History of Animation
De Seversky
Wrote "Victory Through Air Power" which Disney adapted into a film, he then narrated
Carlo Lorenzini (Collodi)
Wrote Pinocchio comic;
Hoppity Goes to Town (1941)
another feature attempt that failed because it was released 3 days before Pearl Harbor; Jimmy Stewart parody
Deems Taylor
appointed to critique and edit music
Bambi 1942
based on book by Felix Salten; struggle between animating deer realistically but reaching human emotion; Less fantasy than before, more realism; met w/ generally good reviews, modest success;
Looney Tunes in the 1950s
begin to eclipse Disney and MGM, making cartoons at a fraction of the cost; multiple departments headed by Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson, and Friz Freleng; Schlesinger allowed them to do whatever they wanted
Tex Avery
best at MGM; introduced Droopy Dog in the 1940s, characters are often aware that they're in cartoons, pushing limits, creative and original gags; "Dumb Hounded"-contrasting energies for gags Leaves MGM in 1954, never won an Oscar
Frank Tashlin
brought in to WB along with Tex Avery to improve animation and Stalling for composing; introduced a more rapid style of cutting to energize cartoons
Three Little Pigs 1933
character movement breakthrough: though the pigs all looked basically the same, they each showed their distinct personality through their movement; changed things by making everything active; first completely storyboarded animated film
"Ocean Hop" 1927
craze of Lindberg flight, planes; Oswald cartoon; very Felix the Cat, nothing super original
Porky Pig
created by Freleng in 1930s, first WB character to stick
E.C Segar
creator of the Popeye comics
A Wild Hare 1940
first appearance of Bugs Bunny, who really came to life with Tex Avery; this is the first of the WB Looney Tunes we know and love; Bugs is very primitive though
"The Band Concert" 1935
first color Mickey cartoon; complex movements and gags; characters more rounded, fluid, use of circles and ovals
Flowers and trees 1932
first commercially released film to be produced in full-color three strip Technicolor; won the first Academy Award for animated short
Betty Boop 1930
first truly feminine cartoon with sex appeal; toned down as a result of the Hays code which makes her cartoons kind of boring
Popeye-A Dream Walking
gritty NYC feel to Fleischer cartoons
Rotoscope
helps animators copy or put animation in live action, patented by Max who became a pioneer of WWI military training films
McKimson
least recognized of the three; Introduced Foghorn Leghorn, lots of melodrama with his characters, lacks the subtlety of other animators; created Tazmanian Devil
Music land 1935
lots of energy, creating the seemingly impossible, very lively
Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's 40 Theives (1937)
makes use of the multiplane camera; feature that was the only competition for Disney's Snow White
"Alice Rattled by Rats" 1925
mice and rats are Mickey ancestors; smooth animation in dance sequences clearly the work of Iwerks (good comparison to future work in Anchors Aweigh)
Tex Avery
moves to MGM in 1942, makes "Blitz Wolf," a very slef aware cartoon with gags only he could get away with
Comic Calamities 1928
not a crude film-tells a full story; lots of imitators because Felix met such great success; Disney tried to get Mesmer to work for him but couldn't; after Sullivan died, rights were in limbo, Felix cartoons stop, Mesmer gets credit for him near his death
Snow White 1937
not the first animated film despite popular belief; realistic female character; difficult with timing and movement; Walt characterized the dwarves for story and humor; cost $1.5-2 million, made $8 million
Walter Lantz
obtained the rights to Oswald, begins making Oswald for Universal; less than $8000 to produce; just kinda creepy
What's Opera, Doc 1957
one of the greatest Looney Tunes ever; Jones experimenting with dancers on WB lot, spoofed Fantasia while still retaining it's own identity; humor holds up
The cookie carnival
overflowing with movement, another test for Snow White woman
Who killed Cock Robin? 1935
parodies well-known celebrities of the time
House Cleaning Blues 1937
post production code;
Felix the Cat
produced by Pat Sullivan studio; Otto Mesmer hired; realized that solid black shapes flowed well; 1922- redesigned to make him smoother; used lots of facial expressions, his own personality, walk; most sophisticated animation until Disney in the 1930s;
Balloonland (1935)
really trippy Iwerks cartoon; not great timing even though animation is very fluid; Iwerks ends contract in 1934; goes to Disney
The country cousin 1936
saw the pay-off of pre-editing; cost-efficient and well-planned jokes; pencil test: drawings filmed before putting them on cels, time and money to perfect everything
Flying Hoofs 1928
series of gags-no real plot or climax; variety of artists told to fill time slot, lacked continuity or distinct style
Pat Powers
shady guy who created a way of putting sound on film through Cinephone: sold product to Disney hoping for a one and done; after Steamboat Willie, Walt still needed a distributor, but insisted on keeping the rights; he stays with Powers; by 1930, his contract is up for renewal, he's earning 2-3x the production cost but not seeing all the money owed to him; Powers hires Iwerks to start new studio, Walt refuses to work with him any longer and moves to LA
Ising at MGM
takes Oscar from Disney for the first time w/ "The Milky Way;" characters are rubber stamped kittens; produced the same year as The Wild Hare (1940)
Goddess of Spring 1934
test run of feminine character for Snow White; really kind of a mess otherwise
"Red Hot Riding Hood"
very popular and extreme animation; Avery not very interested in making recurring characters though; animated by on of the guys who did the dancing hippos in Fantasia
Pinocchio
very touching, complex character; there is a subtlety to his animation; difficult to animate because of his unexpected movements and spontaneity; unlike some modern animated films, there is real fear/threat in the film
Brave Little Tailor 1938
weight, anatomy, expression and charm
The ugly duckling 1931/1939
1931: simple, rubbery and weightless; trying and failing to create sympathetic characters 1939: Last Silly Symphony produced, gorgeous complex and sophisticated
Margaret Winkler
After Laugh-o-grams, gives Disney contract which led to the creation of Disney Brothers Studios; only woman working in distribution; married to Mintz
George Pal
Animated "Tulips Shall Grow"
"Porky in Wackyland" 1938
Animated by Clampett, who animates very stretchy, zany, aggressive, sometimes obnoxious humor; reminds me a lot of the way the car moves in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1930s Disney
Around this time, Disney recruits better artists, including Tytla, Natwick, and Graham, who all studied at Chouinard Arts Institute which would later become CalArts
King Size Canary (1947), "Bad Luck Blackie"
Avery's best known films; needed to do things in animation that just couldn't be done by humans; things should fall in 5 frames so the eye can just register that it's falling but not see it coming
The skeleton dance
Beginning of "Silly Symphonies;" Stalling suggested to Disney a film based around music; animation mostly done by Iwerk, who was told to use assistants but insisted he do it himself-->smooth animation/dancing; film was rejected for not having enough mice, but went on to a successful release
Fantasia
Begins late 1937, Mickey had been getting dull; Leopold Stokowski seen by Walt at a restaurant, said he wanted to conduct a Silly Symphony free of charge; Walt described it as an experiment, not meant to make people laugh necessarily but to push boundaries; Nutcracker suite is hugely popular, as well as Dance of the Hours and Night on Bald Mountain (Tytla)-Tchernobog is considered Tytla's greatest triumph
The Enchanted Drawing 1900
Blackton, a vaudeville sketch artist; stops camera between exposures and adds/removes objects
Mel Blanc
Came to WB in 1937, started doing Porky's voice, later voices almost every other character except Elmer Fudd
Swing Wedding 1937
Caricature of black jazz singers;
Freleng
Cartoons are frantic/sudden stillness; contrast sets up gags; almost exclusive use of Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzalez, Tweety and Sylvester as a pair; won Oscar for Birds Anonymous; "Showbiz Buzz"-Daffy is vain; smooth animation and tap sequence, more eloquent Bugs 1953: Hare Trimmed-Yosemite Sam, annoying Bugs
The Big Snooze
Clampett's last cartoon; shows the evolution of Elmer and Bugs
Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl 1908
Cohl's films emphasize metamorphosis;
MGM and Quimby
Creates in-house animation unit headed by Quimby;
Newman Laugh-o-Grams: Puss in Boots and Alice's Wonderland
Disney and Iwerks productions, 1922 in Kansas City; very simple animation; studio goes bankrupt over Alice, Walt moves to LA with brother
"Plane Crazy" 1928
Disney and Iwerks; first Mickey Mouse; rough, crude version; very mischievous character; animation is getting smoother, more fluid, and trying new things like POV shots; Distributors were not impressed however, but were eventually convinced when sound came along
Art Babbitt
Disney animator who developed Goofy; predominantly an artist, not an animator, whose attention was caught thanks to the quality of Disney films
Carl Stalling
Disney's composer in the early films and later Silly Symphonies and Merry Melodies
Dancing on the Moon 1935 (same year as Cookie Carnival)
Doesn't have beauty or charm of Silly Symphonies, Fleischer's move to Florida after due to production tax break
Snow White (Betty Boop) 1933
Doesn't make any sense plot-wise, vital and dynamic; Mouth shapes don't match sounds; Cab Calloway sings
Der Fuhrer's Face
Donald Duck propagandistic cartoon; made American audiences uncomfortable to see beloved Donald Duck tortured; same animators as Pink Elephants on Parade; borrowed from assembly line sequence in Modern Times
Bimbo the Dog
During 1930s, Koko becomes old fashioned and associated with silent era, so they make Bimbo the dog; Betty Boop is modeled after his puppy face and becomes the more popular character
Fleischer brothers
Early studio who did a lot of films in the silent era, stranger films; Jewish Viennese family of 5 brothers, but Max and Dave are most important; During the 1930s, they were the one studio unaffected by Disney--continued rubber hose style animation to a new extreme
Out of the Inkwell Inc.
Films released by Paramount, used Rotoscope; use of Koko the Clown; mixed animation and live action; exceptional imagination, cartoony animation; later released an hour long film explaining Einstein's Theory of Relativity; later had Car-tunes, sing-a-longs in theaters with ball bouncing over lyrics
Sinkin in the Bathtub 1930
First Looney Tune, animated by Freleng, pretty rubber hose; similar in style to Steamboat Willie
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces 1906
First animated film,
Gulliver's Travels 1939
Fleischer feature in response to Snow White; more sophisticated story than previous fairy tales; not inspired or in the same league as Snow White; did reasonably well, but not a blockbuster
"You've Gotta Be In Pictures" 1940
Freleng; more slapstick, brash humor; beginning to establish a style of their own
1944-Schlesinger retires, replaced by Selzer
He becomes an enemy to the animators, refuses bull fight cartoon, so they make "Bully for Bugs"
War Time Disney Films
Includes "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips," " Training Montage" "Cleanliness" "Winged Scourge" "The New Spirit"
Hugh Harmon/ Rudy Ising
Kansas City, collaborated w/ Disney;made Boski the Talk-Ink Kid; Schlesinger produces it and it's distributed by Warner Bros Audiences say Bosko is a small black boy, artists claim they don't know what he is, but he's relentlessly cheerful
Bed Time 1923
Koko The Clown cartoon; uses visual imagination but doesn't really tell a great story
Dumbo 1941
Last of prewar/first of wartime Disney films; displays genuine subtle emotion; Pink Elephants sequence (limitlessness of animation)
"Peace On Earth"
MGM's first Oscar nom, Christmas cartoon, very heavy handed
First Motion Picture Unit
Many top animators enlisted in war, joined FMPU in Culver City, ended up doing more animating that studios did at the time
Superman (1940s)
Max received huge budget; "Mechanical Monsters"-homaged in Kill Bill; most sophisticated cartoon produced by their studio
The Sinking of the Lusitania 1918
McCay much darker than Gertie; use of cel animation
Little Nemo by Winsor McCay
McCay=greatest early animator, good w/ perspective; film was made in 1911, 4000 drawings on rice paper; seems to be the beginning of using animatin to do things that humans can't do. The characters stretch, things fall from nowhere, they cant sit comfortably in the mouth of a dragon
"Playful Pluto" 1934
Mickey becoming a HUGE success; in this cartoon, we really begin to see acting in animation; particularly in the flypaper sequence, we see Pluto thinking and considering his options
Chuck Jones
Most eager to experiment with graphics, characters, etc. "One Froggy Evening"-hilarious without dialogue; "Duck Amuck"-highly analyzed, Daffy can exist alone and still be great, very intelligent humor; Rabbit Season trilogy; Roadrunner and Coyote; discovers precise timing of frames to make falling funny
Woody Woodpecker, 1940s
Most popular character of Lantz; torments people for no reason
Poor Cinderella 1934
Only color Betty Boop; first in "Color Classics"-an attempt from Fleischers to be more like Disney at Paramount's request; 2-strip color process is weird looking, acidic, not rich like Disney
"I Haven't Got a Hat"
Porky Pig, same year as Cookie Carnival but not as good quality, but better than Bathtub and Buffalo
Flip the Frog (ended in 1933)
Powers and MGM hoping to challenge Mickey; animated by Iwerks; didn't catch on; Iwerks was very innovative, but didn't have Disney's humor or charm
Leon Schlesinger
Producer who brought Bosko to WB; had no creative input
Hanna and Barbera
Quimby pressured in 1939 to make more films, hires them but didn't want to invest in cat and mouse cartoons; was told that Tom and Jerry were too popular to pass up; they're very successful and parodied today; Jerry featured in Anchors Aweigh dancing with Gene Kelly
Shuffle off to Buffalo, early 30s
Racial stereotypes; nowhere near as advanced as 3 little pigs; story doesn't make a lot of sense; Merrie Melodies cartoon
"Steamboat Willie" 1928
Synchronized sound; fresh, new concept; concrete story; more stylized Mickey
The Old Mill 1937
Test of the 3D effect before using it for Snow White; camera movement up and down, lots of zooming further in; characters have solidity
Harman and Ising Part 2
They get a deal with MGM since Quimby was there and not running things well; made Happy Harmonies there; had a bigger budget but didn't make much better cartoons; redesigned Bosko, just made it more racist;
Colonel Heeza Liar at Bat 1915
Though made in 1915, after Little Nemo, it is much more crude, lacks movement and is not as interesting to watch
Clampitt's Russian Rhapsody
Took Gremlin stories, animated them as caricatures of WB animators as well as Stalin/Hitler
Charles Mintz
Took over Winkler productions after marrying Margaret, convinced Disney to create Oswald the Rabbit
1941 Disney Strike
Walt's inner circle had turned into arbitrary promotions and raises; Art Babbitt discovers how little his assistant makes, Walt told him to mind his own business, Tytla and Babbitt join strike; Babbitt and Disney never speak again; Tytla failed as a peacemaker, leaves and never works successfully again
The Thrifty Pig
War time cartoon reusing Little Pig animation but with wolf in Nazi uniform, bricks made of war bonds
Gertie the Dinosaur 1914
Winsor McCay; character with appealing personality rather than trick films; used in vaudeville acts; nothing would surpass this for 25 years
Ub Iwerks
Worked with Disney early on; Kansas City Ad Company-made ads for theaters; self-taught animators
Friz Freleng
Worked with Disney, then Harmon/Ising on Bosko; discovered by Schlesinger and went on to do Looney Tunes; hired when Harmon and Ising leave and Schlesinger needs animators;