Idea 1 - Treatment...

Just a quick recap... my three words are Restaurant, Butterfly Hunter and Pogo-Stick...

With my first idea i imagine having a similar style to Ratatouille, creating some beautifully bright and appealing scenery and characters. The animation will be a slap-stick comedy similar to a Tom and Jerry style chase scene...

ACT 1: In act 1 I will establish the location of the animation, and the main characters in the animation...

I imagine the animation to start of with an establishing shot; a slow panning shot from the roofs of buildings, showing the eiffel tower in the distance. The shot will be quite beautiful and painterly appealing, similar to when we are introduced to Paris in Ratatouille. After several slow tracking and panning shots of the beautiful scenery, the movement is interupted by a butterfly breathing deeply up against a wall. We see a net slowly come round the corner and swoop for the butterfly, just missing it. This is when the second character is introduced; the butterfly hunter on a pogo stick, who the audience will instantly be able to tell is the "villain" of the story...

Here we have already identified the two main characters and identified that the story is set in Paris. I am also planning on bringing the Maitre D in as another character, but he comes in at a later point in the animation...

Act 2: In act 2 I will establish the characters' goals, presenting obstacles for the characters...

This ac continues straight on from act 1, we establish that the butterfly's goal is to escap from the hunter, and the hunter's goal is to catch the butterfly for his collection. A butterfly would usually be able to fly off and escape fairly easily, so it's important to show that the butterfly has an injured wing or is fatigued. As the butterfly struggles to fly the the pavement of a busy street, with the hunter close behind on his pogo-stick, we see the butterfly make a dash into a traditional French Restaurant which a customer has just entered. The hunter still continues to pursue the butterfly and, he too, enters the restaurant, We have a comical scene where the Maitre D is speaking to a customer and the hunter barges through, causing the two people to spin around. We then see the butterfly hunter bouncing around the room while people are trying to eat their food, knocking things off tables. As the butterfly is cornered into the ceiling, the hunter is jumping up and down on the spot to get higher. Just as we think he is about to catch the butterfly, the pogo-stick has been taken from him by the Maitre D and his eyes shoot out his head, Looney Toon style, as he falls to the ground...

Act 3: In act 3 i shall establish some closure, but with a twist...

We cut now cut to a shot where the butterfly hunter is kicked out of the restaurant by the Maitre D and has butterflies spinning round his head, from the fall. Whilst the hunter is unconscious on the floor, we see that one of the butterflies is the real one. It starts to fly off into the distance, and we think it has escaped. Then BAM!!! the butterfly is hit by a van, we see it's wing slightly fluttering against the windscreen and the final shot is the camera panning back upwards, whilst looking down. In the distance we see the butterfly hunter who is now on his feet, jumping up and down angrily and snaps his net. He then starts to walk down the street dragging his pogostick behind him and the shots fades to black...