Kinetic Typography and Visual Grammar: Analysing On-Screen Text in the Ejen Ali: The Movie 2 Teaser Trailer

Movie-goers frequently rely on teaser trailers to grasp the narrative essence of an upcoming film. These narratives are constructed through a complex interplay of visual and linguistic resources. Among these, on-screen text has become increasingly prominent in contemporary audiovisual media, yet its role in visual meaning-making within Malaysian animated trailers remains underexplored. This study aims to investigate how on-screen text functions as a narrative and communicative resource in the Ejen Ali: The Movie 2 teaser trailer. The present paper adopts Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) Visual Grammar and van Leeuwen’s (2021) framework of kinetic typography. The research analyses the teaser trailer of Ejen Ali: The Movie 2 which contains prominent audiovisual elements in the short duration of 64 seconds. The findings reveal three primary functions of on-screen text: acting as an active narrative actor, establishing technological authority, and acting as a device to create engagement and suspense in the storyline. This study contributes to contemporary understandings of visual communication and digital typography within the Malaysian animation industry.

animation, trailer, on-screen text, Visual Grammar, kinetic typography

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