Animation History Notes

**** It's not entirely complete... so make sure you also read and study Zub's handout...

Animation History

• 1944 Clampett：”Buckaroo”, uses extreme exaggeration

• Famous Studio (formerly Fleischer) did the original Casper

• Tex Avery: Droopy Cartoon

- post war, Disney financially shaky, need to make films that make money

- puts together film ‘packages’

- starts to use contemporary music

- target audience turned into teenagers

- “Make mine music”

- Clampett: Book Reveu “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery”

- Tex Avery “King Size Canary”

- Disney – Melody Time (a set)

• Robert Mckimson: Warner Bros famous character contribution – Foghorn Leghorn

• Chuck Jones: “Rabbit Punch”, well established character

• Tex Avery: “Bad Luck Blackie”, top 50 best short animation

• 1949, Chuck Jones did the first Road Runner cartoon, made almost as much as Bugs Bunny, well thought out sequences, little dialogue  international audiences

- After WWII, post war bliss in America, but fear of atomic bomb

- Disney started having educational touch to their cartoons

- “Rabbit of Seville”, Bugs Bunny cartoon, opera

- Chuck Jones did “The Scarlet Pumpernickle”, cameos by characters

• Post war, television was popular, started having cartoons on TV

• Crusader rabbit: first television animation

• TV cartoons: shows must be created cheaply (pre-produced is expensive)

UPA  Fine Artists, uses shapes, very smooth

“Gerald Mc Boing Boing” no lush backgrounds or detailed animation, simple/minimal amount, not realistic

1952  “Feed the Kitty”, by Chuck Jones, WB, Oscar nominated

1952-1954  WB, 3 cartoons (trilogy) featuring Elmer + Bugs + Daffy

Disney  “Toot whistle plunk & boom”, use of UPA style (in wide screen)

1957  TV cartoon, Col. Bleep, who takes interest on earth because of atomic bomb

• WB starts to get simpler on layout and composition, but focus on line quality

• “What’s Opera Doc?”: music, staging

• “Free Radical”: Abstract animation

1959  Rocky & Bullwinkle, first full colour TV Cartoon

1960 Mr. McGoo, only character UPA brought to TV

Hanna Barbera  left MGM to form own animated company (realized TV will be big), developed techniques for cheap animation that doesn’t look bad

Chuck Jones  takes over Tom and Jerry part 2, phasing out of WB, goes to MGM

PIXAR (1984)

- was financed by Disney

- used programmers to mathematically calculate motion (engineering, programming and artist contribution)

* John Lasseter: Andre and Wally B (1989)

- more like physics simulation rather than character simulation

* Story, design, models, animation by John Lasseter: Juxo Jr. (1955)

• Red’s Dream (1987)

• Tin Toy (1988)

• Knick Knack (1989)

• Gerrs Game (1997)

• For the birds (2001)

• One Man Band (2005)

Chris Landreth * Bingo the Clown (1997)

Bill Plympton * Your Face (1989), How to Kiss (1989)

Disney * Runaway Brain (1995) – attempt to reopen shorts department

Don Hertzfelt * Rejected (2000)

*50 Percent Gray (2001)

Louis Clichy * L’amour (2004), done in flash

Gobelins * Burning Safar (2006)

Supinfaoom * Sigg Jong (2007)

3 Act Play

1/ intro – all elements that make the story introduced (who, where, when), ends when the character makes the decision that can’t go back

2/ conflict – any type of conflict, keeps raising the bars

3/ resolution – can leave questions open but needs resolution

Character Arc  somewhere for them to go, character development, something to payoff