“Unhappily Ever After”- (Hong, 2014,digital illustration)

Hong is an animator and illustrator who worked on production for the film “Mulan”, he started to create these jarring images to bring attention to the issues being faced around the world everyday due to our treatment of the environment with disregard to sustainability. The series pulls beloved and recognisable characters from the world of fiction and places them in the harsh reality many face (Rob Wilkes, para 2, 2014). In the above digital image Hong illustrated Mulan placing her among the streets of china with mask on to protect herself against the harmful air due to heavy pollution from manufacturing and travel. The series creates a definitive juxtaposition, the characters clearly stand out and don’t fit in these dismal scenarios making the dire reality of our situation more apparent. By mixing found images of real life environmental disasters and illustration, Hong bursts the bubble and provides no escapism in fairy tales, by reimagining these characters facing the issues we find so easy to ignore. Hong emphasises these issues that require proper societal and economic change to move towards more sustainable and less harmful methods instead of harmful fossil fuels which pollute the air.