A saga do Miyagi-Verso continua: análise da franquia The Karate Kid a partir dos sete fundamentos da narrativa transmídia

Abstract

The scenario of media convergence propelled the construction of the so-called transmedia storytelling, in witch a narrative is fragmented and its parts are distributed by multiple platforms, in a process of continuous expansion and that encourages the participation of the audience. Henry Jenkins, one of the main communication theorists studying the subject, cites the Matrix movie franchise as one of the greatest examples of this type of narrative, which was idealized as a transmedia project from the very beginning. However, it is possible for a narrative to result in great financial result and to become so popular to the public that it receive expansions, in what the literary critic Marie-Laure Ryan denominates "snowball effect", as well the potential for a fictional narrative to possess hybrid aspects with both cross and transmedia elements. This work aims to expose the possibilities of building a transmediatype narrative, exposing it's definitions, related characteristics and concepts, such crossmedia, a term that originated from marketing related to the dispersion of a content throughout various media outlets, with the possibility of redundancy. The objective of this undergraduate thesis is to perform an analysis of the Karate Kid movie franchise, whose obtained success in the 80's resulted in the release of the 2018 series Cobra Kai and other derivative products. Based on the seven fundamentals present in the transmedia narratives proposed by Jenkins, the aspects that are part of the franchise and elements that brings it closer to this concept, which are still difficult to define, were mapped. In this analysis, the seven fundamentals of transmedia storytelling proposed by Jenkins were used, namely: spreadability vs. drillability, continuity vs. multiplicity, immersion vs. extractability, worldbuilding, seriality, subjectivity and performance. The analyzed franchise possesses all seven elements of a transmedia storytelling, however some of them are more prominent than others, therefore the saga can be considered a narrative endowed with transmedia aspects and the possibility of expansion.