Experimentation – The Foundation of Art ---------------------------------------------------------------------

I will begin with the era of experimentation where a number of newspaper artists decided to adapt there simple hand drawn cartoons to the uncharted territory of the moving screen. A move that would prove to be the start of something none of them would have ever expected.

Winsor McCay drew scenes with animated characters against backgrounds across 24 frames every second, but it wasn’t until Ear Hurd that animated characters were drawn on to celluloid or cels, and put on top of a still background. It is also worth mentioning Raoul Barré who was the first to design registration pegs that would allow animators to align their work under the camera.

Emile Reynoud (1844 – 1918) and Georges Méliès (1861 – 1933) are seen by many as the pioneers or fathers of animation, Reynoud the creator of Théâtre Optique and Méliès the artist / filmmaker / magician behind Le Livre Magique. But a strong argument could also be made in favour of stop-motion wizard Edwin S. Porter (the ‘Teddy’ Bears, 1907) and Emile Cohl (1857 – 1938) who was the first artist to produce an animated film using drawings on paper. Also French stop-motion artist Leon Gaumont (1864 – 1946) was made well-known for stopping and starting the camera while altering the scene being filmed.

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces – J. Stuart Blackton (1875 – 1941) ---------------------------------------

Blackton is a true candidate for the title of the father of animation. In 1896 after interviewing Thomas Edison, he was employed as a cartoonist for a series of Edison shorts. But his most famous work is his 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, often credited as the first animated cartoon. A frame by frame technique was employed and the drawing tool was simple chalk. In this simple animation, a man and women are presented on screen. The faces interact and a seamless animation is created.  

Winsor McCay - Gertie the Dinosaur ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blackton’s was also recognized for working as a director of the live – action work on 1911 film Gertie the Dinosaur, by Winsor McCay. McCay who I briefly discussed was, in the words of critic W.Almont LaPeer “The Mozart of Cartoon Land” 1 . Until Gertie the Dinosaur, Zenas Winsor McCay was famous for his New York comic strips Dreams of a Rarebit Friend (1904) in black and white, and the colourful Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905). In 1914 when Gertie first premiered (please see image below left 2), McCay stood beside the screen, and after explaining how his animated film was created he introduced Gertie as “the only dinosaur in captivity”. It was the first film to have a character with emotions, and a storyline. Gertie had personality and behavioral qualities, something no preceding animation had achieved. To create the film, McCay drew 10,000 images onto rice paper and mounted these onto cardboard (please see image below right 3). Then using a machine he could flip the drawings and check his work.

The Rotoscope --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Max Fleischer (1883 – 1972) was a photographer and photoengraver and by 1905 a reputable illustrator. He developed a method to improve the rigid feel and look of animation in theatrical cartoons. He did this with an easel and a projector (please see image below 4). And thus the Rotoscope was born, a tool that would allow animators to trace drawings frame-by-frame and to use for action referencing. The rotoscope projected single frames from a movie strip through the lens of the animation camera onto the animator’s glass drawing surface. The image could then be traced onto paper cels and then re-photographed. In 3D animation today ‘to rotoscope is to create an animated matte indicating the shape of an object or actor at each frame of a sequence, as would be used to composite a CGI element into the background of a live-action shot.’ 5 Fleischer’s Koko the Clown was the first character to be rotoscoped and interact with the ‘real world’ on screen.

Cartoons before Disney - Felix the Cat ------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the most well recognized cartoons of the 1920’s, which can still be seen today, was Felix the Cat. The successful cartoon made famous for Felix’s ability to communicate with the audience was created by Otto Messmer although producer Pat Sullivan has sometimes been credited for its production. Sullivan was seen as the creator and got all the notification, but in truth it was Messmer who drew the key scenes. He worked with Barré, Bill Nolan, Burt Gillett and Al Eugster. “Otto would continually think out loud of new ideas…I don’t know how he did it.” 6 The cat’s popularity was mainly down to his animated acting. He had the ability and freedom to use his surroundings. For example he would use exclamation marks as weapons (Felix Find ‘Em Ickle, 1924). Or to physically change his appearance, for example in Felix in Hollywood (1923) where he impersonates Charlie Chaplin by removing his tail and using it to walk like him. As the show progressed and the stories and settings grew grander, the audience could relate with Felix and feel what he is thinking, he was the intelligent cat, and this seemed to appeal to the audience. Messmer’s protégé Joe Oriolo worked closely with him and soon enough was given a “carte blanche” to create a new Felix. The new Felix had a new personality, image and most notably new characters including ‘The Magic Bag of Tricks, Poindexter, The Professor, Rock Bottom and Vavoom’. 7 The popularity of the character grew even greater and when television was introduced ‘Felix’s image was the very first image to be broadcast over television airwaves.’ 8

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I hope we never lose sight of one thing…It all started with a mouse” 9 – Walt Disney

Walt Disney began by learning animation at the Kansas City Film Advertising Company and hired many artists to work with him on projects such a Laugh-O-Grams a cartoon newsreel. However the Laugh-O-Gram studio became bankrupt but luckily for Disney a final reel was made before the closure, Alice’s Wonderland, and it got him a deal with Margaret Winkler the distributor of Felix the Cat. With this break, Walt Disney and his brother Roy (also his manager) reopened the Disney studio in Hollywood producing a series of Alice Films. But after disagreements with Charles Mintz (1896 – 1940) Winkler’s husband and business partner, over pay for the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (please see image below left 10) designed by Walt Disney, Disney left the partnership in 1928. “He hadn’t lost a rabbit; he had gained a mouse”. 11

However this loss started the most famous cartoon character ever created. He wasn’t anything special. He wasn’t new or unique, in fact he wasn’t even the first cartoon mouse named Mickey. And although when Mickey was created in unclear, it seems that the designer of the most famous mouse in the world was Ub Iwerks (1901 – 1971) a colleague of Walt Disney who studied with him at Kansas City Film Advertising Company, although Walt Disney did originally voice the character. Mickey’s first cartoon appearance was quickly produced given that Iwerks drew 700 animation drawings per day. By the 15 th of May 1928 Mickey Mouse first appeared in Plane Crazy. However due to a lack of interest from major film distributors, a general release did not follow for Plane Crazy or for Gallopin’ Gaucho (1928) the second of his appearances. Disney just didn’t have the brand identity to get the major distributors such as Columbia or Paramount.

But both Plane Crazy and Gallopin’ Gaucho had no sound, and this is what set them apart from Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928) (please see image above right 12), fully equipped with an animated Mickey Mouse with synchronized music and sound effects across a one reel story, the first cartoon to do so (to implement a full soundtrack, sound had been used in cartoons from four years earlier). To produce such an imposing task Walt Disney produced a step-by-step plan where scenes were timed to a predetermined tempo. These were then animated and film, the music, composed by Carl Edouarde was added later. Distribution was finally found through an independent company named Celebrity Pictures owned by Pat Powers and opened on the 18 th of November 1928. Previous to its release “there had been little to distinguish Disney's cartoons from those of his competitors. He was facing bankruptcy when Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer, with long sequences of song and dialogue, took America by storm in 1927.” 13

The audience responded well to Steamboat Willie, so well in fact that two weeks after it’s premiere Disney re-released the cartoon in the largest theatre in the world, the Roxy in New York. And thus the most famous animated character of all time was created, and Disney’s process of sound synchronization with animation set them apart from the other animation studios.

Snow White - Animation in Colour  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although at the time unemployment was high, Disney expanded its staff between 1934 and 1935. And it was on the 21st of December 1937 that Disney released the classic Snow White (please see image below 14). It was a big step by Disney attempting a feature length animated film and many thought that this idea would fail as the audience, who at the time were mostly adults, would not be attracted to a prolonged feature; as they were familiar with only short cartoons. Creating a 70 minute film at a fast tempo like their previous cartoons would have been too frantic to keep the audience interested, so Disney decided to slow down the pace and to concentrate on the animation and personalities of each character.

The animation on Snow White began in 1936 and more than 750 artists worked on the animated film. At least 2 million sketches were drawn and more than 250,000 drawings were used on screen. 15 Although six times over its original budget the film was a major success. Before its release, Walt Disney for the first time, prearranged merchandise for the film. “This was a film that launched an entire industry and changed cinema forever.” 16

Warner Bros and Looney Tunes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Warner Bros are of course another big name in the world of animation. I will not go too in depth about them but will cite some key points. Warner Bros were a family business set up by Harry Eichelbaum who with his brother emigrated from Poland to Canada and then to Youngstown, Ohio where the family name change to Warner. He recruited 3 of his younger brother to join him, Albert, Sam and Jack. 17

After have great success with My Four Years in Germany, the brothers paid $25,000 to move to the Warner Bros. West Coast Studio on Sunset Boulevard.

The Looney Tunes cartoon studio (which had a similar name to Disney’s Silly Symphonies) was set up by Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng and was contracted to Warner Bros. Bosko was a Loony Tunes favourite and because the animation was as good as Disney’s (some of the animators had worked on Oswald the Rabbit with Disney) and their was a popular music soundtrack, Looney Tunes was welcomed by the audiences.

“Through these early Looney Tunes, Harman and Ising would turn Bosko into a near duplicate of Walt Disney's creation, Mickey Mouse, who was then the most popular character in cartoons. Bosko himself looked like Mickey, albeit with long pants and a derby hat, and he had a Minnie Mouse flapper girlfriend named Honey. Bosko even had a Pluto substitute named Bruno. He was also sometimes accompanied by an orphan cat named Wilbur."

Although Harman and Ising based Bosko's looks on Felix the Cat, Bosko, like Mickey, got his personality from the blackface characters of the minstrel and vaudeville shows popular in the 1930s. " Whereas Disney masked Mickey by making him a mouse, Harman and Ising made Bosko a genuine black boy.” 18 (I think this quote really should be mentioned; ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal’ – Pablo Picasso)

In 1933 however, when Freleng started to direct, Harman and Ising broke their contract with Warner Bros and joined MGM, taking the rights of Bosko with them. However, after a few more cartoons, production of the Bosko character was stopped.

Soon enough after many personnel changes Looney Tunes started creating new characters, Porky Pig introduced in I Haven’t Got a Hat (1935) by Freleng and Daffy Duck introduced in Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937) by Tex Avery. In 1938 Ben Hardaway (1897 – 1957) and Cal Dalton (b.1908), Freleng’s successors directed films based around a barmy rabbit who was to become Bugs Bunny, their very own Mickey Mouse.

“What Up, Doc?” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was in Tex Avery’s A Wild Hare (1940) where Bugs Bunny made his first official appearance. It came at a period where Warner cartoons were involving themselves heavily in a loyal display of patriotism by showing cartoons where characters such as Daffy Duck would hit Hitler across the face with a mallet. One of the reasons for Bugs’ popularity is his almost wise and smug character and that he always won. Avery went on to direct 3 more Bugs cartoons; Tortoise Beats the Hare, The Heckling Hare and the All This and Rabbit Stew which at the time was very controversial due to its racial stereotyping.

Chuck Jones often said that Avery was one of the few geniuses in animation. “I learned from him the most important truth about animation…Animation is the art of timing.” 19

Conclusion: The art of animation seems to have derived from the simplest of techniques and this is something I considered before planning my film. The simplest techniques can be the most effective. Not until I had begun my research into 2D animation did I realise that the theory behind the art of movement and timing is a crucial part of character animation which has undoubtedly translated into from 2D to 3D animation.

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1 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p14

2 SOURCE: http://silentmoviemonsters.tripod.com/TheLostWorld/LWGERTIE.html

3 SOURCE: http://www.vegalleries.com/gertie.html

4 SOURCE: http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/maxfleischer.html

5 SOURCE: http://www.3drender.com/glossary/rotoscope.htm

6 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p18

7 SOURCE: http://www.felixthecat.com/history2.htm

8 SOURCE: http://www.felixthecat.com/history2.htm

9 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p20

10 SOURCE: http://adisney.go.com/vault/archives/characters/oswald/a02a3b.jpg

11 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p21

12 SOURCE: http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/film_media/blowups/film_media_009.html

13 SOURCE: http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/film_media/blowups/film_media_009.html

14 SOURCE: http://www.spartan.org/lawrencelawson/stauffer/fairytales/snow-white-sweeping.jpg

15 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p59

16 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p59

17 SOURCE: http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/newsite/HISTORY/STUDIOS/WB/warnerbroshistory2.asp

18 SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/bosko

19 BECK. J. 2004. Animation Art. London: Flame Tree Publishing p128

Bambi Image: http://www.vegalleries.com/dis-dwg/bambi02.jpg

For a full bibliography please click here.