Publisher’s Note

The quality of the images in Animation Art varies considerably, with some, particularly in the early part of
the book being quite poor. This is largely due to the availability of suitable illustrations, as many of the
studios mentioned in the text either no longer exist or have not kept copies of the films included. A large
amount of picture research, using a wide range of sources. was undertaken in order to find images to
illustrate over 100 years of animation from all round the world, resulting in the variation in image quality
evident in the book.

Publisher and Creative Director: Nick Wells

General Editor: Jerry Beck
Commissioning Editor: Polly Willis
Consultant Editor: Will Ryan
Picture Researcher: Melinda Révész
Designer: Mike SpenderDigital Manager: Chris Herbert

Special thanks to: Karen Fitzpatrick, Sarah Goulding, Chris Herbert,

Beverley Jollands, Sara Robson, Rita Street, Helen Tovey.

FLAME TREE PUBLISHING

Crabtree Hall, Crabtree Lane
Fulham, London SW6 6TY
United Kingdom
www.flametreepublishing.com
blog.flametreepublishing.com

First digital publication 2015

Original print publication 2004

© 2015 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted,

FROM PENCIL TO PIXEL, THE HISTORY
in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. OF CARTOON, ANIME & CGI
The CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
General Editor: Jerry Beck
Print ISBN: 978 1 84451 140 5
Digital ISBN: 978 1 78136 206 8 Forewords: Jeffrey Katzenberg & Bill Plympton
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders.
Authors:
We apologize in advance for any omissions and would be pleased to insert the
Ryan Ball, Jerry Beck, Rick DeMott, Harvey Deneroff, David Gerstein, Frank Gladstone,
appropriate acknowledgment in subsequent editions of this publication.
Tom Knott, Andrew Leal, George Maestri, Michael Mallory, Mark Mayerson, Harry McCracken,
Dewey McGuire, Jan Nagel, Fred Patten, Ray Pointer, Pat Raine Webb, Chris Robinson,
Will Ryan, Keith Scott, Adam Snyder, Graham Webb
4 CONTENTS 5
CONTENTS

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Snow White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 UPA is Formed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Animation Festivals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Independents Grow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 The Simpsons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Color Classics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 New Faces at Termite Terrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Western Europe Western Europe Prime-Time TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
FOREWORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 TV Toons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Competing With Disney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Characters & Animators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Richard Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 René Laloux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Happy Harmonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Tex Avery at MGM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Allegro Non Troppo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Cable Toons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Eastern Europe
Hollywood Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Hollywood Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Cartoons for Grown-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
I Crusader Rabbit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Zagreb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Multitude of Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Western Europe
Western Europe Jiri Trinka & Karel Zamen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Eastern Europe
THE ORIGIN OF THE ART The Aardman Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Oskar Fischinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Western Europe Bulgaria, Poland & Estonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Pannonia Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Opener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 George Pal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 La Rosa di Baghdad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Clay Makes Hay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Asia Asia Great Britain in the 1990s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
North America Hoppin, Gross & Lye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Paul Grimault & Jean Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
An Animation Industry Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Sci-Fi & Puppets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
The Father of Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe
Winsor McCay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Australia Prague in the 1990s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Soviet Animators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 The Zagreb Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
New York Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Asia Russian Delights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 VIII Finding an Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Cartoons Down Under. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Asia
Early Studios & Their Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 1961–70: INTERNATIONAL EXPLOSION Anime in the 1990s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
The War Clouds Thicken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Asia
The Beginnings of Disney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Asia Arises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Starting Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Western Europe
North America
X Animation From Other Nations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Emilie Cohl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 IV Week After Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS
George Studdy & Bonzo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA VI The Peak of Prime-Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 XII
European Pioneers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Opener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 1950–55: CARTOONS MATURE TV Players. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 THE NEW CENTURY
North America
Eastern Europe North America Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 TV Superheroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Tron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Polish & Soviet Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Disney’s Wartime Shorts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 North America DePatie Freleng & Pink Panther . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Pixar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 North America
Asia Disney’s Wartime Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 United Productions of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 The Disney Studio: After Walt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 TV Wakes Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 CGI Victorious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Early Asian Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Daffy Duck & Bugs Bunny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 UPA: The Magoo Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Walt Disney’s Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Feature Revival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Monsters, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Avery, Jones & Clampett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Disney Returns to Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 John & Faith Hubley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 The New Disney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Finding Nemo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Friz Freleng & Frank Tashlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Alice & Peter Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 John & James Whitney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
II Cartoons Go to War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Widescreen & 3-D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
1980s Independents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Music TV & Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
DreamWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Blue Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Western Europe
EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE George Pal’s Puppetoons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Chuck Jones in His Prime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Yellow Submarine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Western Europe Contemporary TV Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Opener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Wise Guys Emerge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Ray Harryhausen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 TVC’s Masterpiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Small-Screen Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Channel 4 & Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
North America Woody Woodpecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 National Film Board of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Bruno Bozzetto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 The Quay Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 The Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Walt Disney & Mickey Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Fox and Crow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Telecomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Astérix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 CGI Takes the Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
A Cauldron of Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Silly Symphonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 NFB: The Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Industrial-Strength Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 The Lord of the Rings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe
Early Sound Motion Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 The Magic of Norman McClaren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Western Europe Western Europe
Zagreb Film: A Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Pannonia Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Walter Lantz & Paul Terry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Western Europe Creating Animal Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Zagreb in the 1960s: Moving On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 British Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Poland, Bulgaria & Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Warner Bros.: Early Successes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Halas & Batchelor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Halas & Batchelor’s Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Pannonia Film Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 European Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Estonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Van Beuren & Charles Mintz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 David Hand & British Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Mr Wonderbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Gene Deitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Eastern Europe
Ub Iwerks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Asia
Hans Fischerkosen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Eastern Europe: Soviet Expansion & Maturity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Eastern Europe & Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Growth in All Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Estonian Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Western Europe Eastern Europe Bulgaria & Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Asia Miyazaki & Otomo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
European Ingenuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Soviet Propaganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 An Explosion of Anime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Asia
Asia: New Generation China in the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Eastern Europe Osamu Tezuka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Anime into the New Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Asia Commercial vs. Artistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Korea in the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Hungarian Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Havoc In Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Small-Screen Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Animation for The War Effort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The New and the Traditional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Asia The First Animated Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
The Slide Toward War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
VII XI Japan and America: Co-Production . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
1956–60: TO THE TUBE IX 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE India: Animation is Burgeoning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
V Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 1971–79: ANIMATION FOR GROWN-UPS Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Web & Flash Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
III 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA
North America Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 North America
Television Animation: Co-Production . . . . . . . . . . . 378
1934–39: TECHNICOLOR FANTASIES Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 North America Disney Strikes Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
TV or Not TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Opener. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 North America Changing The Face of Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Ralph Bakshi & Fritz The Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Digital Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 REFERENCE
North America New Directions for Disney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Gene Deitch at Terrytoons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Saturday Morning Blues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Pixar & Toy Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Walt Disney & The Gang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Disney Moves On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 TV Commercials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 The Great White North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Feature Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Author Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
6 7

INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
Animation art is well over 100 years old. Long before cinema, as far back as 1650, artists created a series We have assembled an international team of animation authorities to tell the tales behind
of glass lantern slides which were projected sequentially, to create a storyline and a primitive illusion of a the toons. The story is told in chronological sequence with choice images that enhance its history. Our
moving image. In the 1800s, hand-drawn animation was created for viewing through mechanical devices writers are passionate about their areas of expertise, and the end result makes a complete, concise
and optical toys such as the zoetrope (1834) and the praxinoscope (1877). Motion picture film originated chronicle of an artform’s legacy. From popular Disney characters to obscure personal films, it is all covered:
in 1895, and before long, creative magicians and cartoonists began making “trick films," moving inanimate Hollywood hits and Japanese anime, as well as Russian masterpieces and Asian artfilms. Looking it over,
objects in front of stop-frame movie cameras and producing animation for early twentieth-century it’s quite a wild ride.
audiences. During the last decade of the twentieth century, we have seen the tools of animation change The art of animation has been used to create triumphs and trivia. It has been
radically. Computer equipment has replaced virtually everything (including the camera) that was once commercialized, industrialized, sold on ebay, hung in galleries, celebrated on T-shirts and been admired
used to make such classic animation as Pinocchio, Gerald McBoing Boing or Yogi Bear. But, one thing has and desired by young and old. So whether you prefer Snow White or Akira, Looney Tunes or South Park,
not changed: the imagination of the artists who create the art. Animators, painters, sculptors and designers just remember they are all related by an art-form that is alive and has evolved – and continues to thrive.
are indispensable to giving birth to an animated project and seeing it through. Imagination is the most
Jerry Beck, General Editor
valuable part of the process.
Animated films are as varied as the film-makers who craft them. The earliest pioneers, Emile
Cohl, J. Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay, brought a personal style to their groundbreaking animated
short films. A century later, animation is still produced by personal filmmakers, as well as huge
entertainment corporations. The only characteristic they all have in common is a moving image, created
one frame at a time. No matter who is producing it, or what tools are used, audiences are still enthralled by Editorial Note
animation art. As the book has been compiled by a number of authors, a decision was made early on that rather than
I was caught by the animation bug, as many of us were, as a child. I accepted animated conform each contributor’s text to a homogenous style, the individual voices of the authors should be
characters as if they were real. Their colorful cartoon world was clearly a better place than my family’s allowed to be heard. This approach not only reflects the gallimaufric nature of the subject, but, it is hoped by
dreary apartment house in Queens. I wanted to be part of that world. the impersonal Editorial Us, makes for a more enjoyable “read".
So I studied cartoons, comic books and animation. I enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in
Will Ryan, Consultant Editor
Manhattan, attended festivals, researched the history of animation and met with film-makers. While I
never became an animator myself, it has been my great pleasure to be part of the international animation
community – my true family – through my writings, my websites and various professional activities
(which involve DVD compilations, tribute screenings and animation production).
This book showcases the varied and wonderful world of animation: the movie magic created
by the human eye and the brain’s persistence of vision. From pencils and paper, ink and paint, to clay,
sand, puppets and pinscreens – and now with the computer – animation continues to entertain, enlighten
and endure. This book recounts its international history, from the first primitive short films to the latest
high-tech blockbuster events.
8 9

FO R E W O R D
FO R E W O R D

FOREWORD FOREWORD
The Independent Animator
The Studio Owner
Everything that I know about animation I learned from Walt Disney. Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but I don’t think so. What I was first aware of animation at around the age of four or five, when I first saw Daffy Duck – and even though I was constantly
I mean is that the fundamental approach to this craft and this business are contained in Disney’s genius. But without all the facts, I drawing, that’s when I decided to be an animator.
would know little of his story and would be much less of a film-maker myself. Animation Art provides an unequivocal opportunity to I soon became a card-carrying member of the Mickey Mouse Club, and I would watch Walt Disney Presents every
study not only Walt Disney, but also the other great lights and pioneering efforts that have preceded all of us who will read this book. Sunday night, hoping they would feature animation, and praying they would show the animators working on the newest
We all need to take with us, as part of our ongoing quest to create something new, what has gone before. That said, Disney projects. I loved watching the greats like Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball or Fred Moore talking about how they made the
honoring the people and events that have made our history is, I think, more difficult now than it was some years ago. Today’s drawings come alive.
technological advances move so fast and are capable of so much that, in our effort to keep up, we may tend to ignore or simply forget I was so excited, this is what I wanted to do! I sent off a batch of my crude cartoons to them, hoping to get a job
about our own foundations. And that is why this book is so important. The truth is that those fundamental principles and goals that – but they wrote back, saying I was “too young, come back in 10 years."
drove all of animation’s pioneers and, hopefully, continues to drive us today, are exactly the same now as they have always been. By the time I graduated from college, the animation studio system was almost gone – the only opportunities
We need to study animation’s roots, not only to learn what these principles are but also to take them to heart in were with Hanna-Barbera, and I hated their stuff, too much talking and no visual humor. So, I spent 15 years as a political and
our own lives. It seems to me that, with the rush of amazing progress in how we make films, it is ever more important to remind gag cartoonist.
ourselves also of why. It wasn’t until 1985 that I was finally able to attain my childhood dream. I had just completed this very weird
In fact, if history is anything, it is the story of "why". Why the impulse to tell stories, or emotionally connect with short film called Your Face. It was about this boring looking guy who sang a cornball song while his face did strange things.
people, or leave a legacy? Maybe we do this to oblige that intriguing, age-old notion of conjuring something from life, out of The first public screening was at an ASIFA competition in New York. The audience was filled with the top
nothing … to animate. professionals of New York animation. I sat in the back, hiding my face, because the film is a very stupid film and it had no plot,
In this book you may find some of the reasons why. You will certainly find the passion struggle and disaster, plus it was done in a very low-tech way with colored pencils.
celebration and innovation, folly, intrigue, drama, tragedy, humor and heroism, both sung and unsung, and uncompromising After about two seconds of the beginning of the short, the whole audience started laughing – and as they kept on
devotion… all done in the name of storytelling and convincing people that what is initially lifeless, lines on paper, an armatured laughing a warm surge in my body started, similar to a drug rush, and I seemed to float off my seat. There were two reasons, I
puppet, pixels on a computer screen, becomes, in some magical way, truly alive! believe, for this wonderful experience:
For me, it is a privilege and a responsibility to remember who and what has gone before, to really know the stories, 1. All of my dreams as a kid of becoming an animator had actually been realized. How many children, when they
take lessons from them and bring that knowledge into the future. My hope is that, one day, other people will feel the same way are young, have dreams of becoming a cowboy, or astronaut, or star athlete, and what percentage end up doing something less
about those of us who are making animated films now. While it is an amazing thing to have the opportunity to create films and exciting? Well, it seemed at that moment that my childhood dream was becoming a reality.
to bring these enormous enterprises to the world, it is something entirely different and entirely more rare to have our work 2. I’d never heard people laugh at my drawings before, simply because they had always been in print. But now
remembered and considered part of the continuing evolution of an art form. that I was in the audience, with my drawings 20 feet high, moving and speaking, I could hear all the laughter surround me. I
I hope that what you will read in Animation Art will intrigue you and make you want to know more about the men was hooked!
and women for whom creating animation has been the essential adventure. Perhaps you’ll identify with them and, whether you And the most wonderful part of my profession is that every time I sit in the audience and hear people laugh and
work in animation yourself, love the art form or are just picking this book up to pass the time, you’ll be able to see a little of your applaud one of my creations (and it’s not always the case) I get that same weightless high that I experienced during the very
own enthusiasm and creative drive in their stories. first screening of Your Face.
Enjoy this book!
Bill Plympton, 2004
Jeffrey Katzenberg, 2004 Oscar-nominated animator and one-time cartoonist for the New York Times and National Lampoon
Co-founder of DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, and executive producer of Shrek 2
 I

THE

ORIGIN OF THE ART

The early days of animation were filled with invention and novelty – on screen
and behind the scenes. This was an era of experimentation, where techniques
were created and refined. Brave newspaper cartoonists attempted to adapt their
pen and ink creations to the moving screen – and most of them succeeded beyond their
wildest dreams.
Standardization of production methods was quickly established, and then the
storytellers, artists and film-makers took over. At first they told jokes, then proceeded to
telling stories with original characters, classic fables and comic-strip adaptations. They tried
live-action combined with animation, stop-motion, pixilation, silhouette animation, sound
cartoons and color. They then made documentaries, instructional films and pure visual art.
But it was not easy….
Winsor McCay drew complete scenes – background settings and moving
characters – for every frame of motion-picture film, and there were 24 frames per second.
Earl Hurd improved upon this by drawing characters individually on celluloid (cels) over
static background paintings. Raoul Barré created registration pegs so animators’ drawings
would align under the camera. Otto Messmer animated characters that could think, while
Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks gave their cartoon drawings real personality.
It was the beginning of a new visual medium where anything was possible. In
those pioneer days before sound, the artists sharpened their skills and created an industry.

Picture above: Bonzo © George Ernest Studdy Pictures clockwise from top left: Fitz © Fleischer Studio; Gertie the Dinosaur, Winsor McCay; Farmer Al Falfa, Paul Terry/J.R. Bray Productions; Walter Lantz, J.R. Bray Productions; Gertie the Dinosaur, Winsor McCay; Bonzo © George Ernest Studdy; Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
© The Walt Disney Company; Winsor McCay & group, Winsor McCay. Centre picture: Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger
12 THE FATHER OF ANIMATION 13

"The Father of Animation" is an impressive title. But is there

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In 1896 Blackton interviewed Thomas Edison and landed a position as a

Blackton, Stuart J. and Smith, Albert E., producers / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1900

Blackton, Stuart J. and Smith, Albert E., producers / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1900
such an individual? And if so, who might that person be? rapid-drawing cartoonist for a series of Edison shorts, beginning with Edison Drawn by
World Artist. Blackton and Smith soon became exhibitors and, later, producers of motion
The Contenders pictures, ultimately forming the American Vitagraph Company in 1900. In that same
Ask the man on the street and you are likely to hear the name Walt Disney (1901–66): year Blackton again became the star of a cartoon-related series, appearing this time as
an important figure in animation history to be sure, but decidedly a late-comer to the the lead character in the live-action Happy Hooligan films based on Fred Opper’s popular
game. The more learned may reasonably suggest Emile Reynaud (1844–1918), comic strip creation.
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

II: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

creator of the Théâtre Optique, or, stretching the definition of animation a little, Georges
Méliès (1861–1933). Although none of the surviving prints of Méliès’ many special- Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
effects "trickfilms" feature what we now think of as film animation (i.e. frame-by-frame Blackton’s 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is often cited as the first
hand drawings), we certainly see him "animating" many surprising objects in the movies animated cartoon, in that, among its many trick effects, it includes a bit of frame-by-
that have survived. As early as 1900, in his film Le Livre Magique (‘The Magic Book’), we Enchanted Drawing (above and below) frame drawn animation from its chalkboard characters. Blackton’s Haunted Hotel used
witness the magician/artist/film-maker transform his lightning sketches into Blackton was an early pioneer of the special effect. In Enchanted Enchanted Drawing – head stop-motion animation and was a sensation in Paris upon its 1907 release.
living people. Drawing, made for Thomas Edison in 1900, he utilized the The film is complete: a hat has been donned, wine has been Following the international success
One could point toward pioneer narrative film-maker Edwin S. Porter and of Emil Cohl’s animated films, Blackton produced

Blackton, J. Stuart, producer and animator / Vitagraph, 1906

stop-motion technique to achieve the film’s "magical effects". drunk and a cigar has been smoked.

his use of stop-motion dolls in his short, The 'Teddy' Bears (1907). A stronger argument two more animated trickfilms
has been made for the nomination of Emile Cohl (1857-1938). Cohl's work with stop- in 1909: The Magic Fountain
motion puppets and animated objects, special effects, comic strips makes him a true film Pen (in which he again appears
pioneer and visionary. But Cohl's greatest contribution was that of being the first to make as the artist) and Princess
an animated film using drawings on paper. His breakthrough Fantasmagorie (1908), Nicotine, which owes much to
and the first cartoon series, The Newlyweds (1913) established his reputation as one of Cohl’s earlier Les Allumettes
Blackton, Stuart J. and Smith, Albert E., producers / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1900
the medium’s true parents. Animees. Increasingly busy
If we confine our search to film, however, we may also consider Leon running Vitagraph, and later Vitaphone, Blackton’s final credited
Gaumont (1864-1946), who was awarded a French patent for stop-motion animation work on an animated production was as director of the live-action
(stopping and starting the camera while a change is made in the scene being filmed) Humorous Phases of Funny Faces footage for Winsor McCay’s 1911 film Gertie the Dinosaur.
in 1900. Or, again leaving aside strict definitions of the term "animation", what of the Humorous Phases of Funny Faces featured an His many credits as a director, producer, motion
ancient art of puppetry? And, going back even further in time, some would claim that Enchanted Drawing artist’s hand drawing the faces of a man and a picture magazine publisher, governor of the Academy of Motion
the first "animated" art appeared on the walls of prehistoric caves. To them, the The artist in Enchanted Drawing draws lightning sketches of a woman with chalk. The faces begin to interact: the Picture Arts and Sciences, and industry leader and spokesman
anonymous painter of Nude Bison Descending a Staircase or some such primitive face, cigars, a hat, a bottle of wine, and then appears to remove man blows cigar smoke and tips his hat. To achieve tend to overshadow his early work as a cartoonist, vaudevillian and
masterpiece that delineated motion would properly hold the title of “The Father (or them as real objects – all possible thanks to the trickfilm this movement, Blackton used a combination of maker of trickfilms. One thing, however, is certain. Regardless of
Mother) of Animation”. whether J. Stuart Blackton can

Blackton, J. Stuart, producer and animator / Vitagraph, 1906

Blackton, J. Stuart, producer and animator / Vitagraph, 1906

technique of stop-motion first used by George Méliès and others. chalk drawings and cut-outs.

To make it appear that his drawings moved, be considered the one and only
J. Stuart Blackton Blackton would make changes to them between "Father of Animation", he
One name, J. Stuart Blackton (1875–1941), has frequently been mentioned when the frames, resulting in a sequence in which the is, without a doubt, one of
nominees for the title have been discussed. James Stuart Blackton was born in England artist draws a face, his hand leaves the frame and its pioneers, and – more
and emigrated to the United States at the age of 10. In 1894, he toured the Lyceum the faces roll their eyes or blow cigar smoke. The importantly – one of the
circuit in a vaudeville two-act with Alfred E. Smith. When the act folded, he obtained work hand appears again and erases the emboldened principal architects of cinema
Blackton, Stuart J. and Smith, Albert E., producers / Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 1900
as a reporter and cartoonist for the New York Evening World. animated characters. as we have come to know it.

Walt Disney » 20 Emile Cohl » 22 Winsor McCay & Gertie » 14

14 WINSOR McCAY 15
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It is not without good reason that the highest award bestowed by the International Gertie the Dinosaur – McCay & group Little Nemo (1911) was the first animated
Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood) at their annual ceremony is named the At Gertie’s 1914 premiere in Chicago, McCay appeared alongside film to feature established newspaper comic-strip stars.
Winsor McCay Award. Many would describe Winsor McCay (1867–1934) as simply the screen. After explaining how animated films were created, he In this film, a new dimension of Winsor McCay’s mastery
one of the most naturally talented artists ever. He had the ability to amaze and amuse, introduced Gertie as "the only dinosaur in captivity". He cracked was revealed: he was an artist who had now conquered
to astound and inspire, to surprise with his skill, and to touch emotions hideously dark, his whip and the film began. the fourth dimension, time. The film was released to
joyously light and strangely indefinable. Winsor McCay was, in the words of critic theaters as a stand-alone film, but also accompanied
W. Almont LaPeer, "the Mozart of Cartoonland". McCay on his tour of vaudeville theaters. In either
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

instance, the stunning animation was preceded and
In the Beginning followed by film footage featuring not only Winsor McCay
Zenas Winsor McKay was born on 26 September in 1867, most probably in Canada. He himself, but stage and screen comedian John Bunny and

Winsor McCay
grew up in nearby Michigan, during which time the spelling of the family name was another impressive cartoonist (and designer and
changed. In his late teens he moved to Ypsilanti, where he attended business school performer), George MacManus. The lasting impression
while working as a portrait artist in a dime museum and taking private art lessons. But it Little Nemo (and McCay’s next two films) had on audiences of the day has been verified
was during his nine years in Cincinnati, Ohio, that he really established the foundation for Gertie the Dinosaur – sketch over the decades by industry professionals who would marvel at the memory and at the
the artistic triumphs to follow. Gertie the Dinosaur –sketch Gertie the Dinosaur was the first animated film with a star and a effect his work had on their lives. These animated films of Winsor McCay’s were not
Here the young McCay became a locally celebrated dime museum poster To produce Gertie, McCay drew 10,000 images onto rice paper storyline. McCay gave his dinosaur star a personality and crudely moving doodles, but recognizably human or animal forms with believable
and display artist, a journalist/artist/cartoonist and the creator of his first comic-strip and then mounted them on cardboard. Once they had been emotions, by painstakingly animating tiny details, such as tears weight, dimension and motion, not to mention personality and life.
series, Jungle Imps. Moving to New York City in late 1903, he pretty much took the town mounted, McCay was able to flip the drawings through a dripping and dirt particles falling.

by storm with the imagination, skill and audacity he displayed in several successful primitive machine to check his work. McCay’s Later Films
comic strips, including his two greatest. Winsor McCay toured with his next animated opus, How a Mosquito Operates, during the
One was the black-and-white daily spring and summer of 1912, while it was released to theaters outside the United States
Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend (1904) and as a stand-alone film without his accompanying act. Gertie the Dinosaur premiered at
the other was the gloriously colorful full- Chicago’s Palace Theater in February 1914. Winsor McCay appeared with his animated
page Sunday creation Little Nemo in creation on stage, dressed in formal wear and brandishing a bullwhip. He was at once an
Slumberland (1905). artiste, an artist, a magician, an explorer and a chrononaut who had somehow captured
and tamed his own impossible – but completely plausible – creation: Gertie the Trained
Little Nemo Dinosaur. The film was a sensation, the echoes of which reverberate to this day.
The artistic imagination, mastery of While continuing as a full-time newspaper artist, maestro McCay
drawing, perspective and architectural animated other films that appeared over the years. The Sinking of the Lusitania,
design – not to mention page design and featuring experimental work in mixed media and using cels, was released in July 1918.
color – exhibited in the Little Nemo saga Three films following the Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend theme followed in 1921: Bug
were, and still are, breathtaking, and the Vaudeville, The Pet and The Flying House. Tantalizingly, fragments from several other
colorful cast of thousands remains unreleased films have survived.
unparalleled. Near the end of Nemo’s Not for decades would animation dare to approach the remarkable
initial newspaper run, Winsor McCay display of talent produced by this one man, this self-financed independent film-maker,
decided to use Nemo and his fanciful working either alone or with one or two assistants. And then it would take an entire studio
Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay
friends as the subjects of his first foray into of dozens of artists and assistants, under the direction of Walt Disney, to accomplish
the nascent field of the animated film. what Winsor McCay had done so many years before.

Walt Disney » 20
16 NEW YORK STUDIOS 17
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Although Winsor McCay explored animated cartoons as Farmer Al Falfa The Bray Studio was the most prolific during this period with its first
a personal artistic venture, his working methods were Farmer Al Falfa, Paul Terry’s creation, first appeared in 1916. releases included in the magazine format film series The Paramount-Bray Pictograph.
not practical for the demands of commercial series film Rather than redrawing the figure of the farmer being for each To meet the demands for weekly releases, Bray hired additional cartoonists who brought
production. By the time his third and most famous film, frame, Terry drew separate cels for his various body parts. This their creative and technical talents, which helped meet these contractual commitments.
Gertie the Dinosaur, was finished, the first commercial saved time and cost. Paul Terry (1887–1971) came to Bray and animated his earliest Farmer Al Falfa
cartoon studios were in place. The French-Canadian cartoons beginning in 1916. A native of San Mateo, California, Terry
Raoul Barré (1874–1932) has the distinction of produced his first animated cartoon, Little Herman, in 1915 using a
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

starting the first animation studio, followed by the double-exposure method that allowed for the combination of his
Michigan native John R. Bray (1879–1978). animation with a stationary background. While at Bray, Terry created
12 Farmer Al Falfa cartoons, but left to start his own studio. Other
John R. Bray cartoonists added to the staff were Wallace Carlson (1884–1967),
Bray was a cartoonist for the Detroit Evening News, and with his Dreamy Dud series, and F. M. Follett (c. 1880–c. 1950), with
by 1901 was on the staff at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Quacky Doodles. The most significant of these cartoon pioneers,
When Bray saw McCay’s first animated cartoon, Little however, was Max Fleischer (1883–1972) and his innovative Out of
Nemo, he started considering the commercial the Inkwell series.
possibilities of animation for movie-theater programs. Bray had been acquainted with Fleischer since their

Paul Terry / J.R. Bray Productions

Seeing the labor-intensive methods employed by days at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the early 1900s. Fleischer started
McCay, Bray considered streamlining the process by there as an errand boy, having trained at the Art Students League and
printing the backgrounds on each animation drawing. Mechanics and Tradesman School. He became a staff cartoonist while
The result, The Artist’s Dream (also known as The still in his teens, creating the comic strips Little Algie and E.K. Sposher,
Dachshund and the Sausage), was finished in 1913. the Camera Fiend. Within a short period of time, Fleischer became a

© Max Fleischer
Bray’s success led to a six-cartoon contract with the master of photography and photoengraving, and by 1905 he was an
Pathé newsreel, and Bray’s first production was a parody established technical illustrator.
of the 1912 travelogue Paul J. Rainey’s African Hunt.
Beginning in 1913, Colonel Heeza Liar In Africa launched Max Fleischer’s Fleischer and the Rotoscope
the first animated cartoon series created for the screen. It Rotoscope Patent Within five years, Fleischer became art editor for Popular Science

J.R. Bray Productions

was during this time that Bray employed celluloid Invented by Max Fleischer, the Magazine. It was during this time that his boss, Waldemar
overlays containing his background elements as an Rotoscope worked by projecting Kaempffert, suggested that Fleischer consider a way of inventing a
improvement over the printing method. single frames from a strip of movie method to improve the stiff look of animation in theatrical cartoons.
film one by one onto the back of a The solution was found in the Rotoscope, which combined a film
The Bray-Hurd Process Company Walter Lantz in J.R. Bray Animation glass drawing surface. The images projector and easel for frame-by-frame tracing and action reference.
In 1915, cartoonist/illustrator Earl Hurd (1880–1940) was releasing his Earl Hurd The scene shown here is from a Dinky Doodle cartoon (featuring could be traced onto paper cels and At the time, he had three experimental samples that demonstrated
Cartoons and Bobby Bumps series through Universal. He devised a method similar to Walter Lantz) from the 1920s in which Bray employed his then rephotographed by the normal the results of his invention, and he was hired by Bray initially to work
Bray’s where the animation drawings would be made on individual celluloid sheets and overlay process. A tissue overlay would be placed on a still onto animation process to obtain on technical films. This led to Fleischer’s assignment to supervise the
shot overlaid with illustrated backgrounds. Hurd joined Bray, and the two united their which the required number of individual cels would be drawn for drawings that moved “realistically” production of World War One army training films produced at Fort Sill,
patents to form the Bray-Hurd Process Company, which granted licenses for the use of the animation. The drawings would then be filmed against when projected. Oklahoma, in 1918. After the war, he was production manager at
the cel technique for the next 17 years. This development contributed to the the background. Bray, and a series of cartoons based on an experiment in the shape of a black-and-white
industrialization of animated cartoons, allowing for mass production. clown evolved into the famous Out of the Inkwell series starting in 1919.

Winsor McCay» 14 Raoul Barré » 19 Walter Lantz » 20 Fleischer Brothers » 38 Rotoscope » 38 Cartoons and Animators go to War » 90
18 EARLY STUDIOS & THEIR STARS 19
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The cartoon superstars of the Max Fleischer and Koko Raoul Barré
1920s enjoyed such success Fleischer’s Koko the Clown, who first appeared in 1916, was the Although an innovator in his own right, Raoul Barré is not as famous as John R. Bray.
that they remain a living part first character to be Rotoscoped and to interact with the real world Barré was a painter/illustrator who came to New York in 1912. He devised the two-hole
of our pop culture today. on screen. The start of each Koko cartoon would see the clown punch and peg registration system for animation drawings. He also developed the paper
Trends come and go, but Felix appearing out of the photograph of an inkwell. "slash and tear" technique where a cutaway in the background could be sandwiched on
the Cat keeps on walking ... top of inked animation drawings on paper. This was a valuable alternative to the use of
cels, which required a royalty payment to the Bray-Hurd Process Company.
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

When Bray was just starting his studio, Barré was already

© Pat Sullivan Studios/Paramount

Felix the Cat and established as the first animation producer of Bud Fisher’s popular comic strip
Otto Messmer Mutt and Jeff. During this period, Barré attracted talents such as Gregory La
Arguably the most famous Cava, Frank Moser, George Stallings and Pat Sullivan – who would soon
cartoon icon of the 1920s, Felix produce Felix the Cat. Other talents included Ted Sears, Mannie Davis, Burt
arrived on the eve of the Gillett, Ben Sharpsteen, Bill Tytla and Dick Huemer (1898-1979).
decade; Feline Follies was released by Paramount on 9 November 1919. The cartoon’s Felix the Cat
nominal creator, New York producer Pat Sullivan (1887–1933), saw nothing special As the demand for more Felix cartoons grew, the animators who The Inkwell Clown
about it at first. But the star cat’s unprecedented ability to communicate with his created him had to make changes to their star character to make Huemer answered an ad after graduating from high school, and started out
audience led to Paramount – and then other distributors – demanding more. Music-hall him easier and faster to draw. In 1922, Felix became less angular as a "tracer" and inker. He eventually became a skilled animator on the Mutt
songs and merchandising tie-ins propelled Felix’s fame to cult level. And with Felix’s and his snout was eliminated, making him look more appealing and Jeff cartoons, and left in 1923 to become the new animation
fame grew Sullivan’s: by 1924 cheering throngs queued up around Europe to greet the and simpler to draw. director at Max Fleischer’s Inkwell Studios. The addition of Huemer
cat’s self-proclaimed creator. aided in the evolution of the growing Inkwell Studio, which was
In truth, however, Felix’s creator was Otto Messmer (1892–1983), Sullivan’s Felix in Hollywood founded on the reputation of the Out of the Inkwell films, produced
© Fleischer Studio
shy lead director. As Australian-born Sullivan mixed with international paparazzi, Messmer Felix was the first animated character to display intelligence. He from 1919 to 1921 for Bray. Although the star character is collectively
was home drawing Felix films’ key scenes. Assisting him were famous names in found solutions to seemingly impossible situations, often as a result referred to as Koko the Clown, he had no name at this time. He was simply
animation – Raoul Barré, Bill Nolan and others who would soon make their mark, such as of his creators metamorphosing his body parts into useful tools, "The Clown", "The Inkwell Clown" or "The Fleischer Clown".
Burt Gillett and Al Eugster. "As he worked," recounted Eugster of Messmer, "Otto would and the cartoons were full of visual puns. In Felix in Hollywood The clown’s appeal was due largely to his lifelike animation, which was the
continually think out loud of new ideas ... I don’t know how he did it." (1923) he removes his tail and performs a spoof of Charlie Chaplin. result of tracings from motion-picture footage of Max’s younger brother, Dave (1894–1979),
In practice, Messmer made animation simple by using the “slash and tear” into an animation sequence. This was the basis of the Rotoscope technique, and although
system as much as possible. Action was only painted on cels when character fluid and realistic in its completion, the process was slow and time-consuming. Huemer
overlap with the background was absolutely necessary, a situation the Felix films moved the Fleischers away from their reliance on the Rotoscope by redesigning the character
conspicuously avoided. for animation. He named the clown Koko and created a co-star, the little dog with the bulbous
Although not technologically cutting-edge, the Felix films broke new black nose named Fitz. And because of Huemer’s skills as a pen and ink illustrator, he

© Fleischer Studio
ground in animated acting. Early on Felix gained the ability to transform himself established the handsome thick and thin drawing style that made Out of the Inkwell famous.
physically and his surroundings: using exclamation marks as weapons, for instance (Felix Fitz Max Fleischer valued Huemer’s animation work, and encouraged the use
Finds ‘Em Fickle, 1924) or his tail as a hook (Felix Makes Good, 1922). As the years Koko and his pal Fitz the dog were not given names and their of assistants to complete the drawings for his scenes. This gave birth to the position of
© Pat Sullivan Studios/Paramount

passed, though, this gimmickry was supplemented by a fleshing-out of the cat’s world. own model sheet by animator Dick Huemer until 1924. A model "inbetweener", resulting in more efficient production. During this time, Dave Fleischer
Settings grew increasingly fast-paced and dangerous, turning Felix’s metamorphoses sheet is a set of drawings of a character in various poses with a became more active in the actual direction of the cartoons, and the combination of Dick
from novelty stunts into necessary self-defense. Audiences could empathize with Felix as variety of expressions, so he will look consistent, even if drawn by Huemer, Dave Fleischer and Max Fleischer’s on-screen persona gave a distinctive quality
with no earlier cartoon character. different artists. to the studio’s output.

John R. Bray » 16 Rotoscope » 38

20 THE BEGINNINGS OF DISNEY 21
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NORTH AMERICA
"I hope we never lose sight of one thing," Walt Disney would later say. "It all started Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
with a mouse." In truth, however, years before Mickey, the animation pioneer was By 1927 Alice had run her course and a new series was decided upon, with Universal
already producing successful silent cartoons. Pictures as owner, Mintz as producer and Disney as production house. Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit, designed by Walt, Hugh Harman and Ub Iwerks, was born a plump, slow rabbit
Starting Out but quickly became young, fast and funny. New faces joined the studio staff for the
Born in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the young Disney moved to several different locations as rabbit’s benefit: Les Clark, Johnny Cannon and Kansas Cityite Isadore "Friz" Freleng
his father’s employment status changed. Walt’s own work was similarly demanding: labors (1905–95) became part of what was now a dream team of improving animators.
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

as a newsboy precluded his preferred career of art. Only in 1919 did Disney manage to The series was a hit, and the animation got better and better. When
become a commercial artist. At the Kansas City Film Advertising Company, Disney learned Walt Disney Oswald drives to his girlfriend’s house in Rival Romeos (1928), everything on screen rolls
animation together with another young artist, Ub Iwerks (1901–71). and bounces with energy. When a tiger chases Oswald in Bright Lights (1928), the rabbit

© The Walt Disney Company

Outside of Film Ad, Walt then hired Rudolph Ising (1903–92) and other local shows his troubled mood with skillfully timed gestures.
artists to make Laugh-O-Grams, cartoon newsreels for Frank L. Newman’s
theater chain. The newsreels’ success led to Disney hiring more Kansas City Not So Lucky
talent, including Hugh Harman (1908–82) and Carman Maxwell. In 1921 Unfortunately for Disney, real-life trouble lay in wait. At a New York meeting with Mintz
and 1922, the group produced six one-reel fairy-tale send-ups. The buyer in February 1928, Walt asked that his studio be paid more per Oswald cartoon. Mintz
was the Pictorial Clubs distribution firm, but when Pictorial went bankrupt, replied that Walt would take a cut, not a raise – or his top animators would leave him to
the ensuing red tape shattered the Laugh-O-Gram studio. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit produce Oswald directly for Mintz.
Oswald’s first outing was in Poor Papa, made in 1927 but not It was true. Apart from Iwerks, Clark and Cannon, Disney’s animators had
The Alice Comedies released until 1928. Originally drawn by Disney and Iwerks for agreed to the deal in private; property owner Universal cared little. In the summer of
Luckily for Walt, Alice’s Wonderland – a final reel made before the Universal, the character was old, unruly and slovenly, but 1928, Oswald’s second season began at a new Hollywood studio. Mintz’s brother-in-law,
shutdown – landed him a new deal with Felix the Cat’s distributor Margaret pressure from the studio resulted in Trolley Troubles (1927), George Winkler, was at the helm; Harman, Ising, Freleng and Maxwell led ex-Disneyites
Winkler. Walt and his business manager brother, Roy, reopened for featuring a younger, slimmer Oswald with the personality of a in directing and animating.
business in Hollywood, then enticed Kansas City animators west to produce naughty boy. The new Oswalds were visibly cheaper productions. Creativity still
a series of Alice films. Unlike cartoon fairy tales, the Alice Comedies were flourished: Yanky Clippers (1928) outdoes Alice Loses Out with its crazy cross-dressing
more innovative, placing live youngster Virginia Davis into a cartoon world scene. But the lowered budgets led to Alice-like sparse backgrounds, jerky action and
with a cartoon pal, Julius the cat. The pair’s high jinks were aimed at all stylistic shortcuts that surely pleased very few.
ages: an early entry, Alice Gets In Dutch (1924), features a kid-friendly
schoolmarm battle, while the more adult story line of Alice Loses Out Walt Disney, 1922 Walter Lantz
(1925) places Julius in female drag to woo a rich pig out of his money. Walt Disney is shown in his pre-mouse days, c, 1922. It was One animator was pleased, however. Walter Lantz (1899–1994), a second-generation
Julius was also a bone of contention between Disney and while he was creating his Laugh-O-Grams in his Kansas studio Italian from New Rochelle, New York, mirrored Walt Disney in several ways: blue-collar
Winkler’s husband and business partner, Charles Mintz (1896–1940). In that he had the idea for The Alice Comedies, which proved to be work at a young age, and determination to learn animation. Like Disney, Lantz helmed a
pursuit of profit, Mintz demanded that the cat act more like Felix – another Disney’s first success. live action/animation combination series: Dinky Doodle, a cartoon boy in a live-action
Winkler property. Walt had little power to refuse. world. But unlike Disney, Lantz strove for faster gags, not substantially better animation.
Disney’s team fought to improve their personality Alice F ilm Poster In 1928, Lantz saw Mintz’s double-dealing with Disney and, in effect,
animation. But the extra effort spent on character drawing came at a cost Alice, in The Alice Comedies, was not animated, but her cat Julius decided to turn the same trick. Lantz told Universal boss Carl Laemmle that he could get
to other production values. Comparing Alice shorts from 1924 to 1926, Winkler Pictures
was, and could be seen as Disney’s first regularly recurring his rabbit most easily not from Mintz, but from his own in-house, Lantz-managed
the modern viewer sees animation getting better – as background animated character. His attitude and mannerisms were very similar cartoon studio. By early 1929, this was a reality. As for Walt Disney, he moved on – he
paintings and special effects get worse. to Felix the Cat, a resemblance that was not entirely accidental. hadn’t lost a rabbit; he had gained a mouse.

Harman and Ising » 42 Ub Iwerks » 46 Walter Lantz and Oswald » 40

22 EMILE COHL 23
WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

His first animated film was made in 1908 and lasted
but a few brief moments; it was titled Fantasmagorie. This epic
featured his puppet character Le fantôche, who was little more than
a stick figure and larked about in a number of subsequent films
completed for Gaumont.
In Fantasmagorie Cohl utilized a process of drawing
the respective movements on white paper in thick black lines and
then printing the results on negative film which, he decided, looked
better than in positive. This white-on-black procedure was often
referred to as "The Living Blackboard".
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

© Emile Cohl The Eclair Studio
In 1911 Cohl forsook Gaumont to join Pathé, where he spent time
The Paris-born artist Emile Courtet commenced his career as a jeweler’s apprentice, Bewitched Matches – sequence 1 directing live-action shorts, featuring the popular Gallic clown Jobard
although he was apparently more contented when he was drawing cartoons of his Les allumettes animée (‘Bewitched Matches’) from 1908 is one (Lucien Cazalis). He then moved to Eclipse before finally dropping
colleagues. After emerging from the army at the age of 21, he became a student of of Cohl’s only remaining films from the time he spent at the Éclair anchor with the Eclair studio and, in 1912, he and his family were
caricaturist André Gill, and soon was his star pupil. It was at this time that Courtet studio in New Jersey. As a result of a fire at the studio in 1914, all given the opportunity to represent the Eclair studio in New Jersey,
decided to adopt the pseudonym Emile Cohl. In 1885 he set himself up under this his films apart from the one pictured and He Poses for His Portrait USA. Here he breathed life into the popular George McManus comic
name as both illustrator and photographer, contributing to many popular French were destroyed. strip The Newlyweds, about the problems of bringing up their
journals of the day, such as La Vie Parisienne. Both these crafts would prove beneficial troublesome baby, Snookums.
to him in later years. Cohl returned to France and the Eclair studios, and
by 1918 had teamed up with cartoonist Benjamin Rabier to animate
Fantasmagorie Bewitched Matches – sequence 2 a series featuring his
Incensed by the blatant use of one of his comic-strip ideas in a film poster, Cohl accused Made by Cohl as a public service announcement, Bewitched jaunty pup character,
motion picture magnate Léon Gaumont of plagiarism. He was surprised when he was Matches was an early stop-motion film. Cohl experimented with Flambeau. He then set
promptly offered a job as a film writer, director and cameraman for Gaumont’s film the technique, and as well as using matches as the medium for forth on yet another
company. He began to mix live-action with stop-motion animation in similar fashion to his films he also used jointed paper cut-outs and puppets. series of popular printed

© Emile Cohl
his contemporary, Georges Méliès. characters, Louis Forton’s
Les Aventures des Pieds
Nickelés (‘Adventures of
the Leadfoot Gang’), featuring a gang of
Parisian rowdies.

© Emile Cohl
Bewitched Matches After World War One, the
The two images above are from the very end of the film and Eclair studio could not maintain their
show the father throwing the matches into the fire. This film is a earlier status and subsequently went under, forcing Cohl to retire from film-making
classic early example of the combination of animation and live- due to ill health. Sadly, the last year of his life was spent in hospital, suffering from
© Emile Cohl

action, although then the methods for creating both were not burns caused by a fire in his apartment. Emile Cohl died on 20 January 1938 at the
much different from each other. age of 81, ending an illustrious career forgotten and in poverty.

J. Stuart Blackton » 12 Enchanted Drawings » 12

24 GEORGE STUDDY & BONZO 25
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Born in Devon, England,
magazine cartoonist George
Ernest Studdy (1878–1948)
initially became an engineer
and later a stockbroker.
However, neither of these
professions proved to his
liking, and he finally alighted

© George Ernest Studdy

on the less stressful world of art.

Comic Start
Turning his hand to illustrating
adventure yarns intended to
incite the passions of young boys,
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

Studdy also contributed to a weekly
comic known as The Big Budget, where he devised a number of comic strips including Bonzo – the Studdy Dogs
his best-known character at the time, Professor Helpemon (1903). In the early 1920s, on the back of the success of Bonzo’s weekly

By 1914 and the outbreak of World War One, Studdy was well established appearance in The Sketch, George Studdy reused many of the

as an accomplished artist in glossy magazine The Sketch, and around 1915 he began magazine images to produce four Studdy Dog portfolios, each

toying with motion-picture animation in a topical short series titled Studdy’s War containing 15 color plates with a specially designed title page

Studies. Following in the footsteps of a number of contemporary newspaper and cover, costing two shillings.

© George Ernest Studdy

cartoonists brought to the medium of the silver screen, Studdy would provide seemingly
lightning sketches (via stop-motion animation), making light of the war’s more
humorous aspects.

Bonzo the Dog A Pup’s Life

His best-known character emerged from a bull terrier pup that Studdy had been drawing Bonzo – Eclipse Ad Future live-action director Adrian Brunel contributed to a number of the stories with Ward
for The Sketch as part of a whimsical series of color plates involving dogs. Christened Bonzo Bonzo was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and appeared at the helm, animating as well as directing. The initial episode deals with the pup’s
in 1922, he soon caught the public’s imagination, much like his American counterpart in many commercials for cars, razors, confectionery, tobacco and attempts to pilfer some sausages that have been placed out of his reach by scaling a
Felix. Merchandise embracing the mischievous canine soon followed and the market was soap, among others. He also featured among the first neon signs precarious pile of dishes. After a run-in with a foul-tempered cat and a maid who is prone
flooded with Bonzo commodities, including books, newspaper strips, postcards, songs, put up in London’s Piccadilly Circus in 1924, when the area was to swooning at the slightest provocation, Bonzo finally gets the prize.
commercials, posters, toys, games, dolls, salt and pepper shakers, and mugs. developed to rival Times Square, New York. The stories are as varied as they are wide-ranging. In Circus Bonzo (1925)
To complement his popularity, producer Gordon Craig suggested a series the pup is employed to replace the lion in a circus, while in Polar Bonzo (1925) he visits
of animated cartoon adventures be made for his company, New Era Films, under the Bonzo the cinema to cool down and becomes involved with a polar bear on the screen. In The
production supervision of another British strip cartoon artist, William A. “Billy” Ward. © Eclipse / George Ernest Studdy When creating a Bonzo image, Studdy would first sketch out his Topical Bonzette (1925), Bonzo presents his own newsreel. These compare favorably
Twenty-four hand-drawn, silent, black-and-white Bonzo cartoons were made in total idea in pencil. If the final image was to be a black-and-white line with the American cartoons being produced at the same time.
and were released in Britain on a fortnightly basis between October 1924 and drawing, it might be finished in pen and ink, and but if it was to Although George Ernest Studdy died in 1948, the Bonzo character
December 1925. be in color, he would include still-life objects in the background. continued to be drawn by other artists for several years after his death.

Felix the Cat » 18

26 EUROPEAN PIONEERS 27
WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANY & SWEDEN

WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANY & SWEDEN

Prince Achmed Victor Bergdahl
It took 300,000 individual shots for Reiniger to create her One of the earliest contributors to the animation roll call was Swedish cartoonist Gustav
masterpiece, Prince Achmed. Made of light, shadows and pure Victor Bergdahl (1878–1939). The motivation of this newspaper artist entering the
motional art, it was praised by Béla Balázs, the Hungarian poet world of animation was born through a Stockholm cinema owner inquiring how Winsor
and film critic, as being an absolute film. Lotte Reiniger’s creativity McCay had managed to produce his animated film Little Nemo. This inspired Bergdahl
and imagination found expression through the exacting details of to try his hand at the same process but, by the time he had completed the task, the
finely cut paper, and moved frame by frame. theater owner had lost interest in the project. Not until three years later, in 1915, did he
find a producer who was sufficiently interested to film his work. The result was his first
animated work, Trolldrycken, freely translated as The Demon Drink.
A year, and a couple of cartoons later, the character of Kapten Grogg first
materialized on the screen via the Swedish comic strip Kapten Groggs Äventyr (Captain
Grogg’s Adventures), inspired by Charles W. Kahles’ panel The Yarns of Captain Fibb.
Though not strictly his own property, Bergdahl personalized the character
by giving him some of his own personalities, such as his weaknesses for alcohol (or “Grogg”)
and a nagging shrew of a woman, whom, according to legend, he was married to. The
captain himself was a hard-drinking, womanizing, world traveler who would set out in a
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

balloon (often to escape the carping of his spouse) and visit various regions of the world to
have an adventure. The whole series lasted just 13 episodes and ran from 1916 to 1922,
ending with Bergdahl’s disenchantment with the whole system when American product
Lotte Reiniger flooded the market.
Lotte Reiniger
German animator Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) began as a theater student at Max Viking Eggeling
Reinhardt’s school in Berlin. There she created a title sequence for expressionist director The Swedish-born artist, Viking Eggeling (1880–1925), played an integral role in the
Paul Wegener’s Die Rattefärger von Hamelin (‘The Pied Piper of Hamlin’, 1917), made enhancement of experimental animation. Without his contribution we would probably
for the Berlin Institut für Kulturforschung. not have been blessed with the works of Oskar Fischinger (1900-67), Len Lye
Her first love was for Chinese shadow theater and she first used this technique (1901–80) or Norman McLaren (1914–87). In 1897 and at the age of 17, he
in Das Ornament des Veliebten Herzens (‘The Ornament of the Lovestruck Heart’, 1922). In Lotte Reiniger journeyed to Paris to study art, then moved on to Switzerland. It was there, around
1923, with her film director husband, Karl Koch, she started work on a feature-length 1917, that the young artist, always beguiled by color and style, became a fundamental
silhouette film, adding depth to the end product by filming the figures through shelves of founder member of the Dada movement in Zurich.
glass. Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’, 1926) is an In 1919, after World War One, he resided in Germany. Here, he began
Lotte Reiniger

Arabian Nights tale involving Achmed, a poor tailor. Inspired by his passion for a princess, he experimenting with the relatively new art form of animation by painting abstract designs
goes in search of a magic lamp, thwarting monsters and devils en route. Papageno Prince Achmed on to scrolls and strips of paper. He later captured these illustrations on film, although
The following year there was yet another ambitious feature, starring Hugh Papageno (1935) was based on scenes from Wolfgang If a character needed to appear in close-up in one of Reiniger’s films, only two were made and neither was released: Parallenen/Horizontalen (Horizontal-
Lofting’s Dr Doolittle and His Animals (1927), which paved the way for a whole series Amadeus Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. As in all her films, Lotte a separate, larger model of the head and shoulders would have to be Vertical Orchestra, 1919–20) and Diagonal-Symphonie (1923). The latter was an early
featuring the admirable doctor who is able to converse with animals. Reiniger is the prime genius behind this animation. She had an built as well, possibly, as larger background details to stand behind it. attempt to synchronize animation with sound, several years before talking pictures took
Settling in England in 1936, Reiniger continued to adapt fairy tales for the astonishing facility with cutting – holding the scissors still in her If a figure needed to make some complex or subtle movement, it the nation’s fancy. An early death in 1925 at the comparatively young age of 45 robbed
shadow medium, but with the added beauty of color and music. In later years she right hand, and manipulating the paper with her left hand so would have to be built from 25 or 50 separate pieces, then joined the film and art world of his experimental studies, but marked the scorecard for a new
concentrated her energy on presenting lectures and workshops on shadow animation. that the cut always went in the right direction. together with fine lead wire. wave of German, European and American animators.

Early Chinese Animation » 53 Winsor McCay and Little Nemo » 14 Oskar Fischinger » 68 Len Lye » 72 Norman McLaren » 102
28 POLISH & SOVIET ANIMATION 29
EASTERN EUROPE: POLAND & SOVIET UNION

EASTERN EUROPE: POLAND & SOVIET UNION

Ladislas Starewitch (1882–1965) was born in Moscow of Polish parents. He holds a The Cameraman’s Revenge
place in puppet animation comparable to Winsor McCay’s place in drawn animation. Starewich made his first stop-motion film in 1910 using beetles.

With his early films, he essentially established the art of stop-motion animation, He attached their legs to their thoraxes with sealing wax and

taking it beyond the realm of the early French trickfilms. repositioned them frame by frame. The Cameraman’s Revenge

used puppets rather than beetles, but it required the same

Pioneering Puppeteer amount of painstaking work to animate them.

He began his career making documentaries for an ethnographic museum, including The
Battle of the Stag-Beetles (1910), an animated reconstruction of the insects’ nocturnal
mating rituals using preserved specimens. Inspired by Emile Cohl’s Bewitched Matches,
he made his first story film using puppets, The Fair Lucanida (1910), which like many of
his early works used insect characters. In it, Starewitch developed his standard method of
Ladislas Starewich
making puppets using wooden frames and wires, along with cork and plaster.
In addition to producing his short animated films, he also became a major
director of live-action features, which are little known today.

The Cameraman’s Revenge

His most remarkable animated film from this period and his first masterpiece
was The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912), a sophisticated comedy about the
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

amorous affairs of Mr and Mrs Beetle. Others include The Grasshopper and
the Ant (1911), for which he was honored by the tsar, and The Insects’
Christmas (1912).
Fleeing Russia after the revolution, Starewitch settled in France

Ladislas Starewich
in 1919, where his career flourished. During the silent era, he made delightful
and often poetic films such as The Voice of the Nightingale (1923), The Town
Rat and the Country Rat (1926), The Magic Clock (1928), The Steadfast Tin
Soldier (1928) and the feature-length Reynard the Fox (1930, released The Old Lion Animation in the Soviet Union
1937). As William Moritz noted, they "combine witty sophistication and The puppet films made by Starewich after he moved to France, Animation in the Soviet Union during the 1920s was largely marginalized, despite the
magical naïveté". such as The Old Lion from 1932, were magical and surreal. He involvement of people like documentarian Dziga Vertov. Vertov used animation in his
Like René Clair, Starewitch made the transition to sound by using wrote or adapted the stories from folk tales and fables, designed Kino Pravda newsreel, beginning with Soviet Toys (1924) by Aleksandr Ivanov and Ivan
musical sounds for sound effects, something not too different from and built the puppets, articulated every movement and shot Beljakov. The period also saw the beginnings of Ivan Ivanov-Vano’s (1900–87) career,
contemporary Hollywood cartoons. This is seen at its best in The Mascot each film frame by frame. when he co-directed the propaganda film China in Flames (1925) and directed The
(1933), about a stuffed dog who sneaks out at night to get an orange for his Adventures of Baron Münchausen (1928), one of the first Soviet animations based on
mistress (a girl who has become ill), only to get caught up in a devil’s ball, where classic tales.
garbage and fish skeletons come to life. The most famous Soviet animation of the period was Post Office (1929)
Starewitch continued to work for the rest of his life in by painter and illustrator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky (1889–1965), based on Samuel
collaboration with his daughter Irène, but none of his later films ever caught the Marshak’s popular children’s book, showing mail carriers from around the world. It
magic of his silent and early sound films. He died during the making of his last became popular outside the Soviet Union and was even seen by Walt Disney at the
film, Like Dog and Cat (1965). behest of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Emile Cohl » 22 Fleischer Brothers and Pre-recorded Sound » 38 George Pal » 70

30 EARLY ASIAN ANIMATION 31
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
Animated films from America and France were shown in Japan in the oldest post-earthquake surviving animation dates from 1924–25: the Kitayama studio’s
early 1910s and immediately excited Japanese amateur film-makers. The Tortoise and the Hare, based on the Aesop fable; Sanae Yamamoto’s The Mountain
The first Japanese animated film was produced during 1916 by Oten Where Old Women Are Left to Die, and Hakusan Kimura’s Tasuke Shiohara and A Carefree
Shimokawa (1892–1973), a young editorial assistant at the Tokyo Puck Old Guy Visits the Ryugu. Kimura was a pioneer of erotic animation. His 1929 Cooling Off on
humor magazine. After a failed attempt to animate by filming drawings the Boat, a dramatization of a famous 1878 art print of a courtesan on a pleasure boat, was
on a chalkboard, Shimokawa drew in ink directly onto the film. hot enough to get him arrested. It was not until 1927–28 that the production of theatrical
animated short films increased to a half dozen or more per year.
Pioneering Shorts The most prolific and influential of Japan’s early animators were Sanae
His five-minute Mukuzo Imokawa, The Concierge was released by film Yamamoto (1898–1981), Yasuji Murata (1898–1966) and Noburo Ofuji (1900–74),
I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE ART

producer/distributor Nikkatsu (founded in 1912) in January 1917. The Animal Olympics whose careers were just beginning in the late 1920s. Yamamoto started as an animator
Shimokawa produced a handful of other five-minute shorts during the Designed to emulate the American animation of the time, at the Kitayama studio, and The Mountain Where Old Women Are Left to Die is the
first half of 1917, but unfortunately, failing eyesight ended his career Murata’s The Animals’ Olympics from 1928 was another oldest existing Japanese animation. The best known of his other 1920s works is
before it really began. Two more pioneering animated short films were pioneering early Japanese silent short. Momotaro is Japan’s No. 1 (1928).
made in 1917, The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab – the earliest
animated adaptation of an Asiatic folk tale by Seitaro Kitayama Cel Comes to Japan
(1889–1945) – and Hanahekonai’s New Sword (a.k.a. The Fine Sword), Murata, a childhood friend of Yamamoto, studied Western animation techniques and
by Jun-Ichi Kouchi (1886–1970). pioneered the use of cel animation in Japan. His films were spritely and humorous. They ranged
Kitayama was a Nikkatsu staff artist lettering subtitles and from folk tales such as Octopus Bones (1927), The Tale of the Lucky Teakettle, a.k.a. The Racoon
caption cards for live-action films. His second cartoon, Taro the Sentry: Who Helped a Junkman (1928) and A Frog is a Frog (1929), to funny animal sports comedies

©Nikkatsu
Submarine (1918), updated the folk-tale hero Momotaro, the Peach Boy, in the style of 1920s American animation. These included The Animals’ Olympics (1928) and
into a juvenile modern sailor, patrolling the harbor in his toy submarine. My Baseball (1930). He also produced art films such as The Bat (1930).
This was the most popular of these early Japanese theatrical one-reelers, and the first Taro the Sentry: Submarine Ofuji produced nine films between 1926 and 1930, one as long as 38
shown outside Japan in Europe in 1921. Taro the Sentry was the first Japanese animated film to achieve minutes. His films were more artistic and grounded in the oriental classics, notably The
worldwide success made by cartoonist Seitaro Kitayama. The Legend of Son Goku, the earliest animated version of the Monkey King (1926), and The
The First Animation Studio newspaper cartoon strip, with its word balloons and linear story- Whale (1927), an art film in black outlines. Ofuji specialized in animating cut paper

© Yasuji Murata
Also in 1921, Kitayama started Japan’s first animation studio, Kitayama Eiga Seisakujo line, gave Japanese story-tellers a structure that was readily drawings, both fully painted and solid black silhouettes. He also experimented with sound
(Kitayama Movie Factory). This produced mostly educational and industrial films for the accessible to the masses. Popular cartoonists were soon and color. 12 Whale was Japan’s first animation designed to be shown with recorded
government, such as Atmospheric Pressure and the Suction Pump (1921). He and his producing their own serialized newspaper prints which would music (Rossini’s "William Tell Overture"). Black Kitty (1929–30 but released in January
studio disappeared shortly after the Great Kanto earthquake. Jun-Ichi Kouchi began as a eventually contribute to the development of the modern 1931) was the first with an original recorded soundtrack.
Tokyo Puck cartoonist like Shimokawa. He animated a few Japanese folk tales and the Japanese comic book or manga.

first political cartoon, The Spotlight is on Shinpei Goto (1924). (Shinpei Goto was the Earliest Chinese Animation
minister in charge of Tokyo’s reconstruction after the earthquake.) Kouchi is most often China's first animation was created by the four Wan Brothers of Shanghai: twins Wan
cited today as the tutor of Noburo Ofuji. Lai-ming (1899–1997) and Wan Gu-chan (1899–1995), Wan Chao-chen (1906–92)
and Wan Di-huan (b. 1907). Inspired in 1923 by American cartoons, the Wan brothers
The Second Wave of Pioneer Animators Octopus Bones taught themselves animation. In 1925 a typewriter manufacturer financed short,
The Great Kanto earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled Tokyo on 1 September 1923 A pioneering cel animator, Yasuji Murata was known for his animated theatrical commercials from them. Their first true short films, Uproar in an Art
destroyed all prints of existing Japanese animation. Kitayama and Kouchi also stopped humorous films, often based on folk tale, such as Octopus Bones Studio (1926) and A Paper Man Makes Trouble (1930), were combined live-
producing shortly after this time, so 1923 is a landmark year in Japanese animation. The from 1927, pictured here. action/animation in the style of the Fleischers' Out of the Inkwell series.

Japanese Animation in the 1930s » 52 Cel Animation » 16 Lotte Reiniger » 26 Fleischer Brothers » 19
 II

EARLY 1930s:

FINDING ITS VOICE

The coming of talking pictures and sound on film changed the motion-picture landscape.
Animated characters became movie superstars – and every Hollywood studio wanted a
piece of their action.
Walt Disney led the way with cartoons that were not only funny, but had
great structure, artistic merit and heart. His creative competitors kept pace with a dozen
happy-go-lucky knock-offs of Mickey Mouse; Scrappy, Bosko, Bimbo, Oswald, Puddy, Pooch
and Flip were among the all-singing, all-dancing league of extraordinary cartoon characters.
At the depth of worldwide depression these optimistic animated ink blots
helped moviegoers forget their financial troubles. Popeye and Betty Boop emerged as
favorites in this era, and music became a key component of animated film. "Who’s Afraid of
the Big Bad Wolf" became a hit song – as well as an anti-depression anthem.
The United States led this animation industrial revolution, but Europe and Asia
were contributing important pieces to the art form. Stop-motion techniques would be
refined, and new materials – including a pinscreen and woodcuts – would be adapted to
animated film. The depression led certain artists, who would never have tried animated film-
making, into this new medium of expression. It was the beginning of the golden age of
cartoon entertainment.

Picture above: Bosko © Warner Bros. Pictures clockwise from top left: Steamboat Willie © The Walt Disney Company; Skeleton Dance © The Walt Disney Company; Bimbo's Initiation © Fleischer Studio/King Features; Buddy the Gob © Warner Bros.; The Squirrel War © Anglia Films; Sam and his Musket
© Anglia Films; Krazy Kat © Columbia Studios; Buddy the Gob © Warner Bros. Centre picture: Popeye © Fleischer Studio/King Features
34 WALT DISNEY & MICKEY MOUSE 35
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse was not the first talking cartoon character, a title that is
often awarded to him. Nor was he the first cartoon mouse, or even the first cartoon
mouse named Mickey. Yet Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse indisputably made history,
as did the Disney studio’s post-Mickey accomplishments. The event leading to
Mickey’s creation was Disney’s loss of Oswald the Rabbit to Charles Mintz, but events
after that are a little unclear. Biographers often refer to Walt creating the mouse on
the train trip home from Mintz’s office, and to Walt’s wife naming him Mickey instead
of Mortimer. The only fact all seem to agree on is that Ub Iwerks visually designed the
new star.

History in the Making

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

It was a short step from design to implementation. The making of Mickey’s first
cartoon, Plane Crazy (1928), transpired quickly after Walt’s return to Hollywood –
particularly given Ub’s record-setting production rate of 700 animation drawings
per day. By 15 May, Plane Crazy was ready for a sneak preview at a Sunset © The Walt Disney Comp
any

Boulevard theater. Steamboat Willie

But a general release did not follow; nor was the second Mickey short, The Walt Disney decided that his third Mickey Mouse film, Steamboat

Gallopin’ Gaucho (1928), able to find distribution. Stalling Mickey’s public debut was the Willie, would be made with sound. He and a musician from

lack of backing from a major film distributor. Paramount, Columbia and others either his studio, Wilfred Jackson, found a way to synchronize the

already had animation producers assigned to exclusive contracts, or – despite Oswald’s sound to the film using a harmonica and a metronome. They

success – were unsure about taking on an unproven Disney property. perfected their system, and Steamboat Willie opened on

18 November 1928.

Steamboat Willie
What finally made the difference for Mickey was sound. Seeing the success of early live-
action talkies, Disney decided to make a Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronized

© The Walt Disney Company

sounds and music. True, the Fleischers and deForest had made sing-along cartoons
several years previously, but each featured only a few scenes of fully synchronized
animated action. Disney’s more radical proposal was to animate an entire one-reel
cartoon story, Steamboat Willie (1928), to a predetermined tempo.
Walt devised a several-step production plan. Scenes were timed to a The nationwide success of Willie – first released 18 November 1928 at

© The Walt Disney Company

predetermined tempo, then animated and filmed. Only then was the music recorded, New York’s Colony Theater – hardly needs documenting here. More Mickey Mouse
with Walt traveling to New York for a session with band leader Carl Edouarde. Edouarde’s Steamboat Willie – pencil art cartoons were quickly produced, along with soundtracked versions of The Gallopin’
band watched the film while playing the score – and were kept in step by a bouncing Iwerks was Disney’s right-hand man in the creation of the early Gaucho and Plane Crazy. Thus Mickey set about gathering worldwide fans of all ages.
visual cue, hand-drawn by Iwerks on the film frames of a workprint. Mickey Mouse cartoons. Disney would come up with the ideas,

The final step of mating music with film was handled by Pat Powers, Ub Iwerks designed Walt Disney’s most recognizable character, stories, and motivations, then Iwerks would bring it to life. This

owner of the Cinephone sound-on-disc system. Powers was also an independent movie Mickey Mouse. He drew the storyboards and the sketches used to was no easy task and it required Iwerks to produce 700 drawings

distributor. As no big contract had as yet materialized for Mickey, Powers’ Celebrity animate the early Mickey Mouse cartoons; Walt Disney was the each day. This dedication paid off: Mickey and Disney became

Pictures did the honors for Willie and the year of Disney shorts that followed. voice of Mickey. household names.

Ub Iwerks » 46
36 SILLY SYMPHONIES 37
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Mickey’s early appeal to adults in particular The answer becomes evident from viewing the films
might seem surprising to the modern reader. But themselves. Less firmly guided animators felt less inclined to draw in
then, the Mickey Mouse of the1920s had little in a consistent style. This could lead to striking sloppiness – in some
common with the blandly suburban Mickey of scenes of The Fire Fighters (1930), for instance, Mickey’s pal Horace
today. Steamboat Willie’s mouse was hopeful, Horsecollar has hands; in others, hooves. On a more positive note,
enthusiastic and Chaplin-esque, combining though, rudderless animators also felt freer to experiment, and some
basic good cheer with the will to defend himself, experiments had beneficial results. For The Chain Gang (1930),
the urge to make mischief and a believable animator Norm Ferguson drew two bloodhounds as caricatures of
pathos. He could stab a villain with a bayonet in real dogs, with realistic body structures, rather than as traditional
the The Barnyard Battle (1929), drool in abstractions. The effort was a trend-setting success.
anticipation of a kiss in The Plowboy (1929) or
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

cry upon being denied one in The Barn Dance Learning Curve
(1928). In short, Mickey was as human a Stalling’s absence, meanwhile, left Disney music in a less sophisticated
creation as Felix had been; and the novelty of state for a while. The use of classical motives temporarily decreased.
sound made Mickey’s world all the more exciting But the Mickey and Symphony shorts made up for musical ennui with

© The Walt Disney Company

for the era’s audiences to explore. an improvement in storytelling. For the first time, the studio utilized
storyboards – individual sketches tracing a story’s progress – as the first
Sounds Good stage of plot development. As a result, shorts like Mickey’s Traffic
The novelty of sound led Disney to more Troubles (1931) and the Symphonies’ Ugly Duckling (1931) deploy
milestones in 1929. Organist Carl Stalling had remained studio musician after The Skeleton Dance introductory scenes, climaxes and endings with unprecedented skill.
Steamboat Willie. He streamlined the production process so sound was recorded before, Beginning with The Skeleton Dance the Silly Symphonies series Stronger stories also introduced new studio stars: Mickey’s dog, Pluto,
not after, a film’s animation was done. His next endeavor was to boost the idea for a new served as a training ground for the Disney artists, testing new evolved from The Chain Gang’s bloodhounds, while Goofy emerged
cartoon series – one even more music-driven than Mickey’s, existing less to tell a story techniques and technologies that would later be used in their from a hick bit player in Mickey’s Revue (1932).
than to explore motion and rhythm. The Skeleton Dance (1929) set the tone for these ground-breaking features. Musical themes were the basis for © The Walt Disney Company
Finally, while emotive personality animation had
”Silly Symphonies”, matching classical music to four skeletons’ aimless romp in a these cartoons, which were produced until 1939 and won a total Plowboy – storyboard existed for years, Disney and his team now sought to improve it by studying elements of
graveyard. The titles of The Merry Dwarfs (1929), Cannibal Capers (1930), and of seven Academy Awards. Instead of written scripts, an entire cartoon film had to be drawn realistic motion. Beginning in 1932, Walt arranged life-drawing courses for his artists, and
Frolicking Fish (1930) suggest the fairly straightforward variations that followed. As per out like a comic strip, known as storyboards. This was a guide to the results soon showed on-screen. When Mickey believed that Pluto was dead in The
Stalling’s wishes, each short featured a synchronicity of motion and sound that must making the film. On the example above it can be seen that the Moose Hunt (1931), his reactions had been Felix-like theatrical
have been exciting in the early days of talkies. Unfortunately, today they tend to come director indicated which animator would draw each shot by caricatures. By contrast, 1933’s Puppy Love showed a break-up

© The Walt Disney Company

across as middling exercises in repetition, enlivened largely by Iwerks’ character designs. writing their name or initial in a picture box. between Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Fifi through action that was
generally realistic and believable – and funnier, as a result, when
All Change intentional exaggeration was dropped in for gag purposes.
For better or worse, those designs would not be in Disney’s service much longer. Ub Iwerks By 1933, Disney shorts had recovered from Iwerks’
and Walt Disney had endured fallings-out over the years, and another came at the start departure and boasted multiple new star animators and directors,
of 1930. Regardless, Pat Powers was aware of the tiff and determined to capitalize on it – including Burt Gillett, Wilfred Jackson and David Hand (1900–86).

© The Walt Disney Company

by arranging Iwerks’ break from Disney and start-up in a studio of his own. Stalling Three Little Pigs The crew was also working in color by this time and planning big
followed Iwerks out of the door. How, trade papers wondered, would Disney’s animators The three little pigs characters first appeared in the Silly things for the future – things like a short-tempered duck, three little
develop without these guiding lights? Symphonies, later to become stars in their own right. pigs, and seven distinct dwarfs.

Felix the Cat » 18 Ub Iwerks » 46 David Hand » 106

38 EARLY SOUND MOTION PICTURES 39
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NORTH AMERICA
Many film histories recognize The Jazz Singer (1927) Betty Boop
as the first sound motion picture. This has been an The musical novelty character of Betty Boop
over-simplification of historical fact, causing confusion was ideally suited for this new medium of
over the actual first, and the beginning of the revolution. talking pictures, which embraced music and
The fact is that sound-on-film technology had existed dialogue. Early "all singing/all talking/all
for five years, with the evidence in the Phonofilms dancing" live-action films quickly wore out their
experiments produced by Dr Lee deForest welcome. Cartoons displayed greater
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

(1873–1961) in 1922. A similar confusion exists imagination in the combination of sound and
regarding Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie, which is images. As a result, animated cartoons
often cited as the first sound cartoon. Music and audio were reborn and gained value on the
effects were already being applied to cartoons at this theatrical program.
time, and had been applied four years earlier in limited Just as sound helped reinvent
releases for specific theaters with sound equipment. animation, Max Fleischer’s Rotoscope
technique was put to its most effective use in
The Fleischer Brothers these early sound cartoons, which contained

© Fleischer Studio/King Features

Beginning in 1924, Max Fleischer started the production marvellous dance sequences derived from live-
of the popular Bouncing Ball song films, originally action references. Scenes such as Betty Boop’s
named Ko-ko Song Car-Tunes. In a special arrangement hula dance in Betty Boop’s Bamboo Isle
between theater magnate Hugo Riesenfeld (1932), as well as the Cab Calloway dance
(1879–1939) and the deForest Phonofilm company, steps in Minnie the Moocher (1932), Snow
Fleischer produced 12 "Song Car-Tunes" between 1924 and 1927 with sound-on-film Betty Boop – early version White (1933) and The Old Man of the
© Fleischer Studio/King Features
soundtracks. The tracks were generally very simple organ scores played by Lee Brodye, Betty Boop was the perfect vehicle for the development of Mountain (1933), moved the Rotoscope
with vocal harmonies by the Metropolitan Quartet. A few such as When the Midnight Fleischer’s surreal and zany silent-era style. Her initial character beyond a literal tracing of the live-ction image, presenting fantastic cartoon
Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam’ (1924) featured small bands like the Lou Miller Orchestra. design, by Grim Natwick, was based on a picture of singer Helen exaggerations that only animation can achieve.
Although a popular novelty, these early sound cartoons did not have much exposure Kane, who had popularized the phrase "Boop-oop-a-doop",

beyond the 36 theaters that were wired for sound on the East Coast. which came to be Betty’s catch phrase. Popeye
When the film industry finally switched to sound, established producers Popeye was an instant success and became one of the most profitable and popular
such as Paul Terry sought the cheapest solution by adding sound to his silent Aesop’s Bimbo’s Initiation animated series in cinema history. Much of this success was due to the clever use of
Fables. These cartoons, however, were recorded without attention to the co-ordination of Betty Boop’s first appearance in 1930 was as a sexy French music. A Dream Walking (1934) beautifully integrates Olive Oyl’s sleepwalking through
the picture and sound elements. This was the main reason Walt Disney’s Steamboat poodle, primarily as the love interest of a dog character named a building under construction with the popular Mack Gordon/Harry Revel song "Did You
Willie caused the sound revolution in animation. It was planned with an imaginative use Bimbo (pictured above). In 1932, her dog ears became golden Ever See a Dream Walking?".
of sound, unlike anything that had been done before. hoop earrings, and she remained in her human form. Sound cannot be overlooked for its ability to establish filmic atmosphere as
By this time, the Fleischers were associated with Paramount and well as character dimension, and it was the work of excellent voice actors that helped define
revived their sound Bouncing Ball films as Screen Songs in early 1929. The Inkwell the characters’ personalities. This was largely due to the talents of Gus Wickie as Bluto, Mae

© Fleischer Studio/King Features

Imps with Koko the Clown were then replaced by a new sound series, Talkartoons. Popeye the Sailor Questel as Olive Oyl and, most of all, Jack Mercer as Popeye. As in the original comic strip,
This cartoon equivalent to talking pictures boasted the earliest use of animated Popeye began life in a comic strip, but in 1932 appeared in Betty Popeye started out as a rather grim and gruff character as first voiced by William "Red
dialogue and brought forth Max Fleischer’s most valuable discovery, Betty Boop, in Boop Presents Popeye the Sailor. It was an immediate hit and Pepper Sam" Costello. But Popeye’s character became more dimensional and humorous
Dizzy Dishes (1930). Popeye became Fleischer’s biggest star. once Mercer assumed the role, beginning with King of the Mardi Gras (1935).

Steamboat Willie » 34 Koko the Clown » 19 Rotoscope » 19

40 WALTER LANTZ & PAUL TERRY 41
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
If Disney pioneered storytelling and character development Despite this, In The Zoo suffered. In 1931, the Motion Picture Herald
in the early 1930s, and if the Fleischers explored adult criticized Lantz’s films’ rude humor, and Lantz seemingly took the critique seriously. The
concepts and humor, then who was left to produce cartoons studio replaced bawdy gags and slapstick with cuddly cuteness. Hot Feet (1931) sanitized
with cruder characters, less challenging stories and kid- a gangster story by eliminating deadly threats; other shorts traded innuendo for childish
friendly themes? In general, the Walter Lantz and Paul Terry hand-holding. Not long before, jazzy studio composer David Broekman had departed and
studios filled this vacuum. was replaced by the less inspired James Dietrich – another blow to the cartoons.
A new star was introduced in 1932, Pooch the Pup, but failed to save the
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

Walter Lantz studio from its problems. Though Pooch’s shorts featured fine Avery gags, Pooch was a
Walter Lantz took over production of Winkler’s Oswald Rabbit cute non-character much as Oswald had become. The one effort at individuality was
cartoons from 1929. But picking up where Winkler left off did not window dressing: Pooch opened many shorts walking along with a hobo’s pack, whistling
mean using all of Winkler’s employees. Hugh Harman, Rudy ‘Kingdom Coming’. The tune was portentous, for Lantz and Tex Avery would both build
© Paramount Pictures
Ising and Friz Freleng were absent. The big name who stuck more successful kingdoms in the years to come.
around was Bill Nolan, a silent-era pro with a silent-era sensibility. Cartoonville
The impact of this sensibility on Oswald In 1929 Walter Lantz was put in charge of Universal Studio Paul Terry
production was visible in the casual way the studio came to Cartoons (later known as Walter Lantz Studio) which was the If the Lantz studio had its ups and downs, Paul Terry displayed a talent for running on the
operate. Whereas Disney recorded soundtracks before principal supplier of animation to Universal Studios. spot – so that his product remained practically static over time. Terry began 1929 by
animation and Fleischer did them afterward, Lantz seems to leaving Van Beuren, whose Aesop’s Fables would go on without him. Teaming up with
have had it both ways, with an on-again, off-again result for Frank Moser, Terry set up the Terrytoons Studio in New York. By early 1930, Educational

© Pinto Colvig
synchronization. The Oswald character became one- Pictures was distributing his first releases.
dimensional, with mischief as his only consistent trait. Terry did try for an auspicious start. Early Terrytoons were named after
Supporting players had even less consistency. Chilly Con items of food, and set their action in the foods’ countries of origin – so Caviar (1930)
Carmen (1930) shows a cat and hippo as rival suitors for Oswald’s love, but when Oswald Oswald features babushka mice, and Hot Turkey (1930) a cat sultan. Sound was recorded in
finally chooses the cat, the previously temperamental hippo does not react. The early This drawing from a 1930 Oswald children’s book by Walter advance, with composer Phillip Scheib timing animation to classical orchestral scores.
Lantz talkies were rife with such inconsistencies. Lantz captures the mayhem of the first Oswald cartoons. Oswald Initially large budgets made for lots of action on-screen.
This is not to call the new rabbit cartoons failures. Lantz said that his main was a spunky character with a personality and look that would

desire was to make people laugh, and his films met that goal in spades. In Spooks later be reminiscent of a certain famous mouse. His clever Weak Links
(1930), the Phantom of the Opera grants a girl’s wish for a singing voice by strapping a gestures and amusing gags made him hit with movie-goers. Unfortunately for Terry, none of these advantages made up for his staff’s weaknesses.
record player to her backside. In Hell’s Heels (1930), an evil sheriff running a finger across As far as characterization went, Farmer Al Falfa was a one-dimensional grump. Other
his throat accidentally cuts his own head off. films used a pair of mice as recurring stars, but gave them no consistent personalities.
© Walter Lantz Productions Meanwhile, the shorts’ drawing style was unattractive at best. Animal characters featured
Arrival of Avery goggle eyes and uncertain levels of anthropomorphism. Hawaiian Pineapple (1930)
Given the silliness of the studio’s gags, it was not surprising that includes the strangest creature of all: a non-humanized hen’s upper body atop an adult
cartoonist Fred "Tex" Avery (1908–80) – later famed for his Alaska male human’s trousered legs and feet.
screwball humor – was attracted to Lantz in late 1929. As an Although this short was not credited to Tex Avery – an animator Perhaps the most striking feature of Terrytoons was that the studio went
animator, Tex swiftly made his mark. In The Zoo (1933) on Alaska – this and other verbal gags suggest his early influence. years without overcoming its deficiencies. Animators like Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla – who
breaks the fourth wall in a soon-to-be-famous Avery manner: With Bill Nolan’s rubbery animation style and a lively musical yearned to spread their wings – left Terry to do it. Luckily, they found gainful
when bees chew off a bear’s fur, the bear forgoes shock in favor score, some of the Oswald shorts made no sense, instead were a employment elsewhere. And luckily for Terry, in spite of everything, some exciting star
of a deadpan "Well, imagine that!". vehicle for the animators’ bizarre sense of humor. characters and internal improvements did lie ahead.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit » 20 Fleischer Brothers and Pre-recorded Sound » 38 Tex Avery at MGM » 128 Bray Studio and Al Falfa » 17 Terrytoons » 67
42 WARNER BROS.: EARLY SUCCESSES 43
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NORTH AMERICA
When Walter Lantz replaced Winkler Pictures as Universal’s producer of Oswald the Buddy the Gob In terms of story ideas, however, the Looney Tunes series lagged behind
Lucky Rabbit, some Winkler animators moved over to work for Lantz. Three who did Buddy made his first appearance in 1933, and represented an Uncle Walt. Not to say that Harman’s and Ising’s subject matter was poorer than
not were Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng, all of whom had a luckier – and advance in character design for the Schlesinger studio. Up until Disney’s; it was just that Disney had already used it. Congo Jazz (1930), with hunter
rabbit-less – future ahead. around that time, the "rubber-hose" style had been the norm, Bosko taming the wildlife, aped Mickey Mouse’s Jungle Rhythm (1929). Bosko’s World
whereby characters moved without regard to anatomy, as if all War One antics in Bosko the Doughboy (1931) mimicked Oswald’s Great Guns (1927).
Bosko their limbs were rubber hoses. Instead, Buddy had discernible

© Warner Bros.
The real story began in January 1928 when Harman copyrighted a character called Bosko. knees and elbows. Merrie Melodies
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

A fun-loving minstrel boy, the figure had few instantly outstanding traits. Nevertheless, Borrowed story lines or not, Bosko quickly became popular with audiences. So much so
Harman had big ideas for the future of the character. Staying independent after the fall of that in 1931 Schlesinger asked Harman and Ising for a second cartoon series. Titled
Winkler’s studio, Harman, Ising and “Merrie Melodies”, the new shorts made music even more central than before. Whereas
Freleng made a sound-tracked pilot short, Looney Tunes used their tunes as backup scores, each Melodie was to show characters
Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid (1929). While singing a chorus on-screen. At the outset, this meant that the Melodies stars – foxes
Harman and Ising shopped around for named Foxy and Roxy – had Bosko-like adventures that just happened to stop for a
distributors, the financially needy Freleng song. Later, though, individual Melodies became one-shot cartoons, using the songs as
moved east for temporary employment starting points to create new settings and characters. Pagan Moon (1932) showed
at Columbia’s Krazy Kat studio. Bosko singing Hawaiian islanders, while You’re Too Careless with Your Kisses (1933) set insects’
Bosko was one of the Looney Tunes star characters, and the marital woes to music. The series spoke of Harman’s and Ising’s genuine desire to
Looney Tunes shorts he appeared in were full of music, singing, and dancing. experiment and grow – even if the one-off stars of many entries were awfully
In early 1930, Harman and Ising These were the early days of sound cartoons, and audiences reminiscent of Bosko and his girlfriend, Honey.
negotiated successfully with Leon loved to see characters talking and moving in step with the music, And therein lay the rub. Harman and Ising were artists who yearned to
Schlesinger (1884-1949), entrepreneur and were less concerned about the lack of plot. improve; Harman often spoke of beating Disney at his own game. Yet the two were
manager of Pacific Art and Title. The content to use Disney-like characters and plots in a manner that made negative
idea of opening a cartoon studio comparisons with Disney inescapable.
appealed to Schlesinger. He set Harman
and Ising up in one, then contracted with A Move to MGM
Warner Bros. for the resulting films’ By 1933 – the year in which Freleng began to direct – a solution began to
release. Freleng returned, and Rollin present itself. Bosko was by now a rounded and successful star, with nimble
Hamilton and other animators were wit and a full supporting cast. More importantly, though, his shorts were

© Warner Bros.
assembled. Frank Marsales joined the developing a cheerfully satiric style that owed little to other studios. Verbal
crew as house musician. It would be a humor and blackout gags began to appear.
hefty task, as Warner asked that the Ironically, 1933 would also be the last year in which Bosko
Bosko cartoons promote songs from the Warner music publishing catalog. Treating the Looney Tunes were produced. Seeking to improve their films’ quality, Harman
requirement as a marketable asset, Harman and Ising gave the cartoon series a name and Ising tried – and failed – to wring higher budgets from Schlesinger. Rebuffed, they
suggesting musicality, Looney Tunes (and echoing Disney’s Silly Symphonies). chose to sign a new cartoon production contract with MGM.
The Schlesinger studio released its first Bosko short, Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, Smile, Darn Ya, Smile Yet this was no tragedy for any of the involved parties. At MGM, Harman
in April 1930. The cartoon’s animation was easily as good as Disney’s – not surprising, The Merrie Melodies cartoons, such as Smile, Darn Ya, Smile, and Ising would nurture a great new school of animators. Meanwhile, Freleng and others
given the Mouse House alumni involved in its creation. As a bonus, the use of popular were designed to showcase songs from Warner Bros.’ music remained with Schlesinger to create a new Warner studio and a new Looney Tunes –
© Warner Bros.

music gave Harman and Ising an audience-pleaser Disney could not match. library, and the cartoon’s title was the title of the song it featured. featuring more of that subversive, satirical new style. Great accomplishments lay ahead.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit » 20 Silly Symphonies » 38 Harman and Ising at MGM » 64
44 VAN BEUREN & CHARLES MINTZ 45
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To a remarkable degree, the story of early sound animation is one of studios trying to Krazy Kat hired Burt Gillett, director of Disney’s mega hit Three Little Pigs, to head operations. It even
© Columbia Stu
dios
beat Walt Disney at his own game. None succeeded, and some fell particularly short – Krazy Kat began life as a cartoon strip, created by the quirky obtained the rights to 1920s star Felix the Cat, who appeared in three elaborate, if bland,
either artistically, commercially or both. Among Disney’s least effective rivals were imagination of George Herriman in 1910, and had a cult cartoons in the studio’s all-color Rainbow Parade series in 1936.
Amedee Van Beuren and Charles Mintz. Seventy years later, though, their best cartoons following among newspaper readers. Mintz’s version of the That same year, however, the studio’s distributor, RKO,
retain a quirky period charm. character was round and bouncy, and had nothing in common signed an agreement to release Walt Disney’s films – spelling an end to
with the original. Van Beuren cartoons.
Van Beuren: Crude Humor, Cruder Art
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

In the silent era, Amedee Van Beuren had been part owner of the Fables studio, producer Mintz: A Kat and a Kid
of Paul Terry’s Farmer Al Falfa cartoons. He acquired the New York-based operation in Producer Charles Mintz is best remembered as the man who
1928, renaming it after himself. Van Beuren was an executive, however, not an artist or commandeered Walt Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – and most of
animator. Animator Isadore Klein said he never once laid eyes on his boss. Disney’s staff – in 1928. The gambit proved disastrous: Disney responded by
No studio copied Mickey Mouse so unabashedly. Cartoons such as Hot creating Mickey Mouse. From 1929 to 1932, Columbia released both Disney’s
© Columbia Studios
Tamale (1930) and Circus Capers (1930) star a boy and girl films and most of Mintz’s.
mouse who might have been indistinguishable from Mickey and In 1930, Mintz relocated his studio from New York to Hollywood
Minnie – if the Van Beuren versions had been better drawn. and tried to take on Disney’s mouse with a cat – namely Krazy Kat, the
An understandably annoyed Walt Disney went to court to end creation of brilliant newspaper cartoonist George Herriman. But Mintz’s Ben
their career. Harrison and Manny Gould turned the Kat into a feline Mickey clone, with a hint
The studio’s other characters tended to be short- of Felix. Despite this, many Krazy cartoons have an engaging 1930s feel. In
lived, too. Tom and Jerry (1931–33) were a Mutt-and-Jeff-like Birth of Jazz (1932), for instance, a hipster Krazy pilots a plane around the
human duo – and no relation to MGM’s later cat-and-mouse world, releasing a payload of music that spurs everyone from Russian
superstars. Cubby Bear (1933–34) was an ursine approximation Bolsheviks to the Statue of Liberty to get rhythm.
of Mickey Mouse; Molly Moo Cow (1935–36) was, well … a cow.
The studio also tried characters from other media, such as Otto Scrappy
Soglow’s popular comic-strip potentate The Little King (1933–34) Another Mintz character, Toby the Pup, appeared in films released by RKO in 1930–31.
and radio sensation Amos n’ Andy (1934). Fleischer veterans Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and Art Davis worked on these cartoons, and
the trio were also responsible for Scrappy , a much longer-lived creation. Debuting in
The Sunshine Makers 1931’s Yelp Wanted, Scrappy was a human boy – albeit one with a disturbingly massive
Artwise, these cartoons were usually rudimentary. Many, made head. Supporting players included his obstreperous little brother Oopy, his girlfriend
before the movie industry’s "Hays Code" cracked down on racy Margie and his dog Yippy. In The Flop House (1932), our young hero operated a seedy
entertainment, appear startling today for their sex- and home for dissolute animals, in a short that Paul Etcheverry has called "perhaps the
bathroom-oriented humor. In 1934’s Sultan Pepper, for instance, ultimate depression-era cartoon".
the little king, his sultan pal and the sultan’s harem all bound into All but forgotten today, Scrappy was prominent enough to inspire an array
a bedroom together, then shut the door. But the studio’s most of merchandise, from dolls and books to soap sculpted into his likeness. Eventually, he
famous work is the infectiously adorable The Sunshine Makers Scrappy evolved into a slightly more realistic-looking kid; his series expired in early 1941, a year
(1935), about a battle between happy and gloomy elves. For the usual Scrappy cartoon, the three main animators who after the last Krazy Kat short.
Van Beuren’s staff did not lack talent. Among the worked on the series, Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and Art Davis, By then, the studio was making a lot of one-shot cartoons, in the Fables,
many employees who went on to better things were Joe Barbera, would each devise one third of the story, thereby ensuring that Phantasies and Color Rhapsodies series. And Charles Mintz himself was gone – he had
Shamus Culhane, Frank Tashlin and Jim Tyer. In 1934, the studio Scrappy’s adventures were wild and exciting. died in 1939. But his studio, owned since 1937 by Columbia, soldiered on into the 1940s.

Mickey Mouse » 34 Tom and Jerry » 128 Hanna-Barbera » 178 Felix the Cat » 18 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit » 20
46 UB IWERKS 47
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Ub Iwerks’ early-1930 departure from Disney these shorts, but typically only in fits and starts. And instead of noticing these
amounted to a star player switching teams at the top of problems, the staff instead focused on redesigning Flip’s physique. Apparently,
his game. Arranging to finance Iwerks in a studio of his the frog could not look un-frog-like enough for Powers, nor for many of the
own, erstwhile Disney distributor Pat Powers apparently newer animators on the staff.
saw him as Uncle Walt’s secret weapon. So, it seems,
did the media of the day. Before Iwerks’ Hollywood Willie Whopper and ComiColor Cartoons
shop had released a single short, trade papers in Whether due to visual inconsistency or storytelling weakness, Flip had lost
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

England and Germany were already predicting a enough popularity by late 1933 that two new Iwerks series replaced him: Willie
Disney-trouncing success level. Whopper, distributed by MGM, and ComiColor Cartoons, distributed by Powers’
own Celebrity Pictures. Debuting in Play Ball (1933), Willie Whopper was a boy
Flip the Frog Baron Munchausen, opening each cartoon by addressing his spectators directly
Iwerks did enjoy a personal success at the outset. His with the phrase, "Did I ever tell you about the time … ". ComiColor shorts,
self-created star character, Flip the Frog, had appeared in meanwhile, were gagged-up Cinecolor fairy tales of the type Disney was

© Film Preservation Association

embryo form in a Disney cartoon – Night (1930) – but contemporaneously producing as Silly Symphonies.
when Iwerks expressed a desire to use him as a recurring On the positive side, the wacky and occasionally blue humor of
figure, Walt declined. Now, with Iwerks himself as these new shorts rivaled any Flip the Frog adventure. Hell ’s Fire (1934), with
producer, the frog would at last headline his own series. Willie and the Devil teaming up against Mr Prohibition, was one classic
© Film Preservation Association
Fiddlesticks (1930), featuring Flip in a example. Balloonland (1935) was another, with its villainous Pincushion Man. Iwerks, a
woodland vaudeville show, set the tone for many Iwerks shorts to come. The frog mugs Flip the Frog mechanical genius away from the drawing board, pioneered great technical
memorably at the viewer and the musical sequences are expertly animated. Cheerfully After his first two outings, Flip the Frog’s froginess was quickly advancements. From car parts he built the an early multiplane camera, with which a
rude humor is deployed when Flip spanks his piano on the backside and it objects. There toned down, and he became species-ambiguous, with his white- background could be filmed in multiple layers, creating the illusion of depth.
is also a technical accomplishment: Fiddlesticks was produced in color, a rarity at the gloved hands, white-shoed feet and upright posture.

time. Problematically for a pilot short, however, Fiddlesticks’ storytelling was meandering Nevertheless, the animation in the Flip the Frog series was clean Jack and the Beanstalk No Attention to Detail
and slow – as it was in the Flip cartoons that followed. and smooth, with watercolor-like effects, and were some of the Jack and the Beanstalk was the first ComiColor to be produced, in Unfortunately, the new technology was put to work in shorts featuring by-now-
best-looking cartoons from the 1930s. 1933. The ComiColor series comprised 24 one-shot shorts, traditional Iwerks problems. There was shifting character design: Willie started rail-thin,
Room Runners meaning that no continuing characters were used. They were then got roly-poly, and never had much of a consistent personality. There was dull
Such a drawback did not hinder Flip – or Iwerks – at first. Released by Powers’ own often reworkings of classic stories and fairy tales. pacing: Iwerks’ plodding Little Red Hen (1934) paled beside Disney’s contemporaneous
Celebrity Pictures, the initial few releases were successful, leading MGM to buy distribution Wise Little Hen (1934). Finally, Iwerks’ shorts began to take design shortcuts: the same
rights. Flip dolls, books and toys appeared, and star animators like Fleischer’s Grim little boy model is reused for Tom Thumb, Aladdin and other ComiColor heroes.
Natwick joined Iwerks’ studio. In some ways, the cartoons’ characterization and plotting By 1934, MGM had given up on Iwerks, casting their lot with Hugh
improved, too. The frog became a self-conscious, likable loser, and his stories burst with Harman and Rudolph Ising for Technicolor cartoons. Iwerks’ distribution arrangement
promise. It is not hard to see the potential in Laughing Gas (1931), where dentist Flip with Powers was a dead end, too: the ComiColor shorts just could not compete in the
must extract a walrus’s tusk, or The Village Specialist (1931), with plumber Flip sending Little Red Hen marketplace against the majors. Given Iwerks’ unmatched skill in numerous areas of
a house sky-high on a plume of water. In one case – the racy hotel farce Room Runners The ComiColor shorts, such as Little Red Hen, were made using animation, one cannot help but be disappointed. Iwerks’ studio would continue on –

© Film Preservation Association

(1932) – potential was definitely met. the Cinecolor process. This was a two-color system working as a hired hand for the rest of the decade, contributing Porky Pig (Warner
Yet Room Runners was the exception to the rule. Most of the time, as in that emphasized red and blue at the expense of green, which Brothers) and Color Rhapsody (Columbia), subjects as needed for other producers. But it
Fiddlesticks, fundamentally sound plots were undermined on-screen by slow pacing, meant that the resulting cartoons did not contain a complete must not be overlooked that, deficiencies aside, the Iwerks studio created a number of
soft gag impact and a basic meandering feel. Occasional rude laughs lifted the spirits of color spectrum. genuinely classic cartoons, and that Flip the Frog is today a favorite of nostalgia buffs.

Mickey Mouse » 34 Silly Symphonies » 36 Harman and ising at MGM » 64

48 EUROPEAN INGENUITY 49
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N & F R A N C E

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N & F R A N C E
Ernest Anson-Dyer creation, Night on Bald Mountain (1933),
The British-born artist Ernest Anson-Dyer (1876–1962) spent his formative years using his own, painstaking device of
designing stained-glass windows for churches. The outbreak of World War One, however, animating known as the pinscreen.
put a stop to all window contracts and he found himself unemployed. Fellow artist
Dudley Buxton suggested that he try his hand with B&C Studios, introducing him as a The Pinscreen Technique
performer to the studio’s boss. Dyer was soon employed as a jack-of-all-trades, juggling The instrument used to create this type of
his talents between making live-action dramas as well as cartoons, involving every animation can best be described as an
spectrum of the medium including lightning sketches, cut-out, model and cel animation. upright white plate, perforated with tiny
holes into which slide the same number
Britain’s First Feature Cartoon © Anglia Films
of steel rods (or pins). When illuminated
In 1927 he single-handedly produced Britain’s first feature cartoon, The Story of the Sam and his Musket correctly, small rollers are used to push the
Flag, using cut-out animation, concerning the alterations in the Royal Standard of Sam and his Musket was made in 1935, and got its title from the pins in to the degree needed to create a
England. By 1935 he had formed his own animation company (Anglia Films), producing Stanley Holloway monologue of the same name. This was early satisfactory image. The solitary picture is
colored cartoons and commercials for British and American sponsors, using traditional days in the "talkie" era, and Dyer’s drawings synchronized then photographed and subsequently
drawn animation. perfectly with the words; the cartoon also boasted flawless color altered to the next position. Perfect lighting
Along the way, Dyer bought the rights to 18 of Stanley Holloway’s work and bright gags. and shadow contribute to create the
monologs, which the actor had been engaging audiences with on both stage and disc. illusion of a finely engraved pastel etching.

© Alexandre Alexeieff / National Film Board of Canada

Dyer wanted to bring them to life on the animated screen. Holloway, of course, came The Squirrel War Alexeieff did not touch the
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

with the deal. Among the cartoons he narrated were Sam and his Musket (1935), Dyer’s The Squirrel War was made in 1947, the first in his series screen until World War Two, when he was
concerning the tale of a Napoleonic soldier who refuses to pick up his musket when the of shorts for children. asked to produce entertainment films for
sergeant knocks it down, and Three Ha’pence a Foot (1937), the National Film Board of Canada. The
regarding an altercation over the price of timber for the most endearing entry is En Passant
construction of Noah’s ark. (‘In Passing’, 1943), a light-hearted
After a period of producing war-related interpretation of Canadian folk songs.
information films for the government, Dyer turned to making Returning to publicity films, Alexeieff
cartoon shorts for children: The Squirrel War (1947), Who En Passant continued making films with his American-born wife, Claire Parker (1906–81), and did
Robbed the Robins (1947) and Fowl Play (1950). But the En Passant was made using the revolutionary pinscreen not touch the pinscreen until his interpretation of Nikolai Gogol’s grim tale of an individual
writing was on the wall and, due to ill health, he retired from technique. With this, it was possible to create a range of dramatic obsessed by his own nose, Le Nez (‘The Nose’, 1965).
film-making in 1952, although he continued to paint, sketch textural effects and shading variations from black to white,

and lecture on animation up to his death 10 years later. through various grays that was difficult to achieve with the more

traditional medium of cel animation.

Alexandre Alexeieff
At the age of 18, Russian-born Alexandre Alexeieff Le Nez
(1901–82) journeyed to Paris to study painting and design Le Nez, created using Alexeieff’s pinscreen technique,

with the intent of becoming a book illustrator. Instead, demonstrated the etching-like results that could be achieved with

© Alexandre Alexeieff
however, he settled on being a set designer for the ballet. © Anglia Films
this method. The thousands of pins inserted into the screen

Inspired by Fernand Léger’s acclaimed Ballet Mécanique would be moved between photographing frames, enabling

(1924), he was prompted to experiment with his own subtle shadow effects to be created.

Lotte Reiniger » 26 Cartoons and Animators go to War » 90 Halas and Batchelor » 104 The National Film Board of Canada » 100
50 HUNGARIAN ANIMATION 51
EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

István Kiszly Kató was the father of Hungarian Pencil and Rubber – sequence
animation. The graphic artist and creator of weekly Made by Hungarian pioneer animator Gyula

cartoon news bulletins made his first film in 1914 Macskássy in 1960, this short won the country

using cut-outs. He made a few short films, including its first prize at an international festival. The

Janos the Knight (1916) and Romeo and Juliet foundations of his career were laid during the

(1931), but unable to find much support for his work, 1930s when he made commercials using all

he turned instead to education and advertising kinds of diverse animation techniques, which

animation film production. could be seen as individual cartoons in their

own right.

The Beginnings
Hungarian animation, however, did not really begin
until the 1930s when a former painter named Sándor
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

Bortnyik opened up a school for the art of promotion in © Bertold Bartosch

1928. At this school, a young graphic artist named

Gyula Macskássy met János Halász (1912–95). In L’idée – sequence The Idea
1932, the duo founded a studio that produced over 100 Bartosch’s L’idée was tragic, symbolist allegory of man’s struggle The plot of L’idée is simple.
advertising cartoons, using a wide range of animation for the Ideal, based on illustrations by Franz Masereel and with A man conjures up his idea of

© Pannonia Film
techniques. Unfortunately, many of Macskássy’s music by Arthur Honegger. Bartosch combined cut-out beauty and purity through the
colleagues left Hungary to pursue artistic ambitions silhouettes on the lines of the Reiniger technique with subtle figure of a young woman. While
that simply could not be realized in Hungary. Among effects achieved by control of photographic exposure and some try to manipulate,
those to emigrate were János Halász, who moved to England and changed his name to diffusion of the light source. intimidate and destroy the idea,
John Halas, and György Marczincsák (1908–80), who became George Pal. it carries on untouched and
A few artists, including Macskássy, continued to work on both artistic and spreads throughout the world.
commercial animation projects with varying degrees of success. But with a limited L’idée was a remarkable film for many reasons. First, by infusing the film
market for animation shorts, Hungarian animation would have to wait until the end of with poetics, politics and personal expression, Bartosch shows us that animation can
World War Two to find an identity and an audience. match any of the great art forms. Secondly, L’idée is a technical marvel. Bartosch
animated approximately 45,000 frames on four levels of glass sheets, sometimes with as
Berthold Bartosch many as 18 superimpositions involved.
Berthold Bartosch (1893–1968) was born in Polaun, Bohemia (now called Polubny and The soft, milky, iridescent atmosphere was
part of the Slovak Republic). At age 18, he moved to Vienna to study architecture. On the created using wash-tinted blacks and a
advice of one of his art teachers, Bartosch began making educational animation films. In normal bar of soap, which were then lit
1919, he moved to Berlin to continue this work. While there he met many artists, from below by 100-watt lightbulbs.
including German animator Lotte Reiniger. Bartosch worked on some of Reiniger’s The Greedy Bee In the end, it was never
silhouette animation films before being approached by German publisher Kurt Wolff to Gyula Macskássy (later to become George Pal), who began his released, and Bartosch never made any
make a film version of an illustrated storybook by Flemish artist Frans Masereel. Wolff career in animation by founding a studio with János Halász (later money from it. After his second
wanted Bartosch to re-create Masereel’s wood engravings on film. Bartosch agreed, to become John Halas) in the 1930s producing commercials, film was destroyed during the war,

© Pannonia Film
moved to Paris, and for two years, much of it in his apartment, worked on the film L’idée went on to make Hungary’s first animated cartoons, such as the Bartosch spent his last years concentrating
(‘The Idea’, 1931). It would be his only surviving work. one pictured here from 1958. on painting.

Lotte Reiniger » 26 George Pal » 70 Halas and Batchelor » 104

52 THE SLIDE TOWARD WAR 53
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
The early 1930s saw Japanese animation become more closely tied to the to only the latter, culminating in Japan’s first
increasingly nationalistic spirit following Japan’s military incursions into wartime propaganda animated feature.
Chinese Manchuria. There were still many art films and adaptations of folk The first clearly anti-Western
tales, but it was becoming important to gain the goodwill and patronage animation was Takao Nakano’s Black Cat
of the government and the Imperial Navy, which considered animated Hooray! (April 1934), in which a party of
films to be excellent for anti-Western domestic propaganda. dolls in Japanese costumes and traditional
Japanese toys are attacked by vicious
Kenzo Masaoka bandits who are rat parodies of Mickey
Kenzo Masaoka (1898–1988) was one of Japan’s leading animators during Mouse and snake parodies of American or
II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

II: EARLY 1930s: FINDING ITS VOICE

the early period of sound films. He produced the first series of a two-film British sailors. Momotaro and other
story, the cut-paper animation A Shipwreck Tale: Part 1, Monkey Island, and Japanese folk heroes save the day. As the
its sequel, Part 2, The Pirate Ship both in 1931. His 1933 cartoon animation 1930s progressed, animation such as this
The World of Power and Women, a comedy for adults, was Japan’s first would become more common.
animated film with an optical soundtrack. The 1934 children’s cartoon Some animators created
animation Tahchan’s Trip to the Bottom of the Sea showed Masaoka’s studio names for themselves, such as
interest in experimenting in all production media to produce animation for all Murata’s Yokohama Cinema Kyokai and
age groups. Seo’s Nihon Manga Film Kenkuyo. But their
films remained essentially individual
Yasuji Murata hobbyist productions, animated at home
Masaoka and Noburo Ofuji did not support Japan’s growing nationalism and or in a small office by the animator and a
kept to folkloric, art and non-political humorous films. Yasuji Murata few assistants. They did, however, get
continued to animate folk tales such as The Monkey’s Big Catch (1933, increasing financing from the professional
released January 1934), but he also produced the first propaganda cartoon, motion picture companies, who paid for
Aerial Momotaro (1931). This portrayal of the young folk-tale hero and his their production materials in return for
anthropomorphized animal companions as modern fighter pilots, who distribution rights.
become peacemakers in a war between penguins and albatrosses,
glamorized both the military and the concept of Japan as the benevolent
© Kenzo Masaoka
China
"big brother" of all other Asiatic/Pacific peoples. In 1933–34 Murata directed After Japan effectively annexed Manchuria
the first animated series based on a popular Japanese comic strip, a four-film adaptation Shipwreck Tale from China in 1931, a wave of nationalism
of Norakuro (Black Dog) by Shiho Tagawa, starring a dog recruit in a funny-animal From the first part of this film story by Kenzo Masaoka, this short and anti-Japanese feeling swept China.
army: Buck Private Norakuro – Training, Buck Private Norakuro – Drills, Sergeant was made using cut-paper animation and was one of Japan’s The Wan Brothers took advantage of this
Norakuro, and 2nd Lieutenant Norakuro – The Sunday Mystery. earliest animation films to use sound. to produce propagandistic animation such
© Yasuji Murata
as The Price of Blood (1932). In 1933 the
Propaganda Animation Norakuro (Black Dog) Mingxing Film Company in Shanghai hired Lai-ming, Gu-chan and Chao-chen to set
Mitsuyo Seo (b. 1911) started off as Masaoka’s assistant, but quickly graduated to This animated series, Japan’s first, reflected the growing influence up an animation unit. The Wan Brothers utilized both cut-paper and cel animation for
producer/director. His first films were The Mischievous Little Ant (1933) and Sankichi the of the military in Japanese society. It also emphasises the stylistic popular entertainment, as well as patriotic films such as The Sad State of the Nation
Monkey – Air Defense Military Exercise (1933), the latter a militaristic funny-animal shift that had been taking place during the 1930s away from folk and Aviation Saves China, until 1937, when the Japanese capture of Shanghai closed
comedy. Seo would evolve from producing both general cartoons and martial cartoons tales towards faster-paced, Western-style humor. the studio.

The Fleischer Brothers and Pre-recorded Sound » 38 Japan and Propaganda » 112 The Wan Brothers and Early Chinese Animation » 31 Wan Brothers and wartime » 114
 III

1934–39:

TECHNICOLOR
FANTASIES
Technicolor brought a new look to animated films of the 1930s. The depression made
everything seem gray – so delightful multicolored flights of fancy created by Hollywood’s
screen cartoonists were welcomed and rewarded. The Hollywood Production Code cleaned
up the frequent outhouse humor and Betty Boop’s risqué antics – but the public was dazzled
by evolving new techniques, more sophisticated storytelling and advanced visuals.
Animation art grew in exciting ways during this period. Extra-length shorts
and feature-length films emerged. Multi-plane and Stereoptical backgrounds gave depth to
the previously flat cartoon landscapes. Full character animation allowed greater personality
development. Professional voice actors got into the game – Mel Blanc in particular – giving
cartoon stars broader appeal.
Oskar Fischinger and George Pal became leading animators in Europe with
their innovative work. Creativity, artistry and commercial success seemed to work together
during this period. The highlight of this era, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, is an incredible feature film, and influenced the shape of animation for the rest of the
century. Its impact was felt worldwide, and it gave animated films a new status.
It was the period when animation came of age.

Picture above: The Seven Dwarfs © The Walt Disney Company Pictures clockwise from top left: Disney Artist © The Walt Disney Company; The Isle of Pingo Pongo © Warner Bros.; Snow White © The Walt Disney Company; Popeye © Fleischer Studio/King Features; Fleischer Studio Animator
© Fleischer Studio; The Blue Danube © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Gulliver's Travels © Paramount; Clock Cleaners © The Walt Disney Company. Centre picture: The Practical Pig © The Walt Disney Company
56 WALT DISNEY & THE GANG 57
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Disney’s Silly Symphonies advanced Hiawatha and The Old Mill – the latter marking the first
the art of animation storytelling. These use of the multi-plane camera. This breakthrough in
heartwarming shorts were a welcome animation utilized backgrounds painted on glass that
dose of laughter for a nation in the grip were set at varying distances, creating an increased
of the Great Depression. Jobs were sense of depth. The short garnered an Oscar for Best
scarce across America, but the Disney Cartoon, as well as a technical award for developer Bill
studio expanded its staff in 1934–35. Garity and his team. This year also continued the
Referred to as "the nine old men", Les successful pairing of Mickey, Donald and Goofy as "the
Clark, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Milt gang", producing some of the most memorable shorts
Kahl, Marc Davis, Wolfgang "Woolie" of all time, such as Hawaiian Holiday, Clock Cleaners
Reitherman, Eric Larson, John and Lonesome Ghosts. Two more “Mickey Mouse”
I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S
Lounsbery and Ward Kimball formed cartoons were released that year starring a solo Donald
the core group of animators who would – Don Donald and Modern Inventions, the latter
become the talent pool on many featuring the debut of Donna Duck, later renamed
features to come. Daisy. Donald’s next solo appearance – Donald’s Ostrich

© The Walt Disney Company

– would mark the first short labeled as a Donald Duck
Donald Duck cartoon. Pluto also received his first starring role in
In 1934 the world was introduced to a Pluto’s Quin-Puplets.
character who, starting only as a bit
© The Walt Disney Company
player in Wise Little Hen, would become almost as synonymous with Disney as Mickey Redesigning an Icon
Mouse – Donald Duck. Clarence Nash was the voice actor who brought life to the nearly Clock Cleaners The Practical Pig In an attempt to revitalize Mickey in the face of Donald Duck’s ever-growing popularity,
unintelligible fowl. The audience’s and animators’ instant love for the zany character, A classic nine-minute short, Clock Cleaners features "the gang" – One of the last Silly Symphonies to be made, The Practical Pig is animator Fred Moore was allowed to redesign the famous mouse (shrinking his cheeks
which was chiefly developed by animator Dick Lundy, allowed him to move from Silly Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy – as cleaners working in a a sequel to the classic short Three Little Pigs. After this, Disney and adding whites to his eyes), which debuted in 1939’s The Pointer. "The gang" had
Symphonies to Mickey’s gang in Orphan’s Benefit. clock tower that has a mind of its own. began to focus more on feature films. become so famous that Goofy was given his
own series, starting with Goofy and Wilbur.
The Gang By this time, the shorts had moved away
In 1935, story department head Ted Sears formulated detailed analyses of all of the from gags and focused more on character
characters’ personalities for the staff to use as a reference. That same year, the first color development, which some said made them
Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Band Concert, debuted and two Silly Symphonies, The Old Mill too refined. The end of the decade stood as
The Tortoise and the Hare – with its notable advancements in the representation of Famous for being the first animation to make use of the multi- a major transition for Disney. That year
speed – and Three Orphan Kittens, shared the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. plane camera technique, pioneering Silly Symphony, The Old would see the end of Silly Symphonies with
An explosion of creativity erupted in 1936 with the premiere of nine Mickey Mouse shorts, Mill was made in 1937. Developed by the Disney studio, the the Three Little Pigs sequel, The Practical Pig,
including Thru the Mirror, which transported Mickey into the Through the Looking Glass multi-plane camera gave added depth to background shots. and the color remake of The Ugly Duckling,
story, and Moving Day, which featured Mickey, Donald and Goofy being evicted from which won an Oscar. The success of Snow
© The Walt Disney Company

© The Walt Disney Company

their home, a clear reference to a common experience of the day. By now, Donald Duck Mickey’s Circus – sketch White allowed the company to move to a
had become so popular that he was given his own starring role in Donald and Pluto. Released in 1936, Mickey’s Circus features Mickey and Minnie bigger studio in Burbank, where the studio
In 1937, with many of the artists graduating from the shorts to work on Mouse and Donald Duck, shown in this graphite-on-paper remains today, and the focus began to shift
Snow White, only three Silly Symphonies were released – Woodland Café, Little animation drawing after having trouble with his sea-lion act. from shorts to features.

Mickey Mouse » 34 Silly Symphonies » 36 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58
58 SNOW WHITE 59
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

By 1934, Walt Disney had realized that the success of the shorts would not sustain the
studio forever. He assembled his artists and told them the story of Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, which had been dear to him since his childhood. Riding the enthusiasm
of Disney, the artists were ecstatic. However, many Hollywood observers thought the
venture was doomed, fearing adults would not respond to a long-form animated film.

Taking a Chance

© The Walt Disney Company

Disney understood the daunting challenges the undertaking of the film would entail. The
story was kept simple, but the original fairy tale needed to be fleshed out and pacing
became essential. Disney felt an audience could not endure a short’s frantic pace for 70
minutes. He also wanted the scenes to flow naturally into one another, and ultimately
I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S
ordered painful cuts of whole sections that did not serve the story. Another key issue was The Seven Dwarfs
developing distinct personalities for all seven dwarves, much like the work done on Three Walt Disney knew it was imperative to develop individual

Little Pigs. The most criticized portion was the rendering of the realistic human characters, personalities for all seven of the dwarves in order to maintain the

which were Rotoscoped, a process of tracing live-action actors’ movements. interest and sympathy of an audience. In order to animate the

human characters realistically, the animators had to study

A Learning Curve anatomy and footage of live-action models.

For this enormous production, the studio enlisted all of its top artists, including Art Babbitt,
Shamus Culhane, Hamilton Luske, Fred Moore, Norman
Ferguson, Vladimir "Bill" Tytla and Myron "Grim" Natwick. The
film served as a learning experience every step of the way.
Long hours were spent redoing detailed scenes to get them

© The Walt Disney Company

just right. For instance, Culhane took six months to animate
the one-minute "Heigh Ho" segment.
With the increased amount of dialogue, the
animators found they needed to use more body language
when characters spoke. Ferguson, a movement master and
the chief animator behind the development of Pluto, was in Snow White Phenomenal Success
charge of bringing the Queen to life and creating her terrifying This original painting on celluloid was used in the filming of Snow White. After years of arduous work, the film, which was now six times over its initial budget
transformation into the wicked witch. Natwick oversaw Snow The huge success of the film meant that Disney could turn his attention at almost $1.5 million, debuted in a gala Hollywood premiere on 21 December
White and found, unlike the dwarves whose cartoony looks to producing feature-length films as opposed to animated shorts. 1937. It was an instant phenomenon.
allowed more room for error, each pose of Snow White had to Disney, always the savvy businessman, saw an opportunity, and for
be perfect or the movement would appear jumpy. Tytla, one of Disney Artist the first time in history had merchandising lined up before the film was released so
the studio’s most respected animators, oversaw Grumpy, and Animation began in 1936, and ultimately more than 750 artists worked fans could run to the nearest department store and take home a piece of the

© The Walt Disney Company

along with Don Graham, was key in developing the talents of on Snow White, including 32 animators, 102 animation assistants, magic. The emotional depth of the tale and subtle humanity of the animated
the young animators, who started on the Silly Symphonies 20 layout men, 25 background artists, 65 effects animators, and characters awed critics and audiences. This was a film that launched an entire
and moved on to Snow White. Many of the studio’s legendary 158 inkers and painters. In all, at least two million sketches were created industry and changed cinema forever.
"nine old men" started out as assistants on the project. and more than 250,000 drawings were used on-screen.

Silly Symphonies » 36 Rotoscope » 38 Bambi » 82 The Lion King » 304

60 COLOR CLASSICS 61
NORTH AMERICA: FLEISCHER BROTHERS

NORTH AMERICA: FLEISCHER BROTHERS

Animated cartoons in the 1930s saw tremendous technical advancements: first with
the introduction of sound, and next with the addition of color. Although Walt Disney’s
Flowers and Trees (1931) launched the color cartoon era, there were earlier efforts
going back to the silents. The earliest known color cartoon in the United States is Bray’s
1920 release, The Debut of Thomas Cat, made in the Brewster Color Process. Other color
systems, such as Synthechrome by Carpenter-Goldman Laboratories and two-color
Technicolor, continued to develop well into the 1920s. These color systems, however,
used only red and green, or red and blue, which limited their range in color reproduction.

The Technicolor Process

Ub Iwerks released his premier Flip the Frog cartoon, Fiddlesticks, in two-color
Technicolor. But it was the introduction of the three-color Technicolor process in the early
1930s that resulted in the greatest improvement, presenting the widest possibilities for
animated cartoons. Although Technicolor representatives approached the various
studios, it was independent producer Walt Disney who took the gamble that paid off.
This was a bold risk on the part of both Disney and Technicolor Corporation.
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Max Fleischer and Fleischer Studios
The depression in the United States was at its height in the year 1931. Disney was
struggling financially, many times going through lay-off periods due to interruptions of

© Fleischer Studio
cash flow. The largest cartoon studio at the time was Fleischer Studios, due to their ties
with Paramount. Max Fleischer was immediately interested in Technicolor, but was
denied the opportunity due to the corporate reorganization brought on by Paramount’s Dave Fleischer
first series of bankruptcies in the 1930s. Fleischer’s loss became Disney’s gain. Dave Fleischer received director credit on every Max Fleisher

The value of color cartoons was being realized in the same respect as cartoon. As Max’s brother he began his affiliation with the studio

sound cartoons of the early talkie period. Cartoons were easier and cheaper to produce in by dressing up as a clown and being photographed and

color, adding value and prestige to the black-and-white theatrical program. By 1934, Rotoscoped for the early Koko experiments.

Paramount had consented to the production of a color series, Color Classics, to be

produced by Fleischer. But with Disney’s exclusivity to three-color Technicolor, Fleischer
was forced to use the available two-color processes for the first two years. The series
began with Poor Cinderella (1934), which used the red-and-blue Cinecolor process. © Fleischer Studio

All other releases were made in the red-and-green two-color Technicolor process until
1936. The addition of the Stereoptical process, which created a third-dimensional Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp – sketch
background effect, offered compensation for the limited color spectrum – and a feature During the 1930s Fleischer put his biggest star in three

© Fleischer Studio/King Features

that was unique from Disney. Technicolor specials. Popeye Meets Sindbad (1936) and Popeye

But by 1936, Disney’s exclusivity had expired, and Fleischer Studios Meets Ali Baba (1937) contain elaborate three-dimensional
© Fleischer Studio

released its first, and possibly best, Color Classic, Somewhere in Dreamland in the three- settings and a lavish color palatte. Aladdin and his Wonderful

color Technicolor process. Lamp (1939) was the final one in the series.

Ub Iwerks and Flip the Frog » 46

62 COMPETING WITH DISNEY 63
NORTH AMERICA: FLEISCHER BROTHERS

NORTH AMERICA: FLEISCHER BROTHERS

Walt Disney created the market for color cartoons, and by 1934 other producers had begun Gulliver’s Travels – face plans, due largely to corporate reorganization.
to follow him. Ub Iwerks started releasing cartoons, with the ComiColor and Willie Wopper The character of Gulliver was Rotoscoped – a method devised by Fleischer’s production of the longer-format
series in red-and-blue Cinecolor. At the same time, Charles Mintz started the production of the Fleischers where the drawing was achieved by tracing over Popeye specials was used as a gradual transition
the Color Rhapsody series for Columbia, beginning with Holiday Land (1934). the movements of a live actor. to features, beginning with Popeye the Sailor
Meets Sinbad the Sailor (1936) and Popeye the
A Rainbow of Color Sailor Meets Ali Baba and His Forty Thieves
Burt Gillett (1891–1971) revamped the Van Beuren Studio with The Rainbow Parade, (1937). These full Technicolor specials, using
first using two-color Technicolor and later the three-color process. Merrie Melodies the three-dimensional Stereoptical process,
became Warner’s color cartoon series, and under their new association with MGM, Gulliver’s Travels – leg suggested the possibilities of what could be done
Harmon and Ising started producing color Happy Harmonies. Walter Lantz produced six A milestone in the art of animation, Gulliver’s Travels was the by Fleischer in full-length animated features.
Cartune Classic cartoons for Universal in two-color Technicolor, then returned to black second animated motion picture of its magnitude ever produced, But this was never quite realized.
and white until 1939. Paul Terry waited until 1938 before releasing Terrytoons in full and the first animated feature from a studio other than Disney.

Technicolor. Aside from the obvious addition of color, all of Fine Features
these cartoons were conceived with common elements: The phenomenal success of Disney’s Snow
musical, fairy tale fantasies fashioned in the "Disney" White proved that animated features were big at
mode. And as Disney continued to move forward, the the box office, and Paramount wanted one for a
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entire industry seemed poised to follow his next move, 1939 Christmas release. Several concepts such
animated features. as Peter Pan, The Blue Bird and Neptune’s
Although his competitors referred to it as a Daughter (The Little Mermaid) were considered.
folly, they underestimated Disney’s vision and the secret to Finally, Gulliver’s Travels was pressed into
© Paramount

his successes. Unlike other cartoon producers, Disney was production. Disney had spent over $1 million,
using animation as a means to achieving serious success with three years of development and 18 months of production, but Fleischer was given
as a cinematic storyteller. And as Disney gained more only 18 months and $500,000 for the entire development and final delivery. Fleischer
experience as a film-maker, he focused on emotional Studios moved to Miami, Florida, but relocation expenses drove the production costs to
elements instead of comedy for its own sake. This effort is $1 million, schedules were rushed with no time for retakes, and relations with Technicolor
what separated Disney from other cartoon makers, but his were strained due to missed deadlines. Miraculously Gulliver met its premier date and
drive to continually raise standards elevated costs to such earned an impressive amount at the box office. It did not, however, make a profit. And
an extent that his only means of financial survival would be with the war in Europe starting two months earlier, Paramount’s foreign release outlets
in animated features. This was proved in Walt Disney’s were closed off, leaving Gulliver $500,000 in the red. Fleischer’s second, and better,
production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. feature, Mr Bug Goes to Town (1941) was produced on budget, but was another victim
of World War Two’s escalatation. Mr Bug was released just two days before the bombing

© Fleischer Studio
Gulliver’s Travels of Pearl Harbor, and the film’s general theatrical release was delayed.
It has been assumed that Max Fleischer’s motivation for Stereoptical Process Two years earlier, Universal offered Walter Lantz $700,000 to produce a
producing Gulliver’s Travels was to imitate Disney’s success, Illustrated here is the three-dimensional Stereoptical process version of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp. Lantz had just completed the storyboards,
but internal memos indicate that Fleischer had plans to developed by Max Fleischer in 1934. It involved positioning cel but hearing of Fleischer’s problems in Florida, he abandoned the project. Fleischer’s efforts
make features as early as 1934, and Fleischer Studios was © Paramount
animation cartoon characters in front of three-dimensional in competing with Walt Disney became the victim of unfortunate fate. Had events been
the only other studio large enough to undertake such a models in order to create movement and give an illusion of different, Fleischer Studios could very well have become a serious contender for Disney in
level of production. Paramount discouraged Fleischer’s greater depth and detail. the feature arena.

Van Bueren Shorts » 44 ComiColor shorts » 46 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58 The Little Mermaid » 274
64 HAPPY HARMONIES 65
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
In 1934, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising moved their affiliation from Warner Bros. to Peace on Earth – soldier The new MGM studio launched itself with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as MGM offered them higher budgets and the chance to make The plot of Peace on Earth involves two squirrel children asking a series of black-and-white cartoons based on the long-
films in color. Since their last names formed a pun on "harmonising", Harman and their grandfather about humans. He narrates the chilling story of popular Rudolph Dirks’ comic strip The Captain and the
Ising called their new series Happy Harmonies. how humanity destroyed itself through war, leaving animals to Kids, but the films were not successful. As a result, MGM
live in peace forever. rehired Harman and Ising in 1938 to work as producers
Fairy Tale Magic and directors under Quimby’s supervision.
The Happy Harmonies were similar to Disney’s Silly Symphonies in that each cartoon The cartoons from Harman and Ising’s
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usually featured new characters and had the feeling of a fairy tale. Rudy Ising’s second MGM period are better drawn and more elaborate
The Calico Dragon (1935) transformed a child’s bed into a battlefield for a toy knight and than the Happy Harmonies. Hugh Harman exercised his
dragon. Hugh Harman’s Bottles (1936) took place in a pharmacy where bottles came to flair for spectacle in many of his films. Oscar-nominated
life and their personalities mirrored their functions; baby bottles acted like spoiled brats, Peace on Earth Peace on Earth (1939) conveyed a serious anti-war
and a bottle of poison was a villain. Nominated for an Academy Award, in 1940 Peace on Earth also message using animated battle scenes. A Rainy Day
Not every cartoon featured new characters. Harman continued to use the became the only cartoon ever to be nominated for the Nobel (1940) featured a bear trying to repair his roof in the
© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
star of the Looney Tunes series, Bosko, in cartoons like Bosko’s Parlor Pranks (1934) and Peace Prize. midst of a thunderstorm, and The Field Mouse (1941)
Hey, Hey Fever (1935). For later Bosko contained an intricate sequence of two mice trapped inside a grain-threshing machine.
cartoons such as Circus Daze (1937) and The Blue Danube Rudy Ising’s cartoons moved at a gentler pace. He created a series with
Bosko in Baghdad (1938), Harman made the Telling the fairy tale story of how the Danube river became "blue", Barney Bear, who first appeared in The Bear That Couldn’t Sleep (1939). In 1940, he
character into a more realistic-looking black The Blue Danube is a beautifully executed animation. The featured three little kittens in The Milky Way, which won MGM its first Academy Award
boy. Ising made several cartoons starring a screenplay and syncopation to Johann Strauss's ‘Blue Danube for an animated short subject. That same year, Ising was godfather to Tom and Jerry; he
mouse that first appeared in Little Cheezer Waltz’ are very cleverly done, making this an MGM classic. produced their first cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, written and directed by William Hanna
(1936). He also created a pair of puppies for and Joseph Barbera.
Two Little Pups (1936), The Pups’ Christmas
(1936) and Wayward Pups (1937). Mixed Success
If Harman and Ising had a failing, it was that they were unable to create popular
A Second Wind characters. Many of their characters were vague or bland; none had personalities as
The Happy Harmonies were lavish-looking entertaining as Donald Duck or Goofy in the Disney cartoons of the same period. While
cartoons. In addition to color, they were filled Harman and Ising’s visuals were beautiful, the lack of popular characters prevented their
with animated shadows, reflections, special films from being truly memorable.
effects and animated backgrounds. However, When Harman’s contract ended in 1941, he left MGM hoping to find
when Harman and Ising’s contract expired in backers for an animated feature, but was not successful. Ising left MGM in 1942 and
1937, MGM decided not to renew it. Instead, in joined the Army Air Force, where he was put in charge of making animated films for
an attempt to save money, MGM created its military use.
own cartoon studio and hired many of In later years, Harman and Ising made industrial and commercial films,
Harman and Ising’s artists. They also lured but after MGM they no longer made cartoons for movie theaters. At the time they left
director Friz Freleng away from Warner Bros. MGM, the animation business was moving away from their style of cute fantasy and
© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
and brought in newspaper cartoonist Milt toward cartoons that relied more on gags, fast timing and violent slapstick. For those
Gross. Fred Quimby, a former film salesman, kinds of cartoons, MGM turned to Harman and Ising’s successors: Tex Avery, William
was chosen to run the studio. Hanna (1910–2001) and Joseph Barbera (b. 1911).

Silly Symphonies » 36 Looney Tunes » 42 Cartoons Go To War » 90 Tom and Jerry » 128 Avery at MGM » 128
66 HOLLYWOOD PLAYERS 67
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
In 1934, cartoon studio producers like Paul Terry, Charles Mintz, The Isle of Pingo Pongo Terrytoons
Walter Lantz and Leon Schlesinger must have been all too The Isle of Pingo Pongo was the first of many Tex Avery Warner The Terrytoons cartoons, produced quickly and cheaply in New York for 20th Century Fox
aware that Walt Disney was already the leading light of their Bros. spot-gag-filled parodies of travelogues. It was originally release, continued to produce only low-end black-and-white cartoons until 1939.
industry. Two years earlier, when most cartoon producers felt released in 1938, but more recently has courted controversy Having retired their old-fashioned characters Farmer Al Falfa, Kiko the Kangaroo and
that color film production was too expensive to seriously because of its use of racial stereotypes. This cartoon is one of Puddy the Pup, Terry finally made a small number of cartoons in color, one of which
consider, Disney had forged a pact with the Technicolor those so-called Censored 11 and is still banned from being introduced a new leading player, Gandy Goose. But Terrytoons would still have to wait a
Corporation for the exclusive rights to use the three-color broadcast on TV or released on video. few years for a badly needed breakout character.
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process for animation for two years. During this period, full-
color animation had become popular with movie audiences,
but none of the four studios (Screen Gems, Universal,

© Warner Bros.
Terrytoons and Warner Bros.) had star cartoon characters with
the marquee value of Mickey Mouse.

Screen Gems
Columbia’s cartoon studio Screen Gems, under the
management of Charles Mintz, maintained a full release
schedule of black-and-white Scrappy and Krazy Kat cartoons, all © Warner Bros.

competently animated, but all low-budget and far from the Warner Bros.
cutting edge of animation. In November 1934, Columbia The years between 1934 and 1939 represent a real period of transition for the Warner Bros.
inaugurated the Color Rhapsody series with the Scrappy cartoon cartoons. Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising had departed the studio in 1933, taking with them
Holiday Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award. the rights to their star character Bosko. Isadore "Friz" Freleng, Jack King and Earl Duvall
The Color Rhapsodies, while no match for Disney’s Silly (1898–1969) made Buddy cartoons and one-shot musical Merrie Melodies in 1934 and
Symphonies, are generally better-designed cartoons than the 1935 that were still rough approximations of the Harman-Ising style. The arrival of Tex
Scrappies and Krazies, with a little more spectacle in their set Avery (1908–80), teamed with animators Chuck Jones (1912–2002) and Bob Clampett
pieces and an appealing color palette. The studio also made a (1913–84) in 1936, marked a decisive turn in style and content, away from the singsong
series of color Barney Google cartoons. By 1939, Charles Mintz, The Penguin Parade timing and clunky construction of the old style and towards the funnier, more expressive,
deep in debt and in failing health, was relieved of his post when Another of Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies is The Penguin Parade, sharply timed Warner Bros. cartoon style to come.

© Warner Bros.
Columbia took over full control of the operation of his studio. a rollicking cartoon released in 1938 that features penguins Jack King left to return to Disney, and was replaced by Frank Tashlin
gathering from all over for the opening of a new nightclub. It is (1913–72), whose cartoons were the first to bring to animation the sensibilities of live-
Universal particularly memorable for its jazz-filled musical score. action film. In 1937, Clampett was promoted to director, his signature breakneck comedy
During this period, Walter Lantz’s output was heavily dominated by Oswald cartoons, the Beauty and the Beast style already fully defined. That same year Mel Blanc (1908–89) became one of the
property that had fallen into his lap. In 1934 and 1935, Lantz tried producing six cartoons Notable for being Warner Bros.’ second and final Cinecolor principal voice artists and Carl Stalling (1891–1972) became musical director. Enough
in two-color Technicolor, again imitating Silly Symphony themes. After Carl Laemmle cartoon, this version of Beauty and the Beast was directed by pieces were in play to redefine Warner cartoons. New characters were created to populate
(1867–1939) lost control of the parent company Universal, Walter Lantz took over the Friz Freleng and released in 1934. these fresh new films. Porky Pig, introduced in Freleng’s I Haven’t Got a Hat (1935), was by
cartoon studio, which returned to making only economical black-and-white cartoons now the principal star of the Looney Tunes. Avery introduced Daffy Duck in Porky’s Duck

© Warner Bros.
until 1939. Color cartoons directed by Alex Lovy and Burt Gillett were released that year, Hunt (1937), and Chuck Jones became director in 1938. Also in 1938, Freleng’s successors,
including one that would introduce an important character for the studio, Life Begins for Ben Hardaway (1897–1957) and Cal Dalton (b. 1908), directed the earliest films built
Andy Panda. around a crazed rabbit who would soon evolve into the studio’s most valuable star.

Krazy Kat and Scrappy » 44 Paul Terry and Terrytoons » 40 Looney Tunes » 42
68 OSKAR FISCHINGER 69
WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANY

WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANY

The pioneer of abstract animation, Oskar To escape the impending
Fischinger (1900–67), was born in Gelnhausen, Nazi rise to power, Fischinger accepted a
Germany, and initially trained as an engineer. contract offer from Paramount Pictures to go
It was in Berlin that his interests turned to the to Hollywood and work in their special effects
motion picture, where he created the special department. He completed Allegretto in
effects photography for Fritz Lang’s science- 1936 with diamonds and circles whirling
fiction epic Die Frau im Mond (‘The Woman in about in color to the music. Originally
the Moon’) in 1928. conceived as a preface to their feature The
Big Broadcast of 1937, Paramount never
Visual Music used this segment because color proved too
Fischinger had always had a dream of blending costly. He moved on to MGM, creating a
classical music with the kind of conceptual short, An Optical Poem, in 1938.
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designs that might be formulated in one’s mind Fischinger’s approach of
when listening to a symphony. This mixture he blending music with animation inspired the
termed as "visual music". artists and animators on Walt Disney’s
The formative years found him Fantasia (1940), and Oskar was hired by
dabbling with the comparatively new process of Walt to work on the "Toccata and Fugue"
sound synchronization on film, resulting in his sequence. He only lasted there nine months
© and courtesy of The Elfriede Fischinger Trust

ground-breaking masterpiece, Studie (1930). before leaving the studio.

Set to Listz’s "Second Hungarian Rhapsody", this Muratti Privat His involvement with the major Hollywood studios ended. Oskar
process had the designs drawn in charcoal on In this 1935 commercial, Fischinger used the patterns of cigarettes Fischinger decided instead to concentrate on painting and personal films.
© and courtesy of The Elfriede Fischinger Trust

white paper and photographed in negative to create optical effects with Mozart’s Turkish Rondo as a soundtrack.

which was a method possibly inspired by French animator Emile Cohl’s early work. There Composition in Blue The patterns ranged from checkerboard patterns of cigarette

were 11 more highly original Studies to follow, each featuring a different work of The basic format of this film centered around solid objects packages to a scene in which rows of cigarettes join together in pairs

symphonic music such as Brahms, Dukas and others. moving about in an imaginary blue room. In the opening scene, which wave at the audience as if they were the legs.

The turning point came in 1934 when Fischinger was asked to make an Fischinger showed red cubes entering the "room" through a door;

animated commercial for Muratti cigarettes. The result was Muratti Greift Ein (‘Muratti a mirror was then introduced as the "floor". Whereas Fischinger’s

Marches On’). Made in color and using stop-motion model animation, a pack of previous films had utilized only one basic animation technique,

cigarettes march with the precision of a crack German army. This advertisement proved this one experimented with many new ones – mostly involving

more popular than the feature it played against; consequentially it was allowed to run for pixilation of three-dimensional forms.

over a year. Studie Nr. 6

By 1922 Fischinger had begun to produce abstract films, and in

© and courtesy of The Elfriede Fischinger Trust

Fischinger’s Film Work a few years was synchronizing abstract imagery to popular

Having tasted success, Fischinger was now able to use the money made from Muratti to records with a series he called Studies. These films were shown in

make the kind of films he wanted to make. Komposition in Blau (‘Composition in Blue’) was theaters as advertisements for the recordings. Sixty years before

shot in Gaspar-Color and highlighted colored spheres and shapes cavorting to the music of MTV, they were the first music videos. Each of these studies ran

Nicolai’s "The Merry Wives of Windsor". This not only won the Brussels and Venice Festival three minutes in length and included approximately 5,000

of 1935, but also brought Fischinger’s work to the attention of the Hollywood directors. drawings coordinated to the music.

Emile Cohl » 22 Norman McLaren » 102 Fantasia » 82

70 GEORGE PAL 71
WESTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

WESTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

Hungarian György Marczincsák Horlicks. These advertisements were produced initially
(George Pal) made a unique as entertainment films, but with a sponsor’s message
contribution to the chronicles of as the punch line; the first in line was Radio Valve
fantasy films by using model Revolution (1934), which was made with traditionally
animation, or Puppetoons as he drawn animation.
christened them, in place of the The next year Pal moved away from
traditionally drawn medium. conventional animation and on to puppet films, which
would become his future stock in trade. Het Aetherschip
Early Life (‘Ship of Ether’, 1935) is a seven-minute fantasy featuring
Pal initially trained as a draftsman, a broadcasting studio in which the artists go through
subsequently working in a Budapest dreamlike antics and ships made from twisted glass sail
advertising company, where he over the fantastic scene in order to bring pleasant music
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learned his animation trade along over the airwaves from a new Philips radio.
© Estate of George Pal
with his young assistant, János On Parade (1936) involves a soldier who

© Estate of George Pal/Arnold Leibovit Entertainment

Halász (John Halas). After a couple is always late for his sluggish parade. He and his pals each take a steaming mug of
of years of turning out cut-out Horlicks before retiring and upon waking turn the platoon into a crack regiment, ready for
animation for commercials, in 1930 action! The slogan for the Horlicks commercials was "Get a good night’s sleep and wake
he shifted to Berlin as a set designer feeling refreshed in the morning". This advertisement is done effectively, with humor and
for Universum Film, A.G. (UFA), the Puppetoons an underlying message. A lot of these films, however, have since been distributed with
major German film production George Pal pioneered a distinctive form of animation in a series of the sponsor’s motto removed, rendering them a little meaningless to audiences.
company. UFA functioned by films called Puppetoons, utilizing an elaborate form of stop-

receiving a government subsidy to produce films on German themes. motion photography and a method he termed "replacement Creating Puppetoons
Having worked there for a couple of years, Pal found out that the Gestapo George Pal figure puppetry". The 28 puppets shown here represent a mere The process Pal and his artists would go through to make one of these eight-minute
was investigating him and his fellow workers for the solitary reason that he was Born in Hungary in 1908, George Pal originally intended to train two seconds of animation. subjects involved the usage of 3,000 individual wooden figures. The heads and limbs
Hungarian. Driven out of Berlin by the Gestapo, Pal would get revenge years later with as an architect at the Budapest Academy. However, a clerical error were interchangeable but, should a character have dialogue, it
one of his madcap models, Tulips Shall Grow (1942), which featured a peaceful Holland meant that he took illustration classes and he never looked back. would probably need a dozen or so sculpted heads to see it through
being disrupted by goose-stepping robots. The robots are put out of commission when one sentence. Each head would be carved with a definite mouth
the rains come and everything returns to normal. movement of every vowel, as well as other extensive sounds such
as "F" and "M", etc. It was all very time consuming, but the end
Animated Commercials product proved effective. The sets were constructed 4.6 m (15 ft)
In 1933, Pal tried to set up shop in Czechoslovakia with the intention of starting up his wide and each production took at least a month to make, with a

© Estate of George Pal/Arnold Leibovit Entertainment

own studio. Unable to find a cartoon camera anywhere in the country, he journeyed rough cost of around $15,000.
further afield to Paris, where he was able to form a studio. After a brief sojourn in Paris, he These advertising fantasies soon caught the eye of
decided it was time to move on and, in 1934, moved to Eindhoven, Holland, where he On Parade Hollywood, and Pal was invited to leave Holland to produce his own
set up a studio to make his own advertising films with partner Dave Bader. He remained George Pal produced some of the most beautiful and unique kind of animated shorts for the United States. The year was
there for the next five years. meticulously designed films of the golden age of animation. 1939 and the war in Europe had just begun, so Pal emigrated to
He soon signed a deal with the Dutch electrical company Philips and with This would serve him well in his later career as a producer of big- America and was content to spend the rest of his days making
J. Walter Thompson, the huge advertising conglomerate representing the malted drink budget Hollywood science-fiction feature-films. Puppetoons and live-action features.

Hungarian Animation » 50 Halas and Batchelor » 104 Puppetoons » 92

72 HOPPIN, GROSS & LYE 73
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Anthony Gross Fantasy (1957). This, sadly, is the entire output of Hoppin and Gross.
A noted illustrator, Gross (1905–84) was World War Two put a stop to the frivolity of entertainment cartoons,
often known to experiment with his art, but and Anthony Gross was made Official War Artist for the government.
when he dabbled in the world of animation After the war he took to teaching etching and engraving at Slade
he unwittingly etched himself into cinematic School of Fine Art, London.
history. Gross had already made a few
Disney-esque attempts, which proved Len Lye
unsatisfactory, before settling on applying his As a New Zealand lad out on his paper round, young Len Lye
own contemporary graphic style to popular (1901–80) observed a sunrise that put him in mind of Constable’s
animation. The result was La Joie de Vivre sketches that simulated the motion of clouds. He mused to himself
(‘The Joy of Living’, 1934). "Why simulate?" and then, "Why clouds?". From this insight, Lye

© Animat Studios, London Films

decided to make nonrepresentational films.
Hector Hoppin Always on the move because of the lack of cinematic
With help from American financier Hector equipment in New Zealand, Lye hoped to learn more about film by

© Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin

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Hoppin, and using a series of etchings titled shifting to Australia, where he worked in a Sydney film studio
Sortie d’usine (‘Coming Out of the Factory’), the preparing storyboards. Impressed with the Russian Revolution in film,
hand-drawn La Joie de Vivre was completed in Around the World in Eighty Days Lye headed for Russia next by working his passage from Sydney to London as a stoker
Paris within two years. It was made with only a All traces of this work were believed to have been lost until fragments on the Euripedes. He arrived in London in 1926.
minimalist production team of Gross, Hoppin, were rediscovered in a projection room at the National Film Theatre

their wives, one cameraman, an odd-job man and an animation assistant, David Patee. This La Joie de Vivre in London in 1956. With the assistance of the British Film Institute's Abstract Images
10-minute soufflé tells the slight story of two fun-loving girls who make the most of the La Joie de Vivre was made in 1934 and features two dancers, a Experimental Production Fund, the film was reconstructed and, for There he began work on his first film, to which he dedicated 10 hours every day for two
countryside on a hot day. They strip off for a dip in the lake and are frightened away by the blonde and a brunette, running through a varied countryside. copyright reasons, was retitled An Indian Fantasy. years. Tusalava (1928) was the result, being the first abstract image film of its kind.
arrival of a young man. The boy pursues them, but only in order to return an abandoned They are chased by a boy who wishes to return a lost shoe, and Consisting of grub-like forms reminiscent of Aboriginal shield designs, it was, however,
shoe. Tibor Harsanyi’s powerful music score helps dramatize the surreal actions, met with cool indifference by audiences.

Society
all three happily disappear into the sky on the boy’s bicycle.

accentuating Gross’s post-impressionist graphics. Lye now found himself without the means to finance another cel

© Len Lye/Film
Once the film was completed, they managed to sell this monochrome La Joie de Vivre animation film, so he decided to abandon cel and camera, and draw straight onto old
classic to London Films’ boss Alexander Korda, who immediately signed the boys up to The third short film to come from Anthony Gross and Hector film stock he found abandoned at Ealing Studios. He scratched, painted and generally
start work on some animation sequences for his forthcoming epic The Shape of Things Hoppin’s Animat company, La Joie de Vivre confirmed that Gross messed about with it, finally editing the pieces together and, with an added music track,
to Come (1936). Unfortunately their animation was cut from the film. Their next film, was an animator of considerable skill. presented it to the head of the GPO Film Unit, John Grierson.
The Fox Hunt (1936), employed a few more artists (notably topical cartoonist Carl Giles)
and had the distinction of Technicolor. It featured a fox running rings around the hunters. Color Box
Grierson was impressed and, with help from composer Jack Ellit, Lye turned it into a
War Breaks Out governmental public service film. The result was A Color Box (1935), which illustrated the
In 1938 work began on a feature-length, animated version of Jules Verne’s Around the benefits of the sixpenny telegram.
© Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin

World in Eighty Days. The outbreak of war put a stop to this project and it was Tusalava Throughout World War Two, Lye chiefly worked on live-action
abandoned, never to resurface. The few sequences that had been completed were An experiment in abstract animation, Tusalava was drawn directly documentaries and, after the conflict, moved to the United States. Although
cobbled together, with the addition of Donald Pleasance providing all of the character onto the film, with each frame painted and shot individually. It took he continued to dabble in animated films, he was more taken with making
voices (including Princess Aouda), and now survives as a short under the title of An Indian two years to complete and required 4,400 drawings. steel sculptures.

Hollywood and Technicolor » 60 Halas and Batchelor » 104

74 SOVIET ANIMATORS 75
EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

ions
After years of exploring experimental and avant-garde paths, a congress of Soviet Black and White

osfilm/bfi Collect
writers supported a new stream of creation in 1932 called "socialist realism". The aim This early Soviet sound film by Ivanov-Vano tells the story of an

of the new endeavour was to create nationalistic entertainment adapted from classical old black plantation worker who questions the system in Cuba,

o/M
Aleksandr Ptushk
texts and folklore and aimed at children. where the black man does the hard labor while the white man

takes the profits.

Alexander Ptushko
This new direction in animation began with the founding of the state-run Soyuzmultfilm
studio in 1936. From the beginning, Soyuzmultfilm attempted to emulate Walt Disney
through the adaptation of fairy tales and the creation of cute, round animation figures.
The first director of the company was actor, journalist, and designer Alexander Ptushko.
He studied architecture before becoming a mechanical engineer. In 1928, he made his
first animation film, It Happened at the Stadium.

The New Gulliver

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S
In 1935, Alexander Ptushko made what appears to be the first-ever animated feature The New Gulliver Poster
film, The New Gulliver. This astonishing combination of stop-motion animation and live- The film was released to enormous international acclaim, with

action tells the story of Petya, a young Soviet pioneer who falls asleep reading Jonathan Charlie Chaplin among its admirers. Under Ptushko’s direction,

© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and awakens in a surreal version of Swift’s world. He washes Swift’s satire of Old England became a modern-day political

ashore on a Lilliput that includes jazz bands, mechanized tractors and the proletariat. satire on the contradictions and injustices of twentieth-century

Before he wakes up, Petya helps the people rise up and overthrow their tyrannical rulers. capitalist economies.

Following The New Gulliver,

Ptushko made The Golden Key (1939).

© Leonid Amalrik & Ivan Ivanov-Vano

Based on Aleksei Tolstoy’s version of Pinocchio, The New Gulliver – prologue
Ptushko mixed tiny puppets with life-size The film begins with a live-action prologue, but the majority of

humans. Following the film, Ptushko left the film is set in an animated Lilliput consisting of pixilated

animation to pursue a successful career as a puppets and clay figures that often share the frame with the

live-action director. human actor playing Gulliver.

Throughout the 1930s,

Soyuzmultfilm seemed to be strongly The New Gulliver – table Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Lev Atamanov
influenced by Hollywood productions. In films The first major work by director Alexander Ptushko, The New Two other significant voices emerged during this period: Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1900–87)
like Puss and Boots (The Brumberg Sister, Gulliver was also one of the first feature-length films to showcase and Lev Atamanov (1905–81). Ivanov-Vano was one of the most popular and prolific
Valentina and Zinaidas), Little Muck, and Dog puppet animation. Over 3,000 separate figures were used in this Soviet animators. He made the satirical Black and White (1932), which was also among
and Cat – all made in 1938 – there is little to hybrid of stop-motion animation and live-action footage. the first Soviet sound cartoons, and folkloric and children’s films that included a 1938
differentiate between their characters and those version of The Three Musketeers that borrows heavily from Disney’s Donald Duck

© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm
of Disney productions. One of the few films of character. Armenian-born Atamanov directed a series called Ink-Spot, along with an
this period to steer slightly away from the anti-military satire, The Story of the Little White Bull (1933), before moving to Armenia
Disney influence was How the Rhinoceros Got where he set the groundwork for Armenian animation production. By the late 1930s,
Its Skin, a satirical update of the famous tale. Soyuzmultfilm was producing over 20 films per year and beginning to work in color.

Ivan Ivanov-Vano » 140 Lev Atamanov » 141

76 THE WAR CLOUDS THICKEN 77
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
From 1934 to 1937, Japan was officially at peace with the world. In July 1937 the
Japanese Army went to war with China, and in Japan, the military openly assumed
power over the government. As a result, the cinematic industry was pressured to
increase sharply its production of stridently nationalistic films. Animation of the
1934–39 period continued to be monochromatic, one reel of six to 14 minutes in

© Matsuda Film Productions

length. Grouped by theme, notable examples include comedies for adults, folk tales
and funny animal animation, and militaristic comedies.

Bringing Legends to Life

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S

I I I : 1 9 3 4 – 3 9 : T E C H N I C O L O R FA N TA S I E S
Usually set in the samurai era or mythical past, comedies for adults included films such Taro Thumb – sequence 1 Taro Thumb – sequence 2 Dojo’s Temple (1946), which Ichikawa has claimed as one of his greatest works. However,
as Love in the Genroku Era: Sankichi and Osayo by Mitsuyo Seo (1934) and A Night at a Films featuring folk tales and animals aimed at children were it was confiscated by the post-war occupation authorities and was never seen by the public.
Tavern by Yasuji Murata (1936). Folk tales and funny animal animation were made during the 1930s; those which took their subject matter Militaristic comedies began primarily as fantasies for children, such as My
predominantly aimed at children, on the other hand, and included The Tale of Tiny Issun from Japan’s mythical past were primarily for adults. Pictured is Emergency (ducks and frogs prepare for an air raid) by Sanae Yamamoto (1936) and
Bochi ’s Rescue by Mitsuyo Seo (June 1935), Benkei versus Ushiwaka by Kenzo Masaoka Mistuyo Seo’s Taro Thumb from 1935. Maabo, the Boy Pilot (1937) by Ginjiro Sato. These frequently featured themes of civil
(Japan’s first film animated to a prerecorded music track in July 1939) and The Hare’s defense against foreign aggression. By 1938, the animation was aimed more toward
Revenge on the Tanuki (1939) by Kon Ichikawa. adults and was more supportive of an "aggressive defense". Skies over the Shanghai
Battlegrounds (1938) features two comedic Japanese pilots observing their army’s
Kon Ichikawa successful advance around Shanghai, while in Aerial Ace (1938) by Noburo Ofuji, a
The animated cartoon The Hare’s Revenge on the Tanuki has been cited as a leading Anti-Japanese War Songs funny animal pilot in a toy fighter plane with Japanese military markings is menaced by
animated film of this period, but that seems due less to the film itself than to the status of These propaganda shorts were made during 1937 by the Wan giant clouds in the forms of Popeye and Stalin.
Kon Ichikawa (b. 1915) as one of Japan’s greatest live-action film directors of the 1950s and Brothers after their studio in Shanghai was destroyed by the

1960s. Ichikawa made only one other animated film, the puppet stop-motion The Girl at Japanese invasion of the city. China: Temporarily Missing in Action
© China Film Production The Wan Brothers created numerous animated shorts for the Mingxing Film Company
utilizing cartoon and cut-paper animation, sometimes mixed with live action. The most
notable was The Camel ’s Dance (1935), China’s first sound cartoon. Many of these, such
as Detective Dog and The Tortoise and the Hare, were funny animal comedies for
children, and although there was no attempt to create starring characters, some of the
animals were recognizably repeating characters.
When the Mingxing studio was destroyed during the Japanese capture of
Shanghai in August 1937, the Wans relocated to Wuhan province, where they made
patriotic animation such as The Anti-Japanese War Special Collection, Slogans of the
Anti-Japanese War and Songs of the Anti-Japanese War for the China Film Production
Firm. These were not commercially successful. In 1939, Wan Lai-ming and Wan Gu-
chan accepted an invitation from the Xinhua United Film Company in the French

© Matsuda Film Productions

concession in Japanese-occupied Shanghai to set up an animation studio. They returned
just in time to see Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs playing in Shanghai. This
inspired them to begin a similar Chinese animated feature. The result was China’s first
full-length cartoon, Princess with the Iron Fan (1941).

Japanese Propaganda » 114 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58 Princess with the Iron Fan » 114 Havoc in Heaven » 240
 IV

1940 –44:

THE WORLD WAR

TWO ERA
The world went to war – and animation went with it. The Hollywood studios were drafted
and created hundreds of training films for the army – and patriotic propaganda for the home
front. Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse and Popeye fought the enemy and sold war bonds. The
"wise guy" character was in vogue: Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Screwy Squirrel. And
Disney made his greatest features: Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.
Character animation hit its zenith. Animated shorts were slick and
professional, but generally conformed to the Disney school of cartooning. However, a new
school began to form. Creative thinkers like John Hubley, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin
emerged and began to hint at a new direction for animation design.
But the war kept everyone, everywhere, occupied. China and Russia began
creating animated films to bring ancient fables to life. Germany and Japan used cartoons for
Axis wartime propaganda, as Great Britain and Canada aided the Allied troops with the same.
It was a time of shortages and sacrifice, crisis and conflict. Animators reached
into their arsenal and achieved victory. Mission accomplished. Animation art was in its prime.

Picture above: Bugs Bunny © Warner Bros. Pictures clockwise from top left: Private Snafu © Warner Bros.; Daffy Duck © Warner Bros.; Puppetoons © Estate of George Pal; Gremlins © The Walt Disney Company; Northwest Hounded Police © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Bugs Bunny
© Warner Bros.; Superman © Fleischer Studio; Saludos Amigos © The Walt Disney Company. Centre picture: Red Hot Riding Hood © Warner Bros.
80 DISNEY’S WARTIME SHORTS 81
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Between 1940 and 1944, the Disney studio’s total output was great, but its nature
was considerably altered because of World War Two. The rise of fascist power
hindered and often curtailed European distribution of all US films, and so Disney was
kept afloat largely through government projects, from propaganda and training films
to Latin American health films. These projects allowed Disney to retain a greater
percentage of his artists, who were therefore exempted from the draft (although

© The Walt Disney Company

animators, such as Frank Thomas, left to join the armed forces anyway). Like those
of Warner Bros. and others, Disney’s 1940s short subjects were thus dominated by
wartime sensibilities.

Patriot Donald
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

Der Fuehrer’s Face
Mickey Mouse began to decrease in screen prominence, despite making a few notable Produced by Disney to help the American war effort and the only

appearances, particularly as the harried maestro in Symphony Hour (1942). By 1944, he Donald Duck film to win an Academy Award, Der Fuehrer’s Face

appeared only in support to Pluto, apart from a cameo in Out of the Frying Pan, Into the (1943) featured Donald as a worker in a

Firing Line (1942) and an appearance in a parade in All Together (1942). He also had no munitions factory dreaming of freedom

role in film propaganda, despite fighting the Nazis in the newspaper strip. This more in Nazi Germany.

passive and suburbanized Mickey was therefore overshadowed by Donald Duck, whose
easily stirred emotions and general good intentions allowed him variously to represent the
American soldier, the taxpayer/citizen, or even the victim of German cruelty.
As a soldier, Donald served the US through typical army antics in several
shorts with Sgt. Pete, reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s live-action comedies such as
Buck Privates (1941). His patriotism was channeled towards promoting taxes and war
bonds in a pair of shorts for the US Treasury, The New Spirit (1942) and The Spirit of ‘43.
In the Oscar-winning Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943), Donald endures life in a nightmarish
"Nutziland", which is both satirically amusing (aided by the title song, a Spike Jones
rendition, already a hit with wartime audiences) and truly horrific, as he is starved and
driven insane by his German taskmasters. Waking from his dream at the end, Donald’s

© The Walt Disney Company

patriotism is reaffirmed as he embraces the Statue of Liberty.

Serving Their Country

Pluto and Goofy also served the war effort, with Pluto promoting fat conservation and
serving in the army in several shorts. Goofy saved gas on the home front in Victory
Vehicles (1943) and shattered the Rising Sun in the climax of How to Be a Sailor (1944). © The Walt Disney Company Gremlins – sketch id, represented as the title characters (the former a bespectacled prude and the latter a
However, in 1943, Disney also produced three "psychological" propaganda shorts, Based on Roald Dahl's 1943 book The Gremlins, Disney’s staff caveman) struggle to control man’s mind, and are susceptible to enemy propaganda.
representing some of the most atypical and complex films to come from the studio. Der Fuehrer’s Face started work on a wartime feature film about gremlins who foiled Chicken Little uses the old fable again to denounce propaganda and rumors, and ends
Education for Death combines a fairly straight documentary examination of Nazi After a frantic workday trying to alternate between making British pilots. Much work was done on the film, like this story with the fox consuming everyone. These three shorts demonstrate the true power of
indoctrination with a brief German version of Sleeping Beauty, with Prince Hitler and bombs and saluting Hitler, Donald realizes that it has all been a sketch above – and Disney even produced some merchandizing animation to convey messages and stir emotion, and had more in common with the
Democracy as the witch. Reason and Emotion is even more complex, as the ego and the nightmare and that he is safely back in the good old USA. to promote its production – before the project was abandoned. Disney features than the earlier Mickey Mouse shorts.

Cartoons go to War » 90 Halas and Batchelor » 104 Hans Fischerkoesen » 108

82 DISNEY’S WARTIME FEATURES 83
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Although Disney’s short-production rates remained high bomber planes, thereby acknowledging the war. A few
due to government projects, World War Two greatly months later, Dumbo was followed by Mr. Bug Goes to
hindered Walt’s feature-film plans. Pinocchio and Town (1941), the second (and last) feature from the
especially Fantasia (both 1940) were less successful than Fleischer brothers, and the only significant non-Disney
expected due to high production costs and lack of foreign American animated feature until the 1950s.
markets. Thus, plans for a number of film projects were
considerably delayed and altered. However, between Bambi
1940 and 1944, Disney did complete production of two Bambi (1942), based on the Felix Salten book, was more
films, which are arguably among his greatest (Dumbo ambitious, and the animation veered more toward
and Bambi), and three cheaper films notable for their realism than caricature. As with Dumbo, however, the
experimentation with live footage and the way they reflect mother-child relationship is emotionally affecting, and
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

the situations at the studio and abroad (The Reluctant colorful side characters like Thumper and Friend Owl are

© The Walt Disney Company

Dragon, Saludos Amigos and Victory Through Air Power). subtly interwoven into the coming-of-age story. The lush
effects animation during the "April Showers" sequence is
The Reluctant Dragon particularly atmospheric as the various animals scuttle for
The Reluctant Dragon (1941), in contrast to the ambitious shelter. Pure narrative animated films at Disney,
© The Walt Disney Company
Fantasia, was an inexpensive feature relying heavily on displaced by package features, would not be seen again
live-action footage of humorist Robert Benchley touring the studio. This pseudo- Saludos Amigos until Cinderella (1950), but Dumbo and Bambi would not be equaled.
documentary format is entertaining, but misleading, as not only were real animators like Inspired by a trip to South America undertaken by several Disney

Ward Kimball (1914–2002) juxtaposed against Alan Ladd as a storyboard artist, but the artists, Saludos Amigos was one of the first in a series of "Good Wartime Experimentation
studio was undergoing a major strike at the time. Among the film’s highlights is the Neighbor" films made by Disney at the request of the Office of Inter- Saludos Amigos (1943) was one of two "Good Neighbor Policy" films, along with Three
limited-animation "Baby Weems" segment, with caricatures of Einstein and FDR, and American Affairs. It consisted of four cartoons linked by live-action Caballeros (1945), that showcased Latin America. Not only did they provide another
glimpses of art and preview sequences for planned films, including Bambi and Dumbo’s travel footage. market for the films, but they also aided crucial foreign relations during wartime. Saludos
Casey Jr. In one scene, a row of maquettes showcases Captain Hook, Peter Pan and Aunt Amigos contained travelogue footage of Disney and his crew in South America, framing
Sarah and the Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp, which would be sidelined for four cartoon shorts, some of which involved Goofy, new character Jose Carioca, and
more than 10 years due to the financial setbacks of the war and the trend toward Donald Duck, already established as a wartime icon at home.
"package films" combining shorts and live action, which Reluctant Dragon exemplified. Dumbo – storyboard Finally, in 1943 Disney produced the seldom-seen but fascinating Victory
Winning an Academy Award for Best Music in 1941, Dumbo was Through Air Power. This mix of documentary and military theory was not funded by the
Dumbo hugely popular on its release and it has remained a favorite ever government, but was Walt’s own idea, having been impressed by the theories of aviator
Dumbo (1941) was also inexpensive, but succeeded as more than a mere novelty film. since. Its low cost and popular appeal resulted in a much-needed Major Alexander de Seversky (1894–1974) and his emphasis on strategic air bombing.
Running a little over an hour, the tale of the baby elephant with big ears and his path financial success for Disney. Live footage of de Seversky presenting his theories, surrounded by maps and a globe, is
from ridicule to success has a charming Horatio Alger quality, as well as a lively circus coupled with animated sequences utilizing limited character animation and moving
atmosphere. Disney and Fleischer veteran Grim Natwick (1890–1990), in a June 1979 Dumbo –sketch and cel diagrams, resembling the stylized live-action maps. The wartime symbolism was even
Cartoonist Profiles article, stated: "[It is] a long short. It has the effervescent tempo of the Although something of a departure for Disney following the stronger than in the shorts: de Seversky’s birth date is accompanied by the Statue of

© The Walt Disney Company

shorts and the physical stature of a feature film.” labor-intensive Snow White, Pinocchio and Fantasia, the gamble Liberty, and the finale depicts the American eagle defeating the Japanese octopus.
The warmth in the animation of Dumbo and his mother by Vladimir Tytla paid off. The film was simple and succinct and one of Disney’s Overall, despite their financial limitations, the features of the 1940s are unique and bear
(1904–68), along with the lively songs and surreal "Pink Elephant" march, has charmed shortest animated features at just 64 minutes, and many believe Walt’s personal stamp more closely than later films, when theme-park development,
audiences for decades. The film’s closing montage includes a quick shot of Dumbo-style that this set it apart from its more "arty" predecessors. television and live-action films occupied more of his time and interest.

Animation for the War Effort » 112 Disney Moves On » 120 Halas and Batchelor » 104
84 DAFFY DUCK & BUGS BUNNY 85
NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

With three simple words – "What’s up, Doc?" – a new era in Warner Bros.’ cartoon Bugs Bunny Wild Antics
history had begun. Whilst Bugs Bunny had appeared in previous cartoons, it was in Tex Wisecracking rabbit Bugs Bunny is arguably one of the most Daffy Duck had already appeared in a handful of cartoons
Avery’s A Wild Hare (1940) that the Bugs we know today made his definitive first popular and recognizable cartoon characters ever created. from 1937 to 1939. Whether cast as a wild, crazy foil for
appearance. A powerhouse team of talented directors, each possessing different yet For many years he was voiced by Mel Blanc, who gave him a Porky Pig in Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937) and Porky and Daffy
complementary strengths was ready to make the funniest cartoons ever made. Tex distinctive Brooklyn accent. (1938), or as the headline character in Daffy Duck in
Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones were on hand to kick off this golden Hollywood (1938) and Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938),
era, with Frank Tashlin occupying Avery’s chair by 1942. The confluence of a talented Daffy’s wildly unrestrained antics made it almost impossible
group of animators, working with fresh, new characters against the backdrop of a war for an audience to notice he was sharing the screen with
effort that the whole studio seemed enthusiastically to embrace, made the war years other characters. Even when directed by Chuck Jones – in
an exciting time for the studio. Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939) – whose style was
considerably more sedate than that of Clampett and Avery,
Patriotic Feeling Daffy remained a force of nature.
It is worth pointing out that, while some of The pre-1940s Bugs was similarly boisterous.
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

the other Hollywood studios were hesitant to A Wild Hare, its title notwithstanding,
mix politics with business before Pearl reenvisioned Bugs by stripping away
Harbor, Warner Bros. had reason early on to most of the anarchy of the previously
take a stand against Nazi Germany. The used Daffy-like rabbit character and
studio had closed its German distribution making Bugs cool and quick-witted,
office in the late 1930s after a Warner and very much in charge of
representative was beaten to death by Nazi every situation. The Warner
© Warner Bros.
thugs. Warner’s feature division declared war cartoons would forever be
long before the US government did, with the Daffy Duck defined by the dichotomy created by the frantic kinetics
1939 release of the feature film Confessions Daffy Duck’s character evolved from hyperactive and aggressive of the impulsive Daffy Duck and the deft,
of a Nazi Spy. to scheming, cunning and greedy. This has never dented his always-in-control coolness of the
The Warner animation popularity, however – his crazy antics and general silliness have knowing Bugs Bunny.
division was not the only cartoon shop to always been a hit with audiences.

reference the war via cartoons, but few got

involved as early or with the intensity of
patriotic fervor found in the Warner cartoons.
Who else but Daffy Duck would have
the nerve to smack Hitler in the
face with a mallet? Bob
Clampett explained that Bugs
Bunny was "a symbol of Bugs Bunny in Falling Hare
America’s resistance to Hitler One of the secrets of Bugs’s enduring success is the fact that he

and the fascist powers …" This © Warner Bros.

always wins, whether it’s against hapless hunter Elmer Fudd,

was a remarkable time indeed for new blustering bully Yosemite Sam, or any number of other doomed © Warner Bros.

characters to be created. adversaries.

Disney’s Wartime Shorts » 80 Avery, Jones and Clampett » 86 Hans Fischerkoesen » 108 Warner Bros. and Chuck Jones » 156
86 AVERY, JONES & CLAMPETT 87
NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

Tex Avery’s wildly funny cartoon style exerted a distinct influence over Chuck Jones
the Warner cartoons, even though he departed from the studio in 1942 The formative Chuck Jones cartoons, such as The
to direct animated cartoons at MGM. Avery’s last few years at Warner Mighty Hunters (1940), Tom Thumb in Trouble
were dominated by silly spot-gag cartoons, with surprisingly few films (1940) and Good Night Elmer (1940), were
built around the characters he helped to launch. After only three Daffy contemplative exercises in lighting and modeling,
Duck cartoons in the late 1930s, he never returned to the character. and are stylish to a fault. They explore rather small,
After having sharpened and defined Porky Pig in 1936 and 1937, he humorless themes at the expense of the story. This
made only one Porky cartoon in his later years at Warner. This film, the tendency toward thoughtful film design would serve
highly inventive Porky’s Preview (1941), is structured around a cartoon Jones better in his later cartoons, when he was
supposedly drawn and animated by Porky himself. better able to use it in the service of a story. His

© Warner Bros.
earliest work with Bugs and Daffy gave him more
Bugs’ Early Days promising material to work with, although they still
Avery’s four Bugs Bunny cartoons may comprise his most valuable seem at times too tentative to reach out for a laugh.
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

contribution to the Warner catalog. A Wild Hare (1940) certainly laid the foundation for Porky Pig My Favorite Duck (1942) establishes Daffy’s ability
much of what would follow. In 1941, Avery directed three more Bugs cartoons, building This rare printed model sheet shows Porky Pig, the stuttering, to push Porky’s buttons, and displays some nicely
on Bugs’ character: Tortoise Beats Hare, The Heckling Hare and the controversial All This mild-mannered, innocent foil of the brasher, more self- timed quick cutting. By 1944, with Bugs Bunny and
and Rabbit Stew. His broadly comic style helped endear Bugs to movie audiences. All possessed Bugs, Daffy and Sylvester. More emotionally the Three Bears, Jones has made a very confident,
This and Rabbit Stew has been largely unavailable for decades, due to the racial sympathetic than other Warner Bros. creations, Porky was a very funny cartoon, bouncing Bugs against a truly
stereotyping of one character in the cartoon. Such racial cartoon star of a different kind. funny cartoon comedy team.
© Warner Bros.
caricatures were commonplace when these cartoons
were made, and artists like Avery were unaware of any The Dover Boys Bob Clampett
offensive implications they may have. Bugs Bunny in Little Red Riding Rabbit Dover Boys Tom, Dick and Larry were three upstanding but This is an especially remarkable period for Bob Clampett’s cartoons. His Daffy is an enfant
Chuck Jones often stated that Tex Avery In this zany take-off of the traditional fairy tale, Bugs escapes stupid brothers on a university campus. Showing all the terrible, tearing his way through some truly wacky cartoons. In Henpecked Duck (1941),
was one of the very few geniuses in animation. "I being eaten by the wolf with his customary cool. Little Red Riding hallmarks of Chuck Jones’s unique style, this experiment in his idle tomfoolery when practicing a magic trick makes the egg he is babysitting disappear,
learned from him the most important truth about Rabbit is a classic example of Bugs’s custom of using his superior limited animation set the style for Warner Bros. cartoons for the leading to panicky histrionics. In The Wise Quacking Duck (1943), he embellishes the
animation," said Jones. "Animation is the art of timing." wit to outclass the bad guy. next 15 years. illusion that his head has been cut off with a bottle of ketchup and more frantic acting.
In his Bugs cartoons, Clampett does not hesitate to cast aside Bugs’ more
Star Material dignified behavior in the service of a gag’s demands. Bugs requires little or no provocation
Starting in the late 1930s, Avery’s two star animators, Chuck to turn boisterous in Wabbit Twouble (1942) and The Wacky Wabbit (1942). Tortoise
Jones and Bob Clampett, were both directing cartoons for Warner, Wins by a Hare (1943), a sequel to Avery’s tortoise cartoon, ratchets up even Avery’s
and the two are as unalike in their approach to film-making as Bugs and crazier humor to a new extreme. Clampett’s original ending to Hare Ribbin (1944), had
Daffy. The contrast between a Jones film like The Dover Boys (1942) and a to be reshot – Bugs pulling out a pistol and shooting his foe in the face must have seemed
Clampett film like An Itch in Time (1943) could hardly be greater. Jones derives perfectly reasonable to Clampett.
humor from formalistic concerns, applying stylized design to tightly controlled Arguably, the most acclaimed among Clampett’s cartoons were both
characters. By comparison, Clampett appears to observe few strictures of form, made in 1943. Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Tin Pan Alley Cats, despite the
stretching his characters into almost grotesque contortions, accelerating the action only racial stereotypes, are considered two of the most respected cartoons ever made. Coal
© Warner Bros.
to stop it completely for a gag, breaking character with asides to the audience, etc., and Black in particular combines extremely high spirits, fast action and lively music with the
achieving explosively funny results. most zealous World War Two fervor ever caught on film.

Tex Avery at MGM » 128 Daffy Duck » 84 Cartoons go to War » 90

88 FRIZ FRELENG & FRANK TASHLIN 89
NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

Friz Freleng, who had been absent from Warners for a brief but angular, with an emphasis on line, shape and mass. In Plane Daffy, the backgrounds are

© Warner Bros.
historically significant period of the late 1930s while Bugs and Daffy sparse, with a distinctive color palette: slabs of tomato red are placed next to salmon pink,
were in their formative years, was nevertheless a legacy at the studio. balanced by a block of sky blue. Add a cel of Hatta Mari, with her lemon-yellow hair, and
His first Daffy Duck cartoon, You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940), was you have an attention-grabbing combination of colors. At the end, Tashlin caricatures
an unusual mixture of live action and animation, with Daffy goading Hitler, Goering and Goebbels, with Mel Blanc making the most of der Feuhrer’s one line:
Porky into quitting his job at Warner to try his luck at another studio. "Hitler iss a shtinker? DAT’S no military secret!" To which the others reply: "Yah!
Meanwhile, Daffy tries to schmooze Leon Schlesinger into making him EFFERYBODY knows DAT!"
the studio’s new cartoon star. Yankee Doodle Daffy (1943) and Stage
Door Cartoon (1944) are good examples of a theme Freleng would Anthem to War
visit repeatedly over the showbiz years. "Women of America have responded magnificently to the demands of a nation at war,"
intones a voice-over at the beginning of Tashlin’s Brother Brat. This intro is an anthem to
Making a Song and Dance © Warner Bros.
wartime industry, drawn in dramatic, realistic chiaroscuro and depicting the nobility of
A number of Freleng’s cartoons were informed by vaudeville, with Bugs human endeavor in a style that resembles WPA paintings. What follows is a very funny
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

or Daffy performing song and dance revues, often staged more from the cartoon in which Porky has to babysit a bratty child for a working mother.
point of view of a theater audience than from a movie director’s sensibility. Some of Looney Tunes At the same time as these cartoons were being produced for civilian
Freleng’s funniest gags take advantage of the limitations of stage space in a single long The first Looney Tunes cartoon to be released was Sinking in the audiences, Warner was also producing cartoons for military consumption. Tashlin,
shot, with gags often culminating in a blind area, the camera never cutting away for a Bathtub (1930), and after this, they were produced at the rate of Clampett and Jones made short Private Snafu and Hook cartoons to illustrate training
close-up. Daffy the Commando (1943) and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944) find one per month. So successful were the Looney Tunes that themes for The Army-Navy Screen Magazine during the war.
Daffy and Bugs, respectively, in high gear for the war effort. Warner commissioned another monthly series, Merrie Melodies, © Warner Bros.

A Freleng specialty at various times in his career was the musical cartoon in 1931.

films that communicate purely through animation tightly synchronized to music.

Rhapsody in Rivets (1941) and Pigs in a Polka (1942), both Academy Award nominees,
are examples.
Freleng was a master of impeccable timing. Chuck Jones wrote, "No one,
including Tex Avery, has as perfect a sense of timing as does Friz Freleng, and no one can
pre-time a picture with as absolute certainty as he can…. Friz timed his pictures on
musical bar sheets in the most beautiful, tiny lettering style you ever saw. These were
then transferred by some myopic lackey on to exposure sheets." Private Snafu –sketch
The entertainment industry took its duty to help the war effort

Frank Tashlin very seriously, with all the major cartoon studios undertaking

Frank Tashlin landed back at Warners in September 1942, taking a job in the story contract work for the military. The best-remembered of these

department with the promise that he would inherit Norm McCabe’s unit when McCabe wartime cartoon characters is the US Army’s Private Snafu.

went into the military. McCabe had briefly filled in as director when Tex Avery took a job
at MGM. "When I went back, Tex had left," said Tashlin, "and there were four units: Private Snafu
Freleng, myself, Bob and Chuck." During this third and final stay at Warners, Tashlin Created as an example to servicemen of what not to do, Snafu

directed some of his most distinctive cartoons, films like Swooner Crooner, Brother Brat was an acronym standing for “Situation Normal – All F*****

(both with Porky, 1944), Scrap Happy Daffy (1943), Plane Daffy (1944) and The Stupid Up”. Because the intended audience consisted entirely of male

Cupid (1944). These later Tashlin cartoons bring a sense of design that is lean and soldiers, these cartoons were considerably more risqué.

Hollywood Players » 66 Cartoons go to War » 90

90 CARTOONS GO TO WAR 91
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Prior to the advent of motion pictures, Wartime Stereotypes
cultural motivation for war (i.e. These films, and many more like them, were made for general
demonizing the enemy and boosting audiences and used humor and invention to put across the
morale at home) was propagated wartime message. More telling was the way in which enemies
through the presentation of themed were portrayed. Almost from the onset, Japanese soldiers were
artwork, literature and theater. By World relegated to the spectacle-wearing, bucktoothed, simian imps
War One, the persuasive power of the that fulfilled the stateside stereotype of the era. German and
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

cinema was well understood, and the Italian leaders were also the focus of very broad caricature, but
cinematic arts were becoming part of the German soldiers were almost never stereotyped. Why? Perhaps
process as well. Popular cartoon series like because the Japanese were easily identified as being "different",
Bud Fischer’s Mutt and Jeff and John while the German and Italian rank and file looked, well, "just like
Bray’s Colonel Heeza Liar, while made for the British".
general audiences, had obvious war-fever World War Two saw the first movement toward
overtones. Winsor McCay’s visually integration in the Allied ranks, but in animation black soldiers were
© Fleischer Studio
stunning The Sinking of the Lusitania was still relegated to then popular stereotypes. Walter Lantz produced the Oscar-nominated
commissioned specifically to bolster the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B (1941) and Warner Bros. released what many
US war effort. consider to be one of the best theatrical shorts ever made, Coal Black and de Sebben
Dwarfs (1942). Both have wartime themes but the racial depictions show that even
Wartime Topics while the Allies fought for freedom, the introspection needed to achieve equality in one’s
After World War One, animation generally own country had not yet been realized.

© Fleischer Studio
returned to peacetime subjects, the only
armed forces presence being the Information Service
occasional parody of military life. Pearl Animation crews, most notably at Disney and Warner Bros., spent much of the war
Harbor changed things dramatically. Popeye joins the navy (he was originally in the Superman making propaganda and instructional films. Disney’s Victory through Air Power had a
Coast Guard) and sinks Imperial Japanese battleships single-handedly in You’re a Sap, Originally created by two monumental effect in convincing both civil and military personnel, including Churchill
Mr Jap (1942). He brings spinach to Downing Street while sinking Nazi submarines in teenage science-fiction and Roosevelt, that an escalation of the air war could mean the difference between Allied
Spinach Fer Britain (1943). Bugs Bunny fights in the Pacific Theater in Bugs Bunny Nips fans from Cleveland, victory or defeat, and Education for Death was one of the few films that dealt with the
the Nips (1944), while Daffy Duck takes on Hitler in Daffy the Commando (1943). Ohio, Superman went psychological effects of the fascist movement on German individuality. Many Warner
He also thwarts enemy spies in Plane Daffy (1944), while gremlins from the Kremlin on to become very Bros. artists found themselves making the Private Snafu series (1942–45) for the army.
bring down the Luftwaffe in Russian Rhapsody (1944). popular in printed form These films, often written by Theodore Geisel (Dr Seuss), were racy for the times and

© The Walt Disney Company

The Fleischer Studios ground-breaking Superman series commenced and on both the small screen meant only for enlisted men, but they were actually educational films, providing insight
just as World War Two began and, as the studio transitioned to the Paramount/Famous and the big screen. into various aspects of a soldier’s life. Studios made many fund-raising films as well,
label, the man of steel was battling Japanese saboteurs in New York and Nazis in Africa using popular characters to sell war bonds. Bob Clampett’s Any Bonds Today (1942) was
in The Japoteurs (1942) and Jungle Drums (1942). At MGM, Tex Avery won an Superman – used in theaters and on television well into the 1950s.
Academy Award for The Blitz Wolf (1942), a wartime version of the three little pigs model sheet The Thrifty Pig Of course, during all of this activity many of the people making these films
fable, with Hitler taking the wolf’s part. The Disney studios won an Oscar the following The Fleischer Studios produced a total of 18 cartoons featuring A short made for the National Film Board of Canada, The Thrifty also faced the possibility of being enlisted. In fact, the harshest reality of animation at the
year with Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942), Donald Duck’s nightmare of forced slave labor by the Man of Steel, all of which had high-production values and Pig was commissioned to promote the purchase of Canadian time was that, as World War Two dragged on, animation crews dwindled as more
the Axis powers. which are still held in high regard today by animation fans. War Bonds and thereby support the war effort. animators put down their pencils and took up arms.

Disney’s Wartime Shorts » 80 Halas and Batchelor » 104 Soviet Propaganda » 110 Animation for the War Effort » 112
92 GEORGE PAL’S PUPPETOONS 93
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
George Pal coined the term "Puppetoons" while producing advertisements for Philips The snappy animation style
Radio of Holland in the early 1930s. Though he often used stop-motion puppets with proved a perfect companion for the popular
flexible wire skeletons, his signature style involved what is called replacement musical numbers of the day. Jasper in a Jam
animation. Rather than moving an articulated model for each frame of film, Pal would (1946), for instance, features the music of Charlie
have individual figures carved out of wood for each pose required. After shooting a Barnet and his orchestra and the voice of singer
frame, he would replace the entire figure with a new one he had fashioned in a slightly Peggy Lee as instruments come to life in a
different pose. While the projected film would appear to show a single figure moving pawnshop.
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

about, as many as 5,000 different wood carvings were required to complete an eight-
minute film. Award Winners
Individual Puppetoons were nominated six times

© Estate of George Pal

An Unique Look for an Academy Award, with Pal winning a
Stop-motion animators still use replacement animation to some degree. Projects like special Oscar on 1943 for the techniques he
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Aardman Animation’s developed. Of the nominated shorts, two were
Chicken Run (2000) employed an array of different mouth pieces or even entire Puppetoons adaptations of Dr Seuss – The 500 Hats of
heads to achieve lip sync or convey emotion. However, the Pal method of producing Puppets were made for each facial expression in the painstaking Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) and And to Think
thousands of entire puppets would prove far too time-consuming and expensive for task of creating the Puppetoons. George Pal used the money he That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1944) – one a
modern productions. While the pre-posed figures saved a little effort during filming, had earned from the Philips advertisement campaign to form his respectful adaptation of a black folk tale, John
the pre-production time involved negated the benefits. Even before the army of own studio in order to make his Puppetoons, eventually Henry and the Inky Poo (1946), and another
puppet clones was meticulously crafted, Pal and his team of artists roughly animated employing as many as 75 artists and craftspeople, and working Pal’s classic adaptation of Tubby the Tuba
the action on paper using a typical cel animation pipeline. Since the painstaking with glass as well as wood to build his solid sets and characters. (1947). The producer would achieve even
process has not been reproduced by other studios, the look Pal achieved remains greater success when he transitioned to live-
entirely original. action features, such as the critically and
financially successful H.G. Wells adaptations The
Hiring Harryhausen War of the Worlds (1953) and The Time
When Pal moved to Hollywood and began working for Paramount in the early 1940s, Machine (1960).
one of his hires was a young animator named Ray Harryhausen. It was the 18-year- After Pal’s death in 1980, producer
old’s first professional job, and he spent two years working on the first 12 of the Arnold Leibovit (The Fantasy Film World of
Puppetoons shorts, which average eight to 10 minutes in length. King Kong animator George Pal) compiled a number of the shorts into
Willis O’Brien later came on board, but quickly became frustrated with the process. an 80-minute feature film titled The Puppetoon
Harryhausen would later admit that he too felt the assembly-line replacement method Movie. The 1987 theatrical release enlisted Art
Pal employed limited his creativity as an animator. Still, the Puppetoon factory would Clokey characters Gumby and Pokey, along with
© Estate of George Pal

prove an invaluable training ground for animators who later went to work for commercial an animated vegetarian T. Rex named Arnie, to
studios and special-effects companies. Dimensional Cartoons introduce the titles: The Little Broadcast (1943), The Big Broadcast of ‘38 (1937), Hoola
Dipsy Gypsy (1941), starring the character Jim Dandy, was the first in the Pal's stop-motion, three-dimensional Puppetoons were the Boola (1938), South Sea Sweethearts (1938), Sleeping Beauty (1935), Tulips Shall
series of Puppetoons produced in the US. While this character failed to catch on with forerunner of today's CG cartoons from Pixar and Blue Sky Grow (1942), Together in the Weather (1946), John Henry and the Inky Poo, Phillips
© Estate of George Pal
audiences, it was followed by many other puppet personalities, such as the Productions. Brilliant color design and art direction were Cavalcade (1934–39), Jasper in a Jam (1946) and the last Puppetoon short made,
daydreaming Rusty, teenagers Punchy and Judy and the popular Jaspar series. Though employed and audiences were dazzled by the charm of the Tubby the Tuba. The film was later released on DVD by Expanded Entertainment and
these films were short in length, it took a full year to complete six of them. characters. Pal received an Oscar for the technique in 1943. contains 12 bonus Puppetoons.

George Pal » 70 Jiri Trnka and Karel Zamen » 192 Aardman Animation » 322
94 WISE GUYS EMERGE 95
NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

The early 1940s saw animation
studios acting en masse to create
"wise guy" cartoon characters: smart-
aleck stars far less well-mannered
than had previously been the trend.
Some have attributed the wise guys’
triumph to Americans’ tensions over
the coming war; it was an emotional
release to watch funny animals wreak
unapologetic havoc. On the other
hand, one might also theorize that
Donald and Daffy Duck – the
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

prototypical wise guys of the 1930s –
had struck an unexpected chord with
moviegoers, and that studios in the
1940s merely ramped up their efforts
to follow the ducks’ lead.

© Warner Bros.
Tom and Jerry

© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Whatever the cause, when a blue-gray
cat and brown mouse debuted in Tom and Jerry – golf It was a new way to feel for cartoon characters. Jasper and his mousy foe
MGM’s Puss Gets the Boot (1940), it Tom and Jerry established themselves as a firm cartoon favorite became Tom and Jerry in The Midnight Snack (1941), wherein the cat’s backside takes
was not the result of a conscious effort from their first outing in 1940. With Tom and Jerry, Hanna and a rough ride down a cheese grater. In Fine Feathered Friend (1942), a pair of shears
to create new star characters. Working under Rudy Ising, de facto directors William Northwest Hounded Police Barbera broke Disney’s Oscar monopoly for cartoons: in 20 years, repeatedly threatens Tom with harm. One cannot do the gags justice by describing them
Hanna and Joseph Barbera just happened to concoct a cat and mouse story. The later Created by Tex Avery, Droopy made his debut in 1943's Dumb they won seven Oscars. Hanna was the timing director, whereas as in print: the realistic feel gives them their bite on screen. Added bite is provided by Tom’s
sequels that followed were the result of Boot’s unexpected success. Hounded. This 1946 remake, Northwest Hounded Police, shows Barbera invented the stories and worked out the gags. cynical owner, whose frustration with her "no-good cat" was magnificently voiced by
Puss Gets the Boot tells the simple tale of Jasper the house cat being how Avery really progressed as a film-maker. It is faster, funnier Lillian Randolph.
warned not to break chinaware – after which a mouse tries to make the cat run foul of and more outrageous. Avery loved using Droopy as a simple foil

the rule. The theme is nothing special. It is what Hanna and Barbera did with it that stood for a gallery of bad guys, bullies and crooked characters. Finding Their Way
out – both in Boot and later on. It would take Tom and Jerry several years to hit their stride. In the early days, Tom
Hanna, a veteran of the Harman-Ising school of art, designed a cat was physically over-detailed, his whiskers mimicking a stage villain’s mustache in
and mouse lifelike enough that one saw them as real and felt their pain. Then Red Hot Riding Hood Mouse Trouble (1943). The early cat and mouse even spoke, using Dead End Kid
Barbera, a skilled gag man, piled on the pain – putting the realistic animals through Avery’s sensual adaptation of the classic tale was an instant hit, voices in The Lonesome Mouse (1942). By the mid-1940s, Tom would be visually
the lumps usually reserved for less believable cartoon stars. The result was a unique although the Red cartoons were at first banned from TV for being streamlined and both cat and mouse more typically silent, but no matter. With
kind of "slapstick you could feel" – and that would have been objectionable in its too provocative. Red’s sexy looks and demeanor, as well as audiences, both had long since been going from strength to strength. Puss Gets the
sadism, had not the characters made clear that their pride alone was injured. As it making her a pinup during the war, had a lasting impact on Boot garnered an Oscar nomination; The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943) and Quiet

© Warner Bros.
shaped up, the pain level of the violence equated only to the embarrassment level animated characters long after her last short: in the 1980s, Please (1945) won the prize. For Tom and Jerry’s fans, such recognition could not
of a given defeat. Jessica Rabbit was based on Red. come too soon.

Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising » 64 Hanna-Barbera » 178

96 WOODY WOODPECKER 97
NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

Perhaps the most famous wise guy in cartoons was this crazy bird – quite literally
crazy, for actual insanity was the original calling card of Walter Lantz’s biggest star.
In truth, Woody’s creator – Walter Lantz story man Ben Hardaway – had been dealing
with the daft for quite a while. At Warner a few years earlier, Hardaway had toiled as
a story man on that darn Daffy Duck; later, with Cal Dalton, Hardaway more or less
copied Daffy to create the embryonic Bugs Bunny. From proto-Bugs to Woody was
© Walter Lantz Studio
just a short step. In particular, the woodpecker’s celebrated call – "Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!" –
was first heard from Hardaway’s version of the rabbit.

Explosive Effect
When it came to the Lantz studio, however, more important than Woody’s originality was
the effect he had on his surroundings. At Warner, Daffy and Bugs had been born into a
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

cartoon environment that was already screwy: a natural home for the iconoclastic new stars.
By contrast, many Lantz cartoons in 1940 still revolved around childish themes and cuddly
cuteness. Even Andy Panda, the mischievous leading light, was sweeter than he was bratty. The Barber of Seville
Dropping Woody into this innocent atmosphere was like detonating an atomic bomb. Like all characters, Woody’s design changed after his first few years.

The big debut came in Knock Knock (1940), when Woody repeatedly Most of his early films involved him trying to get food, gate-crashing

appeared on Andy’s roof to confound Andy and his pop. If viewers had any doubt of the an event, or heckling, and Woody’s "new look" was unveiled in this

bird’s lunacy, it was dispelled by the finale. In a scene similar to one written by Hardaway short. He became one of the most popular icons of the 1940s.

for Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938), woodpeckers from the nuthouse arrive to cart The Barber of Seville also pushed the envelope in other ways. In
Woody off – but turn out to be just as crazy as their ward. production, the short included a scene where Woody maniacally trimmed a customer to
From there it was on to wackier heights for the new Lantz star; and the Hollywood Matador the tune of Rossini’s "Largo el Factotum". As the music got faster, however, the story crew
longer Woody persevered, the more he shook free the veneer of cuteness that had long Woody was a hit during the war years with his brio and straight- had not reflected the speed-up in the action. Director Shamus Culhane decided to do so,
hung over the studio. A wise guy needed stooges – and other wise guys – to do battle talking manner. His image appeared on US aircraft and mess matching every "Figaro!" to a new jump cut. The result was the fastest, funniest scene
with, and suddenly Lantz shorts were full of them. At first, Woody dealt with the one-off halls, and audiences on the home front watched Woody cope that had ever been in a Woody cartoon – or a Lantz cartoon. The fact that the
likes of a fox psychiatrist in Woody Woodpecker (1941) and a Mexican bull in Hollywood with familiar problems such as food shortages. He appeared in woodpecker swung a mean razor was not lost on Culhane either.
Matador (1942). Soon, though, Woody found a recurring foe in Wally, the irascible this short with one of his first "costars" – a bull.

Swedish walrus of The Beach Nut (1944). Blustery Wally was about as far from a Crazy, Wild Bird
traditional Lantz star as Woody had been, but the atmosphere had changed to make the By the mid-1940s, Culhane had become Lantz’s leading director, and Culhane’s own

© Walter Lantz Studio

walrus’s introduction seem entirely natural. enthusiasm became that of the studio as a whole. Non-cute, fast-moving, increasingly
vicious cartoons were now the norm. Andy Panda, once such a cuddly little bear, set a
Streamlined Success death trap for his own dog in The Painter and the Pointer (1944). And In Fair Weather
The Beach Nut also included a version of Woody that was new to audiences of the time. Fiends (1946), Woody himself reached a crazy high point – forcing a hungry wolf into a
The woodpecker had started life in 1940 as a long-beaked, toothy bird with a distracting Walter Lantz & Grace Stafford meat grinder to become Woody’s own meal.
red belly. Beginning with The Barber of Seville (1944), however, studio color stylist Art Walter Lantz’s wife, Grace (pictured), provided Woody Woodpecker’s Later in his career, Woody Woodpecker would evolve to incorporate some

© Walter Lantz Studio

Heinemann tired of the character’s grotesque look and asked Lantz’s permission to draft trademark high staccato "ha-ha-ha-HA-ha" laugh after an of the cuteness he had originally forsaken. Luckily for fans, though, the woodpecker most
a streamlined model. With that, the slicker, toothless, blue-and-white "classic" Woody anonymous audition in 1952. Mel Blanc provided the original voice in of us remember today is the wild wise guy of Hardaway, Culhane and the 1940s –
Woodpecker was born. 1940 when Woody first appeared in an Andy Panda short. a wise guy who continues to reach today’s viewers on TV and DVD.

Walter Lantz and Universal » 130

98 FOX AND CROW 99
NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

NORTH AMERICA: WISE GUYS

The year 1941 found former Star Quality
Warner Bros. director Frank Wickersham detailed Fauntleroy’s and Crawford’s relationship
Tashlin – unhappy after a brief from both perspectives, so that audiences could see through
stint at Disney – moving over to either character’s eyes – a highly novel means of storytelling.
Columbia to become production In Room and Bored (1943), for example, refined Fox takes in
supervisor. In an effort to guide rowdy Crow as his tenant and lives to regret it. The story
the staff, he also wrote and would normally call for us to sympathize with Crow; like
directed several shorts himself. Woody Woodpecker, he is the viewer’s id, playfully
The Fox and the Grapes (1941), unbalancing a culture-vulture who was asking for it. On the
the most influential of the group, other hand, Wickersham makes Fox’s frustration real enough
had a fairly simple story: a crow – and his intelligence obvious enough, despite his gullibility –
tries to mooch a fox’s picnic lunch that Fauntleroy earns a viewer’s sympathy too. Both
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

by tempting the fox with characters’ superb voices, now provided by Frank Graham,
some unreachable grapes (both only enhanced their star quality.
characters voiced, in this initial Unfortunately, Wickersham and his writers
appearance, by Mel Blanc). But failed to understand storytelling and pacing as well as they
more important than the plot was understood their two heroes. For every classic Fox and Crow
the film’s storytelling style. cartoon, there is another that tells a good story badly, great
characterization notwithstanding. Way Down Yonder in the
Innovative

© Columbia Pictures
Corn (1943) has a surefire concept at its core: Crawford
Techniques disguising himself as a scarecrow to get a job "guarding" –
As he had done earlier at Warner, and eating – Fox’s food. But as executed by Wickersham, the
Tashlin took advantage of the cartoon’s early scenes sail by too fast, while a climactic chase
cartoon medium to draw viewers into the action, utilizing numerous quick cuts and Fox and Crow is much longer than necessary. Worse, the story’s logic is
imaginative camera angles. Tashlin also deployed the body of the story – the fox’s Tashlin brought new life and energy to the hitherto confused: Fox learns his "scarecrow’s" true identity from a
determined efforts to get at the grapes – through short, snappy blackout gags. unheralded Screen Gems unit of Columbia. The series’ radio-gossip reporter, despite there having been no moment
In the long run, Grapes’ seminal blackouts would influence the style of 1950s use of blackout gags foreshadowed the Coyote and when the reporter could have witnessed what he reports.
Warner cartoons. In 1941, they made Grapes unique in audiences’ eyes, Roadrunner series at Warner Bros., an influence

driving them to ask for more of that fox and that crow. Columbia director Bob readily acknowledged by Chuck Jones. Past Their Sell-By Date?
Wickersham obliged, initially under Tashlin’s supervision, and a series was born. The sheer likability of Fauntleroy and Crawford led to their
© DC Comics
The blackout gag tradition of The Fox and the Grapes was survival over the years, despite their dilemma of often being
carried on in another early Fox and Crow short, Toll-Bridge Troubles (1942), The Fox and Crow Comic great characters in mediocre cartoons. Their success led Screen Gems to create other
but the series as it developed had less to do with gag formula and more to do The characters first appeared in DC Comics' Real Screen Funnies wise guys, most notably the canary and cat duo Flippy and Flop. It also led to Columbia’s
with simply exploring the main characters’ personalities. Blackout gags still in 1945 alongside other Columbia stars like Flippy and Tito and desire to keep Fox and Crow alive after the Screen Gems studio’s later demise.
cropped up, but so did extended mind games and sitcom-like scenarios. his Burrito. They eventually became so successful in this format Finally, Fox and Crow’s success led to their appearance in comic books –
Crawford S. Crow was usually looking for a sucker – his "Sucker Detector" that they landed their own series of comics in 1951. The comic where first Wickersham himself, then cartoonist Jim Davis, successfully carried them on
machine appeared several times – and Fauntleroy Fox was it, despite being book Fox and Crow characters had very few noticeable until 1968. The two creators were often acclaimed for their work on the series, proving, if
sharp enough to outwit many of Crow’s ploys. differences from their on-screen counterparts. nothing else, that real wise guys can succeed in spite of the odds.

Frank Tashiin and Warner Bros. » 88 Columbia » 130

100 NFB: THE BEGINNINGS 101
NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

In its rich, decades-long history, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has won Begone Dull Care
hundreds of accolades for its animation films and filmmakers, including 25 Oscar This film was a virtual journey into the essence of a jazz selection

nominations and four Oscar wins. One of the leading production entities in the world of performed by the Oscar Peterson Trio. It was made visible by the

animation, the NFB’s influence can be seen in the work of such diverse artists as use of vivid colors, lines, and shapes, either painted directly on the

Stanley Kubrick with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), David Byrne’s Talking Heads film or created by the scratching off of some of the film’s

videos in the 1980s and Michel Gondry with the White Stripes’ ‘The Hardest Button to emulsion to reveal stark white lines and shapes.

Button’ video (2003).

John Grierson
1n 1938, British documentary filmmaker John Grierson was invited by the Government
of Canada to prepare a report on government film activities. This report recommended Norman McLaren
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

the founding of a National Film Board. On 16 March 1939, the National Film Act was Norman McLaren intended to specialize in set design when he

passed and seven months later John Grierson set about to create the National Film Board entered the Glasgow School of Fine Arts in 1932, but quickly

of Canada, with its mandate "to interpret Canada to Canadians and to the world". realized the relevance of animation as a means of expression,

With the outbreak of World War Two, Grierson’s first priority was war- and began painting directly on film, scratching the emulsion to

related propaganda and the commissioning of three films from the Walt Disney Studio: make the film stock transparent, unaware that Len Lye was also

The Thrifty Pig (1941), Seven Wise Dwarfs (1941) and Stop That Tank (1942). carrying out similar experiments.

McLaren Comes
on Board © 1949 National Film Board of Canada
Forming an in-house animation unit was also a
priority. A phone call, a promise that he could make Norman McLaren working with Evelyn Lambart The War Effort
films his way and a salary of $40 per week Begone Dull Care, made by McLaren and Evelyn Lambart, Much of the animation studio’s early work was to service other film-making units within
brought Norman McLaren (1914–87) to the NFB’s embodied two main characteristics of McLaren’s films: the the Film Board, primarily titles and animated sequences for documentaries such as Salt
Ottawa headquarters. As soon as he arrived, application of the colors and images directly onto the film itself, and from the Earth (1944). Early films made by the animation department focused mainly
McLaren was assigned the task of putting together the use of music as an integral part of the work. The technique was on wartime-related activities such as Murder in the Milk Can (1944) by Laurence Hyde
a short Christmas-themed publicity film so effective that the viewer was able to see as well as hear the music. and Grim Pastures (1944) by George Dunning. Both were designed to remind farmers
reminding all Canadians to Mail Early (1941). More that the well-being of their animals was key to the war effort. Jim McKay’s drawn-on-
importantly, his central task was to recruit young film Stitch and Save (1943) urged Canadians to reuse clothing, and McLaren’s Keep Your
artists for this newly formed department. Among Mouth Shut (1944) reminded all that loose lips sink ships.
the artists McLaren enlisted were Evelyn Lambert Some of the animation unit’s most popular shorts were a series of
and Grant Munro, who became McLaren’s animated sing-alongs, Chants Popularizes (‘Let’s All Sing Together’, 1944–51). Intended
assistants and respected filmmakers in their own to boost morale on the home front, these animated adaptations of popular songs were

© 1949 National Film Board of Canada

© 1949 National Film Board of Canada

right; Rene Jodoin, who later became the head of extremely inventive, very bold and graphically stylized.
French animation at the NFB; and George In the summer of 1945, as Canada’s involvement in the war effort was
Dunning, who went on to direct Yellow Submarine winding down, John Grierson left the NFB. At the same time Norman McLaren, wanting
(1968). The animation unit was officially formed to focus on making his own films, stepped down as animation department head while
in January 1943. remaining at the board, and the reins were passed to Jim McKay.

Disney’s Wartime Shorts » 80 National Film Board of Canada » 160 George Dunning and Yellow Submarine » 218 Norman McLaren » 102 Halas and Batchelor » 104
102 THE MAGIC OF NORMAN McLAREN 103
NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

Norman McLaren has been called "the poet of animation". In 1940, McLaren collaborated with pioneer avant-garde filmmaker Mary
Born in Stirling, Scotland, McLaren’s first encounter with film Ellen Bute on a traditional cel-animated film Spook Sport. In 1941, while employed by
was at the age of seven when a neighbor gave him a Caravelle Films, he received an invitation from John Grierson to join the National Film
projector and a box of film. McLaren attended the Glasgow Board of Canada, promising him that he could create cinema as only he understood it.
School of Art, where he was inspired by the films of From 1941 to 1945 McLaren concentrated mainly on war propaganda
Fischinger, Cohl and Eisenstein. The way objects moved films. After the war he began to experiment with animated pastel drawings. A Little
fascinated him: "I found painting and drawing not satisfying Phantasy on a 19th–Century Painting (1946) is a very mystical, brooding film and a
because they didn’t have motion and movement in them. I change from McLaren’s usual lightness and visual wit.
saw film as a means of manipulating motion." McLaren’s first
© 1968 National Film Board of Canada
experiments, consisting of stripping film of its image, Drawn to the Rhythm
applying colored dyes to the clear celluloid and playing them Pas De Deux In 1949, McLaren made one of his greatest filmsm Begone Dull Care. Restless lines and
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

with jazz music, were the foundation of his use of movement In this film, Norman McLaren looked at the choreography of shapes sparkle, converge, change shape, multiply and recede to a composition by jazz
and music. In 1935, McLaren’s Color Cocktail was awarded a ballet. Two leading stars of Les Grands Ballets Canadian danced composer Oscar Peterson. McLaren stated, "It’s the movement in the music, not
prize at the Glasgow Amateur Film Festival. Impressed with a pas de deux against a black backdrop, their silhouettes thrown particularly the instrumentation or coloration or harmony. The movement is the
McLaren’s talent, John Grierson of Britain’s General Post Office into relief by rear lighting. By exposing the same frames as many common denominator between the picture and sound. We made Begone Dull Care in
Film Unit offered him a position. as ten times, McLaren created a multiple image of the dancers. shots. We’d run them on the Moviola. Some were painted as the Moviola was moving
and we’d dance the brush full of paint to the rhythm of the music in the picture gate." In
Bold Approach the same year, McLaren was sent on behalf of UNESCO to China to teach a group of
Following his first assignment to film the Spanish Civil War, artists his animation techniques.
McLaren returned to London where he animated two films for Ballet Adagio In 1953 McLaren returned to pixilation with the release of his most well
the General Post Office. Mony a Pickle (1938) explored a This was one McLaren’s last major works for the NFB, and known film Neighbours. McLaren, who held strong antiwar feelings, tells the story of two
technique (pixilation) McLaren would later return to. Love on the illustrated the movements of ballet to students through the use neighbors quarreling over a flower that has suddenly sprouted on their borders. Their
Wing (1938) demonstrated how far McLaren had advanced his of slow-motion photography. The dancers were pictured civilized world grows more irate until their houses, families and finally themselves are
drawing-on-film technique. He said, "Working constantly, interpreting Albinoni’s Adagio. completely destroyed. Neighbours won McLaren an Oscar.
directly with film at the editing table, I realized that film is but a
celluloid strip, the length of which is time. So my first drive to The Ballet Trilogy
draw directly on film without use of a camera seemed During the 1950s and early 1960s, McLaren continued making films using a variety of

© 1946 National Film Board of Canada

increasingly justified. To make a film, drawing straight onto film techniques. In 1967 McLaren produced what many people consider his masterpiece, Pas
stock is not like painting a picture, where one thing goes here and De Deux. Choreographed movements of dancers from the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
another here. It is like writing a letter or telling a story, where there are optically treated, creating a deeply sensual, lyrical film.
is a constant creative consequence related to improvisation." In 1972 he made a sequel of sorts, titled Ballet Adagio. It is designed for
ballet students and lovers of ballet as a means to study technique and mechanics, and
The Move to America A Little Phantasy to emphasize the human and aesthetic aspect of movement.

© 1971 National Film Board of Canada

Hearing that the Guggenheim Museum of Non-Objective Art was interested in buying Isle of the Dead, by the nineteenth-century painter Arnold From 1976 to 1978, McLaren co-produced with Grant Munro a five-part
abstract films, McLaren emigrated to New York where he animated Allegro (1939), Dots Boecklin, was the subject of this McLaren film experiment. The series titled Animated Motion Narcissus (1981). This, McLaren’s last film, retells the Greek
(1940) and Loops (1940) and out of necessity, as much as from a technical curiosity, spectral island wakes to mysterious life, flickers in an ethereal light legend. It is an optical printer tour de force and the third of McLaren’s ballet trilogy.
McLaren composed a hand-drawn soundtrack, revealing how early in his career he had and fades again into the dark – the whole effect heightened by On 26 January 1987, McLaren died, aged 72. Filmmakers the world over have
developed a level of sophistication. an interpretive musical score by composer Louis Applebaum. enthused about the tremendous impact that McLaren and his films have had on their careers.

National Film Board of Canada » 160 John and Faith Hubley » 214
104 HALAS & BATCHELOR 105
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Hungarian-born János Halász (John Halas) gained a universal reputation for producing
animated instructional films in England for over 40 years with his wife, Joy Batchelor
(1914–91). Educated in Hungary and Paris before entering the film profession, Halas
became George Pal’s assistant between 1928 and 1931, producing commercials.
By 1935 he had inaugurated his own Hungarian studio, making animated advertising
cartoons, which resulted in an invitation to England in 1936 by British Animated Films.

A Glossy Start
Joy Batchelor had been involved with design and creating fashions for glossy magazines

© Halas & Bachelor

such as Harper’s Bazaar and Queen. She worked for independent animator Denis
Connolly on Robin Hood (1935) at British Animated Films, a commercial company run
by photographer Gabriel Denes. While working on a further project titled Music Man Filling the Gap
(1938), she met John Halas, who had just arrived from Hungary. After the completion This wartime short from 1941, commissioned by the Ministry of

of Music Man, the two of them tried to set up a studio in Hungary, but due to the political Information, was concerned with the effective deployment of
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

© Halas & Bachelor
atmosphere and lack of finances they returned to England. garden space for growing vegetables and other foodstuffs. Titles

John Halas and Joy Batchelor formed Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films as a of other films they made during wartime included Look Out in

division of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in May 1940. Their initial productions the Blackout, From Rags to Stitches and Blitz on Bugs.

were two Technicolor advertisements: Train Trouble for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (1941) and Dustbin Parade Festival of Britain
Carnival in the Clothes Cupboard Dustbin Parade, made in 1941, about recycling materials for In 1951 the studio embarked on its most ambitious project to date, bringing to the screen
(1941) for Lux soap flakes. munitions, was one example of the 70 artful but highly engaging a faithful representation of George Orwell’s cautionary tale Animal Farm, about animals
cartoon films made by the studio addressing domestic, revolting and taking over a farm. It was a project that dominated the studio for three years.
Drawing government and military needs. On the crest of the success of Britain’s first feature cartoon, the team
for Victory returned to the business of making animated cartoons and experimenting with paper
The General Post Office Film Unit’s sculpture in The Figurehead (1953), the three-dimensional in The Owl and the Pussycat
chief, John Grierson, steered them (1953) and Cinerama in Cinerama Holiday (1955). The studio continued to make
toward the need for films stressing commercial, instructional, industrial and children’s entertainment films, winning many
wartime needs. The recently formed awards and nominations along the way.
Ministry of Information invited
Halas and Batchelor to produce Commercial Success
propaganda films for them and the With the advent of commercial television in 1955, Halas and Batchelor jumped straight
War Office. The resulting factor was into the medium and were the first to make TV commercials, and later children’s series
an association that lasted for the such as Foo-Foo (1959), Snip and Snap (1960), Do-Do the Kid from Outer Space
next nine years. Halas and Batchelor (1964) and Tales of Hoffnung (1965), which interpreted the humor of popular British
were prompted to breathe life into Dustbin Parade – iron cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung. Amid their colossal output, time was somehow found for
mundane subjects such as victory Recognizing animated films’ capacity to educate as well as another feature, Ruddigore or the Witch’s Curse (1967), an animated representation of
gardens in Digging for Victory © Halas & Bachelor
entertain, the Ministry of Information invited Halas and Batchelor Gilbert and Sullivan’s libretto.
(1942) and "Mobilise Your Scrap" in to create wartime public information and propaganda shorts, Always a little ahead of the others, Halas and Batchelor moved into the
Dustbin Parade (1941). such as Dustbin Parade (pictured). computer age before others realized that computer animation was the future.

Industrial Animation » 164 Animal Farm » 166

106 DAVID HAND & BRITISH ANIMATION 107
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
July 1944 heralded the arrival of the noted animator and director David Dodd Hand David Hand (center) with Ralph Wright The Animaland series
(1900–86) to England’s shores. He had been brought over to launch a British David Hand set up the animation studio at Moor Park with the featured one-offs such as The Lion
animation studio for the J. Arthur Rank Organization in the expectation of rivaling the aim of producing a regular series of cartoon films to entertain (1948), which depicted the life span of
American market in pure entertainment films. New Jersey-born Hand had been a and, above all, to be British in character and humor. Sadly, the a lion from cub through adolescence,
veteran of the cartoon field since 1919, commencing his career by animating on the plan floundered and plans for feature-length cartoon versions of with the lion finally devouring the
very basic Andy Gump series, filtering through the Bray Studios and finally settling at Lewis Carroll's poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ and H. G. Wells’ narrator for his lunch. The Platypus
the Walt Disney Studios in 1930. His crowning glory came when Walt Disney asked The First Men in the Moon were shelved. (1949) exercises a similar theme, of
him to direct the first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven the platypus setting up home, finding a
Dwarfs (1937). mate, losing his mate and finally
getting together and starting a family.
Founding an Industry Along with the antics of Ginger Nutt, a
The war was still rife in Europe when Hand first sailed to England to investigate the red squirrel, and his forest friends, these
possibilities of creating a cartoon industry over an eight-week period, and with a budget Animaland cartoons are far closer to

© Gaumont-British Animation Ltd. (GBA)

of just $8,000. It had been decided that war-torn London would be out of the question Disney than Hand wanted and are
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

for a studio, but then he discovered Moor Hall, a sumptuous Victorian mansion in the chiefly aimed at the junior market.
idyllic setting of the Berkshire village Cookham-on-Thames. This was the base that While the Animalands
trained and housed many of the staff while London was reeling with severe war damage were fully animated, another series
and housing shortages. The end product had the lengthy title of Gaumont-British was produced on a lesser budget and
Animation, Ltd. (GBA). in a process that is currently known as
© Gaumont-British Animation Ltd. (GBA)

One of the first priorities was to start a training school, and for this he Photomation, where the essential parts
brought over three highly competent ex-Disney employees on a three-year contract: are rendered in limited animation with the camera moving around on a static piece of
story man Ralph Wright, effects animator John Reed and animator Ray Patterson. art. This process had been used by Hand to a greater success on Disney’s wartime epic
Cameraman Bill Garity (later to become Walter Lantz’s right-hand man) was also Victory Through Air Power (1943).
brought over to help set up the camera department. Extensive advertising encouraged The Lion The Musical Paintbox series was what Hand desired:
many young hopefuls fresh from art school and the services to train as directors, story Hand’s Animaland series included The Lion. Hand was "Basically British in content", relying heavily on folklore and traditional
men, animators, paint mixers, camera operators, inkers and painters, etc., culminating in supervising director on Disney’s Snow White and Bambi, so it is songs. Publicity of this era indicates that both series were intended for
nearly 200 employees involved in a four-year training schedule. no surprise that the characters featured in these shorts bear some worldwide distribution (although there is little to back this theory up: the
The manor’s old coach house was converted into a camera department, resemblance, although they are perhaps zanier and more existence of the Musical Paintbox series appears to be alien to anybody
air-raid shelters became a review theater and recording studio, and a model stage was adventurous, to Snow White and Bambi’s woodland friends. outside the British Isles).
built on to the library. Two basic units were established: one to tend to instructional
demands, and the other, captained by Bert Felstead, to produce a series of The Platypus End of a Short Era
entertainment cartoons for theatrical distribution. These were essentially the Animaland Hand and his team tried to develop a new style rather than just Before GBA could really get under way, in November 1949 Rank decided to
and the Musical Paintbox series. mimic Disney, with clever plots, strange characters and surreal pull the plug on the whole deal; they were losing money and not able to sell

© Gaumont-British Animation Ltd. (GBA)

settings. Most of the Animaland shorts had minimal dialogue, but the product to the US as they had initially hoped. Having spent over
Varied Output when the characters did speak, they often had British accents. £500,000 ($900,000) starting up the company, by 1949 each cartoon
Throughout this duration, GBA was also responsible for many instructional cartoons on Some were introduced by an off-screen British narrator, who was costing around £10,000 ($18,000) to make. Although the
subjects as varied as blood circulation and digestion, to an account of the Magna Carta, would give "scientific" information about the lead animal, such as commercial end was helping subsidize the cash flow, it was not enough,
alongside commercials ranging from Oxydol to Rowntree’s Cocoa. the platypus (pictured). and on 7 February 1950, Moor Hall closed its doors for good.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58 Halas and Batchelor » 104 Disney’s Wartime Features » 82
108 HANS FISCHERKOESEN 109
WESTERN EUROPE: GERMANY

WESTERN EUROP: GERMANY

The award-winning cartoonist Hans Fischerkoesen found that he was being pressed by the disruptive German
Fischerkoesen (1896–1973) stands head government to front the new German animation industry, and was relocated to
and shoulders above the other German Potsdam, near the UFA studios. The huge state-controlled corporation functioned under
animators of the Nazi regime, if only for the swastika, and with a governmental grant produced the type of propaganda films
having the courage to make purely that the Nazis needed.
entertainment films that, in retrospect, Not wishing to become involved with Goebbels or his cause, Fischerkoesen
appear to be against all fascist policies. Born turned down an invitation to make sympathetic Nazi cartoons by claiming that he just
Hans Fischer in Bad Koesen, Germany, and made advertisements and did not have the imagination to create anything else. Because
an asthmatic child, Fischer was inspired by of this, Goebbels assigned him to work with Berlin newspaper cartoonist and "gag man"
© Fischerkoesen Studio

his parents to indulge in activities such as The Snowman Horst von Möllendorf, whose contribution to screen cartoons was negligible despite
drawing and staging puppet shows. Classified unfit for service in World War One, he This film established Fischerkoesen’s mastery of creating the illusion several story credits.

© Fischerkoesen Studio

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

worked in hospitals close to the front. His experiences with the wounded arriving from of three-dimensional space. During the opening credit, layers of
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

the trenches were to scar him for life mentally, and he envisioned making a film that snowflakes fall down through the frame. As the credits finish, the Wartime Resistance
would expose profiteering as being the real motive behind war. viewer flies down over a snow-covered twilight village, around the Goebbels’ legacy also included a mandate that new three-dimensional effects using
steeple of a church (a stereooptical model), down to a snowman in Weather Beaten Melody model backgrounds be developed to rival the process invented by the Fleischer Brothers.
First Success an open space – all seen as if from a snowflake's point of view. This film was technically brilliant, and Fischerkoesen used little Their Stereoptical process had used a rotating wooden set photographed behind the
With the armistice, Fischer began work on his exposé, which he named Das Loch im quirky details to bring the bee to life: she uses dandelion seeds as drawn cel animation to produce "reality" and an impression of depth to their cartoons.
Westen (‘The Hole in the West’, 1919). He drew 1,600 individual images of his a parachute, and wipes herself with a petal when a berry However, by this time the Fleischers had just about abandoned this expensive process.
experiences on the front line and decided to make the film himself by building his own accidentally bursts over her. The debut cartoon to be made incorporating new German methods was
animation stand from an old wooden crate. The completed film was bought by a Verwitterte Melodie (‘Weather-beaten Melody’, 1942). This was filmed with a newly
provincial distributor for DM 3,000, and Fischer was on his way to making a career out of acquired multiplane camera as well as the Stereoptical process. A bee dives from the sky
animated cartoons. and through meadows, and frolics about until she finds a record player to play music
In the 1920s, Fischer turned to making advertising films and had a from. There do not appear to be hidden messages in this to benefit Hitler and his regime;
moderate success with Bummel-Petrus (‘Strolling Peter’, 1921) for the Nordheimer shoe Murals indeed, there are many suggestions of a subtle subversion to it. Following the bee on her
factory. This led to his union for the next two years with legendary German pioneer Fischerkoesen worked in the kitchen at Sachsenhausen and travels, there is a sense of freedom of movement, an affirmation of the multi-layered
animator Julius Pinschewer (1883–1961), whose animated commercials had been painted murals using vegetable caricatures to represent the daily nature of reality that demands (even subconsciously) that viewers think for themselves –
highly regarded since 1910. trials and terrors of prison living. These are now preserved as a something sternly forbidden by Nazi doctrine as the most dangerous action of all.
The name of "Fischer" seemed to be fairly commonplace in the motion- national historical monument. With the war at an end, and although he had been a member of the
picture realm, so Hans attached the name of his hometown to the end of his name to © Fischerkoesen Studio underground resistance, Fischerkoesen was imprisoned

© Fischerkoesen Studio
set himself apart from the others. Armed with his new name, he established by the invading Soviet troops as a suspected Nazi
Fischerkoesen Studio in Leipzig, where he started producing advertising animation. sympathizer. During his three years in Sachsenhausen
concentration camp, he worked in the camp kitchen
Wartime Repression Hans Fischerkoesen where he freely illustrated the walls with amusing,
The Nazi minister for education and propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, made a decree in Hans Fischerkoesen’s success with animated fairy tales and appropriate murals.
1941 claiming that all non-German and abstract art was "degenerate", and therefore commercials resulted in an order from propaganda minister Once released, Hans and his family
forbidden. The fantastic input from the American market dried up, and Germany was not Joseph Goebbels to move his staff and studio from the Leipzig managed to escape from East to West Germany, and
producing enough of its own cartoons. Very little of the animated entertainment scene area to Potsdam to make himself available for consultations and there he re-established his studio where he resumed his
survives from the Hitler era. special effects on features and documentaries. career by continuing to make commercials until 1969.

Animation for the War Effort » 112 Stereoptical Process » 60 Soviet Propaganda » 110
110 SOVIET PROPAGANDA 111
EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

Soviet Toys
Although made before the the World War Two era, Ivanov-

Vano’s ground-breaking film set the standard for the animated

films that would follow. Its creator, Ivan Ivanov-Vano went on to

make state propaganda films during the war.

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

© Goskino/Soviet State Film Committee

Soyuzmultfilm

© Goskino/Soviet State Film Committee

For the most part, animation production in Eastern Europe and the USSR –
what there was of it – came to a complete stop during World War Two.
However, the Soviet State animation studio, Soyuzmultfilm (founded in
In 1924, Goskino, the Soviet State Film Committee, produced the first Soviet animated 1936), continued to produce an assortment of fairy tales and propaganda
film, Soviet Toys. It was a crudely drawn piece of propaganda celebrating the victory films during this period.
of the proletariat over the capitalists by the new Soviet republic. Directed by Dziga Following the Nazi invasion of the USSR in 1941,
Vertov and shown in cinemas throughout the Soviet Union, the film established the The Interplanetary Revolution Soyuzmultfilm made patriotic animated short films with titles like Not to Stamp Fascist
stereotypes by which capitalists, workers and peasants would be portrayed in Soviet Another Ivan Ivanov-Vano Communist propaganda short made Boots on Our Homeland (1941) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Vultures (1941) by
animation for the next 70 years. before the war, this was a cartoon parody of the Soviet film Aelita Pantilemon Sazonov. The first is a black-and-white film highlighted by a rousing
in which three Soviets fly to Mars. There a love affair develops rendition of a popular patriotic marching song "Our Armor Is Strong and Our Tanks Are
First of Many between the Martian queen, Aelita, and one of the Soviet men Fast", and the latter, Vultures, is about those German “fascist vultures”.
Two years after Soviet Toys, Ivan Ivanov-Vano (who directed many propaganda films in while a revolution takes place on the planet. These shorts and others like them – many of which have not survived –
the 1930s) and the Bromberg Sisters – who later became acclaimed directors of were shown in cinemas across the Soviet Union. Because of the urgency of the
animated fairy tales – were hired to work as artists on The Interplanetary Revolution messages, the ideas for these films were born on the spot and created very fast. Many of
(1926) and China in Flames (1926). Both films were produced to promote Communism. the animators actually felt that they were being mobilized like soldiers, that they were
Dozens of anti-capitalist and anti-American animated propaganda films obligated to make these films. And in fact they were. But the animators also tried to inject
followed. The movies were shown throughout the Soviet Union as shorts before feature these films with ingenuity and enthusiasm.
films. For the next 60 years – until perestroika – animation would continue to serve as a Shortly after the war began, those not mobilized into the army were sent
primary means for delivering the state’s political messages in a lucid and enjoyable to Samarkand, a desert city in Uzbekistan. Work continued at the studio, but many major
manner, aimed at winning over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. projects were put on hold and completed only after the war.

Animation for the War Effort » 112 Russian Delights » 140

112 ANIMATION FOR THE WAR EFFORT 113
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
War Leaders Vilified
In Sanae Yamamoto’s Spies Defeated (1942), Roosevelt and Churchill send
spies into Japan who are quickly captured. Ryoji Mikami’s Hooray for Japan!

© Kenzo Masaoka
(1943) combines live-action exhortations to support the war effort with
animated political cartoon exaggerations of the quick defeat of the British
Army and Navy in December 1941 to early 1942, and a caricature of Chiang
Kai-shek as an incompetent puppet of the Americans and British. Mitsuyo
Seo’s 1933 monkey soldier Sankichi returned, redesigned to look less
humorous and more dramatic, in two films by Kotaro Kataoka: Sankichi the
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

Monkey’s Marine Corps Air Defense (1941) and Sankichi the Monkey’s
© Tadahito Mochinaga

Fighting Submarine (July 1943).

Japanese animation from 1940 through to the end of World War Two was almost totally Fuku-chan and the Submarine The little fine-art animation that there was during this period
devoted to domestic military propaganda. The Imperial Navy fully supported this with This 1944 film by Tadahito Mochinaga featured Fuku-chan, one was dominated by two animators, Kazugoro Arai (b. 1907) and Kenzo
funding and scarce production supplies, and deferral from military service for animators. of one of Japan’s most popular newspaper comic-strip Masaoka (1898–1988). Kazugoro Arai was a dentist whose hobby was
characters, and was intended to boost patriotism. There were animation of delicate, stately silhouette cut-outs in the style of Japanese
Something for Everyone severe food shortages at the time, the abundant food supply in shadow puppetry. He produced two romances set in ancient Japan,
There was plenty of live-action cinematic propaganda for adults, so the animated shorts the submarine kitchen was prepared into various dishes along Fantasy of the Butterfly Wife (1940) and Princess Kaguya (1942), and
tended to be aimed at families and children. Two cartoons that glorified the Imperial with a merry, rhythmic song. also Jack and the Beanstalk (1941). He was then swept up into the
Navy with heroic little boy submarine crews and fighter pilots were Ma-bo’s Paratroop propaganda animation production, contributing to Hooray for Japan! and
Unit (1943) by Ginjiro Sato and Fuku-chan and the Submarine by Tadahito Mochinaga Momotaro’s Sea Eagles.
(1919–99), released in November 1944.
After December 1941, when Japan added America and Britain to its foes, The Spider and the Tulip
caricatures of Anglo-enemy leaders became common. Little-boy and funny animal In 1940 Kenzo Masaoka set up a small, independent animation study
soldiers and sailors bravely stood up to menacing giant lampoons of Roosevelt, Churchill programme. In 1941 he was hired by Shochiku Films to add it to its
and Chiang Kai-shek, who cravenly ran away when stood up to. animation department. With Shochiku’s resources, Masaoka produced the
lovely art film The Spider and the Tulip during late 1942, released April 1943.
A little girl ladybird playing happily in a flowery forest is menaced by a spider
Spies Defeated with a black face, wearing a Western-style straw hat. This film was not anti-
Made in order to boost morale amongst the Japanese population, Western per se, however, since such straw hats were a standard Japanese
Sanae Yamamoto’s 1942 film saw British and American spies stage and movie prop for low-class buffoons and hoodlums. The spider tries
caught soon after they are sent to Japan. to lure the ladybird, which is hidden from him by a friendly tulip. But the
spider is not fooled, and is prying her out of the tulip when a violent storm
The Spider and the Tulip breaks out. The spider’s desperate attempts to keep from being swept away
This film was made in 1942 using real flowers, and a cartoon spider are so courageous that he wins the audience’s sympathy, but he ultimately
and ladybird. It has been called anti-Western, and has been seen as fails, leaving the ladybird to emerge safely when the storm ends. The Spider
© Sanae Yamamoto

political protest, with the tulip/ladybird representing the Japanese and the Tulip has a lush prerecorded score by an 80-piece orchestra. It was
population and the spider symbolizing the American invaders, who both a popular and a critical sensation, and is still cited by some critics as
gets its comeuppance when it is blown away by a storm. Japan’s finest animated film.

Lotte Reiniger » 26 The War Clouds Thicken » 76 Japanese Post-war Animation » 142
114 THE FIRST ANIMATED FEATURES 115
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
In 1939, Mitsuyo Seo joined the Geijutsu Eigaha (Art Film Company) that produced The Chinese
short animated films for the Ministry of Education, with Tadahito Mochinaga as his Snow White
assistant. For their Ant Boy (1941), Mochinaga devised Japan’s first multiplane The 76-minute Princess Iron Fan (or Princess
camera. In late 1942 the Imperial Navy assumed patronage of the studio and with the Iron Fan) was produced in 16
commissioned Seo to create longer and more impressive propaganda films. Seo months by a team of 237 artists. The cartoon
produced the 37-minute Momotaro’s Sea Eagles (1943) in three months. This animation was heavily Rotoscoped to speed
restaged the attack on Pearl Harbor with Momotaro as a little boy commander of a production and increase the quality.
monkey and rabbit naval force dive-bombing "Devil Island", despite the comically Advantage was taken of the protection of the

© Mingxing Film Company

ineffectual defense of Popeye’s Olive Oyl and Bluto. French concession from the Japanese
IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

IV: 1940–44: THE WORLD WAR TWO ERA

occupation of the rest of Shanghai to draw
Impressive Results parallels between the sadistic demons and
This was so popular that the navy ordered a sequel twice as long. Seo’s 74-minute the Japanese oppression of the Chinese
Momotaro’s Divinely-Blessed Sea Warriors, still with Mochinaga’s assistance, begins people. It was released in mid- or late 1941
with four young animal naval cadets (bear cub, puppy, monkey and pheasant) in unoccupied China and in Chinese
returning to their forest home to say farewell to their families and to encourage their communities throughout Southeast Asia to
younger siblings to support the war effort. The action cuts to the Imperial Navy as great acclaim.
bunny sailors build an airstrip on a hot island, with elephants and proboscis monkeys After the Japanese declaration
dressed as Indonesian natives looking on in awe. Admiral Momotaro and the four of war against the Western powers in
animal buddies as his aides-de-camp arrive with a squadron of fighter planes. After December 1941, the French concession of
several scenes of happy naval-base life (plus a brief "why we fight" sequence in Shanghai was abolished. The Wan Brothers
silhouette animation), the squadron flies off to attack a base of slovenly British troops left for Hong Kong to work on artistic projects
© Ryoji Mikami
shown as humans with a foreign devil’s horn. The British surrender is a parody of outside of animation for the rest of the war.
Japanese newsreel footage of the surrender of Singapore. Released in April 1945, this Hooray for Japan! The Japanese authorities released Princess with the Iron Fan in Japan (minus the
would be Japan’s first and only animated theatrical feature until 1958. It is still Another propaganda film made in 1943, Ryoji Mikami caricatures obviously anti-Japanese scenes) in early 1942, where it was equally popular. It was an
considered an impressive animation production for its time and the conditions under Chiang Kai-shek as a puppet of the British and Americans. acknowledged influence on the Imperial Navy’s decision to authorize Seo’s production of
which it was made. the 1943 and 1945 Momotaro films. Osamu Tezuka later credited seeing Princess with
the Iron Fan when he was 13, and the Momotaro feature when he was 16, as inspiring
The Wan Brothers him to become a cartoonist and animator. Tezuka’s 1950s comic-book adaptation of the
Greatly impressed by Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the Wan Monkey King legend, produced by Toei Animation in 1960 as its third animated feature,
Brothers threw their new Xinhua United Film animation department into the production Princess with the Iron Fan is a remake of this same story.
of a feature-length adaptation of an incident from the long Monkey King (a.k.a. Journey Working under adverse financial and technical conditions, the

to the West) folk tale, first written in the sixteenth century by Wu Cheng-en. On their Wan brothers developed an original style based on the use of Creativity Cut Off
journey to India, the Buddhist priest Tripitaka and his three supernatural bodyguards – clay and human models to trace movements and action. Other Chinese animators had just begun production in 1941 before they were brutally
Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy – enter a region being terrorized by demons led by a cruel Princess with the Iron Fan’s plot is adapted freely from part of cut short by the war. Qian Jia-jun (b. 1916), who would become prominent in the
buffalo-headed king who controls fire, and his wife, a princess with a magic iron fan that Journey to the West, an epic sixteenth-century romance that 1960s, finished his first cartoon animation that year, The Happiness of Peasants. In
creates freezing cold. Monkey must defeat her and steal her fan to put out the fires and recounts the hardships and adventures of the Tang Dynasty August the Chinese Cartoon Association was created in the British colony of Hong Kong.
liberate the villagers. monk Tripitaka and his disciples on their travels in search of It only produced one cartoon, The Hunger of the Old Stupid Dog, before the Japanese
Buddhist scriptures. occupation of Hong Kong. There was no other Chinese animation until 1947.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58 Wan Brothers » 76 Havoc in Heaven » 240
 V

1945–49:

THE POST-WAR ERA

A return to normality, that is if you can call a Tex Avery cartoon normal. Tex, Hanna-Barbera,
Shamus Culhane, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng all strengthened their considerable skills, and
Hollywood cartoons got sharper and funnier as a baby boom began. Heckle and Jeckle,
Casper the Friendly Ghost, Foghorn Leghorn and the Road Runner were the new kids on the
block. And a young upstart studio, United Productions of America, began to get noticed.
Disney started to make combination live-action/animation films and
expanded his artistic reach with a series of animated package films – 10-part compilation
movies experimenting with different animation techniques – from surreal abstractions to
literal narratives all set to current popular music.
With world markets reopened, new countries joined the animation community
with ambitious feature films: France’s Mr Wonderbird, Russia’s Magic Pony and Italy’s Rose of
Baghdad. State-sponsored animation studios were established in Iron Curtain countries. The
greatest of these was the Zagreb studio, where new ideas and personal visions were realized
with freedoms otherwise impossible in the land of their creation.
A new world had begun.

Picture above: Bugs Bunny © Warner Bros. Pictures clockwise from top left: Fun and Fancy Free © The Walt Disney Company; Hare Trimmed © Warner Bros.; Pluto's Fledgling © The Walt Disney Company; Bugs Bunny Rides Again © Warner Bros.; Hare Trimmed © Warner Bros.; Heckle & Jeckle
© Paramount; The Golden Antelope © Soyuzmultfilm; Tweety © Warner Bros. Centre picture: Donald Duck © The Walt Disney Company
118 NEW DIRECTIONS FOR DISNEY 119
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NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

fumbling all challenges in Hockey Homicide (1945),
Tennis Racquet (1949) and Goofy Gymnastics (1949).

Focus on Features
Walt decided to stick with entertainment films – and
canceled his contracts for industrial, commercial and
educational films during this period. This was a bold
move, because the studio needed income from these
films. The Dawn of Better Living (1945), commissioned
by Westinghouse Electric, and The ABC of Hand Tools
(1946) for General Motors were typical of Disney’s post-
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

© The Walt Disney Company
war commercial films, featuring strong visual storytelling
that quickly and easily explained complicated messages –
a studio speciality, learned by years of producing military
training films.
Disney’s The Story of Menstruation
© The Walt Disney Company (1946), for Kotex, was the last commercial film the
After the war, the Disney studio regrouped. Full-length narrative features, in particular, Winter Storage studio made for some time. This short, shown in girls’
Peter Pan, Alice In Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp, had been on hold and time One of a series of Donald Duck cartoons featuring chipmunks high-school hygiene classes for decades, like all Disney
was needed to gear up to produce them. Government contracts ended, and money Chip and Dale, Winter Storage was made in 1949. The two educational and industrial films, contains the highest
was tight. Disney’s studio decided to play to its strength – the animated shorts. chipmunks are trying to find acorns for winter and take standards of the studio’s production values in art,
advantage of Donald’s tree-planting scheme. animation and good taste. Though it was his strong suit,
Starring Donald Duck Disney knew that animated shorts were on their way
Donald Duck was Disney’s biggest star. Eight Duck cartoons joined Pluto and Goofy, and Donald Duck out. The money was in feature production, and he
an occasional Mickey or Figaro, on the RKO release schedules every year. None of them Donald Duck made his first appearance in 1934, supporting had to find new ideas, and new formats, for his
won Oscars – but many of them were quite good. Mickey Mouse in The Wise Little Hen. He finally became the star storytelling talents.
Jack King directed a trio of classics during this period: Cured Duck (1945), of the show in 1937 in Donald’s Ostrich, with his distinctive

in which Daisy uses a machine to cure Donald’s bad temper; Donald’s Dilemma (1947), squeaky voice provided for many years by Clarence "Ducky" Nash. Going Live
where a flowerpot smashed on the head provides Donald with a superior singing voice; In an effort to push himself forward, Disney took a risk by
and Donald’s Dream Voice (1948), in which a box of pills gives Donald a distinctive, releasing his first live-action short – a documentary, no
Ronald Coleman-esque enunciation. less – and announced it as the first in a new series: A Walt
Jack Hannah took over the series and emerged as the leading Duck auteur Pluto’s Fledgling Disney True-Life Adventure.
during this period. He moved Donald into the suburbs and built the series around his Pluto is the star in this Disney animated short, made in 1948, in In Seal Island (1949), director James Algar cleverly assembled hours of
frustrations with intruding garden pests, including twin chipmunks in Chip and Dale which he teaches a young bird to fly. He is more commonly live-action footage, detailing a family of Alaskan sea lions and their living habits into

© The Walt Disney Company

(1947) and a variety of insects, including ants in Tea for Two Hundred (1948), bees in featured as Mickey Mouse’s sidekick, a clumsy pet dog. In his first 27 entertaining minutes. It paid off, winning an Oscar and signaling a new direction for
Inferior Decorator (1948) and beetles in Bootle Beetle (1947). appearance in The Chain Gang in 1930 he was actually one of the Disney’s movie-making ambitions.
Jack Kinney made his mark as the director of a comedic series of Goofy dogs tracking down an escaped Mickey, only becoming his faithful Disney had great plans for his studio, and this post-war period was a
"how-to" shorts. This led to a post-war series of hilarious sports shorts with the Goof pet in his third animated outing, The Moose Hunt in 1931. transitional time that allowed him to consider his past mistakes – and reinforce his skills.

Disney’s Wartime Shorts » 80 Disney Returns to Features » 150 Industrial Animation » 164
120 DISNEY MOVES ON 121
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NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Between 1945 and 1949, Disney released Output Increases
seven feature-length films – yet none of The same year, Disney released his first live-action narrative film Song of the South
them was a traditional animated feature- (1946). Bringing to life the American folk tales of Uncle Remus, this film incorporated
length story. Most were "package films" – three lengthy animated segments with B’rer Rabbit, B’rer Bear and B’rer Fox. The post-
feature-length collections of short segments Civil War setting of this melodrama was controversial in its day for its portrayal of black
not unlike Fantasia (1940), only this plantation stereotypes, but regardless, it is one of Disney’s finest films. Its success gave
time the music was contemporary Disney the courage to pursue further live-action movies and grow his film output.
and popular, and the narratives were Next came Fun and Fancy Free (1947), which essentially tied together
somewhat traditional. two tales of fantasy. “Bongo” is about a circus bear who finds love and danger in the
forest, and “Mickey and the Beanstalk” is an epic Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and
Spanish Style Goofy adventure.
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

The Three Caballeros, released in 1945, Melody Time (1948) was the best of the package films. Each
delayed due to restrictions on Technicolor segment is a winner: the surreal South American holdover “Blame It on the
printing, was a holdover from the South Samba” with Donald Duck; “Bumble Boogie”, featuring a bee trapped in
American "Good Neighbor" films Disney a bizarre musical landscape and set to the tune of "Flight of the Bumble
began during the war. This film, on the Bee"; the more traditional tales of Johnny Appleseed, sung by Dennis
whole, is a surreal experience, with Donald Day; and “Pecos Bill”, told by Roy Rogers.
Duck entering a Latin American picture book Disney released his next live-action film So Dear to

© The Walt Disney Company

and interacting with (i.e., lusting after) a My Heart, in 1949 – a nostalgic tale of a boy and his pet lamb, this
group of sexy live-action samba singers. time with minimal (but excellent) animation segments. He ended the decade with The
© The Walt Disney Company
Surreal and Spanish also sum Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad, his last package film.
up Walt Disney’s aborted collaboration with
Salvador Dalí toward the end of 1945 and into the early part of 1946. The musical short Fun and Fancy Free B’rer Fox Ichabod Crane and Mr Toad
Destino (abandoned, then completed in 2003) was surely an attempt to redefine what This feature-length package cartoon from Disney consists of two Song of the South featured James Baskett, who initially The characters of the timid Ichabod Crane and the wild Mr Toad were two personalities
an animated film can be. But by 1946, the realities of operating a commercial studio sections: "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk", joined auditioned for a small voice part in the film. He not only got the the Disney crew could draw to perfection. In the feature, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind
clashed with his artistic ambitions. together by various live-action scenes narrated by the character part of Br’er Fox, but also Uncle Remus, making him the first live- in the Willows is narrated by Basil Rathbone and features some of the funniest character
Jiminy Cricket. action actor to be hired by Disney. Baskett also won an honorary animation the studio ever achieved. Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
The Feature Collections Oscar for his efforts. on the other hand, has one of the

© The Walt Disney Company

Disney knew he needed to fill his feature-film pipeline quickly – at least one film per year – strongest, most unforgettable dramatic
so various package films were developed and live-action movies were pursued. Disney sequences in the studio’s history – the
had his staff work up multiple musical scenarios for a variety of short films. These would spooky encounter between Ichabod and
take the place Silly Symphonies had held a decade earlier, and prepared his crew for Ichabod Crane the Headless Horseman.
more ambitious feature-length cartoons to come. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad was the last of the All of these package films
Make Mine Music was the first such collection, released in 1946. package pictures of the 1940s. Money was saved during the experimented with animation design, and
A collection of 10 segments, loosely bridged together, it contains a variety of visual styles production of packaged films by reusing animated sequences allowed Disney’s character animators to
and music. Popular singers and musicians including Dinah Shore, the Andrews Sisters, and basing characters on others that had already been drawn. explore every possible range of human
Nelson Eddy and Benny Goodman tell the stories of “Willie the Operatic Whale”, “The As a result of this belt-tightening exercise, the Disney studio emotion. Disney’s team was now ready to
Martins and the Coys”, and “Casey at the Bat”, among others. was able to finance animated features once again. return to full-length features.

Disney’s Wartime Features » 82

122 UPA IS FORMED 123
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NORTH AMERICA
Industrial Output
This distinctive style was initially seen in several non-theatrical assignments, most
notably in Flat Hatting (1944), a flight-safety film for the US Navy by John Hubley
(1914–77), and Brotherhood of Man (1946) by Robert A. "Bobe" Cannon (1910–64).
The former, in terms of story and gag construction, was very much in the comic tradition
of the army’s Private Snafu cartoons, but featured flatter character designs by New

© UAW/UPA Productions
Yorker cartoonist Robert Osborne.
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

Brotherhood of Man was a plea for racial tolerance and understanding
based on the pamphlet Races of Mankind by anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene
Weltfish. Commissioned as a recruiting tool for the UAW, it later received wide distribution
The 1941 Disney strike by the Screen Cartoonist Guild was a defining moment for Hell Bent for Election well beyond union halls, and became widely used in classrooms. Hubley felt it was this
American animation in more ways than one. It not only ended Disney’s artistic and Many animators were keen Franklin Roosevelt be re-elected and film’s character designs, which were heavily influenced by the sharp-nosed characters of
commercial hegemony, but also indirectly led to the birth of United Productions of so a number, including Chuck Jones, gave their services for free in Saul Steinberg, that were going to be a decisive turning point artistically for the studio.
America (UPA), the most innovative studio of the post-war era – in fact, it was often order that the film be made on time. Roosevelt and opponent In 1946, Schwartz and Hilberman left UPA and moved to New York,
said to have been formed on the Disney picket lines. What’s more, the political activism Thomas Dewey where depicted as train: the "Win the War where they established Tempo Productions, a pioneer in the production of TV
behind the strike carried over into an aesthetic activism that proved heavily influential Special" and the "Defeatist Limited" respectively. Although the commercials. They sold their shares in the company to Bosustow, who, despite selling
for years to come. result was not as technically advanced as UPA's later work would shares to some key artists, kept control of the studio. He became executive producer and,
be, it was vibrant, stylish and persuasive – and very successful. more importantly, named Hubley supervising director.

© UPA Productions/Colombia Pictures Television

Developing Style
The company was formally established in 1944 as Industrial Films and Poster Service by Mr Magoo
Dave Hilberman, Zachary A. "Zach" Schwartz and Stephen Bosustow to produce Hell Despite UPA’s growing reputation, it proved difficult to keep the studio afloat until Bosustow
Bent for Election for the United Auto Workers (UAW) managed to interest Columbia Pictures into giving it a trial run of four cartoons, three
on behalf of Roosevelt’s re-election campaign. Its starring its Fox and Crow characters, in hope of landing a contract. The first two cartoons,
production had been brokered by the union’s Robin Hoodlum (1949) and The Magic Fluke (1949), were smartly directed by John
business agent and largely utilized talent from other Mr Magoo Hubley and used highly stylized backgrounds and flat patterns, which were unlike anything
studios, especially from Warner Bros., which donated These original artworks are of Mr Magoo, the short-sighted Columbia had ever seen. They were subsequently nominated for Academy Awards, which
time to the effort and also director Chuck Jones. cartoon character who, within a couple of years, was the star of by themselves would have guaranteed the company an agreement with Columbia.
However, it was storyboarded by John Hubley, Phil half the cartoons UPA released – by the mid-1950s, the studio As successful as these films were, Hubley and others at UPA did not want
Eastman and Bill Hurtz. In terms of design, it owed was doing little else. Four Magoo shorts were nominated for to be stuck with anthropomorphic animal characters; instead, they wanted to use
much to earlier Jones cartoons such as The Dover Oscars, and two of them – When Magoo Flew (1954) and Mr human characters. The result was Hubley’s Ragtime Bear (1949), which Columbia only
Boys (1942), which was among several films of the Magoo's Puddle Jumper (1956) – won. agreed to make because it featured a bear. It was this film that saw the birth of UPA’s
period that had decisively broken away from Disney most popular and endearing character, the nearsighted Mr Magoo, who was inspired in
and exhibited a more modern look. It was this type of Industrial Films and Poster Service part by W. C. Fields and Hubley’s uncle.
stylization that was to develop way beyond what Pictured left are Dave Hilberman, Zachary Schwartz and Stephen The story, which had the vacationing Magoo mistaking a bear for his banjo-
Jones had done and became the hallmark of UPA. Bosustow in 1942. Hilberman and Schwartz had originally playing nephew, proved the perfect vehicle for a series of hilarious sight gags, which set the
Their films tended to use limited animation and put rented the office to give them both space in which to paint during mold for future films in the series. Its success, both critically and especially at the box office,
© UPA Productions

more emphasis on graphic elements such as design their spare time. The first job the three worked on was a film provided the springboard for a period of intense creativity that was fundamentally to
and color. about air safety for Hughes Aircraft. change the face of American and international animation for years to come.

UPA: The Magoo Years » 148 Industrial Animation » 164 John Hubley » 214 Fox and Crow » 98 Columbia Pictures » 130
124 NEW FACES AT TERMITE TERRACE 125
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NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

As World War Two abated and Pepé out of the box than Isadore Friz Freleng launched
the United States returned to Sylvester the Cat in Life with Feathers (1945), his very first
peacetime, the Warner Bros. line being – what else? – "Sufferin’ succotash!". Just a
cartoon unit entered into one of month later, Freleng would introduce the somewhat self-
its most creative and expansive inspired Yosemite Sam as the perfect foil for Bugs Bunny in
periods. These were the years Hare Trigger.
that would see a deeper By the middle of the year, Robert Clampett,
development of the already perhaps the studio’s most stream-of-consciousness-
established Warner’s characters driven animation director, was reintroducing Tweety Pie in
like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, A Gruesome Twosome. Tweety had appeared in two other
Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd, as well cartoons, A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) and Birdy and the
as the rise of important and long- Beast (1944), also directed by Clampett. It would not be
lasting additions to the studio long before Friz Freleng would develop the definitive cat-
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

stable. Most important of all is the chases-bird team by casting Sylvester as the "puddy tat"
sharpening of timing and the fall guy in the Oscar-winning Tweety Pie (1947). The two

© Warner Bros.
visual and narrative sophistication would be together in Warner’s cartoons, comic books and
of the cartoons leading up to the advertising from then on.
1950s, an era that saw the best of
the shorts and, ironically, the Bugs, Sylvester and Tweety
beginning of the end, to all intents Three of the most enduringly popular cartoon creations, Bugs

© Warner Bros.
and purposes, of the theatrical Bunny, Sylvester the Cat and his nemesis Tweety Pie were all

short cartoon. created by the Warner Bros. Studio in the 1940s.

Wise Guys Emerge

Leon Schlesinger, the legendary cartoon producer, sold his studio directly to Warner Bros.
in 1944. The new studio (if in name only) was placed under the supervision of Edward Bugs Bunny Rides Again
Selzer. Schlesinger’s almost comical brand of benign neglect had given the fledgling Set in the Old West and featuring Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny

studio just the right lack of vision it needed in the 1930s and 1940s to help the crew Rides Again was released in 1948 and remains one of the most

begin to develop the devil-may-care, wise-guy attitude that had become a Warner Bros. popular outings for the rabbit.

hallmark. Selzer’s main contribution was to annoy the animation unit so much that it
inspired them to reach beyond what had been accomplished, to create new and more
deliberately crafted films to spite the humorless producer.
Sylvester the Cat
The Stars of the Show Although Sylvester’s most successful partnership was with the

Things started out providentially enough with the first cartoon of 1945. Chuck Jones’s ever-elusive Tweety Pie, he also featured in cartoons with other

Odor-able Kitty was the first film featuring the irrepressible Pepé le Pew, and also offered © Warner Bros.
sparring partners. Hippety Hopper (a baby kangaroo) and

the first variation of the fundamental le Pew plot conceit: an amorous skunk mistaking a Speedy Gonzales, the Mexican mouse, both took on Tweety’s role

hapless cat (this time a male!) as the object of his unrequited affections. No sooner was as thorn in the side of the perennially frustrated cat. © Warner Bros.

Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny » 84 Chuck Jones » 156 Bob Clampett » 86 Friz Freleng » 88
126 CHARACTERS & ANIMATORS 127
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NORTH AMERICA: WARNER BROS.

In 1946, Frank Tashlin, one of Warner Bros.’ most creative cartoon directors (who What’s Up, Doc?
worked on the likes of The Swooner Crooner, Porky Pigs Feat, Plane Daffy and Unruly Around this time, Freleng began to team Bugs Bunny up
Hare) left to pursue a very successful writing and directing career in live-action films. with Yosemite Sam, who had developed into the perfect
Robert McKimson was promoted to director and, before the year was out, in Walky short-tempered target in a popular run of costume
Talky Hawky (1946), would introduce the character of a loud-mouthed rooster, pictures beginning with Buccaneer Bunny (1948). He also
Foghorn Leghorn, based in large part on Senator Claghorn, a popular character created starred these two in what is perhaps the best-timed one-
by Kenny Delmar for the Fred Allen radio program. Also featured in the Academy- gag cartoon ever, High Diving Hare (1949).
nominated film was the diminutive, gutsy and completely gullible Henery Hawk. Jones had three important breakthroughs
at this juncture. The first, and least obvious, took shape in
Moving On Rabbit Punch (1948). Bugs enters the wrestling ring,
The year 1946 also saw Bugs Bunny paired with Rocky and Hugo, Edward G. Robinson pitted against the champ in what would become over the
and Peter Lorre caricatures, in Freleng’s gangster parody Racketeer Rabbit. Bob Clampett next few years a very funny series of cartoons featuring
would end his years at Warner Bros. with The Big Snooze, giving Elmer and Bugs one last Bugs and a hulking giant of some kind: an opera singer, a
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

surrealistic fling before the director moved on to success in the fledgling television bull, a gangster, etc. Secondly, almost in opposition to this
industry. Chuck Jones focused mostly on one-off entries after the war, but he did retire theme of a huge nemesis, Jones introduced the little man

© Warner Bros.
one of his earlier characters, Sniffles, the incessantly talking mouse in Hush My Mouse from Mars, Commander X-2 (later Marvin Martin), and his
(1946). He also made a most unusual film in which the evil character comes out on top. "Illudium Q-36 space modulator", first seen in Haredevil
Fresh Airedale (1945) was an interesting insight into just how encompassing the Hare (1948).
philosophy at the cartoon unit was becoming. The idea that the films they were making
were not only for children, but could also say something to adults, had really taken hold. Roadrunner and Coyote
Finally, and most importantly, this period saw the introduction of Roadrunner and Coyote
Hits and Misses (later Wile E. Coyote) in the first of their series, Fast and Furry-ous (1949). Jones, by
Not every character auditioned in these pivotal years was a smashing success, of course. instinct and design, would develop these films into a series of hysterical morality plays, not
© Warner Bros.
Robert McKimson tried Bobo the Elephant in Hobo Bobo (1947), and had only very only full of funny, running gags topping each other until the mayhem and destruction, at
modest reactions to Gruesome Gorilla in Gorilla My Dreams (1948). Jones had a least for the coyote, built to a tremendous climax, but also with underlying, universal
somewhat more successful run with Charlie Dog in a few films, most notably Little Claude Cat themes regarding the foibles of greed and avarice. This teaming worked so well that, even
Orphan Airedale (1947) and Often an Orphan (1949). The neurotic and nervous character of Claude Cat never quite today, more than 50 years after their first appearance, Coyote and Roadrunner have
Jones’s hilarious Three Bears were in several films during this period, achieved the fame of Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, or that more become nearly mythological archetypes of innocence pursued by fanaticism.
including What’s Brewin’ Bruin? (1948) and Bear Feat (1949). Another team that had familiar feline, Sylvester. Nevertheless, the nine cartoons he

© Warner Bros.
some brief but shining moments were Hubie and Bertie, especially good when paired appeared in are testament to the talent of creator Chuck Jones. The Winds of Change
with the neurotic, nerve-tonic-slurping Claude Cat in Mouse Wreckers (an Oscar As the 1950s approached, the crew at Termite Terrace was looking towards an optimistic
nominee in 1949). Bugs Bunny future. Jones’s Pepé le Pew cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) took home an
Friz Freleng was developing some strong personality traits with Sylvester, This original drawing from Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958) shows Oscar, McKimson was settling into a nice pace of gag films, and Freleng was becoming
who, somewhat paradoxically, was both a terrific protagonist for Elmer Fudd in films like Bugs Bunny as a Neanderthal rabbit He made his first Hare Trimmed ever more skilled at comic timing and personality. New themes were presenting
Back Alley Uproar (1948) and the continuing antagonist for Tweety in I Taw a Puddy Tat appearance in a 1938 cartoon opposite Porky Pig called Porky’s In Hare Trimmed, released in 1952, Bugs Bunny continues his themselves and a productive subgenre of cultural parody was about to begin. The new,
(1949). McKimson was also using Sylvester to good effect with a new character, Hippity Hare Hunt, and gradually evolved into the rabbit we know today. aggravation of Yosemite Sam. Here, Bugs acts as the good guy, modern movement at UPA was about to emerge, and Disney was gearing up for
Hopper, first seen in Hop, Look and Listen (1948), the baby kangaroo that Sylvester His cartoons were Oscar-nominated twice before finally winning trying to save Granny from Sam’s clutches after she inherits features again. All looked, in a booming post-war economy, as though it could go on
would continue to mistake for a giant mouse for years to come. in 1958 with Knighty-Knight Bugs. a fortune. forever, but the winds of change and the effect of television were waiting in the wings.

Avery, Jones and Clampett » 86 Friz Freleng » 88 UPA » 146 Disney Returns to Features » 150
128 TEX AVERY AT MGM 129
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Tex Avery was never satisfied with a smile, a projector is plucked and thrown away by a
chuckle or even a solid laugh. His cartoons were character on-screen. In Lucky Ducky (1948),
comic assaults on the audience that unleashed the characters interrupt their chase when they
tidal waves of laughter. His weapons were suddenly realize that they are in black and
impossible gags, frantic pacing and fearlessly white. An investigation leads them to a
exaggerated animation. In Lonesome Lenny borderline where a sign states "Technicolor ends
(1946), a squirrel dumps horseshoes out of a here". They resume their chase on the color side
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

boxing glove and then an entire horse falls out. In of the line.
The Three Little Pups (1953), a wolf inhales a
television set through a drinking straw and then Making Waves
lifts his shirt to watch the screen in his stomach. Tex Avery arrived at MGM in 1941 and
"We found out early," Avery said, "that if you did immediately started pushing the envelope. The
something with a character, either animal or first of his cartoons released was Blitz Wolf
human or whatnot, that couldn’t possibly be (1942), an anti-Nazi parody of the three little

© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
rigged up in live action, why then you’ve got a pigs where the wolf was a goose stepper
guaranteed laugh…. At MGM, we built up to a named Adolf. Shortly after came Red Hot Riding

© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
different type of humor, a faster humor," Avery Hood (1943), a modern-day parody of the
added, "We gunned things up to the point where fairy tale where Red is a sexy chorus girl, and the
we could get twice as much stuff in a cartoon, wolf only has one thing on his mind.
getting from one situation right into another. After World War Two, Avery’s
A guy would no sooner get hit with an anvil than he takes one step over and falls Tom and Jerry Bad Luck Blackie cartoons became more stripped down and funnier as a result. He created several
in a well. Keep them going, and it builds up for your audience." Tom and Jerry debuted in Puss Gets the Boot, directed by Bill The sight gags come thick and fast in this 1949 Tex Avery cartoons that are highpoints of his career. King Size Canary (1947) starts out with a cat
Hanna and Joe Barbera and released by MGM. This began a cartoon. Bad Luck Blackie is about a black cat who brings rotten trying to eat a bird. Not satisfied with the size of the bird, the cat feeds it Jumbo-Gro. Soon,
Exaggerated Animation series that eventually ran to more than 150 theatrically released luck to a kitten-persecuting dog, mostly in the form of large, the bird, the cat and a dog have all sampled the formula and are towering over city
Animator Irven Spence recalled that when Avery shorts and won more Oscars than any other cartoon characters heavy objects falling on him from the sky. buildings and are even visible from outer space. Bad Luck Blackie (1949) starts with a
checked animation, he flipped the drawings "of in Hollywood history. dog torturing a kitten. By the end of the cartoon, the kitten has taken its revenge, but the
every one of your scenes, and he would take your audience realizes that the kitten is as bad as the dog. What is worse is that the audience
extremes and go over them a little bit. At the time, The Cat Concerto has laughed at actions that appalled them only seven minutes earlier. Symphony in
you felt like you were animating something that The flawless combining of animation and music in The Cat Slang (1951), drawn in a flatter style inspired by the UPA studio, takes slang expressions
was really exaggerated, but then Tex would take it Concerto (1946) make this one of the most popular Tom and and visualizes them literally. A man who stretches his legs pulls them like a rubber band.
and double it!" In Avery cartoons, characters’ eyes Jerry cartoons of all time. Much of this is due to the talents of MGM When his money runs out on him, it escapes from his pocket on tiny legs.
bug out six feet, their bodies fly apart or shatter, and musical director Scott Bradley.

even the stripes on their clothing react. Enduring Influence

Avery was not afraid to remind the Little Rural Riding Hood Avery moved from MGM to the Walter Lantz studio in 1953, though MGM continued to

yn-Mayer
audience that they were watching a movie. In While perhaps not the most politically correct cartoon when viewed release a backlog of his cartoons until 1955. After only four cartoons with Lantz, Avery left
© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Dumb Hounded (1943), the wolf runs so fast that today, Little Rural Riding Hood (1949) is still highly entertaining. It theatrical cartoons for good and moved into TV commercials. The stress of always

© Metro-Goldw
he skids past the film’s sprocket holes. In Magical features a country wolf visiting his city cousin and falling for a city girl, having to beat himself with every new project had worn him out, but his MGM cartoons
Maestro (1952), what looks like a hair stuck in the with the opposite happening to his city slicker cousin. continue to be an influence on anyone who uses animation to make an audience laugh.

Tex Avery at Warner Bros. » 66 Tom and Jerry » 94 Cartoons Go to War » 90 TV Commercials » 184
130 HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS 131
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Hollywood cartoons were an established part of the moviegoing experience in the wise-guy magpies (one a Brooklynite, the other British) were Terrytoons’ answer to the
post-war world. Every major movie studio had its own cartoon factory, or a relationship screwball characters popular during this era – Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, et al. – and
with an independent cartoon producer, to supply theaters with a steady stream of they worked. Heckle and Jeckle were perhaps the best personalities the studio ever devised.
seven-minute Technicolor short subjects.
Columbia
Abundant Talent Columbia’s Screen Gems studio hit its stride during this period and then came crashing
Warner Bros., MGM (both with their own in-house cartoon studios) and RKO (distributing to an end. A wise-guy pair, Fox and Crow, were Columbia’s biggest draw. A deal with DC
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

Disney’s cartoons) were A-class studios, and their animated shorts were first-rate Comics for Fox and Crow comic books ran for over 20 years, but on-screen the duo would
productions. They were staffed with the most talented animators with a knack for not make it past the decade. The troubled in-house studio had a succession of general
© Paramount

creating the most popular characters – and a solid lock on the Academy Awards. managers who failed to pull the animated shorts out of a miserable rut. Columbia’s
Paramount, Universal and Fox were also excellent studios, and although Termites From Mars stingy budgets did not help. The final studio heads, Ray Katz and Henry Binder, formerly
their investment in cartoon shorts was not as committed, the cartoons they released are Woody Woodpecker saves the day in this 1952 cartoon – when of Warner Bros., had a frustrating year at the helm before the doors were closed for good.

© Paramount
filled with memorable moments, great animation and funny characters. termites invade the planet, Woody inadvertently defeats them by By the end of the decade, Columbia began releasing cartoons from the independent UPA
means of Scotch tape. He then puts them to work in his factory. studio. This turned out to be a wise move that brought them prestige and Oscar
Paramount Casper the Friendly Ghost recognition.
Paramount’s Famous Studios continued to produce popular Popeye and Little Lulu Casper first appeared in cartoon form in 1945, with the last

cartoons during this time, and behind the scenes acquired the services of legendary theatrically released Casper cartoon appearing in 1959. He Heckle and Jeckle Republic and United Artists
Disney animator and director Bill Tytla. But the studio’s greatest inspiration was the debut continued in comic book form until the early 1980s, however, Paul Terry creations Heckle and Jeckle made their debut in The Cartoon shorts were so popular during this era that smaller studios such as Republic and
of Casper the Friendly Ghost in 1945. The studio purchased the idea from story man and a feature-length CGI/live-action film was released in 1995. Talking Magpies in 1946. Along with Mighty Mouse, their series of United Artists also tried their hands at distributing them. Republic invented its own color
Sy Reit and animator Joe Oriolo, and produced a one-shot film, The Friendly Ghost, as cartoons was the most popular ever produced by Terrytoons. process, TruColor, and had Bob Clampett make a very funny one-shot cartoon, It’s a
part of their Noveltoon series in 1945. Strong audience reaction brought the spirit back Woody Woodpecker Grand Old Nag (1947), starring Charle Horse (voiced
from the dead for a series of sequels, and ultimately the innocent character became one First appearing in a 1940 Andy Panda theatrical short, Woody by Stan Freberg), to test the process. Two years later,
of their top stars of the 1950s. This New York-based studio also began developing a Woodpecker and his trademark laugh were the creations of Republic picked up a quartet of Jerky Journies
stable of recurring characters of note: Herman and Katnip (an ultraviolent variation of Walter Lantz at Universal. He finally became the star of the show travelogue spoofs from producer Leonard Lewis
Tom and Jerry), Buzzy the Funny Crow, Baby Huey and Little Audrey. in 1957 with The Woody Woodpecker Show, hosted by Lantz Levinson’s Impossible Pictures. Moonlighting Looney
himself, who showed young viewers how cartoons were made. Tunes artists Paul Julian and Robert Gribbroek
Universal and Walter Lantz painted the backgrounds over Art Heineman’s
Universal’s fortunes were troubled in the late 1940s though Walter Lantz was turning out layouts in these films, which were dependent on
the best cartoons of his career for them at that time. His studio was riding high with verbal humor and long-pan backgrounds. Frank
Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda – and the talents of numerous ex-Disney artists, Nelson provided most of the voices.
including Fred Moore, Shamus Culhane and Richard Lundy. While Universal reorganized United Artists released a series of
itself (merging with International Pictures to become Universal-International), Lantz Daffy Ditties from 1944 to 1947. These were
funneled his cartoons through United Artists to keep his animators going. musical cartoons using the same stop-motion
techniques as George Pal’s Puppetoons. Morey &
Twentieth Century Fox and Paul Terry Sutherland Productions produced them, giving some
© Walter Lantz Studio
Twentieth Century Fox added to its animated universe with cartoons starring Mighty Mouse of the top animators of the day (including Frank

© Paramount
and Gandy Goose, produced out of the Terrytoons studio in New Rochelle, New York. Paul Tashlin and Bill Nolan) the opportunity to try three-
Terry’s studio introduced a new pair of mocking birds in 1946, Heckle and Jeckle. These dimensional animation.

Woody Woodpecker » 96 Puppetoons » 92 Fox and Crow » 98

132 CRUSADER RABBIT 133
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Alex Anderson (b. 1920) grew up in an artistic family which included his did a tour of duty at TAP between assignments. All of these artists would remember the
uncle, Paul Terry, famous as the producer of Terrytoons theatrical Crusader Rabbit experience as a most happy period. The animation drawings were
shorts featuring Mighty Mouse and other characters. Each done in bold black outlines to ensure they "read well" on the then tiny black-and-white

© Television Arts Productions

summer starting in 1938, Anderson would apprentice TV screens.
at the Terry studio, learning all about cartoon
production. When he saw Disney’s feature The Primitive Production
Reluctant Dragon (1941), his interest was sparked Anderson was eventually assisted in the scripts by various talents including the ex-
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

by the "Baby Weems" sequence, in which a series Warner Bros. cartoon story man Lloyd Turner, who contributed gags. The production
of storyboard sketches were given a tiny amount of routine reflected the makeshift facilities and low budget at TAP: story work and voice
animation to provide vitality. recording (using Lucille Bliss in the title roll and local Bay Area radio talent) were done in
San Francisco by Anderson’s team, and the audio recording was sent to Hollywood
Looking to TV where Fairbanks transferred the sound disc to 16 mm motion-picture sound film. The
Anderson could not do much about this interest, however, as he was films were then returned to Berkeley where the artwork was synced to the sound. The
drafted, serving in naval intelligence. Upon his discharge he saw a big future in completed cartoons were shipped to Los Angeles where Fairbanks added sound effects
television, which was being launched to the public in 1947. Anderson wanted and handled their distribution. Three production cycles, from 1949–51, resulted in a total
to present a moving comic-strip concept to the youthful TV market, but he of 195 five-minute segments of Crusader, containing 10 story lines in a mock serial
needed a business partner. He teamed with his close childhood friend Jay chapter play format.
Ward (1920–89). They quickly formed a company called Television Arts
Productions (TAP), and began work on three cartoon ideas. Anderson The Rabbit is Released
animated virtually the entire pilot himself, assisted by young ex-Disney After Fairbanks spent a few months peddling the series for syndication, Crusader Rabbit
artist Gerry Ray. began airing in Los Angeles in the summer of 1950. It soon enjoyed a healthy following
– though aimed at a juvenile market, the parents who watched enjoyed the
Limited Animation Rags sly humor of these gently satirical cartoons. Crusader eventually
In 1948, Ward presented TAP’s show package, called "The Comic Strips of The stories, which played out over 15, 20 or 25 episodes, dealt ended up on over 200 television stations, although Ward and
Television", to NBC programing executive Russ Johnston. The package contained with Crusader and Rags in different situations including: fighting Anderson made very little money from the show. Unfortunately,
three short cartoons– “Dudley Doright”, “Hamhock Jones” and “Crusader Rabbit” – that for tigers in India who are having their stripes stolen to make India a complicated legal case ensued when the rights to the
were animated in a cost-effective style resembling a storyboard, with little real Ink, fighting a leprechaun-hating giant and helping Texan characters changed hands. The wrangle dragged on for five
movement apart from eye blinks, pans and a walk cycle. The soundtracks were much © Television Arts Productions jackrabbits fight deportation to the North Pole. years, during which time Anderson turned his talents to
like mini-radio plays with a strong emphasis on dialogue, linked by a wry narrator. In advertising and Ward temporarily to real estate.
one sense, Anderson had pioneered what would become known in the industry as A 1956 attempt to revive Crusader, in
"limited animation". Johnston chose just the “Crusader Rabbit” segment, handing Seymour collaboration with MGM cartoon veteran William
responsibility of the series to Jerry Fairbanks, a veteran film-maker who had been The series, featuring Crusader, Rags and friends, was produced Hanna, was aborted because of the court case. Today
appointed as head of all filmed shows for the network. following Alex Anderson’s original idea of “limited” animation: Crusader Rabbit Anderson, although modestly proud of his
Once under way, the TAP staff went to work using a converted room over TV cartoons was of a comic strip with some movement. The TV When Anderson first conceived the idea of the Crusader series, he achievements, regards the old films as "really pretty
the garage at Anderson’s aunt’s house for the animation work. The garage below industry was in its infancy, and budgets were minimal. To keep wanted the lead character to have a personality that would be primitive". But for its time, Crusader Rabbit was
became the camera and editing department. Several bright young animators were costs down, Anderson developed techniques which simplified the the opposite of its appearance. Thus Crusader Rabbit was born, both ground-breaking and influential, and Alex
recruited including Chuck Fuson, Volney White, Lee Mishkin and young Bob Mills, who movements, feeling that if a story was good enough it would not possessing a strong, aggressive personality in a body which Anderson and Jay Ward should not be forgotten
became overall production manager; even famed Snow White animator Grim Natwick need full animation to keep the attention of the audience. audiences would assume belonged to a shy, passive character. © Television Arts Productions as the real pioneers of made-for-TV animation.

Paul Terry and Terrytoons » 40 TV Animation » 178 Telecomics » 162

134 LA ROSA DI BAGHDAD 135
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y
Surviving the War
With the market for advertising dying on its feet, the
only way Domeneghini could manage to keep his team
of skilled craftsmen above water through the Blitz was
by creating this film for them to work on. They stayed
engaged on this production for a stressful seven-year
period, spanning much of the war. Milan being one of
the chief targets for Nazi bombing, Domeneghini and
his crew were forced to relocate the studio away from
the city in the countryside at Bornato.
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V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

A key member of Domeneghini’s team,

© Imagine-Metode-Arte
illustrator and comic artist Angelo Bioletto (1906–87),
was responsible for the character design, owing more
than a passing debt to Disney’s Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs. The atmospheric backgrounds were
La Rosa di Baghdad rendered by Libico Maraja and the music was provided by Riccardo Pick Mangiagalli.
Producer and director Antonio Gino Domeneghini had to move

his animation team from Milan to Bornato, in the countryside of Arabian Nights
Brescia, to escape the bombing during World War Two. The story is taken from an Arabian Nights fable featuring a young flautist named Amin,
whose love for the fair Princess Zeila is put to the test. The villain of the piece, the evil
chamberlain Burk, plans to do away with Amin, but the flute player finally wins the day,
and the heart of the princess. Other characters involved are Oman the Caliph; the Princess’s
uncle, Sheikh Jafar; the three wise men, Tonko, Zirco and Zizibè; and Kalinà the magpie.
La Rosa di Baghdad Filming in Technicolor proved to be an expensive luxury. The process used
Despite an awkward narrative progression La Rosa di Baghdad has was the successive exposure system. Filmed on a single black-and-white negative, the
some beautiful scenes, such as Princess Zeila singing as the sun method involves three identical frames shot through blue, red and green filters. This
sets and the final firework celebration. The film did well at the box lengthy and expensive procedure was eventually abandoned in favor of the quicker
office but Domeneghini returned to advertising after its completion. Eastman Kodak system.
La Rosa di Baghdad did well at the box office and won first prize at the
Festival dei Ragazzi in 1949 as part of the 10th Venice Film Festival. Despite this,
however, Domeneghini never returned to the world of animated feature films and re-
La Rosa di Baghdad (‘The Rose of Baghdad’, 1949) marks a significant milestone for La Rosa di Baghdad established himself with what he knew best – making commercials.
Italian animation. Not only does it have the distinction of being Italy’s first feature First shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1949, La Rosa di

cartoon, but it was also their first film, animated or otherwise, to be produced in Baghdad was one of the first Italian feature-length animations, The Singing Princess
Technicolor. It was created and directed by a top Italian advertising designer, Antonio along with I Fratelli Dinamite (‘The Dynamite Brothers’) which In 1952, an English speaking version was dubbed, featuring the teenage Julie Andrews

© Imagine-Metode-Arte
Gino Domeneghini (1897–1966) at his own company, Ima-Film Productions was screened at the same time. who was fast making a name for herself as a radio singer. This version was later re-
(Imagine-Metodo-Arte). He and his artists labored away through the war years discovered in the USA when Julie was at her most popular, and got a new lease of life
between 1942 and 1949 to complete this ambitious animation project. when reissued under the title of The Singing Princess (1967).

Technicolor » 60 TV Commercials » 184 Animation Festivals » 186

136 PAUL GRIMAULT & JEAN IMAGE 137
WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

The premier agent for the post-war French animation scene was Paul Grimault Jeannot L’Intrepide Ramoneur and proceeded to
(1905–94). Born in a suburb of Paris, he studied art at Ecole des Arts Appliquésthe, Reduced to the size of a bee, Jeannot is welcomed into Bee Land remodel it into something he could
then worked as a scene painter in a theater. After military service in 1930 he became and heroically defends his bee friends from a wasp attack. The be proud of. The finished product
acquainted with Jean Aurenche and Jacques Prévert, collaborating with them on a bees then help Jeannot to defeat the giant who shrank him and was finally completed in 1980 and
collection of various projects such as theater-set design, acting (for Groupe Octobre) he regains his normal size. released under the title of Le Roi et
and constructing advertising films. l’Oiseau (‘The King and Mr Bird’).

Introducing Gô Jean Image

It was here that Grimault met producer André Sarrut. They hit it off straight away and The renowned cartoon director and
soon united to form their own studio, Les Gémeaux, in 1936, where they successfully producer known as Jean Image
produced uncomplicated, hand-drawn animated commercials until the war intervened. began life in Budapest, christened
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

Their first attempt at theatrical entertainment was a cartoon featuring a character Imre Hajdu (1911–89). He studied
named Gô and was titled Gô Chez les Oiseaux (‘Gô Among the Birds’, 1939), which in Budapest’s School of Decorative
enjoyed moderate success. Art, moving further afield to Berlin.
World War Two interrupted most people’s lives, and Grimault’s was no By 1932, after a brief sojourn with
exception. The 35-year-old was drafted into the army and, having served his time, he an advertising agency, the
was back at the drawing board at Les Gémeaux in 1941, where his first directorial job Hungarian native had migrated to

© Les Gémeaux
was to rewrite and extend his 1939 hit, Gô Chez les Oiseaux, which became Paris and set up shop as a
Les Passagers de la Grande Ourse (‘The Passengers of the Big Dipper’, 1941). Also well commercial artist. In 1936 he
received was 1943’s enchanting L’Epouvantail (‘The Scarecrow’), the tale of a scarecrow journeyed across the channel to
who befriends two birds who are being pestered by a cat. England, where he served a year-
long apprenticeship at British
The Little Soldier © Jean Image
Animated Films, rubbing shoulders
His turning point was when he combined forces with Jacques Prévert to bring to the with his contemporary John Halas.
screen Hans Christian Andersen’s charming fable of Le Petit Soldat (‘The Little Soldier’, Jeannot L’Intrépide Back in Paris and still working under his given name, he began working on
1947) about the love between a toy soldier and a doll. In 1946, after a succession of Although a French production, Jeannot L’Intrépide was also sponsored films, branching out by making several of his own animated films in his spare
popular shorts, the opportunity arose for an animated feature to be made adapting released commercially in America under the name Johnny the time, such as Sur Deux Notes (‘On Two Notes’, 1939). Adopting the nom de plume of

© Les Gémeaux
another Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. Giant Killer. Jean Image in 1944, he went on to produce Les Noirs Jouent et Gagnent (‘Black Plays
and Wins’, 1944), his first film under this new pen name. He continued turning out
Mr Wonderbird L’Epouvantail commercials at his own studios and then released his second entertainment film two
This new venture set sail on its unsteady course under the title of Le Bergere et la The originality and quality of Grimault’s work is evident in early years later, Rhapsodie de Saturne (‘Saturn Rhapsody’) (1946).
Ramoneur (‘Mr Wonderbird’, 1953) and was not without its problems. After three years films such as L’Epouvantail (1943), a whimsical short cartoon in Image then instigated the feature cartoon Jeannot l’Intrépide (‘Fearless
work on the project and many differences with Sarrut, a court case evicted Grimault from which a devious cat lures a bird-loving scarecrow to his doom. Jeannot’, 1950, a.k.a ‘Johnny The Giant Killer) which won the Grand Prix for children’s
the helm of Le Bergere et la Ramoneur in mid-production. films at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. The story concerns a waif-like child who, in an
Following this upset, Grimault initiated his own studio in 1951, Les Films Le Petit Soldat attempt to save further children from a giant, calls upon help from the insect world,
Paul Grimault. Here he produced animated commercials, shorts and even a live-action Grimault’s version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tin Soldier conquering the ogre with the assistance of bees. This fairy story is entertaining and

© Jean Image
documentary called La Biopsie de la Molle Osseuse (1958), although he often left the was released in 1947. His graphic style tended towards curved well-executed with plenty of action and memorable scenes, particularly the bee battles
direction side to others. In 1967 he managed to obtain the rights to Le Bergere et la lines, full animation and realistic settings. and aftermath.

Mr Wonderbird » 170 John Halas » 104

138 THE ZAGREB STUDIO 139
EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

Yugoslavia was always an anomaly in the Cold Getting Underway

© Fadil Hadzic, The Big Meeting, Zagreb Film

War battle. President Josip Broz Tito, who ruled With the help of the government, which was delighted with
the country from 1946 until his death in 1980, the film’s success, Hadzic organized a group of about 100
managed to maintain a unique neutrality. While artists and founded Yugoslavia’s first animation studio,
his government was staunchly Communist, he Duga Film. The popular comic-strip artist Walter
rejected Stalin’s policy of dictating to every Neugebauer became the director of one of the four
Communist nation. He also accepted military production groups, and Dusan Vukotic headed another.
and economic aid from the West while refusing Neugebauer was clearly influenced by Disney, but Vukotic
to be subservient to the United States. Tito’s concentrated on developing a national animation style all
strong personality and adept political instincts their own. But before the studio could really get going, the

© Fadil Hadzic, The Big Meeting, Zagreb Film

also managed to keep together the disparate government withdrew its support, choosing to invest in
elements of the Yugoslavian nation, despite the schools, hospitals, and roadways rather than cartoons.
national aspirations of six nominally equal But the seeds had been planted, and former
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

republics. The country’s eventual breakup after Duga artists like Vukotic, Zlatko Grgic and Aleksandar Marks,
his death into the independent nations of who would each later direct his own classic shorts, were not
Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia- about to stop animating. They found commercial work and
Herzegovina, and Macedonia is testament to began to implement a limited animation style that would
Tito’s political skills. The Big Meeting soon become the group’s trademark. Partly this style was due to necessity, since supplies
Fadil Hadzic, publisher of the popular review Kerempuh, was the were scarce, and funds even scarcer. By reducing the number of drawings by a third, they
Inspirational pioneer of animated film in Yugoslavia. Hadzic backed a team of began rudimentary yet highly stylized films that delighted their commercial clients.
Animation animators to create the country’s first animated cartoon. Completed They were clearly influenced by the UPA Studio in America, but also by the award-
The country’s primary animation studio holds in 1949, it told the story of some frogs that were plagued by midges, winning animated films coming out of Czechoslovakia. This limited style forced the
an equally rare place in animation history. Its in short: the story of Yugoslavia’s break with Stalinism. animators to rely on personality and story, and on a meticulous rendering of each
origins can be found in the advertising industry drawing. Viewed today, the style seems quite modern, as it is utilized in many
prior to World War Two, with men like Serij commercials and even some television series. At the time, however, it was a ground-
Tagatz, who trained in Moscow, and the Maar breaking departure from the much more realistically vivid Disney cartoons.
brothers, who had fled Germany to escape anti-
Semitism. After the war, the popular magazine
editor Fadil Hadzic, who has been called the
"Cocteau of Yugoslavia", almost single-handedly
jump-started animation production in Zagreb,
the capital of Yugoslavia’s Croatian republic. He
organized a group of young animators and The Big Meeting
decided that their first film would celebrate the Bordo Dovnikovic, a cartoonist and illustrator for Kerempuh, was one

country’s unique straddling of the east-west of the animators who worked on this film. Production was initially

divide. The 17-minute satirical short, The Big scheduled to take two months but ended up being in taking a year.

Meeting, a metaphor for Yugoslavia’s split with Bordo and his colleagues had underestimated the production

Stalinism, inspired a generation of animators. process since they had never produced an animated film.

Zagreb Studio: Golden Age » 226 UPA and Limited Animation » 146
140 RUSSIAN DELIGHTS 141
EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

Following World War Two, Soviet animation continued to be winter. If flowers are not found, people will lose their
dominated by children’s productions that were made in the vein of heads. With echoes of Cinderella, a greedy mother
Walt Disney. sends her stepdaughter into the harsh winter to find the
impossible. In the forest the girl meets the 12 months of
Social Realism the year, who help her find the flowers.
While cut-out and puppet animation did exist, for the most part, Soviet
animation (at least in Russia) was drawn on cels. Furthermore, genre The Brumberg Sisters
and style were completely hindered by the "social realism" mandate. The Brumberg sisters (Valentina and Zinaida) made
As such, all creative talent and technologies at Soyuzmultfilm during many feature films, including The Missing Diploma
the 1940s and 1950s were used solely for the creation of moralistic (1945), Christmas Eve (1951), Flight to the Moon
fables and fairy tales. These films – Soyuzmultfilm was making about (1953) and Wishes Come True (1957), about a
30 films a year during this time – were, like Disney’s, made in a lumberjack who performs a good deed and suddenly
"realistic vein" and were adored by Soviet audiences. receives whatever he wishes for.
While the content of many of the films leaves little to The sisters also made many moral films
VI 1945–49: POST WAR

VI 1945–49: POST WAR

the imagination, they were all technically proficient and displayed an in which idleness and poor behavior are criticized. In the
excellent knowledge of drama and narrative. In addition to short films, film I Drew the Little Man (1948), for example, a boy
Soyuzmultfilm also made full animated features. draws a picture on the school wall and lets another
Among the experienced directors at the studio were classmate take the blame. Eventually, overwhelmed by
Ivan-Ivanov Vano, the Brumberg sisters and Lev Atamanov. If guilt, he confesses in front of the whole class.
© Soyuzmultfilm

Alexander Ptushko was the Soviet Spielberg, then Ivan Ivanov-Vano

was its Disney. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, Ivanov-Vano Lev Atamanov
produced a number of well-made and entertaining films that were Lev Atamanov left Soyuzmultfilm in 1937 and returned to his native Armenia. After
immensely popular with children. making a couple of films there, he later returned to Moscow and made a number of films
for Soyuzmultfilm. His work was not particularly imaginative and often overly
Ivan Ivanov-Vano sentimental. One of his best feature films was The Golden Antelope (1954), which was
Invano-Vano became something of a household name in the Soviet based on an Indian tale. In the film, a greedy man exploits an antelope that can produce
Union with the feature film Ivan and his Magic Pony (1947). In order gold coins from his hooves. In 1957, Atamanov made a popular adaptation of Hans
to become a prince and marry the princess, a peasant boy named Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen about a boy who is imprisoned in the ice palace

© Soyuzmultfilm
© Soyuzmultfilm
Ivan – accompanied by his humpbacked horse – must overcome of an evil queen (note that Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki listed The Snow Queen
three obstacles and defeat an evil king. as one of his influences). While Atamanov’s output consisted primarily of children’s films,
Ivanov-Vano was a relatively prolific and eclectic The Golden Antelope he made a number of more adult-oriented films in the 1960s and 1970s, including the
director. After Ivan, he made The Story of the Prince, the Swan and the Czar Saltam The Twelve Months Released in 1954 and based on a traditional Indian tale, The charming film Ballerina on a Boat (1969).
(1951), co-directed by L. Milchin and an interpretation of Alexander Pushkin’s re-telling This film’s creator, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, is often dubbed the Russian Golden Antelope is about a greedy rajah who tries to exploit an

of Snow White; a re-telling of Pinocchio, called The Adventures of a Puppet co-directed Disney. Telling the story of the 12 spirits of the year who save a antelope that can produce gold coins from its hooves. Boris Dioskin
by Dmitri Babichenko; and The Twelve Months (1956). little girl from certain death in the forest, this is classic good- Mention should also be made of Boris Dioskin, who worked as an art director for many
The Twelve Months is a charming and beautifully animated film about an triumphing-over-evil fairy tale from Soyuzmultfilm that was so The Golden Antelope years at Soyuzmultfilm before co-directing the award-winning An Unusual Match
arrogant and rude young queen who thinks she can change the laws of nature. To prove popular at that time. Both The Golden Antelope and The Snow Queen were loved by (1956). In the 1960s, Dioskin would make a series of impressive sports animations,
her point, she demands that someone in her kingdom find flowers in the middle of audiences and festival juries, winning several awards. including the warm and humorous hockey film Goal! Goal! (1964).

Soviet Propaganda » 110 Soviet Animation: Maturity » 234 Hayao Miyazaki » 296
142 STARTING AGAIN 143
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
By 1945, production materials in wartime Japan were in such short supply that animation that was pouring into Japan,
virtually no animation was produced in the final year of the war. In late 1945, as soon along with the latest American movies that
as the military government was no longer in power, the three influential animators the occupation authorities brought in. The
Sanae Yamamoto, Yasuji Murata and Kenzo Masaoka proposed the creation of a entire Japanese cinematic industry was
professional animation studio. Around 100 animators supported their foundation of aware that it had to modernize – and fast.
the Shin Nihon Doga Sha (New Japan Animation Company). However, due to the This they would do in the next decade.
devastated Japanese economy, production was slow in starting both for the new
company and for individual animators. One of the first post-war films was The Magic China
Crayon (1946) by Masao Nogawa. China’s wartime devastation, followed
V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

V: 1945–49: THE POST-WAR ERA

immediately by the Nationalist–Communist
The Nihon Doga Company civil war, hampered the renaissance of
Difficulties led Yamamoto and Masaoka to leave and start a different company in Chinese animation. The first encouragement
January 1948, the similarly named Nihon Doga (a.k.a. Nichido) Company. Their came in 1947 from Communist-controlled
impressive early film was Masaoka’s Tora-chan, the Abandoned Kitten (1947). This 24- Northern China/Manchuria, where the Party-
minute cartoon animation was followed by Tora-chan and the Bride (1948). subsidized Tong Pei Film Studio was
Another notable short film under the Nihon Doga label was Seo’s The instructed to make animated films satirising

© Nihon Doga
King’s Tail. A funny-animal version of The Emperor’s New Clothes featuring a tail-less fox Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government.
king, this is one of the earliest examples of Japanese anthropomorphized animals shown The puppet-animated The Emperor’s Dream
as humans, but with animal ears and tail. It was started in January 1948 with the goal was directed by Chen Bo-er (b. 1907) and
of being a 46-minute featurette, and was released in October 1949. Despite having a animated by Fang Ming that year, and the cartoon-animated The Turtle Caught in the
running time of only 33 minutes, it was still a beautifully elaborate musical production. It Jar was directed and animated by Fang Ming the next year.
was suppressed by the authorities, however, on the charge that its ridiculing of authority
made it Communist propaganda. Seo abandoned animation to become an author and
© Nihon Doga
Tadahito Mochinaga
illustrator of children’s books. Fang Ming was actually the Chinese name of Tadahito Mochinaga, Mitsuyo Seo’s former
Toro-chan and the Bride assistant. He was born in Tokyo but had spent his youth in Manchuria where his father
Seeds Are Sown This short film was the work of Sanae Yamamoto and Kenzo worked. Due to the increasing bombing of Japan in 1945, Mochinaga returned in June to
Nihon Doga was an important start. Taiji Yabushita (1903–86), who would become Masaoka after they had set up their new studio, Nihon Doga, Changchun in the puppet-nation of Manchuko to join the art department of the
Japan’s first major theatrical animation director in the 1950s, began as a Nihon Doga in 1948. Manchuria Film Studio. The studio’s Manchurian employees were treated as peons by
animator in 1947. He finished his first film (with Masao Nogawa), The Animals’ Great the Japanese staff, and Mochinaga started a movement to demand that they all be
Baseball War, in December 1949. Key animator Yasuji Mori (1925–92) began his career The King’s Tail treated equally. This won him the friendship of the Chinese, and when most of the
working on Tora-chan and the Bride. But despite the effort to improve production through Made by Mitsuyo Seo between 1948–49, this was an ambitious Japanese were pressured to return to Japan after the war’s end, Mochinaga was asked to
the co-ordination of an animation studio, Japanese animated shorts continued to be project that consisted of more than 100,000 drawings. Initially it remain at the renamed Tong Pei (Northeast) studio. As Fang Ming, Mochinaga became
primarily individual, hobbyist projects – or to look as though they were. This was due both was banned from release due to it being a supposed piece of an enthusiast of Chinese-style puppet animation. After the Communist government
to lack of production facilities and to many of the established animators continuing to Communist propaganda. won control over all mainland China in 1949, the cultural division assigned Te Wei (b.
make films in the manner to which they had become accustomed – notably Ofuji and 1915), a print cartoonist from Shanghai, and Fang Ming to produce educational and

© Shin Nihon Doga Sha

Arai with their distinctive languorous silhouette styles, as seen in Ofuji’s 1947 A Snowy The Magic Crayon morally uplifting animation for China’s youth.
Night’s Dream. As a result, late-1940s Japanese animation looked like 1930s black-and- One of the first films from the New Japan Animation Company Animation also began a shaky rebirth in Hong Kong with Tan Xin Feng’s
white animation. They now had to compete with the American full-color, fully-animated after the war, this was made despite a severe lack of resources. 1948 puppet-animation Prince of the Big Tree, now lost.

Animation for the War Effort » 112 Japanese Commercial Animation » 174
 VI

1950–55:

CARTOONS MATURE
United Productions of America (UPA) challenged Disney’s long-held animation philosophies.
With imaginative use of limited animation, modern graphics and new ideas, this small studio
gained worldwide influence over the way people perceived and produced animated films.
UPA made popular modern fables, with contemporary characters, pushing the
envelope artistically and creatively. And they won three Academy Awards. But Hollywood
itself was undergoing a change. Widescreen CinemaScope and 3D movies were in vogue –
and animation had to stretch to stay apace. At the same time, traditional animation found
its greatest success. Chuck Jones made his Daffy Duck masterpieces – Duck Dodgers, Duck
Amuck and The Scarlet Pumpernickle – and Disney returned to making feature-length fairy
tales, including Cinderella and Peter Pan.
Disney may have had the feature-film arena to himself in the US, but in
Europe new film-makers decided to compete vigorously, with ambitious productions of
Animal Farm (Great Britain), Mr Wonderbird (France), and The Snow Queen (Russia).
Animation had found its place, and was now evolving in new directions.

Picture above: Mr Magoo © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures Pictures clockwise from top left: 1001 Arabian Nights © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures; Le Bergére et la Ramoneur © Les Geméaux; Alice © The Walt Disney Company; Roi et l'Oiseau © Jacques Prévert/Paul Grimault; Christopher Crumpet's Playmate
© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures; Bully for Bugs © Warner Bros.; Hotsy Footsy © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures. Centre picture: Mr Magoo © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures
146 UNITED PRODUCTIONS OF AMERICA 147
N O R T H A M E R I C A : U PA

N O R T H A M E R I C A : U PA
It is often implied that United Productions of America (UPA) was born out of the Disney
Studio strike of 1941. That event probably had something to do with bonding the
original members of UPA together in some sort of alliance, but the studio would not
actually come into its own until after World War Two, and the driving force would not
be a strike, but a vision of animation as a modern-art form.

© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures

First Successes
Initially, Steve Bosustow, Zack Schwartz, Dave Hilberman, John McLeish, Ted Parmelee,
Phil Eastman, and especially John Hubley, formed a company called United Film
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
Productions and found work in the burgeoning wartime animation industry. After
© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures
making several films for the government, they teamed up with Warner Bros. director
Chuck Jones and produced a film for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 re-election Christopher Crumpet’s Playmate Mr Magoo – Hotsy Footsy make an artistic statement, this initial Magoo short and other UPA productions of the era
campaign, Hell Bent for Election. It was an immediate hit and brought a lot of attention This 1953 short demonstrates other aspects of limited UPA’s limited animation style was characterized by flattened stood in sharp contrast to the efforts of other animation studios, particularly Disney, for
to the small studio, now re-named United Productions of America. UPA continued to do animation: distorted perspectives; only the essential elements of perspective, abstract backgrounds and strong primary colors. increasingly heavily articulated realism.
government work, and also produced the first film that would feature the flat, graphic the scene being present; and outlined, transparent characters. Instead of filling in backgrounds with lifelike detail, broad fields of

style that would become the studio’s hallmark. The Brotherhood of Man (1945) was This simplified, stylized style of animation influenced the color were used, with small squiggles to suggest clouds and trees. Limited Animation Style
produced for the United Auto Workers to help prepare the southern states for union advertising industry and also the newborn medium of television. Rather than vary the shades and hues of colors as in the natural UPA’s approach to limited animation relied on graphic technique, color and stylized
organization that would include racial integration. It was another success and was widely world, UPA’s cartoons used bold, bright, saturated colors. motion to caricature the world rather than imitate it. Animation was structured into
distributed beyond union meetings and community halls because of its message of recognizable, often repeated action, with heavy emphasis placed on clear, diagrammatic
tolerance and equality. design and voice performance – Magoo’s success was in no small part also due to the

© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures

brilliant, ad-libbed vocals of Jim Backus. To this day, no one else seems to be able to
Hollywood Under Scrutiny capture the befuddled, ornery confidence of his performances. The designers at UPA
World War Two ended, and the Cold War began. The FBI turned their suspicious used this bold graphic style to its best advantage, furthering the vision best expressed by
attention to Hollywood. The UPA crew was ripe for this kind of scrutiny. Many had, after John Hubley of animation as an art form. In many ways, the artists at UPA proved
all, been instrumental in union activities and were not at all shy about their left-of-center architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous adage that "less is more".
politics. No one at UPA was charged with anything, but as the Red Scare escalated, UPA’s
government projects dried up.

Mr Magoo Arrives on the Scene

The studio began to look for theatrical work to keep busy. It was at precisely this time that
Columbia was searching for a new group to replace its moribund Screen Gems animation
division. Bosustow, who had become UPA’s executive producer, worked out a contract
and the studio completed a couple of films featuring Columbia’s Fox and Crow characters.

© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures

They also had in mind a new character and produced a short, Ragtime Bear (1949), to Mr Magoo – sketches and cel Unicorn and Fudget’s Budget
introduce him to the public. His name was Mr Magoo, and he and his first cartoon were The creation of Quincy Magoo was inspired by a number of real- UPA’s highly stylized look is

an immediate hit. life people: the director, John Hubley’s bullheaded uncle; screen exemplified in these two shorts,

Ragtime Bear was an eye-opener for the animation industry. Daring to comedian W. C. Fields; and Jim Backus used observations of his Unicorn in the Garden (1953) and

use bold graphics and limited animation techniques, not to save money but rather to father when devising the voice. Fudget’s Budget (1954) short.

Fox and Crow » 98 UPA is Formed » 122 Hanna-Barbera » 180 John Hubley » 214
148 UPA: THE MAGOO YEARS 149
N O R T H A M E R I C A : U PA

N O R T H A M E R I C A : U PA
In the early 1950s, UPA’s style, a departure from the traditional realistic design Gerald McBoing-Boing momentum going, and the studio did manage to
approach, was so influential that nearly all of the other studios began to move in this Gerald McBoing-Boing saw UPA make further of use non- continue making some terrific films. However, a failed
direction. Warner Bros. began to stylize their backgrounds, which was problematic in realistic animation. They won an Oscar for it, and it provided the first feature, 1001 Arabian Nights (1959), diminishing
the early stages because their established characters did not particularly match. impetus for limited animation to be accepted at the major budgets and attrition in the creative ranks took a heavy
Nevertheless, films like Freleng’s Pizzicato Pussycat (1955) and Three Little Bops Hollywood cartoon studios, including Warner Bros. and MGM. toll. Soon, Steve Bosustow was the only one left of the
(1957), and Chuck Jones’s two Ralph Philips shorts, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954) and original crew. He sold UPA to Henry Saperstein in 1960.
Boyhood Daze (1957), began to reflect the new look. This continued until the The Tell Tale Heart – producer and director
studio closed. Based on an Edgar Allan Poe story,this limited animation Moving to TV
cartoon relied more upon suspension Saperstein wanted to expand the studio’s product base
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
New Faces of belief than on realistic depiction and began focusing on television. UPA had done one
Terrytoons’ lackluster product went completely UPA with their designs for of events, and the animators used television project, The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show
new characters like Flebus, designed by Ernest Pintof,f fresh from a stint at artistic styles that were not bound to (1956–58), which was not a success. But now limited
UPA, and Clint Clobber and Sidney the Elephant, created by Gene Deitch the limitations of the real world to animation, the studio’s stylistic calling card, was used to
(b. 1924), also from UPA. Deitch’s most important contribution was the achieve this goal. Pictured are producer cut costs rather than as a tool for artistic expression.
wonderfully inspired television series Tom Terrific (1957–59). Even Disney Steve Bosustow (left) Under Saperstein, two Mr Magoo television series were
got on board with such stylized special projects as Melody (1953), the Oscar- and director Ted Parmelee. produced, as well as a Dick Tracy show, but they all
winning Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) and Pigs Is Pigs (1954). suffered either from artistic or creative shortcomings. The
one bright spot was the pilot for the otherwise offbeat
Award Winning © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures
The Famous Adventures of Mr Magoo.
The Magoo series won two Academy Awards: When Magoo Flew (1954) and Mr Magoo’s Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962) was a
Puddle Jumper (1956). Magoo’s success paved the way for other progressive cartoons, 1001 Arabian Nights wonderful project in all aspects. A musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens tale with
notably Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951). The first McBoing-Boing film, based on a story by © UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures
This was UPA’s first full-length feature, and during production songs by Jule Stein, this episode remains a classic piece of work. The rest of the series was
Theodore Geisel (Dr Seuss), about a boy who can speak only in sound effects, also went on Magoo’s chief animator, Pete Burness, left the studio. Although forgettable at best – as was almost everything else produced by UPA during this period.
to win an Oscar. The studio did not just rely solely on these popular characters, the final result lacked the charm of the Magoo shorts, the design A final feature, Gay Purr-ee, released by Warner Bros. in 1962, stumbled at the box office
however. One-off films such as John Hubley’s Rooty Toot Toot (1952), a and color were very stylized, reflecting the studio’s influential and, to all intents and purposes, was the death knell for UPA as an animation studio.
stylized retelling of the Frankie and Johnnie blues saga; Edgar Allan Poe’s animation techniques.

psychological thriller The Tell Tale Heart (1953); and the delightful James Heyday Is Over
Thurber-inspired Unicorn in the Garden (1953) all added to the studio’s UPA still existed as an entity, and later Saperstein contracted with DePatie-Freleng for
reputation as an influential trendsetter and a force to be reckoned with. additional Magoo television properties. It also became the distribution arm for a
Mr Magoo number of Japan’s Toho Studios "giant
Troubled Times In Magoo’s earliest cartoons, monster" films, including many Godzilla
In 1952, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, UPA he is like a grizzled, old man; titles. UPA still holds the rights to its library of
again became a target. This time John Hubley, perhaps the major creative by 1952 his appearance animated films and characters, but the days

© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures

© UPA Productions/Columbia Pictures

force at the studio, was blacklisted. Along with Phil Eastman, Hubley left to had become rounder and of the original studio vision and the
avoid bringing unwanted governmental scrutiny onto the studio. With cuter; in 1954 he was unbridled, idealistic creativity that UPA
Hubley went a good deal of the vision the studio needed to maintain their stubbier and shorter; and by happily brought to the public and the
originality. Other members of the crew, such as Bill Scott, Bobe Cannon, Abe 1955 he had become what animation industry, while still influential, are
Levitow, Jules Engel, Bill Melendez and Bill Hurtz, tried to keep the he is like today. long gone.

Widescreen and 3D » 154 John Hubley » 214 DePatie-Freleng » 208

150 DISNEY RETURNS TO FEATURES 151
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

When Disney released Bambi in 1942, few would have guessed that it would be the shot a bare-bones live-action version of the movie. The animators,
studio’s last true feature-length cartoon for eight years. But the demands of World War including Marc Davis (1913–2000), Milt Kahl (1909–87) and Eric
Two – and then post-war economic doldrums – prevented the company from tackling Larson (1905–88), who were responsible for Cinderella, used photostats
another one. The drought was finally broken by Cinderella in 1950, followed quickly by of this footage to help plan their drawings. That shortcut led to work that
Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). sometimes felt stagier and less soulful than earlier Disney animation
At The Ball had, but the technique was repeated for Alice and Peter Pan.
The Nine Old Men Disney was determined that Cinderella would be a success, and

But much had changed since the Snow White era. The Disney-trained artists who would was involved in all aspects of its creation, attending story True Cartoon Moments
be known as "The Nine Old Men" were starting to dominate animation; star animators of meetings and commenting on how to improve small details that Ward Kimball (1914–2002) was fortunate enough to get a truly
the earlier features were gone from the studio (Art Babbitt, Bill Tytla) or relegated to lesser would add polish to the film. animated assignment: the chase scenes involving Cinderella’s mouse
contributions (Norm Ferguson, Fred Moore). And Walt friends, Gus and Jacques, and the greedy cat Lucifer. While these
V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E

V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
Disney himself was increasingly preoccupied with other sequences were hardly central to the story, they were some of the most
pursuits, from live-action movie-making to the creation confident visual comedy in any Disney feature. Michael Barrier has
of Disneyland. described them as being "like brilliant short cartoons inserted into this
The conservative products of a live-action film".
conservative time, Cinderella, Alice and Peter – all of Early Disney soundtracks relied on a mix of character
which were directed by Clyde Geronimi (1901–89), actors, newcomers and homegrown talent. Cinderella was dominated by
Wilfred Jackson (1906–88) and Hamilton Luske radio veterans, including Ilene Woods (b. 1929) as Cinderella, Eleanor
(1903–68) – do not rival the innovation and depth of Audley (1905–91) as the stepmother, Verna Felton (1890–1966) as the
the early features. But to give these movies their due, fairy godmother and Luis Van Rooten (1906–73) as both the king and
they are polished, tuneful entertainments that remain the grand duke. The songs, by Mack David, Jerry Livingston and
popular five decades later. Al Hoffman, included such Disney standards-to-be as "A Dream Is a Wish
© The Walt Disney Company
Your Heart Makes" and the Oscar-nominated "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo".
Return of the Princess Cinderella Critics and film-goers in 1950 seemed content to embrace Cinderella for
Each of Disney’s first five animated features was Because of the cost of animating a feature-length cartoon, what it was: an entertaining return to pleasantly familiar Disney territory. On those terms,
distinctly different in story, setting and approach. The Disney wanted to ensure that all of the scenes that involved it still holds its own today.
sixth, Cinderella, intentionally returned to Snow White’s humans would work, before they were transferred to cel so live

world of fairy-tale princesses and storybook endings. actors were photographed performing some of the key scenes.

Disney had seen animation potential in Charles Some of this footage was traced – the animators were not so

Perrault’s 1697 tale of the servant girl and the glass keen on this process, as they felt it detracted from their ability to

slipper as early as 1922, when he adapted the story develop characters.

into his final Laugh-O-Gram short.

By the late 1930s, inspirational artist Gus and Jacques
Bianca Majolie was doing early sketches for a Cinderella Rather than be incidental to the action, as in other Disney

© The Walt Disney Company

© The Walt Disney Company

feature. When Disney resumed feature production in features, the animals played key roles. Supervising animator

1947, the story was the first to enter production, Ward Kimball was largely responsible for the creation of the two

apparently at Roy Disney’s behest, as Walt preferred main mice, Jacques and Gus, and it is rumored that Lucifer (the

Alice in Wonderland. Still strapped for cash, the studio cat) was modeled on his pet.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs » 58 Alice and Peter Pan » 152 The New Disney » 276
152 ALICE & PETER PAN 153
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

Deeply original and quirky, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) Alice novel Peter and Wendy in 1911. In 1939 Disney obtained film rights to the tale of the
seems to defy satisfying adaptation. But that has never stopped movie-makers from Disney always had a strong interest in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. boy who would not grow up. On the stage, Peter is typically played by a woman and
trying. At least half-a-dozen film versions preceded the Disney film; Walt Disney’s first Sir John Tenniel’s original illustraions were freely adapted by Tinker Bell is portrayed by a silent beam of light; the audience is encouraged to revive
nod to the British classic had come in 1923 with Alice’s Wonderland, the first of his Disney’s animation team, Months of rough sketches preceded Tink by applauding during the play’s climax. Disney abandoned most of these customs.
Alice Comedies about a real girl in an animated world. the final model sheets. For instance, he found his Peter Pan in studio child star Bobby Driscoll (1937–68), whose
most recent role had been Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island (1950).
Disney’s Brave New World Tinker Bell became a tiny, but shapely, humanized character. She
Sporadic work on Disney’s Alice feature began as early as 1939–40, when British remained speechless, but Marc Davis’s superlative animation made the petulant fairy an
illustrator David Hall (1905–64) turned out approximately 400 striking, inspirational endlessly expressive character. Disney cast Hans Conried (1917–82) as both Captain
drawings. Then in 1945, Disney hired Brave New World author Aldous Huxley Hook and the Darling children’s father, following another stage tradition.
(1894–1963) to work on a story for a live-action/animated version.
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
© The Walt Disney Company
When the film finally arrived in 1951 – drawing material from both Alice Bringing Peter to Life
and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass – it owed little to Hall’s or Huxley’s visions. In many other ways, the studio put its own imprint on the story. Kathryn Beaumont,
It also bore scant resemblance to John Tenniel’s original illustrations. Rather, it was who had played Alice, returned as the prim but courageous Wendy, and her brother John
dominated by the brashly American, unapologetically cartoony style of animator Ward was voiced by British actor Paul Collins. But most major vocal characterizations were
Kimball’s work. In fact, Kimball was responsible for some of the most memorable American, although Conried’s foppish Hook at least sounded British, more or less.
moments: the Mad Tea Party scene and the appearances of the Cheshire Cat and Hook’s genially dim-witted sidekick Mr Smee sounded like Tex Avery’s
Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Also influential was designer Mary Blair (1911–78), Droopy – perhaps because he was voiced by the same actor, Bill Thompson (1913–71).
whose love of vivid colors and flat shapes helped determine the film’s look. Conried and Thompson gave bravura comic performances, and the accompanying
animation, by artists such as Frank Thomas and Wolfgang Reitherman (Hook) and
Disney Down the Rabbit Hole Oliver Johnston (Smee) was highly refined slapstick. Some of the Smee footage was by
Like most adapters of Alice, Disney gave in to the temptation to cast well-known one-time Disney great Fred Moore, in one of his final assignments; he died aged 41 after
performers: radio comedians Ed Wynn (1886–1966) and Jerry Colonna an accident in November 1952, less than three months before Pan’s release.

© The Walt Disney Company

(1904–86) played the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. Alice herself was a
British girl, Kathryn Beaumont (b. 1938); she promoted the film by appearing Comedy Genius
in One Hour in Wonderland, the first Disney TV special in the 1950s. The heavy dose of pratfall comedy had a profound effect. Unlike earlier Disney villains
Ultimately, Disney’s Alice retained Carroll’s episodic structure but such as Snow White’s Queen or Pinocchio’s Stromboli, Hook is hard to take seriously as a
little of his verbal ingenuity. The movie compensated to some degree with its Peter Pan threat. That and other elements of the
own visual inventiveness, but offered almost no depth of character or story. As in previous animated Disney films, actors performed the whole film – flirty mermaids, wacky Indians,
Neither the press nor movie-goers gave it a warm welcome, and even production in live-action so that the animators could capture their cheery songs – made this movie into a
Disney’s own artists seemed eager to disown it: "Alice herself gave us nothing actions, movements, poses and facial expressions on paper. The light-hearted, somewhat superficial
to work with," complained Marc Davis, quoted in Bob Thomas’s Disney’s Art of actors used props and were properly dressed in costumes. romp. But what a well-executed romp
Animation (1991). Only upon re-release, to theatres and on video, has Alice’s it is. When Peter, Tinker Bell and the
reputation modestly improved. Wendy and Tinker Bell Darling children soar over Edwardian

© The Walt Disney Company

In the original play, Tinker Bell was never shown except as a London to Sammy Cahn and Sammy
Peter Pan projected beam of light. Marc Davis created the feminine pixie Fain’s "You Can Fly, You Can Fly", Peter
Unique among Disney animated features, Peter Pan was based on a play: the seen in the Disney version, her shapely form originating from the Pan is post-war Disney animation at
1904 British classic by J.M. Barrie (1860–1937), which Barrie turned into the "pin-up girls" of World War Two. its best.

The Alice Comedies » 20 The Little Mermaid » 276

154 WIDESCREEN & 3D 155
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
One thing television could not offer home viewers of the early 1950s was a gigantic, 3D Animation Pioneers
panoramic visual experience. Thus, out of competition for audiences, was born Much has been made in recent years of "3D animation".
Cinemascope. Although the theater owners, and audiences, may have loved the in which the term has incorrectly been used to describe
new widescreen format, it did present some new challenges to animated computer-generated (CG) animation, which aims for a

© The Walt Disney Company

film producers. naturalistic dimensional representation of images. But
"real 3D" animated films go back to the very first
Cinemascope presentation to mass audiences of a film using polarizing
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Gene Deitch was hired as the creative head of 3D glasses (the colorless lenses – not the inferior red and
Terrytoons when the Columbia Broadcasting green lenses). The ground-breaking film was called
System bought the venerable animation Motor Rhythm (1939). It featured stop-motion
studio in 1957. "We had a release animation with a synchronized score and was shown at
schedule of 12 animated films the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It may have helped
a year – all to be made in inspire the 1950s 3D craze; four short 3D films, two of

© Famous Studios/Paramount
Cinemascope," Deitch said. them animated, were produced for the Festival of Britain
"Now ‘Cinemascope’ sounds in 1951. When the subsequent Hollywood-made 3D
great, but for animation feature Bwana Devil opened to a big box office in late
production it was terrible! And our Lady and the Tramp 1952, the movie business went mad for 3D.
films had to be widescreen because It took over four years and 200,000 individual drawings to create

© The Walt Disney Company

our distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, owned this feature. Cinemascope, with its superior storytelling potential Popeye Crazy for It
Cinemascope." One problem that he found artistically vexing was the inability to use and dramatic widescreen effects, sometimes quadrupled the The Ace of Space was the only 3D Popeye From early 1953 through the first six months or so of 1954, American audiences could
camera tilts. "Think of it. You tilt the camera just a little in Cinemascope and you start to work on each scene and increased the overall expense by about cartoon that was made, and was dubbed go to their neighborhood theaters, don a pair of glasses with polarizing lenses and watch
see the edge of the paper." Another creative limitation was brought on by the fact that 30 per cent. "a stereotoon". Casper the Ghost, Woody their favorite stars in what actually appeared to be three dimensions.
CBS, being the owners of a major American television network, Woodpecker and Bugs Bunny also Audiences enjoying watching Edward G. Robinson and John Forsythe vie
naturally wanted their cartoons designed for ultimate broadcast use. appeared in 3D during this era. for the attentions of Kathleen Hughes in Universal’s 3D feature The Glass Web (1953)
"So all the main action had to occur in the middle section of the might also discover Woody Woodpecker and Buzz Buzzard cavorting on skyscrapers in
screen," recalls Deitch. Despite the obstacles, Deitch managed to do an Hypnotic Hick (1953). Crowds flocking to see comedy team Dean Martin and Jerry
impressive job of Cinemascope layout and design on films such as Toot, Whistle, Lewis tangle with Pat Crowley and Richard Haydn in Paramount’s 3D flick Money from
The Juggler of Our Lady (1957), based on the R. O. Blechman book. Plunk and Boom Home (1953) might also encounter a friendly ghost named Casper starring in the outer
Walt Disney Productions faced the aspect ratio problem Pictured is a character from space 3D cartoon Boo Moon (1954) or the spinach-eating sailor in Popeye, The Ace of
by shooting their first Cinemascope feature, Lady and the Tramp this Oscar-winning short. Space (1953). The RKO 3D release Dangerous Mission (1954), starring Victor Mature,
(1955), twice; once for Cinemascope, and once, with altered layouts, Piper Laurie and Vincent Price might also offer its audience the Walt Disney 3D short
for standard screen dimensions. The studio’s Donald Duck visited a Working for Peanuts (1953), featuring the somewhat less intense trio of Donald Duck
widescreen Grand Canyon in 1954’s Grand Canyonscope (wherein and Chip and Dale.
Ranger Woodlore advises a crowd to "Spread out, folks. This is Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom But the 3D craze ran its course. An occasional animated 3D cartoon may

© The Walt Disney Company

Cinemascope!"), while the Disney Oscar-winning short Toot, Whistle, This was Disney’s first cartoon filmed in Cinemascope. This new be announced nowadays, but the films, few and far between, are usually made for
Plunk and Boom remains a tour de force in Cinemascope design. Not technique allowed the characters to move about in a larger specialized venues. The 2003 feature Spy Kids 3D featured up-to-date computer
to be outdone, MGM provided its stars Tom and Jerry, Spike and Tyke proscenium, and gave the animators more opportunity for animation, but used the inferior red and green lenses. However, for one shining moment
and Droopy with widescreen backdrops for nearly 30 cartoons. visual development. in the 1950s, all Hollywood – and Cartoonland – was in 3D.

Rotoscope » 38 UPA » 148 Tron » 268 Popeye » 62

156 CHUCK JONES IN HIS PRIME 157
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Charles M. "Chuck" Jones grew up in a family where attention to literature and a Bully for Bugs expression. Two cartoons from 1944, Tom
freewheeling appreciation for any kind of creative expression were evident. While Chuck Jones employed slapstick comedy and timing to an ever- Turk and Daffy and Bugs Bunny and the
Jones’s mother probably had more impact on his artistic sensibilities, it was, in fact, his precise degree in his animation. His experiments, at first Three Bears are good examples of this
father who pulled him out of high school in his junior year and sent him to Chouinard unpopular with management, later became legendary. Bully for developing style.
Art Institute (now CalArts), to avail himself of a "marketable skill". Bugs was created immediately after he had been forbidden to Soon Jones would add more
make a cartoon about bullfighting. characters to the Warner stable. In 1945, he
From the Bottom to the Top unleashed Pepé le Pew, a skunk with an
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During the Great Depression, Jones managed to find work at a string of animation Pepé le Pew insatiable romantic streak in Odor-able Kitty.
studios, starting at the bottom and working his way up to assistant animator by the time Pepé le Pew was a malodorous, amorous skunk, whose object of He paired Hubie and Bertie and the neurotic
he had signed with the Schlesinger unit in 1936. There he watched and learned from the affection was Penelope the cat. Pepé is said to be a parody of Claude Cat in Mouse Wreckers in 1948, and

© Warner Bros.
most creative animation directors of the era: Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin Pepé le Moko, the character played by the legendary actor Bugs went in for opera in Long Haired Hare in
and Friz Freleng. In 1938, Chuck was assigned to direct his first cartoon, Charles Boyer in the 1937 movie Algiers. 1949. That was the same year that Jones and
The Night Watchman. his longtime writer Michael Maltese came up
Jones’ early films were mostly sentimental, with Fast and Furry-ous, the first in an ever-escalating series of hysterically plotted
rather "Disneyfied" creations: nicely animated, but with commentaries on the nature of fanaticism, featuring the hapless Wile E. Coyote and his
little of the snap or wit that would become his trademark. nemesis, Roadrunner.
Films like The Curious Puppy (1939), Bedtime for Sniffles
(1940) or The Brave Little Bat (1941) were always clever, Golden Era
but rarely seemed spontaneous or much different from The 1950s were undoubtedly the banner years for Jones. His characters were fully
what many other animation directors were doing. Then, realized, his humor was fearless and his team had worked so long and well together that
in 1942, he directed the almost experimental The Dover they could very nearly finish each other’s sentences. These were the years of The Scarlet
Boys. Jones admitted that this film, with its lively blend of Pumpernickel (1950), The Rabbit of Seville (1950), Rabbit Seasoning (1952), the nearly
animation and satiric style, became a benchmark for perfect cartoon about cartoons Duck Amuck (1953), and perhaps Jones’s crowning
him – a departure from his storytelling approach, both achievement of the era, What’s Opera, Doc? (1957).
© Warner Bros.
graphically and narratively. It is possible that Jones’s There were many other wonderful films of the period. Jones would be
raucous work on the Private Snafu series (1942–45), Duck Dodgers nominated for three Academy Awards – The High Note in 1960, Beep Prepared a year
made for the army during World War Two, may have had Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century was a spoof of the later and Now Hear This in 1963. He won an Oscar in 1965 for The Dot and the Line,

© Warner Bros.
some effect on his style as well. popular Buck Rogers in the 25th Century AD pulp fiction. ironically not for Warner Bros., but for MGM. Jones would also become successful in
The cartoon includes highly stylized backgrounds, one of making animated films for television, especially his adaptation of Dr Seuss’s How the
Developing Personalities creator Jones’s and creator Maurice Noble’s trademarks. Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) and a terrific series of Rudyard Kipling stories. But is was
Jones had worked with the Warner Bros. stock characters – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, those years from the mid-1940s through to
Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd – from the start, but now he was beginning to codify their the late-1950s that seemed to be the real
personalities, bringing them into sharp relief and contrasting one against the other. Their golden age for Chuck Jones: a time for fully
personalities began to run deeper than just a wise guy, hyperactive wacko or comic foil. One Froggy Evening realized characters in ideally told tales so
Over the next few years, we would come to recognize in Jones’s cartoons a deeper Only one six-minute cartoon was ever made featuring Michigan brief and ingenious in their structure it could
psychology and motivation for all of these personalities, except perhaps for Elmer, who J. Frog. The cartoon, complete with spectacular song-and-dance take the breath away, and yet so

© Warner Bros.
remained a doofus throughout. The cartoons became more brisk and willing to let the routines, was written by Michael Maltese, and the frog went on to disarmingly simple that even adults could
audience draw its own inferences from an increasingly clever emphasis on character and become Warner Bros. TV network’s official logo in the 1990s. understand them.

Avery. Jones and Clampett » 86 Freleng and Tashlin » 88 Private Snafu » 88 Pepé le Pew » 124
158 RAY HARRYHAUSEN 159
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In any career there is usually one major defining moment. For Ray Harryhausen The Golden Voyage of Sinbad Forging His Style
(b. 1920), it came at the impressionable age of 13 when he walked into Grauman’s This is the second film in the SInbad trilogy from 1974. Returning from the war with a load of discarded 16 mm Kodachrome film, Harryhausen
Chinese Theater in Hollywood to see some "ape picture" he knew little about. That The others were The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and began producing a series of fairy tales for children. Combining his own style with what he
movie was the 1933 smash-hit King Kong and it would set Harryhausen on the path Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977). learned from working with Pal, he animated the fables using articulated models with a
to becoming the "father of modern visual effects". series of replaceable heads. The last of the shorts, The Tortoise and the Hare, had just
gone into production when he was called by O’Brien to serve as lead animator on the
Monster Influence 1949 feature Mighty Joe Young. The opportunity would lead to a long and lucrative
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If Harryhausen is the patriarch of stop- career creating awe-inspiring visual effects for such indelible classics as The Beast From
motion-effects animation, then the title of 20,000 Fathoms (1953), It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955), 20 Million Miles to
grandfather most certainly goes to Willis Earth (1957), The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
O’Brien, the man who breathed life into the and The Valley of Gwangi (1969).
great Kong and the other prehistoric While Mighty Joe Young was another giant ape picture produced to
inhabitants of Skull Island. Years earlier, capitalize on the popularity of King Kong, the differences in the animation are striking.
O’Brien had astonished audiences with the Harryhausen was already showing that he was improving the art form O’Brien
dinosaur animation he performed for the originated. While O’Brien masterfully infused Kong with personality, he often applied
1925 screen adaptation of Sir Arthur broad strokes in his increments, which lent a degree of jerkiness to the animation and
Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912). But made the great ape move a bit too fast on-screen. Harryhausen handled Joe with more
© Warner Bros.
it was King Kong that fueled young subtlety, and slowed the animation down to convey a sense of scale and help make the
Harryhausen’s insatiable thirst for small model appear huge to audiences.
knowledge about the process that allowed The Valley of Gwangi – sketch
human actors to share the screen with Before starting work on a film, Harryhausen would draw in Dynamation

© Warner Bros.
towering monsters from another time. charcoal the most exciting scenes he wanted to do. From the Harryhausen’s signature innovation is something he dubbed "Dynamation". The process
drawings came 300 to 400 pen-and-ink sketches used to flesh involved elaborate setups that sandwiched the stop-motion animation models between
Early Lessons out the sequences, so as to clarify the action during filming. glass matte paintings or optically matted foreground elements
Harryhausen was lucky to have parents who not only encouraged his creative pursuits, but The Valley of Gwangi and rear-screen-projected background plates. The effect
also contributed to his projects. His father was a machinist and constructed the metal ball- Gwangi was a pet project of Harryhausen’s since the 1940s. produced more convincing composites as giant monsters
and-socket armatures for his puppets, while his mother sewed the costumes. She even let His Dynamation technique allowed a stop-motion model to be rampaged through city streets and humans battled sword-
Ray cut up her fur coat to cover his first stop-motion model, a man-eating cave bear. animated directly in front of a screen showing live-action footage wielding skeletons.
Throughout his high-school years, Harryhausen continued to experiment, and he was with human actors. Having witnessed the birth of a new era in special
eventually granted the opportunity to show some of his puppets to his idol, O’Brien. O’Brien effects with the arrival of Star Wars (1977), Harryhausen put his
was impressed, but told the budding animator that his stegosaurus’s legs looked like surface gauges away after finishing the 1981 Clash of the Titans.
sausages and suggested he take anatomy and art courses. This advice would prove He briefly came out of retirement in 2002 to help animators Mark
invaluable to Harryhausen and his ability to push the lifelike qualities of his creations. Caballero and Seamus Walsh complete The Tortoise and the
At the age of 18, Harryhausen landed his first professional job, Hare, the short he had abandoned 50 years earlier. A year later
working on the Puppetoons shorts George Pal was producing for Paramount. His he received his long-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of
two-year tenure there ended when Pearl Harbor was bombed and he enlisted in the Fame, yet another testament to his enduring influence on the

© Warner Bros.
army, where his stop-motion training film How to Bridge a Gorge got him assigned to motion-picture industry and the impact his films will continue to
Colonel Frank Capra’s Special Service Division. have on generations of creature-feature fans.

George Pal and Puppetoons » 92 Jurassic Park » 306 Aardman Animation » 322 CGI Victorious » 338
160 NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA 161
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NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

With the Red Scare of the late 1940s, the Canadian government began cleaning its The Romance of Transportation in Canada Educating and
house of "Communist sympathizers" working within the public sector. Several artists Setting NFB’s trademark style, this Oscar-nominated short took a Entertaining
at the National Film Board (NFB) suspected of having ties to Communism were asked whimsical look at how Canadians solved the problem of covering With the arrival of British animator Gerald
to leave. Norman McLaren, a one-time member of the Communist Party, was spared. their country's vast distances with transport options from carts Potterton, the NFB strengthened its cartoon
In 1949, Jim McKay, head of the animation unit, wanted a change and left along with and horses to trains and planes. animation team. Trained on Halas and Batchelor’s
George Dunning to set up a commercial studio in Toronto. Colin Low, a man who Animal Farm (1954), Potterton’s first film at the
would later go on to be one of the creators of IMAX, was named department head. NFB was an instructional film (co-directed with
Grant Munro) for the Royal Canadian Air Force
titled Huff and Puff (1954). Potterton had a keen
understanding of cartoon timing – and would go
on to direct the master of comedic-timing Buster
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Keaton in The Railrodder (1965). One of his gifts
was to take didactic educational films and make
them entertaining and amusing. His second film
for the NFB, Fish Spoilage Control (1955), was the
film board’s second lip-sync cartoon and not only

© 1952 National Film Board of Canada

featured Potterton’s wit, but also a wonderful jazz
score by Eldon Rathburn.
The 1950s was also a rich period for
the NFB’s experimental filmmakers. As part of the
3D craze, Norman McLaren produced two 3D
films, Around Is Around (1951) and Now Is the
Early Successes Time (1951), for the British Film Institute’s Festival
The film board had begun moving beyond the more experimental of Britain. In 1952 McLaren created what many
techniques they had pioneered. Although there were a few earlier Huff and Puff consider his greatest work, Neighbours, which
attempts, Teamwork – Past and Present (1951) is considered the Co-directed by Gerald Potterton and Grant featured animators Grant Munro and Jean Paul
NFB’s first traditional cel-animated production. Their second cel- Munro, Huff and Puff was made for air force Ladouceur. This pixilated anti-war analogy not
animated film, The Romance of Transportation in Canada (1953), crews informing them of the dangers of only won an Academy Award for Best
not only set the template for the cartoony-style the NFB became hyperventilation in high altitudes, and gave Documentary Short Subject, but it is alleged that
known for, but was also nominated for an Academy Award. advice as to how to recover with after viewing the film, two tribes from Central
© 1952 National Film Board of Canada
Bob Verrall and Wolf Koenig, along with Low, were appropriate respiration. Africa decided to put an end to their long-standing
responsible for Teamwork and Romance of Transportation. strife – perhaps the film’s greatest achievement. In the late 1950s, McLaren returned to
They would be key film-makers in the NFB’s development not Neighbours pixilation with A Chair Tale (1957), co-directed with Claude Jutra, a film which has
only in animation, but also as documentarians, directing two In this film, a parable about two people who come to blows over influenced many music video directors, including Michael Gondry in his Beck video for
of the Film Board’s finest documentaries: City of Gold the possesion of a flower, Norman McLaren animated live actors, ‘Deadweight’ (1998).
(1957) and Lonely Boy (1961). Their immense influence changing their positions 24 times a second, using the same In April 1956, the National Film Board of Canada moved from its
is still felt at the NFB today. techniques employed in puppet animation. It won him one Oscar cramped, and at times dank, offices on John Street in Ottawa to a new facility in Montreal.
© 1955 National Film Board of Canada and a nomination for another in 1952. It was the start of a new era for the NFB.

NFB: The Beginnings » 100 Norman McLaren » 102 Animal Farm » 166 UPA » 146 Widescreen and 3D » 154
162 TELECOMICS 163
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Telecomics has to be considered all-American college football star who enlists in the Army Air Corps and is chosen to test
one of the first cartoon series the first US jet plane. He then blasts off to Mars with his brother Jackie as a stowaway in
produced for television. However, a rocket ship built by Professor Dinehart, an astronomer. The adventures have them
there was virtually no animation on engaged in a civil war on the red planet, pitted against a faction led by a deranged Earth
the show. It is just as its title scientist who had preceded them to Mars.
suggests: a series of comic-strip-
style drawings filmed sequentially, Colorful Characters
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with an occasional animated effect. Other Telecomics stars include Danny March and Kid Champion. Danny March was the
orphaned son of a Yale man who was raised by his uncle to be one of the toughest kids
Early Days in Metro City. Danny turned to detective work when he was unable to become a police
Telecomics, Inc. was first formed in officer because of his short stature. Building a reputation as a tenacious private eye, he is
1942 by a pair of Disney hired by the mayor as his personal detective to stop crime in Metro City.
animators, Dick Moores and Jack Telecomics sequence “Kid Champion” is the story of Eddie Hale, a musician who was urged by his
Boyd. In 1945 they filmed a pilot, The Telecomics series was filmed in black and white, and was former boxing-champ father to become a boxer. When Eddie mistakenly believes that he
“Case of the Missing Finger, Chapter one of the first cartoons made for TV. killed a gas-station attendant during a holdup, he teams up with a hard-luck fight manager,
4, The Belt of Doom” starring Peril Lucky Skinner; changes his identity
Pinkerton. This led to a syndicated to Kid Champion; and refuses to talk
15-minute television program in about his past to anyone.
1949, which consisted of four The humorous
three-minute stories. The original “Johnny & Mr Do-Right” followed

© NBC Comics
show contained “Brother Goose” by the exploits of a young boy and
Cal Howard; “Joey and Jug”, a clown his zany dog.
story by Arnold Gillespie; “Rick Rack One hundred and
Secret Agent”, by Miles Pike and Pete Burness; and “Sa-Lah”, an Arabian nights fantasy Danny March sixty-five episodes ran on NBC-TV
drawn by A. J. Metcalf. Jack Kirkwood, Lillien Leigh and Bill Grey provided the voice-over Pre-production sketches show sequential scenes in an episode of from 18 September 1950 until 30
narration. The syndicated series was distributed by Vallee Video (owned by singer Rudy “Danny March”, one of the segments on Telecomics. There was March 1951. Voices included
Vallee), but unfortunately these early broadcasts have been lost. very little animation on this series – mostly just narration and Robert C. Bruce, Pat McGeeham,
dialogue over static scenes like these. Howard McNear, Lurene Tuttle,
Made-for-TV Animation Tony Barret and Paul DeVall. The
The NBC network optioned the property in 1950, re-packaging the program and hiring individual adventures were not
cartoonists Moores and Boyd to produce it. The re-named NBC Comics now earned a titled, and after their network run,
place in history as the first made-for-TV network cartoon program. they again entered syndication as
The NBC show contained serialized adventures of a new group of adventure Telecomics. It left TV screens in the
comic stars. Episodes would begin with the opening of a comic book, the first page showing early 1960s, due mainly to the
a silhouette of the lead character and indicating it was either part one, part two or part three onslaught of the Hanna-Barbera-
of the day’s episodes. The page then was turned to show a full-screen character opening led color cartoons, and the fact

© NBC Comics
title. Each episode was approximately three-and-a-half minutes long. that the Telecomics had been
“Space Barton” was the most interesting of the lot. Horace "Space" Barton, Jr. is an filmed in black and white.

Crusader Rabbit » 132 Asterix » 224 Hanna-Barbera » 178

164 INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH ANIMATION 165
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Jam Handy
To meet demand, specialized industrial film studios developed
in major advertising and manufacturing centers. In Chicago,
Illinois, the Wilding Company was a major producer for clients
such as Chrysler. But the Jam Handy Organization in Detroit,
© Western Electric Company, Inc./Fleischer Studios Michigan, was one of the foremost producers of industrial films
in the United States. Jam Handy had an animation
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The value of film as an educational and propaganda tool was demonstrated during Finding His Voice – sequence department consisting of two divisions: technical and cartoon.
World War Two, when animation helped to motivate and unite in the common cause This 1929 short is this an excellent example of Fleischer's work, The technical division concentrated on animated diagrams
of victory. During the post-war years, this victorious spirit shifted to mainstream and gives a helpful overview of how sound on film works, a and working details of mechanisms. The cartoon division
America with the presence of information films known as "industrials". technology that remained basically the same until the advent of produced animated short subjects for theaters, road-show
multi-channel stereo on film in the early 1990s. conventions and department stores.
The Industrials A Coach for Cinderella (1938) was another Jam
With the dark days of the Depression and wartime rationing over, the Eisenhower Handy Technicolor cartoon produced for the promotion of the
administration suggested an exciting future with economic stimulation. Many new goods Finding His Voice 1939 Chevrolet that used both cartoon and technical
and services were for sale, and the most dynamic medium for selling was the industrial This film features Talkie, the talking filmstrip and his silent animation. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was produced by
film. Many of these films embraced the positive aspects of government, community and filmstrip friend, the latter of whom wants to know how he can get Max Fleischer in 1944.
consumerism. Animation in particular was applied to dress up all manner of subjects, from a voice. The pair go to Mr Western, who gives them the scientific

the virtues of drinking milk to the workings of consumer finance. background of how sound is produced. The Modern Era
With the outbreak of World War Two, Hollywood cartoon
Origins A Case of Spring Fever studios such as Disney, MGM and Warner Bros. produced various training and
Industrial animation evolved in the silent era along with the first theatrically produced Spring Fever is an early example of live-action being combined motivational films. But this was not enough. Specialized military units were created to
cartoons. Some of the earliest of these were used as insert sequences in demonstration with animation. Made by Jam Handy in 1940 for Chevrolet, it is maintain the security of classified information.
or "training” films produced to teach salesmen about the workings of electrical devices, the tale of Coily, an obnoxious sprite, who grants an exasperated The navy set up an animation unit in 1942 at the Naval Photographic
cream separators, tractors and automobiles. The Bray Studio was one of the earliest man his wish for all springs to disappear while he is encountering Center in Washington, D.C. and the army established an animation unit under the Signal
commercial animation studios to produce films for industry and the military. With the difficulty mending a sofa. Coily shows him what everyday life Corps in Culver City, California. Many credited animators of draft age were assigned to
outbreak of World War One, animation was used for the rapid training of troops in areas would be like without springs and emphasizes their importance these units, and their experience moved the mission forward with great efficiency, as
such as auto mechanics, firearms and contour map reading. in many mechanical objects, especially the Chevrolet car. they came in with the necessary training.
The 1920s saw established New York cartoon producers such as Max Wartime requirements demanded rapid production methods, with new
Fleischer producing scientific films that taught the theories of evolution and relativity using approaches emphasizing strong design and art direction called limited animation. One
animated diagrams and effects animation. Fleischer produced various industrial films for notable production was Hell Bent for Election, directed by Chuck Jones. The United Auto
Western Electric, such as That Little Big Fellow (1926) and Now You’re Talking (1927), as Workers commissioned this cleverly executed film for the re-election of Franklin

© Western Electric Company, Inc./Fleischer Studios

well as the sound demonstration film Finding His Voice (1929), which explained the D. Roosevelt with a "win the war" theme. But UPA’s navy film, Flat Hatting (1944),
sound recording and reproduction process for audio engineers and theater managers. became the benchmark for the next decade.
Into the 1930s, New York studios such as Fleischer, Terry and Van Beuren The post-war period saw some of the greatest advances through Gene
continued to produce commercial films for Texaco, Lysol and Borden’s Dairy. But these Deitch at Jam Handy. His UPA influence moved industrial animation into the modern era
were incidental productions for these studios since the majority of their work was geared with films like Wings for Roger Windsock (1947) and Building Friends for Business
toward theatrical entertainment. (1950) using sophisticated writing to motivate audiences.

Bray Studios » 16 Cartoons go to War » 90 Halas and Batchelor » 104 UPA » 146 TV Commercials » 184
166 CREATING ANIMAL FARM 167
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W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
George Orwell’s stark satire about a group of animals taking over the running of their farm Boxer enough to handle the job; other

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

was a best-seller in the mid-1940s. With an overlaying theme of the Russian Revolution, The animals’ reaction to their beloved Boxer’s fate is typical of this studios such as Larkins and
it is a somber fable of totalitarianism, humanitarianism, power and corruption. Napoleon, film: resigned stoicism rather than righteous anger. Halas and George Moreno’s were decidedly
the tyrannical pig, was likened to the despot Soviet leader Stalin; Snowball, his opposition Batchelor’s version of Orwell’s novel was not sentimental and was minor in comparison.
leader, was envisioned as a combination of Lenin and Trotsky (whom Stalin had killed); aimed at adults, rather than children. This was also a
and Old Major, who instigates the initial revolt, was similar to Karl Marx. new venture for Halas & Batchelor.
Animal Chorus Up to then, they had only been
Two Legs, Four Legs The animals, having been so badly treated by Famer Jones, join producing industrial, promotional and informational shorts for the Ministry of
The story concerns some ill-treated livestock who revolt due to their growing antagonism in a barnyard rebellion and run the farm themselves. At first all is Information, and they were by no means certain that they could produce something
toward the cruel Farmer Jones, overthrowing their oppressor and attempting to run the well, until some of the pigs begin to assume more of the power. that would carry as much dramatic impact as Orwell’s tale.
farm by themselves. They first set down some ground rules: "Whatever goes on two legs
is an enemy"; "Whatever goes on four legs is a friend"; "No animal shall wear clothes"; "No
animal shall sleep in a bed"; "No animal shall drink alcohol"; "No animal shall kill any
other”; and, above all, "All animals are equal".
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
The pigs, fronted by Old Major, soon have delusions of grandeur and oust
Major in favor of the Stalin-esque Napoleon. With the voice of reason out of the way, the
pigs move from the barn into the comfort of Jones’s farmhouse and live as the corrupt
© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

humans did before them. Napoleon trains a pair of vicious hounds to dispose of Snowball,
the rational pig, and continues to take over leadership, backed up by his henchmen, a pig John Halas and Joy Batchelor viewing sketches
named Squealer, and the two dogs. The other creatures are forced by the pigs to carry Before the husband and wife team began to make Animal Farm,

on slaving at their farm work and, when Boxer the cart horse is injured while building a Britain’s first animated feature, their creative team numbered 20;

windmill, Napoleon sells him for horse meat. With the pigs in power, the animal within a year of starting production on the film it had grown to 70.

commandments are all but worthless, although one condition is added to "All animals
are equal": "But some are more equal than others". Benjamin – sketch
The pigs are now no better than the humans and the other animals A pre-production sketch of Benjamin the donkey, who, together

retaliate to eradicate them. with Boxer the cart-horse and Snowball the pig band together with

the other animals to overthrow the farmer and create a new society.

From Book to Big Screen

American producer Louis de Rochemont brought this austere fable to the screen. Two
years after Orwell’s death, he decided to take advantage of the resulting popularity of
Orwell’s book. Rumor also had it that backing came from the CIA, which reportedly
wanted this parable to be used as future propaganda ammunition for the Cold War.

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

This theory has yet to be proved, though.
Producing feature cartoons was a departure from the norm for de
Rochemont, as he had previously only been involved with the production of Movietone
newsreels. To get his film made, he went straight to the largest established British
animation studio, Halas & Batchelor, run by the husband and wife team of John Halas
and Joy Batchelor. Halas & Batchelor was the only studio that could be considered large

Halas and Batchelor » 104 Yellow Submarine » 218

168 HALAS & BATCHELOR’S FEATURE 169
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
The idea of a feature cartoon that dealt with such a serious subject as anti- The narration was handled by radio announcer Gordon

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

Communism and contained little or no laughs was a challenge to the Halas & Heath and the multi-voiced radio actor, Maurice Denham. Denham
Batchelor team, but they proceeded and started production in 1951. proved a godsend in supplying all of the animals’ voices, which ranged

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

from the rantings of Napoleon down to the most minor characters.
Starting Work Denham studied pig sounds for months before the actual recording
In an interview for Animator magazine in 1989, John Halas revealed that the making of sessions, and even based the pompous Old Major’s gruntings on some
Animal Farm was not without its problems: "From its commencement it was like of Winston Churchill’s orations to give him a suitably authoritative air.
travelling down a long dark tunnel with no light at the end, and when at last a faint flicker
could be seen, I raced to emerge into the light of a new day." Halas was against taking a Critical Success
strong anti-Stalin stand and insisted that it had to be a universal film for all audiences. His Pig Comrades The concluding passage of the novel had the depressing reality of
opinions were overruled, resulting in the overlaying theme being one of a specifically The original ending was changed to give the film a more upbeat Napoleon, the oppressor, and his cohorts remaining in power, but the American
adult nature – a fight for freedom. In retrospect, Halas’s personal view of the film’s basic conclusion. In the book the animals conduct a second revolution financiers preferred an upbeat ending and the finale was altered to suit public taste. This
flaw was that far too much attention had been paid to "unnecessary" details rather than that overthrows Napoleon and the pigs, but even then it can be involved all of the other creatures rebelling with the intent of subjugating the pigs.
to the overall flow of the film. seen that the entire cycle is going to repeat itself over again; in the The film took an exhausting three years to complete, employed over
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
animated version the second revolution is a success. 70 people and finally got its British release in April 1954. The pre-publicity – stating that
Disneyfication "Pig Brother Is Watching You!" –
Ex-Disney animator John Reed was called in to handle the animation direction. Reed had wryly linked Animal Farm with
recently been involved with David Hand’s GBA studio and was responsible for the Orwell’s other best seller, 1984,
"Disney-esque" appearance of Animal Farm. In most cases the Disney style jars with the which had recently enjoyed
story, seen, for instance, with the annoying intrusion of a "cute" duckling that is much success as a controversial
constantly pushed aside by its peers. The other main animators involved were Eddie television play.
Radage, Arthur Humberstone, Ralph Ayres, Harold Whitaker and Frank Moysey. The The finished film
final storyboard for 75 minutes of action consisted of fewer than 2,000 sketches used adaptation surprised Louis de
from an original collection of 10,000. The original storyboard followed the novel and Rochemont, who, aware only of
included three confrontations between animals and humans but, in film terms, three the written word and the effect
fights proved too cumbersome and the number was reduced to just two. this had on him, was
While production on Animal Farm was forging ahead in London’s Soho unprepared for someone else’s
Square, a second unit was formed at Halas’s other studio 120 miles away in Stroud to visual interpretation of the novel.
help carry some of the load. In addition to all this, the studio still carried on with their Storyboard He confessed to being delighted
normal scheduled workload. The bleak atmosphere portrayed in the film suits the subject-matter. with the end product, however.
The backgrounds are darkly colored and broadly textured, with On the film’s
Sound and Music smoothly illustrated figures shrugging off the yoke of oppression. initial release, some critics

© The Halas and Batchelor Collection Limited

Hungarian composer Matyas Seiber was brought in to compose the imposing claimed the Disney-esque
atmospheric music. His greatest musical problem was a "battle hymn" for the animals Pigs –sketches styling of the farm animals took
when about to overthrow Farmer Jones. This had to be written as a parody of all The pigs in Orwell’s allegory, and Halas and Batchelor’s the raw edge off Orwell’s satire,
revolutionary music and sung without words by the animals. After singers who could adaptation, were direct counterparts of figures in the Russian but overall the reception was
sing in "animal" tones had been found, the final mixing of music and animals amounted Revolution: Old Major is Karl Marx; Napoleon is Joseph Stalin; and favorable, earning it an Oscar as
to as many as eight separate recording tracks. Snowball is Lenin and Trotsky. the Best Film of 1954.

David Hand » 106

170 MR WONDERBIRD 171
WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

The complicated history of The Curious Adventures of Mr Wonderbird begins in 1936 reception by the critics. This version incensed Paul
when animator André Sarrut formed his studio, Les Gémeaux, with business partner Grimault and Jacques Prévert enough to bring court
Paul Grimault. Here, they produced animated advertising cartoons until the war actions against Sarrut and have their names removed
intervened and Grimault was called up. Sarrut had been planning to form a European from the credits.
school of animation to make feature cartoons since the inception of his studio but had
little money to exercise such a monumental project. The Metamorphosis
of Mr Wonderbird
Le Bergère et la Ramoneur Mr Wonderbird had been a bone of contention with
After World War One, Jacques Prévert, screenwriter of the classic live-action Les Enfants du Grimault since his ousting in 1950. Then, in 1967, he
Paradis, came to Sarrut with his screenplay for Le Bergère et la Ramoneur (‘The managed to acquire the rights to it along with control
Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep’), based on a Hans Christian Andersen story about over all of the negative stock. With help from Jacques
V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E

V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
two china figurines who fall in love. The English-dubbed version of this would eventually Prévert, Grimault hoped to put matters right by

© Les Gémeaux
become The Curious Adventures of Mr Wonderbird. Prévert had collaborated with Sarrut reconstructing the film in a different way. They managed
and Grimault on the highly successful Le Petit Soldat (‘The Little Soldier’, 1947), another to round up the surviving animators who had worked on
Hans Christian Andersen tale concerning a villainous jack-in-the-box who tries to come the original, as well as many new artists and the one
between the love of a toy soldier and a doll: a plot not far from The Shepherdess. Le Bergère et la Ramoneur surviving actor of the initial French voice cast, Roger Blin.
Envisioning this as the answer to Disney’s feature cartoons, Sarrut showed Paul Grimault hoped to produce France’s first animated full- Work began on re-creating the whole project.
the story to Dimitri de Grunwald, a British producer, and together they managed to obtain length feature in the late 1940s, but was not able to complete his As no original artwork remained, the
financial backing from a bank. A crumbling mansion on the outskirts of Paris was masterpiece until 20 years later. artists had to retain the original hand-drawn 1940s style
© Jacques Prévert/Paul Grimault
purchased, transformed into a studio and then stocked with young talent from local art to match the remaining animation on-screen. This was
schools and commercial studios. French composer and Sarrut’s longtime associate Joseph Roi et l’Oiseau © Jacques Prévert/Paul Grimault certainly a laborious task, as
Kosma was also brought in to help provide the atmospheric music for the presentation. Paul Grimault When restoring and completing the film, styles had moved on since
Paul Grimault, the French animation master, has influenced Grimault retained the look and feel of the 1947 and the artists only had
Production Fallout countless others, including Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. original. Although released in 1980, the the film as a reference.
The whole production experienced a particularly turbulent journey. This was due to many Grimault’s animation is full of magic, wit, personality film has the authentic look of a late- Production was
factors: pre-completion hype, spiraling production costs, delays and a court case declaring and imagination. 1940s animated feature, which is when finally completed by 1980,
that the director, Paul Grimault, who had worked on the film for three years, be removed work began on the original, Le Bergère et this time titled Le Roi et
from the project. As a result, Sarrut was left to supervise the final stages on his own. la Ramoneur. l’Oiseau (‘The King and the
An English-language edition entitled The Curious Adventures of Mr Mockingbird’), and an English-
Wonderbird was prepared with dialogue by Dimitri de Grunwald’s brother Anatole. The Roi et l’Oiseau – sketch language version was dubbed
technicalities for this version were handled in Britain by veteran animator Anson Dyer at The film was a labor of love, and using American actors. It now
Stroud studios in Gloucestershire. He became ill halfway through the production schedule includes beautifully designed sets and stands, 33 years after the
and, when work on the film was finished, resolved never to be involved with film-making backgrounds, caverns, towers, arches, original concept, as a
again. He kept to his word and retired soon after completion. Venetian canals and squares, and vast monument to Jacques Prévert,
After over 200 artists had labored for four years, the final production cost palaces with Escher-like staircases. Each who sadly died three years
amounted to £500,000 ($900,000) – a large sum of money in those days. When Le of the animators worked on their own before completion and was
Bergère finally saw the light of day in 1952, it had been harshly edited to a fragmented characters, giving each their own never able to see his labor of
63-minutes running time and additional scenes had been added. It was given a cool © Jacques Prévert/Paul Grimault personality and characteristics. love in its final form.

Anson Dyer » 48 Paul Grimault » 136

172 BULGARIA & POLAND 173
EASTERN EUROPE: BULGARIA & POLAND

EASTERN EUROPE: BULGARIA & POLAND

An animation division of the state-run Bulgarian film industry was established in Monsieur Tete started in the 1950s, and Lingurski made his first film, The Terrible Bomb in 1951. These
1948. It was created on the advice of Dimitar Todorov-Jarava. Jarava studied painting This film was made by Jan Lenica in 1959, who had been early films are important in that they established roots for future Bulgarian animators, but
at the Academy of Arts in Sofia and worked as a teacher until he took over the inspired by the 1955 Warsaw fine arts exhibition in Warsaw. It due to poor funding and inexperience, many of these early films are technically crude.
animation division. Jarava was also an inventor of sorts. In 1938, he received a patent demonstrates his characteristic graphic style, which favored thick Things begin to brighten in 1955 with the emergence of Todor Dinov.

© Studio Miniatur Filmowych

for a phenakistascope-like device that he made for children. outlines and heavily stylized design, cut-out figures and collage, Dinov, considered the father of Bulgarian animation, had studied under legendary
all set to simply choreographed movement. Russian animator Ivan Ivanov-Vano. He became an important teacher and promoter of
Bulgarian Pioneers Bulgarian animation and earned acclaim for his first film, Marko the Hero (1955).
In 1950, Todorov-Jarava made the first real Bulgarian animation film It’s His Own Fault Jarava’s animation career was short-lived, however. Because of conflicts
(1949), followed by Wolf and Lamb (1953) and the first color film in Bulgaria, Woodland A with management, who favored USSR or Czechoslovakian-trained animators over the
Republic (1954). The first Bulgarian puppet animators, Aron Aronov and Dimo Lingurski also Surrealist in conception and tragicomic in tone, Lenica’s films self-educated Jarava, he was forced to resign.
© Studio Miniatur Filmowych
often represent states of mind and the urban experience. This

was made in 1964, a time when Polish artists would cloak their Poland
indictments of Stalinism, power politics and repression in Aside from Wladyslav Starewicz, a handful of men – including Franziska and Stefan
allegorical storytelling and ironical wit. Thermerson, who made experimental collages including the brilliant Europe (1931–32)
– tried their hand at animation in Poland from 1917–39. However, Polish animation as
an organized entity did not begin until after World War Two.
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
Following the war, the new Communist regime in Poland invested heavily
in cinema. Animation, however, was not taken so seriously. Despite this, Zenon Wasilewski,
Labyrinth a prominent pre-war animator, was intent on finishing a film he had shot in 1939. To do
This is a self-consciously Kafka-esque tale of a winged lonely this he moved to Lodz, where he started a production and distribution company, which
man literally devoured by totalitarian rule, and is considered to be later became the famous puppet studio Semafor. A drawn animation studio was also
one of the finest political animations ever made. established in Katowice in 1947. During this time the Polish Communists kept animation,
like all of Polish cinema, on a short leash. Following the Soviet model, animation was
dominated by propaganda and folk tales, espousing the concept "national in form –
socialist in content". Nevertheless, a structure was in place that provided training for future
Polish animators like Witold Giersz, who would make his debut in 1956 with The Mystery
of the Old Castle, followed by what many consider his finest film, Little Western (1960).

Sparks of Creativiy
The most notable productions from this period come from Wlodimierz Haupe and
Halina Bielinska. In 1954, the duo made the first Polish animated feature, a puppet film
called Janosik. They followed this with an innovative film created with matchboxes called
Changing of the Guard (1959), which won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1955, an event took place that would drastically change the direction of

© Studio Miniatur Filmowych

Polish animation: the Arsenal Art Exhibition held in Warsaw. The exhibition featured an
array of Polish fine arts, all of them very different from the prescribed “social realism”. The
exhibition stimulated two young artists in particular, Jan Lenica (b. 1928) and Walerian
Borowczyk (b. 1923), who, a year later, would translate what they saw to animation.

Soviet Propaganda » 110 Polish Animation » 362 Bulgarian Animation » 363 Polish Animation » 194
174 COMMERCIAL VS. ARTISTIC 175
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
The first half of the 1950s was the eve of the Disney of the East
establishment of Japan’s professional animation In March 1951, Toei Company, Ltd. was founded. Within a couple of years, it grew to be
industry. Theatrical animated shorts started out in one of Japan’s largest live-action motion-picture production studios and distributors, with
black and white, but they looked more like the a chain of theatres throughout the nation.
competing modern American color cartoons in art In 1955, one of its executives, Hiroshi Okawa (1896–1971), decided that
style and quality of motion – Iwao Roda’s The Forest Toei should add an animation department to make the studio "the Disney of the East".
Concert (1953), for instance, seems to show a Tex After studying Japan’s animation industry and being impressed by Nihon Doga’s
Avery influence. They also averaged twice as long as director Taiji Yabushita and key animator Yasuji Mori, Toei bought the Nihon Doga
the six- to eight-minute American shorts. studio outright.
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V I : 1 9 5 0 – 5 5 : C A R TO O N S M AT U R E
On 31 July 1956, Nihon Doga metamorphosed into Toei Doga (Toei
Changing to Color Tei Wei Animation Co., Ltd.), a subsidiary of Toei Co., with Okawa as its first president.

© Kihachiro Kawamoto/Tadahito Mochinaga

Notable titles of this period include The Gnome and Pictured here at the 1995 Annecy Animation Festival is the Chinese Yamamoto remained as its supervising producer. With Toei’s funding, Japan’s first
the Green Caterpillar by Hideo Furasawa (1950), The master animator Tei Wei, with his ASIFA award which was major animation studio was born.
Ant and the Pigeon by Hajime Yuhara (1953), Story presented to him in recognition of his life’s work. He is accompanied

of the Little Rabbit (1954) written by Taiji Yabushita by his friend, the Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel. China: The Shanghai Studio
and directed by Yasuji Mori, Kawataro the Kappa In February 1950, the Chinese government transferred Tong Pei’s animation department
(1954) by Taiji Yabushita, and in 1955 came Japan’s under director Te Wei and assistant Fang Ming from Changchun in Manchuria to the
first color theatrical releases, The Happy Violin by Taiji much larger Shanghai Film Studios. The greater resources and talent pool of artists and
Yabushita and Onbu, the Little Goblin by Ryuichi Yokoyama. Nihon Doga, with Sanae Aladdin and a Magic Lamp ex-animators in cosmopolitan Shanghai ("the Hollywood of China") gradually led to
Yamamoto as president/executive producer, remained the largest studio, producing one Tadahito Mochinaga, who together with Kihachiro Kawamoto what is referred to as "the first Golden Age of Chinese animation", from around 1956 to
or two films per year. produced this 1953 puppet animation, holds a unique position in the Cultural Revolution in 1965.
the history of both Japanese and Chinese animated films. He Pressed to show what they could do, the expanded animation studio
Fine-Art Animation was the first animator to use the multi-plane camera in Japan, produced the short cartoon animation Thank You, Kitty, directed by Fang Ming
This was also the beginning of the division between popular animation made for and he also made the first stop-motion puppet animations in (Mochinaga), by the end of 1950. The years 1950 to 1955 were a period of setup and
commercial theatrical or TV release, and more artistic animation made for international China and Japan. Mochinaga was among the founding experimentation. Foreign animation, particularly that of China’s political friend the Soviet
film festivals. Noburo Ofuji became the first Japanese animator to gain international members who built the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. Union, was studied.
acclaim when his The Great Buddha (1951) and The Whale
(1952) were shown at the 1952 and 1953 Cannes Film Striving for a Distinctive Look
© Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd

Festivals, and his 1955 The Ghost Ship at the 1956 Venice Mochinaga completed the first color animation tests before returning to Japan. Wan
Film Festival. Chao-chen returned from America, where he had been studying animation, to direct the
The Whale, a remake of his 1927 cut-paper puppet animation The Little Heroes in 1953; and in 1954 Wan Lai-ming and Gu-chan
film, substituting colored translucent cellophane for the solid- Stories on a Street Corner returned from Hong Kong. Although Chinese cartoons created during this period were
black silhouettes, was praised by Pablo Picasso. This prestige was recognized in Japan in Although Osamu Tezuka is internationally renowned for his made primarily for domestic audiences (especially children) some, including Why Crows
1963 when the annual Mainichi Film Festival created the Noburo Ofuji Award for manga, such as Astro Boy, his experimental animation should Are Black and the 1955 The Magic Paintbrush by Jin Xi (1919–97), were also designed
innovative excellence in animation. Its first winner was Osamu Tezuka for his Stories on not be forgotten. There was a limited budget for stories, and to as art films to be shown at Cannes, Venice and other European film festivals to bring
a Street Corner (1962). In 1953 Tadahito Mochinaga returned from China to Japan, reduce the number of moving pictures, posters and other non- international attention to Chinese animation. But after Why Crows Are Black was

© David Ehrlich
where he soon put his experience with Chinese-style stop-motion animation to use in moving objects were used as characters, which gave an mistaken at the 1955 Venice Festival for Soviet animation, Te Wei was determined that
both fine-art and commercial puppet animation. innovative impression. Chinese animation should have a distinctive Chinese look.

Tex Avery » 128 Post-War Japanese Animation » 142 Japanese Animation Industry » 196
 VII

1956–60:

TO THE TUBE
Television animation adapted to lower budgets, faster schedules and a new medium.
Hanna-Barbera lead the way with Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.
TV commercials became a lucrative new industry for animators – with powerful art direction
as important as the sponsored message. Theatrical shorts began to peter out, though Disney
produced his most expensive production, Sleeping Beauty, and UPA created a low budget
Mr Magoo feature film.
Animation artists emerged outside the US – Zagreb produced the first non-
Hollywood cartoon short to win an Oscar, Canadian Richard Williams made his mark in
London, Osamu Tezuka tried his hand at animation, and Karel Zamen and Jiri Trinka offered
unique stop-motion films from Eastern Europe. This was the time when animation was first
seriously considered as a varied art form, and international festivals rose to celebrate the field
and the film-makers.
It is television, however, which had the greatest impact at this time, expanding
creative possibilities and creating new jobs – but sacrificing certain artistic qualities, and
beginning to target children as its core audience.

Picture above: Huckleberry Hound © Hanna-Barbera Studios Pictures clockwise from top left: Kitty's Studio © Toei Doga; Colonel Bleep © Soundac Studios; Falstaff Beer © Playhouse Pictures; Cow on the Moon © Dusan Vukotic, Zagreb Film; Sugar Bear © General Foods; Little Peter's Dream
© Nukufilm; Kops the Cameraman © Nukufilm; Panda and the Magic Serpent © Toei Doga. Centre picture: Emperor's Nightingale © Studio Jiri Trnka/Rembrandt Films
178 TV OR NOT TV 179
NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

Prior to 1956, original animation on American television was simple, low-budget and
crudely made. Viewers had their choice: old theatrical shorts, Disney cartoons that
aired on Disneyland (1954) and The Mickey Mouse Club (1955), or animated
television commercials, such as the popular "Bert and Harry Piels" campaign for Piels
Beer. Conventional wisdom held that creating cartoons that captured the appeal of full
theatrical animation on television budgets and schedules was virtually impossible.

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
Crusader Rabbit
The first to attempt the "impossible" were Alex Anderson, the nephew of Terrytoons’
founder Paul Terry, and Jay Ward, a young real-estate man with artistic aspirations.
Together they created Crusader Rabbit, the first cartoon series made specifically for
television, which over the next two years popped up on a handful of NBC affiliates. Ruff and Reddy
Sporting animation so rudimentary as to resemble a story reel, the adventures of Colonel Bleep This series demonstrated that Hanna-Barbera’s planned animation

Crusader and his tiger sidekick Rags (also known as Ragland T. Tiger) were presented in Colonel Bleep was another low-budget, early TV cartoon series. It technique could be successful. Animation sequences, such as
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

serialized form before leaving the airwaves in 1951. Jay Ward, of course, would be heard was the first made-for-TV cartoon produced in color, but as its walking cycles, could be mass-produced and were transferred from

from again. production values were also not high, it did not stand the test of one character to another. Although it resulted in a certain repetition

The gimmick of serializing short animated segments would be used by time and by the late 1960s was rarely seen. of movement, it saved them a great deal of money.

virtually every producer who entered television in the 1950s. It was the format for
Terrytoons’ Tom Terrific (1957), which aired on the daily children’s show Captain © Soundac Studios

Kangaroo; Cambria Productions’ adventure series Clutch Cargo (1959), which employed
the bizarre and creepy technique of superimposing live-action mouths over drawn faces;
Q.T. Hush (1960) a comedy/mystery cartoon with a noirish veneer produced by a
company called Animation Associates; and Joe Oriolo’s revitalized Felix the Cat (1960)
from Trans-Lux Productions. But the greatest and most lasting impact on animation
would come from another serialized cartoon: Hanna-Barbera’s The Ruff and Reddy
© Hanna-Barbera Studios

Show (1957).
Transition to Television
Distinguished Reputation Television was the only door left open to Hanna and Barbera, who had actually dabbled in
By the mid-1950s, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were already cartoon royalty. television animation a few years earlier, quietly producing a few commercials and the original
Their Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM had won a record seven Academy Awards out of animated opening to I Love Lucy (1951–57). With the help of director George Sidney, an old
13 nominations, most recently for Johann Mouse (1953). With the retirement in 1955 friend from MGM, they secured a deal through Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of
of Fred Quimby, the nominal and non-creative corporate head of the MGM animation Hanna, Barbera and Huckleberry Hound Columbia Pictures, to produce new cartoons specifically for the growing television market.
division, they had become the studio’s official producers, with control over every cartoon Hanna and Barbera worked out a system of "planned Nothing, however, prepared them for the shock of going from the $50,000
unit. In 1957, though, MGM decided to shut down its entire cartoon operation, citing high animation". Rather than animating an entire figure, only those they typically spent on one seven-minute short at MGM to the $2,700 they were being
production costs and diminished returns in a changing marketplace as the reasons. body parts that moved were animated, with the rest held steady offered by Screen Gems to produce a cartoon of equivalent length. In order to survive in
Hanna and Barbera were left with few options since the short theatrical cartoon business – that way, most of the body could be treated as background, the new medium, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera would have to completely redesign the
was in decline throughout Hollywood. with one drawing sufficing for an entire scene. process of animation.

Tom and Jerry » 128 Crusader Rabbit » 132 TV Commercials » 184 Limited Animation » 146
180 CHANGING THE FACE OF ANIMATION 181
NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

Now that they were working for television, Hanna and Barbera quickly realized that Prime-Time Success
animation was governed by different rules. On the one hand, the small home screen With The Ruff and Reddy Show a success on NBC, and sponsors such as Kellogg’s
was more forgiving of flaws than a 40-ft high movie-theater screen. But it was also true Cereals becoming interested in the new style of animation, Hanna-Barbera had proven
that the silent comedy and sight gags of their Tom and Jerry cartoons were expensive the "impossible" could be done. Their next series, The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958),
luxuries in television, where dialogue was what carried the stories. Fortunately, the team starring a laconic, everyman Southern hound dog, was an immediate hit in syndication
was able to lure experienced cartoon storymen and writers such as Michael Maltese, and would go on to win the first Emmy ever awarded to an animated programme. This
Warren Foster, Dan Gordon and Charlie Shows to provide the necessary dialogue was followed by Quick Draw McGraw (1959), a consistently funny spoof of the Western
along with the talented voice actors Daws Butler and Don Messick to deliver it. But shows that were then dominating prime-time television, which proved equally popular.
the bar would also have to be raised on the artwork, certainly above the primitive In 1960, though, the studio was issued a challenge: a sponsor was
level of animation seen in Crusader Rabbit and Tom Terrific. interested in supporting a half-hour animated situation comedy, a format that had
never been done before – the earlier half-hour shows had always been a combination of
Limited Animation three short cartoons featuring different character groups. Even Hanna and Barbera
One key artist that Hanna and Barbera brought with them from MGM was layout themselves were uncertain it could be done, though the studio accepted the challenge
artist and character designer Ed Benedict (b. 1912), whose crisp, attractive, and began to develop a series based on the structure of Jackie Gleason’s The

© Hanna-Barbera Studios

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

deceptively simple-looking designs were a major factor in ensuring the success of Honeymooners (1955–56), but set in a comically anachronistic version of the stone age.
what came to be called limited animation. Since the economics of limited animation
demanded that absolutely nothing moved that did not have to, key poses were held as The Flintstones
long as possible. Not only were the designs crucial for that, but the animators’ execution The new show was originally dubbed The Flagstones until it was realized that the comic
of the key poses also had to be as pleasing and funny as possible. Huckleberry Hound Yogi Bear strip couple "Hi and Lois" went by that last name. It was then changed to The Gladstones,
Ironically, the animation industry’s overall slump in the late 1950s proved The Huckleberry Hound Show was the first series produced and Yogi Bear’s voice was supplied by the voice actor Daws Butler, which was the name of the Hollywood telephone exchange. But the third name change
an advantage to Hanna-Barbera, since many of the animators who were talented and controlled entirely by the studio. It consisted of three segments, who based it one used by Art Carney for his character Ed Norton, was the right one, and animation history leapt forward with the premiere on ABC of
experienced enough to achieve those demandingly funny key poses were then looking one featuring Huckleberry, the other two featuring Yogi Bear and one of the stars of the sitcom The Honeymooners. He also The Flintstones (1960).
for work – even work in television. Veteran animators such as Carlo Vinci, Jerry Hathcock, Pixie & Dixie. A favorite with both adults and children, it won an provided Huckleberry Hound’s voice, and had worked with Hanna The first animated series went to air on network prime-time and was the
Dick Lundy, Grant Simmons, and Don and Ray Patterson were there for the asking, and Emmy for Best Children’s Program in 1959, the first cartoon and Barbera in their Tom and Jerry days. first to attract celebrity guest voices, including Tony Curtis, Ann-Margaret, heart-throb
adapted to the new style of animation with relative ease. series ever to be bestowed that honor. James Darren and songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. The Flintstones was written with more
Huckleberry Hound Characters sophistication than the likes of Huckleberry Hound or Yogi Bear, and it appealed equally
Kid’s Stuff After Yogi’s own show began in the early 1960s, he "left" and was to adults and children.
Technique aside, Ruff and Reddy also offered replaced by Hokey Wolf and his side-kick, Ding a Ling. Pixie & While Hanna-
© Hanna-Barbera Studios
new kinds of animated character. The cat and Dixie and menacing cat Jinks the were essentially low-budget Barbera would make rare
dog protagonists were not combatants like Tom versions of Hanna-Barbera’s old Tom and Jerry cartoons. forays back into theatrical
and Jerry, but rather best pals. Whether this was animation, chiefly Loopy de
a deliberate attempt at a more child-friendly Yogi Bear Characters Loop (1959–65), a Columbia
approach for a new audience or whether Tom Yogi and his co-stars provide another example of the studio’s cartoon series featuring a
and Jerry-style mayhem was simply too planned animation style. When a character spoke, only his mouth courtly French wolf, it was

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
expensive to animate for television, it signalled moved; when he walked, only his legs walked, saving hundreds of really television that became
the beginning of animation’s descent into the drawings. Stories were chosen which emphasized character and the team’s home base for the
realm of "kid’s stuff" within the American psyche dialogue. The result was a seven-minute cartoon which needed next three decades.
– it has yet to re-emerge. only 2,000 drawings, but still resembled full animation.

Crusader Rabbit » 132 UPA and LImited Animation » 146 The Simpsons » 312
182 GENE DEITCH AT TERRYTOONS 183
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
One of the most radical makeovers in the The History of Deitch
history of animation occurred in 1956. CBS Deitch began his career in cartooning as the chief cover and cartoon
had purchased the Terrytoons studio in New artist of the jazz magazine The Record Changer. He joined UPA in
Rochelle, New York, and had placed an 1947 as a layout assistant for Bill Hurtz and Bobe Cannon on the Fox
innovative animation director from the & Crow Columbia cartoons and the early Mr Magoo films. He then
award-winning UPA studio to be its new joined the Jam Handy organization in Detroit directing many
creative head. Paul Terry’s ancient studio was industrial and commercial cartoon films, but UPA called him back in

© Terrytoon Cartoons, CBS Productions

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

quickly married to one of the most talented 1951 where he became creative director of its newly established New
young creators in animation, Gene Deitch (b. York studio. During his four-year tenure, Deitch directed the celebrated
1924). Practically overnight, clunky cartoons Bert & Harry Piels Beer commercials and was first to animate the
about mechanical horses, radio crooners drawings of Saul Steinberg, working personally with the artist.
and hundreds of cartoon mice, gave way to Deitch was writing and drawing a comic strip, Terr’ble
sharp animated satire featuring henpecked Tom Terrific – model Sheet Thompson, for United Features Syndicate (1955–56), when CBS
suburbanites, neurotic elephants and In creating Tom Terrific, Deitch was influenced by UPA’s limited called him about the Terrytoons position. It was not an easy role to take on. Thirty-one-

© Terrytoon Cartoons, CBS Productions

characters designed in cubist shapes. animation style. Imaginative, tongue-in-cheek scripts and year-old Deitch was disliked by many old-timers at the studio, but he saw a golden
stylized designs disguised the fact that the budget for children’s opportunity to revitalize a floundering operation and, at the time, a dying art form: the
It’s A Living TV animation was so low. The voices were generally done by animated short. As a measure of his success, Terrytoons earned its first Academy Award
Deitch’s Terrytoon theatricals were some of the Lionel Wilson, and the music provided by a harmonica. nomination in 12 years (for Sidney’s Family Tree in 1958), and the studio was no longer
classiest-looking animated shorts of the late the joke of the industry. By 1958, CBS-Terrytoons was out-UPA-ing UPA! Deitch picked
1950s. His new approach to Terrytoons is best up the ball and kept running, fulfillng the promise of UPA by producing contemporary
demonstrated in the cartoon It’s A Living (1958). The film has venerable Terrytoon star Tom Terrific and Manfred Man cartoons that reflected modern life using modern art.
Dinky Duck jumping through the theater screen – in classic Buster Keaton style – into a Deitch’s shape-shifting Tom Terrific and his ever-faithful

Cinemascope UPA-stylized universe of modern-art cartooning. There, he becomes an Mighty Manfred. Advantage Deitch
object for Madison Avenue executives who attempt to commercialize the duck. It’s A Deitch’s sole TV effort used the limitations of television to "terrific" advantage. Tom
Living would be Deitch’s one and only use of a classic Terrytoon character. Terrific, produced in black and white and broadcast as a daily serial on CBS’s morning
kids show Captain Kangaroo, was an animated rewrite of Deitch’s comic strip Terr’ble
New Characters Thompson. Shape-shifting Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred (his "wonder dog")

© Terrytoon Cartoons, CBS Productions

Deitch dumped the rest (Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckel, et al.) and quickly came up would save the world each week from various evildoers. The characters were
with contemporary characters which he could better relate to: Sidney, a maladjusted animated as line drawings, without opaque centers, allowing the backgrounds to be
elephant who sucked his trunk in the way a child would suck a thumb; John Doormat, the visible through them.
typical 1950s suburbanite who is king at the office but henpecked at home; Gaston Le
Crayon, a zany French artiste; Clint Clobber, the burly superintendent and sanitary End of an Era
engineer of the Flamboyant Arms apartments in the Bronx; and Foofle, a hapless clown. Tom Terrific After two years of feuds with the old guard, Deitch left Terrytoons in 1958 and
In addition, Deitch took the opportunity to experiment with some abstract Deitch wanted in to include as much real animation in Tom producer Bill Weiss took over. Practically everything Deitch began was left abandoned.
ideas. He hired his old UPA team-mate Ernest Pintoff to create an acclaimed film, Flebus, Terrific as possible, and avoid shortcuts such as paper cut-outs. Lariat Sam soon replaced Tom Terrific, Deputy Dawg replaced Clint Clobber, and
and encouraged Al Kouzel to adapt R.O. Blechman’s The Juggler of Our Lady and James He made use of Terrytoons’ large staff of animators, and by Terrytoon mainstays Heckle & Jeckle and Mighty Mouse returned. Weiss made a small
Flora’s The Fabulous Fireworks Family. Talented young Turks such as Jules Feiffer and eliminating much of the traditional process of cel animation and group of Silly Sidney cartoons for TV, but essentially the creative bubble of the Deitch
Ralph Bakshi got their start under Deitch at the New Rochelle studio. keeping the backgrounds extremely simple, he achieved his aim. era had burst.

Paul Terry and Terrytoons » 40 UPA » 146 Gene Deitch in Prague » 232
184 TV COMMERCIALS 185
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
"Snap, Crackle, Pop!"; "Sorry Charlie"; "How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?". These The superstars of cartoon pitch men in the 1950s
are just a few of the popular expressions made famous through animated included Gene Deitch’s Bert & Harry Piels, voiced by the comedy duo
television commercials. In the 1950s, as demand for the theatrical shorts Bob & Ray (for Piels Beer), Sharpie the Gillette Parrot (Gillette razor
began to subside, American animators began to find work at small blades), Wally, a champagne-sipping bird ("It’s the oonly way to fly!")
animation studios devoted to making 60-second cartoon advertisements for Western Airlines, The Campbell Soup twins, Fresh-Up Freddy (for
for the growing medium of television. 7-Up), Sugar Pops Pete (for Kelloggs) and Hubley’s Marky Maypo (for
Maypo maple-syrup flavored cereal).
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

Origins of a Golden Age
Animated TV commercials date back to 1941, when Otto Messmer (Felix Success Stories
the Cat) animated a lamb for sponsor Botany Mills for its long-running series Some of animation’s greatest talents have devoted themselves to TV
of NBC weather-report broadcasts. Post-war, with television sales exploding commercial production. Tex Avery joined Cascade Pictures in 1955

© Playhouse Pictures
© General Foods
in the late 1940s, full-scale production of cartoon commercials began to and spent virtually the rest of his career directing commercials for the
develop. Experienced studios such as UPA and veteran animators such as likes of Pepsodent Toothpaste and Kool-Aid. Along the way he
Shamus Culhane quickly established themselves as specialists in this new field. created the Frito Bandito and a very successful series of Raid insect
By the mid-1950s, two-dozen animation shops had emerged into what repellent spots.
was quickly becoming a golden age for the animated commercial. Much of the creative Carnation Milk/Friskies Cat Food/Falstaff Beer R. O. Blechman’s 1971 commercial for Alka Seltzer, "Man vs. Stomach",
work at this time – including design, dialogue and direction – was left in the skilled hands Typical of 1950s animated commercials, each one used used popularized his squiggly line style, won numerous advertising awards and compelled
at the various studios. Characters like Tony the Tiger, Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Chiquita humor and a variety of character designs. The animators had him to open his own advertising studio, The Ink Tank. Richard Williams (Who Framed
Banana and Bert & Harry Piels were developed by the same artists who crafted Mr more control over the overall sell of the product during this period Roger Rabbit, 1988) ran London’s biggest animation studio throughout the 1970s and
Magoo, Popeye and Woody Woodpecker. – by the 1960s advertising agencies would take over the creative 1980s. In subsequent years many popular independent animators, including Bill
reigns – and the commercial spots were 60 seconds long Plympton, Joanna Quinn, John Kricfalusi, Chris Hinton and Peter Chung, have lent their
New Talent Sugar Bear (compared to today’s standard 30-second spot). This allowed for distinctive animation styles to TV commercials.
In fact, by 1956, Terrytoons, Walter Lantz, Warner Bros., Paramount and even Disney General Foods’ Sugar Bear was the muscular mascot for Post greater innovation which shaped TV advertising’s future.

were all actively producing animated television commercials for various clients. New Sugar Crisp cereal, who attributed his strength to eating a good Superstar Appeal
studios, started by enterprising Hollywood animators, dominated the scene. These breakfast which included his sponsor’s "vitamin-packed" product. Cartoon superstars including Popeye, Mr Magoo, Foghorn Leghorn, Pink Panther and The
included Tempo, founded by UPA’s Dave Hilberman and Zack Schwartz; Fletcher-Smith, Simpsons have appeared as company pitch men for a variety of products and services.
which employed many former Fleischer animators; as well as Jack Zander’s Pelican And the commercials themselves have spawned their own animated celebrities: Charlie
Films, and Lee Blair’s Film Graphics. They were joined by a dozen more smaller, but no © Playhouse Pictures
the Tuna, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and cereal stars Cap’n Crunch,
less talented, units, including TV Spots, Bill Strum Inc., Swift-Chaplin, Ray Patin DeSoto Spaceman Franken Berry, Quisp and Toucan Sam leading the pack.
Productions, Animation Inc., Academy Pictures and Five Star, who specialized in stop- This model sheet shows character designs for a DeSoto Animated commercials have never lost
motion Speedy Alka-Seltzer spots. automobile commercial from Playhouse Pictures. Ade Woolery's their appeal. The best ones are literally unforgettable –
Playhouse Pictures, founded in 1952 by UPA’s production manager Ade Playhouse Pictures, employing many veterans of the UPA studio, they were run repeatedly and have become ingrained
Woolery, is still around today. Most notably, they adapted Charles Schulz’s Peanuts combined appealing design and outstanding character animation in our minds. There are no archives for classic
characters to animation for a successful series of advertising spots for Ford. John and Faith to create classic animated commercials for five decades. commercials, yet this work is a significant part of

© DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
Hubley established Storyboard Inc. and made a series of artistically interesting animation’s evolving history. The high calibre of the
commercials – particularly memorable is their spot for Maypo, a children’s breakfast food. Charlie Tuna artists involved and ground-breaking visuals and
This commercial work helped fund their Academy Award-winning personal short films Charlie Tuna was typical of the cartoon characters from the storytelling make this one of the most important
Moonbird (1959) and The Hole (1962). 1950s who became famous for being in commercials. creative outlets for animation art.

Oskar Fischinger and Commercials » 68 Industrial Animation » 164 John and Faith Hubley » 214 Richard Williams » 188 Independent Spirits » 278
186 ANIMATION FESTIVALS 187
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
For animation film-makers, film festivals provide much-needed exposure and Koji Yamamura The Old Lady and the Pigeons, Sylvain Chomet (1998); and Father and Daughter,
recognition; they are a venue in which to screen films and meet with peers. Artists and Founded in 1960, the Annecy festival is the top-ranking competitive Michaël Dudok de Wit (2000).
studios, such as Bill Plympton of Your Face (1987), Aardman Animation with Creature international festival entirely dedicated to animation. Koji

© Michaël Dudok de Wit

Comforts (1989), Pixar with Tin Toy (1988) and Mike Judge of Frog Baseball (1991), Yamamura won the Grand Prix in 2003 for his short Atama Yama. Celebrating Animation
have all benefited from the exposure of having their work presented at festivals. From 1985 to 2001, Los Angeles played host to the World Animation Celebration
(formally the Los Angeles Animation Celebration), held at various times, in various
Annecy International and the World Festival Father and Daughter venues, throughout the Los Angeles area.
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

The oldest film festival devoted exclusively to animated films is the Annecy International The Hiroshima International Animation Festival (which Michaël Other current animation festivals of note are Anima Mundi, held in Rio de
Animation Festival. Founded in 1960, the first event took place in June in the town of Dudok de Wit’s Father and Daughter won the 2000 Grand Prize Janerio and Sao Paulo, Brazil every July; the Brussels Cartoon and Animation Festival,
Annecy, France. A who’s who of animation attended the inaugural event: Alexandre at) consists of the competition, special screenings, workshop, held every February in Brussels, Belgium; the Holland Animation Festival held in
Alexieff, Paul Grimault, Jiri Trnka, George Dunning, John Halas, John Hubley, Grant Munro, seminar, exhibits and more. Its centerpiece is the competition, November, even-number years in Utrecht, the Netherlands; Cartoons on the Bay, held
Bretislav Pojar, Karel Zeman, and many more. The festival was held again in 1962, and but there are also screenings of the latest works from specific every April in Positano, Italy; Fantoche International Animation Festival held in
in 1963 it went bi-yearly (skipping 1969 due to political unrest) until 1998 when it went countries, retrospectives and thematic collections of works. September, odd-numbered years in Zürich, Switzerland; Cinanima – International

© Koji Yamamura
annual. Recent Grand Prize winners include The Old Man and the Sea, Alexander Petrov Animated Film Festival, held each November in Espinho, Portugal; Stuttgart International
(1999); Mt Head, Koji Yamamura (2002); Barcode, Adriaan Lokman (2002); and When the Day Breaks Festival of Animated Film held in March, even-numbered years in Stuttgart, Germany;
Hamilton Mattress, Barry J. C. Purves (2002). This film won the Grand Prix at the 2000 Zagreb Animation and Turku International Animated Film Festival held in May, even-numbered years in
In June 1972, the World Festival of Animated Films debuted in Zagreb, Festival, as well as scooping awards at many other festivals, Turku, Finland.
Yugoslavia (now Croatia). At the first festival, Walter Lantz, Friz Freleng, William Hanna, including Annecy, Cannes and Chicago.

Joseph Barbera, Stephen Bosustow and Chuck Jones took part. Despite all the political Coming to a Town Near You …
trouble in Yugoslavia/Croatia, the Zagreb Festival as been held every other year (except Atama Yama Since the 1970s, a number of touring film
1976) in years with an even number. Recent Grand Prize winners include When the Day Atama Yama (‘Mt Head’) by Koji Yamamura won the 2003 festivals whose focus is bringing animation to
Breaks, Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (1999; and Father and Daughter, Michaël short-film prize. Other categories at the festival include an ever-increasing audience have travelled
Dudok de Wit (2000). commissioned films, school and graduation films, and shorts and across North America. The granddaddy of
series made for the internet. The festival has established itself as these festivals, the International Tournee of
Ottawa International and Hiroshima a forum to promote animation in all its different forms, and Animation, began in the early 1970s.
With animation festivals popping throughout Europe, the Canadian Film Institute put attracts animation professionals from all round the world. Originally run by Prescott Wright, it was taken
together North America’s first major film festival dedicated to animation. Debuting in over by Expanded Entertainment in the mid-
© Koji Yamamura
August 1976, the Ottawa International Animation Festival featured tributes and 1980s and ran until the early 1990s when it
retrospectives to Oskar Fischinger, the Fleischer Brothers and the National Film Board of folded. The most popular of the touring
Canada. The Festival has been held (currently in late September) in even-number years festivals, Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation,
in Ottawa, except for in 1994 when it was held in Toronto, and in 1996 in Hamilton. With began in 1977. In recent years they have
the 2004 event, the festival announced it would go annual. The Canadian Film Institute become more known for their “Sick and
also produces the Student Animation Festival of Ottawa, which debuted in 1977. Recent Twisted” animation program. In 2003, Mike
Grand Prize winners include The Night of the Carrots, Pritt Pärn (1998); Ring of Fire, Judge and Don Hertzfeldt began a new touring

© National Film Board of Canada

Andreas Hykade (2000); and Home Road Movies, Robert Bradbrook (2001). program, “The Animation Show”. These touring
In Japan, the International Animation Festival of Hiroshima was first held film festivals are a great way to see the latest
in 1985. Originally held every other year in the odd years, it switched, after skipping animated shorts without leaving the comfort of
1989, to being held in the even years. Recent Grand Prize winners include your own city.

The First Independents » 68 Japanese Commercial and Artistic Animation » 174 Independent Spirits » 278
188 RICHARD WILLIAMS 189
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
At the relatively late age of 20, a Toronto-born artist named The Little Island Having earned enough money to see him through art school, he had
Richard Williams (b. 1933) was just coming to realize all the Richard Williams worked for both Disney and UPA studios, and in enough cash left over to buy a car to transport himself back to the Disney Studios with
possibilities that animation had to offer. Disney had already 1955 he began work on the 33-minute animated film The Little classmate Carl Bell. However, Williams was quickly to become disenchanted by the whole
cornered the market with short cartoons and spectacular features, Island, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film in Disney system.
but there were others who were still experimenting with the 1959. This piece gained him immediate recognition as a

medium, such as John Hubley and Robert Cannon, as well as professional and highly talented animator. The Little Island
Canada’s own George Dunning (1920–79) and Norman McLaren. Disillusioned by animation in general, next on the agenda was a two-year stopgap in
Richard wanted to contribute his two-cents-worth to this Ibiza; his "beach bum" period where he painted, sunbathed, swam in the ocean and
comparatively new medium, having been attracted to animation played jazz. It was during this idyllic interlude that the idea of his first film, The Little
on his initial viewing of Disney’s Snow White and the Truth, Beauty & Good Island (1958), was born.
Seven Dwarfs. Richard Williams’ ground-breaking, experimental film, The changing scene of British television that occurred in the mid-1950s all
completed at TVC studios in the late 1950s, was the result of happened with the coming of commercial TV in 1955. Suddenly London was the place to
Emerging Talent hours of painstaking work by him and his team of animators. be, so Dick loaded himself up with an armful of drawings of The Little Island and set off,
Born of artistic parents and encouraged to draw since the age of two, arriving at the door of George
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

he was fast getting a reputation as the boy whose greatest ambition Dunning’s newly formed TV Cartoons
was to be Walt Disney’s "top idea man". So, at the tender age of 15, studio. He supplemented the cost of
© Richard Williams/TV Cartoons
Dick withdrew all his savings and invested them in a journey to the Island by working on commercials for
Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. Whilst visiting the studios he was advised by veteran art Richard Williams dog food, Guinness and Mother’s Pride
director Dick Kelsey to first receive a good training at art school before even attempting to Williams and team hard at work on The Little Island. After a sliced bread during the day, and his
enter into the world of animation. This he dutifully did, putting himself through Ontario lifetime spent in animation, Williams was voted "The Animator’s own project by night.
College of Art and supplemented his income by moonlighting for various sponsors. Animator" in 1990. The Little Island took
three years of late nights and
weekends to complete, with
assistance from George Dunning, his
staff and equipment. Made in color
and widescreen Cinemascope, the
film presents a parable concerning
three characters representing Truth,
Beauty and Good who live together on
a desert isle – and certainly do not live
up to their image. They ultimately
exterminate themselves through
a war. This half-hour epic was well
received by critics and festival-goers,

© Richard Williams/TV Cartoons

enabling Williams to continue
pursuing his dream.

© Richard Williams/TV Cartoons

Norman McLaren » 102 George Dunning » 218 Widescreen and 3D » 154 TV Commercials » 184
190 ZAGREB 191
EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

In 1956, both the national and Croatian

EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

governments completely withdrew their
financial support of both Duga Film and its
short-lived successor, Zora Film. But the
animators in the Croatian capital were not to
be denied. They now turned to another
company, Zagreb Film, which at the time
was working exclusively on documentaries.
The studio agreed to distribute anything the
local animators produced, and they jumped
at the opportunity. When Dusan Vukotic’s
(1927–98) The Playful Robot (1956) won

© Dusan Vukotic, Cow on the Moon, Zagreb Film

an award at the Pula Film Festival on the
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

Istrian peninsula in Croatia, the new Zagreb
Film was off and running as an animation
studio, soon to be one of the most influential © Dusan Vukotic, The Playful Robot, Zagreb Film

in the world. The Playful Robot was directed

by Vukotic, who would later win the studio an Oscar. The film also marked the debut of The Playful Robot
other animators who would go on to have successful careers at the studio. The The Playful Robot was the first animated film to be produced by

drawings were by Aleksandar Marks and Boris Kolar, the design by Zlatko Bourek, and the new Zagreb film studio. This scene is an example of Dusan Cow on the Moon critics and fellow animators. When The Lonely, directed by Aleksandar Marks and
the animation by Vladimir Jutrisa. Vukotic's fondness for using simple caricature drawings dancing The reduced animation style at the Zagreb Studio meant that the Vatroslav Mimica, won an award for best animated film at the Venice Festival, the studio
across a neutral background. number of drawings had to be limited to an absolute minimum, began to receive international recognition. Many more international awards were to
The Zagreb School without losing any quality from the movement. Whilst other follow. Indeed, during the next four decades, Zagreb Film would produce about 600
Unified by a commitment to animation and to giving artists free reign, as well as a studios like Duga would typically produce 12,000 to 15,000 animated films, winning more than 400 international awards, including three Academy
distinctive white horse as its new logo, the new studio began producing animation at a drawings per film, Zagreb's was more like 4,000 to 5,000. Award nominations and an Oscar.
rapid clip. Its animation style soon became known as "the Zagreb School". In addition to
limiting the number of drawings against rudimentary or abstract backgrounds, in the Vukotic and Erzatz
early days another of the studio’s pioneering distinctions was the interchangeability of The children’s film Cow on the Moon (1959), is an enduring short by Vokotic about a
the artists working on direction, design, drawing and story. Ironically, in just a few years young girl who tricks a boy into thinking that the rocket ship she has built has taken them
the Zagreb School also became known for the film-makers’ propensity towards writing, to the moon.
designing and directing their own films. Somehow the two philosophies were not In 1962 Ersatz, sometimes known by its Croatian title Surogat
contradictory, as the most talented artists all worked on each other’s films. The result was (‘Substitute’), became the first film from outside the United States to win an Academy
bold cartoons unified in design, tone and message. Award for Best Animated Short. Directed by Vukotic, it tells the story of a tourist on a

© Dusan Vukotic, Ersatz, Zagreb Film

Ersatz beach who "inflates" an entire village. A passionate love develops between the tourist and
Critical Success Ersatz shows the Zagreb style of reduced animation at its best. a villager, provoking jealousy, vengeance, and finally tragedy. In the end, a small nail
The new studio had a breakthrough in the spring of 1958 when it began screening some The focus on the crucial elements of the graphics, direction, reminds everyone of the artificiality of the world that has been created.
of its films at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany. The following year, a program of sound, character and movement, as well as the idea and humor, A crucial step in the theory and history of animation, the unique and
films from the studio at the Cannes Festival in France received rave reviews from both all helped this to be such a critically acclaimed film. influential style of Vukotic and the Zagreb School can still be seen in animation today.

Animation Festivals » 186 Golden Age of Zagreb Film » 226

192 JIRI TRNKA & KAREL ZEMAN 193
E A S T E R N E U R O PE ” C Z E C H O S L O VA KI A

E A S T E R N E U R O PE : C Z E C H 0 O S L O VA KI A
The son of a plumber, Jiri Trnka (1912–70) was born in Bohemia. He learned the The Treasure of Bird Island (1952),
puppet trade at an early age, helping his grandmother make toy horses and dolls and A Journey into Prehistory (1954), The
his mother make dresses. By the age of 11, he was working at the local theater, owned Diabolic Invention (1958), and what
by famed puppeteer Joseph Skupa. In 1928 he enrolled in the prestigious School of most critics consider his masterpiece,
Applied Arts in Prague. After graduation, Trnka earned a living drawing illustrations for Baron Munchhausen (1961).
newspapers. He directed a few theatrical plays, and had some success as a painter and Meanwhile, Trnka remained
illustrator of children’s books. the master. He took control of the entire

© Studio Jiri Trnka/Rembrandt Films

puppet-animation process, from set
The Czech Puppeteer design, to construction of the puppets,
Trnka did not make his first short film, the cel-animated Grandpa Planted a Beet (1945), to the meticulous frame-by-frame
until he was 33. It immediately marked him as someone to watch, partly because his filming. He was a driven artist, capable

© Studio Jiri Trnka/Rembrandt Films

human characters made him one of the first animators to rebel against the Disney of profound subtlety and beauty. He
formula. After four more cel cartoons, in 1947 Trnka directed his first puppet-animation Jiri Trnka was a sculptor, painter and illustrator,
film, The Czech Year, depicting the six divisions of a year in the Czech countryside. Finally Trnka was the Czech master of stop-motion puppet animation. but as a puppet animator he set
Trnka was able to express himself the way he wanted, and he was well on his way to His talent lay in creating the illusion that the puppets were acting standards for an entirely new and
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

becoming the world’s premiere puppet animator. out of their own will rather than being controlled by a puppeteer. independent screen genre, rivaling
Here he is creating his 1949 film Song of the Prairie. Song of the Prairie Disney in its freshness and wonder. In 18 years he made 20 puppet-animation films
International Success Song of the Prairie simultaneously praised and ridiculed the and eight traditional cel films, as well as Merry Circus. Neither a puppet film nor a cartoon,
In 1948 Trnka directed his first feature film, Emperor’s Nightingale, which won him American Western, down to the well-dressed singing cowboy, this was an entirely unique means of expression and technique made with stop-action
instant international acclaim. In 1951 Rembrandt Films added an English narration by the stagecoach ride threatened by highway bandits and the photography of paper cut-outs.
Boris Karloff and released the film in US theaters, further expanding Trnka’s growing villain absconding the heroine with the hero (who always has a

reputation in the West. moment to comb his hair) in hot pursuit. Dark Humor
In 1949 Trnka made Song of the Prairie, a parody of the American Yet Trnka also had a dark, melancholy side. His large, foreboding presence,
western, and the Chekhov tale Story of the Bass Cello, about a bass player whose clothes accentuated by the dark scar across his cheek, only added to his mystery. Part of his
are stolen while he’s bathing in a river. The following year he made the epic Prince torment was no doubt due to his mixed feelings about the special place he held in
Bayaya, about the heroic exploits of a poor country boy who becomes a prince. Czech society. While he was at odds with the Communist government, he also
Trnka was particularly adept at translating literature into puppet enjoyed the extraordinary privileges it bestowed upon him. His last film, The Hand
animation, for example, his interpretation of The Good Soldier Schweik, the comic Czech (1965), was banned in Communist Czechoslovakia, despite winning the top prize at
novel by Jaroslav Hasek. Private Schweik celebrates the unconquerable spirit of the the Annecy International Animation Festival. It is a darkly humorous allegory on
common man, eternally at war to preserve his individuality against the modern military totalitarianism. An artist, happy in his life, devotes his time making a pot for his favorite
machine, or any system that treats the individual as a number. flower. But a giant hand appears and orders him to create a statue of a hand instead.
Emperor’s Nightingale He resists at first, but the hand is all-powerful and he is forced to submit, at the cost of
Karel Zeman This is Trnka’s version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale about his liberty and ultimately his life.
Trnka inspired a generation of puppet animators in Prague, most notably Karel Zeman, Trnka’s legacy lies in his films’ ability to entertain – to delight children and

© Studio Jiri Trnka/Rembrandt Films

the Emperor of China, a boy king who is caged by his life of ritual

who was actually two years older than Trnka. Zeman gained popularity with a series of and rule, and who is eventually liberated by the song of a adults alike. In 1966, four years before his death, Newsday lauded Trnka as "second to
puppet animation shorts starring Mr Prokouk. His most groundbreaking short was nightingale. This fairy tale fantasy was enhanced by the Chaplin as a film artist because his work inaugurated a new stage in a medium long
Inspiration, an exquisitely beautiful film depicting glass figures skating over a intricately designed sets and puppets, and as with many other of dominated by Disney".
shimmering sheet of ice. But his most ambitious works were his feature films, like his films, drew the viewer in to his world. "Trnka," said Jean Cocteau, "The very name conjures up childhood and poetry."

George Pal and Puppetoons » 70 Animal Farm » 166 Polish Animation » 172
194 BULGARIA, POLAND & ESTONIA 195
EASTERN EUROPE: BULGARIA, POLAND & ESTONIA

EASTERN EUROPE: BULGARIA, POLAND & ESTONIA

Following the arrival of Todor Dinov, Bulgarian animation soon including Monsieur Tete (1962), Labyrinth (1962), Rhinoceros
developed into one of the most creative studios in Europe. Dinov (1963) and A (1964), while Borowczwk, who emigrated to France in
was joined by a strong group of animators including Zdenka 1958, made The Game of Angels (1963) and the strange and
Doycheva, Pencho Bogdanov, Radka Buchvarova and Roman difficult animated feature, Theater of Mr and Mrs Kabal (1967).
Meitzov. Buchvarova specialized in children’s films, ranging from Together, Lenica and Borowczwk changed the course of Polish
folklore to social commentary. She made her most acclaimed film, animation, infusing it with a dark and surreal existentialist tone, along
The Snowman, in 1960. Before that Buchvarova collaborated with with a strong sense of graphic design.
Doycheva on his 1958 debut, The Mouse and the Pencil.
Estonia
Donev and Dukov Elbert Tuganov (b. 1920), the father of Estonian animation, was born
In the early 1960s, the Sofia Animation Studio (as it was now in Baku, Azerbaijan, but he began his animation career in Germany
known) was divided into two branches under the direction, working for a couple of commercial studios including the Döhring Film

© Nukufilm
respectively, of Donio Donev and Stoyan Dukov, a student of Todor Company. After his discharge from the Estonian army in 1946,
Dinov. Following the lead of Dinov, they injected Bulgarian Tuganov sought employment at Tallinnfilm, the state film studio. For
animation with a strong sense of humor and morality. Donev’s Kõps the Cameraman – in car 11 years, Tuganov shot, drew and painted titles and credit sequences. During this time

© Nukufilm
notable films include Duel (1961) and the very popular Three Fools Heino Pars created Estonia’s first animated series, which featured he also modernized the studio’s primitive technical apparatus. In order to shoot credits
series. Donev was a caricaturist of sorts who loved to expose human the recurring character Kõps the Cameraman. There were four films more adequately and fashion trick-shots, Tuganov built an animation stand that would
foolishness. On the other hand, Dukov who made his debut in 1967 in the series, and in each one viewers were taken to various places, allow the studio to do frame-by-frame shooting. A visiting Moscow official was
with The Fortified House, showed more concern with graphic form in films like Little Peter’s Dream such as Mushroom Land, Berry Forest and Uninhabited Island. impressed by the new apparatus and suggested that the studio make animation films.
The Blackest Mouse (1971). This was Estonia’s first puppet film, made by Elbert Tuganov, the Tuganov immediately set out to find scripts and stories that would be
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

founding father of the puppet genre in the country. Although it suitable for production. He landed a Danish story called Palle Alone in the World. This
Poland was the fledgling studio’s first film, and the animation is became the basis for the first Nukufilm production, Little Peter’s Dream (1957). In the
In 1956, the Animated Film Studio of Bielsko-Biala was occasionally awkward and jumpy, the character film, a troublesome little boy, a playground bully, endures an evening of nightmares in
established in Warsaw under the charge of Witold Giersz. rendering and set design are accomplished and original. which he wanders through a deserted city. In the end, the boy awakes fearful, but with a
In 1958, the studio separated to become Studio new awareness of the importance of being kind to others. Consequently, he returns to
Miniatur Filmowych. The Three Fools the playground with a much better attitude.
Thanks to a slight loosening of state The Three Fools were the Sofia Animation Studio's most

restrictions, Miniatur encouraged the creation of personal short comic creation. The characters have been described Laying the Foundations
films by young artists. Two of the most notable new talents – who as a concoction of elements from Laurel and Hardy, For the next four years, the film-making process mimicked that of the first production –
would change the course of Polish animation – were Jan Lenica The Three Stooges and Dumb and Dumber. six or seven people worked on the film alongside artists from the Estonian puppet theater.
and Walerian Borowczyk. The duo made five animated films © Sofia Animation Studio After the fourth film, Mina and Murri (1961), animation production received a budgetary
together in the late 1950s: Once Upon A Time (1957), Love Rewarded blessing from Tallinnfilm. The division’s staff grew to 20, and it was decided that the
(1957), Striptease (1957), Banner of Youth (1957) and House (1958). The duo’s films, Kõps the Cameraman puppets would then be fashioned in the studio.
made in cut-out, focused primarily on individuals caught up in an absurd world. With the exception of two unsuccessful attempts at recruitment By 1961, it became clear that Tuganov alone could not maintain enough
By this time, Lenica was already a famous graphic artist. Borowczwk in the early 1970s, Tuganov and Pars (creator of Kõps the of a workload to keep everyone employed. He decided to find a second director. Heino
studied graphic art before turning to cinema. He began making live-action films in 1950. Cameraman, which is pictured here) were Nukufilm’s only Pars, who worked as cinematographer at Nukufilm, was always approaching Tuganov
The duo stopped working together in 1958, but alone they continued to produce with ideas for films, and in 1961 he was finally given his first opportunity to direct.

© Nukufilm
directors between 1958 and 1975. Tuganov retired in 1982 and

innovative and well-received works. Lenica made a brilliant series of films in the 1960s Pars went on making films until 1990. He made his first film, Little Motor Scooter in 1962.

Polish Animation » 174 Eastern European Animation in the 2000s » 362 Estonian Animation » 292
196 AN ANIMATION INDUSTRY BEGINS 197
A S I A : J A PA N

V I I : 1 9 5 6 – 6 0 : TO T H E T U B E : A S I A : J A PA N
The years 1956 (when Nihon Doga
became Toei Doga), 1957 (when its first
short film was released), or 1958 (when
its first theatrical feature was released)
are each often cited as the year that the
Japanese animation industry began. It
VII: 1956–60: TO THE TUBE

was about a year after Toei’s makeover of

the studio before its first film was released
in 1957: the 13-minute, black and white
Doodling Kitty by the director/key
animator team of Taiji Yabushita and
Yasuji Mori. It was a major success,
leading to a slightly longer color sequel,
Kitty’s Studio, in 1959, and the adoption

© Toei Doga
of the young kitten as Toei’s corporate
logo-mascot for the next decade.
© Toei Doga

Feature Success Kitty's Studio Panda and the Magic Serpent style. Otogi also produced a short art film, More Than 50,000, in 1961 as well as Japan’s
But Toei was more interested in theatrical features than shorts. Under Yabushita and Yasuji Mori helped to form the Toei Doga style by creating This was the first Japanese animated feature film in color. It is first animated TV series and several animated TV commercials. Then, without
Mori, Toei began in 1958 to produce one color feature per year: Panda and the Magic exceptional, memorable characters and some of Japan's most based on a Chinese legend and tells the story of Xu-Xian, a explanation, Otogi disappeared and Yokoyama abandoned animation. After retiring as a
Serpent (1958), Magic Boy (1959) and Alakazam the Great (1960). All three impressive full animation sequences. As senior animator at the young boy who is forced to free his pet snake. cartoonist in the early 1970s, he became a fine-art painter and sculptor, winning many
exemplified Okawa’s goal of making the studio "the Disney of the East": they followed the studio, he has influenced the next generation of talented The snake is actually a young snake- national cultural awards and cartoonist societies’ awards into his nineties.
Disney feature formula of being (or looking like) adaptations of ancient Chinese or animators, like Yasuo Otsuka, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata goddess, Bai-Niang, who searches for and

Japanese folk tales, with lots of fantasy and magic, and cute funny-animal companions and Yoichi Kotabe. is eventually re-united with Xu-Xian. Puppet Animation
frolicking around the humans. All three were released in the US in June and July 1961. Tadahito Mochinaga’s return to Japan in 1953 coincided with the birth of the Japanese
TV industry. He was hired to produce two one-minute beer commercials, which he did in
Ryuichi Yokoyama stop-motion puppet animation with assistant Kihachiro Kawamoto (b. 1924). In 1955
Japan briefly had a second prestigious studio at this time. Today, Osamu Tezuka is Mochinaga created the Puppet Animation Film Studio to make films for screening at
famous as Japan’s leading manga cartoonist who started his own animation studio, but elementary schools, producing nine from The Little Devil and Princess Uriko (1956) to
he was preceded by Ryuichi Yokoyama (1909–2001). Yokoyama was the creator of Fukusuke The Fox Who Became King (1960). He also took in commercial commissions, using
Fuku-chan, one of Japan’s most popular newspaper comic strips from 1938 to 1971. Fukusuke's creator Ryuichi Yokoyama, them for experimentation, such as the 1957 beer commercial Once Upon a Time There
Mochinaga’s 1944 Fuku-chan and the Submarine featured Yokoyama’s little boy has received many awards and honors Was Beer, directed by Tadasu Iizawa, which combined puppet animation by Kawamoto
character, and Tezuka acknowledged Yokoyama’s strip as one of his inspirations. throughout his career. His hometown with colored cellophane animation by Ofuji.
In the 1950s Yokoyama decided to expand into animation. After his 1955 Kochi City awarded him as the first In 1958, Mochinaga’s Little Black Sambo Conquers the Tigers (1956) won
Onbu, the Little Goblin proved a hit, he founded the Otogi Production Co. studio in 1956. "Honored Citizen" in 1996 and has built the Best Film Award in the Films for Children category at the first Vancouver International
© Otogi Production Co.

Its first film, Fukusuke (1957), won two awards. Its second, The Sparrow in the Empty the Yokoyama Gallery within a new Film Festival. This led to a contract two years later for Mochinaga to produce stop-motion
Gourd (1959), was a 55-minute featurette, while its third, Otogi’s World Tour (1962) was museum, which it is hoped will become animation for US television for Arthur Rankin Jr.’s Videocraft International, soon to
a 76-minute feature. All featured beautiful color and an imaginative, modernistic art a national center for animation. become Rankin/Bass.

Japanese Commercial and Artistic Animation » 174 Anime » 236 Osamu Tezuka » 238
 VIII

1961–70:

INTERNATIONAL
EXPLOSION
By the 1960s, animation production was a global industry – and distinctive artists of all
stripes had emerged. There was an explosion of frame-by-frame talent, studios and
production. From Zagreb in Yugoslavia and the Pannonia Studio in Hungary, to Bruno
Bozetto in Italy and Osamu Tezuka in Japan, they were joined by exciting animated films
from China, France and Great Britain.
Britain had the most exciting project in the 1960s, Yellow Submarine. With
the Beatles’ blessing, this animated masterpiece fits into the style of the times – one-part
pop art, two-parts psychedelia, with a dash of rock’n’roll. Along with a good story, plenty of
gags and cutting-edge art direction, Yellow Submarine was a cartoon classic, which proved
that an animated feature did not have to be pseudo-Disney.
Walt Disney himself died during this decade, while TV animation grew to new
financial heights – and creative depths. The Flintstones led to The Jetsons, Jonny Quest,
Scooby-Doo and a whole slew of Hanna-Barbarians. Jay Ward brought forth Rocky &
Bullwinkle and Filmation churned out The Archies. The Pink Panther was born – and brought
some life to the theatrical short. Underground independent animation grew as movie
cameras and film equipment got cheaper and easier to access.
A new generation was beginning.

Picture above: The Big Fight © Idéfix. Pictures clockwise from top left: George of the Jungle © Jay Ward Productions Inc.; 101 Dalmations © The Walt Disney Company; Havoc in Heaven © Shanghai Animation Film Studio; Speed Racer © Tatsunoko Productions; Dick Tracy
© UPA Productions/Tribune Media Services; The Mighty Heroes © Terrytoons; The Jungle Book © The Walt Disney Company; Robin Hood © The Walt Disney Company. Centre picture: The Big Fight © Idéfix
200 WEEK AFTER WEEK 201
NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

To some, the television cartoon-factory system established by Hanna-Barbera in the Building
early 1960s signaled the ruination of the American animation industry. The phrase the Factory
"illustrated radio" was coined by purists to describe it. But strictly from an industry Within their rapidly growing studio,
standpoint, without Hanna-Barbera and their ability to keep producing animation at a Hanna’s and Barbera’s personal roles
previously unheard-of level, the American animation business might be very different remained roughly the same as they
today. In fact, it might not even exist. had been at MGM, at least at first.
Barbera, one of the most adept
Animation Takes storymen in animation, would work on
Over the Airwaves developing the story and characters for
The immediate success and influence of Hanna- each cartoon, and more often than not
Barbera on television in general can be measured by supervise the voice-recording sessions.
glancing at the network prime-time television Hanna, a master of animation timing,
schedule of fall 1961, which contained three hours of would take the storyboards and tracks,
animation every week – four hours if Walt Disney’s time them, and oversee the actual
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Wonderful World of Color (formerly Disneyland) animation process. With time, though,
aired an animated program on the Sunday. In Barbera’s duties increasingly included

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
addition to The Flintstones and Hanna-Barbera’s pitching and selling shows to networks
Top Cat (1961), there was Jay Ward’s The Bullwinkle and sponsors, while Hanna’s role
Show, a revamping of his ground-breaking Rocky became more supervisory.
and his Friends (1959); Beany and Cecil (1960), the Two former Disney
signature show of animation’s gonzo genius, Bob Flintstones voice cast artists, Charles A. "Nick" Nichols and
Clampett; The Bugs Bunny Show (1960), which The list of actors who provided the voices for the cast included Mel Iwao Takamoto, joined the staff in the
repackaged vintage Warner Bros. cartoons inside Blanc, who was a one-man who’s who of animation. In The early 1960s, and both were to become
new linking footage created by the studio’s senior Flintstones he was Barney Rubble; previously he had been the key creative forces in the studio.
directors, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mr Magoo, Pepé le Pew, and Nichols, who had won an Oscar for co-
McKimson; The Alvin Show (1961), an animated countless others. He would go on being the voice behind the toon directing (with Ward Kimball) Disney’s
rendition of the popular "singing chipmunk" novelty into the 1980s. The rest of the cast included Alan Reed (Fred), Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,
© Hanna-Babera Studios
records of Ross Bagdasarian; and the forgettable Jean Vander Pyl (Wilma) and Bea Benederet (Betty). became animation director for virtually
Calvin and the Colonel (1961), an animated derivation of the radio chestnut Amos and Fred and Wilma all of Hanna-Barbera’s early shows,
Andy, featuring the original actors Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. The Flintstones was based on the sitcom, The Honeymooners while Takamoto would soon replace Ed
All this was in addition to the series that sprung up for the syndication which ran during the late 1950s. The Flintstones’ success saw the Benedict as the studio’s principal
market, including Art Clokey’s clay-animated Davey and Goliath financed by the release of other prime-time animated shows also based on Jonny Quest character designer.
Lutheran Council of Churches; Terrytoons’ cornpone-flavored Deputy Dawg (1960); and sitcoms: Top Cat was almost identical to Sgt Bilko, and Calvin & Thelong-running newspaper comic strip Terry and the Pirates is Even so, it was
UPA’s rather appalling The Dick Tracy Show (1961), in which the square-jawed police the Colonel was extremely similar to Amos and Andy. credited by Joseph Barbera as being the main inspiration for unquestionably Hanna and Barbera
detective supervised such jokey, racially insulting assistant detectives as "Jo Jitsu" and "Go Jonny Quest, not only for some of the characters but also in the themselves who double-handedly

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
Go Gomez". Animation was also creeping into the burgeoning Saturday morning sharp, angular look of the artwork, the emphasis on scientific battered down the walls that had been
marketplace, with such shows as King Leonardo and His Short Subjects (1960), a regal gadgets and high-tech hardware, and the far-flung, exotic holding back the flood of animation
comedy starring a lion king. locations for the action. on television.

Hanna-Barbera and TV Animation » 178 Saturday Morning TV » 246 UPA and Limited Animation » 146
202 THE PEAK OF PRIME-TIME 203
NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

NORTH AMERICA: HANNA-BARBERA

1961 was the last relatively calm year for the Hanna- Gator, Lippy the Lion and Touché Turtle) as long as they were from Hanna-Barbera. More

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
Barbera studio. Only two new series premiered that child-oriented shows followed, such as Magilla Gorilla (1963) and Peter Potamus (1964).
year: The Yogi Bear Show, which took the popular But with its next prime-time series for ABC, the studio broke completely new ground.
picnic basket-stealing bear from The Huckleberry Jonny Quest (1964) was the first half-hour action adventure ever
Hound Show and gave him his own series; and Top attempted in animation. Because of the realistically drawn characters and settings
Cat, a prime-time half-hour situation comedy about a (it was developed by Doug Wildey, a comic-book artist), it was a tough and
feline con man and his gang of New York alley cats. expensive show to animate, running about $64,000 per half-hour episode. But pre-
This latter show was one part Damon Runyon and two teen Jonny, who traveled the globe with his scientist father, his friend Hadji and his
parts The Phil Silvers Show (1955–59) (otherwise guardian Race Bannon, was an appealing character. The settings were exotic, the villains
known as Sgt. Bilko). were suitably outré, and, in addition, the driving, jazzy theme song by composer Hoyt
Betty Rubble Curtin was one of the best on television.
Top Cat The Flintstones broke new ground in that each episode contained Despite its cancellation after one season, Jonny Quest encouraged

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
Top Cat lasted only one season on ABC, though even one story that lasted a full half-hour. Until the 1960s, cartoons Hanna-Barbera to create more action adventure shows, notably the Saturday morning
before its last episode had aired, a new prime-time were generally only a few minutes long. Half-hour programs series Space Ghost and Dino Boy (1966), which boasted character designs by comic-
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V I I I : 1 9 6 1 – 7 0 : I N T E R N AT I O N A L E X P L O S I O N
animated series, The Jetsons (1962), was launched on used three or four shorts and a live-action wrap-around, usually book artist Alex Toth, and The Herculoids (1967), a science fantasy/adventure.
the same network. In contrast to the "modern Stone Age presented by a friendly “host”, to complete the show.

family" heralded in The Flintstones, The Jetsons presented the ultra-modern, space-age George Jetson Weekends Are Made for Cartoons
family, and as such was able to capitalize on the same kind of visual gags. Whereas in The Jetsons was a reversal of The Flintstones’ formula; the family With the exception of Ruff and Reddy, all of Hanna-Barbera’s shows prior to 1965 had
The Flintstones all modern conveniences were operated by quirky prehistoric creatures, lived at Skypad Apartments, which were raised and lowered Peter Potamus been made either for prime-time or the syndication marketplace. With The Atom
much of the comedy in The Jetsons came from man’s frustrating attempts to live in a according to the weather, in 3000 AD. While most space shows Peter was a friendly hippo who, with his sidekick So So the monkey, Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965), however, the studio began to concentrate on making
world of robotics. Without the same kind of visual gags and conceits to offset its dialogue, contained scary aliens, The Jetsons was a reassuring fantasy of traveled back in time. Peter's voice was provided by Daws Butler, series for Saturday morning, and by the decade’s end they dominated the marketplace.
it could be said that Top Cat had occasionally earned the "illustrated radio" designation. the future. who was also the voice of other H-B characters, including Yogi To keep up with the increasing workload, the studio (for better or worse) pioneered the
The real inspiration for The Jetsons came Bear, Huckleberry Hound, QuickDraw McGraw and Snagglepuss, practice of employing overseas studios, first in Latin America in the late 1960s, and later

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
from Chick Young’s Blondie, particularly in the relationship in Australia, the Philippines and Taiwan.
that hapless George Jetson had with his domineering Then, in 1969, responding to a request from CBS children’s
boss, Mr Spacely. Also – reinforcing the connection – entertainment programmer Fred Silverman for a non-violent comedy
Penny Singleton, who had played Blondie in 28 feature mystery show, Hanna-Barbera responded with one of its all-time
films, provided the voice for Jane Jetson. The Jetsons biggest hits, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (1969), a franchise that
lasted for only one season as well, though the voice cast continues to this day.
was reassembled in 1987 for a series of new episodes. Despite the rise of such competitors as DePatie-Freleng
and Filmation, Hanna-Barbera remained the dominant force on
Animated Action Saturday mornings through the early 1990s, becoming the busiest
Even though more and more Hanna-Barbera cartoons animation studio in the world. At its peak period during the early 1980s,
were appearing on television, the studio’s first real Top Cat the studio turned out an incredible 10,000 feet (305 meters) of
attempt at brand-name marketing came through the Top Cat was another successful Hanna- animation every week. If some of it was derivative and reflected

© Hanna-Barbera Studios
Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series (1962), which Barbera prime-time series. The show was a marketing considerations more than genuine artistic inspiration, or if it
promoted the tacit message that it did not really matter take-off of Phil Silvers’ Sgt Bilko comedies, lacked the fresh, pleasing look of Hanna-Barbera’s early television work,
what the cartoons were (in this case they were Wally with Top Cat himself voiced by Arnold Stang. at least the young audiences for whom it was made did not complain.

Hanna-Barbera and Animation » 180 Late Twentieth-Century Prime-Time » 312 Filmation » 205 DePatie Freleng » 208 Scooby-Doo » 246
204 TV PLAYERS 205
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
The Studios

© UPA Productions/Tribune Media Services

Saturday-morning children’s animation exploded in the 1960s.
And while Hanna-Barbera led the pack with a large array of bona Join the Fight
fide star characters and numerous hit shows, they were unable to It was not just veteran animators who filled the
fill all the slots available for TV cartoons. A large number of other demand for programing – established studios
studios quickly emerged to feed the programing frenzy. themselves jumped into the fray. UPA took
advantage of the new TV market with a series of Mr
Veteran Animators Magoo specials and short cartoons made directly for
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V I I I : 1 9 6 1 – 7 0 : I N T E R N AT I O N A L E X P L O S I O N
Jay Ward, who pioneered TV animation with Crusader Rabbit TV, and they also adapted Dick Tracy (syndicated
back in 1949, had created a sensation with his hilarious 1961) into a popular comedy cartoon series.
adult-skewed Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons in 1959. This led Terrytoons entered the TV field with
to a string of hit shows from Ward Productions, all of which Tom Terrific (CBS, 1957), Deputy Dawg (syndicated
now have a richly deserved cult following: Dudley Do-Right of the © Jay Ward Productions Inc.
1960) and found success with Hector Heathcoate
Mounties (1962), Hoppity Hooper (1965) and George of the Jungle (1967). (NBC, 1963) and The Mighty Heroes (CBS, 1966).
Total Television was run by Jay Ward associate Peter Piech, a man who George of the Jungle There were some one-shot wonders
shared with Ward the use of a Mexican animation studio, Gamma Productions. This led This was a parody of Tarzan, and through it, like all Ward’s among the TV hopefuls. Ed Graham Productions
to the creation of the popular Tennessee Tuxedo (1963) and Go-Go Gophers (1968) for animation, he strove to reach three audiences – pre-school found success adapting General Foods’ Post cereal
CBS, and King Leonardo and His Short Subjects (1960) and Underdog (1964) for NBC. children, who would enjoy the sounds and colors; older children, characters into an ABC series called Linus the
While not as clever as Ward’s shows, these were nonetheless fun, offbeat programs that who would appreciate a storyline packed with fast-moving Dick Tracy Lionhearted (1964). This series caused outrage
garnered big audiences. events; and adults, for whom the clever wordplay and wry This began life as a comic strip. The animated version consisted among parent groups who protested to the FCC and won a ruling to disassociate such
Veteran Looney Tunes director Bob Clampett transformed his Emmy- commentary were intended. of five-minute segments featuring detective Tracy assisted by commercial pitchmen from entertainment programing aimed at kids.
winning puppet show Time for Beany (1950) into a popular animated show for ABC, unlikely sounding supporting characters: Heap O’Calory, Joe Jitsu, Format Films, headed by UPA’s Herb Klynn, produced a couple of
Beany & Cecil in 1962. Clampett’s fondness for puns and his jabs at Disney and Madison Go-Go Gomez, Hemlock Holmes and the Retouchables. noteworthy shows. The Alvin Show (1961) was a prime-time series for CBS based on
Avenue made this a must-see for cartoon fans of any age. the singing chipmunks of recording fame – and established the singing trio as cartoon
Producers Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass hit the big time in the Rocky and Bullwinkle stars. Format’s highly stylized The Lone Ranger (1966) boasted the enormous talents of
early 1960s with their stop-motion special (animated in Japan) Rudolph The verbal interplay between the voice actors is what really stood Disney legends Bill Tytla and Art Babbit. Unfortunately, rushed TV schedules did not
the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964). However, they had been in the animation out with this show. The scripts were cleverly allow any of their genius to shine through.
business for a few years by then, producing various series for TV written, often sly and subversive, and made Hanna-Barbera’s greatest competitor, Filmation, emerged in the
including the stop-motion New Adventures of Pinocchio (syndicated up for the animation, which was often mid-1960s. Lou Scheimer and Norman Prescott, who joined Filmation
1960) and the cel-animated Tales of the Wizard of Oz (syndicated referred to as “illustrated radio”, being Associates in 1962 – creating commercials, movie titles and an ambitious self-
1961). Later Rankin-Bass cartoon series included King Kong (1967) extremely limited. produced feature film, Journey Back to Oz (not completed until 1974) – got a big
and Smokey the Bear (1969), both for ABC. break in 1965. Fred Silverman, then head of children’s programing for CBS, asked them
Former Fleischer animators Joe Oriolo and Hal Seeger to make Superman cartoons for the Saturday-morning schedule in 1966.
set up separate shops in New York City to fill the seemingly unlimited Beany and Cecil The superhero show was a smash hit and led to continuous work for
demand for new TV cartoons. Oriolo had great success with a revival This was Bob Clampett’s one and only successful foray into TV Filmation for over 20 years, rivaling Hanna-Barbera as the leading provider of
of Felix the Cat (1960) and his original take on The Mighty animation. Clampett, one of the most popular cartoon directors American children’s programming. Filmation’s The Archies (1968), based on the
Hercules (1963). Seeger revived Max Fleischer’s Out of the Inkwell at Warner Bros. in the 1930s and 1940s, sucessfully adapted his long-time comic book characters, even produced something Hanna-Barbera
(1962) with Koko the Clown, and kept busy with Milton the satirical wit and zany visual style to TV’s gruelling production never achieved – "Sugar Sugar", one of the very few number-one hit songs to come
Monster (ABC, 1965) and Bat Fink (syndicated 1967). schedule. © Jay Ward Productions Inc. from an animated TV show.

Crusader Rabbit » 132 Saturday Morning TV » 246 Mr Magoo » 148 Terrytoons » 182
206 TV SUPERHEROES 207
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NORTH AMERICA
The turbulent 1960s saw a plethora of superheroes arrive in animated form on the Marvel Comics his powers from taking pills – an irony not lost in the counter-culture. In 1966, King
small screen. Setting the decade’s tongue-in-cheek tone, Batman creator Bob Kane’s The animation in The Marvel Superheroes cannot claim to be Features Syndicate Television and Bob Kane created Cool McCool, a James Bond spoof
Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse debuted in 1960. The obvious satire of Kane’s very advanced, but it did stick closely to the comic book original. featuring a gadget-wielding spy whose good looks covered up his bumbling ways.
earlier creation had Courageous Cat living in the Catcave, driving the Catmobile and In Captain America, most scenes are direct lifts from artist Jack Terrytoons brought 28-year-old Ralph Bakshi into the world of superheroes with The
using the Catgun, which shot anything needed for any given situation (except bullets). Kirby’s unique, bold artwork with the characters cut out and Mighty Heroes, a comic book satire featuring six inept heroes – Strong Man, Diaper Man,
Through 130 episodes, the duo fought various anthropomorphic adversaries, notably shifted back and forth on the frame. Tornado Man, Cuckoo Man, Rope Man and James Hound – who often saved the day by
the Frog, a cigar-chomping, Edgar G. Robinson-esque amphibian. sheer luck. Tom of T.H.U.M.B., produced by Rankin-Bass and animated by Toei
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Company, had shrunken secret agents battling the schemes of M.A.D. (Maladjusted,
Japanese Imports Anti-social and Darn Mean). Rocky & Bullwinkle creators Jay Ward and Bill Scott
The early 1960s saw many futuristic heroes like Cambria Studios’ Space Angel, featuring launched Super Chicken in 1967, starring a Super Sauce-drinking chicken and his trusted
drawn characters with human mouths. However, a profound TV milestone arrived in 1963 feline butler Fred. Former Fleischer animator and Milton the Monster creator Hal Seeger
with Astroboy whose popularity in US syndication was a surprise. Due to the stellar success of created Batfink, a Batman satire featuring the hero with "wings of steel" and his sidekick
this Japanese import, others soon came, including The 8th Man, Gigantor and Speed Racer. Karate, a take on Green Hornet’s Kato. Before premiering Pink Panther, DePatie-Freleng
produced Super President, where the US leader could change into any element.
An Unlikely Hero
In 1964, television viewers were introduced to the phrase "There’s no need to fear, The Mighty Heroes DC Comics and Marvel Comics
Underdog is here!" Produced by Leonardo TV Productions and Total Television and Ralph Bakshi was asked to put together a superhero TV cartoon In 1966, influenced by the success of the campy live-action Batman series, other DC
created by Joe Harris, the long-running Underdog Show starred a mild-mannered series in 1965 by CBS. Full of disdain for this commission, he Comics characters soon arrived in animated form. Filmation’s The Adventures of
beagle and shoeshine boy, who emerged from telephone booths as the rhyming caped created Tornado Man, Cuckoo Man, Rope Man, Strong Man, Superman featured highly dramatic Superman adventures, often featuring guests like
canine (voiced by Wally Cox) whenever star TV reporter Polly Purebred (voiced by James Hound and Diaper Man. Incredibly, CBS loved it, and thus the Atom and Green Arrow. With long-time Superman comic book editor Mort Weisinger
© Marvel Comics Group
Norma MacMillan) fell into the clutches of various villains, including Riff-Raff and Simon was born the short-lived but energetic series The Mighty Heroes. serving as script supervisor, the series reunited the voice cast of the radio series – Bud
Bar-Sinister (both voiced by UPA legend Allen Swift). Collyer (Superman), Joan Alexander (Lois Lane) and Jackson Beck (narrator). In the
Geared toward a younger audience, the series was an second season, the series was renamed The Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure
epitome of the unlikely hero. Spider-Man and renamed again as The Batman-Superman Hour in 1967 when Aquaman received
In 1966, Hanna-Barbera started The superhero began life as a Marvel comic strip and the his own series. However, these shows were soon canceled partly due to the "violence on
churning out superhero-themed cartoons, beginning character was animated by Grantray/Lawrence Animation in television" protests of advocacy group Action for Children’s Television.
with Sinbad Jr., Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel and Space Toronto, Canada. The results were a crudely animated show Marvel Comics heroes Ironman, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, The Hulk
Ghost. This was followed by other short-lived series like which today are considered a kitsch classic. and Thor all arrived in the anthology series The Marvel Superheroes, produced by
Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, Birdman, The Grantray/Lawrence Animation. The series’ limited-animation techniques often led to
Herculoids and Samson and Goliath. These were third- unintentional humor. In 1967, Grantray/Lawrence produced Spider-Man, featuring the
rate superheroes at best, but the shows featured voice famous jazzy theme song and script consulting by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee.
actors like Jonny Quest’s Tim Matheson, Looney Tunes Notably, Disney legend Shamus Culhane and Ralph Bakshi served as producers on the
master Mel Blanc and Scooby-Doo’s Don Messick. Grantray/Lawrence production. That same year, Hanna-Barbera premiered
The Fantastic Four, whose animation now looks dated, but stands as the most accurate
Super Superheroes adaptation yet of the comic-book quartet.

© Marvel Comics Group

Snyder-Koren Productions debuted Roger Ramjet in © Terrytoons
Many of the 1960s superheroes have been forgotten, due to silly story
1965, featuring broadcaster Gary Owens as the lines and low production values, yet the "it’s so bad, it’s good" factor has influenced many
mock-heroic Roger. Like Underdog, Ramjet received postmodern cartoon makers.

Japanese TV Animation » 236 TV Toons » 316 Ralph Bakshi » 244

208 DEPATIE-FRELENG & PINK PANTHER 209
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NORTH AMERICA
© DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
by both a glove (representing David Niven’s Phantom character) and a mustachioed
detective, the first animated incarnation of Peter Sellers’ soon-to-be immortal Inspector
Clouseau. The credits were as widely praised as the film itself, if not more so, and on
December 18 of the same year, the Panther debuted in his first solo cartoon, The Pink
Phink. Thus what was arguably the last significant theatrical cartoon series had begun.
Blake Edwards’ role was acknowledged – his name would appear above
the title throughout the 1960s. The Henry Mancini score was also retained, with

© DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
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arrangements by Bill Lava or Walter Greene.
The most engaging aspect of the Panther cartoons, in fact, is their return
to animation’s roots in pantomimed movement accompanied by music. In The Pink
Phink, the panther continually disrupts the efforts of an architect to build and paint a blue
home, repainting the walls, floors, etc., with his trademark pink. The architect is depicted
as a drab, shapeless, pale white little man with a beaky nose and bushy mustache. In a
By the 1960s, most of the major animation studios had shut down their divisions or The Pink Panther The Inspector variety of guises and with the occasional slight design change, he would return as the
were severely curtailing production. However, theatrical animation continued to thrive Friz Freleng had trouble finding the perfect voice for the pink cat and This series of shorts featured the Inspector character (who was panther’s foil or nemesis and was the only other recurring character in the series.
in features and even more often through engaging main credit sequences for live- decided to leave him silent (except for Pink Ice and Sink Pink). When not as clumsy as his live-action counterpart), Sergeant Deux-

action films. This practice, which dates at least as far back as the 1940s, led to the birth a third series was made, his voice was provided by Matt Frewer. Deux (inspired by Clouseau’s taciturn sidekick) and the An International Cat and Film Icon
of the Pink Panther. Commissioner. Their humor derives mainly from the injuries Though far less lush than Freleng’s earlier work, the short’s colorful design and simple
The Pink Panther – model sheet they all receive from the bizarre villains that are featured. pantomime, along with Freleng’s reputation, may have contributed to an Academy Award
New Directions The cool, contemporary style of the design and graphics, Henry for Best Short Subject for that year, an excellent start to the series. Though dialogue would
By the time Warner Bros. had closed its in-house studio in 1963, director Friz Freleng had Mancini’s distinctive theme music and the pantomime comedy The Ant and the Aardvark surface in eight subsequent cartoons (including two with Rich Little giving the Panther a Rex
joined with Warner Bros. executive David DePatie (b. 1935) to form DePatie-Freleng were a complete departure from the cheaply made theatrical Seen on segments of The New Pink Panther Show, The Ant and the Harrison-esque voice), the series in the main relied on the jazz music and the Panther’s
Enterprises. They retained many of Freleng’s old co-workers, including director Robert cartoons created by competitors. Rather than being targeted at Aardvark was concerned with a hungry purple aardvark who spent suave, laid-back walking movements. This allowed for greater success internationally.
McKimson (1910–77), layout man Hawley Pratt (1911–99) and animator Norm children, these sophisticated shorts appealed more to adults. the duration of the show trying to catch a diminutive red ant. The year 1964 also saw the release of the second Clouseau film, A Shot
McCabe (b. 1911 ). The new studio would eventually be hired by Warner to produce a in the Dark, which again featured jazzy Mancini music and an animated star, a
series of rather crude new cartoons featuring Daffy Duck, Road Runner and other redesigned Sellers/Clouseau caricature designed by DePatie-Freleng but animated by

© DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
established characters. the crew of George Dunning (1920–79), director of Yellow Submarine. Again, a spin-off
However, DePatie-Freleng soon became active in producing and/or designing was born; the Clouseau character, now known only as the Inspector, voiced by Pat
animated film titles and other graphics, mostly for United Artists, which would subsequently Harrington Jr. and accompanied by the Mancini theme, would feature in over 20 shorts
distribute the team’s original theatrical series. For their first assignment in this regard, live- between 1965 and 1969. As in the film, he was often at odds with his increasingly
action comedy director Blake Edwards (b. 1922) hired the firm to produce animation for the harried and near-homicidal superior.
caper comedy The Pink Panther (released in the US in March 1964). The film’s title was Concurrently with the Panther series, MGM tried to resurrect pantomime
derived from a famous diamond with a flaw resembling a limping panther. on their own, with Chuck Jones directing new Tom and Jerry shorts, but these cartoons
were oddly reliant on vocal effects over pantomime. Though the Panther series soon

© DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
Classic Credits went into television, new shorts continued to be released theatrically, outlasting Walter
For the opening and closing, Freleng, Hawley Pratt and others created a distinctively Lantz’s declining Woody Woodpecker which ended in 1972. After the series folded in
suave and debonair panther character, accompanying an equally distinctive theme by 1980, the panther would resurface in various TV incarnations and paint advertisements,
Henry Mancini. The character engagingly cavorted through the credits and was pursued and still remains a distinctive film icon.

Freleng and Daffy Duck » 84 Tom and Jerry » 94 Woody Woodpecker » 96 George Dunning and Yellow Submarine » 218
210 THE DISNEY STUDIO: AFTER WALT 211
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

As Disney’s restlessness moved the company into new fields in The Wilderness Years
the 1950s, he had less time to devote to animation. The villains of Disney films like 101 Dalmatians and The Jungle Book were ruthless
Sleeping Beauty was supposed to be released in would-be killers. Once Walt Disney was gone, Reitherman’s villains in The Aristocats
1955, but due to the work that the animation (1970) and Robin Hood (1973) were a disgruntled butler and a thumb-sucking
studio did for Disneyland and for television, mommy’s boy, an indication of how lightweight the films had become. The animators,
the film was not ready until 1959. The long though still great performers, were stuck with weak material.
production schedule added There was also pressure from upper management to control costs. This
to the film’s costs; it was led to re-using animation from earlier films. In The Jungle Book, there were scenes of
the studio’s most Mowgli that were re-drawn scenes of Wart from The Sword in the Stone. The chase after
expensive animated King Louie’s song in The Jungle Book was lifted from Ichabod and Mr Toad. The Aristocats
feature up to that time, used animation pinched from 101 Dalmatians, and in Robin Hood, Maid Marian’s
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© The Walt Disney Company
and it was a box office dancing was animation taken from Snow White.
disappointment. As a result, Few new artists were hired in the years after Sleeping Beauty. At the same
there were significant layoffs in time, the crew was losing artists to death and retirement. At the time of Disney’s death,
the animation department. the remaining crew was only able to produce a new feature every three years.

© The Walt Disney Company

The artists realized that if they did not train a new generation, then Disney
A Break from Tradition Robin Hood animation would die with them. The studio started recruiting from art schools, and
The next film, 101 Dalmatians (1961), was a break from the past in several ways. It was This was the first Disney feature to be conceived, written and veteran animator Eric Larsen took charge of
the first feature to use the Xerox process to transfer the animators’ drawings onto acetate directed entirely without Walt Disney’s input. Disney had been the training program within the studio.
instead of tracing them by hand. Art director Ken Anderson exploited the look of looking to do an all-animal animated feature based on the

xerography by designing a feature that relied heavily on lines, even in the backgrounds. legend of Robin Hood since the early 1930s. His live-action The The New Generation
The film also marked the directorial debut of Wolfgang Reitherman, who co-directed Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men from 1954 served as The Rescuers (1977) was the last hurrah of
with veterans Ham Luske and Gerry Geronimi. narrative inspiration for the animated version, although it was Disney’s artists and the freshman effort for
Starting with The Sword and the Stone (1963), Reitherman became the more dramatic. many of the new recruits. For the first time
sole director of the Disney animated features. Unfortunately, Reitherman was not an since 101 Dalmatians, Reitherman shared
ambitious storyteller; his films lacked narrative drive and shied away from large Cruella De Vil directing credit (with John Lounsbery and Art
emotions. The Sword in the Stone was the weakest Disney animated feature up to that The Xerox process, used on 101 Dalmatians, meant that the Stevens), and the results were much
time. It contained some excellent animation by Milt Kahl and Frank Thomas, but the drawings used in the film retained much of the vigor of the improved. The film contained stronger
story was episodic and the climax was woefully under-developed. animator’s original drawing. Rather than being traced by an emotions and more excitement than any film
After working on Mary Poppins (1964), the animation crew began work inker, a cleaned-up copy of the animator’s artwork was copied since 101 Dalmatians. The veterans had
on The Jungle Book (1967). Disney’s hand was still present in various ways. He was directly by a photocopying process. rallied for their last effort and were able to go
responsible for the casting of Phil Harris as the voice of Baloo. He also eliminated a out with their heads held high.
sequence with a rhino that he felt was too active after the sequence with King Louie. The Rescuers marked the end
Walt Disney died during the production, and the crew finished the film 101 Dalmatians of an era. Walt Disney was dead and his key

© The Walt Disney Company

without him. While one is tempted to think of it as Walt Disney’s last animated feature, This was the first Disney feature film in which the Xerox process was animation personnel were no longer at the
animation historian Michael Barrier has pointed out how much The Jungle Book has in used, making possible the complex animation it contains. It also set studio. Now, it was up to a new management
common with the other films that Reitherman directed. While Disney’s influence was the visual style of Disney animation – a scratchy, hard outline – for and a new generation of artists to continue
there, it did not dominate the film the way it had in the past. years until the technology advanced enough to allow a softer look. the Disney legacy.

Walt Disney’s Legacy » 212 The Jungle Book » 212 Post-War Disney » 120 The New Disney » 276
212 WALT DISNEY’S LEGACY 213
NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

NORTH AMERICA: DISNEY

When Walt Disney died in 1966, the whole world
mourned. Two generations of people around the
globe had grown up watching his films. People saw
him on television every week in shows like
Disneyland and The Wonderful World of Color.
Children read books or comic books featuring the
Disney characters and listened to recordings of
Disney songs. Their parents read Disney comic strips
in newspapers and thought about taking the family
for a holiday at Disneyland.
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A Visionary Leader
While Walt Disney Productions was a publicly owned
company, it still revolved around the creative © The Walt Disney Company

leadership of Walt Disney. He was the visionary who Guiding Force

drove the company forward. He had brought sound Walt Disney had gathered an army of creative
and color to animation and expanded it from short The Jungle Book talent around him – artists, film-makers,
subjects to feature-length cartoons. He increased the This was the last feature Disney supervised, but it was also designers and engineers – but he was the
studio’s output by moving into live action. After the the first Disney animated feature to base the major general who gave the orders. As
war, when other movie studios were afraid of characters on the voice artists’ personalities. They were animator and storyman Dick Huemer
television, Disney embraced it. He understood the allowed to ad-lib and alter their lines to suit their own recalled, "We all went to work for Disney
concept of marketing synergy before the term had personas and speech rhythms, and the story was as dedicated people who appreciated
been coined and used television to promote his films. altered as they worked. what he was trying to do and felt we were
He re-imagined the amusement park and invented in on something historic. Like disciples who
the theme-park industry. might have worked with Michelangelo, we

© The Walt Disney Company

In the years before his death, Walt were part of a thing that was maybe going to last and
Disney was not resting on his laurels. If anything, he that had a chance to be remembered”.
was busier than ever. In 1964, Mary Poppins became With Walt Disney’s death, the
the studio’s biggest live-action success, garnering company lost its creative engine. His brother Roy had
13 Academy Award nominations. Now that worked miracles to finance Walt’s ideas, but while Roy
Disneyland was up and running, Disney starting planning another theme park for Walt and Mickey took charge of the company, he was no match for Walt
Florida, one that would be larger and benefit from the knowledge gained in building Walt Disney’s legacy to the animation industry has been profound. as an innovator. Everywhere in the company, the question
Disneyland. Disney saw the 1964 New York World’s Fair as a laboratory for Disneyland His studio set the standard for personality character animation, he was "What would Walt do?" Unfortunately, Walt was not
and contributed several attractions. One exhibit crossed animation with robotics: an made early use of Technicolor and he explored the relationship there to answer.
audio-animatronic figure of Abraham Lincoln reciting the Gettysburg Address. between visuals and music. He was also the first to make an In all of the years since his death, there has been
At the time of his death, Disney was planning EPCOT, which stood for animated feature in the US. no one to replace Walt Disney. He remains the single-most
"experimental prototype community of tomorrow". Over the course of his life he had important person in the history of animation, as well as a major
gone from doodling cartoon characters to designing cities. figure in twentieth-century popular culture.

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse » 34 Walt Disney and Color » 56 Disney and Computer Animation » 268 Disney Strikes Back » 304
214 JOHN & FAITH HUBLEY 215
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NORTH AMERICA: INDEPENDENT VOICES

John Hubley began his animation career at Disney in 1935 and left after lines. This type of dialogue was later seen in films such as the Oscar-winning The Hole
the 1941 strike for Screen Gems, where he became a director. This was (1962), about a conversation between two construction workers about nuclear war,
followed by a stint with the Army Air Force’s First Motion Picture Unit. In voiced by Dizzy Gillespie and actor George Matthews; The Hat (1964), which deals with
1944 he joined UPA, where he directed some of its most important films, the problems of national borders; and Windy Day (1968), which explores the world of
including Rooty Toot Toot (1952). After being forced to leave because of the childhood using the voices of the Hubleys’ two daughters.
Hollywood blacklist, he became involved in an unsuccessful attempt to Their other films include two educational features, Of Stars and Men

© The Hubley Studio, Inc.

make an animated version of Finian’s Rainbow. Faith Elliot Hubley (1961), in collaboration with Harlow Shapley, and Everybody Rides the Carousel
(1924–2001), John’s second wife, entered the film industry at 18 as a (1976). Faith finished production of A Doonesbury Special (1977), based on the Gary
messenger at Columbia Pictures. She eventually worked herself up to Trudeau comic strip, after John died, and it became their seventh film to be nominated
becoming script supervisor on James Wong Howe’s Go Man Go (1954) and for an Oscar.
Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957), which she also edited.

© The Hubley Studio, Inc.

Going It Alone
A Fruitful Partnership After John’s death, Faith continued making films, bringing her own sensibility to the fore
When they got married in 1955, the Hubleys promised to always eat dinner and inspiring a whole new generation of women film-makers, including her daughter
with their children and make one independent film a year. To do the latter, The Hubleys Emily. If anything, her films were more personal than those made with John, being more

© The Hubley Studio, Inc.

they established Storyboard Productions in New York to produce commercials and Through their films, the Hubleys’ ultimate goal was "to increase meditative than narrative in structure; they also frequently used visual imagery from
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educational films. Their resulting collaboration proved to be one of the most fruitful of awareness, to warn, to humanize, to elevate vision, to suggest different cultures and employed a vibrant color palette. Although she continued to use
the post-war era, and helped define the nature and scope of independent animation in goals, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our jazz, Faith’s films did not feature much in the way of dialogue.
the United States. It also helped inspire a renaissance of theatrical animation in relationship to one another". Her first solo effort
New York. was W.O.W. (Women of the World,
Though they made a series of popular TV commercials for such clients as The Hat 1975) – made after she was
Ford, Maypo and Bank of America, they are better known for their highly personal shorts, This depicted the absurdity of war and the arms race, and diagnosed with cancer – which
which began with the The Adventures of * (1955), a film that created something of a employed the Hubleys’ non-traditional techniques, using a blend presents "a creative history of the
sensation. The story is of a baby, represented by a "*" symbol, and how his appreciation of watercolor, wax crayons, multiple exposures and lighting from earth from a feminist point of view".
of the visual world changes as he grows up. beneath the camera, which resulted in a spontaneous appearance Other films include Sky Dance
and emphasized their characteristic free-form graphic approach. (1980), which featured animated
All About the Music versions of prehistoric and primitive
In this and other films, they explored a whole new visual vocabulary, often inspired by Windy Day art; The Big Bang and Other Creation
their soundtracks; this resulted in a free-form visual style, where graphic elements often A central thread that ran through the Hubleys’ films was the Myths (1981), a self-styled new-
seemed to float in the air. In particular, this style essentially illustrated improvised importance of children as people. This film used the musings of John age presentation of creation myths
dialogue and/or music from jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson and and Faith’s daughters and attempted to capture the real world of from around the world; Yes, We Can
Quincy Jones. The jazz element was clearly seen in their second film, Harlem children on film rather than what children do that adults think is cute. (1988), an environmental plea to
Wednesday (1957), which featured the music of Benny Carter, and Tender Game save the Earth; the autobiographical
(1958), which used Ella Fitzgerald’s version of ‘Tenderly’. Northern Ice, Golden Sun My Universe Inside Out (1996); and
More important was the Oscar-winning Moonbird (1959), a loosely told Faith Hubley’s last film displayed her trademarks: the lyrical Northern Ice, Golden Sun (2001), a

© The Hubley Studio, Inc.

tale of two children chasing a bird at night, which had dialogue improvised by their nature of her work and the influence of the art of primitive poetic look at the Inuits’ attachment
young children. John’s interest in such dialogue probably dates back to Ragtime Bear cultures, as well as the more sophisticated glyph languages of to their environment, finished just
(1949) at UPA, when he had Jim Backus, the voice of Mr Magoo, improvise many of his modern painters like Paul Klee and Joan Miró. before she died.

Cartoons Go to War » 90 UPA and Limited Animation » 146 Joanna Quinn » 326
216 JOHN & JAMES WHITNEY 217
NORTH AMERICA: INDEPENDENT VOICES

NORTH AMERICA: INDEPENDENT VOICES

The Whitney brothers, John (1917–95) and James (1921–82), pioneers in American Catalog
independent animation, are noted not only for their abstract films, but also for laying This became a popular classic of 1960s psychadelia, and

the groundwork for the whole field of computer animation and digital special effects. featured a curve, multiplied dozens of time, appearing in a

twisting wave, reminiscent of a blossoming flower.

Myriad Techniques
While in Paris in 1937–38, John studied 12-tone music and animation of abstract
designs. Upon returning to the US in 1939, he joined with James, a painter, to make their
first film, Twenty-Four Variations (1940), an 8 mm abstract film using circles and
triangles. Production of this was made possible by an optical printer that John built. Their
next and final collaboration comprised five abstract film exercises (1940–45), considered
masterpieces of abstract animation, in which they photographed light rather than

© and courtesy of the estate of John & James Whitney

illuminated images. In addition, John created sound directly on film – a technique later
developed by Norman McLaren.
Also anticipating McLaren’s paint-on-film techniques were a series of
films John made by photographing drawn images on an oil-coated luminous surface,
then adding colors during printing; these included Mozart Rondo (1949), Hot House
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© and courtesy of the estate of John & James Whitney
(1949) and Celery Stalks at Midnight (1951). In 1952, he founded Motion Graphics, Inc.
to produce commercial films, moving to UPA as a director in 1955 before working as a
film specialist at the Charles and Ray Eames Studio; he also designed the title sequence
for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).
Beginning in 1959, he began to use a World War Two gun sight,
essentially a simple analog computer, to produce visual effects. They were assembled in
Catalog 1961, designed to demonstrate the commercial viability of the process. These
© and courtesy of the estate of John & James Whitney
and other experiments led to IBM in 1966, resulting in such
pioneering computer/optical printer films as Permutations Lapis works ever made. Yantra (1955) is described as a series of "quasi-musical variations
(1966), the Matrix series during the early 1970s and Lapis was made with John Whitney's prototype motion-control of implosions and explosions" and, like his other films, is conceived as a
Arabesque (1975). In 1986, he helped develop a computer camera. Motion-control meant that a camera could be programmed visual/spiritual experience. He returned to painting before finishing Lapis (1965),
program designed to combine computer graphics and to shoot an image over and over with subtle variations. In Lapis a which again used images derived from a series of points; while he did use his
music composition, which aimed to match "tonal action configuration of 250 dots, via calibrated camera rotations and color brother’s computer-guided camera equipment during production, the images
with graphic action". filters, cascade and dance kaleidoscopically. themselves were handcrafted.
James’s last project, left unfinished when he died, was a tetralogy
A Spiritual Experience representing the four primary elements: fire, water, air and earth. The first, Dwija (1976)
After collaborating with his brother, James Whitney uses images of a bird being reborn, bathed in liquid light, while the climatic image in Wu
devoted himself to "poetic research", including the study Yantra Ming (1977) is of a black circle gradually shrinking until it disappears, creating a feeling
of oriental philosophy, Jungian psychology and quantum Painstakingly drawn by hand, this film takes its title from a of grandiosity. Kang Jing Xiang (1982) is perhaps best described by translating the title
physics. From the time he returned to film-making in the Sanskrit word for “machine” or prayer wheel, and melds ancient as "what is seen during a lustrous religious ecstasy", and features contrasts between
1950s until his death, he made only five films, which are mysticism to the sublime visual effects of ultrasmooth misty and bright, pulsing images. Unfortunately, James died before completing the last
considered among the finest non-objective cinematic mathematical motion. film in the project, but the three that exist offer fascinating viewing.

Oskar Fischinger » 68 Norman McLaren » 102

218 YELLOW SUBMARINE 219
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Although not actually the first
animated cartoon to jump on
the Beatles’ bandwagon,
Yellow Submarine still stands
out as a landmark in cult-
animation history.

What’s It
All About?
The prolog takes place in the
mythical region of Pepperland,
where everything is tranquil
and echoes to the sound of
laughter and the music of Sgt
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Pepper’s band. A hostile sneak
attack by the music-loathing
Blue Meanies leaves the band
encased in a bubble and the

© Subafilms Ltd.
inhabitants frozen in time. Old
Fred is the only one who
© Subafilms Ltd.

manages to escape the wrath

of the Blue Meanies and goes to find help, making his exit in the very vehicle that had ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sequence Small-Screen Beginnings
brought their forefathers to Pepperland, a flying yellow submarine. Fred successfully One of Yellow Submarine’s signature innovations was its unique The Beatles’ widespread popularity in the 1960s captured the public’s imagination on
takes the sub to the rain-sodden streets of Liverpool, where he encounters Ringo and method of merging live-action photography with animation. both sides of the Atlantic. Apart from enjoying their music, one could also read special
begs his assistance. Soon John, George and Paul are rounded up and they set off in the This process was showcased in the ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sequence, magazines about them, buy their merchandise and watch their antics in live-action films
yellow submarine on a journey to Pepperland, a land lying firmly beneath the jackboot where realistic images from newsreel footage, cut-out figures such as A Hard Day’s Night and Help! Another spin-off of their success was an animated
of the despotic Blue Meanies. and photographs of Liverpool were blended, rather than just television series featuring the band. This premiered in 1965, and was engineered by
Finally disembarking at their destination, the foursome prepare for the superimposed, to give striking perspective to the scenes and Al Brodax, King Features Syndicate’s producer, and made in part at TV Cartoons (TVC) in
battle by first freeing the trapped band with a rousing chorus of ‘All You Need Is Love’, fantastic effects to the story. London. Around this time, the Beatles were under contract to
which brings the life back into the populace of Pepperland. This takes the Meanies by supply three feature films to United Artists, but found
surprise and a battle ensues. The outcome has the villains and their cohorts being finally themselves too busy with other projects to complete
© Subafilms Ltd.

routed and the Chief Meanie’s views drastically altered as he realizes that love and music The Fab Four – heads Pilot the deal. It was not long before
are not really the demons he imagined them to be. With the return of serenity in Chief artist Heinz Edelmann brought his unique vision to the pacing Poster artist Heinz Edelmann’s highly stylized drawing entrepreneur Brodax heard of this
Pepperland, a celebration in music and song takes place with the Fab Four and their of the film to infuse it with a heightened sense of excitement and characterized this feature. Director George Dunning did not want situation and, based on the success of
counterparts joining in with ‘All Too Much’. vibrant immediacy. He thought that the film should be a series of the artwork to be too cartoon in style, or too realistic. Edelmann’s the television series, convinced Brian
In a filmed epilogue, the Beatles appear and comment on the film. John interconnected shorts, as it would keep the interest going until the drawings were neither. His images were bold, not cuddly, his Epstein that the third film could be
claims that “newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted" and that the best reply is to go end. It was an effective approach, and a technique that broadened colors were bright, not pastel, and his characters were animated. So was born Yellow
out on a song... ‘All Together Now!’ the visual imagination of animated films. rectangular, not circular. Submarine (1968).

Animal Farm » 166 TVC » 326

220 TVC’s MASTERPIECE 221
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
A plot for Yellow Submarine was structured around the lyrics of the Beatles’
eponymous song. King Features fronted the money, George Dunning was asked to
direct the feature at his London-based studio, TVC, and the project got off the ground.

Teething Problems
Although several top writers were brought in to provide story treatment, they also had to
gain the approval of the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, who was notoriously difficult.
Tom Stoppard, Ian la Frenais and Joe Orton were considered to help construct a story;
even Catch 22 author Joseph Heller had a stab at scripting it, only to be met by Epstein’s
indifference. Finally the writing settled on a Yale academic, Erich Segal. He was asked to
provide a screenplay, but even then, Liverpool poet Roger McGough was later called in to
help iron it out.
Although the Beatles supplied four new songs for the voyage, they
maintained their lack of enthusiasm for the project. This complacency was founded on
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their disappointment with the television series which, although popular with the viewers,
fell short of expectations. They imagined the feature to be a prolonged version of what
they had seen on the TV screen and were keen to keep their distance. After seeing the
completed film, however, the Beatles changed their opinions and have regarded it with
fond affection ever since.

Swinging Sixties Style

The illustrator Heinz Edelmann was brought in to lend his kaleidoscopic graphic designs
to help capture the essential "flower power" spirit of the Swinging Sixties. Apart from his
© Subafilms Ltd.
design of the Beatles themselves, Edelmann created an extraordinary and bizarre
collection of monsters and villains, such as the Dreadful Flying Glove; the Snapping Turtle Yellow Submarine to moderate their Liverpool accents to a “transatlantic" sound, as he was under the
Turk, whose stomach becomes the jaws of a shark; the huge, furry Butterfly Stomper; Yellow Submarine was the first animated feature to star real impression that no American would be able to understand them. The actors stuck to their

© George Dunning/TVC London

and the 40-foot-tall Apple Bonkers, who disarm their enemies by dropping huge apples people in animated form. It famously went into production guns, however, and remained determinedly Liverpudlian.
on them from a great height. without a final script, or a final storyboard. Pre-production and To help the fun along there are many in-jokes to spot along the way: the
The direction, credited to George Dunning, but carried out chiefly by Bob development lasted 13 months, running through 14 different US Cavalry riding to the rescue, guest appearances by King Features’ own comic-strip
Balser and Jack Stokes, was stylish and experimental. They used everything from script drafts and utilizing 40 animators and 140 technical staff. characters, Frankenstein’s monster, King Kong, Albert Einstein, reference to the Hamlet
traditional animation to photographic montages in the ‘Eleanor Rigby’ section, plus a The actual shooting period was then condensed into a frantic cigar commercials and even mention of the Rolling Stones, who were considered as rivals
sparkling combination of Rotoscope and watercolors for the ‘Lucy in the Sky with Flying Man 11-month schedule. in those days. The Chief Meanie’s accomplice is called Blue Max after a coveted World
Diamonds’ sequence. Flying Man was a witty and technically innovative film made by War One medal and a recent award-winning movie.
George Dunning in 1962. Using his experimental impulses, he The whole production was completed within a year in London and the US
"A Magnificent Pop Trifle" delineated characters and props – a man who can fly, a man and within a budget of one million dollars, far less than the normal cost at that time for such
As the Beatles were busy elsewhere, three Liverpool actors were brought in to supply their who cannot, a coat, a dog – through loose watercolour an immense project. Once described as “a magnificent pop trifle", Yellow Submarine’s vivid
voices. Paul Angelis played Ringo, John Clive was John Lennon, Geoff Hughes was Paul brushstrokes floating in space without any defining lines. The film colors, psychedelic designs and use of the Beatles’ popular melodies amounted to a sure-fire
and a non-actor, Peter Batten, was heard as George. Al Brodax had tried to get the actors won the Grand Prix at Annecy's International Animation Festival. success, and outshone anything else that was on on the screens in that era.

George Dunning and the National Film Board of Canada » 160 Richard Williams » 188 TVC » 326
222 BRUNO BOZZETTO 223
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y
When the award-winning Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto (b. 1938) first decided to Mr Rossi A Talented Team
venture into the world of animated films, the "home-grown" cartoon was practically Bozzetto’s hapless middle-aged character brought him great Bozzetto’s films have always been loyally supported by an equally valuable production
unheard of in Italy. Inspired by the simple graphics of the Disney short Toot, Whistle, success: Mr Rossi is a man in whom most of the audience staff, including storyman Guido Manuli; scene designers Giovanni Mulazzani and Giancarlo
Plunk and Boom, the amateur film-maker sat down to make his own creations with regonizes itself. Bozzetto made numerous shorts and three Cereda; animators Giuseppe Laganà, Sergio Chesani and Franco Martelli; film editor
homemade equipment constructed by his father. feature films chronicling the mishaps, small triumphs and Giancarlo Rossi; and cinematographer Luciano Marzetti, among countless other talents.
adventures of Mr Rossi and his dog Harold, By the late 1970s he had completed the third of his animated features,
Critical Success Allegro Non Troppo (1977). This film embodies much irony and a dash of violence,
With his first experimental film completed, Tapum! La Storia Delle Armi (‘Tapum! The allowing Bozzetto to vent his own
Story of Weapons’, 1958), he considered it worthwhile enough to have it entered at particular brand of quirky outrage by
the Cannes Film Festival. Greeted by a favorable review from the Italian critic Pietro touching the untouchable with this
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Bianchi, this was encouragement enough for the young Bruno to make more shorts for parody of Disney’s Fantasia. Allegro
his own enjoyment. contains half-a-dozen musical
Tapum! was followed by The History of Inventions (1959) and Alpha- fables of modern-day Italy set to
Omega (1960), all accomplished in his spare time while concurrently pursuing an the music of Debussy, Dvorák, Ravel,
education in law and later in geology, with Bozzetto displaying little interest in either. Sibelius, Vivaldi and Stravinsky.
© Bruno Bozzetto
When his schooling was over, Bozzetto plunged headlong into the world of advertising,
which allowed him to indulge in a sideline of making funny entertainment shorts. A Varied Output
Soon to follow was the much cherished Striptease (1977) in which a live-action
A Foray into Features striptease artiste shows the effect she can have on an animated audience. La Piscina
Attracted by the unknown territory of feature-films, he soon completed his first (‘The Swimming Pool’, 1978) involves fragmented blackout gags with swimmers.
hand-drawn feature, West and Soda (1965), which simultaneously satirized Helping to boost the Olympic Games, Bozzetto’s Sigmund (1985)
and paid homage to American Westerns. Acquiring a taste for feature cartoons, conveys the imagination of a small boy watching the Olympics on television. With each
Bozzetto soon completed another, VIP, Mio Fratello Superuomo (‘VIP, My event, he becomes the athlete he sees, until his mother tells him to turn it off… and from
Superhuman Brother’, 1968), which envisioned a whole household of comic West and Soda that point, Sigmund (Freud) begins his fascination with psychoanalysis.
strip superheroes. In this film, Bozzetto both satirized and paid homage to the Although his foundation lies in slapstick, Bruno Bozzetto’s humor also
Along the way, the Milanese film-maker also found the time to craft a American Western. A sleepy desert town, a nasty local land-baron, carries an edge of bitter irony to it, revealing a pointed wit that seems even more
series of amusing and entertaining shorts for Italian television, centered around the ill- a damsel in distress and a lonesome cow-poke all feature in this prevalent in the twenty-first century. Still involved with cartoon production, Bozzetto’s
fated Mr Rossi, the luckless protagonist. The resourceful bourgeois is for ever seen as an perennial struggle over the territories of the land and the heart. output has lessened in recent years – but his work still retains a satirical bite.

© Bruno Bozzetto
innocent battling against the elements, whether it be on a camping trip, at the seaside,
on a trip to Venice, with a new car or even in the Milan traffic. Whatever the situation,
Rossi just cannot win.
Often taken with a pinch of bitter irony, Bozzetto’s product can usually Tapum!
make us look at ourselves, and Sottaceti (‘Pickles’, 1971) was no exception, presenting a Made when Bozzetto was 20, this short brought him to

collection of themes as disparate as hunger, electricity, war and military victories. Made international recognition. To make it, he used rudimentary

with Bozzetto’s constant right-hand man Guido Manuli (b. 1939), Opera (1973) equipment, propping his camera up on an ironing-board while

mercilessly knocks down the age-old traditions by poking fun at Italian lyric opera, he worked.

© Bruno Bozzetto
resulting in an uproarious string of high-class musical blackout gags. This won him the
prize for films for youth at the Annecy Animation Festival.

Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom » 154 Allegro Non Troppo » 254
224 ASTÉRIX 225
WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

In the late 1950s, René Goscinny and Albert Underzo founded Pilote, a new magazine Astérix et Cleopâtre coupled with Underzo’s meticulous attention to detail on subjects such as history,
that appeared on the newsstands for the first time on October 29, 1959. Notably this In the 1960s, Belvision, which made this film, was one of architecture and uniforms, amounted to a hit.
issue featured the first appearance of a powerful little mustachioed character whose Europe’s largest animation studios, and transformed many

popularity was soon to sweep the country: Astérix, Champion of the Gauls. comic strips to feature-length animation, including this one. This Gallic Strength
delicate transformation was not always made without a clash, The character of Astérix is a feisty Frenchman living in Roman France. He is the Gallic
René Goscinny and while they were too literal and graphically hybrid, they had counterpart of Popeye the Sailor, inasmuch as he is strong and lives on his wits, but with
Writer René Goscinny (1926–77) was born in Paris, although his parents soon moved to a certain charm and garnered remarkable success. a little bit of extra strength courtesy of a Druid’s magic potion. The Gauls’ community is
Argentina where he was educated in Buenos Aires. At the age of 17 he secured a job as centered around a meager village where they try to live in peaceful harmony, but are
an assistant book-keeper but, dissatisfied with that, he moved to New York in 1945 and forever being pestered by the invading Roman legions. Julius Caesar is the chief thorn in
spent three years working for an import and export firm. the side of the villagers and vice versa. Caesar wants to conquer Gaul, and this tiny village
Finally realizing what he wanted to do, Goscinny managed to get a job in and its inhabitants are the only things that stand in his way of making the country part
© Idéfix
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an art studio, where he rubbed shoulders with cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder of the Roman Empire.
and John Severin. Here he also met Belgian artists Jijé (Joseph Gillian) and Morris The Big Fight: flying man Astérix’s oversized buddy, Obelix, is rumored to have fallen into the Druid’s
(Maurice de Bevère), who asked him if he would like to be the scriptwriter for the new This was based on two popular Astérix comic books: Astérix and pot of magic potion as a child, thus providing him with an immutable strength. Together,
cowboy comic strip Lucky Luke. the Big Fight and Astérix and the Soothsayer. these two set out with Obelix’s dog, Dogmatix, to travel the world and prevent the
© Belvision
Romans from taking it for themselves.
Albert Underzo
Albert Underzo (b. 1927), a Frenchman of Big-Screen Success
Italian parentage, started creating comics for In the late 1960s, an animated feature was produced by Belvision, a production company
fashionable magazines at the age of 19. The Big Fight: Astérix dedicated to cinema and television production. Their first adaptation was Astérix le Gaulois
Interrupted by his military service, Underzo Numerous versions of this film were made for the different (‘Astérix the Gaul’, 1967). Originally intended for television viewing but finally released
continued his artistic career for International language markets (French, English and German) and featured theatrically, it introduced Astérix and his loyal, lumbering companion Obelix, who began
Press. It was in this position that, in 1951, he different voice artists accordingly. sorting out the Romans for the first time on screen. A year later there was another
became acquainted with Jean-Michel adaptation of a story first published in 1965, Astérix et Cléopâtre
Charlier and René Goscinny, and he and (‘Astérix and Cleopatra’, 1968) in which our heroes voyage to
René combined their talents by producing Egypt to assist in the building of the queen’s desert palace.
several series of comic strips together. In 1973, publisher Dargaud left Belvision to form
After a struggling start at the animation studio Idéfix under the direction of Henri Gruel and
Pilote, Georges Dargaud, the French Pierre Watrin. This resulted in a third feature, an adaptation of Les
representative for Kuifje, took over the Douze Travaux d’ Astérix (‘The Twelve Labours of Astérix’, 1975),
running of the magazine. He appointed enlarging on the original story. More features were to follow
Goscinny as editor-in-chief and never looked including Astérix in Britain (1986) and Le Coup de Menhir
back. The publication of the stories in albums (‘Astérix and the Big Fight’, 1989).
proved more of a financial success than the Although the animated versions were faithful to
magazine, and a turning point came in 1965 the stories and captured the art style, they had nowhere near as
with Astérix et Cléopâtre (‘Astérix and much vibrancy as Goscinny’s and Underzo’s originals. With
Cleopatra’). The combination of Goscinny’s Goscinny’s death in 1977, Underzo took on the dual tasks of

© Idéfix
fun, visual jokes and outrageous puns, writing and drawing and has been doing so ever since.

Telecomics » 162 TV Superheroes » 206 Raymond Briggs and The Snowman » 280
226 ZAGREB FILM: A GOLDEN AGE 227

© Borivoj Dovnikovic, The Flower Lovers, Zagreb Film

EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

The late 1950s to 1970s was a golden age for Zagreb slapstick, part philosophy. Some of his later work includes Learning to Walk (1978),
animation, a combination of outstanding animators and which tells the story of a man whose countrymen each try to teach him their own style
highly original storylines, with Dusan Vukotic winning an of walking, although he already knows how to walk just fine, and Exciting Love Story
Oscar for his short Ersatz (a.k.a. Substitute) in 1962. (1989), in which a man is in search of his sweetheart, Gloria.

Sharp Shorts The Flower Lovers Zlatko Grgic

In their message, many of the animated shorts from Common to many of Bordo’s films is the theme of survival in Another of Zagreb’s comic masters was Zlatko Grgic (1931–88), whose debut film in
Zagreb Film had a dark, comic edge to them, often with a impossible situations. The protaganist is usually an ordinary 1965 at the age of 20 was The Devil’s Work. It demonstrated his comedic talents at their
less than happy ending. In Borivoj Dovnikovic’s (b. 1930) person trying to enjoy a life with privacy and respect in a society best, as a well-meaning fellow learns to appreciate the benefits of "devilish" behavior. His
The Ceremony (1965), six people are grouped and that is continually harassing her or him, for example surviving in other films included Little and Big (1966), his take on the classic cartoon chase; Musical
regrouped in front of a wall as if for a photograph. The a city gone mad through an obsession with exploding flowers in Pig (1966), a comical story of an operatic pig that finally finds a friend but at a steep price
punch line is that they are being lined up for execution. Ante The Flower Lovers. (he’s eaten); and The Bird and the Worm, a Pink Panther-like series for children. Other
Zaninovic’s The Wall (1965) is a take on the Sisyphus story animated characters for children included Grgic’s whimsical canine, MaxiCat, and the
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of the mythical king condemned in Hades to roll a heavy The Bird and the Worm popular Professor Balthazar series. In the late 1960s, Grgic moved to Canada and
stone endlessly uphill that constantly rolls down again; in A scene from Grgic’s series for children, one of many that he produced. switched to advertising films and university teaching.
© Pavao Stalter, The Fifth One, Zagreb Film

this version, instead of rocks up a hill, wall after wall blocks

the man’s way. The struggle to get past the wall costs the man his life, only to reveal The Fifth One
another wall blocking the path of the next person to appear. One of the studio's pioneering distinctions was that its film-

In Holes and Corks (1966), Zaninovic’s story of a man’s persistent battle makers wrote, designed and directed their own films, as Pavao

with the forces of nature, success only breeds further failure. In Mask of the Red Death Stalter did with The Fifth One, pictured. The studio's unique

(1970), based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, a plague devastates the world. Inside the animation style which became known as "the Zagreb school”

castle, Count Prospero and his decadent court continue their orgies, but the plague then developed as film-makers were allowed to pursue their own

takes a mysterious form to do its evil work inside the court as well. visions and maintain control over their work.

Even many buoyantly comic films from Zagreb had an ironic, if not
downright pessimistic, conclusion. In The Fifth One (1964), for example, Pavao Stalter
takes a humorous look at human stubbornness. A harmonious quartet confronts an
indestructible pest – the trumpet player.

© Borivoj Dovnikovic, Curiosity, Zagreb Film

Bordo Dovnikovic
Borivoj Dovnikovic, or "Bordo", became the studio’s premier creator of the gag cartoon.
Bordo perfected the art of using a limited-animation style to illustrate the humanity of
everyday people going about their everyday lives. Perhaps his best-known work was

© Zlatko Grgic, The Bird and the Worm, Zagreb Film

Curiosity (1966), about a group of people, each with his or her own idea about what
might be inside a paper bag held by a man on a park bench. It turns out the bag is Curiosity
empty, of course. In his 1968 military satire Krek, a soldier, hounded by his superior, has Director Bordo Dovnikovic was known for combining humor with an

the last laugh by taking a stroll around the world. Other classics include The Flower Lovers acute understanding of human psychology. Curiosity is about

(1970), about the invention of explosive flowers that start out as a fad but ultimately human curiosity – an affliction for which no cure has ever been found.

blow up everything and everyone, and the surreal Second Class Passenger (1974), part This short won the First Prize for Animated Film in Leipzig in 1967.

Foundation of the Zagreb Studio » 138 Zagreb in the 1950s » 190

228 ZAGREB IN THE 1960s: MOVING ON 229
EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

EASTERN EUROPE: YUGOSLAVIA

The Zagreb studio gave its animators a remarkable degree of independence, which in making feature films, while Dusan Vukotic
the hands of many artists resulted in very personal films. Nedeljko Dragic was a well- became increasingly interested in making
known cartoonist and became one of Zagreb Film’s most acclaimed artists. He made feature films. Dragutin Vunak also left the
widely divergent films, but always with a very distinctive voice. His first film, Elegy studio. In an attempt to take advantage of its
(1965), was based on one of his comic strips. A prisoner stares sadly into a courtyard international reputation, the studio also began
from behind the bars of his cell’s small window. As the years go by, the growth of a concentrating on more commercial work,
single red flower gives him hope. In a later film, Way to Your Neighbor (1981), Dragic including television series co-productions with
perfectly set up his punch line as a man dresses for just another day at the office, only Germany and Canada. The result was that
to climb into a tank at the end of the film. independent films were not given as much
priority and the new generation of animators
Animation for Adults simply could not maintain the high standards
Many of the animated films from Zagreb were decidedly not for children. The Fly (1967), of their predecessors.
for example, by the successful team of Aleksandar Marks and Vladimir Jutrisa, was a Nevertheless, a number of
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Kafka-like tale about a man and a fly butting heads, but ending up as equals. Some later award-winning films were made during this
films, like Plop (1987), directed by one of Zagreb’s zaniest animators, Zlatko Pavlinic, use period, including Skyscraper (1981) by Josko
nudity as part of the element of surprise. In this one a man picks up a girl in a bar and Marusi, two films by Bordo Dovnikovic: One
takes her home, expecting her to do his housework: he’s in for a big surprise. In Dream Day of Life (1982) and Exciting Love Story,
Doll (1979), a remarkable collaboration between Zlatko Grgic and the British animator and three films by Nedeljko Dragic: Way to
Bob Godfrey, a man falls in love with a blow-up doll. Your Neighbor, The Day I Stopped Smoking
(1982) and Pictures from Memory (1989).
International Hits
Other films, like Satiemania (1978) by Zdenko Gasparovic, and later Album (1983), by Satiemania What Does the Future Hold?
Kresimir Zimonic, are sophisticated renditions of the artist’s personal musings. Based on the This is a fireworks of techniques and moods accompanied by the Like all the animation studios of Eastern Europe, Zagreb Film had trouble adjusting to a
music of Eric Satie, Satiemania remains one of Zagreb’s most internationally acclaimed films. piano music of Eric Satie. Each frame could easily stand on its own market economy after the fall of Communism. It also had its own unique problems, of
It portrays the jungle of the big city – the supermarket, brothels and bars, and the ripple of as a drawing or a painting. Film-makers, such as Zdenko Gasparovi, course, due to the violent break up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. One of the few
water in simultaneous harmony and conflict – all moving to the mocking but lyrical music of were deeply rooted in the fine arts, having attended the Zagreb young animators during these years to create distinctive cartoons with ties to the old
Eric Satie. In Album, a young girl’s childhood memories come to life as she thumbs through Academy of Fine Arts. This influence, together with an interest in school was Josko Marusic. Fisheye (1980) is his metaphor of how the normal order of
her family photograph album. Both Satiemania and Dream Doll were nominated for Oscars. expressionism, pop art and surrealism, and writers such as Freud, things sometimes goes awry, as one night the fish take control of a village.
Oscar-winning Dusan Vukotic also collaborated on other animators’ films. For example, he Kafka, Camus, that produced animated films of this nature. In recent years

© Nedeljko Dragic, Elegy, Zagreb Film

wrote Last Waltz in Old Mill (1995), which was drawn and directed by Darko Krec. Zagreb Film has gone through a
While a limited-animation style was Zagreb Film’s trademark, the fact series of studio directors, but
that the films were artist-driven meant that animators were also free to break this remains intent on restoring some of
convention. Films like Satiemania, Album, and Diary (1974) by Nedeljko Dragic, for its past luster as it continues its

© Kresimir Zimonic, Album, Zagreb Film

example, are notable for their bold colors, full animation and lack of subtlety. Album attempts to attract co-productions
Elegy Drawn in the style of Frence adult cartoons, Kresimir Zimonic’s with the West. The studio is also
End of an Era Nedeljko Dragic’s touching short about a prisoner who regards film about a young girl’s childhood memories coming to life as looking to its past, successfully
The studio began to decline in the 1980s for a variety of reasons. First of all, there was a the growth of a red flower beneath his window as a ray of hope she leafs through her family photograph album won the Best beginning to distribute its significant
loss of talent. Vlado Kristl left for Germany in the 1960s. Vatroslav Mimica went back to won numerous prizes, including a Diploma in Venice, 1966. Debut Film award at Annecy in 1983. library of animation shorts.

Limited Animation » 146 Dusan Vokotic » 190

230 PANNONIA FILM STUDIO 231
EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

In 1948, after the Hungarian film During the 1960s, Pannonia also excelled in the creation of cartoon series.
industry was nationalized, Their first attempt was an eight-episode series called Arthur (1961) for an American
animation slowly began to production company. Arthur encouraged the studio to produce a Hungarian-based series,
emerge. Even so, until around and in 1962 they made Peter and the Robot, which led to a series called Peter’s Adventures,
1959 the output was limited to which ran from 1963–67. In each episode, Peter battled with a new technology.
about one animated film every
one or two years. The few films Gustavus
that were made – including Along with a puppet series called Memoirs of a World Famous Hunter (1968) by Ottó
Hungary’s first color film in 1951, Foky and István Imre, Pannonia produced the highly popular Gustavus series. Gustavus,

© Pannonia Film
The Little Cock’s Diamond based on József Nepp’s Passion, followed the misadventures of an ambitious and lovable
Halfpenny by Gyula Macskássy loser. Gustavus was a huge success and became known in more than 70 countries. From
and Edit Fekete – were aimed Passion 1964 through to the 1970s, Pannonia produced over 160 episodes. Most significantly,
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solely at children. These generic This short helped change the face of Hungarian animation. No Gustavus debuted the next generation of Hungarian animators, including Attila Dargay,
films used folk tales to teach longer just concerned with retelling old stories, absurd, morbid or József Nepp, József Gémes, Tamás Szabó Sípos, Béla Ternovszky and Marcell Jankovics.
children lessons about morality. black-humored animation explored the everyday issues facing The studio also continued to produce an array of technically and
the individual. In Passion, a passionate smoker sees the world conceptually ambitious short films, including György Kovásznai’s animated oil-paint film
New differently a few hours after the doctor warns him sternly not to Double Portrait, an unusual film showing the heads of a man and woman changing and

© Pannonia Film
Directions smoke anymore. developing. They also produced Sándor Reisenbüchler’s highly original collage debut
Until the mid-1950s, Mafilm Kidnapping of the Sun and the Moon, based on Hungarian folk art and a poem by Ferenc
Newsreel and Documentary Studio Juhasz. The works of Reisenbüchler and Kovásznai
controlled Hungarian animation production. In 1954, Mafilm was incorporated into Mézga Family Doctor Bubó injected Hungarian animation with an element of
Hungarian Synchronisation Co., and in 1959, the animation department became the This funny series was created by József Nepp in 1968, and was This wise owl, Doctor Bubó from lyricism and graphic complexity that had not been
Pannonia Film Studio. widely acclaimed. the series Next, Please!, created explored before.
As with many countries, the 1960s signaled a new direction for Hungarian by József Nepp, cured his patients’

animation in both form and content. Under the guidance of Gyorgy Matolcsy, Pannonia © Pannonia Film
ailments on a psychological basis, A Dark Side
Film produced an assortment of quality children’s productions, but more importantly, assisted by Ursula the bear- If there is a dominating tendency or characteristic of
they also began to create films dealing with larger philosophical, intellectual and nurse. The ailments were mostly Pannonia’s output of this era it is the use – not unlike that
social ideas. neuroses, such as kleptomania of Zagreb or Estonia – of a dark, sarcastic and often
and megalomania. absurd humor to examine and criticize individual life in
International Acclaim modern Hungary. Films of this genre include Five Minutes
Pannonia first captured international attention in 1960 with award-winning productions of Murder (1966) by József Nepp, Ten Dekagrams of
© Pannonia Film

Pencil and India Rubber (1960) and Duel (1960), by Gyula Macskássy. Duel – which József Nepp Immortality (1966) by Gyula Macskássy and György
tells the story of the long struggle between war and peace through the figures of a Greek József Nepp followed in the footsteps of animator Gyula Várnai, Concertissimo (1968) by József Gémes and A Ceremonial Opening of a Bridge
warrior and a scientist – was awarded the jury’s special prize at Cannes. In 1961, Tibor Macskássy, who helped found Pannonia Studios. Macskássy set (1969) by Marcell Jankovics (b. 1941).
Csermák’s The Ball with White Dots won the Golden Lion Prize in Venice. The real turning up his own studio in Budapest in 1932 where he worked with In 1968, Hungary underwent a series of economic reforms that put an
point, however, was József Nepp’s Passion (1961), which, by using caricature, was the John Halas and George Pal, among others. After Pannonia was end to Stalin’s rigid state-planning system and gave businesses more independence.
first Hungarian animation to steer away from folk tales and deal with the challenges and established in 1959, the next generation of animators, including With these new reforms, Pannonia now not only had to worry about the quality of their
issues of contemporary Hungary. Nepp, continued the work begun by Macskássy and his peers. work, but they also had to find a market for it.

Hugarian Animation in the 1930s » 50 John Halas » 104 Pannonia and Marcell Jankovics » 258
232 GENE DEITCH 233
E A S T E R N E U R O PE : C Z E C H O S L O VA KI A

E A S T E R N E U R O PE : C Z E C H O S L O VA KI A
One day in October 1959, William L. Snyder, the Terrytoons created a host of innovative cartoon characters like John Doormat, Clint

© Rembrandt Films
Munro
one-man Rembrandt Films, walked into the Munro won Deitch an Oscar in 1960. It was based a cartoon by Clobber, Foofle, Gaston Le Crayon – and, of course, Tom Terrific, who, with Mighty
office of Gene Deitch. Puffing on his signature satirist and cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who developed the character Manfred the Wonder Dog, starred in the first animated series for American network
Cuban cigar, Snyder proceeded to deliver one of Munro, a four-year-old-boy drafted into the army by mistake, television.
of the great sales jobs of the Cold War. "I’m during his free time while serving in the Signal Corps. With Rembrandt Films, from 1961 to 1968, Deitch directed films for MGM,
told you’re the best animation director in Paramount Pictures and King Features, including 13 episodes of Tom & Jerry,
New York," Snyder told him. "I want you to 26 episodes of Popeye, and 52 episodes of Krazy Kat. Snyder and Deitch also produced
go to my studios in Prague to take care of their own cartoons in Prague. Between 1960 and 1964 they received four Academy
a few things for me." Award nominations and an Oscar for Munro, about a four-year-old boy mistakenly
Deitch laughed, wondering drafted into the United States army. Deitch and Rembrandt Films also pioneered the
how someone could have an animation animation of classic children’s books, including Ludwig Bemelmans’ Madeline series,
studio in Prague, Oklahoma. He was James Thurber’s Many Moons and Eve Titus’ Anatole.
remembering his basic training days in Most of these films were distributed as theatrical shorts by Paramount.
Muskogee, Oklahoma, when he and his Munro with General They included 12 cartoons starring the irrepressible Nudnik, Deitch’s best-known
army buddies would go to a bar in a Munro was created in New York at Deitch’s studio and animated creation during these years. A Yiddish word, nudnik literally means "bore", but in
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nearby hick town named Prague. in Prague. The voice of four-year-old Munro was that of Seth, American vernacular it means someone who can do nothing right – a nut, a bumbler.
"No, not Prague, Oklahoma," said Snyder. "Prague, Czechoslovakia." Deitch’s son, who was three at the time the short was made. Indeed, Deitch’s Nudnik is a rubbery-faced hero who tries his best to compete against the
overwhelming problems of everyday life.
On the Move
From Books to Films

© Rembrandt Films
Deitch had recently started his own independent animation company. He had never even
had a passport before. The last thing he wanted to do was travel to a Communist country Beginning in 1969, Deitch began an ongoing relationship with
on someone else’s lark. But Snyder, who had begun importing films from Prague in the the Connecticut-based Weston Woods Studios, which adapts
early 1950s and had just begun making cartoons there, made Deitch an irresistible offer. high-quality children’s picture books into animated films.
Snyder could not help noticing the storyboards for Munro, based on a book by Jules Feiffer, Included among the long list of prizewinning films Deitch has
that lined the walls of Deitch’s office. If Deitch would travel to Prague to help him to sort out directed for Weston Woods are those adapted from books by
his current problems, Snyder promised to fund the production of Munro. Deitch agreed, but Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night
only after adding four words to their contract, "for ten days only". Kitchen), Tomi Ungere (The Three Robbers and others) and
Ten days turned into almost half a century, because Deitch fell in love with Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon). More recently,
Zdena Najmanova, a producer at the Czech animation studio. They married, and Deitch he directed two films adapted from books by his old colleague
has been living in Prague ever since, directing animated children’s films exclusively for Jules Feiffer, Bark, George and I Lost My Bear.
American clients. Nudnik In between films for Weston Woods, Deitch has
Nudnik was based on a character worked for other producers, including Palm Plus Multimedia, for
Rising Talent called Foofle that Gene Deitch first whom he directed 53 short films adapted from Dick Bruna’s
Deitch already had an impressive résumé even before Snyder sent him to Prague. In created while at Terrytoons. Foofle Miffy bunny character, and 26 episodes of Anton, created by
1951 he had been named creative director of the newly established UPA New York was an inept clown who embodied the Danish animator Borge Ring. All of the films by Deitch
studio, where he was responsible for animating the first NBC color peacock. In 1956, during these years in Prague were made with his wife Zdena
© Rembrandt Films

Deitch’s own physical clumsiness,

he became creative director at CBS-Terrytoons, where he brought in young talent such but he did not develop the character (now Zdena Deitchova), who in 2000 was named head of the
as Jules Feiffer, R.O. Blechman, Ralph Bakshi and Ernest Pintoff. Under his supervision, fully until he arrived in Prague. Kratky Animation Studio.

Gene Deitch and Terrytoons » 182 Tom Terrific and Manfred Man » 182 Gene Deitch and Czech Aniamation in the 1990s » 328
234 SOVIET EXPANSION & MATURITY 235
EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

EASTERN EUROPE: SOVIET UNION

The return to maturity and experimentation in Russian animation took place in the "too formalistic".
early 1960s when, thanks in part to the period of liberalism in the Soviet Union known In 1970, Norstein collaborated
as the "Khrushev spring" or "thaw", Soviet animation broke with the Disney influence with Ivan Ivanov-Vano on The Battle of
of previous generations. More experimental and artistic personal works were created Kerjenets, made in 70 mm film. Kerjenets uses

© Soyuzmultfilm
by a new generation of animators, including Fyodor Khitruk, Andrei Khrjanovsky and, frescoes and icons to describe Russia’s
later, Yuri Norstein. victorious resistance against Tartar invaders.
Among the film’s many awards was the Grand
Fyodor Khitruk Prix at the Zagreb Animation Festival in 1972.

© Soyuzmultfilm
Fyodor Khitruk (b. 1917) was the major Russian animator of the 1960s, and is In the 1970s Norstein would go
perhaps the greatest ever. He started working at Soyuzmultfilm in 1924, where he on to make a number of outstanding films
spent almost 25 years as an animator. He did not make his first film, Story of One including The Heron and the Crane (1974), The
Crime, until 1961. Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) and, for some the
Story of One Crime triggered a new era of Soviet animation by dealing greatest animation film ever made, The Tale of
with issues of modern life with an innovative graphic style that had more in common Tales (1979). Dreamlike and transitory images
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with the American studio UPA than with any previous Soviet animation film. The film, flow throughout the film, representing a mixture
about a man who cannot sleep because of his noisy neighbors, was critical of Soviet of fragmented memories, dreams and visions.
society and, as such, caused some controversy. However, because of the international The Tale of Tales is an astonishing tribute to the
recognition being attracted by Soviet animation, largely due to Khitruk’s work, animators imagination, innocence and pain of childhood.
were given a little more artistic freedom than in other mediums. Khitruk’s other satires of
this period include Man in the Frame (1966) and the widely lauded Film Film Film Russian Talent
(1968), a hilarious parody of the film-making process in the Soviet Union. Khitruk also Other notable contributors of this period
made several accomplished children’s films, including Boniface’s Vacation (1965), Teddy include Boris Stepantsev, who made a
Bear (1964) and Winnie the Pooh (1968). delightful version of The Nutcracker and an
award-winning children’s film Petia and Little
Andrei Khrjanovsky and Yuri Norstein Red Riding Hood. Vadim Kurchevsky, who
A graduate of the Soviet State Film School (VGIK), Andrei Khrjanovsky (b. 1939) began began at Soyuzmultfilm in 1957 as an art
his career at Soyuzmultfilm working for Fyodor Khitruk. It was here that he made his first Film Film Film director of stop-motion films, made his debut
animation film, There Lived Kozyavin, in 1966. As with Khitruk’s intention in Man in the Fydor Khitruk’s first films, from 1961 onward, created films with in 1966 with My Green Crocodile, a film about the problems of modern love.
Frame, Kozyavin offered a critical look at Soviet bureaucracy. The film was shown serious messages, despite the strict censorship of the arts. With a Roman Katsanov, who collaborated with Anatoly Karanovich on The
throughout the Soviet Union to great response, but was not screened abroad. revolutionary new graphic style and dark social criticism, his films, Cloud in Love (1959), made the award-winning puppet film The Mitten (1967) and
Khrjanovsky’s next film, Glass Harmonica (1968), a tale about the repression of artistic including Film Film Film, garnered him great success. Ghena the Crocodile (1969). Anatoly Petrov was already an established artist and
ambition and freedoms, was banned by Soviet censors, who found the film’s ideological animator when he made his directorial debut with Singing Teacher (1968), a film about
message disturbing. The Battle of Kerjenets bureaucrats who stole the ideas of others for their own benefit. It was very popular with
Yuri Norstein (b. 1941) joined Soyuzmultfilm at the age of 20. He worked This film uses traditional fresco and icon painting to tell the story Soviet audiences.
as an artist and art director on a number of short films and features before making his of the Russian people’s struggle against foreign invaders. Music In 1969, Viacheslav Kotenochkin, who was an apprentice at
powerful directorial debut in 1968 with The 25th: The First Day (co-directed by Arkady from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Soyuzmultfilm for many years, achieved wild popularity in the Soviet Union with the
Tiurin). Using previously banned formalistic Russian art and music, Norstein celebrates Kitezh and the Maiden gives it a great momentum, with Road Runner- and Coyote-influenced series Just You Wait, which featured a wolf and
the first day of the October Revolution. Ironically, Norstein’s film was banned for being poignant, energetic color to match. rabbit involved in much more gentle activities than their American predecessors.

Soviet Animators » 74 Post-war Soviet Animators » 140 Russian Animation in the 1980s » 290
236 AN EXPLOSION OF ANIME 237
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
Toei Doga produced a dozen features Speed Racer series; Kitaro’s (Scary Ghost Moan) (1968), the first series on the theme of traditional
between 1960 and 1970. At first these Speed Racer was a 1966 creation of Tatsuo Yoshida, the founder Japanese supernatural-horror fantasy (although a comedy); Sasuke and The
continued the policy of adapting traditional of the Tatsunoko Productions studios in 1962. Yoshida had Detective Stories of Sabu and Ichi (1968), the first two significant series in the
Japanese legends like The Littlest Warrior previously been a manga cartoonist, and one of his works was a sixteenth–nineteenth century "samurai-ninja" historical-adventure genre; Mrs Sazae
(1961) and The Little Prince and the Eight- licensed Japanese version of Superman. Yoshida used (1969), the first domestic comedy for housewives (still in production; it is the longest
Headed Dragon (1963). But as Oriental his American Superman art-style for his Speed Racer running animated TV series in the world); Attack No. 1 (1969), the first sports-themed
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fairy-tale themes failed to win international character designs. series (girls’ school volleyball); and Tomorrow’s Joe (1970), the first boys’ sports
sales, Toei switched to feature adaptations of series (boxing).
European folk tales for foreign sales, and Many later prominent animators and animation directors began their
adapting popular sci-fi manga for the careers during this decade, including Gisaburo Sugii (b. 1940), Rintaro (Shigeyuki
domestic market. Sinbad the Sailor (1962), Hayashi, b. 1941), Yoshiyuki Tomino (b. 1941) and Osamu Dezaki (b. 1943).
Gulliver’s Adventures Beyond the Moon Gigantor
(1965), The World of Hans Christian Gigantor was a 1963 adaptation of a popular 1950s and 1960s Independent and Art Animation
Anderson (1968) and Puss in Boots (1969) manga and was Japan’s first giant-robot animation. Unlike most In 1960 Tadahito Mochinaga created the M.O.M. Production Co. to produce puppet
are examples of the former. The Little Norse of his giant-robot successors, Gigantor did not have a human animation for America’s Rankin/Bass. These ranged from TV series such as The New
Prince (1968) was an original story in the pilot who rode inside him; he was guided instead by a control- Adventures of Pinocchio (1960) and TV specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
style of Norse mythology. box in the hands of boy detective Jimmy Sparks. (1964) to the theatrical feature Mad Monster Party (1967).

© Tatsunoko Productions
An experiment with Japanese After Mochinaga’s retirement in 1967, his staff (Takeo Nakamura, Koichi
sci-fi manga was a big success. Cyborg 009 The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon Oikawa and Tadanari Okamoto) kept together as Video Tokyo Productions, producing
by Shotaro Ishinomori (1938–98) was This was the sixth of Toei Doga’s feature-length films. An action- puppet and cut-paper animation. Many of their puppet-art films in the traditional
made into a theatrical feature in 1966. adventure story, it drew on Japanese myth of a young god/ Japanese bunraku style, such as Nakamura’s Torayan on the Boat (1970), won
It was so popular that a sequel, Cyborg 009: Fighting Monsters followed in 1967, and prince named Susanoo, who embarks on an adventurous international film-festival awards.
then a 26-episode Cyborg 009 TV series in 1968. In 1969 and 1970 Toei produced journey to the Underworld to find his dead mother Izanami. Japan’s second animator to gain international acclaim through frequent
features of Ishinomori’s The Flying Phantom Ship and 30,000 Miles Under the Sea. Along the way he fights off the Eight-Headed Dragon. worldwide festival screenings was Yoji Kuri (b. 1928). His cartoon shorts such as The
Human Zoo (1962), The Chair (1962), Samurai (1965), The Maniac Age (1967) and
Television Animation Flower (1967) were short (often less than five minutes), sardonic line-art squiggles that
Japan’s first TV animation was Otogi Pro’s Otogi Cartoon Calendar, a daily series of 312 influenced such animators as Canada’s Richard Condie.
three-minute educational cartoons from 1962 to1964. Its first significant Two more notable animators were Sadao Tsukioka (b. 1939) and Tatsuo
entertainment animation was Mushi Production Co.’s Astro Boy (193 episodes, Shimamura (b. 1934). Tsukioka was the director of Toei’s first TV animated series, Ken
1963–67). Osamu Tezuka created Mushi Pro in 1962 to produce TV animation based the Wolf Boy (1963–65); then he moved to Osamu Tezuka’s Mushi Pro, where he
upon his own popular 1950s manga. worked on many TV series. Tezuka encouraged him to make his own art films, using

© Television Corporation of Japan, Tele-Cartoon Japan

Other notable 1960s TV animation included Gigantor (1963), the first Mushi’s facilities, such as Cigarettes and Ashes and The Story of Man.
sci-fi with a giant robot; 8th Man (1963) and Cyborg 009 (1968), on the sci-fi theme Shimamura also began as a Toei animator in 1958, but soon left to work
of humans bio-engineered into semi-robotic supermen; Treasure Island Revisited independently. His films include A Moonlit Night and Eyeglasses (1966), Fantasy City
(1965), the first made-for-TV animated feature (a New Year’s Day special); Kimba (1967), Love (1970) and A Fantasy of Flames (1989).
the White Lion (1965), which was the first color TV animation and the first funny It was during the late 1960s that the word "anime" (from the American

© Toei Doga
animal TV series; Sally the Little Witch (1966), the first girls’ TV series and the first in and European words for animation) began to replace the Japanese word "doga" (moving
a "magical little girls" genre; Princess Knight (1967), the first shojo (girls’ romance) drawings) in common usage.

Beginning of Japanese Commercial Animation » 174 Toei Doga » 196 Tadahito Mochinga » 142 Japanese Art Animation » 174
238 OSAMU TEZUKA 239
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
Osamu Tezuka (1928–89), honored with such titles as "the God of Comics" (Manga no Pictures at an Exhibition
Kamisama) and "the Disney of Japan", was born in Osaka to a medical family. It was Tezuka's response to Disney's Fantasia used the 10 musical

assumed that he would become a doctor (and he did obtain his doctorate in medicine sequences of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition as

in 1961, although he never practiced), but while at Osaka University he began his first accompaniment to artistic satires of modern themes such as

published comic strip in 1946. In 1947 his New Treasure "War", "Politics", "Capitalism", and "Vapid Media Personalities".

Island became a best-selling manga and revolutionized

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© Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd
the Japanese manga industry by its use of cinematic art
direction, such as dramatic camera angles, pans and The Thousand and One Nights 193 weekly episodes, and jump-starting Japan’s TV-animation industry.
close-ups instead of static imagery. Tezuka acknowledged This was Tezuka’s first theatrical, feature-length animated movie. Mushi Production Co. was a major animation studio throughout the
the influence of American animation by Disney and the It was intended to bring anime to international attention, and 1960s. In addition to animating adaptations of his own manga, Tezuka produced TV
Fleischers, as well as Wan Bros.’ Princess with the Iron Fan was a major undertaking for the studio. 70,000 drawings were cartoon series of several other cartoonists’ works. He also experimented with puppet

© Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd

and Seo’s wartime Momotaro films. used in its creation and thousands of staff were involved. The animation, like Boys’ Space Patrol (1963), and combined live-action with cartoon
soundtrack was mostly rock music, another ploy to guarantee its animation, as in Vampire (1968). His Kimba the White Lion, Japan’s first color TV
A Multitude of Influences success on the world market. animation, was partly subsidized by the US’s NBC. Mushi’s most prominent director was
Beginning in the 1950s Tezuka became Japan’s leading Eiichi Yamamoto (b. 1936), who Tezuka had hired away from Otogi Pro because of his
comic- book creator, in both popularity and influence. He expertise in high-quality animation.
was incredibly prolific, creating an estimated 150,000 pages of manga art during his Tezuka was interested in exploring animation as an art form. He wrote and
lifetime. He created for all genres throughout the 1980s, including comics (and picture produced several experimental films, from Memory and Mermaid (five minutes each,
books) for infants; boys’ adventure; girls’ romantic fantasy; adult drama, including both 1964) to the 34-minute Pictures at an Exhibition (1966). Tezuka was determined
political thrillers; adult erotic humor and drama; cartoon adaptations of classic literature, to produce sophisticated, feature-length animated films for theatrical release, again to
such as Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and biography, such as the lives of emphasize that animation was not just for children.
Beethoven and the Buddha; and sci-fi as social satire. He actively promoted the concept
that cartoon art is not a medium merely for children’s entertainment. Tezuka became a New Directions
celebrity by the mid-1950s, appearing in magazine articles and on TV as Japan’s The Thousand and One Nights (1969) and Cleopatra (1970), both directed by Yamamoto,
highest-earning artist of the decade. were brilliantly innovative and erotic, but they bewildered the critics and bankrupted Mushi
In 1959 Toei Doga began a theatrical feature adaptation of Tezuka’s My Pro. Tezuka left in 1971 to start Tezuka Production Co., while Mushi staggered on until 1973,
Son Goku (manga serialization, 1952–59), his take on the Chinese Monkey King legend. Astro Boy with Yamamoto completing its final art film, The Tragedy of Belladonna.
Tezuka was named a co-director, and although he later said his association with Created by Dr Tenma (Dr Boynton) to replace his dead son, Astro Tezuka had no regrets. His Tezuka Production Co. produced an annual
Alakazam the Great (1960) was more for publicity than actual production, it did inspire Boy was sold to a robot circus when the inventor realized he could cartoon TV movie for NTV from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, as well as
him to create his own animation studio. He felt that he could match the quality of the never grow up like a real boy. He was rescued from abuse by the 1980 theatrical feature Phoenix 2772 and a 1980–81 color remake of his Astro
American new limited-animation TV cartoons, and he had his own 10-year backlog of Ringmaster Hamegg (Cacciatore) by kindly Dr Ochanomizu Boy TV series.
popular manga to draw upon. (Elefun), who helped Astro Boy develop his human Tezuka did not keep it a secret that he considered these primarily as
characteristics and use his powers against evil and for commercial works. He was proud of the independent animated shorts that he wrote,
Mushi Production Company humankind, but also to stand up for "robot rights" against anti- storyboarded and co-directed for personal presentation at international film festivals.

© Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd

Tezuka’s Mushi Production Co., Ltd. was created during 1962. Its first work was the arty robot prejudice. Tezuka was a pioneer in using his popular Notable among these were Jumping (1984), Broken Down Film (1985) and Legend of
Stories on a Street Corner (1962) for the Mainichi Film Festival. Its next was the New cartoons to advocate equal rights for all humanity. The original the Forest (1987). Tezuka’s final appearance, three months before his death, was at the
Year’s Day 1963 premiere of the TV cartoon animated Astro Boy (syndicated in the US 1963–66 Astro Boy TV series was remade in 1980–81 and November 1988 first Shanghai International Animation Festival, where he was one of
beginning September 1963). It was an immense success, running for four years with again in 2003–04. the judges.

Princess With the Iron Fan » 114 Japanese Art Animation » 174 Miyazaki and Otomo » 296
240 HAVOC IN HEAVEN 241
ASIA: CHINA

ASIA: CHINA
The artistic development of the Shanghai Animation Studio continued from 1961 until of martial confrontations between heroic warriors, but using beautifully painted
1964. Overshadowing all else was China’s second animated feature, Havoc in Heaven. backgrounds to present the action in a broad range of locations rather than a set stage.
This was directed by Wan Lai-ming as a follow-up to Princess with the Iron Fan, Released in two parts in 1961 and 1964, Havoc in Heaven was presented in China
although it is from an earlier section of Wu Cheng-en’s sixteenth-century novelization as a parable of the vigorous new Communist leadership confronting the decadent
of the Monkey King legend. old regime. Internationally it was an art-film hit at the Locarno Film Festival
and others.
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Retelling a Legend Havoc in Heaven – fighting
Sun Wu Kong, the Monkey King, causes so much mischief on Earth that the Heavenly Based on a well-known episode from the classic, Journey to the Beginnings of the Cultural Revolution
Court decides to sidetrack him by offering him a supposedly prestigious but actually West, Havoc in Heaven is an 11,000 foot-long animation, Other notable cel animated films included A Golden Dream (1963) by
demeaning job in heaven. Monkey discovers that he has been tricked and goes on a containing beautiful drawings and supernatural feats. Sun Wu Wang Shu-chen (1931–91), which heralded the Cultural Revolution
rampage, defeating several heavenly generals before returning to his Earthly home at Kong, the Monkey King, an enduring symbol of intelligence, by presenting Chinese peasants being oppressed by a haughty
Flower and Fruit Mountain. Wan directed this 106-minute cel animation feature in the courage and free will in Chinese culture, travels between Heaven general, a tax collector and an intellectual; and Two Heroic Sisters of
stylized yet energetic manner of the Beijing Opera Company’s gymnastic performances and Earth, causing much uproar along the way. the Grasslands (1964), by Qian Yun-da (b. 1929) and Tang Chen,
about little shepherd girls in northern China who save their flock in a
blizzard. Te Wei and Qian Jia-jun continued their animation of watercolor
brush painting (in the style of famous traditional landscape artist Li Keran,
1907–89) in Buffalo Boy and the Flute (1963).
Traditional puppet animation was seen in the feature-length
The Peacock Princess (1963) by Jin Xi, and The Cock Crows at Midnight
(1964) by Yiou Lei. Cut-paper animation was represented by Wan Gu-chan’s
The Spirit of Ginseng (1961); by Wait for Tomorrow (1962) and More
© Shanghai Animation Film Studio or Less (1964), both by Hu Xiong-hua (1931–83); and by Red
Army Bridge (1964) by Qian Yun-da. The Shanghai studio’s first
Havoc in Heaven – face experiment in animating folded-paper figures (best known in the West under its
This film has broken export records for Chinese animation. In Japanese name, origami) was A Clever Duckling (1960) by Yu Zhen-guang (1906–91).
June 1983, nearly 100,000 people saw the film after it

premiered in 12 Paris theaters; by 1984, it had been distributed Studio Closes Down © Shanghai Animation Film Studio

to 44 countries and regions. All this was brought to a halt in 1964 by the
beginnings of the Cultural Revolution. A major
new enemy of the Chinese people was revealed to be
effete intellectuals out of touch with the masses. Winning
prizes at international film festivals was an undeniable
sign of intellectualism. Art films such as Buffalo Boy and
Havoc in Heaven – musical instrument the Flute were denounced as irrelevant to the class

© Shanghai Animation Film Studio

The completion of Havoc in Heaven was all the more satisfactory for struggle. In 1965 the Shanghai Animation Studio was
Wan Lai-ming because he had been forced to abandon his initial closed and its officers and leading animators sent
plans for it in the early 1940s. The film won a number of to re-education camps and peasant villages to
international prizes, including one at the 1978 London Film Festival. experience hard manual labor.

Wan Brothers » 76 Princess with the Iron Fan » 114 Chinese Animation in the 1980s » 298
 IX

1971–79:

ANIMATION FOR
GROWN-UPS
The outrageous Ralph Bakshi made his mark with a string of notorious animated features
during this decade. From Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic to the controversial Coonskin, the
cult-fantasy Wizards and his adaptation of Lord of the Rings, Bakshi defined adult
animation with an audacious grown-up use of the medium. His was a lone voice during this
decade as television cartoons became the scapegoat of parent groups, and were stripped of
any intelligence, art and fun. Independent animators, such as claymation master Will
Vinton and the artists commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada, kept the art form
alive in an explosion of inventive and important short subjects.
Bakshi’s X- and R-rated features strove to remind the public that animation
was not just a medium for children. Others followed his lead, like Charles Swenson’s Dirty
Duck, Martin Rosen’s Watership Down, René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet and Bruno Bozzetto’s
Allegro Non Troppo. An audience was found among the college crowd and literate adults,
who understood that animation art could be used to challenge conventional thinking, and
could take the viewer on a journey no live-action film could challenge.

Picture above:: Great © Bob Godfrey. Pictures clockwise from top left: Every Child © 1979 National Film Board of Canada; Le Planète Sauvage © Krátky Film Praha, Les Films Armorial, Service de la Recherche ORTF, Ceskoslovensky Filmexport; Hugo the Hippo © Pannonia Film; Great
© Bob Godfrey; California Raisins © Will Vinton Studios; Allegro Non Troppo © Bozzetto Film; Bob Godfrey © Bob Godfrey; The Archies © Filmation Associates. Centre picture: The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat © Steve Krantz Productions
244 RALPH BAKSHI & FRITZ THE CAT 245
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat Mixed Fortunes
This follow-up to Fritz the Cat was released in 1974, but original Bakshi next made Heavy Traffic (1973), which many consider his finest film. In it, he
director Ralph Bakshi was no longer involved. This was the last uses the tale of a struggling white cartoonist-animator to depict the underside of life in
film to feature Fritz. New York. Enjoying his new-
found celebrity, he formed
Heavy Traffic Bakshi Productions and spoke
Mixing live action with animation, Heavy Traffic was released in frequently of the expanding
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1973 to considerable acclaim. Originally X-rated, the film follows possibilities offered to the
a Jewish-Italian man as he grows up in a tough area of New York. animation film-maker. However,

© Steve Krantz Productions, Orion Pictures

his next film, Hey Good Lookin’
(1975), was shelved after some
disastrous previews, only to be
unsuccessfully revised for release
© Aurica Finance Company, Black Ink, Fritz Productions, Steve Krantz Productions
in 1982.
Brooklyn-born Ralph Bakshi (b. 1938) gained international notoriety for the first Fritz the Cat Accusations of racism regarding Coonskin (a.k.a. Street Fight) (1975),
X-rated animated feature, Fritz the Cat (1972), which was based on Robert Crumb’s Starting life as a character in comics, Fritz the Cat only made it to which had its premiere at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, caused Paramount Pictures
underground comic-book character. It not only established the viability of adult the big screen in 1972 in the first ever X-rated animation feature to drop the film, and subsequent distribution was limited.
animation, but also was a reminder that feature animation could also be an outlet for of the same name. It was only a modest commercial success. Bakshi tackled fantasy with Wizards (1977), a post-apocalyptic sci-fi
personal expression. American Pop fantasy that failed at the box office, he had one of his biggest financial successes with
Following several generations of a troubled but musically Lord of the Rings (1978), which capitalized on the popularity of author J. R. R. Tolkien.
Beginnings talented family, American Pop is an animated guide through However, it was criticized for its extensive use of Rotoscoping, which seemed to rob the
Bakshi began his career in animation at Terrytoons, music from the pre-jazz age through soul, 1950s rock, drug- visuals of the vitality of his earlier films.
where he directed such TV series as Deputy Dawg and laden psychedelia and punk, finally ending with the onset of American Pop (1981) was an unsuccessful attempt to provide a picture of
became its creative director when he created The Mighty new wave in the early 1980s. American popular music in the twentieth century through the story of a Russian-Jewish
Heroes (1966) series. He then became head of family. And the failure of Fire and Ice (1983), created with famed fantasy illustrator Frank
© Columbia Pictures Corporation, Polyc International BV
Paramount Cartoon Studios during its final days, where Frazetta, made Bakshi turn his attention to TV.
he directed such shorts as Marvin Digs (1967) and Mini
Squirts (1968). He was then hired by Steve Krantz Return to Form
Productions to take over direction and production of the It was with the live-action/animated Rolling Stones’ ‘Harlem Shuffle’
Rocket Robin Hood and Spider-Man TV series. music video in 1986 that Bakshi seemed to find himself again. He went
Perhaps inspired by the success of George on to produce Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987–88), the
Dunning’s Yellow Submarine, Krantz produced Bakshi’s groundbreaking TV series that jump-started the career of John Kricfalusi
Fritz the Cat, his take on the 1960s counter-culture. Its and laid the groundwork for a renaissance in television animation.
huge financial success, combined with the controversy He briefly returned to movies with the poorly received live-
over its depiction of sex and drugs, woke people up to the action/animated Cool World (1992), before returning to TV with the live-
© Steve Krantz Productions
possibilities of an animated film. Critics and moviegoers action movie The Cool and the Crazy (1994). After the short-lived
took it seriously. As Bakshi told Mike Barrier, "They treat it animated sci-fi detective series Spicy City (1997), Bakshi left animation
like film." and devoted himself to painting.

Terrytoons » 182 Yellow Submarine » 218 Rotoscope » 38 Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320 Lord of the Rings » 356
246 SATURDAY MORNING BLUES 247
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
TV animation in the US was essentially relegated to a Saturday-morning Doo-like mystery – creating the ultimate hybrid cartoon show of the 1970s.
ghetto during the 1970s. Adding to the medium’s misery was the For the rest of the decade, the studios took their cues from
development of overseas production – American studios were farming those elements: a pre-sold character or celebrity teamed with rock music
production work mainly to Japan or Australia – and the triumph of and mystery. The results: Partridge Family 2200 AD (1974), The
various parent groups in their efforts to strip all of the fun from cartoons, Brady Kids (1972), The Jackson Five (1971), The Osmonds
essentially removing all slapstick action and comic violence, and injecting (1972), Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies (1970), The New
educational and pro-social messages into the narratives. Animation was Adventures of Gilligan (1974) and Will the Real Jerry Lewis
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now widely perceived as a children’s medium. The poor reputation of Please Sit Down? (1970). Saturday-morning cartoons were at
Saturday-morning cartoons comes from the programming created their emptiest, most soulless extreme.
during this decade: cheap productions, poor animation and weak writing There were some exceptions. Fat Albert and the

© Filmation Associates
were aimed at an undiscriminating audience. And on top of all that: Cosby Kids (Filmation, 1972) was a cartoon with an educational
Action for Children’s Television (ACT). message – but it was inspired by a talented creator, comedian Bill
Cosby. With characters you could relate to and strong
Imposing Restrictions entertainment values, this series delighted ACT members because it
ACT grew out of the suburban Boston living room of housewife and mother Peggy Charren, The Archies proved that pro-social animation could compete commercially.
who used her organization to lobby Washington to impose new rules on kids’ Originally appearing in comic-book form in 1941, The Archies

programming – cartoons in particular. Their voice grew louder as the decade wore on, and featured red-headed Archie Andrews as a "typical" American Superheroes Return
their campaign for change was very effective. Soon, network executives began dictating the teenager along with his friends at Riverdale High. Superheroes had not lost their appeal, however. Hanna-Barbera picked up
content of the programming they chose to air. Independent thinking and artistic genius DC’s costumed characters and refashioned the Justice League as the
were no longer welcome – Jay Ward, Bob Clampett and other top talents left the field to the educator-approved, family-friendly Super Friends. Now, instead of fighting
remaining cartoon factories: Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, DePatie-Freleng and Rankin-Bass. criminal jokers and madmen intent on destroying the world, Superman,
Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? premiered in 1969, and Batman, Robin, Aquaman and Wonder Woman would solve mysteries created
became a staple of Saturday-morning TV for the subsequent decade. The program, by well-meaning scientists whose experiments have run amok.
© Filmation Associates
about a quartet of teenage mystery solvers and their mascot – a fearful, lumbering Great Other 1970s superheroics were performed by the funny animals in
Dane named Scooby-Doo – had the right combination of suspense, laughs and Hong Kong Fooey (1974), real-life celebrities in The Harlem Globetrotters
character types to appeal to children at the time. (1970) and I Am The Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali
Scooby-Doo’s success led to a succession of similar ideas and derivative The Groovie Goolies (1977), or other comic-book rivals like The
series: Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan (1972), Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973), A cartoon series about a group of ghouls and their various New Fantastic Four (1978).
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids (1973) and Clue Club (1976), to name but a few. adventures at Horrible Hall, The Groovie Goolies combined American TV animation
with Sabrina the Teenage Witch for a brief series in 1970. lost its promise and sank to new

© Filmation Associates
Competition Following the demise of Sabrina and the Goolies, the depths during this dark decade. And it
Hanna-Barbera’s chief rival at this time was Filmation, which had scored a hit with their two strands became individual programs. would get a lot worse before a new
rock’n’roll revision of The Archies (1968–78). Typical American teenagers Archie The characters of Count Drac, Missy wave in the late 1980s would return its
Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones had been comic book stars Jughead and Big Ethel and Wolfie are shown here. potential. But 1970s series like Fat Albert
for over 20 years when the Filmation series propelled them into even greater fame – a Archie made the transition to the small screen in 1968 in a and Scooby-Doo – even the Super Friends
cartoon show that spawned one of the biggest-selling records of 1969, ‘Sugar Sugar’. cartoon series that ran in various incarnations for about 10 years. – have endured the test of time to become
Hanna-Barbera fought back by adapting another group of Archie Comics Popular supporting characters included Jughead Jones and his kitsch classics to a generation who were
stars, Josie and the Pussy Cats (1970), which combined rock’n’roll music with Scooby- nemesis, Big Ethel. raised on them.

Peak of Prime-Time TV » 202 Saturday Morning TV » 204 Animation in Australia » 262 TV Superheroes » 206 TV Toons » 316
248 THE GREAT WHITE NORTH 249
NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

NORTH AMERICA: CANADA

By the early 1960s, the NFB had become known as much for its cartoons as for its
experimental films. These cartoons, equal to those of Hollywood’s Golden Age, include
The Great Toy Robbery (1964); Gerald Potterton’s My Financial Career (1962) and
Christmas Cracker (1963); Kaj Pindal’s comic masterpieces I Know an Old Lady who
Swallowed a Fly (1964) and What On Earth! (1966); Evolution (1971); Propaganda
Message (1974); and Zlatko Grgic’s Hot Stuff (1971).

An International Flavour
In 1966, the NFB set up a separate French animation studio. Favoring individual
expression, by the 1970s the studio had become home to Jacques Drouin, master of
© 1979 National Film Board of Canada

pinscreen animation (Mindscape, 1976); puppet animator Co Hoedeman (Oscar

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winner for Sand Castle, 1977); Pierre Hebert (Memories of War, 1982); Paul Driessen Every Child A hymn to the traditions and culture of Quebec, Crac! (1981) tells the
(An Old Box, 1975); and Peter Foldes (The Hunger, 1974, an early computer This six-minute animation was made for the United Nations to story of a rocking chair that has been passed through a family, but when discarded finds
animated film). celebrate UNICEF's Declaration of Children's Rights and the itself again the center of attention at an art museum. Influenced by the painters Degas
Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1946, Caroline Leaf joined the French International Year of the Child. One of the ten principles of the and Monet, and by Quebec folklore, Crac! won Back his first Academy Award.
animation studio to direct The Owl Who Married a Goose (1974), and also directed The Declaration is illustrated in the film, namely that every child is The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) is Back’s masterpiece. The story by
Street (1976) for the English studio. Based on Mordecai Richler’s short story, Leaf used entitled to a name and a nationality. Jean Giono is of Elzear Bouffier, a shepherd from the Maritime Alps who tirelessly plants
the technique of animating colored oil on glass directly under the camera. Animating thousands of oak trees and transforms a barren plain into a paradise. If Crac! is a hymn,
colored sand, Leaf adapted Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis of Mr Samsa in 1977. then The Man Who Planted Trees is a poem. It won Back his second Oscar. The Mighty
Ishu Patel arrived at the NFB in 1970 from India. Working with various River (1993) continued Back’s environmental concerns, visually documenting the
techniques directly under the camera, Patel was nominated for two Academy Awards for development of the St Lawrence Seaway.
Bead Game (1977) and Paradise (1984).
Special Delivery (1978) won directors John Weldon and Eunice Macaulay Successful Decade
an Academy Award. The following year the NFB again won an Oscar for Every Child Commercial animation in Canada bloomed in the 1970s. Contract work for American
(1979), directed by Eugene Fedorenko. The most beloved animated film in Canada is broadcasters had been performed in Canada since the early 1960s. After leaving the
The Sweater (1976), directed by Sheldon Cohen and based on Roch Carrier’s short story NFB, Gerald Potterton set up his own studio in the late 1960s to create both live-action
of a young Montreal Canadians fan forced to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. and animation projects. After producing a number of TV specials, Potterton directed the

© 1974 National Film Board of Canada

feature film Heavy Metal (1980). With a very short production schedule, sequences were
Frederic Back subcontracted to studios across Canada and around the world.
The NFB was not the only government agency producing animation. Société Radio- In the early 1970s Michael Hirsch, Patrick Loubert and Clive Smith
Canada had formed an animation department in 1968. formed Nelvana. Their first successes, Cosmic Christmas (1977) and The Devil and
Born in Saarbrucken, Germany, in 1924, Frederic Back joined Société Daniel Mouse (1978), led to the feature film Rock and Rule (1983). Involving one of
Radio-Canada as a graphic artist in 1952. In 1970 Back directed his first film (with the greatest staffs in animation, mostly homegrown talent, Rock and Rule (a.k.a. Ring
Graeme Ross), Abracadabra. He followed this up with Inon, or the Conquest of Fire The Owl Who Married a Goose of Power) featured some outstanding animation and design. Unfortunately, the film
(1972), The Creation of the Birds (1973), Illusion (1974) and Taratata (1976). In this film Caroline Leaf interprets an Inuit legend about an owl went way over budget and took so long to finish that by the time it was released much
With All-Nothing (1978) Back began using the technique of animating who falls in love with a goose and meets a tragic end. The film is of the film’s music was passé. It brought Nelvana to the brink of bankruptcy. The studio
with colored pencils directly on frosted cels – essentially creating moving paintings. All- animated using sand and the soundtrack features Inuit Indian turned to series work to survive, and would go on to be a major force in TV animation
Nothing received an Oscar nomination, the first of four for Back. voices imitating bird sounds. during the 1980s.

National Film Board of Canada » 160 Paul Driessen » 256 TV Co-Production » 378
250 INDEPENDENTS GROW 251
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
During the 1970s and 1980s, Will Vinton (b. 1948) almost single- He has proved himself equally adept at adult-oriented shorts – lampooning British
handedly revitalized stop-motion animation with his trademarked attitudes, especially sexual attitudes – and children’s TV series.
claymation shorts and helped establish the viability of regional Born in Australia, Godfrey came to the UK as a baby. He began his
animation in the US. While studying architecture and film, he came animation career in 1949 as a background artist for the W.M. Larkin Studio on
under the influence of the visionary Spanish architecture of Antonio promotional and technical films, and directed his first film, The Big Parade, in 1952
Gaudi’s organic forms. After working in live-action, he experimented with with Keith Learner. In 1954, he joined up with Jeff Hale to form Biographic Films,
clay animation, which eventually resulted in his collaborating with Bob which made some of the first commercials for Britain’s ITV, as well as many cinema
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Gardiner on the Oscar-winning short Closed Mondays (1974). advertisements. This allowed him the freedom to do a series of personal films that he
became identified with, including Polygamous Polonius (1959) and Do-It-Yourself
Will Vinton Productions Cartoon Kit (1961). These films showed the influence of The Goons, along with his
He then set up Will Vinton Productions in Portland, Oregon, where over the interest in political satire and British morals, sexual and otherwise. While visually rather
next decade he made a series of shorts that made his reputation and crude, their quintessential British humor put them very much outside the dominant
earned him Oscar nominations for Martin the Cobbler (1976), Rip Van American mode so prevalent at the time; as such, they helped establish a uniquely
Winkle (1978) and The Great Cognito (1982). The latter, which became British school of animation.

© Bob Godfrey
his signature film, is a tour de force in which the title character undergoes
© Will Vinton Studios
a series of rapid metamorphoses as he delivers a comic monologue. California Raisins Variety of Subjects
Among his other short films were Mountain Music (1975), a version of The California Raisins were created from different colors of Van Great In 1964, he formed Bob Godfrey Films to gain more control over his work, which included
Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince (1979) and Dinosaur (1980). The failure of his Aken clay, including yellow, blue and white, resulting in Raisin As well as highly successful children’s cartoons, Godfrey also did a such mock-erotic films as Henry ‘Til 5 (1970), Kama Sutra Rides Again (1971) and
sole feature effort, The Adventures of Mark Twain (1984), essentially a collection of short Purple. The Raisins had a trademark song ‘I Heard It Through The number of more adult-themed animations. Great (1975) is a Dream Doll (1979), made with Zagreb Studio’s Zlatko Grgic. His most ambitious film was
films, was eclipsed by the acclaim for his John Fogerty ‘Vanz Kant Danz’ (1985) music video Grapevine’, (a Marvin Gaye classic), and were animated with the breakneck sprint through Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s life Great (1975), the Oscar-winning half-hour satirical biography of British engineer
and the ‘Speed Demon’ sequence in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker feature (1988). help of reference footage of actors dancing. and achievements. Using hand-drawn, mixed-media animation, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
it won an Academy Award in 1975 and a BAFTA in 1976. In addition to his theatrical efforts, Godfrey was also active in TV. He
Commercial Success directed four episodes of The Beatles’ TV series in 1966, and in 1974 wrote and narrated
Toward the end of this period, Vinton began leaving directing chores to others and Roobarb and Custard the highly influential The Do-It-Yourself Film Animation Kit TV series, which Aardman’s
eventually concentrated on the creative aspects of running the studio. As he did this, the The first animated television series ever to be made in the UK Nick Park said was instrumental in getting him into animation. More recently, he made
company achieved great popularity for its California Raisins commercials, which led to was Roobarb and Custard, a series of cartoons featuring a cat Millennium – the Musical (1999), a satirical TV special profiling Margaret Thatcher. He
two prime-time TV specials: Meet the Raisins (1988) and The Raisins Sold Out! (1990). and dog that has achieved cult status since its first airing in 1974. has also produced several popular children’s series, including Roobarb and Custard
In 1987, he won Emmys for A Claymation Christmas Celebration and for the The characters in the Roobarb cartoons were colored in with (1974), which was based on the stories of Grange Calveley and has become a cult
animated/live-action sequence in the popular Moonlighting TV show. nothing more sophisticated than Magic Markers. classic; Henry’s Cat (1983); and Kevin Saves the World (2002).
Will Vinton Studios eventually expanded into digital animation, especially
for TV commercials, and had moderate success with The PJs, a prime-time TV series co-
produced with Eddie Murphy using traditional puppet animation. However, the failure of © Bob Godfrey

a subsequent prime-time series, Gary and Mike, and the collapse of the market for TV Bob Godfrey
commercials led to Vinton losing control of the studio in 2003. Specializing in hand-drawn media, Bob Godfrey is famous for his

distinctive "wobbling" cartoons, which are created using a

© Bob Godfrey/A & BTV

Bob Godfrey technique called boiling. His witty, fast-paced animations have

Bob Godfrey (b. 1921) has been one of Britain’s most distinctive comic talents, emerging included several popular series for children, including Henry’s Cat

from the same irreverent spirit that energized the free cinema movement of the 1960s. and Roobarb and Custard.

Richard Williams » 188 Music and TV Animation » 280 Aardman Animation » 322 George Dunning » 220 Zagreb Studio » 228 Nick Park » 322
252 RENÉ LALOUX 253
WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

WESTERN EUROPE: FRANCE

French artist René Laloux (1929–2004) had already determined he would dedicate his La Planète Sauvage Terr, one of the Oms belonging to
life to painting when he was invited to create an experimental workshop at Cheverny Released in 1973, La Planète Sauvage is a surreal tale that takes the chief Draag’s daughter,
Court, a private psychiatric clinic. Here, with the assistance of the inmates, he produced place on a faraway planet where giants rule and tiny humans manages to escape and, inciting the
a jarring 14-minute film, Les Dents du Singe (‘The Monkey’s Teeth’, 1960), involving must fight for equality and their lives. It depicts the eternal others to rebel, guides them to a
a primate having his teeth forcibly extracted. human struggle for freedom, showing what happens when the "wild planet" where they discover
human capacity to think and learn is suppressed. the secret of the Draags’ energy
Clinical Experiment source. Armed with this information,
By adapting a number of the patients’ drawings, Laloux and his students managed to they return and finally manage to

© Krátky Film Praha, Les Films Armorial, Service de la Recherche ORTF, Ceskoslovensky Filmexport
construct a 16 mm (0.6 in) animated cut-out film as a clinical experiment. The end get their oppressors to recognize
product was seen and bought by Fréderic Rossif and, spurred on by his success at them as their equivalent.
making animated films, Laloux took the The whole production
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money for The Monkey’s Teeth and sank took Laloux and Topor over three
it into a second project. years to complete, but it was
His next film, Temps Morts certainly worth it because La Planète
(‘Dead Times’, 1964), conveyed another Sauvage won international acclaim,
somber message and was described as "a including the Special Critic’s Award
visual perception of death and its at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
consequences". In collaboration with Laloux then collaborated with the
post-surrealist painter and writer Roland celebrated comic-strip artist
Topor (b. 1938), he next presented a Moebius (Jean Giraud) to produce
bizarre gothic-horror tale concerning a his next project, Les Maîtres du
town overrun with colossal snails entitled La Planète Sauvage Temps (‘Time Masters’), in 1982. Moebius provided the visually striking original
Les Escargots (‘The Snails’, 1965). This film was one of the first feature-length animations animation sketches for the story of a mercenary who races across the cosmos to save a
dedicated to adults and science fiction. It won a prize at the young boy from an extraterrestrial force of evil.
Adventures in Cannes Film Festival when it was shown there in 1973, and it has

Science Fiction been something of a cult classic ever since.

© Krátky Film Praha, Les Films Armorial, Service de la Recherche ORTF, Ceskoslovensky Filmexport
By the early 1970s, he was embarking on
his most challenging project to date,
lending his distinctive style of art to an
© Krátky Film Praha, Les Films Armorial, Service de la Recherche ORTF, Ceskoslovensky Filmexport
adaptation of Stefan Wul’s popular 1957
science-fiction parable Ome en Serie. Retitled La Planète Sauvage (a.k.a Fantastic Planet,
The Savage Planet or Planet of Incredible Creatures, 1973), the story deals
with existence on the planet Ygam. The Oms, a race of humanoid creatures (the name La Planète Sauvage
"Ome" is derived from "homme", the French word for man), struggle to rid themselves A joint production by French and Czechoslovakian film-makers,

of domination from the 39-ft- (12-m-) high, blue-skinned "Draags" who treat them this film was seen as a metaphor for Soviet oppression of what

as domestic pets. was then Czechoslovakia. Pressure from the Communist

The Draags are higher beings who dedicate their leisure time to government forced the production to move to France, where it

meditation and keeping the population of the Oms down by culling them every so often. was completed in 1973.

Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk » 173

254 ALLEGRO NON TROPPO 255
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : I TA L Y
Filmed in monochrome and Technicolor, Allegro Non Troppo – dinosaurs Stravinsky’s The Firebird concerns the Garden of Eden and the snake that
Bruno Bozzetto’s high-spirited 1977 film Set to Ravel’s Bolero, the section featuring dinosaurs has various tries to tempt Adam and Eve with an apple. The snake is shown the present day by
Allegro Non Troppo (a musical term meaning creatures evolving from the remains of a discarded bottle. These Satan and is pictured as a white-collar worker in a chaotic world of noise, clutter and
"lively, but not too much") has been different forms of life are finally defeated by man in the form of bombs. He returns to his original status.
described as a parody of Disney’s Fantasia. In an ape.

many ways, however, it is not comparable in Happy Ever After?

either parody or style to the Disney An epilogue shows an apartment superintendent taking a miniature theater to the
masterpiece. Allegro Non Troppo stands on its basement to show a succession of parodies of the musical form. He smashes the
own by expanding the technique of blending theaters and departs, only to be stopped in his tracks by a block of cement bearing the
music perfectly with the animated art. inscription "Happy End" hurtling down to squash him. The orchestra leader, having got
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what he can from his musicians, then disposes of the players by shooting them all.
Classical Influence
Featuring half a dozen unrelated segments set Satire or Homage?
to a selection of classical-music themes, the Allegro Non Troppo has been called a satire of Fantasia, but the only entry that can really

© Bozzetto Film
performance starts in live-action with the be likened to the Disney classic is the visually stunning Bolero. In this placement Bozzetto
arrival of a conductor who prepares himself to definitely pays homage to the Firebird sequence of Fantasia and the dinosaurs’ trek
conduct his orchestra. A live-action comedy across the burning desert in search of sustenance.
scene with the musicians is shown in between each amimated sequence. Another gentle reminder of Fantasia is the presence of a live-action
The first in line is Debussy’s Prélude a l’après-midi d’un faune. Set against orchestra that passes comments on the proceedings. The live-action photography is
a tasteful background of pastels and watercolors, a bespectacled satyr appears on the handled by comedian Maurizio Nichetti, who is also seen as the symphony conductor
trail of a pretty wood nymph. His pursuit of her lasts until the realization hits him that preparing his musicians to play, even though the music throughout the film is pre-recorded.
there is no need to seek her because many such beautiful creatures surround him. Allegro Non Troppo Bozzetto’s trademark anti-war sentiments are visible throughout the film:
The second sequence is set to the music of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dance No. 7. Exuberant and imaginative, Allegro Non Troppo uses free-form the threat of a firing squad, the war-torn battlegrounds in Bolero, the cat who is already
A firing squad is about to put an end to a "non-conformist" when they drop their pants animation and understated use of color to great effect. A theme a ghost, the superintendent being crushed and the conductor who shoots his players at
and "moon" at the offender. common to all Bozzetto’s work – and also seen in this film – is the the end. Sex is also a recurring theme, seen in the predatory satyr, the copulating lovers
Next is an interpretation of man’s evolution set to Ravel’s Bolero. An lament for a society based on consumerism and machines. and Adam and Eve’s temptation. Bizarre surrealism abounds, but this weird and
American rocket departs from an unnamed planet, leaving behind an empty bottle of wonderful film remains a testament to Bozzetto’s animation genius.
Coca-Cola. From the bottle springs life: a procession of monsters who go past
battlegrounds, ending up at a statue. The statue splits open to reveal an ape inside.
Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major features a bee settling down for a picnic. His

© Bozzetto Film
enjoyment is soon disrupted by the arrival of a pair of lovers who start to make love on
the picnic ground. The bee puts matters right by stinging them.
Sibelius’ Valse Triste pictures a wide-eyed cat reminiscing as he wanders
around a derelict tenement building. He recalls various events as he journeys from room Allegro Non Troppo - cat
to room, and it is only at the end that we discover that the building is about to be A humorous tribute to Disney’s Fantasia, Allegro Non Troppo

demolished and the cat is, in fact, a ghost spending his final moments in a home he once consists of six sequences set to music by Debussy, Dvorák, Ravel,

loved. The orchestra is seen weeping for the cat’s demise. The brilliant design and clever Vivaldi, Sibelius and Stravinsky. The cat pictured here is from the

animation of the cat make this one of the most haunting and memorable sequences. haunting Sibelius section, Valse Triste. © Bozzetto Film

Bruno Bozzetto » 222 Yuri Norstein and The Battle of Kerjnets » 235
256 MULTITUDE OF TALENT 257
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : H O L L A N D & G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : H O L L A N D & G R E AT B R I TA I N
Dutch animator Paul Driessen (b. 1940 ) is a rich example of an independent animator An Old Box Minneapolis-born Gilliam studied
formulating his own style of art and humor purely from within, without any influence The French Department at Canada's NFB encouraged animators political science before immersing himself in a variety
from other sources. Driessen trained in graphic design and illustration at Utrecht to work without dialoguein their films. For Paul Driessen this of jobs, finally becoming a writer, illustrator, cartoonist
Academy of Fine Arts, where he ultimately disregarded all he had learned in favor of meant that the films had to be more creative and he often used and editor on Harvey Kurtzman’s Help! magazine.
following his own path. fairy tales, legends and Biblical stories to communicate his When work dried up in the States, he descended on an
message, adding a special twist to surprise his audience. unsuspecting London and, via John Cleese, managed
Driessen’s Early Years to get some sketches accepted for the children’s
A longtime admirer of the wonderful work of Dutch cartoonist Marten Toonder comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–69),
(b. 1912) and puppet animator "Joop" Geesink (1913–84), Driessen where he also became acquainted with Eric Idle,
dreamed of one day animating his own films. His ambitions came to fruition Michael Palin and Terry Jones.
when, in his early twenties, Driessen secured a job creating his own
commercials in the Dutch advertising company Cinecentrum. It was there he A Laugh-a-Minute
learned his film-making craft under the guidance of American Jim Hiltz, and His quirky animation was first seen by television
the young Dutchman was let loose to write, draw and direct his own work. viewers when producer Humphrey Barclay invited him
to provide cartoons and caricatures for the newly
Moving On formed London Weekend Television comedy show We

©1975 National Film Board of Canada

As chance would have it, George Dunning happened to be visiting the studio Have Ways of Making You Laugh (1968). Gilliam was
when he saw Driessen’s work and invited him to come to his TVC studio in asked to animate a short sequence to illustrate a
London. The young Driessen arrived there just in time to embark on TVC’s ragbag of Jimmy Young’s radio-show recipes and,
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most adventurous project, Yellow Submarine, where he was kept busy for with very little cash up front, he figured that the only
months among the storyboards and animation. way it could be done was with cut-out animation. The
After working on Yellow Submarine, he returned home formula was a hit and stayed. Gilliam is not one to let
where he obtained a grant to make Het Verhaal von Klein Yoghurt (‘The Story of Little Cat's Cradle a skimpy budget get in the way of making a funny
John Bailey’, 1970) about a boy who is rescued by his elephant friend after accidentally Cat's Cradle shows Driessen's skill in connecting disparate stories cartoon. The following year was to set his name in
starting a forest fire. In 1972, he emigrated to Canada where he joined up with the NFB. to form a consistent whole. He uses a single black line to link stone when the initial series of Monty Python’s Flying
He was shunted into the NFB’s French section, whose main concerns lay with ecological different situations, from funny to frightening to surreal. The tale Circus went on the air, fascinating television audiences
issues. His debut films, therefore, dealt with the horrors of pollution. stars Gothic characters, witches and cloaked riders, and has no with Gilliam’s own particular brand of frantic humor.

© Python Pictures
The turning point came in 1974 with Au Bout du Fil (‘Cat’s Cradle’) where dialoguebut a concoction of sound effects.

Driessen’s willowy, spidery graphics help illustrate a spider’s web spinning an abstract Expect the Unexpected
yarn involving various Gothic characters who all exist in a hungry, natural world. On the The essence of Gilliam’s work is full of bizarre Kafka-
crest of that wave, he next produced Une Vieille Boîte (‘An Old Box’), featuring a character Monty Python's Flying Circus esque fantasies, such as a man-eating baby carriage, elephantine chickens descending
who finds an old box full of wonders to behold, but decides to exploit it on the street. The animation Gilliam produced to link the live-action sections of from above and squashing an unsuspecting onlooker, flying houses and an unhealthy
After a string of hits – and winning more than 50 international prizes – Flying Circus was typical of his animation style in that he obsession with dismembered feet. Even the opening sequence of Python finishes with

©1974 National Film Board of Canada

Paul Driessen is now on the faculty of Kassell University in Germany. frequently used recognizable images in unpredictable and Bronzino’s painting of Cupid and Venus, where Cupid’s foot crashes down to stomp the title
outrageous ways. There is a sense of the macabre in much of his to a pulp.
Terry Gilliam work (his use of skulls and monsters, etc.), which gives the viewer Relying heavily on an element of shock and the unexpected, Gilliam’s
Terry Gilliam’s (b. 1940) anarchic cut-out animation is completely different, and is best- a sense of uneasiness, and heightens any disorientation the animation could be described as the stuff nightmares are made of, although you are
known as the material used to link sketches in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–74). animation might have created. helpless with laughter at the same time. The cheapness of it all adds to the charm.

George Dunning » 220 National Film Board of Canada » 248 Yellow Submarine » 218
258 PANNONIA STUDIO 259
EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

During the 1970s, the Pannonia studio continued to excel in the production of artistic Tamás Szabó Sípos’s Let Me Explain took on a more educational
shorts and television series. In fact, Pannonia had achieved such a high level of success function. In each episode, a character named Dr Brain set out to
that they even established two branches. One of them was founded in Kecskemét, the explain the world. In one episode, for example, Dr Brain, in a
other in Pécs. The studio also ventured into the international co-production arena. jovial and ironic manner, explains the basics of economics.
The 1970s also saw other TV productions,
Features and TV including Tails the Cat-Chaser, which used a cut-out technique;
In 1973, the studio moved into feature animation production with Johnny Corncob by Kukori and Kotkoda; Mirr-Murr the Tom-Cat; Elek Mekk – Jack-of-
Marcell Jankovics. The success of their first feature encouraged the studio to set up a All-Trades; and Tales from Crow Hill. In 1978, Marcell Jankovics
feature-animation division. By the end of the 1970s, they had produced three more launched a new adult series called Hungarian Folk Tales.

© Pannonia Film
animated features: Hugo the Hippo (1973), by Bill Feigenbaum and József Gémes,
which strangely enough, was commissioned by the US company Fabergé; Matty the Not Short on Shorts
Gooseboy (1976), by Attila Dargay; and the ambitious avant-garde musical Foam Bath Hugo the Hippo Despite the increasingly commercial nature of the studio,
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(1979) by György Kovásznai. Surreal and psychedelic, Hugo the Hippo tells the story of 12 Hugo the Hippo Pannonia continued to encourage and support the production of short animation films.
Television productions remained the main mode of production for hippos imported to Zanzibar to rid the harbor from sharks. After Hugo is put on trial for causing damage to a village, but the Sultan While the older generation concerned themselves primarily with ethical and philosophical
Pannonia. The first TV productions were two highly successful series: József Nepp’s a jetty is built, the hippos are massacred, with Hugo being the denounces his persecutor, Aban Khan, and reminds the court of questions, the younger generation turned their attentions to modern challenges and
Mézga Family – aimed primarily at children – was about a family’s comic adventures; only survivor. the hippos’ invaluable past service. A dark and often bizarre film, realities. Among the highlights of this period are Moon Flight (1975) and Panic (1978), both
Hugo the Hippo has nonetheless become a cult classic of sorts. by Sándor Reisenbüchler; Wave Length (1971) by György Kovásznai; Modern Sports

© Pannonia Film
Coaching (1970) by Bela Ternovsky; and two films that won prestigious Golden Palm
awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Sándor Reisenbüchler’s 1812 (1973) and Marcell
Jankovic’s Fight (1977).
A new generation of animators emerged during the 1970s, notably Kati
Fight Macskássy, daughter of Hungarian animation pioneer Gyula Macskássy, who made
Winner of the Palme d’Or for best short film at the 1977 Cannes quality children’s films including the acclaimed Push Button (1973) and I Think Life’s
Film Festival, Fight was one of several very successful animations Great Fun (1976). Péter Szoboszlay made the humorous Hey, You (1976), Csaba
to come from Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics. Szórády produced Rondino (1977) and Csaba Varga took a group of amateur film-
makers from Pécs and formed the animation studio IXILON in 1974. Varga was
commissioned by Pannonia to produce films and to establish a studio in Pécs. The studio
became known for its bold graphic style and adult-tailored films. In 1988, the studio
would become the famous Varga Studio.

Marcell Jankovics
One of the most successful and interesting Hungarian animators of this period was
Marcell Jankovics. Born in Budapest, he made his first film, The Legend of Saint Silvester
in 1964. Since then, Jankovics has alternated with great ease between children’s films,
television series, feature films and his own personal short films. His short films have
garnered wide international acclaim and have themselves been diverse in tone, ranging

© Pannonia Film
from satire in Deep Water (1971) to heavier, existentialist films like SOS (1970),
Sisyphus (1973) and The Fight (1977).

Pannonia Film Studio » 230 Pannonia in the 1980s » 288

260 SCI-FI & PUPPETS 261
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
Independent Shorts

© 1978 Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc./Tatsunoko Productions

TV animation was dominant during the 1970s, with most theatrical features being big-
screen spin-offs. Some did not even present new stories, but merely summarized the TV and Puppet Animation
story line. The most notable exceptions to this standard were the two Lupin III features In art animation, Renzo Kinoshita (1936–97) began as a TV
produced by TMS Entertainment Ltd (a.k.a. Tokyo Movie Shinsha): Lupin III: The Secret of animator in the 1960s, but under the influence of Tezuka and Kuri he
Mamo (1978), directed by Soji Yoshikawa, and The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), written switched to making independent short films for festival screenings.
and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The most significant advance in TV animation was the His masterpiece is the anti-nuclear warfare Pika-Don (1978); others
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upgrading of its target audience from children to adolescents and young adults. The include What on Earth is He? (1971), Made In Japan (1972),
distinctive art styles of manga cartoonists Go Nagai (b. 1945), Leiji Matsumoto (b. 1938) Invitation to Death (1973), The Calculating Machine (1973) and The
and "Monkey Punch" (Kazuhiko Kato, 1937) became familiar fixtures on the small screen. Japanese (1977). He was a co-founder in 1985 of the bi-annual
Hiroshima International Animation Festival, which he directed with
Space-Age Animation his wife Sayoko until his death.
Nagai created the concept of heroic teenagers who donned mechanical battle armor or Kihachiro Kawamoto, "the Magician of Puppet
piloted transformable vehicles and fought as giant robots to protect the world (Japan) from Animation", began at Tadahito Mochinaga’s puppet studio in the
ruthless conquering outer-space armies. The first was Mazinger Z, produced by Toei Doga 1950s. In 1962 he went to Czechoslovakia to study under puppet
© Renzo Kinoshita/Studio Lotus

in 222 episodes under three titles from 1972 until 1977. By the end of the decade, there animator Jiri Trnka. His first film, Breaking Branches is Forbidden
were 40 giant-robot cartoon series created by practically every TV animation studio. Made in Japan (1968), was the first of his many films to win international-festival prizes. In 1972,
A major variant was introduced by Nippon Sunrise studio writer/director Made In Japan won the Grand Prix at the New York International Kawamoto and fellow Mochinaga veteran Tadanari Okamoto began an annual
Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam, which recast the giant robots from Animation Festival in 1972. Renzo Kinoshita began working as show touring major Japanese cities, featuring both puppet and cut-paper animated
unique superhero suits to more realistic futuristic military combat vehicles, and the an independent animator in 1967 making films with powerful films and live-puppet plays of Japanese folk tales and classic drama. Kawamoto’s
adversaries from humans versus demonic aliens to warring human space nations. messages to contemporary society. Kinoshita's wife Sayoko films included The Devil (1972), The Journey (1973), The Life of a Poet (1974),
Nagai also pioneered TV animation with supernatural horror, with worked with him on his films often helping with in-betweening, Dojoji Temple (1976) and House of Flames (1979). In the 1980s and 1990s the
Devilman (1972), and the first risqué-humor adventure series, Cutey Honey (1973), coloring and making puppets. governmental NHK station funded his puppet dramatizations of classic Japanese
featuring a buxom teen girl (actually an android) whose clothing briefly disappeared and Chinese literature.
when she changed from one costumed disguise to another. Tadanari Okamoto’s first

© Kihachiro Kawamoto
puppet film, Strange Medicine, won the
Small-Screen Adventures 1965 Ofuji Award. He was not as prolific
Leiji Matsumoto specialised in interstellar sci-fi adventure series, notably the long- as Kawamoto, but his puppet and cut-
running Space Battleship Yamato (1974), plus several sequels, Space Pirate Captain paper works include such international
Harlock (1978) and Galaxy Express 999 (1978). Monkey Punch was known primarily for festival favorites as Home My Home
his long-running manga Lupin III about a charismatic international jewel thief. Designed Dojoji Temple (1970), The Flowers and the Mole
for adults rather than for children, its TV animated series ran for over 200 episodes Dojoji Temple is a traditionally inspired (1971), The Mochi-Mochi Tree (1971),
throughout the 1970s and mid-1980s, evolving into a series of annual animated Battle of the Planets Japanese story about a woman's The Crab’s Vengeance on the Monkey
features that continue today. This began as the Japanese 1972 TV cartoon series Science passion. The woman's emotional state (1972), Praise Be to Small Ills (1973),
Other major TV animation included Tatsuo Yoshida’s sci-fi superhero Ninja Team Gatchaman (first and third images). It was is cleverly communicated by changes Water Seed (1975), The Bridge of
team in Battle of the Planets (1972); the adolescent tear-jerker romance Candy Candy transformed for American TV in 1978 by a team led by in the lighting of her face. The style of Strength (1976), The Magic Fox (1982)
(1976–79); The Rose of Versailles (a.k.a. Lady Oscar, 1979), based upon Ryoko Ikeda’s Disney/Hanna-Barbera veteran Jameson Brewer and the watercolour backdrops resembles and A Well-Ordered Restaurant
historical romance set at the court of Louis XVI; and a TV cartoon series of Fujio Fujiko’s Flintstones director Alan Dinehart (second image: robot 7-Zark- the narrative picture scrolls of traditional (1991), which was completed
manga for children about the time-travelling robot toy cat Doraemon (1979). 7, an American addition to the cast). Japanese art. posthumously by his assistants.

Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320 Chinese Puppet Animation » 174 Jiri Trnka » 192
262 FINDING AN IDENTITY 263
AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA
Two Australian animators are having lunch. advertising assignments) took on the animation of various
The eager, younger one states, "Animation is cartoon series for Al Brodax, and TV cartoons like Beetle
imagination!" His companion – older, more Bailey, Krazy Kat and Snuffy Smith were soon being churned
pragmatic – replies, "Yes, but is it local out. Artransa’s animation department was originally set up

© Estate of Eric Porter/From the collection of Screensound Australia – the National Screen and Sound Archive
imagination or imported imagination?" and trained by veteran animator Eric Porter; veterans recalled
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it fondly as a stimulating place to work and learn. Porter, who
The Influence of TV set up his own production house in 1958, also began
Australian animation took a long time to subcontracting on animated American series, like Cool
become a viable, substantial industry. Before McCool and The Lone Ranger, although his studio was more
the modern telecommunications age, noted for its slick cartoon work on many TV commercials.
Australian animation suffered from Air Programs International (API) was set up by
entrenched national problems: a tiny Walter Hucker in the late 1950s. By 1966, API had overseas
population (and consequently a too-limited TV deals, and had sold the first cartoon series fully created
market), a lack of the centrally concentrated and produced in Australia, King Arthur & the Square Knights
© Air Programus International Studio

resources of Hollywood and the ever-present of the Round Table. API also sold a series of prime-time
"tyranny of distance". Despite attempts by pioneers like Eric Porter (1910–83) and animated specials, consisting of classics like A Christmas
Melbourne’s Owen Brothers (Will and Harrie) to make indigenous theatrical cartoons, Carol, to America’s giant CBS network.
little of major animation consequence happened until the advent of television in 1956.
Suddenly, TV commercials and a constant supply of flashy promos and Marco Polo Jr vs. the Red Dragon Hanna-Barbera Australia
animated network logos were required, and the business began to benefit from regular Marco Polo Jr sets sail for Xanadu to reunite two halves of Kubla In 1970, API commenced work on a Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series, The Funky
work. Very quickly, that work matched international standards, employing a wide variety Khan's magical golden medallion. This scene from Eric Porter's Phantom, and veteran producer William Hanna flew to Australia to oversee. Hanna’s
of graphic styles, ranging from traditional character animation to more UPA-inspired very popular feature film shows Princess Shining Moon, the presence was soon being viewed with concern by several API staffers, who sniffed a
modeling, to outright experimental design work. rightful heir to Xanadu's throne, surrounded by the evil ruler Red possible takeover. Watler Hucker’s wife, Wendy, said, "An ideological difference with H-
Meanwhile, in America the TV cartoon business mushroomed following Dragon and other villainous characters. B developed. We had battled to build an Australian industry – it was a long, hard road

© Air Programus International Studio

the huge success of Hanna-Barbera’s Ruff and Reddy and Huckleberry Hound shows. to hoe."
By the end of the 1950s the demand for episodic cartoon product was rapidly Hanna-Barbera Australia, one of the earliest examples of cartoon
outstripping the supply of American animation talent. globalization, opened in early 1972. H-B was taken to court when API accused them
of poaching API’s staff. Hanna-Barbera successfully defended the case. William
Slice of the American Pie Hanna stated, "We won our point: that we were not here to damage API." But many
To solve this dilemma, producers like Al Brodax in New York and Jay Ward on the West artists did defect to Hanna-Barbera, including Peter Luschwitz, Don McKinnon and
Coast began subcontracting animation of their shows to outfits in Mexico, Canada and Gwyn Perkins who became top artists in the field. Perkins recalled, "It was like this
Holland. Storyboards and soundtracks were prepared in the States, but the labor- great white god of animation – Bill Hanna – arrived, and suddenly we had real
intensive drawing process was executed overseas under American supervision. Wanting King Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table American model sheets to work from!" Some supervising American animators made
a piece of this lucrative pie, Australia established its credentials as another cost-effective In 1966, 39 half-hour episodes were made of this all-Australian the trip Down Under to help train local talent to Hollywood standards, including
outsourcing center. Artist Gus McLaren recalled, "It wasn’t just a matter of us being production. This was API's most successful series and was Disney veteran Volus Jones.
cheaper; there was a dearth of animators in America." syndicated in the US by Twentieth Century Fox and sold to H-B Australia animated various American TV series, like Wait ‘Til Your
In the early 1960s the first examples of Down Under "runaway 14 countries. Zoran Janjic, an animator originally from the Father Gets Home, as well as prime-time cartoon specials like The Flintstones Meet
production" occurred when the animation wing of Artransa Park Studios (busy with Zagreb Studios, directed the series. Count Rockula, before setting up a dedicated commercials division in 1974.

TV Commercials » 184 Hanna-Barbera » 178

264 CARTOONS DOWN UNDER 265
AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA
In the early 1970s Australian animation was dominated by the presence of farmed-

Dot & The Kangaroo © Yoram Gross Film Studios PTY LTD
out American TV shows. This new work certainly provided welcome and regular
employment; at Hanna-Barbera Australia, many young people were well trained, at
least in TV cartoon techniques. But inevitably, the essentially "sausage machine"
quality of H-B’s TV cartoons palled after time. A group of creative designers and
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animators found themselves churning out product that was formulaic and uninspiring.
Animator Anne Jolliffe said, "As it developed, after they set up, it seemed to us like
time-serving: [eventually] it was like bottling pickles."

A New Era Dawns Dot & The Kangaroo © Yoram Gross Film Studios PTY LTD
By the end of the decade, a new maturity and confidence in Australia’s national identity
(due to a change of government after 23 years) ensured that animation was far more (1987), before scoring an even bigger success in animated TV cartoon shows, starting
capable of sustaining a homegrown industry. The Australian cartoon pioneer Eric Porter Lip-Sync Drawings with Blinky Bill, the adventures of a mischievous but endearing koala, from a beloved
again led the way. Less than a year after Hanna-Barbera was set up, Porter released his These lip-sync drawings of Dot and the Kangaroo are used to Australian literary property. While commercially successful, Gross remains an
feature-length cartoon Marco Polo Jr vs. the Red Dragon (1972). The well-crafted film help make the characters talk. The different poses are used to enthusiastic proponent of animation’s capacity to surprise and its limitless potential.
had its share of flaws, but it proved highly popular on initial release, and was noted for a animate the lips and mouth and are fitted to a pre-recorded Today Gross, partnered with the European EM-TV, is producing a raft of highly individual
new sophistication and overall Australian achievement. dialogue track which has been broken down to work out the TV cartoon series. These multi-episode properties include Tabaluga, Flipper and Lopaka,
Ultimately, though, the Red Dragon feature proved a financial drain and timings of the speech. Old Tom and Fairy Tale Police Department, all of which have been favorably received in
Porter was finally forced to close his studio. In 1983, shortly before his death, he was foreign countries.
honored at the Australian Film Institute awards, receiving the prestigious Raymond Yoram Gross Film Studios
Longford Award for a life devoted to the cartoon medium. He was popularly hailed as the Yoram Gross and his wife formed an animation studio in Sydney Bruce Petty
"father of Australian animation". in 1968. Their first feature Dot & The Kangaroo became one of The final figure to loom large in 1970s animation was the independent cartoonist and
Australia's most popular animated features and won the first prize satirist Bruce Petty (b. 1929). His distinctive, highly caricatured finished art was akin to
Yoram Gross and Dot the Kangaroo at the first Television Children's Film Festival in Teheran, 1977. most animators’ "roughs", and he was able to use the cartoon medium as a powerful
After Porter’s death in 1983, the next successful producer of Australian feature cartoons engine for biting social comment.
was Polish émigré Yoram Gross (b. 1926), who said, "I knew that I could never compete "I think my animation style – like everybody else’s – derives from the
with Disney - the magnificent job he had done. Instead, I chose to put animated cartoon drawing technique, and my technique suggests very quick, jumpy sort of movements. It
characters on live-action backgrounds. [The technique] is nothing new in the film does allow [for] a certain amount of information to happen," said Petty. He felt that
industry, but it is quite rare." (In fact, Eric Porter had employed some live backgrounds history was too often dryly presented as a mere catalogue of names and dates, noting,
years earlier in his 1937 color short, Waste Not, Want Not, starring his character Willie "There’s a lot more substructure we ought to know about – it’s very hard to teach, a little
the Wombat in an Australian version of Disney’s earlier Silly Symphony, The boring, but it’s terribly important; anything that can convey this level of economic and

Dot & The Kangaroo © Yoram Gross Film Studios PTY LTD
Grasshopper and the Ants.) Desiring to make specifically "Australian films about commercial structures is important, and I think animation [is] a good way to teach".
Australian life", Gross produced Dot and the Kangaroo (1977). This feature-length Dot & The Kangaroo One of Petty’s most interesting films was Leisure (1976), produced by
cartoon was successfully exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival, resulting in immediate In this film Dot, the daughter of settlers in the Australian outback, Film Graphics. He described that project as "an interesting puzzle – there were abstract
sales to 17 countries. Somewhat surprisingly to its makers, this uniquely "Oz" feature was loses her way in the bush. She is saved from the terrifying strange notions about human values, and we tried to turn them into graphic images. There was
being translated into languages like Chinese and Russian. sounds and dark shadows by a kangaroo, who carries Dot in its a big experimental component [to] Leisure, and I think that’s a good direction for
Gross made several more Dot movies over the next eight years, including pouch. With the help of many bush creatures including a koala, a animation to go in". The film won an Oscar, and capped a turbulent decade by putting
Dot and the Smugglers (a.k.a Dot and the Bunyip, 1986) and Dot and the Whale platypus and a kookabura she finally finds her way home. Australia firmly on the road to international animation credibility.

Silly Symphonies » 36 Eric Porter » 262 TV Co-Production » 378

 X

1980–89:

NEW DIRECTIONS
This was an exciting decade for animation. Shifts in corporate management, the retiring of
an old guard and a new breed of upstart cartoonists all conspired to cause change in the
mainstream perceptions of animation.
In feature-films, the decade began with Heavy Metal and Tron – and ended
with The Little Mermaid and Akira. Television went from Pac-Man to He-Man to Pee-Wee
Herman – and introduced us to a dysfunctional family: The Simpsons. Hayao Miyazaki came
into his own as a master of anime; Richard Williams proved himself with Who Framed Roger
Rabbit?; and Don Bluth took a group of Disney renegades and raised the bar with The Secret
of NIMH. Steven Spielberg joined the fray with An American Tail and Tiny Toon Adventures.
Animators experimented with new ideas, new styles and new techniques. One
technique in particular was very intriguing, computer animation. Former Disney animator
John Lasseter began making short experiments at Pixar, marrying his traditional character-
animation training to computer graphics. The result: an Academy Award for Tin Toy – and
a glimpse of things to come.
The world was alive with the new possibilities of animation art and the
directions in which it could go.

Picture above: Heathcliff © DiC Entertainment. Pictures clockwise from top left: He-Man © Filmation Associates; Akira © Akira Committee Company, Ltd., Dragon Production, Nakamura Production; Telecom Animation Film Company, Mash Room, Toho, Hakuhodo, TMS; The Little Mermaid
© The Walt Disney Company; The Secret of NIMH © Mrs. Brisby Ltd., Don Bluth Entertainment; The Big Snit © 1985 National Film Board of Canada; Triangle © Tallinfilm Studios; Care Bears © DiC Entertainment; Roger Rabbit © Touchstone Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Silver Screen Partners III.
Centre picture:Dirty Pair © Studio Nue/Sunrise/NTV
268 TRON 269
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Tron, released by Disney in 1982, was the movie that Almost 20 minutes of the film consisted of moving images
introduced computer animation to the masses. Directed generated entirely by computer. There were also over 200 scenes using
by Steven Lisberger, the film was a visual delight, and computer-generated sets intertwined with live-action actors, a
featured ground-breaking computer-generated imagery Hollywood first. In the computer-animated sequences, the live actors
(CGI) combined with live-action. were photographed in black and white. The resulting images were
selectively colorized using backlight compositing to make circuits in the
The Story actors’ suits glow, giving them a very unique look.
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

Tron is about a brash young computer hacker named
Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who owns a video arcade. Flynn was a Computer-Animation Pioneers
star programmer at Encom, a stereotypical faceless Because of the amount of computer-generated imagery necessary for
corporation. A co-worker of Flynn’s, named Dillenger Tron, Disney divided the work among four pioneering computer graphics
(David Warner), stole Flynn’s work and used it to get companies: Digital Effects, Robert Abel & Associates, Mathematical
promoted. In the process, Dillenger also managed to get Applications Group Incorporated (MAGI) and Information International
Flynn fired. Flynn enlists Alan and Lora (Bruce Boxleitner Incorporated (Triple-I). These companies went on to produce further
and Cindy Morgan), two friends and ex-colleagues, to help computer animation in the 1980s, but all of them went out of business
him break into Encom so he can prove Dillenger stole his within a few years. The employees of these companies went on to found
work. While attempting to de-activate his stolen program, many of today’s top studios, including Blue Sky, Metrolight,
Flynn is beamed into the computer itself. There, he enters Keiser/Walczak and Rhythm & Hues.
a computer-generated world where he must battle other In addition to giving a number of computer-animation
programs in video-game-like combat in order to defeat pioneers their start, Tron had a huge influence on everyone involved with
the Master Control Program. computer graphics at the time. While it was a pioneering moment for
animation, the movie itself did only moderate business at the box office.
Computer-Generated Magic Some of that may be due to the script, but it was also because the film
Unlike modern CGI films, which promise total realism, Tron went up against the blockbuster ET in the summer of 1982. The failure of
saturated the audience in bright colors and unabashedly Tron to attract a mass audience may have set back computer animation
computer-generated visuals. The production design by in Hollywood by as much as a decade.
Syd Mead, Dean Edward Mitzner and Jean "Moebius"
Giraud gave a beautiful look of the inside of a computer
that pre-dated such movies as The Matrix (1999) by
decades. Some of the production design was dictated by Tron’s characters
the primitive state of computer animation at the time, The actors’ costumes were decorated with black and white

which could only handle simple shapes and textures. The outlines and patterns designed to resemble circuits on electronic
© The Walt Disney Company

resulting film showed how good design could overcome boards. Once filming had taken place, each frame was then

any technical limitations. enlarged and separated out into layers of high-contrast images

© The Walt Disney Company

The most successful parts of the film were those that took place within the Tron – storyboard (one containing the outlines, one containing the background,

computer itself. One of the most memorable scenes is the light-cycle sequence, where In order for the production team to determine what would be etc.). These images were then individually backlit and re-

Flynn must pilot a CG motorcycle at breakneck speeds. The animation was truly stunning, required by way of computer-generated backgrounds, photographed with colored filters, combined with CGI and

and for the first time immersed theater audiences in the world of the video game. storyboards were drawn up to provide a blueprint for the action. composed together with the help of mattes.

Digital Domain » 306 Toy Story » 308 The Matrix » 352 Blue Sky » 346
270 PIXAR 271
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No studio has done more for the advancement of The Shorts
computer character animation than Pixar. The studio Throughout the 1980s, Pixar continued to do research and make short films. The short
developed the technology alongside an artistic sensibility films were largely done as demonstrations of the studio’s advancing technology, but
that made computer animation work on the big screen. under the direction of John Lasseter, they became enjoyable films in their own right.
Luxo Jr. (1986) astonished the computer-graphics and animation
Beginnings communities with its terrific character animation and a level of visual realism never
The roots of Pixar go back to the very roots of computer before seen in computer animation. This was honored by an Academy Award

© Pixar Animation Studios

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

graphics, which originated during the 1960s and 1970s. nomination, the first ever for a computer-animated short.
Over the course of a decade, researchers and Red’s Dream (1987) explored the mind of a small unicycle named Red,
mathematicians from a number of institutions, including who dreamed of juggling in the circus. The film marks one of the first attempts at
the University of Utah and the New York Institute of Tin Toy representing human characters, with the introduction of a clown named Lumpy. It
Technology, invented methods for creating and This won an Oscar in 1988, the first computer animated film to also showed off some of Pixar’s developments in special effects like rain and
rendering images on computers, and developed many do so. To create a digitally animated character, the animator naturalistic lighting.
of the techniques used today. Most of these researchers designs a computer model of the object using points and lines Tin Toy (1988) truly put Pixar on the map. Tinny, a tin toy fresh out of the
were scientists, not artists, however, and while they may connected together and oriented in 3D virtual space. This is what box, wants to play with his new owner – a baby with a penchant for eating and
have dreamed of making feature-films, they were by no makes computer-generated images look so real. Like an object in destroying toys. When he realizes his fate involves copious amounts of drool, Tinny runs
means skilled film-makers or animators. the physical world, an object in 3D virtual space can be moved, for his life. Tin Toy was a large advance in digital character animation, and the film won
rotated, twisted and bent. the 1988 Oscar for Best Animated Short.
The Genesis Effect © Pixar Animation Studios
KnickKnack (1989) stars a
In 1979, several of these researchers, including Ed lonely snowman that tries to escape his
Catmull, Ralph Guggenheim and Alvy Ray Smith, were hired by George Lucas to start a Geri's Game fortress-like snow globe. Very cartoony with a
computer-research division for Lucasfilm, bringing them out of academia and into a real Having started out making CG shorts in the 1980s, Pixar went on number of Looney Tunes moments, it was a
movie studio. The small organization developed and refined a number of important to hone their skills, creating Geri's Game in 1997. Using it as a huge leap from Tin Toy in terms of movement
technologies, most of which were geared toward special effects. In 1982, the division research and development exercise to help them improve their and acting.
produced the "Genesis Effect" for the movie Star Trek, the Wrath of Khan, in which a animation of humans and also to better their cloth simulations, it

missile, tipped with a life-creating warhead called Genesis, hits a dead planet and turns won the Oscar for Best Short in 1997. Making It Big
it into a one flourishing with life, a sequence that was entirely computer-generated. Pixar’s success in the late 1980s generated
In 1984, a young animator named John Lasseter joined the team and considerable business for the company. Disney
directed his first CG short for Lucasfilm, titled André and Wally B. The plot was fairly offered them a contract to create a digital ink
simple, with André, a simplified version of a rubber-hose character, getting chased by and paint system called CAPS (Computer
Wally, a small bumblebee. This was one of the very first examples of CG character Animation and Production System), which was
animation, and showed off new techniques such as motion blur, as well as using the first used in Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
more traditional "squash and stretch" technique. For The Birds Pixar also picked up a lot of production work,
In 1986 George Lucas sold the LucasFilm computer division to Steve Jobs, who At just three-and-a-half minutes, For the Birds (2000) was a very mostly in the form of television commercials for
renamed the company Pixar. Jobs wanted to turn Pixar into a computer company that would short short, but continued the Pixar tradition of creating films that clients such as Lifesavers, Listerine and Trident.
sell a graphic workstation called the Pixar Image Computer, but these expensive computers explored the creative and technical possibilities of computer The additional business allowed the studio to
never really got off the ground. Pixar did, however, branch off into the software business with animation. This time the aim was to develop a way to make hire more artists, including Pete Docter and
the release of Renderman, a rendering application used on most feature-films to this day. feathers and to ruffle them both as a group and individually. Andrew Stanton among others.

Toy Story » 308 Monsters Inc. » 340 Beauty and the Beast » 302
272 TV WAKES UP 273
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The early 1980s was a time of despair for American CBS canceled Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1991.
animators as TV producers started exporting work in Reubens became involved in a minor scandal, prematurely
wholesale lots to less expensive overseas studios, ending what was one of the more endearing chapters of
especially following the disastrous 1982 strike American TV animation.
against runaway production. However, the following
year, Filmation – which was headed by Lou Mighty Mouse:
Scheimer and resisted subcontracting work overseas The New Adventures
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

– made an end run around the major networks and Also significant was Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
produced He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1987–88), the short-lived CBS Saturday-morning TV series using
for daily syndication at the rate of 65 episodes a year the famed Terrytoons character produced by Ralph Bakshi. As
for two years, instead of the usual 13 for a Saturday- senior director, he picked John Kricfalusi, a Canadian animator who
morning show. In 1985, it followed suit with 65 half had previously worked for Bakshi on the popular Rolling Stones’
hours of She-Ra: Princess of Power. DIC ‘Harlem Shuffle’ music video.
Entertainment also came out with its own set of first- Kricfalusi, a big fan of the films of Chuck Jones and
© DiC Entertainment
run syndicated series, Inspector Gadget (1983) and Bob Clampett, had the then-radical idea of reorganizing
Heathcliff (1984). As a result, Filmation effectively Care Bears production using the unit system employed during the heyday of Hollywood cartoons.
broke the monopoly of the three major TV networks The Care Bears’ origins lie in greetings cards, and after their first In essence, this provided for the same director and crew to work on an episode from
and provided new opportunities for independent foray onto the big screen in 1985, a TV show began later that beginning to end, a method that had been seen by many as too inefficient and costly
studios. And because of its actions, Filmation year. As well as being successful as animated characters, Care to be used for TV.

© Filmation Associates
effectively prevented a large-scale exodus of talent Bears’ coloring, activity and comic books were published, and 40

from the animation industry. million Care Bear toys were sold between 1983 and 1987. Kricfalusi’s Limited Animation
He was also determined not to allow the economics of limited animation to prevent him
Pee-Wee’s Playhouse He-Man from making strong visual statements. In an interview with Harry McCracken, Kricfalusi
During the 1980s, independent animators had few outlets for their work on television, For He-Man’s first season, Filmation Rotoscoped live-action explained, "We just wanted to prove to people that it is possible to make a real cartoon,
aside from selling their films for fillers on cable and soliciting commissions from Sesame footage to create a library of stock character movements. Their and keep it on a cheap budget... Everybody told us: ‘The reason you can’t do expressions
Street and MTV. But a surprising opportunity emerged with the success on CBS of Pee- background artists created some stunning and surreal settings for and strong poses is because it’s limited animation. It won’t work.’ And I always had the
Wee’s Playhouse (1986–91). Hosted by Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), this live- the action, and the incidental music was haunting and lyrical. As theory: ‘Why not? Limited animation needs strong poses even more than full
action Saturday-morning series had its origins in a comedy review by Reubens. The Pee- a result, it had a look and feel that was startlingly different from animation’.” This had the advantage of providing directors with more control over what
Wee Herman Show was skewed toward baby boomers and their early memories of other cartoons of the time. overseas studios were doing and giving the artists a greater sense of satisfaction.
kiddie-show hosts. All this plus Kricfalusi’s irreverent sense of humor revolutionized the
The television series, which appealed to children and adults, included clips production of TV animation and provided a model for creator-driven shows
from vintage cartoons and original animation from independent film-makers and Heathcliff subsequently made by Warner Bros., Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
Aardman Animations. The program’s animation directors included Prudence Fenton, as Running for 65 episodes, beginning in 1984, Heathcliff (also While Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures did not attract a big audience,
well as Aardman’s Peter Lord and David Sproxton, with Nick Park and Craig Bartlett (later featuring the Catillac Cats) was based on George Gately’s comic it became something of a cause célèbre when CBS refused to renew the show when one
the creator of Hey, Arnold!) among the animators. As such, the series provided a quality strips. Heathcliff’s voice was provided by Mel Blanc, who also was episode was said to show Mighty Mouse getting his super powers from snorting cocaine.
© DiC Entertainment
of animation considerably different from what was usually seen on network TV and the voice of Bugs Bunny and thousands of other cartoon This controversy presaged the later controversy that would surround Kricfalusi’s Ren &
included such ongoing features as Penny, The Dinosaur Family and Ants, plus the characters in a career that spanned over 60 years. Heathcliff was Stimpy Show for Nickelodeon, which in a way helped bring animation into the
popular ‘A Life in the Fridge’ segments. one of his last roles. mainstream of popular culture.

Saturday Morning Blues » 246 Prime-Time Cartoons » 312 Ralph Bakshi » 244 Music Videos » 280 Cable Toons » 318
274 FEATURE REVIVAL 275
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Don Bluth (b. 1937) is one of the key figures in the feature-animation revival of the film was greatly admired for the quality of its animation and mise-en-scène, but it
1980s. His early films, including the half-hour TV special Banjo the Woodpile Cat nevertheless failed at the box office. In order to keep busy, Bluth and company briefly
(1982), and especially the feature-length The Secret of NIMH (1982), helped revive the went into the production of video games. Taking advantage of the possibilities offered by
almost-forgotten art of classic Disney animation. As such, they helped pave the way for new laser-disc technology, he introduced feature-quality animation to video gaming in
the more ballyhooed revival of Disney’s own feature-animation program years later. Dragon’s Lair (1983) and Space Ace (1983), which are considered landmarks in the field.

Bluth’s Mission Moving On

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

While attending Brigham Young University, Bluth was hired by Disney as an assistant Bluth then joined forces with Steven Spielberg to produce An American Tail (1986), the
animator on Sleeping Beauty; bored with the work, he soon left to become a Mormon tale of a young Jewish mouse that emigrates to America in the hope of finding a land
missionary in Argentina. He returned to animation at Filmation in 1967 after running a without cats. Though the film’s striking animation could not entirely compensate for a
theater with a younger brother in Los Angeles, then returned to Disney in 1971. There he weak story, its financial success finally proved someone could compete head-to-head

© Mrs. Brisby Ltd., Don Bluth Productions

animated on Robin Hood (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and with Disney in its own market and still remain standing.
The Rescuers (1977), and was animation director on the live-action/animated © Don Bluth Films
George Lucas joined Spielberg to help produce Bluth’s next film, the
Pete’s Dragon (1977). Dragon’s Lair equally successful The Land Before Time (1988), about an orphaned brontosaurus’s
In terms of feature animation, the 1970s was a period initially galvanized Dragon's Lair was 22 minutes of full animation, and cost $1.3 m. quest for the legendary Great Valley. After production began in Los Angeles, Bluth
by the work of Ralph Bakshi, whose promise seemed increasingly to diminish as the It was successful from the start; a Dragon's Lair feature film that abruptly shifted operations to Dublin in order to save costs. Bluth’s relationship with
decade wore on. In England, Richard Williams was starting his own effort to revive the was planned, storyboarded and written, but never put into Spielberg and Lucas was not a happy one, and he subsequently went off on his own.
classic Disney tradition, but with the exception of The Rescuers, the Disney studio Don Bluth production. Called Dragon's Lair: The Legend, it was to be a There followed a series of movies, beginning with All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), which
seemed to have lost direction. Don Bluth left Disney and vowed to make a return to their darker, more developed story than the light-hearted, thrill ride saw his star rapidly decline. With the exception of his version of Hans Christian
classical style of animation. He wanted to make a visually Dragon's Lair was. Andersen’s Thumbelina (1994), films such as Rock-A-Doodle (1991), A Troll in Central
New Recruits ravishing film that harked back to Disney’s pre-World War Two Park (1994) and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) lacked the box office appeal of his
It was also a period in which graduates of the new character-animation program at the glory days, which he did with The Secret of NIMH. early work, and he seemed to become a marginal figure. Bluth left the production of the
Disney-funded California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and Canada’s Sheridan College latter, which was released without a director credit. But the bigger budgets and more
started entering the industry in force. Full of energy and ideas, they were increasingly Mouse falling ambitious productions were yet to come.
frustrated and unhappy by what they found. It was in this atmosphere that Bluth Don Bluth brought back the

persuaded a group of animators to work on Banjo the Woodpile Cat in their spare time. multiplane camera, a Disney

One purpose of working on the film was to learn the process of film- invention of the 1930s, in NIMH.

making, rather than just doing animation by itself. In the process, they also rediscovered It gives hand-drawn animation

some of the techniques used in classic Hollywood films, techniques that were no longer a live-action depth by arranging different

being used at Disney. When Disney management ignored his efforts on Banjo, Bluth, parts of a scene on glass plates set

along with Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, rather defiantly and publicly quit to form at staggered levels.

Don Bluth Productions. The next day, they were followed by 11 other animators, a move
that caused delays in the production of Disney’s The Fox and the Hound (1981). Mouse running

© Mrs. Brisby Ltd., Don Bluth Entertainment

© Mrs. Brisby Ltd., Don Bluth Entertainment

In NIMH, Bluth wanted to avoid the graphic look that had crept

The Secret of NIMH into animation, so the background artists used special brushes to

Diverted only by a slick animated sequence in the Olivia Newton-John fantasy musical create a soft look without hard edges. He paid great attention to

Xanadu (1980), Bluth concentrated his efforts on his first feature, The Secret of NIMH, detail: when an animal stepped on a fallen branch, it gave way

based on Robert O’Brien’s popular children’s novel Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The with a crunch, and the characters cast shadows.

The Disney Studio: After Walt » 210 Disney Strikes Back » 304 Jurassic Park » 306 Final Fantasy » 372
276 THE NEW DISNEY 277
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In the 1980s, the Disney animation department slowly rebuilt itself and began to Roger Rabbit – Roger action. Williams told Zemeckis to shoot the live-action
produce popular features again. The Fox and the Hound was the first animated feature During the making of this film, over 85,000 hand-inked and however he wanted, and that he would make the
done primarily by the new generation of artists at the Disney studio. While it was painted cels were created and composited with the live-action animation match.
made by new blood, the film seemed old and tired. Only the climax, a battle with a backdrops and characters; some scenes involved up to 100 The character of Roger Rabbit was popular
bear animated by Glen Keane, gave a hint of things to come. It was followed by individual film elements. Shading and shadows were produced enough to be featured in several short cartoons for theaters.
The Black Cauldron (1985), a film where the studio’s ambition outstripped its abilities. using optical film printers. However, disagreements between Disney and Amblin’ left
An attempt to create animated sword and sorcery, the film’s dark tone and Roger consigned to corporate limbo.
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

unappealing main characters failed to interest audiences. It was a major failure, Oliver and Company (1988), directed by
costing more and grossing less than The Fox and the Hound. George Scribner, was a conscious attempt to make the
Disney cartoons feel more contemporary, though it was
All Change loosely based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. The story was
During the production of The Black Cauldron, in a financial battle that was widely covered transposed to animals and set in New York City, and the
in the business press, the studio changed management. Ron Miller, Walt Disney’s son- soundtrack was filled with pop songs composed for the film
in-law, was ousted as company CEO and replaced by Michael Eisner. Shortly afterwards, by Barry Manilow, with vocals by Billy Joel and Bette Midler.
the animation department was taken out of the building that Walt Disney had
constructed for it in 1940 and moved off the studio lot. The animators were forced to Roger Rabbit – Jessica
© Touchstone Pictures, Amblin’ Entertainment, Silver Screen Partners III

recognize that the new management might shut them down completely. Jessica Rabbit was a "new" cartoon character in a film that was

But slowly the animation department battled back. The Great Mouse packed with cameos from most of the classic characters from Recipe for Success
Detective (1986) was a solid adventure tale highlighted by some excellent character Hollywood’s cartoon roster. The crowd scenes might also be The Little Mermaid The Little Mermaid (1989) was the first Disney
animation. The climax inside the workings of Big Ben took place among computer- familiar, as they were packed with many of the obscure players This was the last Disney animated feature in which hand-painted cartoon since Sleeping Beauty to be built around
animated gears and machine parts. John Musker and Ron Clements cut their directing from Disney’s earlier history. cels and analog camera and film work were used. The final sequence a princess in love. Everything seemed to come together
teeth on this film, which they co-directed with was made using a computer system (CAPS). The artists’ drawings for this film. The artists’ skills had matured. Musker and
Ted Michener and Burny Mattinson. were scanned into a computer, digitally colored and combined with Clements directed with a sure hand. Even
scans of the background painting on a computer screen. demographics worked in the film’s favor. By 1989, the
A Rabbit Named Roger post-war baby boomers
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) was a co- had children of their own,
production between Disney and Steven providing this film with a
Spielberg’s Amblin’ Entertainment. Robert sizeable audience.
Zemeckis was the director of the live-action and The film’s music also contributed to its

© Touchstone Pictures, Amblin’ Entertainment, Silver Screen Partners III

Richard Williams directed the animation. The success. Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken, the lyricist
film was a major box-office success. It and composer, provided the best songs in a Disney feature
capitalized on nostalgia for old cartoon since the 1960s. They had a romantic sensibility that
characters, and its combination of live-action worked beautifully with the story. More importantly, they
and animation was extremely ambitious. greatly enhanced the film’s theatrical smarts.

© The Walt Disney Company

Normally in films that combined By the end of the decade, the new artists at
live-action and animation, the live-action Disney had mastered their craft and regained their
camera was kept stationary in order to make it audience. The animation department was now poised to go
easier to register the animation to the live- from success to success in the early 1990s.

Richard Williams » 188 Tron » 268 Disney Strikes Back » 304 Finding Nemo » 342
278 1980s INDEPENDENTS 279
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Influenced not only by the Hollywood cartoons of the golden age, but also by the films to Have a Wolf Around the House received an Oscar nomination. His alcohol and drug
of independent film-makers and artists the world over, a new generation of artists abuse film And Then I’ll Stop… Does Any of This Sound Familiar? (1989) led to Fierlinger
embraced animation as an art form, bringing a freshness to the medium. receiving a commission from PBS to create a one-hour autobiography called Drawn
from Memory (1995).
Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton moved to New York City from Portland, Oregon, in 1968. George Griffin
He served a long tenure as an illustrator and cartoonist for newspapers and magazines Influenced by the films of Stan Brackhage, Robert Breer and Fred Mogubgub, with a nod
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

such as The New York Times, Vogue, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Penthouse, Rolling to the golden-age cartoons, George Griffin is a pivotal figure among independent
Stone and National Lampoon. In 1983 he animated an adaptation of Jules Feiffer’s animators. Many of his films deal with the process of animation – Trickfilm (1973),
Boom Town. After a series of successful shorts – Your Face (1987), which was nominated Head (1975), Viewmaster (1975) and Flying Fur (1981), in which Griffin animates to a

© Bill Plympton
for an Oscar; One of Those Days (1988); How to Kiss (1989); and 25 Ways to Quit soundtrack from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Other films include Block Print (1977),
Smoking (1989) – Plympton, almost single-handedly, animated his first feature, The Thicket (1985), Koko (1988) and New Fangled (1992).
Tune (1992). Features and shorts continued to flow from his pen, including I Married a Your Face The Big Snit
Strange Person (1997), Mutant Aliens (2001) and Hair High (2004). Done primarily in colored pencils, this film set Bill Plympton’s Richard Condie’s short received an Oscar nomination and 16 Joanna Priestly
signature style and launched his animation career. The loose, other international awards. The squabbling husband and wife Joanna Priestly studied painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of
Marv Newland sketchy drawing style plays with the man’s face, stretching it into are typical of his insanely honest and humorous character Design and the University of California, Berkeley, before receiving an MFA degree in
Needing a film to graduate from the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design, Marv every conceivable (and inconceivable) shape, mood and expression. portrayals, and the short, in which the characters are unaware a film and video from the California Institute of the Arts. Using a wide variety of
Newland put pencil to paper and, in the course of several late nights, created the 30- nuclear war has begun, is a perfect vehicle for his raw visual style techniques, Priestley’s films are imaginative and fun. Her films include Voices
second masterpiece Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969). After a short stint in Toronto and concern for environmental issues (1985), She-Bop (1988), All My Relations (1990), Grown Up (1993) and Utopia
animating commercials and segments for Sesame Street, he moved to Vancouver, Parkway (1997).
setting up International Rocketship. In addition to commercials Newland and
International Rocketship have produced a number of outstanding short films: Sing Beast Richard Condie
Sing (1980), Anijam (1984), Lupo the Butcher (1987), Dog Brain (1988) and Pink A former astrophysics student, teacher, social worker and musician, Richard Condie
Komkommer (1991). The Cat Came Back considered his drawing talent simply "fooling around" until he was awarded a grant from
Animator Cordell Barker has worked behind the scenes making the Canada Council to animate his first film, Oh Sure (1972). The NFB commissioned
Sally Cruikshank commercials; his short The Cat Came Back earned him an Oscar Condie to make John Law and the Mississippi Bubble (1978), followed by the semi-
Sally Cruikshank has created some of the most original, entertaining shorts in animation. nomination and renown for his unique hand-drawn style and autobiographical Getting Started (1982), also funded by the NFB. With The Big Snit
Her first film, Quasi at the Quackadero (1975), along with Make Me Psychic (1978) and darkly comic cautionary tales. (1985), Condie created one of the most uniquely funny cartoons since the golden age.
Quasi’s Cabaret Trailer (1980), forms an Art-Deco trilogy. In 1987 she directed Face like The Apprentice (1991) and Condie’s first foray into computer animation, La Scalla
a Frog, with music by Danny Elfman. She has animated sequences for Twilight Zone: (1996), followed.
The Movie (1982) and Ruthless People (1986), and has contributed to Marv Newland’s
Anijam. From 1989–96 she animated and produced music videos for Sesame Street.
© Bill Plympton
Other Film-Makers of Note
Hair High Others of influence during this period are John Dilworth (The Dirty Birdy, 1994), Jane

© 1988 National Film Board of Canada

Paul Fierlinger Plympton’s unique style, in which he sees the sense of the ridiculous Aaron (Set In Motion, 1988), Chris Hinton (Blackfly, 1991), David Fine and Alison
Paul Fierlinger was born in Japan, the son of Czechoslovakian diplomats, and was raised in everyday life, is shown in this parody of high-school America. His Snowden (Bob’s Birthday, 1994), Frank Mouris (Frank Film, 1973), Cordell Barker (The
in America before returning to Czechoslovakia. In 1967 he escaped to Holland, eventually animations are all done by hand, and he uses only four to six Cat Came Back, 1988), Wendy Tilby (Strings, 1991), Karen Aqua (Nine Lives, 1987),
making his way back to the States. After forming AR&T Associates in 1971, Fierlinger drawings per second, less than a Saturday-morning series. Disney- Flip Johnston (Pulp, 1990), Amy Kravitz (The Trap, 1988) and Stephen Hillenburg
animated sequences for Sesame Street (‘Teeny Little Super Guy’). In 1979 his It’s So Nice style animation requires 12 to 24 drawings per second. (Wormholes, 1992).

Independents Grow » 250 Animation Festivals » 186

280 MUSIC TV & ANIMATION 281
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Animation and music have a symbiotic directed by Steve Baron, made expressive use of the Rotoscope in combining the comic
relationship, a partnership that dates back book world of a musician with that of a love-struck fan.
to the beginnings of the art form. The Two contrasting uses of computer animation can be seen in Mick Jagger’s
Fleischer Studios were among the first to ‘Hard Woman’ (1985) and Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ (1985). Produced on a Cray
explore this partnership on film. Their series X-MP Supercomputer (the most powerful computer at the time) at Digital Productions,
Screen Songs (1929–38) consisted of ‘Hard Woman’ is a tour de force of animated imagery. Over 5,500 frames were computer
animated adaptations of popular songs. generated to give the video its lush neon look. ‘Money For Nothing’, on the other hand,
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

During the 1940s a "visual jukebox" called takes the opposite approach. Here, instead of fine line and fluid movement, the
the Panoram made it possible not only to characters are big chunks of color.
hear the hits of the day, but also to see the
performers performing them. In the late Pioneers of the Medium
1950s a French company further developed Ralph Bakshi has been making cartoons since the late 1950s. For the Rolling Stones’
© EMI Records Ltd. All rights reserved

a jukebox that played music film clips, and “Blipverts” – sequence ‘Harlem Shuffle’, Bakshi, along with animator/designer and creator of Ren & Stimpy,

© EMI Records Ltd. All rights reserved

by the mid-1960s these "scopitones" could Shynola, directors of the “blipverts”, were provided with John Kricfalusi, re-created the wild, fast-paced animation of the Warner Bros./MGM
be seen throughout the US. photographs of paintings by the band’s graphic designer and cartoons of the 1940s.
and unseen material from his sketchbooks. Having listened to the Director Jim Blashfield, whose film Suspicious Circumstances (1985)
MTV Hits album, they set about creating the animation, sometimes attracted the attention of head Talking Head David Byrne, has been using xerography in
the Small Screen bringing the pictures to life, other times making collages out of his his animation for many years. Employing it in ‘And She Was’ (1985), Blashfield
As the pop-music industry grew, it became work, or simply as a result of inspiration from the music. animates color photocopies of houses, furniture and, of course, the members of Talking
harder for music groups to make live television appearances. Bands like the Beatles Radiohead – blipverts Heads themselves. He would later use this technique to even greater effect on Michael
began making films – Strawberry Fields Forever (1966) – to promote their records. In The British band Radiohead, tired of the music video format, Jackson’s semi-autobiographical ‘Leave Me Alone’ (1988).
1965 King Features created a Saturday-morning animated Beatles show, each week instead released “blipverts” to promote their 2000 album Kid A. The pinnacle of animated music videos in the 1980s may be Peter
featuring two animated interpretations of a Beatles’ song. During the 1970s pop groups These were a series of 10–40 second animated video “blips” that Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986) and ‘Big Time’ (1987), both directed by Stephen
filmed musical numbers that were used as video wallpaper in rock clubs and appeared on TV and MTV. The animation that formed these Johnson. In ‘Sledgehammer’, Johnson utilizes the animation talents of the Quay brothers
discotheques and on cable TV as fillers. Fast-forward to August 1981, the debut of MTV “blips” was inspired both from artwork by the band’s graphic and Aardman Animation in mixing pixilation and three-dimensional animation to create
– music videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week designer and by the music itself. a world of flapping chickens, flying fruit and frantic dances. It’s a world in which Gabriel is
One of the first animation studios to have an impact on the music video used as much as a prop as the items surrounding him. For ‘Big Time’, Johnson employed
medium was the London-based Cucumber Studio. Cucumber helped forge the marriage many of the animators who worked with him on the first season of Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
of animation and pop music in their video clips for the Tom Tom Club in ‘Genius of Love’
(1981), Elvis Costello’s ‘Accidents Will Happen’ (1979) and Donald Fagen’s ‘New Frontier’ The 1990s and Beyond
(1983). Using a graphic but simple drawing style, their videos remain classics of the At times it seemed that the tube had become a pop music Fantasia but by the end of
music-video form. ‘Good Song’ the 1980s music video’s fascination with animation was wearing thin (many of these
The animated pop promo has survived into the twenty-first videos were not cheap to produce, some costing upwards of $250,000). Throughout
Video Classics

© EMI Records Ltd. All rights reserved

century: British video-makers Shynola produced this sequence the 1990s and into the 2000s there has been an occasional return to animated music
Winner of the MTV Award for Best Experimental Video, Art of Noise’s ‘Close to the Edit’ for Blur’s ‘Good Song’ which shows a love story between a squirrel videos. Directors Magnus Carlssen (‘Paranoid Android’, Radiohead, 1997), Michel
(1984) launched the music-video directing career of Zbigniew Rybczynski (Tango, and a fairy, Glasgow-based artist David Shirgley provided the Gondry (‘Fell In Love With A Girl’ The White Stripes, 2002) and Shynola (‘Good Song’,
1980). He would go on to direct videos for such artists as Grandmaster Flash, Simple surreal and charming drawings, and video won the 2004 British Blur, 2003) among many others have directed entertaining and unique music videos
Minds and Rush. A-ha’s through-the-looking-glass-inspired ‘Take On Me’ (1985), Animation Award for Best Music Video. employing animation.

Early Sound Motion Pictures » 38 Yellow Submarine » 218 Ralph Bakshi » 244 Quay Brothers » 284 Aardman Animation » 322
282 CHANNEL 4 & ANIMATION 283
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
When Channel 4 was launched in the UK in November 1982, the company was young success story comes with Aardman Animations. Following screenings of their initial work
and enthusiastic, encouraging innovation and experimentation. They decided it would on the BBC, Channel 4 offered to finance a series entitled Conversation Pieces. This series
be more profitable to commission programs from outside rather than making their consisted of using a selection of ‘vox pop’ interviews, putting recorded words into the
own. Film Four International got the idea of commissioning animation, and appointed mouths of their animated characters. So successful were these Conversation Pieces that
Paul Madden as Channel 4’s animation consultant. There were also schedulers who it led to another series entitled Lip Synch, featuring the Creature Comforts animals. This,
bought what was available to fill up the odd five-minute slot, and their financing of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman illustration in turn, led to the same characters being used for a series of hugely popular commercials,
animated films did both Channel 4 and the film-makers a lot of good. The film's success was helped by its original orchestral score by along with many other diversions that have been the backbone of Aardman.
Howard Blake, Briggs's book avoided speech, and the film was reliant Sadly, Channel 4’s opportunity to create worthwhile television cartoons
The Snowman upon its images and music to move the story on, with occasional evaporated somewhere in the 1990s, and the system no longer exists to commission
One of the initial involvements was with Raymond Briggs’ (b. 1934) charming, sound effects, such as the bells on a Christmas tree, or a motorbike. animated works of art. However, it was good while it lasted.
bittersweet tale The Snowman (1982). This delightful, wordless fable was already
popular in book form and, at the time, TVC was at a loss after the death of its driving force,
George Dunning. They were therefore keen to make something that would provide them
© Channel 4 Television Co Ltd. 1983

with an income. The simple story involves a lonely boy who builds a snowman that
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

comes to life, taking the boy on a magical flight to the North Pole, where they meet Conversation Pieces: Sales Pitch
Father Christmas and join in the snowmen’s festivities until the boy has to return home. Animating to soundtrack recordings, Aardman’s Conversation

The Snowman was directed by Dianne Jackson and, though initially Pieces feature a series of model animated films. Similar work was

bought for 10 British television runs, it has since been seen all over the world. With help also produced by John and Faith Hubley, namely Windy Day in

from an evocative soundtrack, it is still a firm favorite for Christmas viewing. The which they use a soundtrack of their children playing.

guaranteed success of The Snowman meant that Channel 4’s Paul Madden was able to
get the best out of independent young animators. He began to finance the Quay brothers,
who, with 4’s backing, produced the highly successful Street of Crocodiles (1986).
Other Raymond Briggs favorites were to follow in The Snowman’s
footsteps, since TVC had already bought the rights to several of Briggs’ picture books. The The Snowman – sketch and cel
next in line for the small screen was When the Wind Blows (1986), a poignant tale about The animators who worked on The Snowman retained the soft

two people isolated in their house after an atomic bomb has exploded. In the 1990s TVC crayoned look of Raymond Briggs’ original illustrations. It was

went on to introduce a grumpy Santa in Father Christmas (1991) and tell the heart- nominated for an Oscar and won the BAFTA for best children’s

warming tale of The Bear (1998). film in 1983. It has become one of the studio’s best-loved films.

© Snowman Enterprises Ltd 1982, 2004

Opportunities
for Aardman
Alison De Vere’s personal experience, as
depicted in The Black Dog (1987), which

© Snowman Enterprises Ltd 1982, 2004

came soon after When the Wind Blows,
involves the tale of a woman who has a
nightmare beginning with a black dog
(representing depression) appearing at her
window. But perhaps the most predominant

Quay Brothers » 284 British Animation in the 1990s » 326 Aardman Animation » 322
284 THE QUAY BROTHERS 285
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Heavily influenced by Eastern European cinema (particularly the surrealist Czech Street of Crocodiles

© Brothers Quay/BFI Production Board, Channel 4, Konnick Studios

puppet animator Jan Svankmajer), twin brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay Their second film, Ein Brudermord
(b. 1947) have rekindled the kind of Gothic photoplay typical of the 1930s with their (‘A Fratricide’, 1981), was founded on the
surrealistic stop-motion puppet films. writings of Franz Kafka. A series of
animated documentaries built around
London-Bound people they held in high regard followed,
Natives of Norristown, Pennsylvania, the twins studied illustration at the Philadelphia capped by an affectionate homage to
College of Art, and in 1969 neatly avoided the draft by taking a course at London’s Royal their particular hero in the documentary
College of Art (RCA). They soon found London to be a cornucopia of decadence, The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer – Prague’s
overflowing with libraries, cinema, theater, opera, ballet and all the things that were not The Quay Brothers Alchemist of Film (1984).
available in Norristown. When the course ended, and with money receding, the twins The brothers Quay tend to avoid words in their films, relying The claustrophobic Street of
returned home and started preparing for a future visit. instead on sound, music, objects, movement and light to convey Crocodiles is perhaps their best-known
During 1978, their friend and collaborator Keith Griffiths from the RCA meaning. Renowned for their craftsmanlike methods and work. Financed by the British Film Institute
informed the twins that he had managed to get them a grant from the British Film unusual sources of inspiration, they make puppets that look like in conjunction with Channel 4 and based
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

Institute so they would be able to make their first film. The Quays were soon back old dolls abused by many generations of children, construct the on a story by Polish writer Bruno Schulz, it
tramping the streets of London where, in 1980 with producer Keith Griffiths, they sets, arrange the lighting and do the photography. depicts an aged museum watchman who,
established their own studio. Their intention was to produce innovative puppet films that while on his rounds, falters at a kinescope
paid homage to the style of the early European puppeteers they so admired. Street of Crocodiles – character machine. A drop of his saliva falls on the
This film has a dreamlike quality to it, partly due to its highly apparatus, putting it into motion, an action
Nocturna Artificiala stylized direction. It has a shallow plane of focus that intentionally that also enlivens a puppet that severs his
Their first venture, Nocturna Artificiala (‘Artificial Nocturne’, 1979), involves the slight keeps certain objects blurred and a camera that moves with strings and begins to investigate the street
story of a man who, staring from a window, is mesmerized by a trolley car passing conspicuous mechanical precision. The Street of Crocodiles of crocodiles. There he encounters a collection of foreboding doors leading to equally
through an ill-lit city at night. He is seen back in his room and The world invented by the Quay brothers for Crocodiles was the foreboding rooms, one of which contains a robotic sweatshop where the puppet is taken
awakens with a start when he falls from his chair. This film color of an old photograph: sepia, dirty, dark yellow, and brown. apart, redesigned and reclothed.
was inspired by the boys’ stay in an Amsterdam hotel, It seemed as if it was a locked room or glass cabinet that

where passing trams cast menacing shadows throughout nobody had opened for years – dusty and cobwebby, almost Commercial Work
the room. a mystical land. On the lighter side, the brothers have also been instrumental in providing pop promos for
Nocturna Artificiala accentuates several causes groups such as His Name Is Alive, Michael Penn, Sparklehorse, 16 Horsepower and Peter
and effects that were to become apparent in the Quay Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video. They also created a selection of innovative commercials for
brothers’ subsequent films: sets dominated by darkness; products such as Coca-Cola, MTV, Nikon, Slurpee and the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

© Brothers Quay/BFI Production Board, Channel 4, Konnick Studios

bizarre, unexplained nightmarish happenings; and odd The twins’ more recent occupation has broadened to designing theater
camera angles – in short, all the things that put one in mind of and opera sets, and in 1998 their staging for the Broadway production of Ionesco’s The
the early French, German or Polish animators of the 1930s. Chairs was nominated for a much-coveted Tony Award. In 1994 the Quays entered the
Even the subtitles appear in four separate languages. world of live-action feature film-making with Institute Benjamenta, returning to
The Quays have always claimed that they animation in 2000 with the award-winning In Absentia, plus two dance films in 2002,
"want to make a world that is seen through a dirty pane of Duet and The Sandman. Yet another departure from the animation tracks was the
glass". This perhaps explains their macabre, half-lit, brothers’ collaboration with composer Steve Martland in creating sets for a live event at
miniaturized domain and the eerie feeling their work creates. the Tate Modern art museum in London.

Eastern European Puppet Animation » 192 Music TV and Animation » 280 Channel 4 » 282
286 A CAULDRON OF TALENT 287
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
The 1980s were a bubbling cauldron of gifted young animated film-makers, partially due Satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe has also been known to dabble in

© Sheila Graber
Face in Art
to colleges now including animation in their curriculum and partially due to the arrival of For over 20 years Sheila Graber has delighted audiences of all animation. He first put his foot into the water by illustrating the early pop video, Pink
Channel 4 and their policy of helping finance the cost of animated projects. These artists ages with her imaginative animated films about artists and art Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ (1981), which was animated straight onto film, providing a
all had an extensive, spirited range, often paying tribute to artists and illustrators of education. The films use a number of animation techniques in memorable image of hammers marching along to knock down the wall.
yesteryear. Channel 4, itself, could well be considered as pioneers in the computer- exploring the work of a certain artist as well as more general Barry Purves started his career by animating puppets at the Cosgrove-Hall
graphics field through making early use of CGI for their logo (1982), which consisted of concepts in art. studios, and then moved to computer animation with his five three-minute spots made
multicolored shapes flying around the screen, finally forming the number four. for Channel 4, The Very Models, based on the songs of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Scotland-based Lesley Keen expanded on the Swiss artist Paul Klee’s
Gifted Artists observation that "drawing is no more than taking a line for a walk" in his computer-
Among the talents who sprang to light in this era was former teacher Sheila Graber animated tribute Taking a Line For a Walk (1983).
(b.1940). She first decided to make animated films in 1970, but did not quite know how David Anderson included his Dreamless Sleep (1986) as part of the
to go about it until she enlisted help from her local ciné club. With the success following Channel 4 series Sweet Disasters. The film features the animation of wax figures that
from her films, Graber is now in a position to teach children every aspect of animation, await a mysterious event in an atmosphere of pensive anticipation.
"from Plasticine to pixels". Her trailblazing animated film Heidi’s Horse (1987) pictures a A protégé of Richard Williams, Tony White (b.1954) was thrown in at the
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

child’s artistic development. Mondrian deep end when he first joined the team as Williams’ assistant on A Christmas Carol
Paul Vester had also been around since the 1970s, making unique use of cel This is from Sheila Graber’s 1978 film Mondrian. She uses (1971). He was then left to direct the credit sequence for The Pink Panther Strikes Again
animation in his musical cartoons such as Football Freaks (1971) and particularly Sunbeam animation to stimulate an interest in art. (1976) while Williams was out of the country. However, it was his visual interpretation
(1980), in which he produced an animated version of a 1930s-style of the Japanese artist Hokusai’s paintings in Hokusai: An Animated Sketchbook (1978)
musical patterned after the early animated cartoons of that era. that brought him independent fame. He has since written a book on animating,
The gifted Geoff Dunbar (b.1944), without any formal Animator’s Workbook (1988) and more recently has concentrated his talents on
art training, began his career with Larkins studio in 1965 making computer animation.
advertising films. In 1968 he joined Halas & Bachelor, where he was
made supervisor of a new commercials division. After a spell at Dragon
Productions, he formed his own "Grand Slamm Animation" studio. He
first caught the public’s eye with his faithful representation of the
paintings of Toulouse Lautrec with Lautrec (1974). The success of
Lautrec was followed by Dunbar’s interpretation of Alfred Jarry’s
anarchic nineteenth-century play Ubu Roi under the less complicated
title of Ubu (1978). He has chalked up a number of awards along the
way as well, having Paul McCartney’s ‘We All Sing Together’ from
Rupert and the Frog Song (1984) in the British top 10. Dunbar’s latest
project is the 58-minute film The Cunning Little Vixen (2003).

A Variety of Animation Twentieth Century Face

Richard Ollive was influenced by turn-of-the-nineteenth-century Having been an art teacher for 20 years, encouraging her pupils

artists such as Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham when he made to find their creative outlet in paint, clay, wood, metal and
© Sheila Graber

©Sheila Graber
Night Visitors (1974). The story involves a policeman, on night beat, finally animation, Graber still believes that animation is the “art

who comes across Peter Pan and other nocturnal fantasy characters. of the future”.

Halas & Batchelor » 104 Channel 4 » 282 Richard Williams » 188 Pink Panther » 208
288 PANNONIA STUDIO 289
EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

EASTERN EUROPE: HUNGARY

Hungarian animation reached new levels of international success in the 1980s. Ovo used a sand animation technique,
Pannonia was producing more films than ever before while winning international Ad Rem (1989) used a combination of
acclaim for their work. In 1981, Ferenc Rófusz’s masterful short The Fly – about the Plasticine and coal powder, Gyula Nagay
killing of a fly from the fly’s perspective – won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. A animated real fingers in Wave of Fingers
few months later, Pannonia won its third Golden Palm award for Perpetual Motion (1986) and Jánvári produced a
(about the incredible things that happen to a man each time he enters an elevator) computer-controlled sequence motion
by Béla Vajda. film called Labyrinth (1989). Other
notable films by newcomers include How
TV and Features to Scare a Lion (1981), Doors (1983),
Television production also reached a new peak. Pannonia was producing, on average, five Sprinkling (1989), Ad Astra (1982),
series per year, including Pom-Pom by Attila Dargay, The Curious Elephanny by Zsolt Augusta Dresses Up (1984), The Wind
Richly, Csepke by Ferenc Varsányi, Trumpy and the Fire Troll by Tamás Baksa, and, from (1984) and Gravitation (1984).
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

two newcomers, Never Mind Toby by Ferenc Cakó and Augusta by Csaba Varga, In 1985, the Kecskemét
During this period, Pannonia produced an incredible 20 animated studio hosted Hungary’s first animation
features, including The Son of White Mare (1980) by Marcell Jankovics, which in 1984 festival. The festival was initially to be held
was acknowledged in Los Angeles as one of the best animation films ever made. The film every three years, but after the second
combines various art styles (including Art Deco and Art Nouveau) with popular legends. edition in 1988, the festival was silent until

© Pannonia Film

© Pannonia Film
Other notable features included the box office success Vuk (1981) by Attila Dargay, 1993. Fortunately the festival has
Heroic Times (1982) by József Gémes, John the Boaster (1983) by Zsolt Richly, managed to survive.
Saffi (1984) by Attila Dargay, The Captain of The Forest (1987) by Attila Dargay and
Willy The Sparrow (1988) by József Gémes. Vuk Heroic Times Moving On
Attila Dargay’s Vuk was first in an impressive list of successful This was József Gémes’ beautifully animated, award-winning In 1986, the Hungarian animation landscape began to shift when the Pannonia Cartoon
Abundance of Talent animated features made by Pannonia in the 1980s. feature from 1982. It won prizes at festivals during the early and Animated Film Studios became the independent company Pannonia Film
While veteran animators like Sándor Reisenbüchler of Farewell Little Island (1987) and 1980s, such as Espinho, Annecy and Kecskemét. Company. The artists now had full control over the company along with all distribution
István Orosz of Ah, America! (1984) continued to produce strong short films, the decade Vuk – character outlines rights. But with independence came new problems. In 1988, Pannonia began to lose its
was dominated by a wealth of new talent who brought not only new ideas, but also a This was Hungary’s second largest-ever box office hit. Also monopoly over Hungarian animation when Varga Studios, the first private animation
desire, perhaps encouraged by the Oscar success of The Fly, to try new animation known as The Little Fox, it was concerned with a young fox whose studio in Hungary, was formed by Csaba Varga and producer Andras Erkel. One of
techniques. Csaba Varga’s The Luncheon (1980) used clay animation, Ferenc Cakó’s Ab family is killed by hunters and who is raised by his wise old uncle. Varga’s first jobs would be for an Hungarian émigré named Gabor Csupo, who was
animating an American television series called The Simpsons.

© Pannonia Film

Pannonia Studio & Marcell Jankovics » 258 Animation Festivals » 186 The Simpsons » 312
290 POLAND, BULGARIA & RUSSIA 291
EASTERN EUROPE: POLAND, BULGARIA & RUSSIA

EASTERN EUROPE: POLAND, BULGARIA & RUSSIA

Poland Other notable new talents
The 1980s saw the emergence of two prominent animators, during this decade include Boyko Kanev
Zbigniew Rybczynski (b. 1949) and Piotr Dumala (b. 1956), along with A Crushed World (1986) – which won
with the continued maturity of another, Jerzy Kucia (b. 1942). the Grand Prix at the 1987 Annecy
Kucia began making films in 1972 with Return, and his Animation Festival – and Pencho Konchev
style was quite different from that of earlier Polish animators. His with Romance of the Wind (1986).
visually rich films are mysterious and elliptical, giving viewers
impressions, glimpses and fragments rather than certainties. As such, Russia
the work is difficult and open to multiple interpretations. Kucia’s In the 1980s Soyuzmultfilm’s hierarchical
notable films of this period include Spring (1980), Splinters (1984) structure had become so rigid that it was
and The Parade (1986). almost impossible for young animators to
One of animation’s most outstanding talents, Piotr get into the studio. In fact, many, like Ivan
Dumala began making films during the 1980s. His early films, Maximov and Mikhail Aldashin, did not even
notably the fairy tale parody The Black Hood (1983), were crudely want to work at the studio. As government
drawn black comedies. Later on, Dumala created a unique plaster authority weakened during this period,
technique that involved the use of slabs of plaster covered with normal glue (with hot Soyuzmultfilm’s monopoly began to
water to make the surface stronger and smooth). Once it was dry, Dumala scratched on crumble. In 1989, the first private studio,
the plaster with sandpaper and painted it with oil paint. During this period the tone of Pilot, was formed by young animators
Dumala’s work changed, becoming more tranquil and elusive. He began using this Alexander Tatarsky (b. 1950) and Igor
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

technique in 1985, for the astonishing Dostoyevsky adaptation Gentle. Dumala also Kovalyov (b. 1963). Soon, over 25 studios
made Flying Hair (1984), Walls (1988) and the bizarre Freedom of the Leg (1989), appeared in Moscow. The new studios
about a man whose leg runs away while he is sleeping. quickly began luring away Soyuzmultfilm
Another important animator from this period is Zbigniew Rybczynski, talent. By the 1990s, Soyuzmultfilm was
who made films that mixed live-action and animation. He started at the Semafor making a mere six films a year.
puppet studio in the 1970s and received some notice for his films The Soup and Pilot Studios in particular
Holiday. In 1981 he made an extraordinary work, Tango, which won many awards produced outstanding work. Tatarsky’s
© Pilot Moscow Animation Studio

including the Oscar for Best Animated Short. In this inventive and funny metaphor of preference for comedy and Kovalyov’s
human existence, people go in and out of a small room, repeating the same actions The Dark Side of the Moon Walls more elliptical and deeply personal work proved to be a strong combination. The two
over and over again. Following Tango, Rybczynski left Poland for the US where he began Alexander Tatarsky, whose film The Dark Side of the Moon is Walls is a profound commentary on life in a totalitarian worked well together on such films as Wings, Tails, Legs (1986) and Investigation by the
experimenting with video. pictured here, believes that to animate means above all to environment. In the film, a tiny man who is trapped and routinely Kolobki Brothers (1987). The Kolobki brothers became enormously popular in Russia,
breathe life into something; he breathes rich and unusual life into observed within a small box responds to his situation at first with and later had their own video game and talk show. Alone, Tatarsky made The Dark Side
Bulgaria various phenomena, objects and animals in his animation. fear, madness and, finally, lethargy. of the Moon (1984) and Kovalyov created the very funny and strange Hen, His Wife
After a period of decline in the 1970s, Bulgarian animation was revitalized during the (1989), which won the Grand Prix at the 1990 Ottawa International Animation Festival
1980s, thanks in part to two major artists, Anri Kulev (b. 1949) and Nikolai Todorov. Kulev in Canada. The studio also produced newcomer Alexander Petrov’s debut, The Cow
debuted in 1976 with the cynical Hypothesis, and followed that with Representation (1989), Ivan Maximov’s 5/4 (1990) and Mikhail Aldashin’s Poumse (1989).
(1979) and Labyrinth (1984). Kulev’s films are full of impressive imagery, warmth and Other important animators to emerge during this period include
passion. Todorov’s work includes the bleak hymn to nonconformity, Odyssey (1978), A Garry Bardin (Break, 1985), Nina Shorina (The Door, 1986), and Alexei Karaev
Day as a Flower (1984) and Successful Test (1984). (Welcome, 1986).

Polish & Bulgarian Animation in the 1950s » 194 Polish & Bulgarian Animation in the 2000s » 362 Soviet Animation in the 1960s » 234 Russian Animation in the 2000s » 362
292 ESTONIA 293
EASTERN EUROPE: ESTONIA

EASTERN EUROPE: ESTONIA

Estonian animation dates back to 1931 and a contemporary, George Grosz, was to put the three images next to one another. He
film titled The Adventures of Juku the Dog. incorporated them all into one vision in order to create a multi-layered and contradictory
However, the first Estonian animation studio, vision of hell and, with it, society.
Nukufilm, a division of the state’s live-action
studio Tallinna Kinostuudio, was not created Priit Pärn Emerges
until 1957. Headed by Elbert Tuganov and During Raamat’s tenure at Joonisfilm – which ended after Estonian’s re-independence in
Heino Pars, Nukufilm’s early films, all puppet Breakfast on the Grass (head in hands) 1991 – a number of young artists emerged under his tutelage, most notably Priit Pärn
or cut-out animations, were aimed primarily In this film, Pärn examined a few moments in the daily lives of (b. 1946), a former ecologist. In direct contrast to the traditional and heavily symbol-
at children, but as the films grew more four Estonians. He gave viewers a glimpse of the absurdities of prone works of Raamat’s animation, Pärn, influenced by black and absurd humor and
satirical and at times poetic, the studio’s Communist society and what people endure on a daily basis just the strong caricature tradition in Estonia, explored a more liberal and deceptively primitive
output eventually became more tailored to to survive. manner of expression, producing complex and funny investigations into the human
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

an adult audience. In the 1960s, Kalju condition. Pärn’s success and influence led to the development of a new generation of
Kurepõld and Ants Looman made the first Breakfast on the Grass artists with backgrounds in political cartoons and surrealism rather than in classical arts:
Estonian-drawn animation films for the Soviet When describing this film, Pärn explained that it was the story of Mati Kütt, Janno Põldma, Heiki Ernits, Rao Heidmets, and, later, stop-motion animators
Newsreel, Fuse, followed by commercials for a society told in a realistic way using a dramatic structure that Kalju Kivi, Hardi Volmer and Riho Unt.
Eesti Reklaamfilm (Estonian Advertisingfilm). was close to a live-action feature. He used the usual tools of Following his debut in 1977, Is the Earth Round?, along with the children’s

© Tallinnfilm Studios
Shortly thereafter Ants Kivirähk and animation – visual gags, metamorphoses and different drawing film, And Plays Tricks (1978), and the disappointing Exercises for an Independent Life
Jaak Palmse made animation telefilms for styles to make his film funny, multileveled and ironic. (1980), Pärn made Triangle. Released in 1982, Triangle remains a landmark in Estonian
Estonian television. animation for its examination of modern relations between a man and a woman; it fuses
the personal and political into a witty observation of contemporary domestic politics.
Rein Raamat Triangle
In 1971, Rein Raamat (b. 1931), a classically trained artist who had worked as a Priit Pärn’s style is both refreshing and startling. He rejects the A Golden Age
designer with Tuganov, teamed up with Russian animator Fedor Chitruk to establish a rounded, pristinely drawn characters and landscapes that By the mid-1980s, as glasnost and perestroika emerged under Mikhail Gorbachev,
cel-animation division (Joonisfilm) within Tallinnfilm (formerly Tallinna Kinostuudio). dominate traditional animation, and replaces them with a censorship policies lightened. Not only was there little or no censorship, but there was also
Under the direction of Raamat, Joonisfilm produced ambitious, philosophical films, many primitive style, bold colors and sketchy, childlike drawings. stable funding from Moscow. For many, this was the golden age of Estonian animation.
based on Estonian folklore, that won wide international acclaim and firmly planted If there is one film that defines this new period it is Pärn’s Breakfast on The
Estonia on the international animation landscape. Grass (1988), one of the masterpieces of animation. In examining a few moments in the
Raamat’s Big Tyll (1980) is based on an old Estonian legend about an daily lives of four Estonians, Pärn trenchantly critiques life in the Soviet Union by giving
Estonian folk hero who comes to the defense of his people and country when called upon. © Tallinnfilm Studios
viewers a rare glimpse of the absurdities of communist society and what people endure
The film is beautifully designed and animated, and features a haunting score from on a daily basis just to survive. As with Triangle, Breakfast on the Grass astonished
famed Estonian composer Lepo Sumera. Russian audiences with its frank portrait of modern Soviet life.
During the 1980s, Nukufilm re-emerged under a new generation of
Vision of Hell animators. Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer had success with their decidedly adult puppet
Raamat’s masterwork is Hell (1983). The film is based on the work of an Estonian artist films like The War (1987), which depicts the Russian-German battle over Estonia, and
named Eduard Viiralt; specifically, there are three prints in which he provides different the comical Spring Fly (1986) based on the work of Estonian writer Anton Hansen

© Tallinnfilm Studios
interpretations of hell. The first image shows the punishment and destruction of human Tammsaare. Rao Heidmets has also made some significant puppet films including Papa
beings. The second reveals a hedonistic, anarchistic version of hell. And the third is a Carlo’s Theater (1988), while Kalju Kivi has made a number of highly original films
warning of what is to come. What Raamat did, echoing the work of Viiralt’s including Bride of the Star (1984).

Estonian Animation in the 1950s » 194 Estonian Animation in the 2000s » 364
294 GROWTH IN ALL DIRECTIONS 295
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
During the 1980s Japanese animation continued to expand. The new direct-to-video was a failed TV animation series that sold so well on OAV that new TV episodes plus OAV
market appeared, and it and the traditional areas of theatrical, TV and independent features and a theatrical feature were produced.
animation tended to blend together. Theatrical animation was still dominated by big Successful OAVs, such as Project A-Ko (1986), Gall Force (1986),
screen spin-offs of popular TV series. But the decade saw many spectacular features, often Bubblegum Crisis (1987), and Mobile Police Patlabor (1989) led not only to long OAV
sci-fi and based upon popular manga novels, such as Harmagedon (1983) by Rintaro, series, but also to TV series and/or theatrical features. The OAV market was also
The Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force (1987) by Hiroyuki Yamaga responsible for some theatrical features that were designed primarily for video sales
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

© Toho Company, Ltd
(b. 1962) and Akira (1988) written, designed and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (b. 1954). following a short theatrical run, such as Vampire Hunter D (1985), directed by Toyoo

© Bird Studios/Shueisha, Toei Animation. Licensed by FUNimation® Productions Ltd.

Ashida (b. 1944), and Wicked City (1987), by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Features
Features began appearing with 3D effects or experimental computer-graphics sequences, Wicked City Art Animation
including director Osamu Dezaki’s Space Adventure Cobra (1982), Dezaki’s Golgo 13: The Created by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Wicked City is an example of anime The OAV market also created opportunities for independent art animation. Neo-Tokyo
Professional (1983) and Lensman (1984) by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (b. 1950). Rumiko Takahashi’s noir: the darkly atmospheric telling of a high-tech urban crime (1987) and Robot Carnival (1987) were both funded as anthology features of three and
(b. 1957) manga-based Urusei Yatsura (1981) – a pun roughly translated as "those story. Anime noir is characterized by black shadows, dark blue nine short films respectively, showcasing the talents of individual animators such as Rintaro,
obnoxious aliens" – launched a new genre of high-school comedy-fantasy in which a night-time exteriors and extreme camera angles. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroyuki Kitakubo (b. 1963), Koji Morimoto (b. 1959),
shy, socially inept boy is suddenly surrounded by beautiful fantasy or outer-space girls. Takashi Nakamura (b. 1955) and others. The individual films could be shown at animation
Other Takahashi series – such as Maison Ikkoku (1986), a romantic festivals, while their combined release as an OAV feature paid for their production.
comedy set in a boardinghouse, and Ranma 1/2 (1989), a fantasy about a teen boy World War Two drama emphasizing Japan’s suffering civilians, seen
cursed with turning into a cute girl when he becomes wet – demonstrated that what was through children’s eyes, was an emerging genre. Barefoot Gen (1983), a semi-
popular was the human-interest relationships between the likeable, believable DragonBall Z autobiographical account of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima by cartoonist Keiji
characters rather than gags or fantasy elements. One of the greatest manga franchises ever created, DragonBall Dirty Pair Nakazawa (b. 1939), who lived through it as a child, presents a harrowing contrast
has been adapted for many TV series and several movie features. The antics of the Dirty Pair were originally serialized in Japan's SF between the horrors of the event and the animation that is drawn in Nakazawa’s
DragonBall It has also been translated into many languages and is Magazine and later recounted in three novellas, by s-f author personal "cute" art style. Director Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is a story
The frenetically bizarre Dr Slump (1981) and DragonBall (1986), followed by extremely popular around the world. Goku (above) is the warrior Haruka Takachiho. In 1984 the duo (Yuri, left, and Kei, right) told by the ghosts of two children who survive the 1945 firebombing of Kobe. Others in
DragonBall Z, won their audiences because of dynamic characterizations more than the leader, while Babidi (below) is one of the many ingenious villains made their animation debut with their own TV series, written by this genre included Girls in Summer Dresses (1988), Raining Fire (1988), Kayoko's Diary
dynamic action. This also held true for the giant-robot sci-fi genre. The most popular TV of the series. animation studio, Sunrise. (1991) and Rail of the Star (1993).
series were Macross (1982) and several Gundam sequels after 1985, all emphasizing
complex character relationships in a realistic, futuristic war setting.
Other notable 1980s TV animation included the ultra-violent, post-

© Bird Studios/Shueisha, Toei Animation. Licensed by FUNimation® Productions Ltd.

apocalyptic Fist of the North Star (1984), by Tetsu Hara and "Buronson" (Sho Fumimura);
City Hunter (1987), a private detective comedy-drama by Tsukasa Hojo; and Creamy
Mami, the Magical Angel (1983), a magical little-girl series that made the reputations of
new animation producer Studio Pierrot and character designer Akemi Takada (b. 1952).

Home Video
The first direct-to-video production, taking advantage of the home-video market created

© Studio Nue/Sunrise/NTV
in 1975, was the four-episode Dallos (1983). The new market (called OAV or OVA for
Original Animation Video) aimed to appeal to affluent young adult males. Dirty Pair
(1985), a sci-fi comedy featuring two sexy interstellar "secret agents" in bikini uniforms,

Japanese Animation in the 1970s » 260 Japanese Independent Animation » 261

296 MIYAZAKI & OTOMO 297
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
Hayao Miyazaki (b. 1941), Osamu Tezuka’s successor to the popular title of "the Disney Akira’s Creator
of Japan", began at Toei Doga as an in-betweener in 1963, advancing by 1968 to set Katsuhiro Otomo, a fan of American movies and comic books, was first published as a

© Akira Committee Company, Ltd., Dragon Production, Nakamura Production, Telecom Animation Film Company, Mash Room, Toho, Hakuhodo, TMS
designer and key animator on The Little Norse Prince, directed by Isao Takahata teen comic book creator in 1973. By the end of the decade he was specializing in
(b. 1935) who had become a close friend. In 1971 both Miyazaki and Takahata left Toei. science-fiction manga with complex plots. In 1982 Otomo began serialization
of his manga magnum opus Akira. His reputation as a serious sci-fi artist got
Making His Name him invited to become the character designer for the theatrical sci-fi feature
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

After working on a variety of projects, Miyazaki’s big break came in 1979 when TMS Harmagedon. Although it was a popular success, for Otomo it was an
chose him to direct its second Lupin III theatrical feature, The Castle of Cagliostro. unpleasant experience due to his lack of creative control. As a result, when major
Miyazaki also wrote the story and designed the characters. In Japan’s premiere financial interests wanted to make Akira (which was still being serialized) into a major
animation magazine Animage (published by Tokuma Shoten) in 1978, editor Toshio theatrical feature, Otomo refused unless he could have total control as its director.
Suzuki (b. 1948) interviewed Miyazaki extensively for coverage of Cagliostro. This led to Akira, released in 1988, was such a success, both commercially and
a close relationship between them. In 1982 Suzuki asked Miyazaki to create a graphic creatively, that Otomo switched his career from writing and drawing cartoon fiction to
novel for serialization in Animage. The result was Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds, directing and producing both animated and live-action films. During the early 1990s
which Miyazaki animated in 1984. The result pleased Tokuma so much that it offered to Otomo took fellow manga creator Satoshi Kon (b. 1963) under his wing and helped his
finance a new animation studio under Miyazaki’s leadership. Miyazaki agreed only if his entry into the animation industry.
friend Takahata could be a co-director.
Studio Ghibli, which Suzuki eventually became president of, became Keeping Busy
known for features by Miyazaki and Takahata such as The Castle in the Sky (1986), Simultaneously with the production of Akira, Otomo worked on short art films for the Neo-
My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies (both 1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and © Nibariki-Tokuma Shoten Tokyo and Robot Carnival anthology features. In 1991 Otomo and Kon worked together
Only Yesterday (1991), which were critical successes but barely successful. When on two features, the animated Old Man Z (written by Otomo and directed by Hiroyuki
Miyazaki reluctantly gave up his aversion to commercialism and allowed the beloved Akira Kitakubo) and the live-action World Apartment Horror (directed by Otomo). During 1995
characters from his movies to be merchandised, they – and the movies – became This was first published in the magazine Young, and is My Neighbor Totoro Otomo was the general director of Memories, an anthology feature adaptation of three of
tremendously popular throughout Japan. Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso (1992) and Takahata’s considered by many to be the finest work of graphic fiction ever Totoro was released as a double-bill in 1988 with Grave of the his most popular manga sci-fi short stories, individually written and directed by different
Pom Poko (1994) became Japan’s top-grossing films of those years, animation or live- created. When the animated version was made, it was one of the Fireflies. Until recently, Miyazaki did not use computers to assist in animators; he personally directed the “Cannon Fodder" segment.
action. Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997) broke new box office records in Japan, and first Japanese anime films to have the character's voices recorded the animation process; they are drawn a frame at a time, with In 1998, Otomo got a supervisor credit on Spriggan, which he was
Spirited Away (2001) set a new world box office record for a non-US theatrical feature – before they were animated. Although this is the norm in US Miyazaki himself contributing tens of thousands of frames. popularly believed to have directed because of the artistic similarity between it and Akira.
and ultimately won an Academy Award. animation, in Japan the animation is generally produced first. In 2001 he scripted and produced Metropolis, directed by Rintaro. Otomo’s most recent
project was Steamboy (2004).
Cel Champion
Miyazaki is known for only taking on film projects in which he becomes personally My Neighbor Totoro – sequence
interested. He has championed hand-drawn cel animation, although he is not adverse to Miyazaki's films are visually enchanting, using a watercolor look

using computer graphics to enhance the traditional art. Miyazaki groomed a successor, for the backgrounds. His characters are drawn in the distinctive

Yoshifumi Kondo (1950–98). Unfortunately Kondo, who directed only one feature, Japanese anime style, having large, round eyes and mouths that

Whisper of the Heart (1995), died within a month after Miyazaki’s retirement. He returned can be as small as a dot or as big as a cavern. They also have an

to Ghibli to keep the studio going until new directors could be groomed. Spirited Away did unforced realism in the way they notice details; early in Totoro, for

© Nibariki-Tokuma Shoten
this with honours, and Miyazaki has expressed satisfaction with Ghibli’s next feature, The example, the children look at a little waterfall near their home,

Cat Returns (2002) by director Hiroyuki Morita (b. 1964). Miyazaki’s adaptation of the and there on the bottom, unremarked, is a bottle someone threw

novel Howl’s Moving Castle, by British author Diana Wynne Jones, was released in 2004. into the stream.

Toei Doga » 236 Anime in the Twenty-First Century » 366 Japanese Sci-Fi » 260
298 CHINA IN THE 1980s 299
ASIA: CHINA

ASIA: CHINA
The period following the fall of the infamous Gang of Four in 1976, which ended the Other films of note using this technique include Zhang Fei Judges the

© Shanghai Animation Film Studio

Cultural Revolution, saw a new burst of creativity from the Shanghai Animation Studio Theft of a Watermelon (1979) by Qian Yunda and Ge Guiyun (b. 1933). Based on a
after over 10 years of repression, especially apparent in the popular short One Night in character in the classic tale Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, it exhibits the influence of
an Art Gallery (1978) by A Da (1934–87) and Lin Wenxiao. Based on caricatures of Chinese opera and shadow theater. In addition, there is Qian Jaxin’s Mr Nanguo (1981),
the Gang of Four secretly drawn by A Da in a labor camp, it tells a tale of four about a court musician who does not know anything about music; it was inspired by
functionaries who censored paintings they do not understand; the ending, when the ancient Chinese bas-reliefs.
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

four are chased off by children, signalled to Chinese audiences that the nightmare
years were really over. During the following decade, A Da would become the dominant Powerful Themes
animation film-maker in China and a major international figure as well. And it was this In terms of cel animation, 1979 saw the release of China’s first widescreen feature,

© Shanghai Animation Film Studio

film’s critical and public reception that heralded what was called the Second Golden Nezha Conquers the Dragon, directed by A Da, Wang Shuchen and Yan Dingxian. The
Age of Chinese animation. story has echoes of the fall of the Gang of Four in its tale of a boy rescuing a girl from
four evil forces.
Influential A Da This period also saw director Te Wei return to his widely praised brush-
A Da’s most famous film is The Three Monks (1980), a reworking of an old Chinese The Three Monks animation technique after more than 20 years, with his final masterpiece in this unique
proverb that made a plea for co-operation to help heal the divisions caused by the Cultural With a simple and fresh directing style, A Da’s film is an style being Feeling From Mountain and Water (1988). Made after he retired as head of
Revolution. The film, which won awards at major film festivals and was widely shown on adaptation of a folk proverb: one monk will shoulder two buckets the Shanghai Animation Studio, and co-directed with Yan Sanchun (b. 1934) and Ma
TV around the world, was praised for its blending of traditional Chinese and modern of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no- Kexuan (b. 1939), it has been characterized as a “painting-in-process". It tells the sad tale
Western animation techniques. This was followed by Butterfly Spring (1983), a love story one will want to fetch water. The Three Monks (which had no of a musician and his protégé, a story which seems symbolic of Te Wei passing on his art
which was also the country’s first animated film for adults. The year 1984 saw the release dialog) made use of caricature – each monk had his own to his own younger disciples.
of The Wanderings of San Mao – based on a comic strip he read as a boy about an orphan personality, defined as economically as possible through

boy’s survival during the war with Japan – and 36 Characters, an educational film inspired movement and actions.

by films he made with children. His last work was two segments for David Ehrlich’s anijam
film Academy Leader Variations (1987), which premiered after he died.
During this period, the Shanghai Animation Studio was divided into three
sections, reflecting the three basic techniques being used at the time: puppet, cut-out
and cel animation. The most significant puppet films made during this period were the
Effendi series based on an Uigur folk tale, first done by Jin Shi in 1980 and followed by Qu
Jianfang (b. 1935) several years later.

Cut-Out Masterpieces Monkeys Fish for the Moon

Given the long folk tradition of paper cut-outs, it is not surprising that this form of Monkeys Fish for the Moon echoes a theme common in many

animation reached new heights in China. This was clearly evident in three films that won post-Cultural Revolution films: the feeling of a great sense of loss. It

wide acclaim on the festival circuit: Fox Hunts the Hunter (1978) by Hu Xionghua, tells the story of a group of apes who embark on a mission to obtain

Monkeys Fish for the Moon (1981) by Zhou Keqin (b. 1941), and most famously Snipe- the unobtainable, a quest which is bound to end in disappointment.

© Shanghai Animation Film Studio

Clam Grapple (1983) by Hu Jinqing, based on the proverb: “In the fight between the
snipe and the clam, the fisherman has the best of it." The film was especially lauded for Snipe-Clam Grapple
the director’s approach to nature. Hu Jinqing further developed his technique in such films This delicate paper cut-out animation by Hu Jinqing lasts seven

as The Straw Man (1988), Cockfighting and The Stronger Get Hooked (1988). minutes and is based on an old Chinese proverb.

The Shanghai Studio » 175 Tadahito Mochinaga and Puppet Animation » 261 Shanghai Animation Studio in the 1960s » 240
300 KOREA IN THE 1980s 301
ASIA: KOREA

ASIA: KOREA
North Korea Majingâ Zetto (1972–74) which

© Shin Dong Hun

Animation in Korea began with the opening of the state-owned inspired a spurt of sci-fi movies,
Pyongyang Studios in North Korea soon after the establishment of the including Taegwon Kids Maruchi
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948 which, like the live- and Arachi (1976).
action film industry, had strong support from President Kim Il Sung. With South Korea set
Their films emphasized ideological education for children, including to host the Asian Games in 1986
X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

X: 1980–89: NEW DIRECTIONS

many stories told by Kim Il Sung, and were strongly influenced by and the summer Olympics in 1988,
Soviet films of the period. production of animated features
The most highly praised North Korean film was Kim dried up in favour of TV series, in
Chu Ok’s feature The Flying Horse (1986), again based on a Kim Il order to serve the growth in tourism.
Sung story about the youngest of a man’s three sons who defeats This led to the first South Korean
foreign invaders by riding a flying horse. Another film that gained animated TV series, Wandering
some international attention was An Ant who Rolled a Canteloupe Kkachi (1987), produced for the
(1985) by Ryu Chung Ung, about an ant whose intellectual skills help Korean Broadcasting System.
him compensate for his lack of physical strength.
In 1985, the April 26th Children’s Film Studio of the Large Output
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or SEK Studio, was established The period also saw a huge increase
as an overseas facility. As such, it has done work for French, Italian and in the television production around
Spanish companies, including animation on versions of The Arabian the world, which in turn led to a huge
Nights and Les Miserables, as well as Corto Maltese. It also produces growth in service studios. The major
children’s films for its domestic market, which are often exported to players in this area were AKOM,
other parts of Asia. Sunwoo Entertainment, Saerom
Hong Gil-Dong Production, Rough Draft Korea and
South Korea The creation of Hong Gil-Dong was a frustrating process for all Hanshin. This, plus the growth of local production, would eventually make South Korea
Animation in South Korea, which dates back to TV commercials that involved. Severe shortages of film and equipment in the 1960s the third largest producer of animation after the United States and Japan.
began appearing in 1956, really got established with the work of Shin meant that Shin Dong Hun and his team had to improvize at

Dong Hun, who is considered the father of South Korean animation. virtually every stage of the production process. They used

After doing several commercials, he set up his own studio in 1960 and secondhand film thrown away by the US Air Force, adapted their

© Courtesy of John A. Lent

jump-started the local industry with the production of the popular own camera and stand from one they had seen and taught

feature-length Hong Gil-Dong (1967), based on Korea’s first novel. themselves how to apply special effects.

Shin later deserted features to work on foreign TV productions, before

abandoning animation. Corto Maltese
Animated movies in South Korea flourished in fits and starts, with 62 Hong Gil-Dong – poster The SEK studio were commissioned by the French company Les

features made between 1976 and 1985. This occurred despite primitive working One of the advertisements for Korea’s first animated feature Films de la Perrine to work on Corto Maltese, the 2002 French

conditions and competition for talent from the growing number of overseas studios proclaimed: “125,300 pictures drawn for one year by 400 people. If feature directed by Pascal Morelli. Due to the success of the North

servicing Japanese and Western studios that began appearing in 1966. Unlike Hong one person did it, it would take 400 years.” The film was a great Korean animation industry, increasing numbers of animation

Gil-Dong, these movies tended to use Japanese animation as their model rather success, and drew audiences of 100,000 in its first four days of release, companies from Western Europe and South East Asia are now

than indigenous graphic styles. Particularly influential was the Japanese TV series sparking the start of an industry that continues to flourish to this day. travelling to the country in the hope of doing business.

Soviet Animation in the 1980s » 290 Korean Animation in the 1990s » 332
 XI

1990–2000:

RENAISSANCE
Box office grosses and prime-time television proved, at last, that great animation could
appeal to adults as well as children. This led to a renaissance that expanded the field and
brought renewed respect.
The Simpsons was the most successful TV cartoon of all time, and its success
initiated a boom in creator-driven, prime-time animated series aimed at adults. The victors
include South Park, Beavis & Butt-head and King of the Hill. New niche cable networks
created animated superstars: Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats and The Powerpuff Girls, who became
household names. And anime rules as Pokémon became an international powerhouse.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast earned an Academy Award nomination for
Best Picture and The Lion King roared to epic box office proportions. Old-school stop-motion
techniques continued to wow the public: Aardman’s clay-made Wallace and Gromit and
Chicken Run, and Henry Selick’s puppet-toon The Nightmare Before Christmas, have
become audience favorites. DreamWorks established itself with The Prince of Egypt and
Antz. But the big news was Pixar and its first feature-length film, Toy Story.
Animated computer graphics dazzled and delighted mainstream moviegoers.
The charm, the heart and the realistic visuals won new fans young and old – and in the
hands of master storytellers, animated features entered a new dimension.

Picture above: The Simpsons © Gracie Films/20th Century Fox. Pictures clockwise from top left: The Lion King © The Walt Disney Company; Creature Comforts © Aardman Animations Ltd. 1989; Antz © 1998 DreamWorks LLC; Jurassic Park © Universal Studios; The Lion King - Simba
© The Walt Disney Company; A Close Shave © Aardman/Wallace & Gromit Ltd. 1995; The Return of Hong Gil Dong, Courtesy of John A. Lent; Princess Mononoke © Miramax Films. Centre picture: Toy Story © Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios
304 DISNEY STRIKES BACK 305
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Pumbaa and Timon
Producing a hand-drawn animated film is extremely labor-

© The Walt Disney Company

intensive: more than 600 artists, animators and technicians

contributed to The Lion King and more than a million drawings

were created for it. It is made up of 1,197 hand-painted

backgrounds and 119,058 individually colored frames of film.

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

Pocahontas (1995) was the one that would be a blockbuster. Pocahontas did not do as
well as The Lion King and was the start of a decline in the success of Disney animation.

All Change
Several factors contributed to changes at the studio. Howard Ashman died during
the production of Aladdin. The success of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King
caused other companies to start producing animated features. This diluted the talent
Simba and Scar pool and forced up wages and budgets. Because Disney animation represented such a
The Lion King’s working title was "King of the Jungle", and when large investment and potential profit, management interfered more in the making of
production began on it, the artistic team traveled to Africa to the films.
research how best to portray the different locations on-screen. Pretentiousness also crept into the Disney features. Pocahontas and The
Lions and other animals were brought to the studio so the Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) were films that seemed more interested in critical
animators could study them. accolades than in entertaining audiences. The warmth that marked films like The Little
Mermaid was in short supply in later films such as Hercules (1997), Tarzan (1999), The
© The Walt Disney Company
© The Walt Disney Company
Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Atlantis (2001) and Treasure
The Disney studio followed up The Little Mermaid with The Rescuers Down Under Simba and Mufassa Planet (2002).
(1990), the first time Disney made an animated feature film sequel. But the sequel did While most of The Lion King was hand-drawn, there were To increase production, Disney opened up a satellite
not do as well critically or financially as The Little Mermaid. certain effects the director wanted that would be extremely time- studio in Orlando, Florida. Perhaps because they were separated
consuming to draw by hand. The wildebeest stampede, for from Disney management by distance, the studio produced more
Award-Winning Animation example, was based on a wildebeest from a character designer’s successful films. Mulan (1998) followed the formula of earlier
However, Beauty and the Beast (1991), directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, was hand-drawn artwork. A 3D-computer model was created and Disney successes, but followed it in an entertaining fashion. Lilo and
a massive hit. Once again, Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken provided the music, with replicated in order to produce the stampede seen on the film. Stitch (2002) attempted to duplicate the spirit of Dumbo and met
Ashman also producing and contributing to the story. It was the first animated feature in with great box office success. Brother Bear (2003) was their swan
history to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Aladdin (1992), John song. While it had story problems, it attempted to grapple with
Musker and Ron Clements’ follow-up to The Little Mermaid, did even better at the box larger themes than the typical Disney film and did better with
office. The character of the Genie, voiced by Robin Williams and animated by Eric audiences than the studio expected.
Goldberg, stole the show. By 2004, Disney had closed the studio in Florida and
The Lion King (1994), directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, set the drastically reduced the size of the California studio. Management
record for the highest-grossing traditionally animated film. Loosely based on Hamlet, the decided to abandon drawn animation in favor of computer
film told the mythical story of a son having to avenge the death of his father. Ironically, animation. Sadly Home on the Range (2004) marked the end of
the studio did not have high expectations for the film. They were convinced that traditional Disney animation as practiced by Walt Disney.

The Little Mermaid » 276 Walt Disney’s Legacy » 212 Finding Nemo » 342
306 DIGITAL DOMAIN 307
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When Tron was released in 1982, computer animation was still in its infancy. It cost Jurassic Park
over $20 million, and its lackluster box office gave Hollywood little incentive to invest in The dinosaurs were created using a mixture of digital animation

digital animation. and animatronics. As a general rule, if the dinosaur was shown in

full, then it had been rendered digitally, while shots of the

Technology Not Ready dinosaurs’ body parts were of animatronics.

In some respects, that may have been a good decision. Computers of the time were
relatively slow and very expensive, and there were very few artists who had the patience Drawing from Jurassic Park
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to put up with the difficult software available at the time. In the early 1980s, computer The digital technology used in Jurassic Park was able, for the first

animation was simply not ready for prime-time. time, to create realistic, living, breathing characters with skin,

The rest of the decade served as the industry’s adolescence. The people muscles and texture. This breakthrough expanded the film-

involved in the CGI community had to figure out ways to turn the technology into a real maker’s canvas and changed the cinematic art of storytelling.

business. Digital studios had to find ways to hit production deadlines and meet budgets
that matched those of more traditional studios. As the decade progressed, the animation Terminator 2
itself improved as more artists became involved, the software matured and workstations In this film, the T-1000 changes from one form to another via a

got faster and cheaper. computer process known as morphing. This involves taking two

Most of the major digital studios got their start in the 1980s. Industrial images or series of images and finding similarities between the pixels

Light and Magic (ILM) experimented with digital techniques throughout the decade, or shape of one and the pixels or shape of another. Recognizable

mostly in the area of editing, but also with feature-film effects. Pacific Data Images structures are often shaped or changed from one image to another,
© Universal Studios

(PDI) was one of the first successful independent studios. Founded in 1980, the while other parts are blurred or their color palettes reduced so one

company found its early niche in the field of broadcast graphics. Pixar was founded in image or one pixel can become the same as the other. actors. This sequence demonstrated a new
1986, while 1987 saw the opening of Rhythm & level of realism and showed just how far CGI
Hues and Blue Sky. had come. The success of The Abyss gave ILM
the courage to attempt bigger digital projects.
CGI Revolution ILM scored another big success
The large studios were also dabbling in digital. In in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
1986, Disney made its first use of computer This film contained dozens of digital effects,
graphics in the film The Great Mouse Detective. In including a digital representation of Robert
this pioneering attempt, they used a computer to Patrick as the liquid metal T-1000. The next
calculate and draw the inside of a clock for the final huge leap forward was Jurassic Park. The
chase sequence. Subsequently, the studio began dinosaurs in the film proved CGI could
using other digital techniques on traditionally compete against traditional animation and
animated films. effects, and in many ways with better results.
By the end of the decade, the talent A revolution was under way in
and tools were in place for digital animation to take a Hollywood. The maturing of CGI in the early
leading role in Hollywood. The first big splash came 1990s changed the way traditional live-
from ILM with an effect for an underwater movie action movies were made. It was also about

© Universal Studios
called The Abyss (1989). ILM created a creature to revolutionize the process of creating
made of water that interacted with the live-action animated films.
© Artisan Entertainment

Tron » 368 DreamWorks » 344 Blue Sky » 346 CGI Victorious » 338
308 PIXAR & TOY STORY 309
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By 1991, Pixar was one of the leading computer-animation studios and very confident Buzz Lightyear Character Creation
in its production methods. That year, Disney announced an agreement with Pixar to In order to make their characters’ movements look realistic, the Many of the tasks, such as art direction, were done by
create the first computer-animated full-length feature film: Toy Story (1995). animators looked at what the toys were made of: Buzz was rigid, hand. Special care was taken to give the environments a
For many of the people at the studio this was a dream come true, a dream that had and his ball-and-socket joints gave him a purposeful stride; stylized storybook look. Instead of the painted
started 20 years earlier in the quiet of the university research labs. Woody was a floppy, loose, limp rag doll. backgrounds used in most animated films, Pixar created
3D-digital sets, modeled by artists and technicians. The
In the Making sets were then textured, using paintings as well as
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Toy Story was the moment when computer animation became a true force in photographs to give the film a realistic yet “cartoony" feel.

© Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios

Hollywood. Just as Snow White was the point where traditional animation matured into Characters were first created on paper,
a true art form, Toy Story was the point where computer animation truly came of age. then sculpted in clay and digitized into the computer.
Since its release, computer-animated films have taken Hollywood by storm. A team of computer-savvy technical directors then
Toy Story took almost four years to make. Until 1991, when Disney gave "wired" the digital characters with virtual controls for the
them the financing to create a full-length feature film, Pixar had only produced a few animators to manipulate. An animator might have
short films and a string of 30-second commercials. Creating almost an hour and a half several dozen controls for creating facial expressions,
of quality feature footage was a very high mark to hit, and they had to devise a new Toy Story for example.
way of making movies on computers. With Toy Story, Pixar formulated the technique of constructing Animating 3D characters on a computer is
Pixar pitched a story to Disney about something they knew – toys. This characters as a series of digital models with limbs and facial different from other types of animation. Animators pose
subject was chosen partly on the success of Tin Toy, and partly because Pixar knew that expressions that could then be moved in any direction inside the their characters much like real-world puppets, but
toys could be animated much more realistically than other types of characters with the computer environment. The result was that the animation camera through the flat screen of a computer. Unlike stop-
technology available. The story was a classic “buddy" picture exploring the tenuous could track and move through the CG action in almost exactly the motion, however, the animators have the ability to
relationship between cowboy Woody and space cadet Buzz Lightyear, whose arrival same way that a tracking shot could do with live-action. finesse the animation as much as they want, giving
threatens Woody’s position as Andy’s favorite toy. The two heroes hit it off poorly, but supersmooth and controllable results.
finally find a way to work together when they land in the hands of Sid, a demented kid Woody
with a taste for explosives. After completing the characters’ body animations, the animators The Final Result
The story process for Toy Story was the same as for any animated feature, created the facial animation and lip sync. To create the facial The animation was then passed off to a lighting and
with a script, hand-drawn storyboards and plenty of conceptual art. It went through a animation, each main character was modeled with "pull points" rendering team, who brought the final product to the
number of revisions and, after almost 18 months, was ready for production. for facial muscles. The animator-performer could pull down screen. Sets and characters were lit with digital lights
Woody’s forehead into a frown – he had eight controls for his much like in any live-action feature, and the resulting
Teamwork eyebrows alone. frames were rendered on a bank of several hundred
While the story was taking shape, Pixar employed large numbers of new staff for the computers into a final film.
film. The animators’ backgrounds were largely in traditional cel and stop-motion Despite all the technical hurdles Pixar had
animation; other traditional artists were hired to paint textures and provide lighting. In to endure during its creation, they managed to create a

© Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios

addition, the studio engaged an equally large team of computer scientists and engineers film with great characters and an engaging story. Toy
to assist with the technical side of things. Story was the top animated hit of 1995. It was the first of
Pixar developed an animation pipeline that bridged the unique talents of a string of successes Pixar would rack up over the next
artists, scientists and engineers. Artists focused on making the movie look good, while the few years, putting traditionally animated features on the
technical staff backed them up by managing the computers and writing custom defensive and making digitally animated features the
software to help the artists realize their visions. new rage in Hollywood.

Pixar and Tin Toy » 270 Finding Nemo » 342

310 FEATURE PLAYERS 311
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In August 1994, two months after the opening of Disney’s hugely successful The Lion
King, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen formed DreamWorks SKG.
From the very start, the new company had instant credibility in terms of animation;
after all, Katzenberg had been a key figure in the revival of Disney’s animation
fortunes, and Spielberg had been involved in such groundbreaking films as
An American Tail and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

© 1998 DreamWorks, LLC

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Competing with Disney
DreamWorks’ formation followed closely on moves by Warner Bros. and Twentieth

© 1998 DreamWorks, LLC

Century Fox to set up their own feature animation divisions. All three aimed to compete
head-on with Disney in producing big-budget animation blockbusters, a field the “mouse DreamWorks
house" had had all to itself since Don Bluth’s arrangement with Spielberg fell apart. Initially, DreamWorks poured most of its efforts into traditional Disney-style
blockbusters, supplemented with lower-budgeted CGI films from PDI, a studio it later
Warner Bros. Antz – model sheet bought out. Its initial animated release was from PDI, Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson’s Antz
Warner’s first animated feature in the new gold rush was the live-action/animated PDI devised new facial-animation tools to create detailed (1998), a Woody Allen-style comedy (featuring Allen’s vocal talents) about a neurotic
Space Jam (1996). Inspired by the Air Jordan TV commercials, it featured Michael Jordan expressions for Z and his fellow colony members based on an ant who rebels against the tyranny of his colony.
and the classic Looney Tunes characters. Though often overwrought, it proved both anatomical model of a face. Animators used combinations of This was almost immediately followed by the more portentous The Prince of
popular and profitable. The unit’s first all-animated effort, Frederik Du Chau’s Quest for controls that could raise an eyebrow, widen the eyes or dilate the Egypt (1998), an operatic biography of Moses directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner
Camelot (1998), proved to be a rather inept Arthurian romance. pupils. There was also a less-detailed system that used shape and Simon Wells – done very much in the classic Disney manner, but lacking classic Disney
However, this was followed by Brad Bird’s wonderful The Iron Giant interpolation and deformations rather than direct muscle control warmth. Its reception was respectful, though its box office results were not much better than
(1999), based on Ted Hughes’ book about a boy who befriends a robot from outer space. to animate faces. for Antz. Nevertheless, it proved to be the studio’s most successful traditionally animated film.
Although widely acclaimed by critics and animators alike, it failed at the box office. Eric Bergeron and Don Paul’s The Road to El Dorado (2000), about a pair
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), by Joe Dante and Eric Goldberg, a surprisingly Antz – crowd of seventeenth-century Spanish con men in the New World, was in the vein of the
good follow-up to Space Jam, also failed to capture the public’s attention. Antz’s animators needed to animate everything from a small traditional classic buddy movie, and was overshadowed by the company’s subsequent
group of background characters to thousands of ants in a battle release of Peter Lord and Nick Park’s Chicken Run.
Twentieth Century Fox scene. The technical directors created two types of crowd

For the new Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, Arizona, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman were systems: the first was used for groups of fewer than 50 ants, Big Success
brought in from Ireland as producers. Their first effort was Anastasia (1997), a smartly which blended a mixture of body types and motions; and the However, DreamWorks’ biggest success came from directors Andrew Adamson and
done musical remake of Anatole Litvak’s 1956 movie, which seemed to herald a comeback second was used for larger crowds, which gave animators less Vicky Jenson’s Shrek (2001), based on William Steig’s popular children’s book. Shrek
for Bluth. However, Bartok the Magnificent (1999), the film’s direct-to-video prequel, and control and more automation. spoofed both fairy tales and the Disney empire, and earned DreamWorks the first Oscar
Titan A.E. (2000), a poorly received sci-fi adventure blending cel and CG animation, spelled for Best Animated Feature. The wide popularity of Shrek and Ice Age not only helped
the end of the Phoenix operation. Fox instead shifted from traditional cel animation to CGI, Z and Weaver bring an end to Disney’s long-standing dominance, but it also proved to be a
and specifically to its newly acquired Blue Sky Studios, a company that traced its pedigree Antz’s characters, with their organic body shapes and expressive psychological deathblow to future production of large-scale cel-animated movies.
to MAGI SynthaVision, one of the two companies that did the computer animation for faces, were a breakthrough in CG film. The facial animation DreamWorks came out with two more hand-drawn movies: Kelly
Disney’s Tron. The result was Chris Wedge’s Ice Age (2002), a hilarious takeoff of Peter B. system developed by PDI paid great attention to detail, and in Asbury and Lorna Cook’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron (2002), a modestly

© 1998 DreamWorks, LLC

Kyne’s often-filmed book The Three Godfathers. Particularly striking were the stylized particular offered a lot of eye control. For instance, when an successful western about a wild mustang, and Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore’s
character designs by famed illustrator Peter DeSève, which dramatically broke away from eyeball turned, it actually grabbed the eyelid. Instances such as Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), a poorly received but sincere tribute to the
the Pixar-style realism that had previously dominated computer-animated movies. this added greater depth to the film. films of Ray Harryhausen.

Don Bluth » 274 DreamWorks » 344 Blue Sky & Ice Age » 346 Ray Harryhausen » 158 Aardman Animation » 322 Shrek » 344
312 THE SIMPSONS 313
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By the end of the 1980s, animated programs airing in prime-time were a distant The Simpsons and School House Rock series. The show received instant popularity, as well as a quick
memory. Cartoons had become strictly kids’ stuff and were relegated to Saturday When The Simpsons first began, it was all hand-drawn and backlash. Then US President George H. W. Bush famously said, "We need a nation closer
mornings. However, by the end of the decade, the fledgling Fox network would help colored. Although the traditional hand-painting of cels has now to the Waltons than to the Simpsons." Unafraid to take on critics and poke fun at just
change this perception, as well as television history. been superseded by computer digital ink and paint technology, about anything, the show’s creators had Bart counter, "Hey, we’re just like the Waltons.
the hand-drawn style still remains. We’re praying for an end to the depression, too."
Meet The Simpsons
It all began when Oscar-winning producer and director James L. Brooks contacted Matt The Simpsons – singing Voices Behind the Characters
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Groening (b. 1954), who had garnered underground fame with his alienation-filled One episode of The Simpsons usually takes six to eight months Another cornerstone of the series is its voice cast, which began work on the characters in
comic strip Life Is Hell, about bringing his characters to television. Worried about losing the to complete, from start to finish. This includes writing, re-writing, the original shorts. Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner were actors on The Tracey Ullman
rights to his work, Groening created the roughly drawn Simpson family, which made voice recording, storyboards, animatics, coloring (which is done in Show when they won the roles of Homer and Marge respectively, and they would later
their television debuts in 1987 in short segments on Brooks’s sketch comedy series The Korea), music scoring and post-production. Several episodes are create other series regulars. Rounding out the family were actresses Nancy Cartwright as
Tracey Ullman Show. in different stages of production at any given time, sometimes as Bart and Yeardley Smith as Lisa. Adding to the show’s depth was the enormous cast of
Named after Groening’s own parents and sisters, the dysfunctional family many as ten. supporting characters brought to life by such performers as This Is Spinal Tap’s Harry
was something that TV viewers had never seen before. The tone was not like other Shearer, Saturday Night Live’s Phil Hartman, The Bob Newhart Show’s Marcia Wallace

© Gracie Films/20th Century Fox

sitcoms where families fought civilly and triumphed over common crises in a half hour © Gracie Films/20th Century Fox and character actor Hank Azaria. In 2001, the cast fruitfully negotiated lucrative
each week. These animated characters fitted in perfectly with Fox’s other edgy programs, contracts, putting them among the highest-paid
such as Married with Children and In Living Color. actors on television. The cultural-icon status of the
Fox decided to take a chance and gave co-creators Groening, Brooks and show became so great that it has attracted
Sam Simon an opportunity to create a Simpsons series, breaking the 20-year legions of celebrity guests including Sir Paul
hiatus of animation in prime-time. The three played key roles in crafting the McCartney, Elizabeth Taylor and even British
series’ eventual success from the beginning. Groening brought the initial Prime Minister Tony Blair.
spark, and Simon hired many of the famed members of the writing staff, The show’s consistent
including George Meyer and Brooks, whose fame gave the entire creative ratings success and merchandising
team breathing room to experiment without having to answer bonanza both helped solidify the
constantly to network executives. With a slicker look that would future of the Fox network. Moreover,
be even more refined in time, The Simpsons’ inaugural the series began to influence pop
Christmas special aired on December 17, 1989. culture while continuing to comment
Groening said he wanted the series to on it. Homer’s exclamation “d’oh" has
show that "your moral authorities don’t always have been added to Webster’s New World
your best interests in mind. I think that’s a great message Dictionary, and “Don’t have a cow, man" and
for kids." Homer with Mick and Keith “Ay, Carumba" are catchphrases synonymous
Rolling Stones legends Mick and Keith are just with Bart Simpson. With the renewal of the
Irreverent Style two in a long line of celebrities who have series into at least a 16th season, The
Thus began a revolution on television, bringing irreverence appeared (as themselves) on The Simpsons. Simpsons will become the longest-running
out from its segregated life in late-night programming and Other musical guest stars have included Barry comedy in television history, besting the 1950s
into the "family hour". From the beginning, the writers loaded White, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, George sitcom Ozzie and Harriet. So the question is, has
each episode with dozens of sly cultural references, including Harrison, Johnny Cash and Britney Spears. America become more like the Simpsons or are
homages to distinct animation styles like those of the Dr Seuss animated specials © Gracie Films/20th Century Fox the Simpsons more like America?

The Flintstones » 180 1960s Prime-Time » 202 Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320 Futurama » 315
314 PRIME-TIME TV 315
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Mixed Successes

™ and © FOX and its related entities

Futurama – sketch NBC ventured into prime-time cartoons in 1998 with the British import Stressed Eric, but
This is a pre-production sketch of some of the characters from it only lasted for two episodes. In 1999, six animated programs debuted with varying
the show, which is an integration of traditional and computer success. The WB aired Mission Hill (six episodes) and UPN showed Home Movies (10
animation. The backgrounds are animated by computer, and episodes). Both series, as well as Baby Blues, which originally aired on the WB in 2000,
the figures are hand-drawn, but the two styles fit together so would return to TV on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. UPN put its hopes in bringing Scott
seamlessly that it is difficult to tell that one has been Adams’ satirical comic strip Dilbert to television. Featuring the voices of comic actors
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superimposed on the other. Daniel Stern and Chris Elliott, the show was terminated after 30 episodes.
Now with two animated hits, Fox launched three new series. Eddie
Murphy, who voiced Thurgoode Stubbs, produced The PJs (1999), along with
Simpsons producer Steve Tompkins and In Living Color writer Larry Wilmore.
Animated by Claymation creators Will Vinton Studios, the rare African-
American-themed cartoon moved to the WB in 2000 for one additional
season. Family Guy (1999) followed the exploits of the Griffin family, featuring
the maniacal baby Stewie, voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane. The show was
canceled in 2002; however, its unexpected success on DVD spurred Fox to renew
the series for 2005. To prove he could create a series on his own,
in 1999 Matt Groening produced Futurama, a sci-fi satire
featuring Fry, a pizza delivery man who has awoken from a
cryogenic slumber 1,000 years in the future. The series was
canceled in 2003 after winning three Emmy awards.
With the success of The Simpsons, network executives started reconsidering the notion
that animation was only for children. Cable television quickly embraced adult-oriented Cable TV
animation; however, the networks were slower to respond. Family Guy In 2000, ABC’s Clerks, based on Kevin Smith’s independent film; NBC’s God, the Devil and
Peter, the father in Family Guy, pictured here, heads up a family Bob (2000), featuring a controversial Jerry Garcia-like Almighty; and NBC’s Sammy,
New Characters that includes a smart-aleck dog and a neurotic baby. The show based on comedian David Spade’s relationship with his deadbeat dad, only lasted two
Both The Tick and The Critic debuted in 1994 on Fox and ABC respectively, but makes many references to the real world, especially the episodes each. In 2001,
neither lasted longer than three seasons. Then, in 1997, Fox took another entertainment industry; William Shatner, Star Wars and UPN aired 13 episodes of
chance on animation when it gave Beavis & Butt-head creator Mike President Clinton have all been included at some point or another. the clay-animated Gary &
Judge and Seinfeld writer Greg Daniels the go-ahead on King of the Hill. Mike, and the WB’s The
The series centered on the working-class Hill family – conservative Oblongs, featuring the voice
propane salesman Hank, his plucky wife Peggy, son Bobby and niece Futurama of comedian Will Ferrell,
Luanne. Its witty, socially conscious writing and memorable Due to the futuristic setting of Futurama, Matt Groening and his only lasted eight episodes.
supporting characters distinguished the series. However, the show’s Though there were many

™ and © FOX and its related entities

team are given great freedom, since the show is not restricted

™ and © FOX and its related entities

sitcom-like approach made some wonder why the series was to one locale, like Springfield in The Simpsons, and the failures, some series found
animated in the first place. Nonetheless, the series has become a exploration of the galaxy opens many doors. The screenwriters new life on cable, proving
critical and ratings success, winning the 1999 Emmy for Outstanding use the conventions of sci-fi and run with them, often with that the US was ready for
Animated Program. hilarious consequences. adult animation.

Ralph Bakshi » 244 The Simpsons » 312 Will Vinton and Claymation » 250 Cable Toons » 318
316 TV TOONS 317
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An animation boom exploded across the American cartoon industry in the 1990s. Baloo The success of Tiny Toons also led to a second Spielberg/Warner
Feature films, cable TV, direct-to-video, syndication and broadcast television – all had Baloo, Shere Khan and King Louie were all in Disney’s Jungle series introducing several original characters: Animaniacs (1993) featured the
needs for new cartoon fare. This great demand for programming led to a greater Book. Baloo, in TaleSpin, is listless, slobby and unreliable, with a lunatic Wacko and Yakko (supposedly the Warner Brothers) and their sister Dot.
diversity of animation styles, and fresh products aimed at new audience segments (as failed business. Shere Khan stands upright and wears a business These characters would share the half hour with others, including the schemes
"preschool" and "tweens" became hot new demographics). Renewed interest in suit, and is a wealthy and astute businessman. King Louie runs of Pinky and the Brain.
television animation brought high-quality cartoon production from two powerful, the local bar.

though unlikely, sources: Disney and Steven Spielberg. The Disney Afternoon
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In 1990, Disney began syndicating to local stations – and later to UPN
Tiny Toons network affiliates – a package of soft and safe animated shows under the
Spielberg, a long time cartoon fan, had umbrella title The Disney Afternoon. While not as edgy as Warner’s Tiny
produced the hit animated feature An American Toons or Nicktoons’ Rugrats, Disney’s shows developed their own loyal fan
Tail, which gave Disney quite a run for its base. Standout programs included TaleSpin (1990), an action-packed
money. Spielberg collaborated with Warner aviation comedy with Baloo the Bear; Darkwing Duck (1991), the adventures
Bros. Animation on a series of younger Looney of a crime-busting mallard; Gargoyles (1994), Disney’s Gothic answer to
Tunes characters in a new show, Tiny Toon Batman; and The Schnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show (1994), a Ren
Adventures (1990). Recruiting a young staff of & Stimpy knockoff.
renegade cartoonists (and a few old veterans), When Disney purchased the ABC network in 1995, they
Tiny Toons brought "stretch and squash" to TV folded The Disney Afternoon into a Saturday-morning block called One
animation. The characters were derivative of the Saturday Morning (1997), introducing new “creator-driven” series, such as
classic Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and crew – junior Pepper Ann and Recess.
versions with names like Plucky Duck and Babs
© The Walt Disney Company
Bunny – in a hodge podge "homage" to the Saturday-Morning Successes
classic Warner Bros. cartoons. Darkwing Duck There were other notable Saturday-morning series during the 1990s, including ABC’s
However, the most exciting thing This first appeared in 1991, and proved to be extremely popular. CGI cult sci-fi show Reboot (1994); Fox’s Eek the Cat (1992), a zany cartoon comedy
to emerge from these shows was the teaming of Ostensibly Disney’s first spin-off series, it had its origins in from the mind of Savage Steve Holland; and The Tick, a superb animated adaptation of
Tiny Toons writers Paul Dini and artists Bruce DuckTales, and was first planned to be a James Bond-style show Ben Edlund’s superhero parody – which bolted from a dead-end position on Fox Kids to
Timm and Eric Radomski. Their reconception of based on the character Double-0 Duck. This eventually evolved hit status on Comedy Central.
the caped crusader, Batman: The Animated into the superhero story line in which Darkwing Duck and the rest Lest you be led to believe that the 1990s produced nothing but classic
Series (1992), was a bold rethinking of how are residents of the Gotham-like city of St Canard. cartoons, the decade had its share of forgettable junk – like Wishkid (1991), starring the voice
animated action cartoons could be done – its of young superstar Macaulay Culkin; Yo Yogi (1991), an unfortunate update of Yogi Bear; The
innovative influence still felt today. The writing was Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa (1992), a western cartoon about cows turned cowboys;
adult, the acting subdued, the artwork stylized and Bruno the Kid (1996), co-produced by, and featuring the voice of, Bruce Willis.
and strong. Based partially on Tim Burton’s live-
action Batman movies, and influenced by Max Foreign Influence
© The Walt Disney Company
Fleischer’s Superman cartoons and Will Eisner’s Two animated series quietly began showing in the US during the 1990s and went on to
Spirit comic strip, Batman: The Animated Series become worldwide phenomenons: DragonBall Z (1996) and Pokémon (1997).
was a rare animated triumph to transcend the TV cartoons made a healthy return to success and popularity – revitalizing an industry
children’s audience it was intended for. and building an audience.

Early TV Cartoons » 178 TV Superheroes » 206 Cable Toons » 318 DragonBall » 294 Pokémon » 330
318 CABLE TOONS 319
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In the 1990s, the US cable television networks had matured to the point where they series The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Johnny Bravo (all three premiered in
began competing with broadcast networks for the eyes and ears of the viewing 1995) for the children’s animation channel.
audience. Cable’s greatest success was in creating niche networks dedicated to one Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon returned animated cartoons to the
genre or subject. The Food Channel, the Weather Channel, the Sci Fi Channel, Cable cartoonists – to design, write and direct – from decades in the hands of network non-
News Network and Music Television all found success on the new 500-channel universe. creatives and parent groups. This new life revitalized the art form and brought in
audiences of all ages.
Nickelodeon
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Nickelodeon began in 1979 as an advertisement-free, 14-hour-per-day network for Disney Channel
children, a programming component of the huge Warner-Amex cable conglomerate. The Disney Channel began as a commercial-free pay channel in 1983, running classic

© Nickelodeon
Within the next 10 years, children discovered Nickelodeon as a hip alternative to the Disney movies and short subjects. With broadcast blocks on ABC Saturday morning and
Saturday-morning and syndication wasteland – and it became the must-see the syndicated Disney afternoon, the cable channel did not begin to compete until the
destination for them. The network was purchased by Viacom in the mid-1980s, and Ren late 1990s – when they decided to target younger viewers in a programming block
revenues from commercial advertising allowed Nick to develop original programming. In Ren & Stimpy John Kricfalusi returned to the technique used called Playhouse Disney. Their first commissioned shows, PB & J (1997) from Jumbo
In 1991, the channel introduced a trio of signature Nicktoons, which would on almost all animation until the 1960s: developing the stories Pictures, and Rolie Polie Olie (1997) from Nelvana, were hits with the diaper crowd.
come to define the next generation of television animation. Klasky-Csupo’s Rugrats, on storyboards and eliminating the scriptwriting process Today’s ABC Family Channel began broadcasting via satellite to cable
Jumbo Pictures’ Doug and Spumco’s The Ren & Stimpy Show were part of a new breed altogether. Storyboards give the cartoonist far more freedom, subscribers in 1975 as the Christian Broadcasting Network. In 1997 Fox Broadcasting
of creator-driven animated series. Offbeat character designs and a child’s point of view and it was this that gave Ren & Stimpy its energy and fusion. bought the channel to challenge Disney, Cartoon Network and Nick. However, the
were suddenly new and fresh in 1991 – Hanna-Barbera and Filmation’s factory-driven channel’s few attempts to compete – with The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991), Angela
animation, based on presold comic book characters, rock stars and teenage detectives, Johnny Bravo Anaconda (1999) and The Kids in Room 402 (1999) – were scratched when the cable
had run their course. Animator Van Partible's goal in making Johnny Bravo was to channel was purchased by Disney in 2001.
© Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies/Snee-Oosh Production

The original Nicktoons series were soon joined by further additions that make the animation reminiscent of the old Hanna-Barbera Craig Bartlett
shaped 1990s children’s shows: Rocko’s Modern Life (1993), Aaaahh! Real Monsters cartoons. To help achieve this, he enlisted the help of the master Craig Bartlett, creator of Hey Arnold!, spent six years working at USA Network
(1994), Blues Clues (1996) and Hey Arnold! (1996). And the success of Nickelodeon animators who originally developed the Hanna-Barbera Will Vinton’s Claymation studio. Bartlett made three Claymation The USA Network has been largely
was not lost on other cable entrepreneurs. cartoons years ago. Joe Barbera himself sat in on the creative Hey Arnold! shorts and, together with some Arnold comic strips forgotten as a competitor in the
sessions as a mentor, answering Partible's questions and helping he had written, convinced Nickelodeon executives that his animation market, but during the 1990s
Cartoon Network him come up with gags for the show. character could star in his own animated series. they tried their best to compete. After
Ted Turner had his eye on animation as he was building his cable empire. His first effort, initially going for kid comedy with Itsy
Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990; first 65 episodes produced by DiC, after that Bitsy Spider (1993) and adult humor
by Hanna-Barbera), was an environmentally friendly cartoon series with a celebrity with Duckman (1994), USA decided to

© Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies/Snee-Oosh Production

voice cast including such guest stars such as Jeff Goldblum, Meg Ryan and Sting. In Hey Arnold! promote teenage boys’ adventure with
1991, Turner purchased the Hanna-Barbera studio and commissioned them to create During the late 1990s, the animation on the Hey Arnold! series series like Highlander (1994) and Mortal
new programming for his cable base – Superstation TBS. Swat Kats (1993), an action Combat: Defenders of the Realm (1996).

TM & © Cartoon Network. A Time Warner Company

changed from being hand-colored to being computer-colored. It

series, and Two Stupid Dogs (1993), an offbeat character comedy, were the first of his still retained its original look, including characters with exaggerated This entertainment network worked too
new cartoons by young creators, whose retro styles harked back to Hanna-Barbera physical features – such as Gerald, with a towering, cylindrical hard to be all things to all people – not
series of the 1950s and 1960s. Afro, and Arnold, who has an American-football-shaped head catering to any one particular niche –
Turner used the Hanna-Barbera library, plus the MGM, Warner Bros. and and a huge shock of blond hair, split down the middle by a and that was its ultimate downfall. They
Popeye cartoons he acquired from MGM/UA to start Cartoon Network in 1992. This diminutive baseball cap. The series was such a success that in abandoned children’s programming by
eventually led to original programming later in the decade, which included signature 2002 Hey Arnold! The Movie was released (pictured). the late 1990s.

Hanna-Barbera & Filmation » 204 Contemporary TV Animation » 348 Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320
320 CARTOONS FOR GROWN-UPS 321
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA
Fox Broadcasting’s The Simpsons was an immediate hit with adults and children alike, "Wanted"
and Nickelodeon had a surprise success with its Nicktoon series The Ren & Stimpy From its outset Beavis and Butt-head courted controversy, with

Show, which became a cult sensation among college students and open-minded some critics praising the show for presenting the stupidity of male

parents who watched the series with their children. “metalheads" who watch too much TV, and others categorizing it

as another example of television’s declining quality. Regardless,

Beavis and Butt-head the show was an international success.

MTV, a sister network to Nickelodeon, ran episodes of Ren & © MTV Productions
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

Stimpy in its late-night slots, where ratings were strong – and
prompted the music network to seek out an animated series of
its own. MTV’s Liquid Television (1991) was a serious first step
in that direction.
Liquid Television was an animated compilation
show containing new segments and acquired shorts – either
classic independent films or new works by aspiring animators.
One of those new works was a twisted little cartoon called Frog
Baseball (1992), which introduced a pair of teenage stoners,
Beavis and Butt-head.
Frog Baseball, about two teenage slackers who
decide to knock a few toads out of the park, looked like a film
drawn by an amateur cartoonist and animated on a kitchen
table. And it was.
© MTV Productions

Reaction to Beavis & Butt-head was immediate.

Texas comedian Mike Judge was flown to New York, where he Beavis and Butt-head The Spirit Of Christmas (1995) was intended as a private Christmas joke, but it ended up
was handed an MTV contract, and an animation studio was built The Spike and Mike Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation becoming a serious hit: South Park (1997). The outrageous antics of a group of foul-
around the production of further Beavis & Butt-head shorts produced the first two Beavis & Butt-head shorts long before the mouthed kids were used by Parker and Stone to parody everything from President
(which eventually became a feature film in 1996). MTV characters debuted on MTV. Spike and Mike also premiered The George W. Bush to Osama bin Laden. And it made a perfect fit with Comedy Central’s
Animation went on to develop further animated shows aimed Spirit of Christmas, the original, uncensored South Park short by programming agenda. Reruns of The Tick (1994) joined Nelvana’s Bob and Margaret
squarely at its target audience: The Brothers Grunt, The Head, The Maxx and Aeon Flux. Matt Stone and Trey Parker. (1998), adapted from an NFB Academy Award-winning short, Bob’s Birthday (1994) –
Only Beavis & Butt-head and its spin-off, Daria, had any enduring appeal. But it established which continued Comedy Central’s commitment to animation.
MTV animation as a hip alternative to networks reality shows and music videos.
South Park Sex and Violence
Taking a Risk The pilot episode of South Park was made using paper cut-outs HBO also tried to tap the adult market with a few series that pushed the envelope with
Comedy Central was also willing to try adult-skewed animated comedies – for a price. and stop-motion photography, but this process was too time- sex and violence. Todd McFarlane’s Spawn (1996), based on his comic book, was a very
The threadbare production of Dr Katz: Professional Therapist (1995) was balanced by consuming and costly for a TV series. The creative team devised dark, violent animated show about a soul who’d been to hell and was not planning to
funny dialogue tracks, provided by comedian Jonathan Katz and his guests, against a way to retain the appearance of cut-outs being dragged across return, and Ralph Bakshi’s Spicy City was a film-noir sci-fi sex anthology. Neither
crudely animated “squiggle-vision" Flash animation. grabbed ratings – though both have cult followings. Within a few years, HBO decided to
© Comedy Partners

a screen while using computer-animation software, which sped

An even cruder amateur cut-out animation film was making the rounds the production up immensely. A feature-length theatrical film, leave grown-up animated cartoons to MTV, Comedy Central, Fox and Japanese
in 1996 and wound up with executives at Comedy Central. Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, was released in 1999. animators, who had a head start.

Bill Plympton » 278 Contemporary TV Animation » 348 Ralph Bakshi » 244 Anime in the 1990s » 330
322 THE AARDMAN STORY 323
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
(1970). This initial effort was purchased by the
BBC for use in the television program Vision On,
an innovative art presentation for deaf children
fronted by the talented artist Tony Hart. When
the $45 (£25) for their efforts arrived from the
BBC, the bank wanted to know the name of their
company account and, for want of a better title,
they blurted out it was “Aardman Animations".

It All Started
with Morph
Not content with the expense and trouble of
making hand-drawn cel animation or cut-outs,
the boys decided to create a Plasticine world by
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using clay models that could be altered and
reused with the minimum of cost. They
© Aardman Ltd. 1989
continued contributing to Vision On while
Creature Comforts resuming their respective educations at separate universities. Soon, with their college
This Oscar-winning short from 1989 by Nick Park was part of the days behind them, the two decided to pursue a career in animation and contacted the
Aardman series Lip Synch. It was a critical and popular success, and BBC again. Unfortunately, Vision On’s days were over, but a similar program, Take Hart,
inspired a celebrated advertising campaign in which Claymation was just being instigated, and its producer wanted something that was “alive" on
animals acted as spokepersons for an electricity board. presenter Tony Hart’s desktop for him to respond to.
Thus was born "Morph", an orange anthropomorphic Plasticine character
with a symmetrical head, rubbery arms and legs and big feet who first appeared on the
Take Hart tabletop in 1978. The simple plot line would follow Morph, always eager to
help Tony with his art and, more often than not, messing it up and having to return to
© Aardman Ltd. 1995

his box.
Aardman Animation has made a name for itself over the past 30 years as not only
being the home of Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts, but also as the Short Conversations
company that introduced the highly inventive feature Chicken Run (2000). In 1978 Lord and Sproxton took a risk with their Animated Conversations, structured
around random conversations secretly recorded at a Salvation Army shelter and putting
Humble Beginnings Morph the dialogue into the mouths of their clay characters. The Animated Conversations –
The founders of Aardman, Peter Lord (b. 1953) and David Sproxton (b. 1954), began Created by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1976, Morph Confessions of a Foyer Girl and Down and Out proved successful and brought
their partnership as high school students working together on an amateur film. brought Claymation into the homes of millions for the first time. international recognition for them both. Leading on from this, a further series of five
Influenced by television animation, they structured some cut-out and cel animation Although Morph’s first appearances were only one-minute shorts titled Conversation Pieces were commissioned for Channel 4. For a while
featuring a superhero character named "Aardman", his name being a combination of segments in a children’s TV show, he was such an original and Aardman’s stock-in-trade was the Animated Conversations theme of using unscripted
‘aardvark’ and ‘superman’. They photographed the result on a 16 mm Bolex camera dynamic figure that he soon became the star attraction. He was conversations discussing the mundane happenings in daily life, expressed only by the
borrowed from David’s father, and their 15-second effort emerged as Secret of the Bee the start of a re-invigoration of animation in Britain. Plasticine faces.

Wallace and Gromit » 324 Chicken Run » 358 Channel 4 Animation » 282
324 CLAY MAKES HAY 325
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
Aardman’s finest hour came in 1982 Working on The Wrong Trousers mechanical trousers and a
with the arrival of a brand-new The figurines of Wallace and Gromit are Machiavellian penguin camouflaged
television channel, Channel 4 which, at made of Plasticine, beeswax and dental wax. as a chicken. This was to receive an
the outset, was keen to commission and The clothes are fashioned from foam latex. Academy Award along with the
encourage young animators to make Non-moving parts are molded from a welcome recognition of Hollywood.
fresh films for their own consumption. modeling clay that can be baked hard, and A third in the line was
Aardman suggested more Conversation the eyes are wooden beads, with holes in the commissioned, and this time it was A
Pieces, namely Lip Synch, which pupils that allow adjustment using a Close Shave (1995), in which Wallace
ultimately spiraled into Nick Park’s (b. paperclip. Inside the figures is an articulated falls in love and Gromit is arrested for
1958) Creature Comforts which won an metal skeleton, and magnets are used to sheep stealing. Gromit is quite rightly
Oscar for the best Animated Short Film maintain balance. exonerated from all blame, while the
© Aardman/Wallace & Gromit Ltd. 1993

of 1990. real kidnapper (a robot bulldog) is

punished and Wallace’s new lady love unwittingly pours water on their ardor with the
The Start of crashing news that she is allergic to cheese.
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

a Good Thing

© Aardman/Wallace & Gromit Ltd. 1993

The essence of Creature Comforts is Out of the Henhouse
caged animals in an English zoo As Aardman merrily rolled along, doing what they did best and
expressing their opinions on the state of collecting awards along the way, the idea arose that they were
the world, with voices supplied by putting now in the position to produce a full-length plasticine animation.
casual vox populi interviews to extremely The result was the award-winning Chicken Run, which could best
good use. Once Channel 4 got rolling, the be described as The Great Escape with feathers. It was four years
work for Aardman started flooding in: pop videos embracing the likes of Peter Gabriel, The Wrong Trousers in the making and the most ambitious undertaking for Aardman
along with a plethora of commercials for such products as Scotch videotape, Cadbury’s In order to synchronize Wallace’s lip and face movements to the to date. As with all of Aardman’s films, it is a delightful potpourri of
Cream Eggs, Angel Delight, British Gas and Lurpak butter. recording made of Wallace’s voice by actor Peter Sallis, Nick Park film genre and chock-full of delicious puns regarding as many
worked with “dope sheets", which broke down the speech into prisoner-of-war films as could safely be packed in.
Introducing Wallace and Gromit phonetics on a frame-by-frame basis. This allowed him to know The plot involves a coop full of poultry trying to
The year 1985 hailed the arrival of Nick Park, who brought with him a film he had started exactly what sound was being made by the character at any make a daring breakout from the chicken shed, before they end in
as a student at the National Film and Television School. This was to be the half-hour point in the shot. the cooking pot, when the egg farmer decides to enter the meat
legend A Grand Day Out (1989) introducing the cracking-good combination of inventor pie business. The hens are assisted by an all-American, gung-ho
Wallace (perfectly voiced by actor Peter Sallis) and his astute sidekick, Gromit. In their rooster named Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson), who helps organize
debut, Wallace being more than moderately fond of cheese, they build a rocket ship in their ill-fated escape routes. Chicken Run has since proved the
the expectation of finding cheese on the moon. Park, his work easily identified by highest grossing British-made film ever in the US, whilst chalking
characters with “coat hanger mouths", spent six years working on this project, finally up a cracking $220 million worldwide.
completing the film after joining Aardman. It scored a direct hit with the end result A Close Shave It has been a long ride but a worthwhile one since
earning an Academy Award nomination. This short, as with the previous ones, was treated like a live-action the days of Morph and Secret of the Bee. Peter Lord and David
After Nick Park’s A Grand Day Out was acquired by the BBC, it was decided drama. Everything was designed and built around the camera in Sproxton continue to function at their own pace in their Plasticine
that a sequel would be in order. The second short film turned out to be the epic adventure order to keep it visually interesting and to maintain a filmic look, land, forever sharpening up, honing and improving on their
The Wrong Trousers (1993), which involved the lethal combination of Wallace’s rather than just building a set and filming on it. different ideas and projects.

Will Vinton & Claymation » 250 DreamWorks » 344 2000s British Animation » 358
326 GREAT BRITAIN IN THE 1990s 327
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
As elsewhere, animation in Great Britain was booming during this decade. A host of The Village had also been used on Peter Rabbit and Wind in the Willows. In
young animators began to make their mark with a variety of exciting and original This film, by Mark Baker, is set in a small, isolated village where 1996, TVC also teamed up with young British animator Joanna
material, while TVC Studio continued to add to their already impressive catalog of films. everyone has something to hide, and was made using cel Quinn to produce Famous Fred, which was a co-production with
animation with painted backgrounds. The shape of the village, Channel 4 and S4C. Based on the children’s book by Posy
TV Cartoons with all of the houses looking into a central courtyard, was Simmonds, this Oscar-winning half-hour TV adaptation won the
Set up in 1957 by George Dunning to produce commercials for the fledgling TV industry, influenced by an engraving of the Globe Theatre in London. A studio another BAFTA and the Annecy Grand Prix, and was
TVC (TV Cartoons) also made short films, including the British Academy Award-winning basic plan for the layout of the houses and who was going to live nominated for an Oscar.
The Apple (1962) and The Flying Man (1962), which won the Grand Prix at Annecy's in each one was made, followed by the script and finally TVC’s star continued to rise with their output in the
International Animation Festival. These shorts helped to establish Dunning alongside the storyboard. latter half of the decade: 1998 saw the release of Oi! Get Off Our
Richard Williams and Bob Godfrey as a major new voice in British animation. The Beatles Train, and another Briggs adaptation, this time his magical The
series ran from 1966–68 on ABC Television in the US, and in 1968 they made their Bear. The latter film was the last from John Coates’ studio’s
landmark Beatles extravaganza, Yellow Submarine. production side.
After Dunning’s death in 1979, John Coates took over the running of the
studio, turning it into an entertainment-led rather than a commercials-led studio. With Joanna Quinn
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

Channel 4, they turned Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman and When the Wind Blows into Beginning with Girls’ Night Out (1987), a project she embarked
animated classics. Granpa (1989) won the 1990 Prix Jeunesse and featured a score by on while still at college, Joanna Quinn ((b. 1962) progressed to

© TVC Ltd.
Howard Blake, who had provided the music to many other TVC productions. the award-winning status she is now in, notching up
Famous Fred nominations for just about everything she has ever
Festive Success Famous Fred is a musical film about a legendary "rock star" cat, accomplished. Girls’ Night Out originated as a strip cartoon that was drawn by Quinn
The studio turned its attentions to another Briggs title, Father Christmas. This festive tale based on a book by Posy Simmonds and animated in Joanna concerning four female factory workers out on a hen night.
featuring a grumpy Santa was brought vividly to life while staying true to Briggs’ Quinn’s original, quirky and exaggerated style. The short tells the Body Beautiful (1990), the sequel to Girls’ Night Out, featured the same
distinctive illustrations. Broadcast on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 1991, this was a great story of Fred, an old cat, who during his life appeared to do gang of friends. This time, however, it was made with the involvement of other artists,
success for TVC, and it has become a regular feature of the nothing but sleep. Only after his death do his owners discover had a bigger budget, and was commissioned by Channel 4 and S4C International.
Christmas TV schedules. that, by night, he was the Elvis of the cat world – Famous Fred – Next she applied her artistic talents to Britannia (1993), a lighthearted
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends with hordes of devoted fans. chronicle of the British Empire, depicting how the British gained and lost their empire. In
(1992–95) was a series of nine shorts adapted from Beatrix 1996 she collaborated with TVC to produce the award-winning Famous Fred. Quinnhas
Potter’s classic animal tales. Potter’s miniature watercolors also contributed to some memorable television title sequences, as well as numerous
were brought to life in exquisite detail and were all hand- commercials. Perhaps the best known of these is for Charmin toilet tissue, starring a
drawn, at a time when computer animation was beginning variety of animals, including bears. Joanna Quinn is now dividing her time between
to make its presence felt in the industry, animating commercials, creating entertaining films and designing book illustrations.

Toads, Moles and Bears New British Talent

© Channel Four Television Corporation 1993

TVC’s next project, Wind in the Willows (1995), saw Kenneth Another award-winning animator who sprang to light during this period was Mark
Graham’s classic transformed into a lavish animated river Baker (who had also worked for TVC). He collaborated with Neville Astley and Phil Davies
wonderland, with richly colored backgrounds and an all-star to make Astley Baker Davies Ltd. The Hill Farm (1988), The Village (1993) and Jolly
voice cast. The sequel, The Willows in Winter, followed in Roger (1999). All received Oscar nominations; his TV series The Big Knights (1999), the
1996, and was an animated feature with live-action story of the most enthusiastic swordsmen in the world, won the 2000 British World

© TVC Ltd.
sequences at the start and finish; this wraparound technique Animation Award.

TV Commercials » 184 Yellow Submarine » 218 Channel 4 » 282 Channel 4 » 282

328 PRAGUE IN THE 1990s 329
EASTERN EUROPE: CZECH REPUBLIC

EASTERN EUROPE: CZECH REPUBLIC

Under the Communist governments in such Eastern European countries as Poland, Mach and Sebestova
Hungary, Russia and Croatia, animators worked without concern about practical Milos Macourek, the creator of Mach and Sebestova, was perhaps

matters such as profit and ratings. So long as they stayed away from politics, artists the best Czech screenwriter of all time, and his name is linked to

were given free rein to exercise their talents. But with the fall of Communism came the countless creations for TV and film. He had an incredible

fall of the free lunch, and most of these all-star studios struggled to survive in a imagination, and worked primarily on sci-fi comedies, fantasy

radically new environment. One studio that managed to negotiate the change films for children and animated fairy tales.

successfully was Kratky Film’s Bratri v Triku animation studio in Prague.

Maxipes Fik
Important Co-Productions Bratri v Triku, responsible for the series Maxipes Fik, produces

There were several reasons for the studio’s continual flow of quality films, not the least of more than 200 minutes of animation each year. It works mostly

which was the American director Gene Deitch. Having worked there since 1959, he on commissioned productions for television in the Czech

helped bring in several important series financed by Western clients. Equally important Republic, the USA, Holland, Germany and Great Britain, but it

in attracting work from other countries was Deitch’s Czech wife of almost half a century, also produces its own films.

Zdena Deitchová, who rose to become head of the animation studio. Together they
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XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

attracted a number of important clients from the United States, Germany, Great Britain
and Holland.
In 1995, for example, they teamed up with the company that originally
sent Gene Deitch to Prague, Rembrandt Films, to create 30-second shorts starring their
signature character, Nudnik. Also under Deitch’s direction, the studio created, and

© Krakty Film
continues to create, films for the Connecticut company Weston Woods, based on award-
winning picture books for children. More recently, he has directed two films from books by
the New York humorist Jules Feiffer.
Another long-standing client was the Dutch The Little Mole
company Palm Plus Multi Media, for whom Bratri v Triku Kratky Film’s series The Little Mole, 70 percent funded by a

© Krakty Film
produced a number of series. These included 53 films German broadcaster, is an example of one of the international

adapted from the popular children’s book artist Dick Bruna, series currently being made in the formerly state-run studios of

featuring his bunny character, Miffy; 26 based on Borge Eastern Europe.

Ring’s Anton stories; and two longer films from the work of gigantic dog, designed by another great Czech illustrator, Jiri Salamoun, and directed by
another famous Dutch author, Jan Kruis, featuring Jack, Vaclav Bedrich. Probably the best-known animated films produced at the Prague studio
Jackie, and the Juniors. are dozens of shorts starring the Little Mole, based on books by Zdenek Miler. The studio
has also recently received commissions from the Czech Ministry of Education, including
Kids’ TV one on stress by Milan Klikar.
Bratri v Triku was fortunate to have a consistent flow of
orders from Czech TV, including the children’s series Mach Reputation to Uphold
and Sebestova, about two third-graders and their Founded in 1945, Bratri v Triku has an illustrious history to live up to. Jirí Trnka was one of
adventures with a magic telephone; Edutant and its founders, along with other Czech masters like Bretislav Pojar, Jirí Brdecka and Zdenek
© Krakty Film

© Krakty Film
Francimore, designed by Vratislav Hlavaty and directed by Miler. The studio currently employs 35 full-time animators, with another 35 or so regular
Jaroslava Havettova; and Maxipes Fik, a series about a freelancers, who produce more than 200 minutes of animation each year.

Gene Deitch » 232 Jiri Trnka » 190

330 ANIME IN THE 1990s 331
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
By the 1990s, there were accusations that Japanese animation had become creatively Princess Mononoke detective who is physically transformed into a seven-year-old boy and uses this
bankrupt. There were no new concepts – just variations on worn-out themes and This 1997 feature was a tour de force. Hayao Miyazaki and his handicap as an excellent disguise. For younger girls, the decade’s most popular TV series
remakes of past hits. Despite this complaint, the popularity of animation grew to new team created a primeval forest where the gods still rule and the were Sailor Moon (1992) and Card Captor Sakura (1998). Sailor Moon’s original director,
global proportions. life force of the forest is intact, manifested in the presence of forest Kunihiko Ikuhara (b. 1964), went on to guide the more surrealistic schoolgirl fantasy
sprites. The rich, dark greens and the delicately drawn texture of Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997), set in a vast ethereal high school.
New Creativity Emerges the trees, moss, rocks, and water surfaces create a world as Other notable TV animation included Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), a
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

Leading feature directors of the decade (besides Miyazaki and Takahata) include realistic as any live-action setting. giant robot drama that evolved in darkly psychological directions. Evangelion and the
Mamoru Oshii, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Rintaro, Satoshi Kon, Takashi Nakamura, Hiroyuki Okiura earlier Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990) helped establish the Gainax studio’s
© Kids WB, Nintendo, Pikachu Project 1999
and Hiroyuki Kitakubo. Oshii stands out, not only for the features he directed, Pokémon reputation for imaginative TV animation. Sophisticated adults swung to Cowboy Bebop
including Patlabor: The Movie (1990), Patlabor 2 (1993) and Ghost in the After the success of the TV series, Pokémon: The First Movie was (1998), a jazzy meld of futuristic space opera, noir private investigator drama, cynical
Shell (1995), but for overseeing the creative teams that would produce released in 1998, and a second in 2000 (pictured). The success comedy, hand-drawn and cel animation, and in-group references to the favorite
cutting-edge animation features Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999), directed of the franchise has been perpetuated by further films, and cinematic influences of director Shinichiro Watanabe (b. 1965).
by Okiura, and Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), directed by Kitakubo. parents continue to be pestered by their children for the spin-off Serial Experiments Lain (1998), a sci-fi drama about the nature of reality,
Ghost, Jin-Roh and Blood were productions of Production I.G, cards and games as the merchandising continues unabated. demonstrated how imaginative direction, by Ryutaro Nakamura; intelligent writing, by
one of the more prominent new animation studios of this decade – co- Chiaki Konaka (b.1961); and experimental art design, by Yoshitoshi Abe (b. 1971), could
founded in 1987 by character designer Takayuki Goto and Mitsuhisa make what was clearly a low-budget TV series tense and gripping.
Ishikawa (b. 1958).
The Madhouse studio, and its distinctive character OAVs: From Medieval Fantasy to High-Tech
designer/director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, established a trademark style of adult Highlights included Record of Lodoss War (1990), which introduced heroic sword and
situations featuring characters who are sophisticated, sensual and dangerous. sorcery fantasy to animation, with humans, elves and dwarves fighting evil in a medieval
Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll (1993) made his often-delayed Vampire Hunter D: Europe, and the comedy-adventure Slayers (1995) featuring tomboy sorceress Lina
Bloodlust (2001) eagerly anticipated throughout the 1990s. Madhouse was Inverse. Director/character designer Hiroyuki Ochi made the 1995 four-episode
also responsible for the critically acclaimed features of Satoshi Kon, starting Armitage III: Poly-Matrix as an imaginative tribute to the sci-fi cyber-technology themes
with Perfect Blue (1997). Also of note is Catnapped! (1995) – a witty and of Philip K. Dick, with enough flair and quality that the OAV series was released
visually imaginative children’ s film directed by Takashi Nakamura. internationally as a theatrical feature.
Shoji Kawamori (b. 1958) proved equally adept at various genres,
For Boys and Girls directing the sci-fi sequel Macross Plus (1995); directing the hauntingly surrealistic
Millions around the world who had never heard of Japanese animation biography of author Kenji Miyazawa, Spring and Chaos (1996); and plotting the hit TV
© Miramax Films
learned of it in the 1990s because of international headlines in December The Sandwiches series The Vision of Escaflowne (1996), an adventure-romance of a Japanese high
1997 that claimed a strobing-light effect in an episode of Pocket Monsters (a.k.a. Yamamura’s 1993 short won various prizes at festivals, including school girl who is transported to a fantasy world. Computer graphics appeared even more
Pokémon) had given "up to 12,000" children epileptic fits. Chicago International Children’s Festival and World Youth Film Festival. spectacularly in the OAV sci-fi series Blue Submarine No. 6 (1998), the first that the
For boys, TV animation continued to be dominated by Dragon Ball and its public saw of new CGI-intensive Studio Gonzo (founded 1993) and its director Mahiro
Dragon Ball Z (1989–96) and Dragon Ball GT (1996–97) sequels. Also extremely The Sandwiches – work in progress Maeda (b. 1963).
popular were programs spun off from popular video games featuring young heroes who Koji Yamamura eschews the assembly-line approach to In the film festival world, Koji Yamamura (b. 1964) emerged as a major new
befriend cute fantasy animals with special powers. Pokémon, a 1997 TV series based animation, and prefers working alone. His pieces contain few talent of the 1990s, averaging one new film per year. His prizewinning films include
upon a 1996 video game with 151 pocket-size “monsters", established itself as a words, and he uses pencils, markers, clay or a combination of The Elevator (1991); A House (1993), The Sandwiches (1993) and Imagination (1993),

© Koji Yamamura
worldwide fad. Digimon (1999) and Monster Rancher (1999) have been the most several materials. The Sandwiches was created with clay, all featuring his characters Karo and Piyobupt; Bavel’s Book (1996); and Your Choice!
popular of its imitators. Detective Conan (a.k.a. Case Closed, 1996) presented a skilled puppets, photos and drawings on cel. (1999). His Yamamura Animation, Inc. (founded 1993) also produces TV commercials.

1980s Japanese Anime » 294 Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320 Animation Festivals » 186
332 ASIA ARISES 333
ASIA: SOUTH-EAST ASIA

ASIA: SOUTH-EAST ASIA

The 1990s was a time of great turmoil for South Korean animation, which saw a major The Return of Hong Gil Dong Dinosaur Dooly (1996), based on the popular
decline in overseas work and the introduction of major government initiatives to This film was a remake of Hong Gil Dong, the first Korean comic strip, which gained some international
revitalize the industry. animation made for theaters and released in 1967. Although it distribution. These and other films, though,
told the same story as its predecessor, the influence of Japanese were criticized for their lack of technical
Supporting the Industry anime could clearly be seen in its artwork. proficiency, forcing producers to start
The worldwide boom in TV production collapsed amid a trend towards consolidation collaborating with Japanese studios.
among US producers, distributors and broadcasters, aggravated by the Asian currency In recent years, Korean TV animation
crisis. The decline was accelerated by the growing popularity of Japanese animation in Poster has had some success in Asian markets,
the wake of the Pokémon phenomenon. As a result, Western producers began to shift The first Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival especially in China, although some of these
production to lower-cost areas like China; while some Korean studios managed to retain (SICAF) was held in 1995. It aimed to elevate exposure to efforts have been derided as Pokémon knockoffs.
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

contracts for high-profile shows like The Simpsons and Futurama, most were forced to animation with its screenings and exhibitions of 2,500 works The Japanese influence is seen in Aitaska
enter into co-production deals that lowered their profit margins. from 37 countries. It was a great success, and the festival is now Studio’s stop-motion fairy tale Doggy Poo, a
It soon became clear that the only way the industry could survive would the most popular in Asia. Tokyo International Anime Fair award winner in
be through development of original productions, but the long-standing emphasis on 2003. Another series aimed at the international
service work had left it without the experience to produce work of international appeal by Blue Seagull market was Grimi Production’s Ki-Fighter
themselves. This is a problem that has also affected other Pacific Rim countries. Even This was South Korea’s first adult animated feature, and was a Taerang (2001), a martial-arts/sci-fi adventure.
Tooniverse, the cartoon channel established in 1994, has been unable to meet its goal of huge box office success, despite criticism for its low-quality

70 percent domestic programming. production and sexual imagery. Distinctive Style

In 2003, much hope was placed on the large-
Courtesy of John A. Lent

Awards budgeted, futuristic dramatic feature

and Festivals Wonderful Days, directed by Kim Mun-saeng
In 1995, for the first time, the for Teen House; however, it was criticized
government provided tax incentives to because its beautiful visuals do not
spur production, established the Seoul © Caption to go here
compensate for its weak plot and it failed at the
International Cartoon and Animation box office. Another feature of note is Sung
Festival (SICAF) and Korean Animated Baek-youb’s Oseam (2003), "a fairy tale for
Film Awards, and fostered the growth of adults" based on a novel by Jung Chae-bong
animation training. This led to greater and praised for its "delicate, watercolor look".
investment in animation by larger The most critically acclaimed
corporations, including some chaebols animated movie of late has been Lee Sung-
(“conglomerates”). A new boom in gang’s My Beautiful Girl, Mari (2002), which
feature animation followed. These won the Grand Prix at the Annecy International
included Blue Seagull (1994), Korea’s Animation Festival; filled with nostalgia, it tells
first adult animated feature, which was how a boy uses his daydreams of a beautiful
a popular if not a critical success; The girl to get through some real-life personal
Courtesy of John A. Lent

Courtesy of John A. Lent

Return of Hong Gil Dong (1995), a crises. Though exhibiting some Japanese
Japanese-style remake of Shin Dong influence, it was praised for its distinctive
Hun’s pioneering effort; and Little Korean styling.

Animation Festivals » 186 Korean Animation » 298 TV Co-Production » 278 Pokémon » 330
334 ANIMATION FROM OTHER NATIONS 335
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ASIA: SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Taiwan The Adventure of Sud Sakorn The Philippines
Animation in Taiwan began with the production of short films in the 1960s by The production of Thailand’s first animated feature was Animation in the Philippines has largely been dependent on work for foreign producers,
Tse-Hsiu Art and Production and Ying-Jen Ads Company. However, it was soon hampered by shortages of personnel, capital and equipment. though some indigenous production emerged around 1953 with occasional
dominated by Wang Film Production Co., a.k.a. Cuckoo’s Nest, established by Ngaokrachang made a lot of his own equipment from World independent shorts and TV commercials. The year 1979 saw the release of The Life of
the US-trained James Wang in 1978 in partnership with Hanna-Barbera. War Two military surplus, and even adapted a combat camera. Lam-ang, a feature by the American-trained Nonoy Marcelo, whose story deals with the
It soon became a dominant force in overseas animation and its credits include birthplace of then President Ferdinand Marcos,
such TV shows as Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and Garfield, as well as features like Poster It was under Marcos that foreign studios began establishing overseas
The Care Bears Movie, The Brave Little Toaster and Jetsons: The Movie. Australian company Energee Entertainment promotes Vietnamese facilities with Australia’s Burbank in 1983, followed by Fil-Cartoons (originally owned
As labor costs escalated, Wang set up satellite studios in China and Thailand, animation. Growth in the animation industry is a result of by Hanna-Barbera) and Philippine Animation Studio, Inc. (PASI), which worked on a
a policy followed by other Taiwanese studios. At the same time, there were sporadic investment from Western companies such as this, as well as an all- variety of TV shows from Johnny Bravo to DragonBall Z. The legacy of American
XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

XI: 1990–2000: RENAISSANCE

attempts at original productions, such as Wang’s feature-length Uncle Niou’s Great around growth in the international animation industry, whose colonialism, with a population fluent in English, would seem to have given the Philippines
Adventure (1982). More recently veteran Tsai Ming-chin directed Butterfly Lovers (2003), executives recognize Vietnam as a good location in which to open an inherent advantage over other Asian countries; but due to poor management and
based on China’s famous tragic romance, for China’s Shanghai Animation Film Studio. low-cost facilities. other factors, this promise was never fulfilled. However, Philippine animators have
In 2003, the government announced plans to reinvigorate local film and TV frequently found work in North American studios, including major movies such
© Wang Film Production Co.
production and encourage co-productions with international partners, with special emphasis as Anastasia.
on digital production and animation, but it is too early to see any results from this initiative. Local production, outside of independent films, remains sporadic
Characters – Wang Film Production Co. at best. The only TV series made in the Philippines, Ang Panday (1987), failed to
Thailand James Wang’s Taiwanese studio collaborates with animation get an audience, as did the feature-length The Adarna Bird (1997).
The father of Thai animation is Payut Ngaokrachang (b. 1929), whose first film was The companies worldwide, as well as producing its own material.

Miracle Incident (1955), a 16 mm cartoon about a massive car pile-up, brought about Nearly half of all cartoons on US television credit Wang Film Vietnam
when a beautiful woman walks by. This was followed by two anti-Communist films, The Production. Pictured are characters from some of his own films. Animation in Vietnam goes back to 1959, when the North Vietnamese Ministry
New Adventures of Hanuman (1958), for the United States Information Service based on of Culture founded the Hanoi Cartoon Studio. Over the years, it made short films
a story in the Ramayana, and A Child using traditional cel, puppet and cut-out animation. Their first film was What the
and a Bear (1960), for SEATO. After Fox Deserves (1960), a propaganda short by the Soviet-trained Le Minh Hien
making Thailand’s first animated and Truong Qua. Their first film to gain international recognition was The Kitty by
feature, The Adventure of Sud Sakorn Ngo Manh Lan, which won an award at the 1966 Mamaia (Romania)
(1979), Payut spent much of the Animation Festival and tells of a kitten who successfully organizes against an
1990s teaching animation and made invading army of rats. Also highly praised was Truong Qua’s The Legend of the
My Way, an anti-AIDS film, for the Region (1977).
Japan Information Center. While the propaganda films have attracted the most attention, the
Until recently, aside majority of the studio’s films were basically moralistic fables mostly using cut-out
from Payut, animation in Thailand animation, such as Bui Ngo’s The Clumsy Bear. Though this and other similar
Courtesy Payut Ngaokrachang Courtesy Payut Ngaokrachang
was dominated by offshore studios, films are not without charm, they are nevertheless often lackluster in execution.
with sporadic attempts to develop domestic production, including the first local TV series, The New Adventures of Hanuman Beginning in 1991, Western companies started establishing

Courtesy Energee Entertainment

Kantana Animation’s Twin Witches. Since the domestic market is not broad enough, This short, made Payut Ngaokrachang, retells the classic tale of overseas studios in Vietnam. Although the Hanoi Cartoon Studio is itself involved
there has been a push to make shows with broader appeal, with Cartooniverse Co. the white monkey from the Ramayana. Intended as anti- with this movement, most of these facilities have been established in Ho Chi Minh
proclaiming its Ray-Mimi Reaching the Star (2003) the first Thai TV series made for an Communist propaganda, the propaganda element was present City, including Pixi Vietnam, a computer-animation studio that has worked on
international audience. in the form of the red monkey, which represented Communism. Nelvana’s popular Rolie Polie Olie series.

Indian Animation » 374 Hanna-Barbera Australia » 262

 XII

THE

NEW CENTURY
As we begin a new millennium, animation art enters an era of change – a new phase of
popular acceptance – and has artists redefining themselves.
Computer animation has taken over Hollywood. Due to the success of numerous
CG cartoon features (Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Shrek), Hollywood studios have abandoned
traditional hand-drawn techniques, Disney has down-sized, and Pixar has triumphed.
Hollywood has utilized the CG techniques to aid its live-action agenda – now
many impossible situations (think Titanic, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings) are easier to
accomplish. New hybrid movies integrating “cartoon" stars into live-action (Garfield,
Scooby-Doo and Rocky & Bullwinkle) have found supersized success at the box office.
New techniques, derived from computer graphics, have provided pioneer
opportunities: low-cost Flash animation has made TV-animation production more
economical, while upscale motion capture technology (The Polar Express) has allowed
animated actors to emote realistically.
And yet hand-drawn cartoons have not completely disappeared. Anime has
sustained its worldwide grasp, as Japan’s TV programs get more stylized and its theatrical
features become more elaborate. Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Sylvain Chomet’s
The Triplets of Belleville have garnered global acclaim – and The Simpsons just keeps
on going.
Animation Art is alive and well – and here to stay!

Picture above: Monsters, Inc. © Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc. Pictures clockwise from top left: Gollum © New Line Cinema; Scooby Doo © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.; Powerpuff Girls © Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation; Shrek © 2001 DreamWorks LLC; SpongeBob SquarePants
© NickToon Productions; Stuart Little 2 © Columbia Pictures; Jimmy Neutron © DNA Productions/Nickelodeon Movies/O Entertainment; Ice Age © 20th Century Fox. Centre picture: Finding Nemo © Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc.
338 CGI VICTORIOUS 339
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While the visual novelty of CGI
features was certainly a factor in this sudden
change, these films also told a different type
of story. Pixar avoided the cliché of the
musical fairy tale, while Shrek simply slapped
it in the face. These films had a very broad
appeal, with complex characters, fewer
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XII: THE NEW CENTURY

formulas and plenty of jokes aimed directly at
adults. They could be enjoyed by everyone,
not just children, and were really good films.
Hollywood put its money on these emerging
studios and thereby attracted the best
veteran artists and top young talent.

© 2002 20th Century Fox

Digital Domination
Digital characters were not only dominating
Stuart Little 2 animated features, they also were taking big roles in live-action films as well. During the
The wireframe model used to create Stuart’s face was extremely 1990s, digital characters went from being one-dimensional monsters to fully integrated
mobile, having been divided and subdivided into independently cast members. Films such as Stuart Little (1999), Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom
moveable parts. This allowed the animators maximum flexibility in Menace (1999), King Kong (2005) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch
choosing facial gestures and expressions. By animating more aspects and The Wardrobe (2005) featured digital characters in starring roles.
of Stuart’s facial gestures, more believable expressions were achieved. This overlap started to blur the line between live-action and animation. How
Courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures, Shrek™ and © 2001 DreamWorks L.L.C.
should films such as Stuart Little, which stars a
A little over five years after the release of Toy Story, CGI animated features were Fiona and Shrek computer-animated mouse in the title role, be
dominating the box office. Films like Shrek, Monsters, Inc. (2001), Ice Age and Shrek signaled a major advance in CG technology. For example, defined? Is it a live-action film or an animated
The Incredibles proved to be wildly successful with audiences, setting box-office records the animators managed to create realistic-looking clothing with one? This question became even more
and leaving traditionally animated films in the dust. While some cel-animated films, fabric that wrinkled and moved as it would in real life, such as relevant as an Academy Award was created for
such as Lilo & Stitch did quite well, they were the exception rather than the rule. In a Fiona’s velvet dress and Shrek’s rough tunic. They were also able to Best Animated Feature. The first of these Oscars
very short amount of time, CGI went from being the exception to being the rule. “grow" forests with millions of leaves that would rustle in the breeze. was given to Shrek in 2002, showing just how
far the art form had come in a few years.
Going Digital Ice Age Digital techniques have
This sudden change of fortune caused traditional animation studios to rethink their Sid the Sloth started life on an artist’s drawing board. From the completely changed the nature of Hollywood
production methods. In 2003, after a string of mediocre box-office returns, Disney initial pencil sketches, a 3D-clay model was created and then film-making within a decade. Animation, once
announced they were going digital for all future animated productions, ending almost transferred to a computer. To do this, a grid was created on the relegated to Termite Terraces on the studio
65 years of traditional cel animation at the studio. DreamWorks, though a much model to allow the computer to recognize Sid’s shape by back lot, was now part of the mainstream.

© Columbia Pictures
younger studio, made a similar decision at about the same time. While this was by no recording the intersections of the lines. From those points of The landscape has been permanently
means the end of cel animation, the light table had certainly lost the position of intersection the computer generated hundreds of curves, forming changed, and, thanks to the innovations of
dominance it once had. Sid’s basic outline. CGI, animation is hotter than ever.

Digital Domain » 306 Stuart Little » 354

340 MONSTERS, INC. 341
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Shrek, which had some fairly stiff-looking humans, every character in Monsters, Inc. was
successfully depicted. Sulley is large, furry and surprisingly gentle; Boo is adorable, while
Randall has just the right amount of sliminess.
Monsters, Inc.’s success was largely a result of the level of realistic human
emotion portrayed by the characters. Good casting and voice direction played a part, but
Pixar’s animators and technical staff deserve most of the credit.
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XII: THE NEW CENTURY

Key Animators
The animation team hit a high point with the film, and demonstrated that Pixar’s digital
characters could show a range of emotion unequaled by other studios. A key change
was the introduction of lead-character animators assigned for each of the main players
– John Kahrs (Sulley), Andrew Gordon (Mike) and Dave Devan (Boo). This gave each
character a more consistent personality, as each animator was responsible for “acting”
the role. One scene of particular strength is when Sulley puts Boo to bed and slowly he
realizes that he is growing quite fond of her. This emotional change was done purely
Monsters, Inc. Characters through facial expression and body movement, and was the mark of a master animator.

© Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc.

The success of Monsters, Inc. was partly due to the very

imaginative range of characters. The animation leads were faced Technical Advances
with new challenges of how to achieve realistic facial expressions As in all their films, Pixar strove to bring the technology behind Monsters, Inc. to the next
and body language with one eye or several crustacean legs. level. The technical team developed a new application, “Geppetto”, to add control points
Sulley's 2,320,413 computer-animated hairs were created and to a character, acting much like the strings on a puppet. This new software gave the
controlled using several programmes including a RenderMan™ animators unprecedented control over a character’s motion, and meant that the lead
DSO. This programme distributes the hair on the character, characters – Sulley, Mike and Boo – were almost 40 percent more controllable than Al,
Monsters, Inc. was the film in which Pixar mastered the art of digital film-making, and Monsters, Inc. extracts information from the simulator and runs a “builder" which the most complex of Toy Story II’s characters.
its release marked the point where the studio became the hippest in Hollywood. It was Until the development of Fizt, realistic animation of certain has information about every hair's colour, length, taper and The biggest technical leap was in the realistic depiction of hair, fur and
visually stunning and the animation appeared effortless. effects – hair blowing in the wind or a shirt wrinkling with its unique characteristics. clothing. This advance greatly added to the realism of the film. Characters no longer
wearer – was practically impossible to achieve. As well as looked plastic, and clothing was no longer
Scary Monsters simulating the movements of fur, clothing, and other materials, limited to spandex. Pixar scientists created a
The film concerns Sulley (John Goodman) who, with the help of his partner Mike (Billy Fizt made it possible to portray a wide variety of emotions in software tool called Fizt (an amalgamation of
Crystal), is the top scarer at Monsters, Inc. Sulley’s job is to scare small children so that animated characters by enhancing facial expressions and the the words "physics tool"), which simulated the
their screams can be turned into electricity to power Monstropolis. Sulley’s nemesis is the realism of body language. millions of hairs on Sulley’s fur, as well as the
chameleon-like Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), who desperately wants to unseat Sulley effects of forces, such as gravity and wind. This
as the top scarer. allowed the animation team to concentrate on

© TM & © 1995- 2004 Disney/Pixar

getting the character’s motion right, and the
Realistic and Believable hair, fur and clothing were added later.
It was thanks to the visuals that the film shone. Its main set was a 100-year-old factory It was nominated for Best
town, complete with dirt and grime. In addition to the town, Pixar designed a winter Animated Feature in 2002, but lost out to
scene complete with realistic snow. The character design in the film was excellent. Unlike DreamWorks’ Shrek.

Pixar » 270 DreamWorks » 344

342 FINDING NEMO 343
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Pixar’s fourth feature, Finding Nemo (2003), is the studio’s biggest success to date. Dory and Marlin
The film set an all-time box office record for an animated feature, dethroning Disney’s As well as creating realistic water, Pixar’s Nemo team had to

Lion King. Nemo is very different in tone from other Pixar films. understand the effects of water on the action and characters. The

animators had to learn to read the surge and swell, and study how

Beginning of a Long Journey fast the water is flowing. The camera people needed to understand

Directed by Andrew Stanton, writer of all Pixar’s previous films, it explores the relationship the effects of water on underwater photography, and it was vital for

of a father and his lost son, Nemo – a clown fish – and is set on Australia’s Great Barrier the lighting experts to learn how far one can see underwater.
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Reef. The film begins when Nemo is just an egg.
Through a violent and traumatic event, Nemo
(Alexander Gould) loses his mother and his
siblings. Being the sole survivor puts tremendous
pressure on Nemo’s father, Marlin (Albert Brooks),
to protect and care for his only son. The problem
is that Marlin goes too far, and overprotects Nemo
to the point of compulsion. Nemo, of course,
wants to break out on his own, and in an act of
rebellion, swims past the reef into open water,
where he is captured by a scuba-diving dentist,
who takes him back to his Sydney aquarium.
Marlin immediately dashes off in
pursuit of Nemo, and embarks on a 1,000-mile
© Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc. © Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc.
journey down the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney.
On the way, he meets a memory-challenged fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) and A Fishy Business
encounters a group of reef sharks, dangerous jellyfish, surfer-dude turtles, a whale and a The fish in Finding Nemo presented a unique animation challenge. Most animated
gregarious pelican. Finally, Marlin reaches Sydney and attempts a daring rescue of his Jellyfish characters have bodies and hands with which to express themselves. Fish, however, are
son from the tropical fish tank. Pixar’s technical team looked into the elements needed to create largely giant heads, with small fins for “hands”. Pixar’s animators had to rely on facial
photorealistic water – the floating particles, foggy matter and expressions and quick body motions to bring these characters to life. In addition to the
Leading the Way shafts of light – and designed all of the individual elements using fish, the human characters were a great advance on previous Pixar films. Animating
The journey is more than just a physical one. Marlin undergoes a transformation, from the software that was on hand. They did tests using four ocean the human form is the most difficult challenge an animator faces, and it was no
being an awkward, inward-looking character to one who becomes much more scenes, two above water and two underwater, to see if they could different with this film. While Nemo’s audience would never have seen a talking
confident. Dory also experiences a metamorphosis. The change in these characters was re-create real footage of the sea. fish, they would be highly critical if the animation of the humans was
genuine, not a tacked-on artifact, the technique so prevalent in many children’s films. awkward or unrealistic, so the Pixar animators had to make sure they got it
The writing, direction and character development were of an extremely high standard, Nemo just right. It took Disney the better part of a decade before his studio
and set a precedent for animated features. In order to learn how to animate swimming fish, a number of the mastered the art of human animation, and it seems to have taken Pixar a
The ocean scenes were very lush and brilliantly colored. Pixar’s lighting crew spent a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. During similar amount of time.
team managed to evoke perfectly the shimmering sunlight that occurs in the shallow production of the film, Pixar worked with an ichthyologist, who With Finding Nemo’s success, Pixar had four huge hits in a row and
tide pools of a tropical reef. This was not an easy task, as other underwater films such as advised them on the particular movements and behavior of the produced one of the best-selling animated films of all time. Pixar and the CGI film-
The Little Mermaid can attest. types of fish they were animating. © Disney Enterprises Inc./Pixar Animation Inc. making style it helped to invent are Hollywood’s new animated royalty.

The Little Mermaid » 277 The Lion King » 304 Antz » 344
344 DREAMWORKS 345
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Shrek 2™ & © 2004 DreamWorks L.L.C.
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Shrek 2™ & © 2004 DreamWorks L.L.C.

The allying of DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images (PDI) resulted in another big force
in the world of CGI features. PDI/DreamWorks has produced several very successful
features to date, including Antz and the two Shrek films. Founded in 1980, PDI was one
of the original computer animation companies. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Shrek 2 in PDI to form PDI/DreamWorks. The next film released by the studio was Shrek, PDI’s
they survived where a number of early studios failed, and by 1996, were one of the top Shrek 2’s animators made use of the technological advances that second animated feature film, in 2001.
CGI production facilities. With the success of Pixar’s Toy Story, Hollywood was looking to had occurred since Shrek was released in 2001. By using a

produce more CG animated features, and in March 1996, PDI signed a co-production software program called a shader, Donkey’s fur was made to Shrek
deal with DreamWorks SKG to create original computer-generated feature-films. This react to environmental conditions, Fiona’s skin and hair was given Shrek turned the classic Disney fairy tale on its head. The story concerns Shrek (Mike
turned PDI from a production facility into a fully fledged animation studio. realistic texture and movement and the characters’ eyes were Myers), an ogre who has been tossed out of his bog by the evil prince Farquaad (John
given a lifelike sparkle. Lithgow). In an attempt to win back his bog, Shrek offers to rescue the Princess Fiona
Antz (Cameron Diaz). Tagging along for comic relief is Donkey (Eddie Murphy).
PDI’s first feature was Antz (1998), which debuted at the same time as Pixar’s A Bug’s Shrek was a big leap forward for PDI. While Antz was about a colony of
Life. While both films explored the subject of ant colonies, Antz was much darker and rather similar-looking characters, Shrek’s characters were far more diverse and complex
more adult than A Bug’s Life. The film stars Woody Allen and a host of other A-list stars in their appearance. Shrek had an incredibly expressive face, probably more so than any
(such as Gene Hackman and Sylvester Stallone) in an ant world that is downright Shrek, Donkey and Fiona prior CGI film. The realistic-looking hair and clothing of many of the characters in the film
Orwellian, with the ant hill representing the socialist worker state. Visually, Antz was The characters are set up based on an anatomically correct added to the richness of the visuals.
spectacular, with design cues taken from films such as Metropolis and Brazil. representation of bones, muscles and fat layers. They are then In terms of animation, the most successful characters were Donkey and
Antz offered PDI a number of technical challenges. The vast number of posed by animators who create their movement and Shrek. The humans looked rather stiff in comparison: getting the human form exactly
ants in the colony required the animation of crowds to be done automatically. The performance before the final lighting is applied to the scene. right is still the ultimate goal for animators.
software developed by PDI made it possible for the directors to include three times as Courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures. The visuals were beautiful and truly brought a storybook to life Settings
many wide-angle shots of the ant-colony interior than were originally planned. A new included wide fields of grass waving in the wind, dark forests and medieval castles. The
suite of tools was developed to simulate the fluid dynamics of the huge flood near the Puss in Boots environments were also built not just as backdrops, but as real places, and characters left
end of the film, another advance pioneered by Pixar. Representative of how CG characters are animated, a wireframe footprints in the grass as they walked. These were the subtle touches that made the
They also developed a robust facial animation system for Antz. The system of Puss in Boots is pictured here. The colored icons represent world of Shrek so realistic.

Shrek 2™ & © 2004 DreamWorks L.L.C.

simulates the muscles and bones of the face, creating extremely lifelike results. Compared joints, to which the animators apply rotations to pose the The film was a huge box office success, and went on to win the first Oscar
to Pixar’s system at the time, PDI’s facial animation system had a much higher degree of character. Low-resolution stand-in models are used to work out ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, beating Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. for the title. With
realism, giving the characters a much more subtle range of facial expressions. the character’s final movements before the final pose is created that award, PDI/DreamWorks set itself up as Pixar’s main rival. Shrek 2 was released in
Antz was successful enough for the relationship between PDI and with the high-resolution model. The final scene is then ready. 2004, set a new box-office record and was swiftly followed by Shark Tale (2004),
DreamWorks to continue. In February 2000, DreamWorks acquired the majority interest Courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures. Madagascar (2005) and Over the Hedge (2006).

Toy Story » 308 CGI Victorious » 338 Monsters, Inc. » 340

346 BLUE SKY 347
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New York-based Blue Sky was the third major CGI studio to release a feature film at Sid the Sloth much more stylized look than in other features released at the same time. In places, Ice
the dawn of the new millennium. The studio had a long history in the computer- Once the 3D version of Sid the Sloth was complete, the animators Age almost looks like a stop-motion feature rather than a CGI feature.
animation business, and this experience served them well when it came to making could get to work. An “X-ray” image of him was completed,

high-end CGI features. allowing them to see his “muscles” and skin and understand how Super Scrat
they are connected, and therefore how he moved. By The characters in Ice Age were well designed, and fitted perfectly into the world
Commercial Success manipulating the X-ray controls, they were able to arrange Sid created for them by the animators. The main characters’ fur was not overly
The history of Blue Sky goes back to the dawn of computer graphics and the seminal CGI into the required position.
© 20th Century Fox
realistic, but worked well enough. Humans, as always, are a challenge for CG
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film Tron. Many of the founders of Blue Sky met at MAGI, one of the main studios Chris Wedge animators, but Blue Sky’s humans were highly stylized; they animated beautifully
responsible for the CGI in that ground-breaking film. Chris Wedge, the director of Ice Age, played a key role in and integrated well with the “cartoony" animal characters. The film’s opening
MAGI was founded in 1987 and went on to make a developing Blue Sky’s lighting software which was used to great sequence was probably one of the most hilarious and thrilling of any animated
mark in commercials, branching out into effects and effect in the film. Known as ray tracing, the software re-creates feature. Scrat, a small squirrel in search of an acorn, manages to create an avalanche
character animation for features. By 1997, Blue Sky the effects of ambient light, and was employed to copy the way of epic proportions.
was one of the top studios on the East Coast, and in which light bounces off objects and living creatures, creating Ice Age was very successful and Fox ordered further features from them:
they were purchased by Fox that year for the express realistic shade and shadows. the brilliant and inventive Robots (2005) and 2006’s Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.
purpose of developing and releasing feature-length
animated films.
Their first film, Ice Age, was set in the
snowy world of the early Ice Age. The story revolved
around three characters: a woolly mammoth (Ray
Romano); an irreverent, unsocialized giant sloth
(John Leguizamo); and a scheming saber-toothed
tiger (Dennis Leary). Together, this group of
mismatched characters find a human baby and try
to return him to his tribe.

Light Fantastic
Directed by Chris Wedge, the film had a very soft
and beautiful look. From the beginning, Blue Sky’s
© 20th Century Fox
renderer, dubbed CGI Studio, was its secret
weapon. Originally developed by a doctor of physics and a NASA engineer, CGI Studio
used such advanced techniques as ray tracing and global illumination to simulate
physically the way light travels through a scene. This method was much more
accurate than the rendering methods used by Pixar and PDI, producing incredibly
realistic images. Diego
This realism was evident in the representation of the snow and ice in the Blue Sky’s film-makers spent time studying Ice Age artifacts,

film. A glacier has a translucent quality that is very hard to match, but CGI Studio did an

© 20th Century Fox

including woolly mammoth bones, and talking to paleontologists

excellent job of duplicating the complex scattering of light through the icy scenes. Blue to ensure that their film had its basis in reality rather than in the

Sky had the most realistic renderer of all the CGI studios, and they used it to create a realms of their imaginations.

Tron » 268 Digital Domain » 306 Shrek » 344

348 CONTEMPORARY TV ANIMATION 349
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Powerpuff Girls I wanted to create a show that could
work on two different levels... kids would like the fun and
action aspect and adults would get the jokes and the
campy aspect."

Cult TV
With the aid of supervising producer Tartakovsky,
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The Powerpuff Girls series debuted in 1998 and quickly
developed a cult following across varying demographics,
most surprisingly young boys. Up until that time,
children’s programing executives believed boys would
not watch shows with female lead characters. Other
networks were soon scrambling to find their "girl power"
© Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation
series. The success of the TV show spurred Cartoon
SpongeBob SquarePants Network’s parent company, Warner Bros., to venture into the first animated theatrical
SpongeBob, who became something of an unlikely cult icon, lives feature bearing the Cartoon Network name. Going back and telling the origin story of

© Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation

in Bikini Bottom. The cartoon appealed as much to adults as it did Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, The Powerpuff Girls Movie arrived in theaters in 2002.
to children, and was a breath of fresh air among the tongue-in- However, the height of the craze had died down and the film, though profitable, received
cheek innuendos paramount in so many other cartoons. a disappointing box-office gross. Despite the lackluster performance of the feature,
The Powerpuff Girls remains a pop cultural milestone, teaching the world that girls can
kick butt too.

Underwater Success
With the resounding success of CGI features and an increased viewership by adults, Powerpuff Girls SpongeBob SquarePants burst on to the scene in 1999 and instantly returned a zany,
animation has grown into a booming industry. Two series in particular have emerged Half cartoon, half anime, The Powerpuff Girls began life as the whimsical tone to the TV cartoon world. Originally a marine biology teacher, creator
as clear pop stars – The Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants. Whoopass Girls, who were created by Professor Utonium by Stephen Hillenburg went back to school to get a degree in experimental animation from
combining sugar, spice and all things nice with a can of CalArts. He broke into animation as a storyboard artist on Nickelodeon’s Rocko’s Modern
Girl Power Whoopass. They also featured in a film with the Amoeba Boys Life, later serving as a creative producer, writer and director on the series. Bringing his love
The Powerpuff Girls originally started out as the Whoopass Girls in creator Craig called A Sticky Situation. of drawing and sea life together, he created SpongeBob, the eternal optimist, who quickly
McCracken’s (b. 1971) student project Whoopass Stew!. McCracken began his career at became a star. With its mix of gag humor and intelligent, mature writing, the series
Cartoon Network working on 2 Stupid Dogs (1993–94) and Genndy Tartakovsky’s attracted a wide range of viewers. Comedian/voice actor Tom Kenny, who had worked on
(b. 1970) Dexter’s Laboratory (1996 to date). After McCracken got the green light for a Powerpuff Girls with Mojo Jojo Rocko’s Modern Life, created SpongeBob’s distinct voice. After 60 episodes, Hillenburg
series, the title changed as well as the superpower-supplying secret ingredient from a Creator Craig MacCracken was involved in all stages of The decided to take a hiatus from the series to work on a planned feature based on the show.
can of Whoopass to Chemical X. Powerpuff Girls Movie. Whereas the TV series was storyboarded The character has become a bona fide star, and the show ranks, along with Nickelodeon’s
McCracken said: “The biggest influence on Powerpuff Girls was the 1960s in the US and then animated in Korea, the team were able to Rugrats, as one of the most successful animated cable-television series.

© NickToon Productions
[live-action] Batman show. As a kid I watched it in all seriousness and I would get really work on each shot of the film to ensure it was as they wanted. For the next generation, The Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob
frustrated that my parents would be laughing at it. It wasn’t until I was older and I They were able to use digital-animation techniques that gave SquarePants have set the standard for what contemporary TV animation can be and
rediscovered the show did I realize that it was a total joke. So when I set out to make them a greater range of motion and more control over the shots. whom it can reach.

Prime-TIme in the 1990s » 314 Cable Toons » 318

350 SMALL-SCREEN STARS 351
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In addition to The Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants, Creator Butch Hartman, a former
other cartoons began to emerge as animated stars. writer/director on Johnny Bravo, brought to the
network The Fairly OddParents, following the mishaps
Adult Swim Block of Timmy Turner and his inept fairy godparents,
Riding the cult success of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Cosmo and Wanda. The success of the series spurred
Network, in 2001, launched its Adult Swim programing block. the network to produce the television movie The Fairly
Series like The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman, Attorney-At-Law and OddParents: Abra-Catastrophe, and put forth plans
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Sealab 2021 used new technology to create postmodern spoofs for a theatrical feature.
of many of the 1960s and 1970s Hanna-Barbera characters. Created by Arlene Klasky, Rocket
The lineup’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force quickly became a cult hit Power emerged as a solid hit with its group of extreme

© DNA Productions / Nickelodeon Movies / O Entertainment

with its irreverent fast-food heroes and adult themes. Adult Swim sports-loving kids. In 2001, Nickelodeon launched
also brings mature anime to the US like Cowboy Bebop and Invader ZIM from indie comic book artist Jhonen
Detective Conan, and resurrects canceled prime-time cartoons Vasquez. Following the misadventures of a tiny alien
like Home Movies and Mission Hill. that tries hopelessly to conquer Earth, the smart
series never found a foothold in the network’s more
Anime Action © Klasky-Csupo Productions
child-oriented lineup and was canceled in 2003,
Outside of the Adult Swim block, the network saw other success. despite a cult fan base.
In 2001, Cartoon Network debuted Samurai Jack, created by Rugrats – Phil and Chuckie With the continued success of Rugrats, Nickelodeon and animation
Tartakovsky. Influenced by the UPA style and Japanese print art, the series attracts both Jimmy Neutron The idea for the Rugrats originally came from Arlene Klasky; to company Klasky Csupo created the special “All Growed Up”, which featured the Rugrats
young and adult viewers. Tartakovsky said, “The goal for Samurai Jack was to create an John A. Davis of DNA Productions first created a boy genius in the create a cartoon from the perspective of a one-year-old. The as middle-school students. Tweens and teens who grew up with the series enjoyed
action series that focused on visual storytelling rather than on dialogue, so there would form of Johnny Quasar, using LightWave 3D software. They had original character, Tommy Pickles, was based on Arlene's son. watching Tommy, Chucky and Angelica dealing with teen issues, and Nickelodeon
be room for great action and character drama." some success with the short, and after being joined by Steve Klasky collaborated with Gabor Csupo and Paul Germain in launched the spin-off series All Grown Up in 2003. That same year also saw the
When it came to action, anime led the way. But not since Pokémon had a Oedekerk, the character was refined into the more childlike creating the final series which premiered on Nickelodeon in 1991. premiere of My Life as a Teenage Robot, which started out as a segment on the
series seen such success as the DragonBall franchise. The series gathered a devoted Jimmy Neutron. Using LightWave and Messiah, the CG- anthology series Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
following, who tuned in to the epic battles that could stretch out for several episodes. animated feature was the first of its kind to be completely Samurai Jack
In addition, Bruce Timm, one of the creative forces behind The New produced with out-of-the-box software. The visual style of Samurai Jack is impressive in its use of well- Disney’s New Generation
Adventures of Batman/Superman, shaped the new Justice League, teaming some of DC known elements from anime and film. Split screens, silhouetted Disney’s first new star came in 2000. Created by illustrator Gary Baseman and Cheers
Comics’ legendary superheroes. The Kids’ WB! aired DC Comics’ Teen Titans, Japanese panoramic views, intense close-ups and three repetitions of the producers Bill and Cherie Steinkellner, the stylized Teacher’s Pet became a hit, led by the
sensation Yu-Gi-Oh!, wrestling-inspired ¡Mucha Lucha! and the new incarnation of Astro same attack are all used to great effect. voice work of stage and film star Nathan Lane. In 2004, the characters made the jump
Boy. Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network brought back Looney Tunes icons Daffy Duck, to the big screen.
Porky Pig and Marvin the Martian in their own series, Duck Dodgers. Kim Possible debuted in 2001 and brought “girl power" to Disney.
Following the adventures of teenage secret-agent Kim Possible and her bumbling friend

© Cartoon Network Studios, Rough Draft Studios

Nick’s successes Ron Stoppable, the series works equally well as a superhero-show spoof and as a bona
SpongeBob was not the only pop celebrity to emerge from Nickelodeon. Starting in short fide action adventure.
interstitials, John A. Davis and Steve Oedekerk created boy genius Jimmy Neutron and his In addition, the theatrical success of Lilo & Stitch spawned a TV series,
robot dog Goddard. The Oscar-nominated CG feature Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius following Lilo and Stitch’s attempts to round up various experimental creatures. Another
preceded the TV series, which debuted in 2002. This allowed the series to utilize the CG notable series for Disney is The Proud Family, created by Bebe’s Kids director Bruce W.
elements created for the feature, giving it an unprecedented quality for a CGI TV series. Smith, which follows African American Penny Proud and her crazy family.

UPA » 146 Hanna-Barbera » 200 Japanese and American Co-Production » 372 TV Toons » 316
352 THE MATRIX 353
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The Matrix trilogy brought special effects and digital character techniques to a whole The Matrix Reloaded
new level. Directed by the Wachowski brothers, The Matrix (1999), The Matrix John Gaeta, who was visual-effects supervisor of The Matrix

Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) were incredibly successful and trilogy, was the innovator of the “bullet-time" photography. This

had a huge influence on the CGI community. was achieved by using high-speed cameras, which in some

cases approached 12,000 35 mm frames per second. When

Real World or Cyber World? slowed down to the standard 24 frames per second of standard

Like Tron, the very first CGI feature, The Matrix centered around the world of cyberspace. film, actions appear to be very fluid and slow-moving.
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Unlike Tron, in which the line between real and virtual was very distinct, The Matrix
presented cyberspace exactly as the real world, but with the addition of some very
dazzling special effects.
The Matrix’s version of
cyberspace provided a measure of
how far CGI had come in just a few
decades. The world could be pristine
and synthetic, as in Tron, but could
also be a gritty CG-generated reality.
™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment
The film introduced several striking
effects, including the much-since- Transformation with an incredible amount of freedom in creating the visuals. Many times the film
copied “bullet time” effect, which The sequence in which Neo fought the Agent Smiths was based resembles a comic book in its use of innovative staging.
created wildly fast camera on the bullet-time effect, and was the first real-world application

movements around ultra-slow- of virtual reality. CG models of the actors were created and placed The Animatrix
motion events. The film used CGI to into a digital re-creation of the scene. Virtual cameras could then Another innovation was the near-simultaneous release of The Animatrix, a series of
create realistic virtual sets, while the circle around the virtual action at supersonic speed and with animated shorts based on the world of The Matrix. The films are a collection of nine
directors had total freedom in camera incredible precision, in ways that never could have been achieved visually stunning short subjects intended to fill the gaps between The Matrix and
movement, using a new technique with bullet time. The Matrix Reloaded.
called virtual cinematography. Each short is directed in its own unique style. Final Flight of the Osiris is
hyper-realistic CGI, A Detective Story is a gritty film noir epic, Program and Beyond look
Digital Cast ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment
™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment
like high-end anime, and Matriculated is psychedelia that
In addition to mind-blowing special would make Warhol proud. These nine films represent a
effects, the films also employed a lot of character animation. The real feat in The Matrix terrific cross section of post-millennium character
trilogy was not the creation of new and fantastic characters, but the creation of digital animation in a wide palette of styles. Probably the most
replacements for the live-action cast. These were used in countless scenes, and the impressive film is The Second Renaissance, which is shot
switch between real and virtual actors was flawless. APUs ready for battle like a documentary taking us through the robot revolt and
One of the most notable scenes in the trilogy was in The Matrix Reloaded, The APUs featured in The Matrix Revolutions, and were created subsequent war between man and machine.
where the hero Neo (Keanu Reaves) battles several hundred Agent Smiths. There were from concept artwork that was made into a computer model. The Matrix trilogy broke new ground in
several points in this sequence where the film cut seamlessly between a live-action The computer models were used to visualize script scenarios, and the area of effects animation and digital-character
Keanu Reeves and his digital counterpart. The ability to cut between digital and live- to produce renderings to assist in manufacture and assembly of animation, and influenced a new generation of artists
action versions of the same character so effortlessly provided the Wachowski brothers the APU components. and film-makers.

Tron » 268 Digital Domain » 306 Japanese and American Co-Production » 372
354 CGI TAKES THE LEAD 355
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The advent of CGI characters allowed film-makers to
start creating films that bridged the divide between
cartoons and live-action.

Stuart Little
Stuart Little (1999) was one of the first live-action films
to star a CGI character in the title role. This film was a big
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breakthrough in that it proved CGI characters could take
on the title role of an otherwise live-action film.
Based on the children’s book by E.B.
White, the film stars Stuart, a wisecracking mouse
© Columbia Pictures
(voiced by Michael J. Fox) who is adopted by the Little
family (Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie), who just Scooby-Doo
happen to be human. Stuart has a difficult time Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Scooby-Doo (2002) was a live-action movie that starred an already popular cartoon
adapting to the Little household, where he encounters a Although the film was always going to be live-action, Scooby- character, showing that even traditional cel-animated characters were getting in on the CGI
spoiled cat who considers him lunch. To top things off, Doo himself was nearly shot as an animatronic figure before it act. In this film, Scooby was animated using CGI, while the rest of the cast was live-action.

© Columbia Pictures
Stuart’s older brother, George (Jonathan Lipnicki), has was decided to create him using CGI. The actors had to play to an Scooby-Doo was not the first movie to attempt merging CGI cartoon
trouble accepting Stuart as his brother. actor or a Scooby-Doo model before they were digitally erased characters with live-action. Rocky and Bullwinkle preceded Scooby Doo by a few years in
Directed by Lion King co-director Rob and the CG dog was added in. On a grander scale, 2005’s major that respect, and while Bullwinkle was not a box office hit, it did pave the way. The CG
Minkoff, the film was animated at Sony Pictures films King Kong (which won three Academy Awards including versions of the Bullwinkle characters were realistic, but with a strong sense of cartoon
Imageworks. While the film’s plot was slightly saccharine, Stuart’s charm carried the film. Snowbell and Stuart Best Achievement in Visual Effects) and The Chronicles of Narnia: motion and a dash of theme park character thrown in for good measure. These characters
Unlike some films with CGI characters, Stuart’s integration with the live-action cast was As the CG characters were added after the live footage was shot, it The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005) both featured were a little too stylized, and never integrated well with live-action in the final film.
seamless. The Imageworks team infused Stuart’s personality with a wide range of was crucial that the lighting of the two scenes matched. To do this, similar techniques in production.

emotions, and he truly was the star of the film. still photos of a reflective globe were taken in each critical scene. Close to the Original?
These guided the computer animators to position the digital lights Scooby-Doo was brought to life by Rhythm & Hues, one of the top effects and animation
Cheaper Software correctly and to give them the appropriate color and intensity. studios in Hollywood. Rhythm & Hues’ Scooby was a lot more realistic, much closer to a
The production of Stuart Little was also revolutionary in that Sony Pictures Imageworks When the computer rendered the image of the character with the dog than a cartoon. This helped integrate the CGI character into the live-action world,
used commercially available software to create the film, most notably Alias/Wavefront’s carefully matched lighting, it gave the desired result. while the character’s design still evokes Scooby’s cartoon counterpart. As realistic as he
Maya. The availability of less-expensive software and hardware has allowed a number was, Scooby-Doo was still animated with a good amount of cartoon "squash and
of studios to create high-end animation and effects without the huge software stretch" that added much to the slapstick scenes that ran throughout the movie.
development process the original CGI studios, such as PDI and Pixar, had to endure. The script was tongue-in-cheek; characters commented on many of the
The film also had a number of technical innovations. Stuart’s fur behaves clichés found in the original series, and some of the classic gags were successfully re-created
perfectly under a variety of conditions, including when he is soaking wet. By the time Stuart in live-action. The film had the feel of the original cartoon series, and Matthew Lillard’s

™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Stuart Little was made, computers were fast enough to compute the complex physics of The animators who composited Stuart created everything Shaggy was very true to his cartoon counterpart. The film was shot so that, through the
fabric. This advance allowed CGI characters to get rid of the spandex jumpsuits, so separately. His head was on one layer or element, as were his eyes, magic of CGI, even the live-action characters experienced a number of "cartoony" moments,
common up until that time, and wear whatever clothing fit the scene. The release of whiskers, teeth and layers of clothing. This gave them more control blurring the line between cartoons and reality even further.
Stuart Little 2 (2002) added a number of other advances, most notably the feathers on to finely tune each individual layer, and if anything went wrong The success of these films has spawned a new genre in Hollywood.
Maragalo, Stuart’s love interest, and her oppressive falcon boyfriend. they could change that one piece without having to redo it all. Scooby-Doo 2 and Garfield, released in 2004, extended the genre even further.

Tron » 268 The Lord of the Rings & Gollum » 356 Scooby-Doo » 246
356 LORD OF THE RINGS 357
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The most incredible special effects movies of the new millennium My Precious
had to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Directed by Peter Jackson Without a doubt, the most astonishing animation
(b. 1961), The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers was that of Gollum, by far the most realistic CGI
(2002), and The Return of the King (2003) bring to life in vivid character ever portrayed on the screen. WETA
detail the books by J.R.R. Tolkien. These films brought the art of created an innovative technique for creating this
using CGI to create characters to a new level. character that lay somewhere between Rotoscope
and animation. Actor Andy Serkis, who voiced
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Entering Middle Earth Gollum, also acted the scene out along with the live-
The films were set in a world that is drawn from a previous era, action cast.
Middle Earth, which is reminiscent of the European Middle Ages. Although Gollum was a CGI
Unlike the hip cyber world of The Matrix trilogy, all the effects in the character, the CGI team derived his movements

© New Line Cinema

Lord of the Rings trilogy are drawn from reality and mystical exclusively from Serkis’s physical movements.
fantasy. Peter Jackson used CGI effects as an enhancement to the On the first productions, animators duplicated his
action rather than as the focus. movements manually. Later in the production,
These effects were all created at WETA Digital, a New WETA developed an on-set motion capture
Zealand-based special-effects and animation facility started in 1993 by Jackson, Orcs system that allowed a digital Gollum to
Richard Taylor and others. The studio was expanded exponentially for producing The computer software, Massive, that was developed on-site to automatically follow Serkis’s every move. This
the Lord of the Rings films, which required hundreds of artists. WETA developed a do all of the large battle scenes created hundreds and thousands breakthrough will make digital characters even
number of advanced techniques that brought the trilogy to life with absolute realism, of “agents" – individual CG creatures that could react, fight and easier to create in the future.
and moved digital animation yet another step forward. Like Sony Imageworks, most of make logical decisions based on inputted given data. In the battle Gollum’s realistic joint movement
WETA’s software was off the shelf, with many custom enhancements made by staff of Helms Deep, thousands of computer-generated orcs fought was based on computer-generated muscle and
software engineers. against the stronghold of men and elves. Each orc would react bone, and the computer artists studied anatomy
and think as an individual. books in order to create a believable view of the
Special Special-Effects muscles seen rippling under his translucent, but
The effects used in the trilogy spanned the gamut, from special costumes and make-up flesh-like skin. In many ways, he was a digital
to scenes created entirely in CGI. By the time the films were made, CGI effects had simulation of a real creature, even down to the
become a standard commodity in feature films, but WETA’s creativity took them to muscles in his face.
new heights.
In addition to thousands of special effects, the film starred an entire Awards Galore
universe of CGI characters, including anthropomorphic trees; creatures like Wargs, Fell The Lord of the Rings trilogy gained a huge
beasts and Ents; an army 50,000 strong; and lifelike digital characters who “acted” following, and also gained Oscars for Best Visual
alongside the live-action cast. Gollum Effects. It was hoped that Andy Serkis would receive
In the climactic battle scenes of The Two Towers, the studio created some For Gollum’s range of expressions, a system of sculpted faces for an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Gollum, but
of the most complex digital crowds ever seen on film. This was done by using a software the animators to use was created. There were over 10,000 while he missed out on the nomination, the fact
program called Massive, which digitally simulated the actions of each individual soldier in shapes, or facial poses. Using a set of 64 controls, in combination that many people seriously considered him showed
battle. The software literally taught the soldiers how to fight. Multiplied by a factor of with one another – “Lip Up Raiser", “Lip Low Depressor", “Nose that a digitally animated character could act as well
50,000, these digital soldiers created an incredibly complex and highly realistic battle. This Wrinkle" – the animator could move among the sculpted shapes or better than the best human actors, giving film-
software was also used to create a rolling tidal wave of ghosts in The Return of the King. to craft the character’s performance. makers a whole new range of possibilities.
© New Line Cinema

Ralph Bakshi and The Lord of the Rings » 245 Digital Domain » 306 Rotoscope » 17 Tron » 268
358 BRITISH ANIMATION 359
W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N

W E S T E R N E U R O PE : G R E AT B R I TA I N
The boom in British animation that began in the 1990s continued into the new Nick Park with camera
millennium, the highlight of 2000 being the release of Aardman Animation’s first The cameras used to film Chicken Run were 35 mm film

feature Chicken Run. It was the first of four features in a partnership between Aardman cameras that were considerably adapted for Aardman’s

and DreamWorks. purposes. They had video-assist cameras that looked through

the lenses on the film cameras so the animators could see the

Revitalization picture that would be recorded on each frame of film.

Animation festivals were on the increase everywhere, and Britain was no exception.
Small animation festivals began and continue to thrive in Bradford, Norwich and Exeter,
and there was a revival of the Bristol festival in the shape of Animated Encounters.
Thanks to the presence of Aardman, the BBC Animation Unit and a number of leading
studios, the city of Bristol became a major center of animation, as did Cardiff in Wales,
with several notable production companies. The Surrey Institute of Art created an Chicken Run
Animation Research Center with an archive that includes the work of Halas & Batchelor. Some 300 full-size chicken models were made for the shoot,

The British Animation Awards, begun in 1998, continued to show appreciation of the along with 140 smaller ones for the crowd scenes. The chickens
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industry’s finest. contained a wire skeleton beneath a body of foam latex and
© Aardman Animations, Allied Filmmakers, DreamWorks SKG
The year 2000 brought to the screen Michael Dudok de Wit’s (b. 1953) silicone-based plasticine. A series of different beaks and mouths

serenely beautiful film Father and Daughter, winner of many prizes, including a British were produced, each molded to match the phonetic The Sound of Music
Film Academy Award and an Oscar. De Wit is a master of the use of light and shadow pronunciations of the alphabet – a technique pioneered by In the next two years UK music videos broke new ground. The first to stun audiences were
for dramatic effect. Also from the Aardman studio in 2000, Peter Peake’s Humdrum, Aardman during production of A Close Shave. award-winning pop promos by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland who created an
a witty short using shadow characters, animated rock band for the Gorillaz (‘Rock da House’, 2001, and ‘Clint Eastwood’, 2001).
gained an Oscar nomination. Tim Hope’s award-winning shorts blend live-action and computer graphics in a distinctive
collage style. These include ‘Trouble’ (2001) and ‘Don’t Panic’ (2001) for Coldplay, and his
It’s a Dog’s Life A Christmas Carol stunning latest creation for One Giant Leap in ‘My Culture’ (2002), featuring Robbie
In 2001, Suzie Templeton’s short film Dog A Christmas Carol begins and ends with live-action sequences Williams. A new British feature, A Christmas Carol (2002), directed by Jimmy Murakami
won awards all round the world. In lifelike starring Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. In order to capture the using traditional drawn animation, was successful in UK cinemas. Animation on the
model animation, the film tells a harrowing atmosphere of the classic Dickens story, the animation was Internet took off with a bang but soon faded, leaving the field to the amateurs.
tale of a grieving family and their dog. Due hand-drawn, the colors muted, and the film did not make use of Studios continue to be prolific in the commercials market, providing a
to policy changes by Channel 4 television modern animation techniques. wide range of high-quality ads and music promos. Because of the relatively large
that had always championed short budgets, the work is amazingly fresh, and makes use of
animated film, British animation began to innovative techniques and novel solutions. 2005 saw

© Aardman Animations, Allied Filmmakers, DreamWorks SKG

suffer from a lack of commissioned work, the release of Valiant, the tale of a brave carrier
and commercials became one of the main pigeon, by Vanguard at Ealing Studios.
sources of studio income. This caused Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit: The Curse
some long-established London production of the Were-Rabbit won Best Animated
companies to close. New technologies Feature at the Academy Awards in 2006.

© Illuminated Films / MBP

were changing the face of animation, and In spite of ups and downs, British animation,
many UK studios found easier ways to fulfil which began more than a century ago, is
the tedious tasks of trace and paint. still going strong.

Channel 4 & Animation » 282 Aardman Animation » 322 Music and TV Animation » 280 Web and Flash Animation » 376
360 EUROPEAN INNOVATIONS 361
WESTERN EUROPE

WESTERN EUROPE
Over the last few years, features have played a major role in European animation, with the animals from a small zoo are adrift in an ark at the
France and Italy dominating the field, often in co-productions. The European funding beginning of a flood of biblical proportions. The storyline

© Les Armateurs (Carrere Group), Productions Champion, Vivi Film, France 3 Cinema, RGP France
body Cartoon Movie, based in France, reported that more than 30 feature projects had deals with important issues and how we, as human
applied for money in 2000. Production of short films and series for children also increased beings, cope with them.
significantly. Spain became the third-largest producer of animated film in Europe after
France and the UK, production costs being considerably less than in other European International Success
countries. Animation festivals play an important role, one of the most prestigious being Short films continued to emerge from studios all over
Annecy Festival and Film Market in France, attracting delegates from all over the world. Europe, but they rarely found an outlet beyond the
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Cinanima in Espinho, Portugal; Anima Festival in Brussels; Stuttgart Festival in Germany; animation festivals. Dutch director Paul Driessen, who also
and Holland Animation Festival are also important events for the industry. works in Canada, displayed a strongly personal style, often
using a split-screen technique and inventing crazy enclosed
Setting Standards worlds with their own inverted logic. Also from Holland,
There was a significant breakthrough for European animation in territories other than the Gerrit van Dijk created works of art within animated film.
domestic market, one of the most successful being the French feature Kirikou and the Georges Schwizgebel from Switzerland painted in acrylic
Sorceress, released in 2000. This mythical tale of witchcraft and innocence, directed by gouache on cel to make vibrant moving images.
Michel Ocelot, is a kaleidoscope of color, with its exotic imagery inspired by African art. Short films that have succeeded
Using pencil drawing on paper and 2D-computer, it set a new standard by which all internationally include The Periwig Maker (2001), directed
future serious animated film should be measured. by Steffen Schaeffler from Germany. Using puppet
Also in 2000, Italy and Germany joined forces to make Momo: The animation, the film is set in London during the plague
Conquest of Time, a feature directed by Enzo d’Alo (b. 1953), one of the most prolific years, and perfectly captures the horror and tragedy of the
feature directors in Europe. Using traditional hand-drawn animation on cel, this is the time. Andreas Hykade, also from Germany, won a string of
story of Momo, an orphan girl who discovers that the sinister Gray Men are stealing time. awards for Ring of Fire (2002), which used stark black-and-
Enzo d’Alo’s earlier films The Blue Arrow (1996) and Lucky and Zorba (1998) had white imagery in its portrayal of two lonely cowboys.
already achieved major success, and he brought yet another feature to the screen at the
end of 2003 with Opopomoz, the story of a Neapolitan family who are about to C’est la Vie
celebrate Christmas and the birth of their own child. One of the most successful features of 2004 was The
The 2003 animated feature from Spain, El Cid: The Legend, directed by Triplets of Belleville (a.k.a. Belleville Rendezvous), a co-
José Pozo, is the tale of Spain’s greatest hero. Technically well made, blending traditional production between France, Belgium and Canada, directed
cel with computer-generated images, the film uses odd perspectives both for its majestic by Sylvain Chomet. Acclaimed by audiences and
© Les Armateurs (Carrere Group), Productions Champion, Vivi Film, France 3 Cinema, RGP France

landscapes and for its stylized characters. The Triplets of Belleville nominated for both British and Hollywood Academy
Sylvain Chomet believes that animation without the constraints The Triplets of Belleville Awards, it did not rely on famous voice artists; it is almost a silent film apart from music,
French Resistance of spoken words is stronger, and that if you have to fit In Triplets, director Sylvain Chomet combines his two loves, minimal sound effects and background murmurs. This enhanced rather than detracted
The award-winning Folimage Studio in France, usually devoted to short- and medium- everything to the words, all the gestural movement revolves comics and film. The film borrows influences from contemporary from the enjoyment. It was a visual delight. Every frame was meticulously drawn and
length films, believes in quality combined with artistic freedom. Their annual Artist in around the mouth. Without speech, he says, the animator is French comic strips and filmmakers like Jean Pierre Jeunet colored using hand-drawn animation and computer-generated images, and the film
Residence program has produced dozens of first-class films by animators from all much freer to create true animation, whereas animation (Amélie) and Marc Caro (Delicatessen). Chomet was very emerges triumphant on the big screen.
around the world. Their first feature, Raining Cats and Frogs, six years in the making, modeled around the dialogue has already been set in stone. involved with the team working on the physical production of the The European animation industry is spreading its wings with the
was released in 2004. Directed by Jacques-Rémy Girerd, this is the first animated Each animator who worked on the film was able to bring film, animating scenes himself and relishing the moments at the enormous potential for children’s television series within Europe and animated features
feature in 20 years to be made entirely in France. A rather unconventional family and something different to it. end of the day when he could see the drawings move. finding outlets throughout the world.

Animation Festivals » 186 TV Co-Productions » 378 Paul Driessen » 256

362 EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA 363
EASTERN EUROPE

EASTERN EUROPE
The collapse of Communism and the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia dealt Bulgaria
animation throughout Eastern Europe and Russia a major blow during the last decade of Because of decreased government funding, Bulgarian
the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. When Communism collapsed, animation, like that of almost every other country, must now
state funding of culture went with it, leaving many animators (and artists in general) to face the pressures and demands of the global marketplace.
fend for themselves in a brave new world where art is seemingly no longer a priority. Hence they have moved away from independent short films
toward mass-market animation features and TV series. There
Poland are now many studios in Bulgaria, but while they are trying to
As Polish animation struggles for funding and identity in the twenty-first century, Jerzy develop their own indigenous projects, most of the studios
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Kucia and Piotr Dumala continue to lead the way. In 2000, Kucia released Tuning the simply provide services for international projects. Boyana Film

© Pilot Moscow Animation Studio

Instruments, a delicious feast of image and sound, while Dumala gave us the masterful, is now Bulgaria’s largest animation studio.
Crime and Punishment. Dumala’s take on Dostoyevsky’s novel is more of an essay than The future is not so dim however. The National
an adaptation. What interests Dumala is less the crime and more the emotional and Academy of Theater and Film Art and the New Bulgarian
mental state of the troubled soul before and after a murder. University have produced a number of new talents, and a
Switchcraft number of relative newcomers have produced some interesting
Hungary This short won the Grand Prix at the Annecy Festival in 1995. work. These include Theodore Ushev (The Attempt Counts), Vitko Boyanov (who has made
Hungarian animation has undergone dramatic changes over the last decade. In the early Animator Konstantin Bronzit’s animation style has been described a few fantastic, frenzied pieces including Sister, 2000), Boris Despodov (Mythology, 2002)
1990s, Pannonia lost its monopoly on animation when new studios like Varga appeared, as non-linear storytelling combined with a great deal of humor. and Ivan Rusev (Yellow, 2001).
and when branch studios in Kecskemét and Pécs split from Pannonia. At the same time,
state funding decreased and Hungarian Television stopped supporting TV series. Crime and Punishment Russia
Despite these setbacks, Pannonia has managed to survive by doing what The striking opening sequence of Crime and Punishment is Post-Soviet Russia has not been without its problems, especially in terms of financing.
it has always done: producing a careful combination of artistic and commercial work dominated by a thumping and repetitive piano piece and Soyuzmultfilm’s influence has waned dramatically, and in 1993, Soyuzmultfilm’s most
while developing international co-production partnerships. reddish-brown images emerging and returning to the shadows. prominent animators – Yuri Norstein, Fjodor Chitruk, Andrey Khrjanovsky and Edward
Varga Studio has now superseded Pannonia as Hungary’s most The series of images includes the murder scene, thus letting the Nazarov – left the studio to establish the animation school “Shar".
important animation studio. Their work on The Simpsons in the early 1990s led to many viewer know what will follow in the film. Dumala's focus in the Despite the emigration of co-founder Igor Kovalyov to Hollywood in the
contracts, including financial backing from a group of investors in London. Varga Holding film is not the crime itself but the disturbed emotional state of the early 1990s, Pilot continues to be the leading animation studio in Russia. Like
has become a major international player on the world animation scene. Aside from their murderer before and after his crime is committed. Soyuzmultfilm before them, Pilot has taught a new generation of animators, such as
head office in Budapest, they now have satellite studios in Moscow, Sofia and London. Alexander Petrov, Mikhail Aldashin and Ivan Maximov.
Petrov, whose first two films were produced at Pilot, has since achieved
Zagreb international fame with The Mermaid (1996, an Oscar nominee) and the technically
When Croatia declared its independence in 1991, Zagreb film production came to a astonishing Imax film The Old Man and the Sea (which won the Oscar for Best Animated
© Pilot Moscow Animation Studio
complete stop. Despite the studio’s achievements, the government was not prepared to Short in 2000).
continue its support – especially with war raging around them. Nativity Konstantin Bronzit is perhaps the funniest of the new Russian masters. He
In 1995, Zagreb film was taken over by the city and restructured. The Mikhail Aldashin, who made the 1997 short Nativity, pictured, likes to place his characters in the most uncomfortable and seemingly impossible
animators now work as freelancers and are paid out of the budgets for their films. The works at Pilot as a director and producer and has also done situations so that we can laugh at how they confront them. His award-winning films
year 2006, however, was set as the date for privatization. The studio will have to exploit freelance work for other companies including America’s include Switchcraft (1995) and At the Ends of the Earth (1999).
its vast library, and find co-production and service work if it is to manage. Cartoon Network, where he created the TV series Mike, Lu and Alexander Tatarsky has also continued to make his own films, including

© Piotr Dumala
Unfortunately, short personal animation films have now taken a backseat Og (1999). Gone With the Wind (1999) and the nostalgic The Red Gates of Rashomon (2002, co-
as Zagreb struggles to find a place within the international marketplace. directed with Valentin Telegin).

Pannonia Studio in the 1990s » 288 Eastern European Animation in the 1980s » 290 Czech Animation in the 1990s » 328
364 ESTONIAN ANIMATION 365
EASTERN EUROPE; ESTONIA

EASTERN EUROPE: ESTONIA

As the Soviet system collapsed, a crisis ensued at many of the state-funded studios,
most of which failed to make the adjustment from a state system to the global
marketplace. Surprisingly, this was not the case in Estonia. In the 1990s, the Nukufilm
and Joonisfilm divisions of Tallinnfilm were closed and then reopened as independent
studios under the management of the animators.

Top Directors
Since then a number of new directors have emerged, including Mati Kütt, who has
produced a series of films that address ecological issues: the comic fish opera
Smoked Sprat Baked in the Sun (1992), Little Lilly (1995) and the independently
produced Button’s Odyssey (2003). Janno Põldma has worked in both puppet and

© Eesti Joonisfilm
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drawn animation. With humor and complexity, his films Birthday (1994), Brothers
and Sisters (1991), and, most recently, On the Possibility of Love (2000) attempt to
uncover the essence of childhood and family. Ülo Pikkov has had international Oiva
success with his films Bermuda (1999), about the relationship between a mermaid This film, by Estonia’s acclaimed film-maker Priit Pärn, was

and a sailor, and The Headless Horseman (2001), a deliciously strange and vibrant made in 2001. In the same year he received the Life

take on the headless-horseman tale. Priit Tender’s films Gravitation (1996), Viola Achievement Award from ASIFA both for his work as a film-

(1999) and Mont Blanc (2001) have won several awards at international festivals, maker who combines highly personal style with socially relevant

while Kasper Jancis’ Weitzenberg Street (2002) has received wide critical and content and for his work as a teacher of animation.

© Eesti Joonisfilm
popular acclaim.

For the Children

To fund independent films today the studios have increasingly turned to making Concert for a Carrot Pie Enriching Influence
commercials and TV shows. In particular, Heiki Ernits and Janno Põldma of Joonisfilm Telling the bizarre story of a cat orchestra, a grandfather, a While Nukufilm and Joonisfilm remain the major producers of animation in Estonia, they
have created a series of a successful children’s productions, including Tom and Fluffy grandmother, a granddaughter and a carrot pie, this film was co- are by no means alone. A Film Estonia provides service work for international productions,
(1997), Lotte (2000), Concert for a Carrot Pie (2003), and a beautifully designed and directed by Heiki Ernits and Janno Põldma, and has been while Multifilm is a multimedia-driven studio that has tried its hand at television pilots. In
told feature-film, Ladybird’s Christmas (2001). Ladybird’s Christmas was not only nominated for and won many film festival awards. addition to a handful of animators working in their own environments, new Estonian
critically acclaimed, but was also a phenomenal success in Estonian cinemas. In 2003 animators are also coming out of schools like Finland’s Turku Arts Academy (where Priit
© Eesti Joonisfilm
Joonisfilm produced an adult animation series by Priit Pärn called Frank and Wendy. Pärn teaches) and the Estonian
Art Institute (under the tutelage

© Eesti Joonisfilm
Festival Spirit Year of the Monkey of Riho Unt and Hardi Volmer).
Nukufilm has not had the same degree of success as Joonisfilm and, in particular, has Made in 2003, this film drew on one of The success of
struggled to produce quality commercial material. However, the studio continues to Mont Blanc animator Ülo Pikkov’s main themes: individuals Estonian animation in the early
produce an interesting collection of stop-motion short films. Riho Unt completed his Priit Tender’s strongly graphic film told the bleak story of those finding their place in society without being part of the twenty-first century
second adaptation of the work of Estonian writer A.H. Tammsaare, called Having Soul who leave domesticity in the search for something greater. assimilated. His characters fear alienation and shows that indigenous expression
(2002). Mait Laas’ Journey to Nirvana (2000) won a major prize at the Oberhausen Film Following the Estonian animation tradition, it used symbolism loneliness, yet reject the sweeping sameness of is not only possible, but it
Festival, and Priit Tender’s Fox Woman (2002) was well received at many international and absurd humor to put its message across. society. With its strong, simple drawing, the also enriches the tapestry of
film festivals. style is distinctly Estonian. global culture.

Estonian Animation in the 1980s » 292 Priit Pärn » 293

366 ANIME IN THE NEW CENTURY 367
J A PA N

J A PA N
As the first decade of the twenty-first century has begun,
anime has joined the evolution from traditional hand-drawn
animation to hand-drawn animation enhanced by computer
ASIA:

ASIA:
graphics. The Japanese animation industry has also come to
interrelate more closely with the American animation market.
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Theatrical Animation
Theatrical animation from 2001 to 2004 has still been
dominated by annual feature-length adventures of the most
popular children’s TV series: Doraemon, Pokémon, Detective
Conan, Crayon Shin-chan, and new TV programs which have
established their popularity since 2000 such as Inu Yasha and
™ & © 2004 Go Fish Pictures
Hamtaro Tales.
Theatrical releases for older audiences included Millennium Actress – head-shot Cat in Space (2002), written/directed/scored by the rock-music duo “Tree of Life" a.k.a.
some impressive adaptations of older anime and manga works This is a hand-drawn film about legendary Japanese actress “Kuno and Kazuka", was an imaginative space adventure featuring a funny animal cat
during 2001: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, by Shinichiro Watanabe Chiyoko Fujiwara, who is persuaded to tell her story to a that looked like a sluttish, foul-mouthed Goth parody of Hello Kitty, in the tradition of such
™ & © 2004 Go Fish Pictures
and the other creators of the TV series, and Vampire Hunter D: documentary maker and his cameraman. They become literal American animation as The Ren & Stimpy Show and Beavis & Butt-head. It was popular
Bloodlust by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Both took advantage of longer theatrical running times and Millennium Actress – fighting witnesses to her extraordinary story as she recounts her career, enough to spin off a late-night TV series, Tamala’s Wild Party (2004).
larger production budgets to improve on their already-popular original versions. Osamu Recalling one of her greatest roles, Chiyoko Fujiwara is a ninja moving from space to feudal Japan in the process.

Tezuka’s Metropolis was a 2001 prestige production by the Madhouse studio of one of fighter battling the samurai. Being animated rather than live- Japanese TV
Tezuka’s early manga classics, a variation of the famous Fritz Lang sci-fi movie. Adapted by action allows the film a more seamless transition through the New hit-TV animated series included the juvenile Hamtaro Tales (2000) about a
Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Rintaro, Metropolis was an imaginative “retro" presentation scenes from the "real present" to the "real past". young girl’s happy pet hamster and his happy friends; Inu Yasha (2000), a fantasy-
of Tezuka’s well-known 1949 visualization of a futuristic world as seen through 1920s art drama featuring supernatural monsters typical of medieval Japanese folklore (another
design, but with a cutting-edge hand-drawn/computer-animation sparkle. adaptation of a popular manga by Rumiko Takahashi); and Love Hina (2000), a teen
romantic comedy revolving around a shy, easily embarrassed boy forced to become
In the Shadow? the manager/caretaker of an all-girl student dorm. The allure of DragonBall-style art
The success of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) overshadowed other original Millennium Actress – cityscape and light fantasy-adventure continued in One Piece (1999), a pirate-world burlesque
theatrical features of the new century, but several were notable. Studio Ghibli’s 2002 The The animation is dark and realistic, with recurring themes and epic by Eiichiro Oda (b. 1975), an acknowledged fan of DB’s Akira Toriyama. Beyblade
Cat Returns was a charming fantasy for family audiences. The first Patlabor theatrical metaphors. Because the film takes place in recollection rather (2001) was the next Pokémon-like hit series based upon a heavily merchandised game
feature in a decade, WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3 (2002), directed by Takayama Fumihiko or toy. An elaborate fantasy world in which boys everywhere compete for prestige in

™ & © 2004 Go Fish Pictures

than reality – time periods and settings shift as Chiyoko relates

and Takushi Endo at Madhouse, was a taut intellectual sci-fi/detective thriller. Similarly, the account of her life through the characters she played (geisha, national and global Beyblade tournaments, it had its popularity reinforced by actual
Production I.G’s popular 1990s Ghost in the Shell finally got a theatrical sequel in 2004: noblewoman, astronaut, and more) – the anime emphasizes tournaments organized by the manufacturers of Beyblade spinning tops (including
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, directed again by Mamoru Oshii. the timeless nature of the story. electronic and remote-controlled tops, and accessories). At the opposite extreme, Hikaru
Animated features intended for the art-festival circuit included Satoshi no Go (2001), based upon the manga by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata, made news
Kon’s Millennium Actress (2001) and Tokyo Godfathers (2003), both premiering at by unexpectedly revitalizing interest among the youth in the ancient Japanese chess-
North American film festivals and winning awards internationally before their Japanese like game of Go. Hikaru, an undisciplined schoolboy, solves his modern social problems
theatrical releases. A Tree of Palme (2002), by Takashi Nakamura, was a blend of sci-fi after learning to think and develop strategy after he is possessed by the friendly spirit of
and Pinocchio-like fantasy set on a visually bizarre distant world. Tamala 2010: A Punk a ninth-century Go master.

Miyazaki » 296 Pokémon & Detective Conan » 296 Cartoons for Grown-Ups » 320 Japanese and American Co-Production » 372
368 SMALL-SCREEN SUCCESS 369
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
In the early part of the new century, there was a vogue for short (usually 12 or 13 century-style world with Vernean flying
episodes) futuristic sci-fi TV series in interstellar settings with visually spectacular CGI machines. Wolf’s Rain (2003) is an impressive,
astronomical panoramas and complex shiny machines, often ending on a cliff-hanger; though gloomy, tale of a hidden clan of

Noir © 2001 Ryoei Tsukimura/Bee Train/Victor Entertainment

those that were popular were followed up with a “part 2" conclusion a year later. Crest of werewolves trying to survive in a decaying over-
the Stars (1999), Pilot Candidate (2000), Vandread (2001) and GeneShaft (2001) were urbanized future world. Planetes (2003) is a
among the most outstanding of these. Broccoli, a new design company, took the “cute technologically accurate, hard-science sci-fi
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fantasy little girl" stereotype and emphasized it to the point of self-parody in such popular comedy about astronaut “garbage collectors"
comedy-fantasy series as Di Gi Charat (1999) and Galaxy Angel (2001), both produced assigned to clean up debris in near-Earth orbits,
by the Madhouse studio, and Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy (2001), produced by J.C. Staff. and Paranoia Agents (2004), Satoshi Kon’s first
TV series, is a psychological thriller.
The Hit-Makers
Two TV series based upon their studios’ hit theatrical features of the previous decade Noir Art-House Influence
were Production I.G’s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) and Madhouse’s Tsukimura Ryoei’s stylish TV series had opening credits featuring Two art films that got high-profile OAV releases
Ninja Scroll: The Series (2003), while a new TV adaptation of Astro Boy was created James Bond-inspired animation and a great soundtrack. Featuring were Cat Soup (2001), by director Tatsuo Sato
by Tezuka Production Co. for his "birthday". He was said, in his 1953 manga origin two female assassins, Noir has plentiful shoot-outs that resemble (b. 1964), a tribute to an early 1990s surrealistic
story, to have been created in 2003 and his character was updated with state-of-the- the sword fights of samurai dramas, but no blood is spilled. underground comic by “Nekojiru" (which was
art animation. popular with animators and was produced
Two TV series achieved critical and popular success for quality and Noir – Mireille shortly after the disturbed artist’s suicide), and
© Nekojiru – Yamato Do Co. Ltd./ Nekojiru Family

originality even though they were clearly inspired by foreign hit movies or TV series: Mireille is one of the two assassins that make up the “Noir" Voices of a Distant Star, by Makoto Shinkai (b.
Noir (2001), about young women professional killers, similar to La Femme Nikita; and partnership. This model sheet shows some of the early sketches 1973), a 25-minute sci-fi romance that looked like a professional production, but was
Witch Hunter Robin (2002), about an agency assigned to hunt “witches” (people with of this most stylish of assassins. written and produced entirely by the prize-winning creator on home equipment.
psychic abilities such as teleportation and telepathy)
who use their powers in criminal ways – a cross
between a police-procedural series and The X-Files.

Something Different
TV series that stood out as imaginatively different
included Boogiepop Phantom (2000), a psychological
horror fantasy. NieA_7 (2001) and Haibane-Renmei
(2002) are both dreamlike fantasies, written and

Noir © 2001 Ryoei Tsukimura/Bee Train/Victor Entertainment

designed by Yoshitoshi Abe, that question the nature of
reality. Arjuna (2001), directed by Shoji Kawamori, is a

© Nekojiru – Yamato Do Co. Ltd./ Nekojiru Family

didactically pro-ecological fantasy. Hellsing (2001) Cat Soup
pushed graphic horror on TV in new directions and to Director Tatsuo Sato explained that he and his staff constructed

new limits. .hack//SIGN (2002) created a visually Cat Soup – an unconventional work – by creating a series of

striking virtual fantasy gaming world in which role- distinct images and then simply stitching them together. This

playing fans could become trapped. Last Exile (2003) is visually stunning, free-form short used only the loose guidelines

a stunning creation of a socially grim nineteenth- of the original manga to govern the narrative flow.

Astro Boy » 238 Anime in the 1990s » 330 Final Fantasy » 372
370 THE NEW AND THE TRADITIONAL 371
A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A

A S I A : J A PA N & C H I N A
Traditional-Style Animation
Kaidoh-maru (2001), by Kanji Wakabayashi and the Production I.G. studio, was a
visually impressive but very slow-moving drama set in Japan’s Heian (late ninth century
AD) era, and was appreciated more by professional animators for its subtle CGI
techniques than by the general public.
Hiroyuki Ochi’s 1994 Armitage III sci-fi hit was followed up with the 2002
Armitage Dual-Matrix sequel (retaining Ochi’s character design, but directed by
Katsuhito Akiyama), a second “PhilDickian" futuristic sci-fi murder mystery that was both
visually and dramatically of theatrical feature quality. For fans of the 1980s Macross and
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© Koji Yamamura
Mt Head – sketch the 1990s Macross Plus, the 2003–04 Macross Zero (again by Shoji Kawamori) offered
Ten thousand frames went into the making of this award- more human-interest drama amid CGI futuristic military aerial battle action. A similar
winning, 10-minute short, and it was drawn, animated, directed, series from Studio Gonzo, Yukikaze (2002 and continuing), directed by Masahiko Ohkura
and edited by Yamamura with only the help of his wife and two “with special cooperation by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force", is an even more bravura
assistants. He funded the film himself, and the production work, presentation of convincing CGI futuristic high-tech aerial battles; though unfortunately it
which began without any guarantee of paying off, took six years offers little besides the spectacular avionic battle action.
to reach completion. In the fine-art film festival venue, Koji Yamamura’s 2002 Mt Head won
over 15 international awards, including the Annecy Film Festival’s Grand Prix, and was an
Academy Awards Oscar nominee.

China: Groping Toward the Future

Mt Head – head China began the new century with a flourishing animation industry. According to 2001
Mt Head was created with a classic hand-drawn technique on production statistics, 18,000 minutes of animation were produced – 6,500 minutes by
paper, instead of CG guiding or Rotoscoping. Yamamura also the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and the remainder by newer studios around China.

© Koji Yamamura
drew lights and shadows separately on paper with pencil, That is a 38.5 percent increase in production over the 2000 output. It included China’s first
scanned them, and combined them in RETAS! Pro, a Japanese computer animation, Tiger Ban Ban.
multilevel animation software program, to give the characters a Little of this work, however, was of notable merit. In 2003, the results of a
There were some notable titles among the more traditional commercial OAV productions. Mt Head 3-D effect. As drawing materials for the outlines of the characters survey by the China Mainland Marketing Research Company were announced at the
FLCL (pronounced "fooly cooly"), a 2000–01 surrealistic teen-comedy miniseries by Since Winsor McCay’s very first animated films, animators have he used watercolor ink pens, oil markers and color pencils. Shanghai Comic and Animation Expo. Of the 10 most popular TV-animated series
director Kazuya Tsurumaki (b. 1966), careered wildly from no animation (a fast-forward reveled in their ability to transform the visual world. In Mt Head, watched by Chinese children and youths, six were Japanese imports and two were
viewing of manga panels) through traditional animation enhanced with computer Yamamura exercises this fundamental capability to an American imports. The two Shanghai Studio-produced TV series were Music Up and Blue
graphics, possibly signifying the emotional confusion of adolescence. extraordinary degree, creating worlds in constant flux, Cat, neither stylistically Chinese – Music Up was similar to Japanese teen high-school
characterized by dazzling visual images that shift and change in comedies, and Blue Cat was in the American cat-chasing-mouse tradition. This report
James Bond Tradition the blink of an eye. resulted in considerable controversy, especially since the Hong Kong feature My Life as
R.O.D. (Read or Die), a 2001 three-episode miniseries directed by Kouji Masunari, both McDull (2001), directed by Toe Yuen, produced by Lunchtime Productions, was winning
spoofed and was a great secret-agent drama in the James Bond movie tradition; secret prizes at international film festivals from Hong Kong to Annecy. Written by co-creators
agents of the British Library save the world from destruction by megalomaniacal master Alice Mak and Brian Tse Lap-man, with art direction by Mak, this witty autobiography of

© Koji Yamamura
criminals. It was even more popular with three episodes edited together into an OAV an anthropomorphized pig imaginatively mixed cut-paper and computer-graphic
feature, and it spun off a R.O.D. TV series sequel. animation. McDull has set a challenge for China’s mainland animation industry to match.

OAVs in the 1990s » 331 Shanghai Animation Studio in the 1980s » 298
372 JAPAN & AMERICA: CO-PRODUCTION 373
A S I A : J A PA N

A S I A : J A PA N
A significant development was a growing bond between The project, however, generated enough attention that Square Co., Ltd.
Japanese and American animation production, both and Disney Interactive, the Disney subsidiary producing Disney-character electronic
artistically and commercially. Whereas Japanese games, co-produced Kingdom Hearts (2002), a video game featuring the well-known
animation was originally produced entirely for the domestic Disney animated characters in Final Fantasy-style CGI imagery. Additionally, Square
market, with any later foreign sales considered as a Pictures was commissioned in 2000 to produce a short film for the composite feature
pleasant bonus, new films began to be planned counting on The Animatrix. This film, The Final Flight of the Osiris, directed by Andy Jones, was the
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the international market. final production of Square Pictures.

Early Enterprise The Animatrix

The Sunrise studio, which had done subcontract production for The Animatrix was the creation of American film-makers Larry and Andy Wachowski,
Warner Bros. TV Animation’s Batman: The Animated Series Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within writer/directors of the extremely popular sci-fi feature The Matrix trilogy. The Wachowski
(1992–95), produced its own extremely Batman-like (with Considerable praise has been given for the indredibly realistic brothers were admitted fans of American and Japanese comic books and anime, and
giant robots) The Big O (1999), a 13-episode TV serial which animation of skin and hair in Final Fantasy. For the facial The Matrix was well-known for its look of “a live-action anime movie". It was the first of a
ended with a cliff-hanger. The Big O was only moderately animation, a set of sliders, such as “Left Lower Eyelid Twitch" were live-action trilogy, but the Wachowskis also wanted to use its popularity to give
successful in Japan, but was popular enough in America on TV created to control each element of the face. Tools were created themselves the opportunity to work with some of the most talented anime directors.
and in home-video sales to justify production of The Big O II in allowing the animators to control the movement of Aki's 60,000 They conceived The Animatrix to be a collection of nine separate short films
2003, completing the adventure. During the 1990s anime fan strands of hair. set in the Matrix world, showcasing the styles of such directors as Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Mahiro
conventions in America began inviting noted Japanese Maeda, Koji Morimoto, Shinichiro Watanabe and Takeshi Koike, as well as Americans Andy
© 2001 FFFP. All rights reserved. Square Pictures, Inc.
directors, character designers and voice actors as guests. Jones and Korean-born Peter Chung. Some of the stories

© 2001 FFFP. All rights reserved. Square Pictures, Inc.

During the 2000s Japanese animation studios began sending were written by the Wachowskis and others by their
representatives and exhibiting at American fan conventions to directors. Most of the animation was produced in Japan at
promote sales. the Madhouse and Studio 4ºC studios. A theatrical release
The highest-profile examples of co-production in Japan and a home-video release in America, The
started when Square Co., Ltd., the Japanese producer of the Animatrix was popular in both countries.
Final Fantasy video games, noted for high-quality computer
animation, had its Square USA subsidiary create a new Popular Anime
animation studio in 1997 in Honolulu named Square Pictures. A similar production was an untitled animation
They produced a theatrical sci-fi feature, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) using Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within sequence with “the anime look" in director Quentin
newly developed computer-graphic technology to create "hyper-real" characters The work on Final Fantasy was undertaken by many Tarantino’s live-action 2003 Kill Bill Volume I. This
indistinguishable from real humans. departments including Storyboards, Layout, Sets/Props, tribute by Tarantino to his favorite Japanese and
Animation, Motion-capture, Lighting, FX, Rendering and Chinese live-action martial arts and yakuza crime
Final Fantasy Compositing. One shot could be made up of anywhere from nine movies was filmed in China and Japan. The anime
The studio was designed to be halfway between Japan and the US, taking advantage of to 498 composite layers. sequence was produced at Production I.G., and was so
the animation-industry talents of both nations. Final Fantasy, directed by Hironobu closely supervised by Tarantino that he is considered its
Sakaguchi with animation direction by Andy Jones, was admired as a daring artistic director. Co-productions like Final Fantasy: The Spirits
experiment and was generally technologically successful. The story, however, was Within, The Animatrix and Kill Bill are encouraging
neither exciting nor emotionally appealing, and was such a financial failure that Square indications of future American movie-industry
Pictures was closed. utilization of Japanese animation styles and resources.

Pokémon » 330 TV Co-Production » 378 The Matrix » 352

374 INDIA: ANIMATION IS BURGEONING 375
ASIA: INDIA

ASIA: INDIA
The modern Indian animation industry essentially dates back to 1956, when the Cartoon
Film Unit of the Films Division of the Ministry of Information was formed. The unit, which
is still active, was nurtured by Indian animation pioneer G.K. Gokhale and former Disney
animator Clair Weeks, who grew up in India as the son of Christian missionaries; the two
collaborated on the unit’s first film, Banyon Tree, based on a Buddhist Janaka story.
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Important Pioneer
The most significant figure to come out of the unit was Ram Mohan (b. 1931), who
worked there from 1956 until 1967; he later established Ram Mohan Biographics in
1972, which not only produced such films as Baap Re Baap (1972), but also proved to be
© Famous Animation

an important training ground for many animation artists. The company later merged
with United Studios Ltd. to form what became UTV Toons, where Mohan produced several The Freedom Song commissions, including many by Oshidar, have been fulfilled by Famous’s House of
episodes of the widely praised Meena and Sara educational film series for UNICEF. Based on a folk story that stressed the need to protect nature, Animation, which is located in Mumbai and is a division of Famous Cine Labs & Studios
Despite the efforts of film-makers like Mohan, animation in India the film made use of folk art and Madhubani and Kalighat styles Ltd., the leading commercial house in India.
remained marginal until the mid-1990s, when studios servicing Western television of painting. It won some prestigious awards, including the

producers began to form. A small independent sector also emerged in Mumbai, fed by Golden Conch and the Critics Award at the Mumbai International The Leading Animators
graduates of the National Institute of Design’s world-class animation program and Film Festival and the Best Animation Film at the Japan Wildlife Chaudhuri’s sometimes rough style hides his considerable skill in a variety of techniques,
nurtured by such broadcasters as MTV-India and Channel [V]. Along with Cartoon Film Festival. including mixing live-action and animation. He shows a particular affinity for clay
Network India, they helped build a growing internal market for animation. animation, as seen in Macho and Banjo: The Space Khalasis, a wacky series about two
Attracted by India’s low-cost labor force and computer expertise, several Bengalese garbage men in space, which made his reputation.
facilities were established to provide digital ink-and-paint services requiring a low level of In contrast, Oshidar’s works are generally slicker in execution, but have an
artistic skill. These were followed by an increasing number of full-service animation equally irreverent comic approach. Of note is his wacky clay-animated Poga (2000), an
studios, often funded by large industrial companies with no previous relationship to film MTV station ID promoting a fusion of yoga and pogo sticks, and Gaseous Clay (2003),
or television, including India’s huge live-action film industry. Still I Rise an outrageous CGI short about a boxer who uses an unusual tactic to beat his opponents.
Inspired by the coincidental suicides in 1890 of Elephant Man

The International Arena Joseph Merrick and the painter Vincent van Gogh, this film fuses Looking to the Future
A small number of studios have moved into original productions aimed at the two events by presenting a fantasy visualization of Merrick’s last In 1998, Famous Cine Labs & Studios, a live-action service facility hired NID (National
international market; the most prolific has been Pentamedia, which, starting with Sinbad: dream. It was animated and rendered on Windows 2000 Institute of Design) graduate E. Suresh as creative director to supervise the production of a
Beyond the Valley of the Mists (1999), made a number of poorly received movies using workstations, and the final renders were recorded on 35 mm film. TV series. The series did not go beyond the pilot stage, but a highly successful TV

© Famous Animation
CGI motion-capture animation. TV series production began in earnest with Toonz commercial for Novartis Pharmaceuticals led to other commissions, including work for MTV
Animation India’s The Adventures of Tenali Raman (2002), a traditional cel-animated and Channel [V]. On their own, they produced Narayan Shi’s The Freedom Song (2000),
show that exhibits a more professional approach. The number of shows increased a charming Indian version of The Emperor’s Nightingale, which exhibits a high degree of
rapidly after Cartoon Network India decided to commission original programming in Poga craftsmanship and artistry, placing it more than a cut above most Indian studios.
2003, including CB Media Ventures’ The Adventures of Chhota Birbal. Poga was directed by Cyrus Oshidar, and made at Famous Among Indian animators working abroad, the most promising is Umesh
In terms of quality, the most interesting work is found in projects House of Animation, part of the Famous Cine Labs & Studios. Clay Shukla, whose independently made Still I Rise (2001) is a striking meditation on the last
commissioned by MTV-India and Channel [V] and their respective creative directors, animation is a popular format of animation in India, and Famous dream of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, who died in 1890. He has worked for such

© Umesh Shukla
Cyrus Oshidar and Arnab Chaudhuri, who rank among the most important figures in House of Animation has been instrumental in popularizing this major Hollywood studios as Disney and DreamWorks, and has ambitions to return to
contemporary Indian animation. A number of these networks’ most important form with its highly successful commercials. India to make animated movies.

Will Vinton & Claymation » 250 Asia Arises » 332 Aardman Animation and Clay Animation » 322
376 WEB & FLASH ANIMATION 377
I N T E R N AT I O N A L A N I M AT I O N

I N T E R N AT I O N A L A N I M AT I O N
The explosive growth of Web animation paralleled the dot-com boom of the late Elmo Aardvark – Earth
1990s and briefly brought about a major revival of the production of short animated The Elmo Aardvark series received a special Annie Award from

films. It also saw the introduction of new, lower-cost technologies – most prominently the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood) and

Macromedia Flash software. Even after the boom collapsed, Internet animation the Monsieur Pluc Award at Annecy due its inventiveness.

continued to provide new opportunities for independent film-makers and a testing LokoMotion and Bisonic Aural Gratification Systems were

ground for more established producers. developed especially for the series.

Pioneering Events © Will Ryan & Co. Ltd

The first major artistic event for Web animation was the launch of the Absolut Panushka
Website, an experimental film showcase sponsored by Absolut Vodka and curated by
independent film-maker Christine Panushka. A sensation when it premiered in February
1997, it included 33 brief films featuring the Absolut bottle by the likes of Jules Engel,
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Kihachiro Kawamota, Priit Pärn, Michaela Pawlatowa and Panushka herself. However, A Flash of Inspiration
web animation itself did not come into its own until the introduction of Flash animation AtomFilms.com, IFILM.com and Macromedia’s Shockwave.com created the most
in 1996, which was soon adopted by MSN and Disney Online. excitement among independent film-makers by establishing a new marketplace for
After producing Weekend Pussy Hunt, a short Flash animation, for MSN, animated short films. For instance, IFILM had great success putting Spike and Mike’s

© Will Ryan & Co. Ltd

Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi realized the possibilities offered by the technology; Festival of Animation online, while Shockwave linked up with comic-book and
it not only allowed for rapid and inexpensive production, but also held out the promise of animation-legend Stan Lee to screen his popular 7th Portal series. Aardman made the
a way independents could bypass traditional means of financing and distribution. In live-action/animated Angry Kid for AtomFilms, which also provided a venue for the films
October 1997, Kricfalusi came out with the Internet’s first animated series, @ The of Bill Plympton. It also signed Tim Burton, who produced the Stainboy series, as well as
Goddamn George Liquor Program! While the self-financed series was unable to Elmo Aardvark & VaVa LaVoom South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone; however, the latter’s first film was
maintain a regular schedule, its popularity spurred a mania for web animation that © Will Ryan & Co. Ltd
Pictured here are Elmo Aardvark and VaVa LaVoom. A feature shelved after it proved too gross for AtomFilms’ viewers.
culminated in 2000, a year that might be called its golden hour. film based on the outer-space adventures of Elmo has been on Among broadcasters who got involved, the most interesting was the
several development slates in the intervening years. nascent Oxygen network, which simulcast its offbeat X-Chromosome anthology series
Leading the Way online, including Fat Girl by Prudence Fenton, Allee Willis and April Winchell.
Small studios started to produce their own series in the hopes of eventually finding a home
on television. One of the best was Will Ryan’s delightful Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space End of a Good Thing?
Detective! (2000) from Snappytoons Amusement Company and Darryl Van Citter’s The lack of viable business models that caused the dot-bust eventually hit Web
Renegade Animation. Motion-capture pioneer Protozoa morphed into the DotComix animation by the end of 2000. Many companies closed, and those that survived
Website, which featured Gary Trudeau’s Duke2000, based on the Doonesbury comic strip. endured massive layoffs, with Shockwave taking over AtomFilms. A few major players
On a much larger scale, Film Roman, best known for The Simpsons, launched survived, including Mondo Media, which was able to develop a viable syndication model
the adult-oriented Level13.net site as a test bed for new TV shows. In France, Millimages (64 for such series as The God and Devil Show (2000), and using DVD sales and
Zoo Lane) took a similar approach, but used the international co-production model, more merchandising to increase revenues from series like Happy Tree Friends (2002). For its
familiar in Europe. New companies were formed specifically to showcase pilots for TV shows Atom Films & Bill Plympton part, AtomFilms has used a subscription model for such in-demand series as Aardman’s
and feature films. Most prominent were Icebox, whose founders include former King of the Hill 25 Ways to Quit Smoking, How To Kiss, Parking and The Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions.
and Simpsons producers, and Urban Entertainment, which saw John Ridley’s Undercover Wiseman are just four of Bill Plympton's films featured on The use of Web technologies, especially Flash, has also found markets
© Bill Plympton

Brother become a live-action movie in 2002. Subsequently, the CBC broadcast March AtomFilms.com. These and seven other Plympton films can be beyond the Internet itself. Thus, in 2001, Nelvana’s prime-time show Quads became the
Entertainment’s Chilly Beach (2003), a sort of Canadian South Park, based on a Web original. viewed online. first TV series produced using Flash, which also made it easier to show it on the Web.

TV Commercials » 184 Ren & Stimpy » 318 Bill Plympton » 278

378 TV ANIMATION: CO-PRODUCTION 379
I N T E R N AT I O N A L A N I M AT I O N

I N T E R N AT I O N A L A N I M AT I O N
In the late 1980s independent producers were looking for ways of financing their Multitude of Takeovers

© 1999 BKN International AG/Ellipseanime/M6

productions and started looking to the world market. And production companies like In 1990, the broadcast networks’ audiences dropped dramatically due to the advent of
Hanna-Barbera were looking for new animation for their broadcasters. Mike Young, at cable and the introduction of FOX-TV. The FCC relaxed Fin-Syn in 1991 and finally
Siriol Animation in Wales, could not sell a show directly to US broadcasters, so he abolished it in 1995. This change opened up the opportunity for the major production
partnered with Hanna-Barbera and Booker Entertainment to produce television series companies like the Walt Disney Company to purchase the ABC network and for Warner
Super Ted (1985) and Fantastic Max (1988). Young also co-produced Once Upon A Bros. to start WB TV network. These companies could now own what they aired.
Forest (1993), a movie for FOX with Hanna-Barbera and HTV. The year 1995 was the turning point for many companies. Hanna-
Barbera was purchased for its library of shows by the Turner Company (later to be a part
Plenty of Opportunities of Warner Bros.), and the smaller studios like Fred Wolf Production, Ruby-Spears, Zodiac
There were advantages for animation producers to work in Europe or Canada. France had Entertainment, Calico Entertainment and many others started closing their doors for a
established in 1946 the government agency Centre National de la Cinematographie lack of venues to sell their programs.
(CNC), which has helped to subsidize French productions. Canada established a tax In 1990 Mike Young crossed over to the US to start Mike Young
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XII: THE NEW CENTURY

incentive for production companies that shot films in the country. By partnering with Productions. Using his connections in Europe he immediately produced the television
French or Canadian production companies, US and other producers were able to reap the series Secret Garden (1993–94) with S4C for ABC TV. He then produced Prince Charles’

© 1999 BKN International AG / Ellipseanime / M6

financial benefits. Legend of Lochnagar (1993) with ABC, Virgin and S4C.
In the United States, in the late 1980s, producers like Ted Kopplar, of World
Events Productions, saw the financial benefits of co-production with a French company. International Co-Production
World Events was already partnered with Calico Entertainment in 1988 on Denver the In the early part of the twenty-first century, international co-production has become a
Last Dinosaur. During the second season World Events took on the French partner IDDH. necessity. The television series Kong: The Animated Series (2000) was conceived in the
Koplar exchanged production services and funding from the French company for US by Stephanie Graizano of BKN, and produced with Ellipse Anime (France) and pasi
international rights and toy deals. (Philippine Animation Studio, Inc.). Both Ellipse Anime and pasi worked with their own
Calico Entertainment later partnered with Zodiac Entertainment on outside services, including services in Korea, the Philippines and India. Co-productions like
Widget (1990–91). Calico also partnered with Zodiac and Alligator Films, a Belgium Kong, The Animated Series this can offer many benefits to the contributing partners, including production services at
production company, for Mr Bogus (1991–93). In 1992 Zodiac and Calico partnered The story leading up to the series explains that a new Kong is cost in exchange for regional distribution revenues, revenues for all from the adjusted
again on Twinkle, a series based on the popular Olympic mascot from the 1992 born from DNA taken by Lorna Jenkins, from the original Kong gross and tax points and credits where applicable. Working with so many partners can
Korean Games. This co-production was led by the Korean broadcaster MBC, along with and a small amount of human DNA taken from her grandson, have its drawbacks in communications, cultural differences and time zones.
Sei Young Studios, a Korean production service that had worked on all of Calico’s Jason Jenkins. Kong and his prehistoric island are once again An example of a truly international co-production model is the animated
previous productions. under threat, this time from gigantic prehistoric creatures and series Max and the Mechanicals (2004) for PBS (US). This is a co-production between
monstrous DNA mutants. Mike Young Productions (US), Sony Television Animation (US), PBS (US), Telegael
© 1999 BKN International AG/Ellipseanime/M6
(Ireland) and jadooWorks Animation Studio (India). Deals like this allow for partners to
Kong, The Animated Series put in either cash, cash and services, or services as their participation.
Jason Jenkins and his friend Tan bring their teacher Ramon De La As we get further into the twenty-first century co-production will be
Porta to the island to show him the beauty of it, and of course borderless. IDT Entertainment, Inc. has established a proprietary system, the Global
Kong. Unfortunately De La Porta has other plans and steals the Animation Protocol, for working together with other production companies worldwide.
island's Primal Stones which control its balance. In each episode IDT Entertainment is bringing the financial resources of its parent company, IDT Corp., an
Jason, Tan, a shaman girl named Lua and Kong travel around the international telecommunications company, to assist in deficit financing of co-
world to find the stones, restore balance to the island and thwart productions, along with providing their own production resources to creative partner
De La Porta once and for all. companies for television and features.

Japanese and American Co-Production » 372 South Korean Animation » 332 South-East Asian Animation » 334
380 REFERENCES 381

BIBLIOGRAPHY Women Are Left to Die Kobito to Aomushi = The Gnome and the Havoc in Heaven, a.k.a. Uproar in Heaven Kido Keisatsu Patlabor 2 = Patlabor 2 Christie’s Images: 57 (b), 58 (t), 59, 82 (all), AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES Oscar for his first short film, Your Face. After Tom Knott (Author: pages 100–103, to Video Ratings Guide, Animato and Animation Festival. He is particularly
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Shiohara Tasuke = Tasuke Shiohara Green Caterpillar Cao Yuan Ying Xiong Jie Mie = Two Heroic Kokaku Kidotai = Ghost in the Shell 83, 120, 150, 151 (all), 152, 153 (all), 154 (t),
Adamson, J., Tex Avery, King of Cartoons, 210 (all), 211 (all), 213 (all), 277 (b) producing many shorts which appeared on 160–161, 186–187, 248–249, 278–281) Apatoons, as well as his own self-published interested in Eastern European animation.
DeCapo Press, 1985 Nonkina Tosan Ryugu Mairi = A Carefree Old Ari to Hato = The Ant and the Pigeon Sisters of the Grasslands Blood = Blood: The Last Vampire Jerry Beck (General Editor; Author: chapter
Barrier, M., Hollywood Cartoons, Oxford Guy Visits the Ryugu Ko Usagi Monogatari = Story of the Little Rabbit Mu Di = Buffalo Boy and the Flute Cyberroach/www.cyberroach.com: 268 (all) MTV and in Spike and Mike’s festivals, he Prior to joining Warner Bros. Animation as newsletter, McBoing Boing’s (1994–98). He
Jubei Ninpocho = Ninja Scroll openers, pages 118–121, 130–131,
University Press, 1999 Suzumi Bune = Cooling Off on the Boat Kawataro Kappa = Kawataro the Kappa Totsuzen! Neko no Kuni Banipal Witt
Harvey Deneroff: 374 (all), 375 (all) turned his talent to features. Since 1991 he director of recruiting, Tom Knott was the lives with his wife and six cats in Iowa City. Keith Scott (Author: pages 132–133,
Beck, J., The 50 Greatest Cartoons, Turner IX: Animation For Grown-Ups: DreamWorks SKG: 310, 311 (all), 338, 344 162–163, 182–185, 204– 205, 246–247,
Publishing, 1994 Nihonichi no Momotaro = Momotaro Ukari Violin = The Happy Violin = Catnapped! has made seven feature films, four of them director of the Ottawa International Animation 262–265)
is Japan’s No. 1 Onbu Obake = Onbu, the Little Goblin pages 260-261 Pocket Monster = Pokémon
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Beck, J., and Friedwald, W., Looney Tunes and
Eesti Joonisfilm/www.joonisfilm.ee: 292 (all), (The Tune, Mondo Plympton, I Married a Festival. He has also worked with Colossal Jan Nagel (Author: pages 378–379)
Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Tako no Hone = Octopus Bones Taisei Shakuson = The Great Buddha Lupin III = Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo, Digimon Adventure = Digimon: Jerry Beck is a noted animation historian who Keith Scott is a veteran animation voice artist
Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, Henry Bunbuku Chagama = The Tale of the Lucky a.k.a. Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo and Digital Monsters
293 (all) Strange Person and Mutant Aliens) animated Pictures, MTV, the National Film Board of Jan Nagel has worked with award-winning
Holt, 1989 Teakettle
Kujira = The Whale
Lupin vs. the Clones Sheila Graber/www.graber-miller.com: 286, has written numerous articles and books on the features. He completed his fifth animated based in Sydney. Since 1973, he has created
Yuri-sen = The Ghost Ship Monster Farm = Monster Rancher 287 (all) Canada, the Tournee of Animation, Animation feature and television production studios, and
Beckerman, H., Animation: The Whole Story, Kaeru wa Kaeru = A Frog is a Frog Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro = The Castle of subject including Looney Tunes: The Ultimate feature, Hair High, in 2004. hundreds of character voices for TV
Allworth & School of Visual Arts, 2003 Aru Machikado no Monogatari = Stories on a Cagliostro
Meitantei Conan = Detective Conan a.k.a. Case Benjamin Gross: 67 (all) World Magazine, the Los Angeles International acts as a consultant to animation and visual
Bendazzi, G., Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Dobutsu Olympiku Taikai = The Animals’ Street Corner Closed Visual Guide, Outlaw Animation, and The 50 commercials and cartoons in Australia and in
Olympics Mazinger Z = Mazinger Z, a.k.a. TranZor Z The Halas & Batchelor Collection Ltd: 167 (b) Animation Celebration, Algonquin College and effects production companies. She is a
Cinema Animation, Indiana University Ma Liang = The Magic Paintbrush Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon = Sailor Moon
Heritage Comics Auctions: 99, 207 (tl) Greatest Cartoons. He is also an animation Ryan Ball (Author: pages 92–93, 158–159) the US. He is a respected animation historian,
Press, 1994 Oira no Yakyuu = My Baseball Kido Senshi Gundam = Mobile Suit Gundam Card Captor Sakura = CardCaptors the Canadian Film Institute. He is currently an founding member and current president of
Cabarga, L., The Fleischer Story, DeCapo Press, Uchu Senkan Yamato = Space Cruiser Yamato, The Hubley Studio, Inc.: 214, 215 (all) industry executive and cartoon producer. Beck with several articles published in American
1995
Komori = The Bat VII: To The Tube: pages 196–197 Shojo Kakumei Utena = Revolutionary Girl Ryan Ball is the web editor for Animation animation consultant. the board of directors of Women In
Son Goku Monogatari = The Legend a.k.a. Space Battleship Yamato and Star Utena The Illuminated Film Company: 359 (bl & r) has taught History of Animation at UCLA, NYU, cartoon journals. His first book, The Moose
Canemaker, J., Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men, Koneko no Rakugaki = Doodling Kitty Blazers magazine. He is a specialist in stop-motion Animation, as well as an active member of
Disney Editions, 2001 of Son Goku
Koneko no Studio = Kitty’s Studio Shinseiki Evangelion = Neon Genesis The Internet Archive: 164 (all), 165 (all) The American Film Institute and The School of That Roared, was published in 2000 by St
Canemaker, J., Winsor McCay: His Life and Art, Kujira = The Whale Ginga Tetsudo 999 = Galaxy Express 999 Evangelion Jove Film/www.russiananimation.com: 110 animation, and is particularly interested in Andrew Leal (Author: pages 80–83, other entertainment organizations including
Hakuja Den (Legend of the White Snake Visual Arts. He has produced many best-selling Martin’s Press. His special interest lies in the
Abbeville Press, 1987 Kuro Nyago = Black Kitty Enchantress) = Panda and the Magic Serpent
Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman = Battle of the Fushigi no Umi no Nadia = Nadia: (all), 111 (all), 140 (all), 234 (all), 235 (all) the work of legendary animator Ray 208–209) Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and
Clements, J., and McCarthy, H., The Anime Planets, a.k.a. G-Force Renzo Kinoshita/Studio Lotus: 261 (t) DVD compilations of classic cartoons, including
Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke (Sasuke, the Ninja
The Secret of Blue Water Harryhausen. Andrew Leal serves as lead contributor ASIFA-Hollywood. Jan is a frequent guest theatrical cartoons made from 1930–60 by
II: Finding Its Voice: pages 52–53 Versailles no Bara = The Rose of Versailles Lodoss to Senki = Record of Lodoss War The Kobal Collection: 15 (b), 62, 63 (t); Carolco: The Looney Tunes Golden Collection and
Animation Since 1917, Stone Bridge Press, Boy) = Magic Boy
Pika-Don, a.k.a. Pica-Don 306; Touchstone: 320 (t), 321 for the animation voice actor info site lecturer on animation and entertainment America’s five West Coast based studios:
2001 Nansensu Monogatari: dai 1 hen, Sarugashima Saiyuki (History of the Journey to the West) = Ihatov no Kenso: Kenji no Haru = Spring and The Definitive Betty Boop. Beck lives in Los
Crafton, D., Before Mickey, MIT Press, 1982 = A Shipwreck Tale: Part 1, Monkey Island Ittai Yatsu wa Nanimonoda? = What on Earth Chaos Kratky Film Praha a.s.: 328 (all), 329 (all) Rick DeMott (Author: pages 56–59, Voicechasers.com, and has compiled a careers at colleges and universities. Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Walter Lantz and
Alakazam the Great
Is He? Angeles and is on the board of directors of
Culhane, S., Talking Animals and Other People: Nansensu Monogatari: dai 2 hen, Kaizoku- Hyotan Suzume = The Sparrow in the Empty Tenku no Escaflowne = The Vision John A. Lent: 76 (bl & r), 114 (all), 174 (t), 206–207, 312–315, 348–351) database of US feature animation credits, Columbia. He is presently working on a book
The Autobiography of One of Animation’s bune = A Shipwreck Tale: Part 2, The Pirate Nihonjin = The Japanese of Escaflowne 175, 240, 298, 299 (all), 300, 301 (t), 332 ASIFA-Hollywood.
Legendary Figures, St Martin’s Press, 1994
Gourd
(all), 333, 334 (all), 335; Walter and Wendy Rick DeMott, serving as marshal of his class, Toonjunkies.com, a work in progress. He writes Fred Patten (Author: pages 30–31, 52–53, about the great cartoon voice artists of the
Ship [Note: Nansensu Monogatari is a pun that Otogi no Sekai-Ryoko = Otogi’s World Tour Hana Ori = Breaking Branches is Forbidden Ao no Roku-go = Blue Submarine No. 6
Erickson, H., Television Cartoon Shows: An means both "A Shipwreck Tale" and "A Oni = The Devil
Hucker & Jan Begg/Silicon Pulp Animation graduated with honors from Penn State regularly for APAToons, been published in the 76–77, 112–115, 142–143, 174–175, Golden Age.
Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949–1993, Nonsense Tale"] Plus 50,000 Nen = More Than 50,000 Fushigina Elevator = The Elevator Gallery: 262 (all) Will Ryan (Consultant Editor; Author: pages
McFarland, 1995 Tabi = The Journey Ouchi = A House University, majoring in Film and Video and genre film magazine Scarlet Street and was a 196–197, 236–241, 260–261, 294–297,
Chikara to Onna no Yokonaka = The World of Urikohime to Amanjaku = The Little Devil and Library of Congress: 12 (all), 13 (all) 12–15, 154–155)
Ledoux, T. (ed.), Anime Interviews: The First Princess Uriko Shijin no Shogai = The Life of a Poet Sandoitti = The Sandwiches minoring in World Literature. In 1999, he presenter at last year’s Comic Arts Conference 330–331, 366–373)
Five Years of Animerica, Anime & Manga Power and Women Pam and Bob Martin: 121 (all), 180 (t), 182 Adam Snyder (Author: pages 138–139,
Monthly, Cadence Books, 1997 Tahchan no Kaitei Ryokou = Tahchan’s Trip to Osama ni Natta Kitsune = The Fox Who Dojoji = Dojoji Temple Ame no Hi = Imagination (t), 183 (b), 205 (b), 316, 317 Will Ryan is past-president of the became the associate editor of Animation at the San Diego Comic-Con. He is currently Fred Patten discovered manga and anime in
the Bottom of the Sea Became King Kataku = House of Flames Bavel no Hon = Bavel’s Book William Moritz/AWN.com: 108 (all), 109 (b) International Animated Film Society and a 190–193, 226–229, 232–233, 328–329)
Ledoux, T., and Ranney, D., The Complete World Network (www.awn.com). After a stint the 1970s, and was a co-founder of the first
Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Osaru no Taigyo = The Monkey’s Big Catch Beer Mukashi Mukashi = Once Upon a Time Fushigi na Kusuri = Strange Medicine Dottini Suru! = Your Choice! National Film Board of Canada: 100, 101 (all),
working on expanding a thesis on narrative Adam Snyder is president of the animation
Directory & Resource Guide, Tiger Mountain There Was Beer 102 (all), 103 (all), 160 (all), 161 (all), 248
charter member of the Society for Animation as a freelance writer, he served as Production and imagery in US World War Two American anime fan club in 1977. He has
Sora no Momotaro = Aerial Momotaro Hana to Mogura = The Flowers and the Mole company Rembrandt Films, which in the
Press, 1997 Chibi Kuro Sambo no Tora Taiji = Little Black (all), 249 (all), 256 (all), 279 (all) Studies. He has contributed hundreds of Co-ordinator for sound production company propaganda cartoons for eventual publication. been writing about anime since the early
Lent, J. (ed.), Animation in Asia and the Pacific, Norakuro = Black Dog Sambo Conquers the Tigers Mochi Mochi no Ki = The Mochi-Mochi Tree
XII: The New Century: pages 366–373 Nukufilm/www.nukufilm.ee: 194 (t), 195 (all) articles, interviews, editor-ials and reviews to BadaBing BadaBoom Productions and 1980s for popular culture magazines like 1960s received four Academy Award
Indiana University Press, 2001 Norakuro Nitohei – Kyoren no Maki = Buck Saru Kani = The Crab’s Vengeance on the
Levi, A., Samurai From Outer Space: Private Norakuro – Training Monkey Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira = Cowboy Parlophone Records & Shynola: 280, 281 (all) many publications, including Animation nominations and an Oscar for Munro. In
VIII: International Explosion: Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door a.k.a. Fred Patten: 30, 31 (all), 52 (all), 53, 112 (all),
animation house Perky Pickle Studios. In 2002, George Maestri (Author: pages 268–271, Starlog, and for specialty magazines like
Understanding Japanese Animation, Open Norakuro Nitohei – Enshu no Maki = Buck Namu Ichibyo Sokusai = Praise Be to Small Ills Magazine, for which he is currently
Court Publishing Co., 1996 pages 236–241 Cowboy Bebop: The Movie 113 (all), 115, 142 (all), 143 (all), 196 (all), he returned to AWN as its managing editor. 306–309, 338–347, 352–357) Manga Max. He has also served as a 1993, Adam revived Rembrandt Films with
Private Norakuro – Drills Mizu no Tane = Water Seed
Maltin, L., The Disney Films, Disney Editions,
Norakuro Gocho = Sergeant Norakuro Anju to Zushiomaru/Anju and Zushiomaru = WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3 a.k.a. Patlabor 197 (all), 230 (all), 231 (b), 237, 238, 239 Contributing Editor. He is perhaps best known consultant on anime for international film the production of the 13-part half-hour
2000 The Littlest Warrior Chikarabashi = The Bridge of Strength WXIII The Movie and Wasted 13 Patlabor the (all), 260, 261 (b), 288 (all), 289 (all)
as a cineloquist with voice credits in many George Maestri has worked as a writer,
Maltin, L., Of Mice and Magic: A History of Norakuro Shoi – Nichiyobi no Kaijiken = 2nd Okon Joururi = The Magic Fox Movie Pilot Moscow Animation Studio: 290 (all), 362 Harvey Deneroff (Author: pages 26–29, festivals. He currently writes regular anime animation series, The Nudnik Show, which
American Animated Cartoons, Plume Lieutenant Norakuro – The Sunday Mystery
Wanpaku Oji no Orochi Taiji = The Little Prince
Academy Award nominated films. He is the director and producer for studios such as
and the Eight-Headed Dragon Chumon No Oi Ryoriten = A Well-Ordered Sennen Joyu = Millennium Actress (all), 363 (t) 122–123, 214–217, 244–245, 250–251, columns for Animation World Magazine and has now aired in more than 20 countries. He
Books, New American Library, 1980 Koari no Itazura = The Mischievous Little Ant Restaurant Palme no Ki = A Tree of Palme Bill Plympton: 278 (all), 376 (all) creator of the Annie Award-winning series Warner Bros., Disney, Nickelodeon and
Mangels, A., Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Arabian Night: Sindbad no Boken = Sinbad the 272–275, 298–301, 310–311, 332–335, Newtype USA. is also the exclusive distributor of a number of
Guide, Stone Bridge Press, 2003
Osaru Sankichi – Bokusen no Maki = Sankichi Sailor Seikai no Monshou = Crest of the Stars Chris Robinson & André Coutu/Ottowa Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space Detective!, Comedy Central. He has written a number of
the Monkey – Air Defense Military Exercise X: New Directions: pages 294–299 International Animation Festival: 172, 173 374–377) classic properties, including the animation
McCarthy, H., Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Gulliver no Uchu Ryoko = Gulliver’s Adventures Megami Kouhosei = Pilot Candidate, a.k.a.
based upon the classic character. Musical books on computer animation, including
Japanese Animation, Stone Bridge Press, Kuroneko Banzai = Black Cat Hooray! Beyond the Moon Genma Taisen = Harmagedon Candidate for Goddess (all), 291, 363 (b), 364 (all), 365 (all) Harvey Deneroff is the founder and past Ray Pointer (Author: pages 16–17, 18–19, library of Zagreb Film and the US television
1999 Will Ryan/SnappyToons Amusement recordings written and produced by Will [digital] Character Animation, a standard
Andersen Monogatari = The World of Hans Oneamisu no Tsubasa: Oritsu Uchugun = The Chitcha na Yukitsukai: Sugar = Sugar: A Little president of the Society for Animation Studies, 38–39, 60–63, 164–165) series Winky Dink and You. Most recently,
Merritt, R., and Kaufman, J. B., Walt in III: Technicolor Fantasies: pages 76–77 Christian Andersen Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force Snow Fairy Company: 377 (all)
Ryan can be found at CDBaby.com. He textbook on character animation techniques.
Wonderland, Indiana University Press, Genroku Koi Moyou: Sankichi to Osayo = Love Nagagutsu o Haita Neko = Puss in Boots Kokaku Kidotai: Stand Alone Complex = Ghost Screensound Australia - The National Screen was editor of Graffiti, Animation Magazine and Ray received the first Student Oscar in 1973 Adam co-wrote, directed and produced
1992 in the Genroku Era: Sankichi and Osayo Golgo 13 = Golgo 13: The Professional serves on the Executive Committee of the
Taiyo no Oji: Hols no Boken = The Little Norse in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Sound Archive: 263 Animation World Magazine, and published The for his cartoon short, Goldnavel. In the 1980s,
Patten, F., Watching Anime, Reading Manga: Izakaya no Ichiya = A Night at a Tavern Urusei Yatsura = often translated as Those
Pietro Shakarian & David Gerstein: 40 (bl & r) Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Michael Mallory (Author: pages 178–181, The Animation Century, a two-hour
25 Years of Essays and Reviews, Stone Prince, a.k.a. The Sun Prince: Hols’ Great Obnoxious Aliens, but released in the US under Jubei Ninpocho: Ryuhogyoku-hen = Ninja Animation Report, an industry newsletter. The he was a producer of animated and live action
Bridge Press, 2004 Issun Boshi Chibisuke Monogatari = The Tale of Adventure and The Little Norse Prince Valiant the Japanese title Scroll: The Series Snowman Enterprises Ltd: 282 (bl & r), 283; Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. 200–203) television special on the history of animation
Pilling, J. (ed.), A Reader in Animation Studies, Tiny Issun Bochi’s Rescue Cyborg 009: Kaiju Senso = Cyborg 009: TVC Ltd: 327 (all) author of The Art of Anastasia (HarperCollins, television spots for Navy Broadcasting, and in
Maison Ikkoku = the name of a boarding house, Chikyu Shoujo Arjuna = Arjuna Michael Mallory is the author of the books that aired on Bravo in the United States
John Libbey, 1997 Benkei tai Ushiwaka = Benkei versus Ushiwaka Fighting Monsters released in the US under the Japanese title Mousou Dairinin = Paranoia Agents Adam Snyder/Rembrandt Films: 192 (all), 1997), he has also written for The Hollywood the 1990s he was an assistant animator on
Robinson, C., Between Genius and Utter Kachikachiyama = The Hare’s Revenge on the Soratobu Yureisen = The Flying Phantom Ship 193, 194 (c), 232 (all), 233 Jeffrey Katzenberg (Foreword) Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Marvel: The in late 2003.
Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation,
Ranma 1/2 = sometimes translated as Ranma Nekojiru-so = Cat Soup Reporter, Animatoon, Sight and Sound, Film the features Tom and Jerry: The Movie and
Tanuki Kaitei 30,000 Mile = 30,000 Miles Under the Half-and-Half or Halfway Ranma, but released Toon Tracker/www.toontracker.com: 122 (all)
A native New Yorker, Jeffrey Katzenberg Characters and their Universe, as well as more
Varrak Publishing, 2003
Musume Dojoji = The Girl at Dojo’s Temple Sea in the US under the Japanese title Hoshi no Koe = Voices of a Distant Star History and Asian Cinema; he was also Festival Bebe’s Kids. He was an animator on
Schneider, S., That’s All Folks! The Art of Topham Picturepoint: 26 (r), 29, 218 (t), 219,
began his career in entertainment as the than 250 articles on animation that have Graham Webb (Author: pages 22–25,
Warner Bros. Animation, Henry Holt, 1990 Oira no Hijoji = My Emergency Otogi Manga Calendar = Otogi Cartoon Dr Slump Arale-chan = Dr Slump [and] Little Sentou Yousei Yukikaze = Yukikaze 221, 276, 277 (t), 294 (all), 304, 305 (all), Director of the Week With the Masters commercials and directed industrial-
Arale, unreleased in the US but well-known to Atama-yama = Mt Head 307 (all), 308 (all), 319 (all), 320 (b), 331 (t), assistant to David Picker, then President of regularly appeared in the Los Angeles Times, 48–49, 68–73, 104–109, 134–137,
Scott, K., The Moose That Roared, St Martin’s Maabo no Shonen Kokuhei = Maabo, the Boy Calendar Animation Celebration, in Trivandrum, India. animation videos and directed numerous
Press, 2000 Pilot Tetsuwan Atom = Astro Boy, a.k.a. Mighty anime fans as Dr Slump Wo Wei Ge Kuang = Music Up 339 (all), 340, 342, 343 (all), 346, 347 (all),
United Artists. In 1974, he joined Paramount Daily Variety, Animation Magazine and 166–171, 188–189, 218–225, 252–257,
Smith, D., Disney A to Z, Hyperion, 1998 Atom Chojiku Yosai Macross = Macross, the Super- 348, 349 (all), 352, 353 (all), 354, 355 (all), cartoons for Nickelodeon. For the past 30
Sora no Shanhai Sensen = Skies Over the Mai Dou Gu Shi (Mandarin)/Mak Dau Goo Si 356, 357; UPPA.co.uk: 212; Universal Pictorial Studios as an assistant to Barry Diller. Three Millimeter. He lives in Southern California. 282–287, 322–327)
Stephenson, R., The Animated Film, The Shanghai Battlegrounds Tetsujin 28-go = Gigantor, a.k.a. Iron Man No. Dimensional Fortress, usually known as just (Cantonese) = My Life As McDull Press Photo: 312 (all), 313
David Gerstein (Author: pages 18–19, years Ray has been researching various
Tantivy Press, 1981 Macross
Webb, G., The Animated Film Encyclopedia, Sora no Arawashi = Aerial Ace 28 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a.k.a. Final Van Eaton Galleries: 86 (t), 89 (t), 132, 133 years later, he became a production 20–21, 34–37, 40–43, 46–47, 94–99) aspects of animation history, and is one of the Graham Webb’s formative years were spent
1900–1979, McFarland, 2000 Eight Man = 8th Man Hokuto no Ken = Fist of the North Star Fantasy (all), 155 (b), 200, 202 (t), 203 (t), 246 (all), executive in the motion picture division, and Mark Mayerson (Author: pages 64–65, foremost experts on Max Fleischer and the
Maho no Tenshi Creamy Mami = Creamy 247 (all), 255 (all), 269 (all), 314 (all), 315
David Gerstein is an animation and comics 128–129, 210–213, 276–277, 304–305) endeavoring to become an animator. This
Takarajima = Treasure Island Revisited in May 1982, he was promoted to President
IV: The World War Two Era: Mami, the Magical Angel (all), 318 (b), 351 (t) researcher, writer and editor working with Fleischer Studios. Through his company, ambition was finally realised by his
MAGAZINES pages 112–115
Jungle Taitei = Kimba the White Lion, a.k.a.
Kido Keisatsu Patlabor = Mobile Police Patlabor PICTURE CREDITS of the studio. From 1984 to 1994 Mark Mayerson has worked professionally in Inkwell Images, Ray has produced several
Jungle Emperor Picture Courtesy of:
Graham Webb: 24 (all), 25, 91 (t), 96 (all), Gemstone Publishing and Egmont Creative A/S. animating on the Beatles’ feature cartoon,
Animation Magazine Ma-bo no Rakkasan Butai = Ma-bo’s Paratroop Mahotsukai Sally = Sally the Little Witch Yoju Toshi = Wicked City 106, 107 (all), 118 (all), 119 (all), 123 (all), Katzenberg served as Chairman of The Walt His published work includes Nine Lives To Live: A both drawn and computer animation. His award-winning programs on animation for
Animation Blast Unit Manie Manie Meikyu Monogatari = A1 Video: 22 (all), 23 (all) 125 (br), 126 (all), 127 (all), 128 (t), 130 (all),
jobs have included producer, director, writer Yellow Submarine. Since then he has worked
"Beyond Good and Evil: Piotr Dumala’s Crime Ribon no Kishi = Princess Knight, a.k.a. Choppy
Neo Tokyo Aardman Animations Ltd: 282 (t), 322, 323, 131 (t), 146 (b), 147 (tl & r), 149 (all), 157 Disney Studios. In 1994 Katzenberg co- Classic Felix Celebration (Fantagraphics, 1996), the home video market.
and Punishment", Issue 5.10, Animation Fuku-chan no Sensuikan = Fuku-chan and the and the Princess 324, 325 (all) (tl), 180 (b), 181 (b), 185 (b), 201 (all), 203 and animator. He is the creator of Monster By for children’s comics, researched stage
World Magazine, January 2001 Submarine Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro = Kitaro’s (Scary Ghost Hadashi no Gen = Barefoot Gen founded DreamWorks SKG with Steven The Walt Disney Centennial Book (Egmont
ADV Films: 368 (all) (b), 208 (all), 244 (tl & tr), 275 (br)
Mistake, a computer animated television Pat Raine Webb (Author: pages 358–361) musicals and written for FunnyWorld,
Janeva, M., "Bulgarian Animation: A Short Spy Gekimetsu = Spies Defeated Moan), a.k.a. Kitaro’s Booooo! Hotaru no Haka = Grave of the Fireflies Yamamura Animation, Inc.: 186 (all), 331 (c Spielberg and David Geffen. Under Serieforlaget, 2001), and various issues of Uncle
Review", Animation World Magazine, Nippon Banzai = Hooray for Japan! Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae = The Detective Natsufuku no Shojotachi = Girls in Summer ARC Archive: 104 (all), 105, 166 (all), 167 (t),
& b), 370, 371 (all) Katzenberg’s leadership, DreamWorks’ series that runs in over 30 countries. Mark has Animation Magazine, Animator and
June 2003 Dresses 168 (all), 169 (all), 250 (b), 251 (all) Scrooge. In real life he dislikes cats, fears mice and Pat Raine Webb worked at the Halas &
Knott, T. and Taylor F., "Bold and Beautiful: The
Osaru Sankichi – Bokunado no Kaiheidan = Stories of Sabu and Ichi Yoram Gross Film Studios: 264, 265 (all) animation division has enjoyed several written about animation history and Animato! as well as contributing to various
Sankichi the Monkey’s Marine Corps Air Defense Sazae-san = Mrs Sazae Hi no Ame ga Furu = Raining Fire Mark Baker: 326 (tr) considers ducks a fine dinner. Batchelor Studios from 1977 to 1992 as
Genius of Bulgarian Animation", pp. 72–73,
Osaru Sankichi – Tatakau Sensuikan = Sankichi Nancy Beiman: 18 (t) Zagreb Film: 138 (all), 139 (all), 190, 191
successes, including Shrek (2001) which techniques for Animation Magazine, assistant to John Halas and was appointed books, including The Great Movie Cartoon
Ottawa 88 International Animation Festival Ashita no Joe = Tomorrow’s Joe Ushiro no Shomen Daaaare =Kayoko’s Diary (all), 226 (all), 227 (all), 228, 229 (all)
Official Programme Book, Canadian Film the Monkey’s Fighting Submarine Tenma no Torayan = Torayan on the Boat Ohoshi-sama no Rail = Rail of the Star bfi Stills: 28, 48 (all), 49 (all), 71 (t), 72 (all), won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Frank Gladstone (Author: pages 90–91, awn.com, fps, Animato, The Velvet Light Trap director in 1989. In 1993/94 she was Parade (Tribune) and The Great Cartoon
Institute, 1988 73 (all), 74 (b), 75 (all), 134, 135 (all), 136
Ocho-fujin no Genso = Fantasy of the Ningen Dobutsuen = The Human Zoo Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa = Nausicaa of the (all), 137 (all), 141 (all), 158, 159 (all), 170 Animated Feature (and on which he served 124–127, 146–149, 156–157) and The Comics Journal. He lives in Toronto administrator of the Cardiff Animation Stars (Jupiter). Graham has also researched
Matuszewski, W., "Animated Film in Poland", pp. Butterfly Wife Valley of the Winds
8–18, Holland Animation Film Festival Isu = The Chair (all), 171 (all), 188 (all), 189, 220 (all), 224, as a producer) and Shrek 2 (2004), which with his wife and two children. Festival. She has organized exhibitions and and written The Animated Film
Catalogue, Holland Animation Film Festival,
Kaguya Hime = Princess Kaguya
Satsujinkyo Jidai = The Maniac Age Tenku no Shiro: Laputa = Laputa: 225 (all), 231 (t), 252, 253 (all), 254 (all), Frank Gladstone has been working as a
1996 Momotaro no Umiwashi = Momotaro’s The Castle in the Sky a.k.a. The Castle 257, 258, 259 (all), 284 (all), 285, 326 (br) has become the top-grossing animated film professional animator, producer, director, writer retrospectives of animated film in London, Encyclopedia (McFarland, 2000).
Sea Eagles Hana = Flower in the Sky Harry McCracken (Author: pages 44–45,
Pavlov, B., "Sixty Years Soyuzmultfilm", pp.
Ookami Shonen Ken = Ken the Wolf Boy
BKN New Media Limited: 378 (all), 379 (all) in history. In 2002, Katzenberg received an and teacher for more than 30 years. He Belgium and Croatia including the UK’s first
48–52, Holland Animation Film Festival Kumo to Tulip = The Spider and the Tulip Tonari no Totoro = My Neighbor Totoro Bruno Bozzetto/www.bozzetto.com: 222 (all), 150–153)
Catalogue, Holland Animation Film Festival, Ari-chan = Ant Boy Tsukiyo to Megane = A Moonlit Night and Academy Award nomination for Best managed his own Emmy award-winning Computer Animation Conference. She was on Acknowledgements
Majo no Takkyubin = Kiki’s Delivery Service 223 (all)
1996 Momotaro - Umi no Washi = Momotaro’s
Eyeglasses
Omohide Poroporo = Only Yesterday Cartoon Research Co.: 14, 15 (t), 16, 17 (all),
Animated Feature as a producer of Spirit: studio, Persistence of Vision, Inc., producing Harry McCracken is the editor of PC World, the the board of the International Animated Film Jerry Beck would like to thank the following:
Divinely-Blessed Sea Warriors Gen-ei Toshi = Fantasy City Stallion of the Cimarron and he received the world’s largest monthly technology
Kurenai no Buta = Porco Rosso 18 (b), 19 (all), 20 (all), 21, 26 (tl), 27, 34 (all), commercials and educational films, and has Association from 1988, and was vice Marea Boylan, Karl Cohen, Nancy Beiman,
ORIGINAL JAPANESE Tieshan Gongzhu = Princess Iron Fan or Ai = Love
Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pompoko = Pom Poko
35, 36 (all), 37 (all), 38, 39 (all), 41 (t), 42, 43 Hollywood Tex Avery Award for magazine. A longtime cartoon buff, president from 1991 to 2001. She is currently
& CHINESE FILM TITLES Princess with the Iron Fan Honoo no Fantasy = A Fantasy of Flames (all), 44, 45, 46, 47 (all), 56 (all), 57 (t), 58 (b), since worked for the feature animation divisions Antran Manoogian (ASIFA-Hollywood),
Shin Takarajima = New Treasure Island
Mononoke Hime = Princess Mononoke 60 (all), 61 (all), 63 (b), 64, 65 (all), 66, 70, 71 Achievement in Animation. Katzenberg is at Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. McCracken was the editor of Animato, a president of the UK office, responsible for
I: The Origin of the Art: pages 30–31 Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi = Spirited Away (b), 80 (all), 81, 84, 85 (all), 86 (b), 87, 88, 89 Benny Gross, Leonard Maltin, Mike Barrier and
Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki = V: The Post-War Era: pages 142–143 Ginga Shonentai = Boys’ Space Patrol (b), 90, 91 (b), 92 (all), 93, 94, 95 (all), 97 (all),
currently the Chairman of the Motion Picture Frank has spoken on animation at schools and popular animation magazine, from 1987 to writing and editing the group’s magazine.
Maho no Pen = The Magic Crayon Mimi no Sumaseba = Whisper of the Heart
& Television Fund. 1991. He has also written about cartoons John Canemaker.
Mukuzo Imokawa, the Concierge Tenrankai no E = Pictures at an Exhibition 98, 124 (all), 125 (tl & r), 128 (b), 129 (all), institutions around the US, in the Caribbean, Since 1993 Pat has also been the European
Suteneko Tora-chan = Tora-chan, the Sen-ya Ichi-ya Monogatari = The Thousand Neko no Ongaeshi = The Cat Returns 131 (b), 146 (t), 147 (bl & r), 148 (all), 154 Chris Robinson would like to thank the
Sarukani Gassen = The Battle of the Monkey and comics for numerous other publications, reporter for Animatoon, a Korean magazine.
and the Crab Abandoned Kitten and One Nights Roujin Z = Old Man Z (b), 155 (t), 156, 157 (c & br), 162 (all), 163 Europe and Asia and has given animation and
(all), 178, 179 (all), 181 (t), 183 (t), 184 (all), Bill Plympton (Foreword) and operates www.harrymccracken.com, a following people:
Hanahekonai Meitou no Maki = Hanahekonai’s Tora-chan to Hanayome = Tora-chan and Cleopatra = Cleopatra, a.k.a. Cleopatra, Queen Metropolis = Metropolis, a.k.a. Osamu Tezuka’s cinematography workshops for the University
New Sword, a.k.a. The Fine Sword the Bride of Sex Metropolis 185 (t), 187 (all), 202 (b), 204 (all), 205 (t),
Bill Plympton was born and raised in Portland, of Miami, VIFX, Cinesite, UNICEF, Gnomon website on cartoons and related topics. Chris Robinson (Author: pages 50–51, I would like to acknowledge an email (13
206, 207 (bl), 209 (all), 218 (b), 236 (all), 241
Taro no Banpei: Senkotei = Taro the Sentry: Ousama no Shippo = The King’s Tail Kanashimi no Belladonna = The Tragedy of San Ge Heshang = The Three Monks (all), 244 (b), 245 (all), 250 (t), 270, 271 (all), Oregon. On graduation from Portland State Digital, Vancouver Film School, Nickelodeon, 74–75, 110–111, 140–141, 172–173, February 2004) from Bordo Dovnikovic
Submarine Dobutsu Daiyakyu Sen = The Animals’ Great Belladonna San Mao Liu Lang Ji = The Wanderings of San 272 (all), 273, 274, 275 (t & bl), 295 (all), 296,
Baseball War Hinotori 2772: Ai no Cosmozone = Phoenix Mao 297 (all), 309, 318 (t), 330, 350, 351 (b) University in Graphic Design he moved to UCLA, San Jose State, Stanford and USC. Dewey McGuire (Author: pages 66–67, 194–195, 230–231, 234–235, 258–259, which is the basis for the section on Zagreb
Kiatu to Mizuageponpu = Atmospheric
Pressure and the Suction Pump Yuki no Yoru no Yume = A Snowy Night’s 2772, a.k.a. Space Firebird Yu Bang Xiang Zheng = The Snipe-Clam Cartoon Research Co./David Gerstein: 40 (t) New York City and began his career creating Currently, Frank is the head of artistic 84–89) 288–293, 362–365) Animation during the 1980s.
Ninki no Shouten ni Tateru Goto Shinpei = Dream Onboro filumu = Broken-Down Film Grapple Many thanks to Joan Borsten of Films By
The Spotlight is on Shinpei Goto
Center for Visual Music: 216 (all), 217; cartoons for publications such as the New York development at DreamWorks SKG Animation. Dewey McGuire is a graphic artist and Chris Robinson writes for Magma magazine
Mori no densetsu = Legend of the Forest The Fischinger Archive/
Usagi to Kame = The Tortoise and the Hare VI: Cartoons Mature: pages 174–175 XI: Renaissance: pages 330–331 www.oskarfischinger.org: 68, 69 (all) Times, National Lampoon, Playboy and He also programs independent films for cartoonist whose artwork has been published in Canada. He has directed many animation Jove for providing details about Soviet World
Sun Wu Kong - Da Nao Tian Gong
Ubasute-yama = The Mountain Where Old Mori no Ongakukai = The Forest Concert (Mandarin)/Da No Tien Gu (Cantonese) = Kido Keisatsu Patlabor = Patlabor: The Movie Central Park Media: 369 (all) Screw. In 1987 he was nominated for an DreamWorks’ "Go Fish Pictures" division. in both the US and Japan. He has contributed festivals, including the 2002 Ottawa War Two propaganda films.
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ushered in a major new art form. The thrilling journey from

such humble origins to the blockbuster movies of today’s CGI
extravaganzas like Shrek and The Matrix had begun, capturing
the imagination of successive generations and embracing the
onslaught of an accelarated technological revolution.

nsed
on. Lice
Covering every aspect of animation from every part of the

ductioToei Animati
.
ns Ltd
world, Animation Art revels in the techniques, the stories, the

,
ueisha
technology and the personalities which have fashioned the

n® Pro
by FUdNStudios/Sh
imatio
development of this modern art form. Jerry Beck has

© Bir
assembled an international team of experts, so whether
you prefer Snow White or Akira, Looney Tunes or
South Park, this is the book for you.
d. 1995
romit Lt
lace & G
an/Wal

dio
© Fleischer Stu
© Aardm

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