Catch Me If You Can! (2002)

Catch Me If You can represents a mysterious style title sequence, which gives viewer a small understanding about the basic plot of the film, however it also keeps it suspense. The opening shot is an establishing shot of an airport, this scene establish the relationship between the character and location. This film is directed by Steven Spielberg, this an animated title sequence presenting the main character, narrative and the settings. The title sequence was inspired by Saulbas as he is into graphic shapes and lines.

In this title sequence, we see the main character (Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to hide from the person who is chasing it. He is running away from the catcher and he travels different places to disguise himself. This links it back to the title itself ‘Catch Me If You Can’. In the opening scene the establishing shot of airport shows that this film is going to be very adventurous as the setting is established at the airport. ‘Airport’ represents travelling same like In the film in general.  

When we first see the retro graphic of Leonard DiCaprio at the airport he see him in a distance between him and the airport shows he is not yet there but he is going towards the airport, this indicates that he is going to start his mission from there and then. Next shot we see him at the airport with his hands in his pocket and he is looking around, showing he is suspicious about someone following him. Also, as soon as the title sequence starts, the viewer can hear the music, which is very mysterious yet has this animated theme in it, which reflects the genre of the film. This mystery is kept throughout the sequence as the animated main character (Leonard DiCaprio), spends the whole period of title sequence trying to run and hide, impersonating different characters. For example: He is dressed into doctor in the next scene trying to hide from the person in the hat (Tom Hanks) who had his eyes on Leonard DiCaprio snice the airport, this illustrates that Tom Hanks the guy in the Hat is some sort of detective spying on Leonard DiCaprio to catch him. Right before the we move on to different scene with the character, the title appears blocking Tom Hanks and the letter ‘me’ which appears in white indicating the otherness as rest of the letter appears in black except the letter ‘me’, then the letter ‘me’ fades away, suggesting that the victim Leonard disappears in order to hide from Tom Hanks. The fact the letter me came up in white reflect the characteristic of Leonard DiCaprio being different to rest of the character in the moving and the fading away can suggests that Leonard DiCaprio is very fast and good at hiding away from Tom Hanks. As the scene moves to different setting we are introduced with jazz theme music, and we the main character swimming his way through the water to go hide from Tom Hanks. The texts appears simultaneously with the beat of the music, every time there is a beat of the rhythm we are shown a new credit or image.

 In the next scene we see Leonard as a doctor but when Tom Hanks reached there he then runs again and the colour of the setting changes from green to blue and white, this indicates that the different colour represents different setting meaning the movie is very adventurous and mysterious as the viewer won’t have an idea of where Leonard is going and what he is going to do in order to hide himself form Tom Hanks. Throughout whole sequence this colour settings is kept to create mystery. The fact that Leonard changes into different outfit is to blend in with the surrounding shows he is versatile and very flexible as a character. However, this gives the viewer an idea of disguise, which could then lead to the idea of him trying to fool Tom Hanks.

In this title sequence we see   lots of transport, which suggest Leonard moves around quite a lot, perhaps linking in with the title ‘ Catch Me If You Can’ that he is trying to keep away from Tom Hanks who is chasing him. When the viewer is shown as Leonard is about to get caught new character is introduced and the music gets louder keeping the viewer in the edges, building suspense and tension and making the viewer expect something. However, when Leonard DiCaprio gets away from Tom Hanks, the music calms down, suggesting that Leonard is safe and that he is going to make it difficult for Tom Hanks to catch him. In this title sequence we favor Leonard DiCaprio even though he is the victim, as we are put in his shoes so when we watch this we feel as if we are the character and that we are also hiding with the character which builds excitement yet mysterious and tension. The transition of the title sequence is very soft and smooth.