Module 14: Past, Present, and Future of Animation

This last module was a bit of an odds and ends thing, which I guess it's fitting because it was listed as like an epilogue. It had three topics: the first was on television animation, from its introduction in the 1950s to the heydays of the 1960s including Rocky and Bullwinkle into the 1980s. Next it went into the art of the film title. Finally it ended with a look at some subversive animation, ones that explored either societal norms or pushed the boundaries of decency. I kind of procrastinated on this module, writing my discussion post the day it was due, so I don't feel like it was as strong as it could be, but eh. I got it done.

Read more »

Module 13: Japan (and the Rest of Asia) and Computer Animation

Hoo boy. This was a MASSIVE module, mainly because it incorporated two huge topics that probably warrant their own modules: Computer animation and Japanese animation. Computers have been a major tool in the production of animation since the 1970s, giving the ability to produce rendered animation with a 3 dimensional look or vector animation. It has taken over not only the field of animated films but also the production of many live action features. The technicalities of computer animation is way beyond the limits of my understanding, but needless to say it has completely transformed the animation industry.

And then there's the realm of Japanese animation, which has gained a massive following of its own. While animation has been in production since the 1910s and 1920s, it didn't really start to take off until the efforts of Osamu Tezuka, who is prolific in both the production of manga and anime. From then it expanded into Japanese culture as anime films and series became a big source of entertainment for the Japanese. And now it is becoming an international interest. I'm a big fan of the films of Studio Ghibli, and from that people seem to think of me as being an anime buff, but I've really cut back on watching anime since getting into the Oscar nominated animated shorts,* while my sisters have taken on the title of true blue anime otaku. It's still an interesting field for me.

*I really should come up with some abbreviation for this term, like ONIS.

Read more »

Module 12: Eastern Europe

Now we've moved to the other side of Europe, to Eastern Europe. This includes the countries of Russia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. I was less familiar with the films from Eastern Europe because only a handful of films had made their mark in the Best Animated Short category, and Alexander Petrov was responsible for four of them. However, the ones that were honored by the Academy is only the tip of a much larger iceberg. Not to mention the films of Eastern Europe are rich in meaning, possibly due to the impact of being behind the Iron Curtain for decades.

Not much to say here. Let's move on.

Read more »

Module 11: Western Europe

Less than 24 hours until the Oscar nominations are announced, which means that a new set of nominees for the Best Animated Short category will be unveiled. That's actually far more interesting to me than the question of Best Picture nominees, although I've been much more active in watching the hopefuls this year than in years past. As far as Best Picture contenders go, I've already seen Argo, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, Zero Dark Thirty, and Les Miserables. If all of them make it then that's seven I've seen already. Nobody knows how many Best Picture nominees there will be, but there's an outside shot that I'll have seen all of the Best Picture nominees before the nominees are even announced, a first for me.*

*Unless of course they choose to include Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amour, and Skyfall. I have yet to see those. 

Best Animated Short is where it's at anyways. Unfortunately I had seen five of the shortlisted films back in November when the shortlist was announced, and I am still at five. I originally predicted Adam and Dog, Combustible, The Eagleman Stag, Paperman, and Tram, but I'm kind of doubting my pick of Combustible. I had picked it because Katsuhiro Otomo is quite a big name in animation after making Akira, and Combustible was one film where there is not even a trailer, and the Academy seems to like to nominate those films that are virtually impossible to watch. However, it is Japanese and with the exception of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, Mt. Head, Howl's Moving Castle, and La Maison en Petits Cubes, the Academy hasn't embraced much in Japanese animation. Plus somebody I talked to that has a vote said he was less than impressed. I know that's only one voter, but Dripped might be a safer vote. It is well designed and pays tribute to a great artist in Jackson Pollack. And that would help because I had seen Dripped, meaning there would be only two of my predictions I'm missing.

Of course the Academy could screw with us and nominate Combustible, The Fall of the House of Usher, Fresh Guacamole, Head Over Heels (I still really want to see that even without a nomination),  and The Longest Daycare. We won't know until tomorrow.
Read more »

Module 10: Canada

"Really, Canada?" you ask, but it's true. Canada has had a surprisingly rich history of animation, beginning with the hiring of visionary director Norman McLaren by the National Film Board of Canada. McLaren had many experimental animation efforts, but really put Canada on the map with his Oscar winning film Neighbours, which revolutionized the pixilation technique. The NFB continued to attract talented animators from around the world, leading to great success at the Academy Awards.

Of course NFB is not the only animation studio in Canada. Radio Canada also made a mark in the world of animation, especially with its flagship animator Frederic Back. And there's also Studio DHX, which contributed...well, you'll see in due time. ;)

The module also included some things about South American animation, which is quite memorable as Argentinean animator Quirino Cristiani made the first full length animated film 95 years ago, but the film was eventually lost. They didn't do much after that except Mafalda, and I didn't include it in the discussion.

Read more »

Module 9: UPA and American Independents

Columbia started out as one of the lesser players in the animation industry, constantly overshadowed by the titans of Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. However, in the 1940s they contracted United Productions of America, a studio founded by former Disney artists including John Hubley. After making a few films with some of Columbia's stock stars, UPA quickly took animation into a bold new direction, and transformed the landscape of American animation. UPA eventually fizzed out after the departure of Hubley, but their style of limited animation became the norm in independent American films over the next 20 years.

Read more »

Module 8: Stop Motion Animation

All of the other previous modules focused on drawn animation, but animation is defined as the creation of the illusion of movement, and that includes another major form of animation: stop motion animation. This is a massive field that includes puppet animation or animation with different media like clay or sand. In fact some of the earliest animated films were done with stop motion animation. This style only became more prolific with improving technology as it is still a viable form of animation with many users.

Read more »

Module 7: Music

Music has always been an important part of all types of films, including animated films. This module focused on the the various animated films that use music as key elements, from the early abstract films of artists like Oskar Fischinger to studio films that center around music as a way to advance its story. Music also plays a big role in animated films in films made in Europe and by independent studios.

Read more »

Module 6: Toons Go to War

America's entry into World War II was a seminal moment in the country's history. It not only lifted the nation out of the depths of the Great Depression, but it also drastically changed the dynamics of the animation industry. Animation studios began dedicating their time and energy in making propaganda films to promote the support for war efforts and poke fun at America's enemies. Of course, the latter also became a controversial issue in today's politically correct society. Stereotypical caricatures are no longer seen as amusing but offensive, whether it's our wartime enemies or minority populations within our country's borders.

Read more »

Module 5: MGM

MGM may not have the prestige of Disney or Warner Bros., but when all is said and done they probably had just as much success as the other studios in both Oscar success and critical prestige. Like Warner Bros., MGM's animation division had humble beginnings, and didn't start to pick up until they hired Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman from Disney. The duo made some successful films for the studio, but the output really became fantastic after they hired a trio of animators in William Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Tex Avery. Hanna-Barbera won over a half dozen Oscars for Fred Quimby mostly on the strength of their Tom and Jerry films, while Tex Avery made the films that rank near the top of the best animated short films.

Read more »

Module 4: Warner Bros

Well, what more is there to say? Warner Bros. started from humble beginnings to become quite possibly the most successful influential and most influential animation studios of the 1940s. With a dynamic team of directors including a young Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones, the Warner Bros. completely changed the comedic landscape in theatrical animated shorts. The memorable cast of characters that include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and a whole host of others explored visual gags, verbal gags, and self-referential humor. That said, I grew up on Disney films so I am still more partial to the Disney films, but I can see the impact that Warner Bros. had. I still say Donald Duck > Daffy Duck.

Read more »

Module 3 - Fleischer and Smaller Studios

If Module 2 was focused on Disney, then Module 3 was focused on all of the smaller studios that the likes of Disney dominated in the 1930s and 1940s. Dave and Max Fleischer were among the most progressive animators of the 1920s and 1930s. Dave created the rotoscope, which allowed him to animate over live action footage, allowing him to make some fairly detailed characters. The Fleischer brothers later created the Fleischer Studios, which never became as big as Disney, but had some fairly revolutionary output especially in the characters of Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor, and eventually Superman. They even released a full length animated feature only two years after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Alas, they eventually faded away in the 1940s, giving away to two other studios that never hit it big but had some popular characters: Terrytoons with Mighty Mouse, and Universal/Walter Lantz Studios with Woody the Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Chilly Willy.

Anyways, onto the discussion

Read more »

Module 2 - Disney

Welcome to Part 2 of my discussion posts from the History of Animation online course I am taking. This module is about one of the biggest animation titans in history: Walt Disney. Disney's early career from the Laugh-o-gram shorts to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was covered in Module 1, so this one deals only with his career after starting his own studio. The one that eventually became a massive corporation that now owns Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilms. It was interesting to see the ups and downs the company had between the debut of Mickey Mouse in 1927 to Wreck-It Ralph in 2012. Of course we're not going to cover all that. This is just going to be the discussion questions.

Read more »

The Hiatus & Silent Pioneers

Well, I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but it seems that I would have to go on hiatus with my reviews. As you know I write my reviews in advance and try to maintain a queue of reviews set to go up every Wednesday. Unfortunately, I have been doing a lot of traveling to interviews and exams and the like, and I just haven't found the time to write any of my reviews. And now my queue is down to zero, and I am just getting started in my travels. So yes, I will be taking a break from posting reviews. Hopefully I can complete all of the traveling I have to do for interviews and still have time to build up a new queue of reviews during this time, and start back up around when the new set of nominees are announced on January 10.

But would this mean that this blog will lie dormant for a month? Absolutely not! As I mentioned in the 1976 review, I have been taking an online course on the History of Animation, mostly in hopes of getting a chance to see Dedalo. That turned out to be a bust, but I did get a good lesson on animation history that goes beyond the Oscar nominated films that I liked to watch, covering the earliest examples of animation to historical pieces of animation in foreign countries. It was an interesting course, made even more so since the professor is somebody who actually worked in the industry. His name appears in the credits for the Oscar winning Geri's Game, selected as my favorite Oscar nominated short film from 1992-2001. Anyways, the course is split up into modules, and most of the course is done with online discussions about the module, of which one of the questions is always "What is the most successful film in this module?" Being unnecessarily verbose when it comes to writing, I wrote research paper-length responses for these discussion questions. I thought it would be a shame to have these discussion topics fall into oblivion in the internet servers at the Academy of Art University, so I figured why not let them fall into oblivion in the internet servers of Blogger. Since the discussion topics have already been written, I figure I can update them every Wednesday and Saturday. That way it would take us through the Oscar nomination announcement.

We might as well start off right now with Module 1: Silent Pioneers. This module explored the beginnings of hand drawn animation, from the early 20th century through the mid-1920s. (Stop motion animation has its own module.)

Read more »