History of Animation Exam 2

Steamboat Willie, 1928

- American film by Disney - innovative sound cartoon that set Disney apart from other studios and animators - launches Disney to stardom - Pat Powers distributed it using Cinephone sound process - premiered at Radio City Music Hall - made cartoon first and then synced/added sound to the picture in post - to sync sound, conductor had to follow animated bouncing ball that kept beat on soundwave alongside film prints - first time ever that someone decided to give certain visuals different, unique sounds that aren't usually associated with the visuals onscreen - a mouse plays music on different animals on the steamboat - established Disney and wowed audiences - Disney gambled with risky and expensive sound on film cartoon and not many theatres were even able to show this cartoon and success of sound was unknown - this gamble led to extreme success - leads to released floor of mickey cartoons like silly symphonies

Claire Parker

- Boston illustrator in terested in Alexieff's work and went to his office in Paris to collaborate; made Night on Bald Mountain in 1933 with Alexieff

Anthony Gross

- British born, austere looking guy who did gentle/art noveau piece - worked with Hector Hopping (finances) - did mainly still illustrations when in military (drew other soldiers) - contracted by military to do commercial/public relations pieces --> turned to fanciful artist like Gross to bring human warmth to their propaganda - Sortied 'Usine (illustration example): industry and factory in background contrasts with floral/feminine model/fashion characters - wife was fashion illustrator - liked to contrast industry with softness - liked the Silly Symphonies

Oswald the Rabbit, 1927

- Disney's character who looked like the early Mickey Mouse - these films become very popular - Margaret J. Winkler and her husband Charles Mintz distribute these cartoons -Disney wanted to renew the contract for these films b/c he's so successful and hopes for a raise due to popularity - Mintz says he'd work with Disney, but not pay him as much - legend has that Disney vowed never to sell another character to someone else, and that he designed his new Mortimer Mouse on the train home (not true b/c Ub Iwerks designed Mortimer and Mrs. Disney changed the name to Mickey)

Flowers and Trees, 1932

- Disney's first technicolor film - started in Black and White, but when offered Technicolor, they restarted it - Technicolor process was the full process with stunning results compared to other processes

Technicolor, 1932

- Disney's next major gamble after sound - 3 strips divided into RGB channels (negatives) turned into CMY positives - Disney awarded exclusive use of this for animation in 1932 so Disney had access before live action

Alice's Wonderland, 1923

- Disney's pilot for a future series - opposite of "Out of the Inkwell" where there's an animated cartoon interacting with the real world; Disney puts a real little girl in an animated world - Disney's last Kansas City film - Little girl visits Disney at animation studios and sees cartoons --> she dreams that she's in a cartoon - Disney's first big break --> he moved to California while finishing it up (he staffs up in Cali)

Betty Boop in Snow White, 1933

- Fleischer Bro's film with Cab Calloway music and dancing with the rotoscope - in the end, Bimbo turns the evil queen inside out and they dance - featured Bimbo and KoKo the clown from "Out of the Inkwell"

A Dream Walking, 1934

- Fleischer bros film - popeye and bluto compete to save olive oil who sleep walks into a construction site - popeye and bluto begin to care more about competition than Olive

Keiichi Hara

- Japenese filmmaker - made Miss Hokusai in 2016

Charles Mintz

- Margaret J. Winkler's husband - takes over operation of distributing cartoons, including Oswald films - Offers to renew Oswald but only if Disney accepts a pay cut - legally owned Oswald and had a deal with Universal Pictures so he hired Walter Lantz to do the cartoons next time - all the fuss was about the name Oswald the Rabbit b/c Lantz's rabbit looked white and more traditional

Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life), 1934, anthony gross

- ____'s French film - fanciful adventure unfolds with two stylish women who go off on playful adventure when one looses a shoe; they're pursued by a man who works at an electrical factory - sexy feel - male perspective on femininity - contrast wild/outgrowth/organic nature world of the women with the industrial/factory of the man - tensions of these two worlds spark this flirtation between the two - art deco geometric background of industry/hard edged masculinity - flowy femininity, floral, nature, jungle - fluid motion, free, fun spirit

Song of Spring, 1931, Noburo Ofuji

- _____'s Japanese film - animation was happening more along Winsor McCay style than Bray style outside of the US (less assembly line) - made for papercraft company - did it to phonograph song --> folk song about culture and the harvest and cherryblossoms - folk art culture - shows that Hollywood style animation is not the world - pink chubby, short cut outs on black background

Oskar Fischinger

- accomplished, German abstract painter, pianist, organ builder - abstract thinker - belonged to book club and created graphic scroll (images) depicting the story arcs of Shakespeare play - used geometric compositions to create abstract films - w/ invention of sound, created visual music or abstract ballet --> makes choreography on film with geometric dancers - interpret abstract events for ear and eye through time; graphic development through time - interested in getting out of world of words and into visual world - strata cut: cut slices of brick of wax and photograph it for organic, swirling texture - acquires motion picture camera and starts experimenting during sound era - made a series of studies (married orchestral music with abstract composition) - Study #7 (black and white visual music) in 1931/32 - hired by Disney to do development on Fantasia; did paint some of the opening (Toccata and Fugue) - didn't last at Disney for long because German guy in America during WWII time and temperamental/fine art guy - his fine art temperament conflicted with Disney and delicate politicking required in Hollywood to survive - did a paramount film, The Big Broadcast of 1937 - did Allegretto in 1936/43

The Golden Age, 1930s/1940s

- caliber of character animation grew spectacularly, largely due to Disney - animation grew economically in the 1930s but died down in the 40s with the advent of TV and people choosing that over the movies - blockbooking (films paid for as a package of films so theatres could do this and show several movies so films' individual success not so economically tracked) - 1950s we see demand for theatrical cartoon short diminish and die so era before is the hey days - bombshell that is Steamboat Willie - Invention of Technicolor - flood of Mickey cartoons like Silly Symphonies - mickey turned into nice, smiling character; friendly icon of the studio made him less interesting as a character b/c couldn't do anything controversial - characters surrounding mickey become more interesting like Donald Duck; so mickey was strengthened in the 30s by the combo of characters he was paired with - Disney invested in training his employees to grow studio and the industry amazingly/hugely; this made the studio capable of a feature film - Disney invested in making their work golden --> led to stellar improvement from steamboat willie to snow white within just 9 years

Tex Avery

- came from Warner Bro.s to MGM studios in 1942 - at Warner, set Bug Bunny's personality when directed A Wild Hare -established wackier, wilder, raunchier, slapstick style comedy at MGM -pushed Hanna & Barbera to make films faster paced -played with surrealism and twisted/turned cartoon universes, pushing the realm of the impossible -broke the 4th wall to play with audiences -whimsical twists of cartoon impossibility done in realistic way -directed Red Hot Riding Hood in 1943 -not in search of creating cartoon stars -used characters as props for his gags -only cartoon star he made was Droopy Dog in Roger Rabbit -Chuck Jones started as an animator under him at Schleisinger studios -peaked during early 40s to mid 50s -washes up at Walter Lantz studio in 50s

Puss in Boots, 1922

- cartoon with dialogue bubbles - nothing spectacular about it - copy of felix the cat - beginning of Disney's fairytale adaptations - boy gets kicked out by angry dad when he tries to flirt with a girl

Princess Iron-Fan, 1941

- chinese film directed by two of the four Wan brothers (Wan Laiming and Duchan) - Laiming had western education from U Mich. and had worldly perspective - Done during Japanese occupation of China - Monkey King saves burning town through some trickery and deceit, using princess' magical fan to put it out - Sun Wukong, money king, turns self into a ladybug and flies into princess' stomach to torture her into giving up the fan -blends western and eastern methods and styles - reminiscent of fleischer creations - chinese traditional story in western discipline

Wan Laiming and Duchan

- directed Princess Iron-Fan in 1941 - taught themselves how to animate from 1922 - made shorts reminiscent of out of the inkwell

Three Little pigs, 1933

- directed by Burt Gillett but he was more of a producer b/c Disney was still alive and very hands on - comic updating of the fable - made during great depression; thus movies offered cheap escapism - the hit song "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf" resonated with many people in the great depression who needed inspiration to not fear and stand up - very successful film - Don Graham had arrived to disney company so animation was better, especially character and personality - characters look similar but behave differently

The Band Concert, 1935

- directed by Wilfred Jackson - gags and jokes are becoming better timed/working better - better at getting gags to read with frame composition to draw our eyes to what they want us to see when they want us to see it for good comedic timing - barnyard symphony orchestra - getting so good at directing our eyes with subtle actions - mickey conducting william tell's overture and donald keeps getting in the way to switch the song to turkey in the straw with his flute - coordinated changes in music style/tone/songs with visuals - summon tornado with "storm" part of song - jokes done pefectly

Hell Bent for Election, 1944, Chuck Jones, UPA

- film directed by _______ at _____ studios - work for hire project for union of united autoworkers (UAW) - during time of Franklin D. Roosevelt for re-election vs. Dewey - UAW wanted to make sure people voted b/c Dewey wasn't friendly to unions like FDR - director moonlighted on this while working at Warner bros b/c so invested in this election too - more mature graphic - simple, clean style animation - featured music by Kip Harburg to inspire people - Candidates were depicted as trains racing to Washington

Night on Bald Mountain, 1933

- film made by Alexander Alexieff and Claire Parker in France - music by Mussorgsky - used pinscreen technique (arranging and rearranging thousands of pins so when light shined on it, leads to variations form black to white) - Dali-esque with surreal flow - dark and creepy figures like man who takes off head, mouths, dead horse that gets up - becomes lyrical when bells toll at lake scene

Walt Disney

- first major event is Steamboat Willie - tried to enlist in arm services but too young; worked driving ambulance for Red Cross during WWII - born in Chicago and raised in Kansas - worked gig to gig e.g. at Pesman Rubin Art Studio -met Iwerks at Pesman and went with him to work at Kansas City Film Ad. Co.

Vitaphone Machine, 1927, Warner brothers

- first sound machine - used for "Jazz Singer" film with first spoken words "You ain't seen nothing yet" - record player and projector synced together and was a smash hit - very fragile and easy to mess up

MGM

- high budget cartoons with top talent - took a lot of people who left Disney (Rudolph Ising and Hugh Harman who followed Disney from kentucky to Cali, switched to Schleisinger and then here) - have Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera - did 1940 film Puss Gets the Boot --> Tom & Jerry - Fred Quimby - producer - Tex Avery came here in 1942 - Red Hot Riding Hood, 1943 - broke the 4th wall, played with audiences, gags of impossibility that take advantage of illogical cartoon world -raunchy, slapstick

Leon Schlesinger Productions

- not animator but brought animators together - brought Friz Freleng, Rudolf Ising, and Hugh Harman from Disney - brought in Tex Avery (would refine early bugs bunny after invented by guy named bugs), Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin (would go to MGM) to direct - was producing for Warner Brother's Studios until bought by them in 1944 - tries to compete with Disney - starts by trying to do Disney's cuteness but decide to leave that to Disney and do their own rowdy/more slapstick comedy - do Bugs Bunny with 1940 A Wild Hare

Don Graham, 1932

- of the Chauinard Institute (later CAL arts) - brought in by Disney to train animators - brought in in _________ - he invented how to learn about animation and what the goals of animation should be - sometimes they'd draw from still model and sometimes from moving model so animators could observe movement and learn how this teaches about the character; action analysis class - looked at how athletes/dancers moved - looked at comedies e.g. Chaplin to study his mannerisms and movement/timing and how this affects storytelling - led to stellar improvement from steamboat willie to snow white in only 9 years

Margaret J. Winkler

- shapes how theatrical business of animated film forms - distributed Felix the Cat films, Out of the Inkwell films, and the Alice Comedies - she picks up the Alice Comedies and asks Disney to make more (1924 - 1927)

Fleischer studio

- studio run by brothers (Max was producer and Dave was director) - pushed visuals off the deep end into trippy area - biggest competition to Disney - founded in 1920s as "Out of the Inkwell" Productions - got kicked out of their own studio by Paramount in 1941 - heyday was from 1932- 1941 - created Betty Boop (started as a dog in "Out of the Inkweel" cartoons as love interest for Bimbo; turned into a woman; pre-haze sexiness; innocent, naive, vampy) - acquired Popeye (crunchiness, urban quality, first appeared in 1933 Betty Boop cartoon) - not trying to be pretty, but gritty - studio stayed in NY for most of time until booted to Miami - was across from Brill Music building and Tin Pan Alley with musical influence - they play catch up with Disney with Gulliver's Travels in 1939, but they lack the finesse and skills of Disney - they do 1941 Mr. Big Goes to Town - briefly competed with Disney but quickly vanished when bit off more than they could chew and struggled financially

U.P.A (United productions of America)

- studio was originally called the industrial film and poster -small, scrappy studio that started to come together in early 1940s ( in part b/c talent fleeing Disney Studios b/c strike) -Initially was a work-for-hire studio and largely freelance -work-for-hire films like education, military, etc. -got connected with Columbia Studio -Did Mr. Magoo with Columbia -did 1941 Hell Bent for Election

Alexander Alexieff

- successful Russian engraver - did engraving for Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" - sought after to do dramatic, realistic etchings for publications - collaborated with Claire Parker in Paris (led to relations) - accomplished anatomist - worked well with lights and shadows, so not interested in sacrificing this detail for colorful/Disney cell animation - appreciated what Disney did but it wasn't for him - wanted to find a way to create animation from his detailed etchings - invented pin screen - made Night on Bald Mountain in 1933 with Claire Parker - didn't want studio set up; wanted hands on approach of his own

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, 1937

- technically directed by David Hand but really by DIsney - preliminary work began in 1934 - No one thought a cartoon could possibly hold someone's attention for length of a feature; everyone thought this would be Disney's folly - Disney thought if they could get their technical skills, storytelling, and craftsmanship down, they could hold interest/attention for a feature - disney thought they'd get into features or they'd fold - this led disney to become king of feature animations - amazing that disney could get us emotionally interested and invested in the story and fate of a drawing (scared of queen and sad for snow's death) - geniuses at doing what they do beautifully and dressing what they still need to work on (e.g. cloudy mirror) - staging/attention to detail with spiderwebs in foreground in dungeon to give depth - shows enormous improvement in short amount of time

Puss Gets the Boot, 1940, hanna, barbera, ising, harman, mgm

- won academy award for best cartoon -directed by ____ and _____, produced by _____ and ______ at _______ studios -mouse gets cat, Jasper, in trouble for breaking glasses/dishes -launched the future Tom & Jerry series

Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera

-directed Puss Gets the Boot in 1940, leading to Tom & Jerry -worked on Tom & Jerry series for 17 years -worked at MGM studios

Red Hot Riding Hood, 1943, Tex Avery, MGM

-directed by ___ at ______ studios -wolf/grandma/red riding hood stop the traditional storytelling, confront narrator, and demand new story -raunchy, hollywood version of red riding hood where wolf pursues sexualized red at a strip club, which causes him to follow her to her grandma's penthouse, where grandma pursues wolf -gags take advantage of cartoon illogical world e.g. elevator jumps buildings, wolf runs until he turns into his car, etc.

Animated Cartoons, Edmund Lutz

A book that Disney was fascinated with about animation and who the book was by

Der Fuerher's Face, 1942

American anti-nazi cartoon; depicts donald duck as german citizen under Nazi rule, living miserable lifestyle; donald doesn't like restriction he's living under; donald wakes up relieved it was all a dream and he's in america

Hector Hoppin

Anthony Gross's American born collaborator and financial component

Elzie Segar

Created Popeye for Thimble Theatre; popular with the theatre so Fleischer bros bought him

Isadore (Friz) Freleng

Disney animator who later animates bugs bunny and Looney Toons characters at Warner Bros

Art Babbit

Disney animator who was top paid ($500/week) and still striked in 1941

1941

Disney strike occurred during this year because Snow White brought in so much revenue, and the reward for this film (both monetarily and through recognition/credit) was not evenly distributed

Fred Newman

Disney's first client; ran theatres; Disney did lightning sketch ads (e.g. one about stockings, get crime out, better and newer police) for these theatres

Fred Harman

Disney's first employee who he teamed up with along with Iwerks

Laughogram productions

Disney's original production company that did lightning sketches for Newman theatres; did short modern retellings of fairytales (Puss in Boots); eventually they can't afford to keep the Newman films running so they pull the plug

Alice Comedies, 1924 - 1927

Disney's tv series about a real little girl in an animated world

Plane Crazy, 1928

First Mickey Mouse movie but had no sound and was possibly distributed after Steamboat Willie

Study #7, 1931/1932

Fischinger's black and white film; we're seeing white shapes on black paper but it's a negative b/c used charcoal on white paper originally; quiet music means smaller shapes and louder music means larger shapes; visually the shapes and images mirror the sound

Mr. Big Goes to Town, 1941

Fleischer Bro's attempt to compete with Disney; bit off more than they could chew b/c cash flow issues; Paramount agreed to give them an advance on their money to do this film as long as the bros signed undated resignation letters just in case; this film started sinking the studio; released in Dec 1941 (D-Day) so people not going to movies and no possibility for overseas distribution

Momotaro's Sea Eagle, 1942, Matsuyo Seo

Japanese film by ________; fictionalized story of Pearl Harbor; commissioned by Japanese ministry of the navy; film doesn't say pearl harbor or America but implies it; American bluto-like character that hero defeats; contemplative, solemn mood; hypnotic and distressing; momotaro leads planes to attack demon island; demon sailors all look alike and bluto is a drunk

Miss Hokusai, 2016

Keiichi Hara's film about O-Ei, who is an artist's daughter and learning to paint herself; her parents are divorced; her little sister is blind; her dad is a drunk; non-structured plot; stream of conscious; subtle emotion; discovering sexuality and sensuality for her work

Fred Quimby

MGM producer despised by the directors/artists

Allegretto, 1936/43

Oskar Fischinger's film; layering shapes like radiating circles with color; matching color and shapes and sizes to sound; wanted to do this film in color and Paramount said only black and white so went to MGM and then to Disney; printed it in color using gaspar color process and his own money; done in America

Cinephone, 1927

Pat Power's process of adding sound to film that he used for Steamboat Willie in 1928

Soyuzmult film, 1936

Russian animation studio; did educational and children's films; propaganda films as war progressed; did "Fascist Boots on Our Homeland" in 1941

Industrial Film and Poster

UPA, United Productions of America, original name

Pat Powers

agreed to distribute Steamboat Willie cartoons; movietone process was patented so used his own cinephone process (1927) to add sound

Norm Ferguson

animated the wolf in The Three Little Pigs and the haggish evil queen in Snow White; really good at pantomime and so you can see what his characters are thinking about without them speaking; visuals are strong with personality; best pluto animator; not great at drawing consistency and accuracy with volume; as studio became more sophisticated/focused more on draftsmanship, he came less of a good fit for co.

Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Isadore Freleng

animators who worked for Disney at Laughogram productions; got their start in Kansas City with Disney in the early 1920s

Pinscreen, 1932 - 1935

brick full of black nails that you pushed through white board and shined light on to create cast shadows; creates different ranges of grey and lights depending on how much the nails are pushed through the board; invented by Alexander Alexieff; like pixel by pixel animation; white is no pins pushed through and black is pin pushed all the way through; Alexieff approached this as a fine artist who does etchings and wants to do work with values and tonal range of what he's used to; wanted lights and shadings available in engravings

Droopy Dog

cartoon star in Roger Rabbit; only cartoon star created by Tex Avery

Wilfred Jackson

directed The Band Concert in 1935

Burt Gillett

directed Three Little Pigs in 1933

Education for Death, 1942/1943

film about german kids being brainwashed into Nazis in school; disney film; attempt to dehumanize german civilians so people don't feel so bad about civilian deaths during WWII; shows nazis dehumanizing their children

A Wild Hare, 1940, Tex Avery, Schlesinger

film where Bugs Bunny was paired with Elmer Fudd; bugs gets carried away with being mischievous and messing around with Elmer and so instead of getting away, he stays around to mess with him; directed by ______ at __________ studio; counter reaction to Disney's snow white and cuteness/realism as they head towards rowdy/slapstick

Blockbooking

films paid for as a package of films so theatres could do this and show several movies so films' individual success not so economically tracked

1917

first animated films started in Japan were in ______; started with cutout animation and blockstyle animation

Jazz Singer, 1927

first spoken words in a film; warner bros film

Kansas City Film Ad Co.

helps put bug of animated features in Disney's mind; Disney did illustrated ads for films here; Disney allowed to experiment with their camera when they weren't using it

Walter Lantz

hired by Charles Mintz to do Oswald cartoons after Disney left due to pay cut

Bugs Bunny

invented by guy named bugs and refined by Tex Avery

Ubbe (Ub) Iwerks

met Disney at Pesman Rubin Art Studio and together went to work at Kansas City Film Ad. Co.; designed Mickey Mouse similar to Oswald after lost Oswald

Mortimer Mouse

original name of Mickey Mouse before Mrs. Disney changed it

Momotaro

peach boy; japanese legend of a little boy who is discovered in a peach floating down a river by an old married couple who couldn't bare children of their own

Disney

person who believes: - not duty of animation to replicate real life; however, in order to properly create believable fantasy, we must first understand the real - duty of animation is to give life to characters

Movietone, 1925, theodore case

process of sound in film that put sound right on the same film as the picture using an optical soundtrack; never lose sync; can print sound and picture together in the film lab; invented by ______

Fascist Boots on Our Homeland, 1941, soyuzmult film

russian film against Nazis; soviet heroes; by ______ studio

Shanghai Animation Co., 1957

started by 3/4 of the Wan brothers in China who became principle figures at this studio

David Hand

technically directed Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937

Toccata and Fugue

the opening of Fantasia that Oskar Fischinger did

Thimble theatre

theatre where Elzie Segar debuted Popeye

1932

year that Don Graham arrived at Disney

1942

year that Tex Avery came to MGM studios

1944

year that warner bro's bought leon schlesinger productions