Warner Bros.
DC
Cathy Yan
Sue Kroll
Margot Robbie
Bryan Unkless
Josh Levinson
Galen Vaisman
Walter Hamada

Shine designed, animated and produced the main on ends title sequence and “grievance” graphics for “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”. For the title sequence, Shine created unique, hand drawn illustrations of the wild sets for a dynamic, animated reprise of the film’s climatic ending. For the grievances, hand drawn, character based graphics were created and animated as expressions for the villains. The Shine team was honored with a 2021 SXSW Special Jury Recognition for Title Design plus the Audience Award for the main title category for “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”.

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The concept, a hand drawn, illustrated fun house… isn’t all just fun. Surreal and surprising characters, some of which appear theatening or otherwise violent, reveal names in a dynamic and cinematic way. The fun house, inspired by the film, is rendered in a scrawly spontaneous hand-drawn style.

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Each character is represented by a graphic image that represents their strength. For Harley, her icon was the sledgehammer. For Huntress, it was the crossbow – as she was known by Gotham as “The Crossbow Killer. Canary used a canary, or a “songbird” as her strength was her voice. Montoya, the cop, was represented by the badge. Cass had the stuffed beaver from Harley’s apartment. And Roman Sionis was placed in front of the red stage in his nightclub.

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It’s open season on Harley Quinn when her explosive breakup with the Joker puts a big fat target on her back. Unprotected and on the run, Quinn faces the wrath of narcissistic crime boss Black Mask, his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, and every other thug in the city. But things soon even out for Harley when she becomes unexpected allies with three deadly women — Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya.

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Below are some of the graphics that describe the grievances that some of the villains in Gotham City have against Harley Quinn. The grievance graphics are spontaneously drawn in a colorful scrawly way, maybe in the style Harley would draw them!

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Roman Sionis’ immediate issue with Harley Quinn involves a practical business matter. Upon getting properly hammered and wilding out at a nightclub in Birds of Prey, Harley drunkenly breaks the leg of Mr. Sionis’ driver. Plot-wise, this sets up Dinah Lance a.k.a. Black Canary as the new chauffeur, who then becomes an informant for Detective Renee Montoya. When Roman Sionis threatens to kill Harley Quinn, the list of grievances begins with the nightclub incident.

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The Shine team also designed graphics to introduce each character. A femme force to be reckoned with, the Birds of Prey is traditionally an all-women group of vigilante operatives who’ve gone on covert missions across the globe. Originally a partnership between Black Canary and Oracle, the team’s roster has grown over the years to include friends—and frenemies.

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