first place. It works well with the narration, but is another documentary that requires you to focus, which means it may not be as suitable for children. Some of the subject matter too implies that is is aimed at more of an adult audience, with mentions of drugs and sex.

This documentary is different to a lot of others I have seen, and that keeps it interesting. It is informative about things that are actually useful and that the viewer can actually use such as the section on dopamine and how eating the same thing often lowers the amount of dopamine that you produce while eating it.

The visual style of it is also one of my favorite parts. and if I do need to create props or food separately then this is a good video to take influence from for creating images that are simple yet interesting. This animation again is showing that you shouldn't have too much going on in the background while the narrator speaks, so I will mention that to Cara when she creates the storyboards.