History of Animation Blog 2018

Name: Street of Crocodiles Year: 1986 Company/Designer: Brothers Quay Thoughts: I really appreciate the aesthetic of this film. It is extremely unnerving and the audio really helps portray that feeling. I also like how they incorporated both live action as well as stop motion animation. Stop motion animation to me has always been very creepy and unsettling to watch. This works very well in this particular instance given the unsettling nature of the models themselves.

Name: The Hedgehog in the Frog Year: 1975 Company: Soyuzmultfilm Designer: Norstein Thoughts: This animation is very interesting to look at. It is kind of creepy yet endearing. The animation itself is clunky but it works with this particular art style. I wish they had done a little bit more with the sound design because it can be very lacking at certain parts. I love the art style and the way that the set has been drawn.

Name: The Mind's Eye Year: 1990  Company/Designer: Jan Nickman Thoughts: This was very interesting to watch. I loved the colors and more abstract shapes that interacted with the more funky music. It's crazy to look back on this early computer animation and see how far we have come in just a few years. This is a great animation that showcases the power of the computer back in the earlier days and provides a great time capsule to that time.

Name: Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird Year: 1952 Company/ Designer: Paul Grimault Thoughts: This animation was kind of hard for me to watch. It was just so underwhelming compared to a lot of animations that were coming out at this time. The drawings themselves are very limited and the animation is as well. Its very stiff and characters make very short robotic like movements that are kind of hard to engage with and relate to.

Name: Abandoned Little Cat Tora Year: 1947 Company: Nihon Doga Director: Kenzo Masaoka Thoughts: I love how Detailed the set dressing and drawings are done. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the animation was in color. I also felt like the animation was a bit more robotic then other animations weve looked at around this time. Also the cats are terrifying.

Name: Paddington Year: 1976-1980 Company: FairFilms Created by: Michael Bond Thoughts: I love the drawings in this animation. Every character (besides Paddington) looks like they are cut out of a notebook and I really like that style. The stop motion on Paddington himself is very well done, but i find it very distracting from the rest of the sets. I would enjoy this animation a lot more I think if Paddington was in the same drawn style as every thing else.

Name: Gerald McBoing Boing Year: 1950 Company: UPA Director: Robert Cannon Thoughts: I like the drawing style of this animation a lot. Its kind of underwhelming when it comes to set design though. After seeing Disney's animations using multiplane, its hard to go back and watch something like this with very minimal set design. It is also narrated in that singing poem voice like all Suess stories which tends to get on my nerves after awhile. 

Name: The Old Mill Year: 1937 Company: Disney Directed by: Wilfred Jackson Thoughts: The colors are absolutely beautiful in this animation. The drawing is also very solid and every character is interesting to look at while still remaining proportional. Overall a very pretty animation to look at, but there just is not enough action or anything that really keeps my attention. The music is very pretty and fits the animation well. 

For my cartoon character concepts I immediately thought about having a mischievous little ghost that likes to mess around with a young wanna be ghost hunter. I wanted to keepy the ghost very minimalistic so it would be natural for him to shapeshift into different things. As for the boy character I wanted to have him looking almost over prepared, wearing a big backpack and night vision goggles. I also thought it would be fun to give him a ghost detector wand that works like a metal detector.  I am not very good at drawing at all, but this was my original concept. I gave this to my friend Kiara and told her to draw a version off of my reference.

Name: Rabbit of Seville Year: 1950 Company: Warner Brothers Director: Charles M. Jones Thoughts: Im personally not a HUGE fan of the Looney Tunes Cartoons, but I am still very impressed with the quality of this animation. The drawing is very solid and the colors are bright and vivid. What stood out to me the most I think is they use of secondary action, some part of the characters always seems to be in motion which helps the animation feel more alive as a whole. 

Name: Bimbo's Initiation Year: 1931 Company: Fleischer Studios Designer: Fleischer Brothers Thoughts: This is actually one of my favorite animations of all time. I love how they used shading to give the animation more depth even though it is still black and white.I love the almost hypnotic song that is sung and played. It really adds to the creepy/culty feeling. I also like how they play with anticipation and things usually aren't what they seem. I personally just adore the darker tone of this animation.

Name: Koko's Earth Control Year: 1928 Company: Inkwell Sudios Designer: Max Fleischer Thoughts: I love the drawing in this animation. The thicker outlines and dark shading is just very appealing to my eye. I also really like how they used certain principals as there is good squatch and stretch and anticipation especially when the dog is trying to pull the lever. I also really like the incorporation of live action scenes. 

Name: Farmer Alfalfa Sees New York Year: 1916 Company: Bray Productions Designer: Directed by Paul Terry Synopsis: Alfalfa arrives in New York and is soon spotted by a man who assumes he has a lot of money. The man calls a woman and the woman takes Alfalfa to a night club where he proceeds to get drunk and collapses. While he is passed out she steals his money and runs away. Alfalfa stumbles outside and is picked up by a man and taken to a den where people are playing poker. The other players attempt to cheat but Alfalfas dog steals the cards and helps him to win the game. A fight ensues but Alfalfa is able to escape with his new found wealth.

Name: Steamboat Willie Year: 1928 Company: Walt Disney Studios Designer: Animated by Les Clark, Ub Iwerks, and Wilfred Jackson Synopsis: The animation starts off with Mickey whistling and steering a steam boat only to be confronted by the real captain. Mickey antagonizes the captain and has to run away but slips on a bar of soap, falls into a bucket of water, and is then laughed at by a parrot. The boat stops to get cargo and Minnie appears and misses the boat but Mickey is able to get her on board. She drops sheet music which is the eaten by a goat. Mickey and Minnie use the goat as a phonograph and use different objects on the boat and other animals to play a long with the music.

Name: Optical Poem Year: 1938 Company: MGM Designer: Oskar Fischinger Synopsis: This is an abstract animation. It is set to a musical piece by Franz Liszt and depicts different shapes that are set to be in sync with the music. 

Name: Gertie the Dinosaur Year: 1914 Company: photographed  at  Vitagraph Studios Designer: Winsor McCay Synopsis: McCay accepts a bet to bring a dinosaur to life. He takes over 10,000 drawings and combines them to create the Gertie animation. Gertie comes out of a cave and proceeds to do tricks (lifting legs and bowing) at the command of McCay. She gets distracted by a mammoth that sprays water at her and she proceeds to throw the mammoth in the lake. McCay later gives her a pumpkin and animates himself crawling into her mouth and being carried away. One animation that I think people will still be talking about in 100+ years is Lucas the Spider by Joshua Splice. This animation went viral a couple months back and has accumulated millions of views since release. I think this animation is special and grabbed people attention because of how photo realistic the rendering is. It is also extremely adorable because of the voice acting and subtle secondary action movemen