HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES

OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS

Jon Woronoff, Series Editor
1. Science Fiction Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2004.
2. Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes, 2007.
3. American Radio Soap Operas, by Jim Cox, 2005.
4. Japanese Traditional Theatre, by Samuel L. Leiter, 2006.
5. Fantasy Literature, by Brian Stableford, 2005.
6. Australian and New Zealand Cinema, by Albert Moran and Errol Vieth,
2006.
7. African-American Television, by Kathleen Fearn-Banks, 2006.
8. Lesbian Literature, by Meredith Miller, 2006.
9. Scandinavian Literature and Theater, by Jan Sjivik, 2006.
10. British Radio, by SeBn Street, 2006.
11. German Theater, by William Grange, 2006.
12. African American Cinema, by S. Torriano Berry and Venise Berry, 2006.
13. Sacred Music, by Joseph P. Swain, 2006.
14. Russian Theater, by Laurence Senelick, 2007.
15. French Cinema, by Dayna Oscherwitz and MaryEllen Higgins, 2007.
16. Postmodernist Literature and Theater, by Fran Mason, 2007.
17. Irish Cinema, by Roderick Flynn and Pat Brereton, 2007.
18. Australian Radio and Television, by Albert Moran and Chris Keating, 2007
19. Polish Cinema, by Marek Haltof, 2007.
20. Old Time Radio, by Robert C. Reinehr and Jon D. Swartz, 2008.
21. Renaissance Art, by Lilian H. Zirpolo, 2008.
22. Broadway Musical, by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 2008.
23. American Theater: Modernism, by James Fisher and Felicia Hardison
LondrC, 2008.
24. German Cinema, by Robert C. Reimer and Carol J. Reimer, 2008.
25. Horror Cinema, by Peter Hutchings, 2008.
26. Westerns in Cinema, by Paul Varner, 2008.
27. Chinese Theater, by Tan Ye, 2008.
28. Italian Cinema, by Gino Moliterno, 2008.
29. Architecture, by Allison Lee Palmer, 2008.
30. Russian and Soviet Cinema, by Peter Rollberg, 2008.
3 1. African American Theater, by Anthony D. Hill, 2009.
32. Postwar German Literature, by William Grange, 2009.
33. Modern Japanese Literature and Theater, by J. Scott Miller, 2009.
34. Animation and Cartoons, by Nichola Dobson, 2009.
Historical Dictionary of
Animation and Cartoons

Nichola Dobson

Historical Dictionaries of Literature,

and the Arts, No. 34

The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Lanham Toronto Plymouth, UK
2009
Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, I ~ n h a mMaryland
, 20706
http://w\vw.scarecrowpress.com

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom

Copyright O 2009 by Nichola Dobson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dobson, Nichola, 1976-
Historical dictionary of animation and cartoons / Nichola Dobson.
p. cm. - (Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts ; no. 34)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8108-5830-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-8108-6323-1
(ebook)
1. Animated films-Dictionaries. I. Title.
PN 1997.5.D63 2009
79 1.43'3403 -dc22
2009017015

aTM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSIINISO 239.48-1 992.

Printed in the United States of America

For my husband, Jonny
 Contents

Editor's Foreword Jon WoronofS ix

Preface xi
...
Acknowledgments Xlll

Acronyms and Abbreviations xv

Chronology xvii
Introduction xxxv
THE DICTIONARY 1
Appendix: Academy Award Winners 219
Bibliography 223
About the Author 245
 Editor's Foreword

Once upon a time animation was a relatively simple matter, using fairly
primitive means to produce rather short films of subjects that were
generally comedic and often quite childish. Much of this was just filler
for more serious stuff. Since then, things have changed-and they keep
on changing at a maddening pace that looks like a cartoon being fast-
forwarded. One new technique after another has made it easier, faster,
and above all, cheaper to produce the material. This material has taken
on an increasing variety of forms-not just drawings but also clay and
plastic bricks and other solid matter-that are now being leapfrogged
by computer-assisted techniques and other advanced technologies that
provide different and usually better viewing. Sound has also improved
phenomenally. But the real revolution has been in content. With all due
apologies to Donald Duck and friends, we now have not only feature-
length films-which is nothing really special since it is only a question
of a longer showing time- but also increasingly sophisticated stories,
many still amusing (nothing has truly replaced comedy) but others quite
serious, dealing with heavier issues like the environment, personal and
generational conflicts, warfare, and indeed, the end of life as we know
it. Wow! This is almost mind-boggling, except that there is certainly
more to come, with games and interactive animation and things we can-
not even conceive of yet.
So it is not only a pleasure but almost an obligation to include a His-
torical Dictionary of Animation and Cartoons in the Literature and Arts
series. It starts by tracing the path of animation from its rather simple
beginnings about a century and a half ago to the complicated and hectic
pace it is setting at present. The introduction helps put things in perspec-
tive and not only considers the past and the present but also peers into
the future. The bulk of the information comes in the dictionary section.
Many of these entries deal with leading figures on the technical, creative,
X EDITOR'S FOREWORD

and production side and on some of the companies and groups they have
formed. Others, and this is only fair, deal with the memorable characters
and films they have generated and that sometimes overshadow them.
Then there are entries on the situation in different parts of the world,
and not only the United States, where most-but hardly all-of the
action can be found. The other major contingent presents the various
techniques and technological advances. Along with this there is a bibli-
ography that is particularly useful for readers who want to follow up on
any specific aspects.
This volume was written by Nichola Dobson. Over the past decade,
she has been studying, teaching, and writing on media studies, with a
major focus on animation. Her doctoral thesis at Queen Margaret Uni-
versity in Edinburgh dealt with one of the more intriguing recent forms,
namely the anicom. Now Dr. Dobson is active doing research on ani-
mation and television studies, including recent participation in a joint
project between Scotland and Catalonia on national identity in televi-
sion soaps. A member of the Society for Animation Studies, she is the
founding editor of its journal Animation Studies. Having compiled this
excellent guide to animation, she is bound to take on other challenging
tasks of her own choosing as an independent scholar. Meanwhile, any-
one interested in this increasingly lively and intriguing corner of cinema
will be greatly aided by the insight she has provided here.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor
 Preface

As an aid to researchers, students, teachers, and others with an interest

in animation, this book explores the development of animation, an area
of moving-image history that is often overlooked in favor of cinema
history. The extensive history and rapidly changing technology is re-
flected in the detail of the chronology. The introduction provides an
overview of some of the issues surrounding animation, particularly for
readers who are less familiar with some of the debates.
This Historical Dictionary ofAnimation and Cartoons is not intended
to be an exhaustive encyclopedia or a record of all animation; rather, it
acts as a comprehensive resource. It focuses on the studios, animators,
and films that have played a significant part in the development and
success of animation internationally. Space constraints limit the inclu-
sion of all animated products, and many worthy films and animators
may have been omitted.
Problems of selection in a text of this nature means that there is a
focus on Western animation, particularly on the United States and Great
Britain, and inevitably- but not intentionally-animation based on my
own subjective criteria and expertise. There are other texts available
that examine international animation, notably Giannalberto Bendazzi's
excellent and comprehensive 100 Years of Cinema Animation and Jerry
Beck's (ed.) Animation Art. This dictionary does not try to replicate
these works but complements them and includes areas outside the
realms of cinema and television animation.
 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people who have made this book
possible: my husband, Jonny, without whose support I would never
have been able to complete this work, and my family and friends for
their patience while I undertook this task. I would like to thank Paul
Ward for his initial suggestion that I write this book and for his support
thereafter. Thanks also to Paul Wells for his continued encouragement
and importantly for permission to reproduce (and adapt) the chronol-
ogy from his book Anitnation: Genre and A~cthorship(2002). There are
several people who have made the illustration of this book possible:
Maureen Furniss; Jim Walker, and his colleague Kerry Drumm for
their invaluable contacts, who put me in touch with several animators
who were kind enough to supply me with their wonderful images; Peter
Firmin (and Karen Edwards at Licensing by Design Ltd.), Vivien Halas,
Barry Purves, Tom Lowe, and by extension, Bob Godfrey. Thanks to
Tony Dalton and Ray Harryhausen, Bill Plympton, Joanna Quinn, and
J. J. Sedelmaier, all for their excellent images and support. I would also
like to acknowledge my friends in the Society for Animation Studies,
whose excellent work in the field has inspired, and in some cases con-
tributed, to this book. Finally, I would like to thank Jon Woronoff at
Scarecrow Press who has provided guidance with great patience.
 Acronyms and Abbreviations

2D Two-dimensional
3D Three-dimensional
ABC American Broadcasting Company
ASIFA Association Internationale du Film d' Animation,
or International Animated Film Association
BAFTA British Academy of Film and Television Arts
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
B FI British Film Institute
Cal Arts California Institute of the Arts
CBS Columbia Broadcasting Service
CGI Computer-generated imagery
DVD Digital video disc
HB Hanna-Barbera
ILM Industrial Light and Magic
ITV Independent Television
JJSP J. J. Sedelmaier Productions
LAW Leeds Animation Workshop
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
MOMA Museum of Modern Art (New York)
MPAA Motion Picture Association of America
MTV Music Television
NBC National Broadcasting Company
NFB National Film Board of Canada
PCA Production Code Administration
SAS Society for Animation Studies
UPA United Productions of America
WB Warner Brothers
 Chronology

1798 Etienne Gaspard Robertson creates the phantasmagoria, a so-

phisticated "magic lantern" to project moving images.
1830 Michael Faraday creates the revolving wheel to enhance visual
illusions.
1833 Joseph Antoine Plateau consolidates his theories on the persis-
tence of vision by making a phenakisatascope, in which a revolving
disk with images on it appeared to put those images in motion.
1834 William Horner creates the zoetrope, a revolving drum with
observation slits where the sequence of pictures inside appears to move
when the cylinder is spun.
1839 Henry Langdon Childe enhances the "magic lantern" to incor-
porate dissolving images, and the first implications of one movement
to another.
1853 Franz Von Uchatius creates the kinetiscope, which projects the
illusion of movement in drawings.
1866 L. S. Beale devises the choreuscope, which enables a magic
lantern slide to project moving drawings.
1877 mile Reynaud patents the praxinoscope, which uses mirrors
within a spinning cylinder to create the illusion of moving images. He
advances his work a year later with the ThCAtre-Optique praxinoscope.
By 1880, he creates a projection system.
1890 American print journalism embraces the first cartoon strips,
including Richard Outcault's "Yellow Kid."
~ ~ i i CHRONOLOGY
i

1895 Robert Paul's theatograph, Thomas Edison's vitascope, Max

Skladanowsky's bioscope, and the Lumiitre brothers' cinkmatographe
project moving-film images.
1896 Georges Mkliks uses stop-motion animation-the creation of
movement frame by frame-as part of his repertoire of trick effects.
Melibs is also a "lightning cartoonist" who accelerates the movement
of drawings by manipulating camera speeds.
1897 The Vitagraph Company, cofounded by Albert E. Smith and
J. Stuart Blackton, uses stop-motion animation to create A Visit to the
Spiritualist. Humpty Dunipty Circus is a stop-motion animation using
small jointed figures and moving objects.
1898 The Edison Company patents a stop-motion animation, The
Cavalier's Dream, in which an environment changes while a man is
sleeping.
1900 Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton become increasingly
sophisticated in noticing how the new film medium works, and in
consequence, create effects using stop motion to enhance "lightning
cartooning" as it was executed in vaudeville routines. Their film The
Enchanted Drawing shows a man smiling while drinking and smoking.
Georges Mkliks makes Le Livre Magique, where the drawings appear
to become human beings.
1902 Mkliks uses stop motion as part of his armory of fantasy effects
in A Trip to the Moon. In Fun in a Bakery Shop, Edwin S . Porter uses
stop-motion animation to show loaves made from clay being sculpted
into the faces of famous people.
1905 Spaniard Segundo do Chom6n is one of the first filmmakers to
use models in animated shorts, seen in his films Traili Collisiolz and
The Electric Hotel. He also works with Italian film director Giovanni
Pastrone on a sequence in The War and the Dream of Momi (1916).
1906 J. Stuart Blackton's important transitional film The Humorous
Phases of Furzny Faces shows the way animation can enhance the prin-
ciples of the "lightning sketch." Vitagraph's later film, The Huulited
Hotel (1907),used stop-motion object animation and establishes a mar-
ket for this kind of distinctive filmmaking process.
 CHRONOLOGY X ~ X

1908 The Sculptor's Nightmare is Billy Blitzer7sstop-motion creation

of busts of political figureheads laughing and smoking. French film-
maker mile Cohl's groundbreaking Fantasmagorie is released based
on the surrealist principles of the incoherent artists.
1910 The first example of cameraless animation is used by Arnaldo
Ginna, whose technique of painting directly on film is later adopted by
Len Lye and Norman McLaren.
1911 Landislaw Starewich's three-dimensional (3D) model anima-
tion The Cameraman's Revenge using insects in a love-triangle story
makes self-reflexive comments on the voyeuristic aspects of cinema
itself. Winsor McCay and Walter Arthur produce a film called Winsor
McCay Makes His Cartoons Move early in 191 1, profiling McCay's
technique of using rice-paper cels. McCay's Little Nemo in Slumber-
land is about a little boy's surreal dreams based on his own New York
Times comic strip.
1913 John R. Bray and Raoul BarrC simultaneously evolve systematic
quasi-industrial processes for the production of cartoons in a Fordist
"assembly line" manner. Bray produces The Artist's Dream (1913) as a
pilot for a system that would become an industry standard.
1914 Willis O'Brien produces a short stop-motion animated film, The
Dinosaiir and the Missing Link. Winsor McCay releases his celebrated
film Gertie the Dinosaur, featuring Gertie, a creature that is character-
ized by a full range of personality traits and gestures, like that in his
earlier The Story of a Mosquito (1912). J. R. Bray and Earl Hurd apply
for patents on their "cel-animated" production process.
1915 Gregory La Cava supervises cartoons based on the Hearst Inter-
national comic strips, "Krazy Kat" and "The Katzenjammer Kids." Paul
Terry produces his first Farmer A1 Falfa cartoon. The Edison Company
releases Raoul Barrk's Grouch Chaser cartoons. The Fleischer brothers
experiment with the process of "rotoscoping": animating over live-action
footage.
1916 As part of an increasingly industrialized process in studios,
new innovations speed and enhance the work. Bill Nolan, for example,
creates a moving background beneath foreground cel-animated figure
action.
XX CHRONOLOGY

1917 Argentinean Quirino Cristiani's hour-long myth about social

redemption, El Apdstol, may be recognized as the world's first ani-
mated feature. Dudley Buxton of Britain produces Ever Been Had? a
film within a film, anticipating the idea of the last man on Earth after a
wartime apocalypse. Japanese animation pioneers in 1917 were Seitaro
Kityama, Junichi Kouchi, and Oten Shimokawa, who would inspire
later generations of internationally successful animators. Viking Egg-
eling creates experimental abstract animation in the spirit of a modernist
avant-garde.
1918 Winsor McCay makes The Sirzking of the Lusitarzia, which is
arguably the first animated documentary, although this may have been
preceded by a film made in Britain about the same event that has since
been lost.
1919 Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer make the first Felix the Cat film,
Feline Follies. Messmer's authorship of the Felix films is not acknowl-
edged, however, until much later. In Out of the Inkwell, Max Fleischer
introduces his part-animated, part live-action series featuring Koko the
Clown. One of the first properly organized animation studios in France
is established by Richard Collard (known by the pseudonym "Lortac"),
providing animated inserts for newsreels.
1920 Paul Terry introduces the series Aesop's Fables, which is argu-
ably influential on the Disney "animal" universe and is initially distrib-
uted by RKO.
1921 Hans Richter completes his first abstract experimental work,
Rhythmus 21, partly in collaboration with Viking Eggeling. Oskar Fis-
chinger also begins experimental work, animating changes in color and
shapes as he removed slices from a prepared wax cylinder. Fischinger
also worked with cutouts and silhouettes. Walter Ruttman released
his first abstract animation, Lichtspiel Opus I, which anticipated his
Opera series in the following two years. Walt Disney's first cartoons,
the Laugh-0-Grams series, were adaptations of fairy tales, two of
which-Puss in Boots and The Four Musiciarls of Bremeri-actually
feature Disney's own animation.
1922 John R. Bray releases a series of cartoons, Coloriel Heeza Liar,
based on the exploits of President Teddy Roosevelt. Viking Eggeling
creates his most influential work, The Diagonal Synzphony (1922).
 CHRONOLOGY xxi

1923 The Fleischer brothers make a groundbreaking four-reel educa-

tional film, Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Walt Disney forms his own
company and produces The Alice Comedies; he reverses the Fleischer
brothers' conceit in the Out of the Inkwell series and puts the live-action
figure of Alice in an animated environment.
1924 Painter Fernand LCger's influential avant-garde work, Ballet
Michanique, which includes full animation painting directly onto film,
is released. The Song Car-Tunes,a series of films made by the Fleischer
brothers, displays popular songs featuring a "bouncing ball" device that
moved along the lyrics while cinema audiences sang along to the piano
accompaniment.
1926 Lotte Reiniger's lyrical silhouette cutout animation The Ad-
ventures of Prince Achmed has a significantly different aesthetic from
the emergent animated cartoon in the United States, and lasts some 65
minutes.
1927 Walt Disney introduces Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character
series, whose design anticipates the far more successful Mickey Mouse.
The prolific Japanese animator Yasuji Murata uses cel animation and
creates a Disneyesque animal universe.
1928 The first known pornographic cartoon, Eveready Harton in
Buried Treasure, was released, probably made in New York by a cross-
studio ensemble of notables that may have included Max Fleischer, Paul
Terry, and Walter Lantz, and possibly made for Winsor McCay's birth-
day party or as a stag film. The Disney Studio releases Plane Crazy, The
Gallopirz' Ga~icho,and Steamboat Willie; these Ub Iwerks-designed
and animated shorts defined the Disney style and echoed contempo-
rary events-Plane Crazy, Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing; Gaucho, the
prominence of Valentino; and Steamboat Willie, which remains a land-
mark in animation as the first fully synchronized sound cartoon and is
known for the introduction of a mischievous Mickey Mouse.
1929 Walt Disney's Skeleton Dance is released as the first of the Silly
Symphonies series. Paul Terry establishes his own studio, Terrytoons,
producing over 1,000 cartoons by 1952.
1930 The first Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Looney Tune, Sinkin' in the
Bathtub-an obvious parody of Disney's Silly Symphorzy, features
Bosko, by Harman-Ising. Max Fleischer creates his first incarnation of
xxii CHRONOLOGY

Betty Boop in Dizzy Dishes, though her features later changed. Walter
Lantz produces the first Technicolor cartoon sequence in a full-length
live-action color feature, King of Jazz.
1931 After leaving Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks releases Flip the Frog,
less successful than his Disney series, that is distributed by MGM. The
first Merrie Melodies cartoon, Lady Play Your Marzdolin, is a further
example of animation's intrinsic relationship to popular music.
1932 Mary Ellen Bute and Leo Thurmin experiment with the concept
of drawing with electronically determined codes, the first form of com-
puter animation. Oskar Fischinger continues his experiments with "vi-
sual music," including Composition in Blue ( 1 935), which is arguably
an inspiration for Disney's Fantasia (1 940). Disney won the first Oscar
for Animated Short Films with Flowers and Trees, which had been
three-quarters made in black and white and was ordered to be remade
into fully three-strip Technicolor.
1933 Disney produces the most fully formed "personality" animation
with The Three Little Pigs, whose signature ditty, written by Frank
Churchill, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" became a rallying cry
against the damaging effects of the Depression. The Fleischer brothers'
surreal take on the Snow White fairy tale, Betty Boop's Snow White-
featuring Betty, Koko, and Bimbo as well as a rotoscoped performance
from Cab Calloway singing "St. James Infirmary Blues"-is released
and labeled "cartoon noir." Max Fleischer also introduces Popeye the
Sailor, the popular blue-collar sailor.
1934 Honeymoon Hotel was released as the first Merrie Melodies
cartoon. Donald Duck appeared in his first film, The Wise Little Hen,
and became the Disney Studio's most popular character. Alexander
Alexieff and Claire Parker create their first "pin screen" animation,
Night on Bald Mountain, utilizing the lighting effects upon a 1,000-
pin screen, where different levels of pins were raised to create an image
and photographed one frame at a time. Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising
create the first Harman-Ising cartoon, The Discontented Canary, for
MGM, called "Happy Harmonies."
1935 Alexander Ptushko's politicized puppet animation,A New Gulliver,
made with molded wax dolls, updates Swift's story with Gulliver as a
champion of an oppressed proletariat and demonstrating the benefits of
modernization in the industrial landscape. The first color Mickey Mouse
cartoon, The Band Concert, is produced and may be viewed as a summa-
tion of Disney's stylistic combination of personality animation, situational
story-telling and gag construction, and image-music synchronization.Len
Lye's stylish and innovative abstract film A Colour Box, sponsored by the
General Post Office (Great Britain) and culminating in information about
parcel post costs, is produced.
1936 Walt Disney explores a town-and-country theme in The COUIZ-
try Cousin, comparing rural innocence with urban sophistication. The
Fleischer brothers produce the first extended-length cartoon short, Pop-
eye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor. Len Lye completes a puppet
film, The Birth of a Robot (1936), and Rainbow Dance (1936), featuring
a human figure and varying color combinations.
1937 Norman McLaren's abstract film Love on the Wing advertises
air mail and is viewed as "too Freudian" by a British government
minister who saw sexual connotations in the imagery. Walt Disney
inaugurates the first use of the multiplane camera in a short animation,
The Old Mill, to create realistic perspective and movement through the
depth of field. Disney also releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,
first thought of as "Disney's folly," though it advances the animation
medium. A strike occurs at the Fleischer brothers' studio, signaling the
first full impact in the struggle for unionization within the animation
studios, a fate that befalls the Disney Studio four years later.
1938 A prototypic "Bugs Bunny" appears in Porky's Hare Hunt, but
Frank Tashlin has argued that the real design basis for Bugs was in
Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare (1935).
1939 The Fleischer brothers release their first full-length feature,
Gulliver's Travels. Hugh Harman's part-Disneyesque "cute," part-
documentary "real" evocation of the consequences of war is seen in
Peace on Earth. The film is nominated for an Oscar and the Nobel
Peace Prize, and endorsed by many social contexts for its antiwar mes-
sage. Disney releases Pinocchio, arguably their masterpiece, described
as a gothic tour-de-force exploring the moral, social, and material world,
and illustrating the complex processes of redemption and fulfillment.
XXIV CHRONOLOGY

1940 Paramount signs CmigrC George Pal to produce a series of 3D

puppet animations, Puppetoons, using his replacement technique of
creating multiple different body parts as they move through a sequence;
he was assisted by Ray Harryhausen. The Bauhaus movement influ-
ences John Halas and Joy Batchelor, who establish Halas and Batchelor
Studios in England. The Larkins' studio also opens. Tex Avery creates
Bugs Bunny and his signature catch phrase, "What's up, Doc?" in The
Wild Hare. Hanna-Barbera creates the first Tom and Jerry cartoon, Puss
Gets the Boot. Walter Lantz introduces Woody Woodpecker in Knock
Knock.
1941 Walt Disney's controversial feature Fantasia, using animation
to illustrate different pieces of classical music, is released. Critics ar-
gue that the film summarizes the best and worst of Disney's art. John
and James Whitney create experimental animation allied to synthetic
electronic sound tracks in Variatiorzs. The Fleischer brothers introduce
a series of hyperrealist, modern graphic cartoons in Superman. French
master animator Paul Grimault's debut film, The Passengers of the
Great Bear, is released. Frank Tashlin makes an outstanding cartoon,
The Fox and the Crow, for Columbia's Screen Gems series. The Disney
strike effectively ends the first Golden Age of the animated cartoon in
the United States. Striking workers who leave his studio move to work
for UPA, effectively becoming the first radical splinter group. UPA
then goes on to modernize the cartoon short.
1942 Paul Terry's Terrytoons introduce Mighty Mouse. Weatherbeaten
Melody by Hans Fischerkoesen, who may be regarded as one of the
most important artists working in Germany during the war, is released.
Chuck Jones uses "smear animation" to move more abstract figures from
extreme pose to extreme pose in The Dover Boys. Disney's wartime
propaganda shorts feature Donald Duck in The New Spirit. Disney anima-
tion was also used in Frank Capra's Why We Fight series throughout the
war. Paramount buys out the Fleischer brothers and establishes Famous
Studios, but continues to produce the popular Popeye and Supernzarz
cartoons.
1943 Norman McLaren establishes the Animation Unit at the Na-
tional Film Board of Canada, one of the world's most significant pro-
ducers of innovative and amusing animation thereafter, and produces
 CHRONOLOGY XXV

Hen Hop. Tex Avery consolidates his key themes of sex, speed, status,
and Disney-bashing in Red Hot Riding Hood, a modern revision of the
fairy tale. Avery also makes his first Droopy cartoon, Dumb-Hounded.
Bob Clampett's take on the Snow White story in Coal Black and de
Sebben Dwarves, featuring a range of black caricatures, is released.
Warner Bros. makes the SNAFU series of cartoons for the armed ser-
vices, featuring an inept recruit. More affecting, if problematic, Warner
Bros. propaganda can be seen in D a f i arzd the Commando (1943). Leon
Schlesinger sells his studio to Warner Bros., after which all Looney
Tunes and Merrie Melodies are produced in color.
1944 The Industrial Film and Poster Service, forerunners to United
Productions of America (UPA), produces Hell Bent for Election on be-
half of Franklin D. Roosevelt, directed by Chuck Jones. Warner Bros.
continues to produce propaganda with Herr Meets Hare (1944), Plane
D a f i (1944), and famously, Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944), with its
controversial "grenade ice creams."
1946 Disney's controversial part-animated, part-live-action retell-
ing of the "Uncle Remus" stories, Song of the South, is released and
attracts National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) protests. United Productions of America (UPA) is estab-
lished and releases The Brotherhood of Man, a racially sensitive film
that brings the studio national attention. ENIAC, the world's first pro-
grammable electronic computer, is introduced by the U.S. military at
the University of Pennsylvania.
1947 Oskar Fischinger uses oil painting on Plexiglas to animate color
and form synchronized to Bach's Brandenburg Concerto in Motion
Painting #I. Jordan Belson, one of America's West Coast avant-garde,
completes a silent black-and-white movement painting on film, Trans-
mutation. Jiri Trnka's puppet animation The Czech Year signals the rise
of a new Eastern European animated tradition.
1948 Norman McLaren's experimental film Begone Dull Care,
described by painter Pablo Picasso as "Finally, something new," is
released. Tex Avery modernizes his work in Little Rural Riding Hood.
Chuck Jones makes the first of his existential fables featuring the Road
Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Crusader Rabbit is the first cartoon made
specifically for television by Jay Ward and Alex Anderson.
XXV~ CHRONOLOGY

1951 Robert "Bobe" Cannon and UPA radicalize the cartoon with
Gerald McBoing Boing, using modern art principles and new concep-
tions of story-telling to challenge the dominance of the Disney, Warner
Bros., and MGM styles. This new graphic style wins an Oscar.
1952 Norman McLaren's antiwar film Neighbours, using pixilation-
the animation of live-action movement frame by frame-is released.
1953 Ray Harryhausen creates extraordinary 3D creature animation
in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, elevating a throwaway B movie to
commercial and artistic success. Disney's short history of music, Toot,
Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, adopts a similarly modern graphic style as
UPA. Disney did not approve of this departure from the established
aesthetic, although it did win the Oscar. Chuck Jones deconstructs the
cartoon form in Duck Amuck, one of Jones' best known. 3D cartoons
are introduced in Melody, the "Adventures in Music" short released by
Disney.
1954 Halas and Batchelor release a persuasive full-length feature
adaptation of Orwell's parable about the Russian Revolution, A~zimul
Farm. Disney closes its cartoon shorts division.
1955 James Whitney, brother of John, makes a visual tour-de-force
optical invention that seeks to evoke the spiritual agenda of the "sacred
machine" alluded to in the title of Yarztra. Art Clokey's abstract clay
animation Gumbasia, which anticipated his Gumby television series,
is released. John and Faith Hubley form Storyboard Studios, advance
animation practices, and create films addressing global social problems.
Paul Terry sells Terrytoons to CBS, and Gene Deitch restructures the
studio.
1956 Zagreb Studios is established, prioritizing modernist art prin-
ciples in its "reduced animation" strategy; The Playf~illRobot by Dusan
Vukotic is the first film released by the studio. MGM closes its short
cartoons unit.
1957 Chuck Jones directs What's Opera Doc? his classic compres-
sion of Wagner's 14-hour "Ring" cycle, into seven minutes. Hanna-
Barbera ushers in the era of television animation with R14jf and Ready
and the cost-effective "limited animation" processes that drew from
UPA and Zagreb aesthetics, but found less favor with the artists of the
 CHRONOLOGY X X V ~ ~

Golden Age. John Whitney created the first primitive analogue com-
puter graphics.
1958 Bugs Bunny's only Oscar-winning cartoon short, Knighty
Knight Bugs, is released.
1959 UPA makes its first full-length feature, 1001 Arabian Knights.
1960 Heaverz and Earth, an extraordinary extended film artwork
made over 10 years between 1950 and 1960 by Harry Smith, one of the
postwar West Coast avant-garde group, is released. Hanna-Barbera's
The Flintstones becomes the first animated prime-time sitcom, and a
vindication of the company's cost-effective reduced-animation tech-
niques. Disney uses the Xeroxing process in its production of Goliath 11
for the first time and uses it throughout its feature 101 Dalmatians.
1961 Czech Karel Zeman adapts Gottfried Biirger's novel Baron
Munchausen. Zagreb artist Dusan Vukotic's film Ersatz becomes the
first animated short from outside the United States to win an Academy
Award.
1962 Ivan Sutherland at MIT creates Sketchpad, a software program
with enhanced computer graphics.
1963 Jason and the Argonai~tsis released, probably the zenith of Ray
Harryhausen's career, including a sequence in this where the Argonauts
do battle with six animated skeletons. Astro Boy is the first Japanese
animated series to appear on American television, directed by Osamu
Tezuka at Mushi Animation Studio.
1964 Hanna-Barbera produces Jotzny Quest, one of the best science
fiction series on television for children. The Pink Panther is the first
DePatieIFreleng "Pink Panther" cartoon for theatrical distribution.
1966 Filmation introduces Superman, another version of the super-
hero cartoon.
1967 Norman McLaren's masterpiece Pas de Deux-the animation
and photographic manipulation of a dance sequence-is released. Ter-
rytoons1Paramount closes its animation studios.
1968 John Whitney's computer-generated masterpiece Permutations,
made during a period of research for IBM, is released. George Dunning
xx~iii CHRONOLOGY

and his British-based team radicalize the animated feature with The Yel-
low Submarine, using the Beatles' songs, modern graphic design prin-
ciples, and the full embrace of counterculture activities and outlook.
1969 Scooby Doo is introduced, one of Hanna-Barbera's most popu-
lar and enduring cartoon characters. Experimental animator Jules Engel
heads the department of animation at the influential California Institute
of the Arts (CalArts). Warner Bros. ceases the theatrical distribution of
cartoons.
1972 Ralph Bakshi radicalizes American cartoon animation by the
explicit depiction of adult themes and behavior in the guise of his coun-
terculture cat in Fritz the Cat. Walter Lantz's studio closes, having been
one of the longest surviving from the Golden Age. George Gerbner's
research group finds that animated cartoons are the most violent televi-
sion genre.
1974 John Whitney Jr. continues his father's work, establishing a
company to explore the possibilities of 3D computer-generated imagery
for entertainment applications.
1975 Veteran British animator Bob Godfrey's inspired musical docu-
mentary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, GREAT, featuring innuendo, pa-
thos, and politics-the calling cards of Godfrey's long career in British
animation-is released. Evan and Sutherland Computer Co. produces
the first fully computer-generated (CG) images to the U.S. Maritime
Administration for research and development in training situations (the
company had been established in 1968 to develop and exploit burgeon-
ing CG technologies). George Lucas founds Industrial Light and Magic
(ILM) to create computer-controlled effects for Star Wars. Will Vinton
establishes Claymation as a crossover method between cartoon prin-
ciples and avant-garde modern expression, radicalizing both in Closed
Mondays.
1976 Caroline Leaf's adaptation of Mordecai Richler's autobio-
graphical writings, The Street, uses a sand-on-glass metamorphosis
technique, which enhances the representation of recollection and
stream-of-consciousness association. The International Telephone and
Telegraph Company funds Richard Williams' film Raggedy Ann and
 CHRONOLOGY XX~X

Andy in order to revitalize the animation industry. This was an unsuc-

cessful initiative.
1978 Asparagus, arguably one of the finest animated films of all times,
is Suzan Pitt's challenging piece that vividly explores the creative pro-
cess of women artists in sensual colors and provocative imagery. Craig
Decker and Mike Gribble form Mellow Manor Productions, a streetwise
underground promotions company that literally took to the streets to
distribute handbills about pop concerts and animation programs.
1979 Voted the greatest animated film of all time by fellow animators,
Yuri Norstein's Tale of Tales, an elegiac contemplation of childhood,
memory, and indigenous cultures, has a luminescent Rembrandt-like
aura, and works as a vindication of art as the most truthful embodiment
of human feeling. Don Bluth and a number of colleagues leave the Dis-
ney Studio in protest at the decline of standards and investment. Bluth
establishes his own studio and seeks to continue the Disney tradition in
a more classical style.
1982 The first full-length feature to include 3D computer anima-
tion, Tron, is released by the Disney Studio, but Tron's self-reflexive
engagement with a narrative based in a computer itself, and its pioneer-
ing aesthetic, proved too innovative for Disney audiences. Czech Jan
Svankmajer releases Dimensions of Dialogue, a masterpiece of politi-
cal allegory partly based on the mannerist style of Prague painter Ar-
chimboldo. Channel 4 in Britain uses a pioneering computer-generated
imagery (CGI) logo; Channel 4 becomes a significant sponsor, funder,
and promoter of animation in Britain.
1984 The Disney Studio produces its first computer-animated test
short, Wild Things. Over 25 minutes of computer-generated animation
was included in the feature adventure The Last Staq?ghter.
1985 Students at the University of Montreal take three years to
create Torzy de Peltrie, an emotive short of a pianist singing a torch
song; while capturing a human figure successfully, the short merely
emphasizes the difficulties of creating a persuasive human face in CGI.
The short did, however, inspire the then-industry-standard Softimage
3D animation software. John Lasseter's pioneering Pixar short The
Adventures of Andre' and Wally Bee is produced, seeking to align new
XXX CHRONOLOGY

computer graphic idioms with the traditional cartooning skills of the

Golden Age. Richard Abel's CGI advertisement Brilliulice brings CGI
into the commercial mainstream, as the distinctive software created by
Abel was later purchased by Wavefront.
1986 Jimmy Murakami's TVC production of Raymond Brigg's anti-
nuclear story When the Wind Blows is released. Japanese feature auteur
Hayao Miyazaki creates a spiritual masterwork, Laputa, the Flying
Island, engaging with childhood innocence and the enduring power
of nature. Joanna Quinn's Girls Night Out, a hilarious film featuring
a middle-aged Welsh housewife Beryl on a mischievous night out at
a male strip show, is released. The Quay brothers produce one of their
most well-known films, Street of Crocodiles, an adaptation of Bruno
Schulz's short story.
1987 Ralph Bakshi and John Kricfalusi, among others, makes a new
series of Mighty Mouse: The New Adverztures, modernizing the mouse
and making many pop cultural references. Alison de Vere's dreamlike
philosophical enquiry The Black Dog is made.
1988 Katsuhiro Otamo's breakthrough anime, Akira, is released, de-
picting a violent postapocalyptic world, and state-of-the-art sequences
of science fictional invention. Robert Zemeckis and Richard Williams
create the then state-of-the-art combination of cartoon and live action
in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, celebrating the Golden Age of cartoon
production by combining many cartoon characters from different stu-
dios in one film. The Outrageous Animation Festival emerges out of
the TournCe initiative, which had been extant since 1965 and endured
in various guises, privileging each development in animated and avant-
garde cinema.
1989 The Little Mermaid is the first of the Ron ClementsIJohn Mus-
ker trilogy of films that reinspired Disney's fortunes in the feature
market by returning to a "classical style" but augmenting it with what
was traditionally a Warner Bros. type of "knowingness" and irony. The
pseudopod created for James Cameron's The Abyss by ILM anticipates
Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day in foregrounding the use of
CGI as a characterlnarrative device on its own. ILM's work wins the
Best Special Effects Oscar in 1992.
1990 America's most dysfunctional family, The Simpsons, radicalizes
the American sitcom, and returns animation to prime time for the first
time since The Flintstones. Disney's aesthetic makes a significant shift
in using CGI coloring techniques in The Rescuers Down Under.
1991 Nick Park's first Oscar-winning animation, Creature Comforts,
is part zoo documentary, part hidden-camera show; the film establishes
Aardman Animation, a company founded by Peter Lord and David
Sproxton, on the world stage. John Kricfalusi's The Ren and Stimpy
Show, a knowing revision of TV-era cartoons in the spirit of more
radical work from the Golden Age-most particularly, the Fleischer
brothers and Bob Clampett-initially revitalizes television animation
but is ultimately censured for its provocative and sometimes extreme
content.
1992 Disney's fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast becomes the first full-
length animated feature to be nominated for an Oscar in the feature
section. The film encompasses CGI that is highly successfully in its
ballroom dancing sequence between Belle and the Beast. Turner's Car-
toon Network begins broadcasting.
1993 Fully persuasive computer-generated dinosaurs in Jurassic Park
prompt the debate about the ways in which the drive for "realism" both
enhances yet hides the craft of the animator and the art of animation.
Henry Selick's dark Christmas allegory The Nightmare before Christ-
mas promotes 3D stop-motion animation as a contemporary feature
aesthetic, and features Jack Skellington, a tribute to Kay Harryhausen's
skeleton warriors. Reboot is the first fully computer-generated anima-
tion television series.
1994 Disney's phenomenally successful, Hamlet-influenced African
myth The Lion King provokes controversy in relation to its representa-
tion of "black" characters.
1995 Mamoro Oshii's persuasive exploration of postmodern cy-
berculture, Ghost in the Shell, addressing posthuman identity and the
search for an authentic sense of "soulw-the "ghost" in the 2lst-century
machine-is released. The first fully computer-generated animation
feature film, Toy Story, is released, featuring Woody, the pull-string
cowboy, and Buzz Lightyear, a gadget-laden space astronaut. Richard
xxxii CHRONOLOGY

Williams' 30-year investment in creating his own auteur vehicle, The

Thief and the Cobbler, ends in profoundly disappointing circumstances
as additional footage and re-editing by new owners and distributors
undermines and invalidates the ambition and considerable achievement
of the film.
1996 Toy Story wins a Special Achievement Oscar.
1997 1 Married a Strange Person, by Oregon iconoclast Bill Plymp-
ton, moves on from his deadpan Tex Avery in shorts like Your Face
(1987) to fully consolidate his excessive and surreal depictions of sex
and violence, here working as a none-too-veiled attack on media-driven
consumer culture. John Lasseter's A Bug's Life reworks The Seven
Samurai while Dreamworks SKG's Antz explores social metaphor in
its engagement with the role of the individual in a hierarchical, highly
conformist social infrastructure.
1999 Part live-action, part CGI story, Stuart Little features a state-of-
the-art computer-generated mouse who seamlessly integrates with the
codes and conventions of his live-action environment. BBC's quasi-
documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, featuring persuasive di-
nosaurs in their natural habitats, is broadcast. Barry Purves' exemplary
musical biography Gilbert and Sullivan-using puppet animation, an
important interrogation of "Britishness," and a theatrical tour-de-
force-is released. John Lasseter releases his sequel to Toy Storjl in Toy
Story 2. Former Simpsotzs director Brad Bird makes The Iron Giant, an
adaptation of Ted Hughes' poetic novella, using CGI.
2000 Disney's first all-digital feature, Dinosaur, a film respectful of the
"dino~aur'~ tradition in animation, heralds the creation of a new digital
facility. Internet animation grows exponentially.Icebox, an online anima-
tion studio, presents the subversive Zombie College, created by Futuratna
producer Eric Kaplan. Unbound Studios consolidates online work with
Nickelodeon. John Kricfalusi creates animation on his "Spumco" web-
site. Mickey Mouse returns to his first cartoons since the 1950s in Micke.y
Mouseworks. Don Bluth's failed postapocalyptic feature Titan AE is al-
legedly responsible for the closure of Fox's Animation Unit.
2001 Hironobu Sakaguchi's feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
uses photorealist performance animation, echoing the aesthetic of its
 CHRONOLOGY xxxiii

video-game source; enhancing the television series using computer

game aesthetics coupled with "motion capture" are Roughnecks: Star-
ship Troopers Chronicles, Max Steel, and Dark Justice. Damon Albarn
creates a 2D cartoon pop-vehicle with Gorillaz, which recalls a whole
tradition of animation from the early 1930s onward in which the il-
lustration of songs is the underpinning aspect of the cartoons. The first
Animated Feature Oscar is awarded to Shrek, by Dreamworks SKG.
Waking Life, directed by Richard Linklater, combines live action with
rotoscoping by animator Bob Sabiston, adds to the development of ani-
mation for an adult audience, and highlights the technology.
2003 Warner Bros. star cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy
Duck (among others) are revived in the part live-action, part animated
feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Sylvain Chomet directs Les
Triplettes de Belleville (Belleville Rendezvous), which was highly
praised for its unique style and minimal dialogue.
2004 The Polar Express becomes the latest animated feature to at-
tempt to re-create photorealistic characters by using a process involving
motion capture. Though the film was successful at the box office, it was
criticized by many for its eerie characters, due to the lack of movement
in the eyes.
2005 Aardman Animation and Nick Parks produce Wallace and
Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,the first feature-length film star-
ring Parks' award-winning and highly popular duo.
2006 Richard Linklater makes his second feature using digital rotoscop-
ing, A Scanner Darkly, based on Philip K. Dick's science fiction novel.
2007 Persepolis, an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical
comic book about growing up in Iran, is released to critical acclaim; the
film is mostly in black and white with a distinct visual style to emulate
the original drawn comic and is nominated for an Academy Award.
2008 Director Ari Folman's biographical feature-length documentary
Waltz with Bashir, depicting the confusion and horror of the 1982 Leba-
non war, is released to critical acclaim.
 Introduction

This Historical Dictionaly of Animation and Cartoons is intended

to provide an overview of the animation industry and its historical
development. The animation industry has been in existence as long
(some would argue longer) than cinema, yet it has had less exposure in
terms of the discourse of moving-image history. This book introduces
animation by considering the various definitions that have been used
to describe it over the years. A different perception of animation by
producers and consumers has affected how the industry developed and
changed over the past hundred years.
The global dominance of the Disney Studio from the United States
has also had an impact on how people see and understand animation.
By looking at the origins of animation, we can chart the development
of a global industry, examine how different countries have influenced
others, and explore the impact that new technology has had on the
changing industry. This introduction goes on to discuss issues faced
by the industry largely concerning perceptions and definitions, and in
recent years, suitability of content, and ends with some considerations
for the future of animation in terms of the technological developments
that have always driven the industry and the changing attitudes to the
art form.
The dictionary continues to address many of these themes and issues
by looking at specific examples in animation and attempts to contex-
tualize them within the larger medium of moving images. One of the
key categories of entries in the book is that of the producer or director
of animation, the artist without whom the movement would not be cre-
ated. Likewise, there is an emphasis on the different types and methods
of animation, all of which can produce very different results and each
with its own problems of time and cost. Considerable space is also
dedicated to the pioneers of animation, as the history of the form has
XXXV~ INTRODUCTION

been extremely influential and is important to consider when looking at

more modern issues.

DEFINING ANIMATION

The definition of animation has long been the subject of some debate,
increasingly so as new technologies blur the boundaries between anima-
tion and live-action cinema. One of the most basic definitions of anima-
tion comes from a dictionary definition outlined by Philip Denslow at
the fourth Society for Animation Studies conference, as

a: a motion picture made by photographing successive positions of inani-

mate objects (as puppets or mechanical parts), b: animated cartoon, a mo-
tion picture made from a series of drawings simulating motion by means
of slight progressive changes. (Pilling 1997, 1)

Though this is the simplest and most common understanding of what

animation is, Denslow admits i t has limitations in describing the versa-
tility of the form. But even animation scholars find it difficult to agree
upon a clear definition. Many favor the well-known definition posited
by animator Norman McLaren, "Animation is not the art of drawings-
that-move, but rather the art of movements-that-are-drawn" (Solomon
1987, 1 1). Likewise the very definition of "animatev-- with its origins
in Latin, animatus, to give life to-is a very simple notion of bringing
movement to the inanimate. This is also problematic, as it has been
argued by Alan Cholodenko (1991) that, if this is the case, then all film
is actually a form of animation, rather than the commonly assumed op-
posite position. The dictionary definitions refer to animation in terms
of the process itself rather than as an art form separate from live-action
film, and these definitions can vary depending on history, production
methods, audience perceptions, and advertising.
Consequently, some prefer a more useful definition provided by the
Association of International Film Animation (ASIFA), namely that
animation is any film that is "not live action." This definition is of par-
ticular use as technology advances and animation forms develop away
from "traditional" dictionary-inspired terms. As new technology has
developed, the industry too has developed to adopt the new techniques
 INTRODUCTION xxxvii

and methods. However, this explanation becomes problematic when

computer-generated special effects are heavily used in live-action films.
The definition of animation is once more complicated by the dominance
of live-action cinema. The animated effects used within can become
secondary to the live action, further marginalizing the animated form
in audience perceptions, as a tool for effects rather than a form in its
own right.
The lack of a clear definition of animation is not just a problem for
animators when describing and marketing their product, but it also
presents difficulty for the audience, whose perception is a key element
in genre definition. Animation has long been subject to the hegemony
of the Walt Disney Studios, with a large part of audiences automatically
associating animation with the ubiquitous studio's output. Connected
to that is the perception of the form as something that is solely a form
of children's entertainment. For a long time, the majority of animation
literature concerned the work of the Disney Studio, which-though
it clearly played an important role in animation history-suggests to
scholars and audiences that it is the only animation worthy of examina-
tion.
Another problem of definition is that animation has different mean-
ings to those who produce it and those who receive it. For example,
many animators consider animation an art form that is highly creative,
while others who produce films with clear narrative structures often
consider animation as a filmmaking technique as well as an art form.
There is also the marginalization of animation as a lesser art form by
live-action filmmakers. This marginalization in favor of live-action film
and the difficulties of definition, even between animation scholars, has
led to a relatively narrow range of literature being produced on the sub-
ject, though this is gradually changing. Literature on the topic is fairly
limited, with the majority of texts either focusing on historical accounts
of the studio systems (particularly Disney, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
and Warner Brothers), animation techniques, or on specific animators.
Those texts that discuss genre in animation have not generally included
television animation.
With all of these issues surrounding an agreed definition of anima-
tion, some would argue that it is necessary to have one specific defini-
tion in order to signal to those outside the animation community what
the form is. However, it could also be argued that it is the very fluid
X X X V ~ ~ ~INTRODUCTION

nature of the form, and the resulting study of it, that attracts interest,
and that one single definition is not necessary. Likewise, the changes
in the technologies for image manipulation and creation would suggest
that definitions would need constant updating in order to take these
advances into account.
In this book, animation is considered to be all of the above defini-
tions: it is movement that is drawn, inanimate objects brought to life
through models and drawings, and film that is "not live action." By
including all of these definitions, the book demonstrates the variety and
scope of animation as an art form, a narrative filmic device, and a tool
for creating what cannot be captured in live action.

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

AND THE DOMINANCE OF DISNEY

Since the first sound-synchronized animated caltoon, Disney's Steam-

boat Willie in 1928, the Walt Disney Studio has largely dominated the
animation industry worldwide. The film was made at a turning point in
cinema technologies when new studios were desperately competing and
Warner Brothers had released the first "talkie," The Jazz Sitzger (1927).
Many of the U.S. studios reacted by emulating the antics of Mickey
Mouse and his sound films, and popular music was used as a narrative
device in Disney's Silly Symphonies series, quickly followed by the other
animation studios, including, perhaps more famously, Warner Brothers'
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Likewise, when Disney moved into
features with Stzow White atzd the Seven Dwarves (1937), other studios,
such as that of the Fleischer brothers, ventured into that area with Gulliv-
er's Travels (1939). This period, generally described as the Golden Age
of animation, is celebrated among some historians as a time when a great
quantity of animation was produced, at a reasonably high level of quality,
innovation, and comedy. It should also be considered that the audiences
for animation were cinemagoers who saw these (short) films as part of a
larger group of films. Still, the opportunities to create animation through
the studio system rose to significant heights in the 1930s and 1940s. It
was during this time that some of the most loved and lasting stars of
animation-such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry, Donald
Duck, and of course, Mickey Mouse-were established.
 INTRODUCTION XXX~X

As the popularity of these characters increased, the animators who

created them became well known and were treated as stars themselves;
Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, the partnerships of Harman Ising and Hanna-
Barbera, as well as Walt Disney all became the biggest names in anima-
tion. The period also saw an early dominance of Disney globally as the
films were exported throughout the world, and in many cases proved to
be quite influential-all the more so since there were so many of them,
both features and short films or "cartoons."
During World War 11, the foreign markets essentially became closed,
and afterwards many other countries sought an expansion in their do-
mestic animation production. Disney, like other studios, faced industrial
unrest and experienced a strike that saw the departure of many of its
finest talent and the entry of a new workforce that required training.
The Golden Age came to an end and with an increase in costs, the
rising popularity and competition from television saw studios such as
Warner Brothers and MGM closing their animation divisions in the late
1950s and early 1960s.
However, despite these changes (and many ups and downs over
the years), the Disney influence has continued; the company remains
internationally successful, with the ability to adapt to new technologies
and redirect its efforts into projects that generate income, such as mer-
chandise, theme parks, television productions, and more recently the
re-release of its back catalogue on DVD. It has also continued to act as
a distributor, including recently forging an important relationship with
the extremely popular Pixar studio, the Disney name appearing large
alongside the animation studio, essentially maintaining its dominance
over the most successful contemporary studio in the United States.
Disney's position in the animation industry has also led to a (largely
Western) view of animation as being solely a form of children's en-
tertainment, particularly in the past 50 years. In many cases, animated
productions are indeed intended for a young audience, but animation
did not start out that way. Trick films and lightning sketches were gen-
erally performed to an adult vaudeville audience. Though some films
were made with children in mind, many animators applied the yardstick
of a successful gag: if it made them laugh, it was good. The studios
(particularly Warner Brothers and MGM) were full of adults making
films that they would enjoy, and because the films were part of a feature
bill, a large part of the audience would have been the same age as those
XI INTRODUCTION

who created them. During the World War I1 years, the studios produced
propaganda films for the troops, with a particular focus on their adult
male target audience. Disney's features did have frightening elements
within them (particularly early on), but its films were increasingly made
for families and children and were marketed accordingly.
Despite a decline in the industry in the 1980s, the Disney Studio
continued to try to capitalize on its legacy; the "house of mouse," as it
is known, has increasingly diversified its market, not least dominating
children's and preteens' entertainment. Disney's continued presence re-
inforces the perception of animation in general audiences who have not
perhaps had access to any alternative animation. Similarly, since 2000,
other studios have been trying to emulate Pixar's success by creating
family friendly features using computer-generated imagery (CGI). De-
spite this increase in films, they are all trying to capture the same fam-
ily market, again dominating the cinemas (and television) with mostly
child-oriented animation.

THE STORY OF ANIMATION

Animation shares its origins with film history because both emerged
from experiments into the creation of the moving images that were
abundant in the late 1800s. Many of the earliest technologies were
European inventions to create and project images, and these developed
rapidly until the turn of the century. Touring acts brought the magic of
the moving image to the world by the Lumikre brothers, Emile Rey-
naud, and Thomas Edison, all demonstrating the wonder of the new
technology while constantly trying to improve their machines. Eventu-
ally, the two forms diverged-film captured and projected live action,
and animation created movement from inanimate objects, particularly
drawings and models.
The animation industry took off around the world (in varying stages)
with the pioneers trying to discover the best, most efficient, and cheap-
est methods to create and exhibit the new moving pictures. It began
with "trick" stop-motion films and then moved on to the filming of
thousands of drawings with incremental moveme~its,the technique
preferred by Winsor McCay and seen in his Little Nemo (191 1). One of
the key sources of material for the new animators was the newspaper
comic, or cartoon, strip; many people had previously read them and
now audiences were keen to see the familiar characters move. Likewise,
many new animated characters were later translated into comic strips as
a form of merchandise.
The technology developed quickly with cel animation coming into
use as early as 1914, only I0 years after J. Stuart Blackton's "lightning
sketches" using crude stop-motion. This new technique had an enor-
mous impact on the industry, and numerous studios and individual ani-
mators were able to create moving drawings quickly without having to
reproduce every single movement. The process-still in use-became
shorthand for drawn animation, commonly referred to as simply "cel."
The technology continued to develop with the Fleischer broth-
ers' early motion-capture device, the rotoscope, and later with Walt
Disney's multiplane camera that enabled the animator to create depth
of field on a flat film background. The next development was sound
synchronization, which brought new life to the silent era films accom-
panied by musical scores and dialogue cards. The new use of sound was
the making of some studios and the undoing of others, such as that of
Pat Sullivan, who disliked the new technology despite the popularity of
his star, Felix the Cat.
The 1930s and 1940s saw the start of a boom in Hollywood ani-
mation, and around the world new studios began to follow from the
imported images they saw. During World War 11, studios consolidated
their efforts to create war-effort propaganda, after which studios con-
tinued under new government regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union, whereas largely in the West they returned to commercial busi-
ness as usual.
New modern art forms were influencing animators and inspiring
experimental avant-garde films, as well as lending a new modern-
ist aesthetic to more mainstream productions such as the new United
Productions of America (UPA) studio's Gerald McBobzg Boing. This
change in style was very popular and saw a shift in the dominance of
the hyperrealist principles set by the Disney Studio.
As the new technology of television became more popular, the
demand for children's and animated programming increased, initially
met by repackaging popular old shorts. However, the effect of this new
broadcasting technology was a decline in cinema audiences; several an-
imation studios closed. Out of the remains of MGM, the newly founded
xlii INTRODUCTION

Hanna-Barbera studio began creating series specifically for television

audiences, both for children and later for families, with their prime-time
hit The Fliiztstones in 1961. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, there was
an increase in children's programming, mainly scheduled on Saturday
mornings and after school, although these shows arguably declined in
quality as they increased in production volume.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Disney feature animation slowed production,
as Walt concentrated on other projects; with his death in 1966, the stu-
dio experienced a decrease in releases, and those that were made were
for children. This changed somewhat in 1968 with George Dunning's
Yellow Submarine, based on the music of the pop group the Beatles,
and for a young adult audience. Ralph Bakshi produced Fritz the Cat
(1972), the first X-rated animated feature, based on Robert Crumb's
counterculture comic. The film generated strong reactions but Bak-
shi took this as a positive outcome and followed up with other adult
features. This essentially demonstrated that there was an audience for
adults and encouraged less of a focus on children's stories in animation,
though the idea was slow to reach the mainstream.
During the 1970s, animators were experimenting with computer
technology to generate images. The applications of this were applied at
filmmaker George Lucas' purpose-built studio to create visual effects
for his live-action science fiction epic Star Wars in 1977. Lucas' new
company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), went on to further develop
the technology that would lead to fully computer-generated animation
being used.
Disney also ventured into computer technology and in 1982 released
the science fiction movie Tron, which was a mixture of CGI and live
action, the first feature to use fully computer-generated effects. Disney
continued experimenting with the technology; meanwhile, Disney
alumnus John Lasseter was one of the founders of the new digital
animation studio Pixar in 1984. Developed out of ILM, the new studio
began creating fully digitally animated shorts with The Adventures of
Andre' and Wally Bee in 1985.
Television animation in the United States was firmly rooted in
children's cartoons in the 1980s. Several new studios competed in this
market and changes in broadcast and advertising regulations saw an
increase in shows that were direct-marketing tools for toys and other
merchandise, notably Filmation's He-Man series.
 INTRODUCTION xliii

A significant development in the 1980s was the launch of the U.S.

Music Television network MTV, which not only showcased animated
music videos such as Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer (produced by the
British studio Aardman Animation) but also provided an outlet for inde-
pendent animators such as Bill Plympton and Mike Judge. This support
encouraged a new generation of animators to create films for an adult
audience that could be different and cutting-edge.
In 1989, a series of animated shorts was developed into a half-hour
sitcom structure and the landscape of television animation, and anima-
tion audiences, changed. Matt Groening's The Simpsons revitalized a
forgotten genre and popularized animation on television for adults. At
the same time, feature animation and the Disney Studio experienced a
resurgence in success, first seen with The Little Mermaid (1989) and
later with The Lion King (1994), which was at the time the highest
grossing animated feature.
This renewed excitement in feature animation (in the West) reached
new heights in 1995 when Pixar released its first feature, the fully
computer-generated Toy Story. The film was extremely successful and
produced a sequel in 1999. Featuring a fairly sophisticated narrative
and engaging and charming characters, the film was enjoyed by adults
as well as children, and once more it seemed that adults could enjoy
animated features at the cinema. Pixar became dominant in feature ani-
mation in the United States, and its success inspired a number of other
studios to try to capitalize on this with their own adult (or rather, family)
features, such as Dreamworks' Shrek (2001) and its sequels. Shrek was
a successful comedy with enough satire to keep adult audiences enter-
tained, but later sequels were less successful and the copycat films from
other studios were poor in comparison to the Pixar productions.
Animation became increasingly popular with more and more ani-
mated segments in live-action films, more animated advertisements,
and generally more animation in theaters and on television. This is due
not only to the renaissance in television animation and theatrical fea-
tures but also to the audiences, which are largely comprised of people
who grew up with the Saturday morning cartoons and are accustomed
to animation in all forms. These fans have become the producers of
animation and have knowledge of animation history. Animators such
as John Kricfalusi show the influence of earlier works through their
own efforts.
XI~V INTRODUCTION

The industry's development and growth was recognized when the

Oscars introduced a new Academy Award for Animated Feature in
2001, which was awarded to Shrek. The new category saw international
films given recognition in Hollywood, with the second award to one of
the top Japanese directors, Hayao Miyazaki, for Spirited Away in 2002.
The industry has continued this progression; more animated features
have been released and more animation has been produced for televi-
sion worldwide at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st. New
technological advances have undoubtedly had an impact on this, just as
the initial technology did at the turn of the 20th century.

GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD

Although those aforementioned developments largely focused on the

United States, the global animation industry was developing at a similar
rate. In Europe, the early moving-image pioneers in France and Great
Britain led to the quick development of animation industries throughout
those countries, though less popularized and exported than the anima-
tion from the United States. Some of the earliest European animation
was the most diverse in terms of style and production methods, such as
German animator Lotte Reiniger's cutout silhouette puppets and the ab-
stract shapes of Swede Viking Eggeling. In general terms, the animation
in Europe in the early days of the industry was much more experimental
and perhaps more concerned with the artistry of the technique rather
than the drive for entertainment that was found in the United States.
Although there were some differences in the animation produced
in Europe, much of this became influential in the United States, and
as such played a large part in the development of the industry overall.
German animator Oskar Fischinger was known for his abstract films,
which he described as "visual music," and was invited by Walt Disney
to contribute to the epic feature Fantasia (1940). A number of Euro-
pean animators such as Alexandre Alexieff from Russia and Norman
McLaren from Scotland (and later Paul Driesson from the Netherlands)
moved to Canada and were pivotal in the development and success in
the new animation division of the National Film Board (NFB).
During World War 11, Europe and Asia, much like the United States,
saw an increase in the use of animation in propaganda and information
 INTRODUCTION XIV

films. The use of government funding continued in many areas after

the war and played a key role in supporting the industry, particularly in
Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary and those in
the Soviet Union. After the war, the political and monetary fallout could
be felt in much of the animation produced, with many films containing
political messages, either deliberately for the ruling government or by
way of the artist's subversion.
In Asia, the animation industry was largely closed due to the devasta-
tion of the war, but by the mid-1950s there was a resurgence, which-in
Japan, in particular-saw vast developments in animation and the
introduction of TV animation. Elsewhere in the region, homegrown
industries began developing; in South Korea, there was such an increase
in production that they have become one of the biggest producers of
animation, much of which is produced for other countries. In Japan, the
animation industry continued its successful growth in television and fea-
ture animation, and in 1988 found international acclaim with the science
fiction feature Akira. The film brought anime to international attention,
establishing a relationship that would develop over the next 20 years, to
the point where anime films would be some of the most influential ani-
mations and Japan one of the world's leading producers of animation.
In Britain, the majority of commercial animation in the 1960s and
1970s was produced for children's television in a variety of genres from
adaptations of classic fairy tales to comedy series, and thanks to Gerry
Anderson's extremely popular Thunderbirds series, science fiction. In
the 1980s, British television's Channel 4 was instrumental in the de-
velopment of the careers of several animators who would go on to win
awards around the world. In the case of Aardman Animations, their early
work with the channel set them on a course of success that continues.
The technological developments in animation have largely followed
the same pattern throughout the world; in many areas, such as India,
these new computer technologies helped to build an industry that was
slower to develop than some of its neighbors. Globalization essentially
helped the spread of animation as new audiences acquired access to it.
This helped to raise awareness of diverse animation styles and tech-
niques and has improved the market for transnational viewing. What
was once perhaps a hallmark of a national "style" of animation is now
influencing other animators, seen most obviously in the Japanese anime
style now widely adopted in the United States.
XIV~ INTRODUCTION

ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

Despite this long and varied history-which in terms of quality of pro-

duction, volume of production, and levels of commercial and artistic
output, runs parallel to cinema history-animation history is often over-
looked, as either part of a larger film history or on its own as a separate
entity. This can be largely attributed to issues of definition, which as
previously suggested is often confusing to scholars and audiences alike,
and raises issues with perceptions of animation outside the industry.
Animation has often been looked upon as film's "poor cousin" due to
its comedic content and its "cartoony" appearance so appealing to chil-
dren, and was not taken seriously. The majority of early animated films
were vaudeville-style gags (there are also examples from the silent era
of animated pornographic films, thought to have been created for stag
parties) for an adult, cinema-going audience. Although the majority of
early animated series were adaptations of fairy tales or fables, there was
no specific "children's" audience in the way that has developed since
the 1950s and 1960s.
The codes and regulations that censor and govern film content only
came into being when cinema really took off in the 1930s, but even then
cartoons was largely perceived by those in the regulatory committees
as "harmless," and no close attention was paid to them until the mid-
1930s when animation increased in production and thus visibility. The
audience has been varied throughout the development of animation but,
as previously suggested, the dominance of the Disney Studio's output
for children created a perception of animation as something less than
film. This attitude was perhaps reinforced with the rise of television
animation that was aimed specifically at children and had merchandis-
ing to go with it. Though Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat and George
Dunning's Yellow Sitbmaritze found their intended adult audiences in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, these were not mainstream changes. In
Eastern Europe, many films were made for children but with more sub-
versive political agendas essentially smuggled into the highly regulated
industry. Japanese animation has received more positive attention, with
distinct genres and markets for different, varied audiences.
With the success of the prime-time series The Simpsons and MTV
shorts, adult audiences in the West became more accepting of the form
in the late 1980s, and many more shows were produced over the next
20 years. In 2001, the Cartoon Network recognized this market and
launched "Adult Swim," a nighttime slot dedicated to broadcasting
new and innovative animation specifically for an adult audience. The
success of this time slot was replicated throughout the world with other
versions in Italy, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, Germany,
South Africa, and Great Britain.
The increasing use of CGI and animation in features-such as Rich-
ard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scarzner Darkly (2006) and
the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix (1999)- has led to a renaissance
of the form and with it a more accepting view of animation as some-
thing distinct from Disney cartoons. There is a danger that as more CGI
is used in live action, animation will become "part" of film, with little
to distinguish it. However, the more ubiquitous animation becomes,
the more attitudes may change, and perhaps the literature will reflect a
change in status.

FUTURE PROSPECTS O F A N I M A T I O N

Since the first experiments in image making, animation has constantly

evolved with new technologies and continues to do so into the digital
age. Digital animation has taken off with studios solely working on
computer technology; even Disney has closed its traditional hand-
drawn animation studio in favor of digital technology. The technology
enables efficient creation and manipulation of the images, with the abil-
ity to quickly correct errors or change something without ruining too
much work. It also allows animators to create 3D worlds more easily
than if they were drawn.
The boundaries between animation and live action have begun to
blur with the increasing use of CGI to the point that it is often difficult
to distinguish what is CGI and what is live action. Although there are
concerns that animation will lose its distinctiveness in the commercial
sector, live-action film could also be said to face the same challenges if
the animated effects are more efficient and cost effective than using real
sets and models. As animators strive to re-create perfect photorealism,
they may eventually make actors redundant; however, this seems to be a
long way from happening. Several attempts in feature films and even in
shorts prove that there are still issues in the process where the "actors"
~ l ~ i i iINTRODUCTION

are unconvincing with an odd "dead-eye" appearance. This push for

realism is only one aspect of the future of animation; others use digital
technology to create other production techniques such as Bob Sabiston's
Rotoshop method. Likewise, artists are using digital technology to create
virtual puppets that are manipulated by computer rather than by hand, or
to produce 2D animation more efficiently.
Despite the drive to digital production methods, many animators re-
main unconvinced and prefer more traditional methods. Several anima-
tors known for their "sketchy" style, such as Bill Plympton and Joanna
Quinn, still produce their animation by hand and with great success.
Likewise, the Japanese Studio Ghibli continues to produce features
using hand-drawn animation, which it feels has a better look. Anima-
tion is becoming so ubiquitous that there seems to be an audience for a
variety of methods and styles. It appears that animation in commercials
is increasing, as is the use of animated segments in live-action shows,
though this is often in comedy. Animated art installations are also in-
creasing, changing how people perceive both art and animation's part
in it.
One of the major developments in aninlation since 2000 has been in
changes in broadcast methods. The rise of multichannel television has
provided more space for animation, both traditional comedy and more
alternative productions on specific comedy channels and animation-
based networks. Cable channels face fewer broadcasting restrictions
than traditional networks (particularly in the United States) and as
such are able to provide suitable platforms for animation. As well as
increased television channels, the Internet is increasingly becoming the
home of cutting-edge animation.
Previously, most animation was exhibited by theatrical release, fes-
tivals, or on television, but the rise of computer technology has seen
an increase in independent animation distributed on the Internet. This
animation is then seen worldwide, free from the restrictions of tradi-
tional broadcasting and costs. Any creator of animation can show his
or her work in this manner, finding new audiences in a way that was
previously impossible, and receive more immediate feedback and fan
interaction. This new form of distribution has seen a large variety of
animation types from the increasingly popular Flash animation to stop-
motion using Lego bricks to the manipulation of other animation in
video games to create new narratives known as machinima.
 Animation in video games is also becoming increasingly sophisti-
cated, and the two markets are experiencing convergence in the creation
of new computer-generated environments that allow users to create their
own narratives. These applications have inevitably attracted attention
from the traditional broadcast networks, which seek to promote these
new creations. Thus, Web animation provides more commercial op-
portunities for those animators who want to move into more traditional
forms of exhibition. Still, many Web animators prefer to use the space
to express themselves without any forms of censorship or control, and
through merchandising they can generate income. It also provides spacz
for educational development where students can utilize the interactivity
of the Internet to display their works in exhibition formats.
All of these new technological opportunities for animation contrib-
ute to the continued history of this very dynamic form. The animation
industry could arguably be in the throes of a new Golden Age world-
wide, though this will be difficult to assess fully without the benefits
of hindsight.

REFERENCES

Cholodenko, Alan, ed. 1991. The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation. Sydney:
Power Institute of Fine Arts.
Pilling, Jayne, ed. 1997. A Reader it?Animation Studies. London: John Libbey.
Solomon, Charles. Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation. New ed.
New York: Random House Value. 1994.
 The Dictionary

AARDMAN ANIMATION STUDIO. The studio was founded by Pe-

ter Laird and David Sproxton and was established in Bristol, Great
Britain, in 1976. The studio specializes in three-dimensional (3D)
stop-motion animation using Plasticine, a type of modeling clay.
The studio wanted to create animation that would appeal to all age
groups and began by creating The Amazirig Adventures of Morph as
part of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) children's art
program Take Hart ( 1977-1 983).
The studio was commissioned in 1982 by the British television
network Channel 4 to make a series of films based on real-life con-
versations. Entitled Conversation Pieces, these five-minute shorts
were similar to films Aardman Animation had previously made for
the BBC in 1978. In 1985, animator Nick Park joined the studio
full time, at which point he was able to finish his grad-school film A
Grand Day Out, starring his most well-known characters, Wallace
and Gromit.
The studio continued to work on a wide variety of projects, in-
cluding in 1986 the award-winning music video for Peter Gabriel's
Sledgehammer, collaborating with David Anderson and the Quay
brothers. But it was a return to the films based on conversations that
put them in the spotlight, after Channel 4 commissioned a series of
five-minute films, Lip Synch, using vox pops.
The series included Nick Park's Creature Comforts, which won
the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1990. Park was
able to follow this success with his next film starring Wallace and
Gromit in 1993's The Wrong Trousers, which earned Park his second
 Academy Award. The third installment featuring the duo, A Close
Shave, in 1995 was also awarded the Best Animated Short Oscar.
In 1998, the studio returned to television with its first postwater-
shed program, Rex the Rwtt (directed by Richard <;oleszowski) for
BBC2. In the late 1990s, Aardman Features was established in a
separate Bristol studio to produce feature-length films. It produced
Chicken Run in 2000 (directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park), which
was at that point the most successful British film ever. Following this
success, the studio joined with U.S. studio Dreamworks to jointly
produce features, moving into computer-generated imagery (CGI)
with the feature-length Flushed Away (2006), though this agreement
ended in 2006.
The studio created an Internet series, Angry Kid, in 2003 and in
2005 followed up the highly successful Creature Comforts film with
a new series for ITV. In 2005, Aardman released its second feature
film, Walluce and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,directed by
Nick Park and Steve Box. The film was highly successful and won
the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The studio continues production,
though it suffered a warehouse fire in October 2005 in which a great
number of old props were lost though no new material. In 2007,
Aardman signed a three-year distribution deal with Sony Pictures En-
tertainment. The studio continues to produce advertisements, which
it has been making since the company began.

ABSTRACT(I0N). The term abstraction is a relative one but in ani-

mation terms can be described as the creation of images that suggest
a concept rather than an attempt to be representative of real life. The
films tend to focus on rhythm and movement themselves and how
they relate to each other, using a variety of shapes and forms; as such,
abstract films are considered by some historians as "true animation"
(Moritz in Wells 1998, 28). There is often a lack of a clear narrative
structure; the films are intended to be interpretive and representa-
tive of the artist. Examples include Norman McLaren's Hen Hop
(1940), Oskar Fischinger's Kriese (Circles, 1933), and Len Lye's
A Colour Box (1935) and Particles in Space (1979).
McLaren's Boogie Doodle ( 1 9 4 ) has been described as a film that
emphasizes expression as a response to "external stimuli" rather than
 ACADEMY AWARDS 3

derived from a structured narrative. The images rely on the response

of the viewer. John and James Whitney were also well known for
their abstract films such as Lapis (1965), which mixed new computer
technology with old film techniques to create the series of images in
the film.
Abstract animation has a tendency to be classified as art as opposed
to theater and television animation that is created for mass audiences
and as such is displayed and consumed differently. It is generally cre-
ated by independent animators whose work is not widely distributed.
The films are also often classed as "experimental films" rather than
animation, even though elements of the image can be animated.

ACADEMY AWARDS. The Academy Awards, or Oscars as they are

commonly known, are the annual awards given by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States for achieve-
ment in the film industry since 1929. Awards are presented in a cer-
emony held in Los Angeles every January. Awards are determined
by secret ballots of Academy members derived from a short list of
nominees. The awards ceremony has grown in popularity from the
once-private event to radio broadcast, and in 1953, television broad-
cast. The number of awards has increased over the years from an ini-
tial 15 to 25 with the addition of Best Animated Short Film in 1931
(though it was originally called "Short Subjects, Cartoons") and
Best Animated Feature category added in 2001. The awards range
from technical aspects of filmmaking such as editing and sound to
acting and direction. The biggest award is considered to be Best Pic-
ture, though the only animated film to be nominated in this category
was Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Walt Disney won 22 awards in his career, including a posthumous
award in 1968, and he earned an Oscar in each of the first 12 years.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM) Tom and Jerry series won seven
Oscars during the series' run. The awards were largely dominated by
U.S. productions until the 1960s, with the exception of the nomina-
tion of Norman McLaren's A Chairy Talc in 1957. The nominees
and winners since the 1960s have included productions from around
the world and represent a wide range of different animation styles
and techniques.
4 ADAPTATION

ADAPTATION. Stories remade or adapted from their original (often

literary) source or remade in the same format-for example, a film
of a film-are adaptations. Some of the earliest animated cartoons
were adapted from newspaper comic strips such as Winsor McCay's
"Little Nemo" and Charles Bower and Raoul Barre's "Mutt and
Jeff' series.
Adaptations are commonly seen in animation from folklore and
fairy tales typified by the Disney Studio, such as the Brothers
Grimm (Snow White) and Hans Christian Andersen stories (The Little
Mermaid). Adaptations of fables were common in early animation,
specifically the Aesop's Fables series produced by Paul Terry and
later Van Beuren.
Other literary sources adapted in animation include Charles Dick-
ens' A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted by numerous studios
and animators over the years from Disney to Jim Henson's Mup-
pets, Gulliver's Travels by the Fleischer brothers, Animal Farm by
Halas and Bachelor, and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
adapted by Ralph Bakshi, to name a few.
In Japan it is common to adapt manga into anime, such as
Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984).Other
examples include Dr. Seuss films, such as How the Gritzch Stole
Christmas! produced by Chuck Jones, and recently Philip K. Dick's
A Scanner Darkly (2006) by Richard Linklater and Bob Sabiston.
In Western Europe, adaptations have been very successful, with
the best-known examples being Astbrix from the immensely popular
series of books by Rend Goscinny and Albert Underzo from France,
and the long-running Belgian series Tintin by Herge. Both characters
have lasted longer than many of their contemporaries and have ap-
peared in various formats, including animated features in the case of
Aste'rix and an animated television series of Tintitz.

ADULT SWIM. In 2001, the U.S. cable channel Cartoon Network

launched a late-night slot branded "Adult Swim" with a tag line "no
kids i n the pool." The time slot runs from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. and
broadcasts new and cutting-edge animation, generally comedy. The
slot opened with the anicom Home Movies, which was later joined
by Family Guy. As well as comedy animation series, Adult Swim
 ADVERTISING 5

also aired several anime series, including Cowboy Bebop, though

the frequency of anime has been reduced over the years. The slot has
become something of a shocvcase for new animation and has become
internationally successful with other subsidiary Cartoon Networks
adding it to their lineup. In some countries, other channels are given
licenses to air the section, such as in Great Britain where it was
broadcast on the cable channel Bravo until July 2008. Adult Swim is
shown in Latin America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New
Zealand, Germany, Spain, Russia, and Italy among others.

ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, THE. Die Geschichte des

Prinzen Achmed, by German animator Lotte Reiniger, was released
in 1926 and was the first feature-length animated film in Europe
(predating Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by
11 years). The film was animated using Reiniger's signature silhou-
ette puppets, accompanied by a background by abstract filmmaker
Walther Ruttman. Carl Koch (Reiniger's husband) and their friend
Berthold Bartosch were also involved in making the film that Reini-
ger had been invited to make by a Berlin banker named 1,ouis Hagen.
Hagen had seen Reiniger's previous film, made while she was part
of the Institute of Cultural Discovery, and wanted her to make the
film for him independently of the institute. He created a studio for
her near his home.
The animation technique was cutout puppets in black paper, backlit
to create "shadows." The people, animals, and objects were animated
using the technique, also known as "Chinese shadows."
The film was very successful, particularly in France. It consisted
of several fables from The Thousand and One Nights that were
adapted for the film. The story featured chases and escapes by
princesses, love stories, and fights between good spirits and devils.
The film was accompanied by narration and was said to have mixed
drama with the sense of gentleness that Reiniger was known for.

ADVERTISING. Animation has been used in advertising since the

early days of the industry. Many early studios produced advertising
materials or contributed to them, such as the Fleischer brothers'
use of their "bouncing ball" sing-along cartoons to advertise for
6 ADVERTISING

the Oldsmobile Car Company. The form is well suited to advertising

due to its flexibility in short form and the ability to "dramatize the
fantastic" in a way live-action cannot.
Animation's appeal to a wide audience was capitalized on to create
advertisements throughout the world, with many well-known anima-
tors beginning (or often near the end of) their careers producing com-
mercials over the years, including Raoul BarrC, John Halas, John
Hubley, Art Clokey, Bob Godfrey, and Jim Henson. By the end
of the 1940s and the early days of television, the major producers of
animated advertisements included Shamus Culhane Productions.
The increased use of limited animation in television production
suited the advertising industry due to its economic viability. Many
early animated ads in the United States consisted of little more than
comic strips with minimal animation, but by the 1960s the limited an-
imation such as that pioneered by United Productions of America
(UPA) and used on television by Hanna-Barbera was commonly
used. The production values and budgets improved i n the 1980s, with
the company Kurtz and Friends producing advertisements in full ani-
mation for clients such as Levi, Chevron Oil, and AT&T.
A variety of types of animation has featured in advertisements
through the years from three-dimensional (3D) puppet and clay
animation, cel, and more recently, computer-generated imagery
(CGI). The range of production methods matches the range of prod-
ucts advertised, and in many cases the animated "stars" of the com-
mercials became almost as well known as the actual product. Will
Vinton's California Raisin Men of 1989 were spun off into a series
of their own. The popular Tetley Tea Men in Great Britain were
featured in merchandise, and their long-running characters developed
as technologies did. The Aardman Creature Comforts characters
featured in a series of advertisements i n Britain for Heat Electric and
though the characters were already popular, the ads brought them
further into the mainstream and the popular consciousness.
Animated advertisements are still produced by contemporary
animators, both well known and those starting out. British animator
Joanna Quinn divides her work between her own films and creating
ads for such companies as Charmin and United Airlines, and French
animator Sylvain Chomet also divides his studio's work between
the dual pursuits of commercials and personal filmmaking. J. J. Se-
 delmaier Productions in the United States produces animation for
television as well as advertisements.

AKZRA. Akira, released in 1988, was directed by Katsuhiro Otamo,

based on his manga of the same title, and was one of the first major
anime feature-length films to break the Western market. The film
is set in a violent postapocalyptic Tokyo, 2019, that features secret
government and military testing. A motorcycle gang discovers this
secret, and lead character Tetsuo ends up with hallucinations and a
painful transformation of his body into cyborg parts. Tetsuo attempts
to find out about Akira, which he believes can relieve his pain.
Akira turns out to be a child who was the original test subject for
the government, when he was found to have the psionic abilities that
led to the destruction of Tokyo in 1988. He returns at the end of the
film without a physical body, during a battle between Tetsuo and a
rival gang member, Kaneda, and triggers another explosion. Another
group of test children known as "The Espers," who have similar
powers to Akira and now Tetsuo, appears and attempts to control the
situation by removing Tetsuo from an expanding energy sphere that
threatens to destroy Neo-Tokyo. Instead, Tetsuo is killed and the city
remains, with Kaneda and his gang members left to start again.
The film's main themes of the nature of corruption, growth and
maturity, the historical fears of nuclear destruction, and social un-
rest all permeate throughout the fairly complicated plot. The film's
success in the West brought new audiences to manga and anime,
which has continued to be successful. A live-action version of the
film, starring Western actors, is planned for release in 201 1. See also
JAPAN.

ALICE. Jan Svankmajer's interpretation of the Lewis Carroll story

Alice in Wonderland, Alice (1988) features a live-action girl who
interacts with animated objects. The film took over two years to
create, six months to build the props, one year to shoot the film, and
another year to edit. The funding came in part from Great Britain's
television network Channel 4 and was made when Svankmajer was
particularly discouraged from filmmaking in his native Prague. The
story has the subjectivity of a dream and is told though the voice of
a child. All aspects of her new world are violent, as she is hit on the
8 AMERICAN BROADCASTING C O M P A N Y

head by objects that bring an element of horror and uncanniness to

the film and make it very different from the Walt Disney version.
Here, fantasy and reality are presented as the same thing, and the film
is not aimed at a children's audience.

AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY (ABC). The Ameri-

can Broadcasting Company was a forerunner in the evolution of U.S.
television network history. The network was often the first to make
the changes and decisions that had an impact on the 'TV landscape.
The network began when the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) carried out a monopoly probe in 1938-1941 of radio networks.
The existing two, NBC and CBS, were accused of monopolistic prac-
tices and the broadcast networks were split up. ABC was created and
shared radio earnings and power. In 1948, it was granted a TV station
license, though there were some problems in the transition from ra-
dio to television, and business difficulties saw the network changing
ownership. The network is now part of the Disney group. It is notable
here as the first network to commission and broadcast prime-time
animation, Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones ( 1960-1966), which
essentially launched the animated sitcom genre. This was followed
by Top Cat in 1961, The Jetsons in 1962, and initially Hotzg Kong
Phooey from 1974-1976 until it moved to NBC. ABC has continued
with varying success over the years, but it was the newer network
Fox and cable station Comedy Central that became the home of
prime-time animation from the 1990s onward.

ANDERSON, GERRY (1929- ). Born in Hampstead, London, Gerry

Anderson began his career in a photographic studio, which gave him
an interest in working in film. Anderson went to work at the Colonial
Film Unit, a branch of the Ministry of Information, as a trainee and
found he had a talent for editing. He went on to work at Gainsbor-
ough Pictures, where his debut was in an assistant editing position on
the 1946 film Caravan.
In 1947, Anderson undertook his National Service in the Royal Air
Force. Also in 1947, Anderson began working at P i n e w d Studios
as a dubbing editor. He formed his own studio, AP Films, went on
to work with a variety of studios doing commercial work, and was
commissioned to make the puppet series The Advetitiires of Twizzle
 (1957). This was followed by another successful series, Torchy the
Battery Boy (1957), and led to Anderson branching out to make his
own show, the western Four Feather Falls. Supported by ATV head
Lew Grade, Anderson created the series Supercar, which was very
successful and led to a second series and sale to the United States.
His technique for this puppet series was his own pioneering
method known as "super marrionation." This involved the use of
wires and machinery that would synchronize mouth movements to
spoken dialogue. Series that used this technique included Fireball
X1.5, Stingray, and his most well-known series, the science fiction
adventure Thunderbirds, which remains incredibly popular long
after its 1966 debut. The series was followed by a feature-length
version and has recently been remade as a live-action film (2004).
After the success of the Thunderbirds film, AP Films developed
into Century 21 Organization, incorporating Century 21 Film Studios
and acquiring the rights for several popular television series. The
studio produced the puppet series Joe 90 (1968-1969) but then went
on to create live-action sci-fi series, including UFO (1970-3 97 I )
and Space 1999 (1975-1977). In 1981, Anderson ventured back into
puppet animation with the television series Terrahawks. Anderson is
currently working on a computer-generated imagery (CGI) fantasy
adventure series.

ANICOM. A term to describe the animated sitcom, a specific genre

of television animation. It uses the particularities of animation to
be distinct and separate from the live-action sitcom but follows the
same generic conventions of narrative space, narrative structure, and
character types. The animated form allows the anicom to push back
boundaries and address a variety of themes and settings, though it
commonly follows its live-action counterparts with regard to domes-
tic, workplace, and occasionally science fiction venues. The term
first appeared in print in the Animation Journal article "Nitpicking
'The Simpsons': Critique and Continuity in Constructed Realities"
(Dobson 2003) and has been used since. The term is included here as
a contribution to the historical development of the diversity of genre
in animation.
The first example of an anicom was Hanna-Barbera's The Flint-
stones, which first aired on the American Broadcasting Company
10 ANlMAL FARM

(ABC) network in 1960. Modeled on the popular live-action comedy

format, the studio produced several series over the years with the same
format, including The Jetsons, Top Cat, and Wait 'ti1 Your Father
Gets Home. After utilizing other comedy genres, animation moved to
the sitcom as the logical format as television became more prevalent
and popular. The shows were created to appeal to a family audience
and initially aired in prime time, the first animations to do so.
During the 1980s, the anicom disappeared from television but was
revived in 1989 with Matt Groening's The Simpsons. Like The
Flintstones before it, The Simpsons led to a whole new generation
of anicoms and included shows such as The Critic, Futuranza, King
of the Hill, Dr. Katz: Professio~talTherapist, South Park, Family
Guy, and Home Movies, to name a few. Many of the new shows only
lasted a short time but several have continued on prime time, with
The Simpsons recorded as the longest running sitcom in U.S. televi-
sion history in 2007.

ANIMAL FARM. Directed by Halas and Batchelor, and produced

by their studio in England, Anirnal Farm (1954) was the first British
animated feature-length film. It is based on George Orwell's (1945)
satirical allegory of communist totalitarianism where farm animals
revolt against their owner to create an equal society, only to have the
pigs take over and run the farm as a dictatorship. American producer
Louis de Rochemont approached Halas and Batchelor with the idea
to make the film in 1951, two years after Orwell's death.
The film was originally intended to reflect the political ideology
of the original text, but the studio decided to make the story acces-
sible to a wider audience. The film was still for an adult audience but
did not have the same propaganda as the original text. It took two
years to make and had 70 people working on it. The film was criti-
cally acclaimed, though the ending was changed at the request of de
Rochemont to be more positive; the original saw the pigs becoming
ever more humanized and joining with the enemies of animal kind,
but in the film the animals are seen once again rising up, about to
revolt once more. The characters are not sentimentalized or portrayed
as cute, as are animals in other animated films, such as those from
the Disney Studio.
ANIMATRIX, THE. The Animatrix (2003) is a collection of nine
short animated films detailing the back story of the live-action sci-
ence fiction film The Matrix (1999). Directors Andy and Larry Wa-
chowski, who were longtime fans of anime, wanted to develop the
mythology of their very successful film, which had become a trilogy.
They collaborated with Japanese (and U.S.) animators, the brothers
writing some of the stories and others left in the hands of the direc-
tors. Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Mahiro Maeda, Koji Morimoto, Shinichiro
Watanabe, and Takashie Kaike were joined by U.S. director Andy
Jones and Korean-born Peter Chung. The segments feature a variety
of styles and aesthetics, reflecting the direction as well as the created
aesthetic and universe featured in The Matrix. The film has often
been described as a "live-action anime" and features a large amount
of computer-generated imagery (CGI) effects.
The segments are Beyond, A Detective Story, Kid's Story, Matricu-
lated, Program, The Second Renaissance Parts I and 11, The Final
Flight of the Osiris, and World Record. The films were shown in
varied order, and often individually, throughout the world in 2004,
in some countries on television and in others in theaters. The whole
collection was released on DVD and is also supplied with the boxed
set of the Matrix Trilogy. The Animatrix was extremely popular in-
ternationally.

ANIME. Simply put, anime is Japanese for animation. However, the

term is commonly used in the West to refer to a particular style of
Japanese animation that has become popularized since the crossover
films/series such as Astro Boy (1963-1966) and the popular science
fiction feature Akira ( 1988).
Anime is often classed, in the West, as an animation genre; how-
ever, while the animation from Japan does have a distinctive style
and several shared features, there are several genres represented. For
example, there is science fiction anime, fantasy anime, and police
anime to name but a few. It has been suggested that most literary or
cinematic genres are represented in anime.
The drawing style in anime is very detailed, though this is not
practical in terms of animating processes. Osamu Tezuka was said
to have simplified the processes, similar to that of Walt Disney, in
12 ANTHROPOMORPHISM

order to produce the work fairly quickly. The result, a form of lim-
ited animation, saw reused backgrounds and dialogue sequences
with only animated mouths. The films typically counter this limited
approach by including scenes of great detail where more effort has
been put into the animation, thus elevating the quality of the film.
There are studios that produce anime with higher production values,
such as Studio Ghibli as seen in Spirited Away (2001), or in such
features as Ghost in the Shell (1995) or Akira (1988).
Although most animators have their own distinctive styles, a
common feature in anime, and one that has become something of a
stereotype in the West, is the use of large eyes drawn on many of the
characters, often paired with a large head and small body. There is
also the use of exaggerated facial expressions for surprise or anger in
many of the characters.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM. The endowment of human attributes,

such as the ability to walk upright and talk, on animals (or other crea-
tures). It can be used to redefine or draw attention to characteristics
that are taken for granted in live-action human representations. An
early example can be seen in Gertie the Dinosaur, and anthropomor-
phism informed much of Walt Disney's work and indeed many of
the characters from Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney
Tunes. The trait is seen in several animation stars such as Felix the
Cat, Mickey Mouse, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Porky Pig. It
is suggested that it has origins in animism where native story-telling
traditions suggest animals can embody human spirits. The use of an-
thropomorphized animals continues in feature-length and television
animation; in the Pixar feature Cars (2006), it is the vehicles that are
anthropomorphic, though this was perhaps less successful than the
animal or toy characters that Pixar had previously featured.

ASIA. The animation industry in Asia has had varying levels of devel-
opment, with a turbulent history marked by war and politics. Two
of the most prolific producers of animation are China and Japan,
and as such have their own entries. The early days of the industry
were largely influenced by imports from the United States that
provided inspiration for the development of a new industry. The
development was marred in the early 1940s with World War I1 as
well as conflicts within the continent. In North Korea, for example,
the industry faltered in the postwar period, only finding its place in
the mid-1980s when it established the Children's Film Studio of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea as an overseas facility, creat-
ing animation for French, Italian, and Spanish companies as well as
children's films for the domestic market.
In South Korea, the mid-1950s saw the earliest animation in ad-
vertisements. In 1960, Shin Dong Hun set up his own studio and
established an industry for features in South Korea. Between 1976
and 1985, 62 features were produced in the country. By increasing
production for overseas studios, South Korea became the third-
largest producer of animation after the United States and Japan. Un-
doubtedly, Japan is the biggest contributor of animation in the region
in terms of output volume and also in the effects and impact that
animation from Japan has had on the world.
The Taiwanese animation industry began in the 1960s with the
production of shorts, and the sector was dominated by only a few
companies such as Tse-Hsui Art and Production, Ying-Jen Ads Com-
pany, and perhaps one of the most successful, the Wang Film Produc-
tion Company (also known as Cuckoo's Nest). Wang was established
in 1978 by James Wang, who had trained in the United States and
formed a partnership with Hanna-Barbera (HB). They produced
many of HB's popular series, including Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, and
features such as The Cure Bears Movie. The industry has continued
to develop with support from the government, which is encouraging
the use of digital technology.
Vietnamese animation, like that of Taiwan, came to the fore in the
early 1960s with the state-sponsored Hanoi Cartoon Studio. It has pro-
duced a variety of animation over the years using different production
methods, including cel, cutout, and puppet. The studio's first film was
a propaganda piece by Le Minh Hien and Truong Qua called What
the Fox Deserves (1960), though it was Ngo Manh Lan's The Kitty
that gave the studio international attention in 1966. Over the years, the
studio has varied its output with fables as well as propaganda. In the
early 1990s, foreign companies began to base themselves in Vietnam
and the industry started expanding into computer animation.
 Animation in Thailand has been influenced by outside forces, such
as the sponsorship of anticommunist films in the late 1950s and early
1960s by the United States. One of the major figures in Thai anima-
tion is Payut Ngaokrachang, who made his first film, The Miracle
Incident, in 1955. His (and Thailand's) first feature was The Advelz-
tures of Sud Sakorn (1979). He spent much of his time teaching ani-
mation. Other animation in Thailand came from offshore studios that
attempted to develop the industry further, but with a small domestic
market there is an emphasis on reaching a wide audience when pro-
ducing animation for film or television.
In the Philippines, the majority of animation was produced for
foreign companies though there was some interest in homegrown
television advertisements and shorts in the early 1950s. In the early
1980s, several foreign studios, particularly from Australia and the
United States, established facilities in the Philippines, but while they
produced several popular television series, the industry has never
been consistent in its production.
While India's animation is not as well known as its live-action film
industry, there have been many developments since the 1950s when
it has been suggested the "modern" industry began with the forma-
tion of the Cartoon Film Unit of the Ministry of Information Films
Division. One of the key animators of the division is Ram Mohan,
who worked there from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s, going
on to form his own studio, Ram Mohan Biographics, in 1972. His
studio provided training for new artists and later merged with United
Studios Ltd. forming UTV Toons. The industry was slow to develop,
though, until the 1990s when small independent companies began to
emerge. Broadcasting networks MTV India and Cartoon Network
India encouraged the growth of the market for Indian animation,
aided by the increasingly adept workforce in digital technology.
The increase in animation production for an international market
was fueled by several small studios such as Pentamedia and Toonz
Animation India. Two key figures in the contemporary industry are
Cyrus Oshidar and Arnab Chaudhuri, who are often commissioned
by companies to create innovative short works using a variety of
animation techniques.
ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DU FILM D'ANIMATION
(ASIFA). The Association Internationale du Film d'Animation, or
International Animated Film Association, was founded in 1960 in
Annecy, France, by the most famous animation artists of the time,
including Norman McLaren. Today the association has more than
30 chapters all over the world. The association was founded in the be-
lief that the art of animation can be enriched and developed through
close international cooperation and the free exchange of ideas,
experience, and information among all concerned with animation.
It describes the art of animation as "the creation of moving images
through the manipulation of all varieties of techniques apart from live
action methods" (ASIFA website).
The worldwide association establishes communication and pro-
motes and disseminates knowledge of animation. ASIFA organizes
meetings, conferences, and assemblies, and publishes bulletins,
reports, and studies. It grants patronage to festivals to provide sup-
port for international exchanges. The membership consists of artists,
writers, directors, distributors, studio personnel, theorists, scholars,
critics, students, and those who have made a substantial contribution
to animation. The members pay annual dues, and there is an execu-
tive board and general assembly.

ASTERIX. Created by RenC Goscinny and Albert Underzo, AstCrix is

the lead character in a series of extremely popular books and comics
in France. The series first appeared in the magazine Pilote in 1959
and after a slow start and a move to production in longer forms, the
series took off. AstCrix is described as a "feisty Frenchman" living
in the Roman-occupied France. He has been compared to Popeye in
terms of his appearance as relatively diminutive but possessing great
strength, though in AstCrix's case it is the result of drinking a magic
potion rather than eating spinach. He is aided by his large friend
ObClix, who was said to have fallen into the potion and became su-
perstrong as a result. They try to protect their peaceful village from
Roman invaders, and the comedy is in the form of visual gags and
puns. In 1967, an animated adaptation, Aste'rix the Gaul, was made.
The film was originally intended for television but was eventually
16 ASTRO BOY

shown in cinemas. Another adaptation was released in 1968, Aste'rix

arid Cleopatra. Over the next 20 years, several animated adaptations
were made, though it has been said that they were not as high qual-
ity as the original books, lacking "vibrancy." In 1999, a live-action
adaptation was made, Aste'rix et Obe'lix corztre Ce'sar, and this was
followed up in 2002 with Aste'rix et Obe'lix: Missiori Cle'opcitre,
largely featuring the same cast. The success of AstCrix in France has
been phenomenal, to the extent that a theme park, Parc AstCrix, was
opened in 1989 outside Paris. Though never as successful outside
France, AstCrix is a good example of an adaptation that has essen-
tially transcended the medium it was originally conceived in.

ASTRO BOY. Astro Boy was the first animated series on Japanese tele-
vision. The science fiction series was directed by Osamu Tezuka.
The series was based on Tezuka's manga Tets~rwarzAtom from the
1950s and adapted for television. It ran from 1963 to 1966 (193 epi-
sodes) and was stylistically very influential in the West and in Japan.
In order to fulfill the demands of the television schedule, Tezuka
used limited animation techniques and developed a particular style
that has been widely used in anime since. The series was originally
broadcast in black and white, and in 1982 a new color version was
made with 50 episodes produced. The main character, Atom, is a
robot boy who was created by a scientist to replace his son who had
died. He takes on the role of a superhero endowed with seven powers,
including "100,000 horsepower," powerful searchlight eyes, lasers
in his fingers, and super hearing as well as a heart and soul that he
uses to help humans in peril. The series was shown around the world,
dubbed into English in the West, and has remained popular since its
first appearance. A new feature-length film of Astro Boy is planned
for release in 2009 and is said to be animated using computer-
generated imagery (CGI).

AUSTRALIA. See AUSTRALASIA.

AUSTRALASIA. Despite Australian cinema being one of the world's

first with the first live-action feature in 1906, the animation industry
did not emerge until World War 1 with the production of political
shorts by Harry Julius, using cutouts. There were animators working
 AUSTRALASIA 17

in the 1920s and 1930s, though little evidence of their work remains,
with the exception of Eric Porter, considered to be the father of Aus-
tralian animation. He was impressed by Mickey Mouse and began
producing animated advertisements while trying to develop animation
for the cinema. He began his first major work, Waste Not, Want Not,
in 1938 but was disrupted by World War I1 and could not distribute
it until after this period; during the war, he made propaganda films.
Porter continued to try and develop an animation industry but it was
not until the 1950s that any progress was made. Eric Porter Produc-
tions made programs for U.S. and Australian television as well as
advertisements. In 1972, he produced the first Australian feature-
length animation, Marco Polo Jr. vs. the Red Dragon. The film had
mixed reactions from audiences and critics. Unfortunately, the studio
was not successful in the long term and had to close down. Despite
this lack of success, Porter was a key figure in helping establish the
Australian animation industry and training new animators.
One of the largest studios in Australia was Hanna-Barbera (HB)
Australia, which was founded in 1972. The satellite company pro-
duced 25 percent of the overall global output for HB and developed
the advertising market. Air Programs International was founded in
the 1960s by Walter and Wendy Hucker. In 1966,it released King Ar-
thur and the Square Knights of the Round Table, a 39-episode series,
which was the first Australian animated television series. In 1969, the
studio released an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol,
which led to a series of English classics. The studio also produced
episodes of the series Funky Phantom for H B before it established its
Australian studio. Burbank Film produced adaptations for the cinema
in the 1980s, such as Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop and
Oliver Twist. Other studios of note include Film Graphics, Graphic
Animation, Raymond Lea Animation, and Second Banana Film. Stu-
dios that concentrated on small projects and television productions
during the 1970s and 1980s were Jollification Cartoon, Fable Films,
Nicholson Cartoon Productions, and ATAM Animation Studios.
As well as the studios, there were several independent animators
of note, including Bruce Petty, who began his career as a comic-strip
artist in London. On return to his home, he developed an interest in
animation; among his best-known films are Leisure (1976), which
won an Academy Award, Karl Marx (1977), and The Movers
18 AUSTRALASIA

(1986), which was a mixture of live action and animation. Denis

Tupicoff began by releasing shorts and making animated advertise-
ments. His first film was Please Don't Buy Me in 1976, and in 1983
he released his most successful film, Dance of Death. Other anima-
tors working in this period include Max Bannah, Bruce Currie, David
Johnson, Lee Whitmore, Sonia Hofmann, Julie Cunningham, and
Pamela Lofts. Experimental artists of note are Dusan Mareck, Albie
Thomas, and David Perry.
Animation in New Zealand began with the New Zealand Film Unit
(NFU) in the 1940s, a state producer of documentaries and short films
intended to promote and document New Zealand culture, similar to
the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Animators of note who
began there were Robert Morrow from Scotland (who had moved to
New Zealand) and Fred O'Neill, who produced several films before
going on to make a series for New Zealand national television.
In the 1960s, the television and advertising markets grew, with
Sam Harvey, Texan-born John Ewing, and Tom Rowell leading the
field. Animation production took off in the 1970s, and Murray Freeth
found success on the international festival circuit with The Boy Who
Bounced in 1978 and again in 1986 with Number One.
New Zealand's animators were often inspired by the native Maori
culture, with Joe Wylie, Susan Wilson, and Nicki Dennis all creating
films featuring Maori philosophies and imagery. Independent anima-
tors Murray Reece, Robert Jahnke, and Mark Winter found success
in the 1980s and early 1990s featuring a variety of subjects. The first
New Zealand feature-length animation was Murray Ball's Footrot
Flats-The Dog's Tale (1986), based on his newspaper comic strips.
The film was very financially successful though it had to be produced
in Australia due to a lack of facilities in New Zealand. Larry Nelson
and Robert Stenhouse of the NFU both found success in the 1980s,
particularly Stenhouse, whose 1986 film The Frog, the Dog arid the
Devil was nominated for an Oscar. It was one of the last animated
films to be produced by the unit. The NFU was privatized in the
1990s and in 1999 was purchased by live-action filmmaker Peter
Jackson. A new facility was built and named Park Road Post in 2005,
which holds the NFU archive, though most of the work is in postpro-
duction and in terms of animation, generally computer-generated
imagery (CGI) used for visual effects in live-action films.
 AVERY, TEX 19

AVERY, TEX (1908-1980). Fred "Tex" Avery, a Texas native, per-

haps one of the most well-known animators of the so-called Golden
Age of studio animation, was renowned for his work at a variety of
studios and made his mark at each one. Avery began his career as an
inker and painter for Walter Lantz at Universal Pictures in the early
1930s and moved quickly up to the position of animator. After losing
his job at Universal in 1935, he joined Leon Schlesinger at Warner
Brothers, a position he is probably best known for. He began work-
ing on the Merrie Melodies series and then started to develop Looney
Tunes. In 1935, the character of Porky Pig was debuted in I Haven't
Got a Hat, after which he developed the character into a star and
redesigned him.
Avery preferred to include "impossible and unreal situations" in
his gags and wanted to challenge the ideas of cartoons established
by Walt Disney. The situations and gags became more unreal as he
continued working on the Looney Tunes series and his style became
distinctive. He introduced Daffy Duck in 1937's Porky's Duck Hunt.
After developing his comedy in Looney Tunes, he was promoted to
director of the Merrie Melodies series in 1937.
Avery used burlesque in Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937) and Little
Red Walking Hood ( 19371, and most of the films he made between
1938 and 1941 were burlesque. After 1938, he began making paro-
dies of travelogues and documentaries, live-action shorts, and mov-
ies. The gag was the most important thing to Avery; the quality of
animation was irrelevant. However, by 1940, this was catching up
with him and as the quality in other work in the studio improved, the
lack began to show up in his films. Despite this, in 1940 he directed
the Bugs Bunny film A Wild Hare, which, after several attempts by
other animators, essentially settled Bugs' design and character. The
film was slower than his previous Warner Bros. cartoons and, with
better animators in his unit, the quality of the films improved, though
the pace was slower throughout his work and it seemed that he was
holding himself back.
In 1941, Avery left Warner Bros. and went to work at Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where his unit had several ex-Disney
employees. His third MGM film was Red Hot Riding Hood (1943)
and, though controversial, was very popular, to the point that in 1945
he made three more Red cartoons. He introduced the character of
20 BAKSHI, RALPH

Screwball Squirrel in 1944, which he hoped would be a star. By his

third year with the studio, Avery was beginning to assert himself and
his influence was seen i n the Tom and Jerry series. His pace once
again picked up in 1946, and in Slap Happy Liori (1947) he had re-
turned to his distinctive style, which was even more evident in King
Size Canary (1947). However, Avery seemed to be uncomfortable
with collaboration and took some time off. He returned to MGM in
1951 and his work showed an influence from United Productions
of America (UPA). Though he took a sabbatical between 1952 and
1953, he left MGM in 1953 when it closed the animation division.
In 1954, Avery rejoined Walter Lantz, this time at Lantz's own
studio, and elevated the studio's reputation, writing and direct-
ing Crazy Mixed Up Pup, which was nominated for an Academy
Award. After making four films, he left Lantz in 1955, after which
he began to make commercials. He briefly worked with his old MGM
colleagues William Hanna and Joe Barbera at their own studio in
the late 1970s but little has been documented about this period. He
died in California in 1980.

BAKSHI, RALPH (193% ). American animator (born in Palestine,

his family migrated to New York after World War 11) who is perhaps
best known for Fritz the Cat (1972). Bakshi was hired by Terrytoons
(under CBS ownership) in 1956 at the age of 18, where he worked his
way up in the studio from cel polisher to animator to director, until
he became studio supervisor. In 1966, he revived the old 'Terrytoons
character Mighty Mouse and featured him in The Mighty Heroes
series, which lasted for 26 episodes. In May 1967, he moved to the
ailing Paramount Cartoon Studios where he took over production
of their Spiderman series, but the studio was already in trouble and
closed in December that of year.
Bakshi's approach to the classic cartoons was subversive and
satirical and reflected the counterculture he had become interested
in, which would be seen in his adaptation of Robert Crumb's un-
derground comic "Fritz the Cat." The film was the first X-rated
animated feature, and despite the criticisms against the drugs and
 BARBERA, JOSEPH 21

sex in the film, Bakshi was pleased that the reaction was against the
content and not the animation. He followed up the success of Fritz
with two similarly themed films, Heavy Trafic (1973) and Coonskin
(1975). In 1977, he adapted the J. R. R. Tolkien novel The Lord of
the Rings (1977), which featured the use of the rotoscope along with
his stylized cel animation.
In 1988, Bakshi once again revived Mighty Mouse, this time in
Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures, of which he directed four epi-
sodes. He continued producing animation for television and cinema;
in 1992, possibly following the success of the live-actionlanimated
feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Bakshi directed Cool
World, which followed the live-action animated crossover. Despite
an impressive cast, the film was not very successful at the box office.
Since then, he has produced numerous animations for television and
in 1994 directed the live-action TV movie The Cool and the Crazy.
He has also created animated shorts for the Cartoon Network.
Bakshi's first film in 11 years, Last Days of Coney Island, was said
to be in production in 2008, though its future is unclear according to
Bakshi's own website due to funding problems.

BALLET MECHANIQUE. This 1924 film by French artist Fernand

Uger is an example of fine art animation, here using a combination
of techniques including full animation, painting directly onto film,
and Georges MCliits-like special effects, as well as live action. It
has been suggested that the film was intended as a statement about
"making art works which foregrounded their own artifice and used
objects as a challenge to the machine culture and consumerist ethic of
the modem industrial environment" (Wells, Animation, 2002, 1 17).
It was one of the earliest examples of the use of film and animation
as an art form.

BARBERA, JOSEPH (1911-2006). Joseph Barbera was a New

Yorker who began his career with the Fleischer brothers painting
and inking cels. Finding little chance of advancement, he moved to
Van Beuren as an in-betweener but showed great enthusiasm for
comedy and skill in creating gags. When Van Beuren's studio closed,
Barbera moved to Paul Terry's studio until 1937, at which time
he moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to work at the new
22 B A R R ~ RAOUL
.

animation division. Barbera started in the story department and was

found to have a great ability to sketch comedy ideas. He began work-
ing with William Hanna at MGM in a partnership that would last
until they died. Joe's comedy writing and animation complemented
Bill's sense of timing and together they created Tom and Jerry,
which first appeared in their debut film Puss Gets the Boot (1940).
The series earned them several Academy Award nominations over
its 15-year run and won seven (their first for Yarzkee Doodle Mouse
in 1943). They produced their last run of Tom and Jerry cartoons in
1955 and 1956, including some of their best.
In 1957, MGM closed and Joe and Bill decided to continue their
partnership and open their own studio. Hanna-Barbera became one
of the most successful studios and concentrated on producing anima-
tion series for television, which was becoming increasingly popular.
Together they created and produced Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound,
The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, The Hair Bear Bunch, Wait
'ti1 Your Father Gets Home, and Scooby Doo, among many others.
They were also responsible for the first prime-time animated sitcom
with The Flintstotzes and helped develop the new genre in animation
that would be successfully developed in the 1990s with The Simp-
sons and others.
They sold the studio to different companies over the years but
always maintained a controlling interest, and Barbera was largely
involved in the design of most of the characters; until his death in
2006, he was involved in the production of animation for the studio
(though under Warner Bros. at that time).

BARRE, RAOUL (1874-1932). A Montreal native, Raoul BarrC

moved to New York in 1903, where he began his career as a painter
and cartoonist. Between 1912 and 1913, he collaborated with Wil-
liam C. Nolan to produce and direct animated advertisements. When
they set up their own studio, they were joined by other animators
including Gregory La Cava, Frank Moser, and Pat Sullivan.
BarrC was innovative in creating systems Lo aid animators on their
work and introduced the use of standard perforations in drawing
paper that provided registration, as well as introducing the slash
system, also known as the slash-and-tear system. This system used a
drawn background laid over another sheet that contained the moving
 BATCHELOR, JOY 23

elements with a space cut out so the images on the sheet underneath
could be seen. Done in progressive phases of movement with any
figures that moved requiring retracing, the backgrounds could be re-
used, saving time and the work of having to retrace every image. The
system was used at several studios throughout the 1920s and worked
as a variation of John R. Bray's method of overlaying images on
cels or translucent paper.
In 1915, BarrC produced The Animated Grouch Chasers, distrib-
uted by Thomas Edison, and combined live-action film clips with
animated sections. BarrC was commissioned in 1916 by the Interna-
tional Film Service to film seven fables based on the T. E. Powers
comic strips. In the same year, BarrC worked in partnership with
Charles Bowers to produce an animated version of "Mutt and Jeff,"
Bud Fisher's newspaper comic strip.
BarrC left the studio in 1919 and created Soda Jerks in 1920. He
later returned in 1926-1927 to animate Felix the Cat for Pat Sulli-
van. After this period, Bard moved back to Montreal, where he lived
until his death in 1932.

BATCHELOR, JOY (1914-1991). British-based animator who

founded the Halas and Batchelor studio with John Halas in 1940.
Batchelor's father was a lithographer and encouraged her drawing
skills as a child. Despite some difficulties in her childhood, Batch-
elor won a school scholarship, which helped with her ambition to
become an artist, attending art school in Watford. Her studies were
successful but due to a lack of money she was unable to continue
and instead began to work. She took a job with a new animation
studio in-betweening and within a week was promoted to animation.
She worked well in the company for three years until it closed, after
which she found work at a printing company as a poster designer. She
remained with the poster company for six months before answering
an advertisement for a new animation company and met John Halhsz
(later Halas).
After a short trip to John's native Hungary, they returned to Britain
where in 1940 they founded Halas and Batchelor cartoons, and later
married. The studio was essentially taken over by the Ministry of
Information during the war, creating propaganda and information
films. By the end of the war, Batchelor's involvement in the studio,
24 BEAVlS AND BUJJHEAD

which had been equal with Halas, was lessened by the birth of her
first child. When their second was born in 1949, they were able to get
help and Joy was able to return to work.
In the 1950s, the studio began work on Animal Farm (1954),
which became one of its best-known films as well as Britain's first
feature-length animation. The pair continued developing techniques
and produced a variety of films throughout the 1960s and 1970s,
including some very early computer animation.
As Batchelor got older, her health deteriorated with arthritis, which
prevented her from drawing. Instead, she taught animation at the
London Film School and was governor until she died in 1991.

BEAVZS AND BUTTHEAD. Animated television series created by

Mike Judge based on a 40-second short entitled Frog Baseball that
Judge had made in 1992. Early shows were animated by J. J. Sedel-
maier Productions. The television series ran for four years, from
1993 until 1997, on the Music Television network MTV, but with
a running time of only 15 minutes the show was neither classed as a
short nor as a sitcom. The show featured two teenage boys, Beavis
and his friend Butthead. The pair first appeared in Frog Baseball,
using a frog in place of a ball, and the series followed similar ex-
ploits. The narrative was largely absent in early episodes that saw
the titular lead characters watching a music channel and commenting
on the "live" videos shown in a particularly monosyllabic style. The
show featured a number of supporting characters, including Tom
Anderson, who was an early version of Hank Hill and who would
later feature as the lead character in Judge's animated sitcom King
of the Hill (1997- ). The character of Daria, Beavis and Bulthead's
classmate, starred in a spin-off series, Daria, which ran from 1997
until 2001 and had a longer running time of 22 minutes.
Despite the late time slot on a cable channel, the show was said to
be a bad influence on children who were alleged to have attempted
to copy some of the characters' antics. Butthead's love of fire was of
particular concern to some people who complained about the show.
The series included a disclaimer at the start of the episodes that stated
that the characters were animated and that their behavior should not
be copied. The series was later adapted to a feature-length version,
Beavis arzd Butthead Do America (1996), though this was the last
 BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS 25

production featuring the pair before Judge moved on to King of the

Hill.

BEGONE DULL CARE. Directed by Norman McLaren and Evelyn

Lambart, Begone Dull Care, released in 1949, is an interpretation
of jazz music by the Oscar Peterson Trio, with a running time of 7
minutes 40 seconds. The images were painted directly onto film in
an excellent example of cameraless animation. It was created by the
pair when they were at the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada
and demonstrates the kinetic qualities of the sound and studies the
nature of movement. The film was made by recording the soundtrack
and then cutting lengths of film to match the music. In 1950, Nor-
man McLaren won a Special Award at the Canadian Film Awards,
and in 1951 both animators won the Silver Plaque at the Berlin Film
Festival for Best Documentary/Cultural Film.

BELGIUM. See WESTERN EUROPE.

BELLEVZLLE RENDEZVOUS (LES TRIPLETTES DE BELL-

VILLE). The Triplets of Belleville (English-language title, 2003) is
the first animated feature from French animator Sylvain Chomet.
Chomet, who is also a comic book artist, made the film in Montreal
over a period of five years; after distribution in over 33 countries, the
feature-length film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Animated Feature and Best Song.
The film, 80 minutes long, is largely without dialogue and evokes
strong emotion throughout. The plot features a small older lady with a
club foot named Madame Souza, as she prepares her orphaned grand-
son, Champion, to be a world champion cyclist by supervising his strict
training regimen. During the mountain stage of the Tour de France,
Champion is kidnapped by men from the French mafia and taken
across the Atlantic to the city of Belleville (which is constructed as a
mixture of New York, Montreal, and Quebec). Madame Souza and her
beloved dog Bruno travel across the ocean to rescue Champion and are
assisted by a song-and-dance trio, the elderly Belleville Sisters.
The hand-drawn animation gives the film a sense of history as it
evokes the style of much older animation, but this adds to the atmo-
sphere of the story. There are parodies of both the French and the
26 BETTY BOOP

Americans in the film, and Chomet pays homage to French comedian

Jacques Tati. The film was well received internationally.

BETTY BOOP. Betty Boop is an enduring character created by the

Fleischer brothers that \\!as particularly popular in the early 1930s
but has remained an iconic character long after the films ceased pro-
duction. The character was very successful even though her design
changed several times between 1930 and 1932 due to a lack of a
permanent story department at the studio. Betty was animated with
a sense of realism by Grim Natwick, who was a specialist in female
characters and was particular about anatomy. Her design was based
on the fashionable 1920s flapper girl of the jazz era. She had sex ap-
peal with a pout, large eyes, a short flapper-girl hairstyle, and a short
strapless dress that revealed a garter belt. In the original drawings,
Betty was more of a human-dog hybrid similar in style to many
of the other silent era stars. However, over time she became more
human, and while she had a childlike innocence, would at the same
time dance in a sexy way. Betty originally had a companion, the
Fleischers' other big star Koko the Clown, but he was later replaced
by a puppy named Bimbo. Her most famous films were Minnie the
Moocher (1932) and Snow White (1933). These films both used ro-
toscoping to animate the characters, particularly the dancing scenes.
In 1935, complaints from small-town cinemagoers led to censor-
ing her clothing, so her skirt was lengthened and she became more
demure and domestic in her behavior. The series of films ended in
1939, though her image has remained popular.

BIRD, BRAD (1957- ). Born in Montana, Brad Bird is an animator

and director who began his career in 1981 on Disney's The Fox arid
the Hound. Bird followed this experience by going to work with
Steven Spielberg on his A~nazingStories series in 1985. Bird worked
extensively on the television animated sitcom The Simpsons and on
The Critic. He was also a consultant on Mike Judge's King of the
Hill. His first feature-length animation was The Iron Giant in 1999.
Though the animation was of a very high quality, the film was not
successful at the box office. His next feature film, The lrzcredibles
(2004), was produced by Pixar and was very successful both finan-
 BLUTH. DON 27

cially and critically, with Bird winning his first Academy Award for
the film in the Best Animated Feature category in 2005.

BLACKTON, JAMES STUART (1875-1941). Born in Sheffield,

England, Blackton moved to New York at the age of 10 where he
later worked as a journalist and illustrator. He interviewed Thomas
Edison after seeing a demonstration of the vitascope, one of the ear-
liest film projectors. Edison was impressed by Blackton's drawings
and made the cartoon film Blackton, the Evening World Cartoonist
(1896). Blackton bought a kinetoscope from Edison and set up the
Vitagraph Production Company in New York with Albert E. Smith
and later William T. Rock. They made and acted in films together
and found success with a variety of types including comedy, adap-
tations of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, and coverage
of local events. They moved to a purpose-built studio in Brooklyn
where Blackton pioneered his stop-frame animation technique with
which he produced one of his most famous films, and one of the
earliest animated films, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces ( 1906).
He also developed editing and filming techniques to aid their pro-
duction. Blackton's other films using similar techniques include The
Enchanted Drawing ( 1900) and Haunted Hotel (1907). Blackton es-
sentially created trick films using stop motion to give his "lightning"
drawings the appearance of movement as well as mixing live action
with animation; he often used a magic lantern in his shows.
In 1917, Blackton left Vitagraph and formed his own company to
make patriotic films. He returned to England and directed live-action
costume dramas. Blackton was still as great a showman as he had been
when "demonstrating" his animation, but the technology in filmmak-
ing had developed beyond his abilities. He moved back to the United
States in 1923 and directed several more films, but when Warner
Brothers took over Vitagraph in 1926 he retired. Unfortunately,
Blackton lost his money in the 1929 stock market crash and was forced
to return to work, ending his career at the Anglo American Film Com-
pany before he died in a car accident in Hollywood in 1941.

BLUTH, DON (1937- ).Born in El Paso, Texas, Don Bluth began his
animation career with the Disney Studio in 1956 when he joined the
28 BLUTH, DON

studio as an assistant to John Lounsbery. During this time, he worked

on Sleeping Beauty. He remained in this role for a year and a half,
after which time he took a break from animation for 10 years. After
this fairly lengthy hiatus, Bluth joined Filmation in 1967 as a layout
artist. In 1971, he was rehired at Disney, where he worked on Robin
Hood ( 1973), The Many Adventures of Winrzie the Pooh ( 1977), and
The Rescuers (1977) and was animation director on the live-action
and animated Pete's Dragon (1977). Bluth was developing a tele-
vision series, Bango the Woodpile Cat, but the studio ignored his
efforts. In 1979, he complained of what he and many other artists
perceived as a decline in the quality and the traditional values of the
studio (as well as lack of support for his own projects). Along with
many colleagues, he left the studio and formed his own independent
production company.
Bluth's first independent film was The Secrets of Nimh ( 1982) and
in the same year he produced his Bango series. Bluth also expanded
his interests by working on animation for the video games Dragon's
Lair (1983) and Space Ace (1983). His next feature was a coproduc-
tion with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, An American Tale
(1986).Following this success, they were joined by George Lucas to
produce The Land before Time ( 1 988) when Bluth moved to Dublin
to reduce production costs. The relationship with Spielberg and Lu-
cas was volatile and Bluth continued to produce work on his own.
All Dogs Go to Heaven ( 1 989) marked a decline in Bluth's success-
ful run and his following films-with the exception of Thumbelina
( 1 994)-Rock-a-Doodle (1991),A Troll in Central Park (1991),and
The Pebble and the Pengititz ( 1 995) lacked the appeal of his previous
films and Bluth left during the production of The Pebble, which has
no director credit.
After this, Bluth moved to 20th Century Fox Animation Studios
in Arizona. His first film there, Anastasia (1997), was successful,
though the follow-up Bartok the Magnificent ( 1999) and the expen-
sive Titan A.E. (2000) were poorly received. This marked the end
for the Fox Animation Studio. In the meantime, Bluth has released
books on the production techniques of storyboarding and drawing
for animation.
 BRAY, JOHN RANDOLPH 29

BOUNCING BALL SERIES. Popular series produced by the Fleischer

brothers, the Bouncing Ball series of films ran from 1924 until ap-
proximately 1938. Sing-along series had been popular in cinemas,
but this series featuring Koko the Clown as bandleader was the first
to bring movement to the format. The early films were framed with
Koko but the ball was not animated-it was a live-action film with
a Fleischer employee who would use a white luminescent ball on a
stick like a pointer to follow the lyrics and tell the audience what to
sing. It was used like a drum but the pointer part was invisible and
only the ball was seen. The ball was replaced in the second or third
chorus with a character hopping over the words with amusing visuals
to go with the song. The introductions to the songs also had amusing
animated sequences.
The series later incorporated live-action performers such as Ethel
Merman and Rudy Vallee who would invite the audience to sing
along. The series, known as Song Car-Tunes (which lasted until
1926), was relaunched as Screen Songs after the studios converted
to talking pictures. These were distributed by Paramount from 1929
until 1938. See also ADVERTISING.

BRAY, JOHN RANDOLPH (1879-1978). American animation pio-

neer who was dominant in the early decades of the form. Bray was a
successful cartoonist and illustrator in New York (from 1906 until
1907) and it has been suggested he was inspired by the animation of
Winsor McCay. Seeing the commercial potential in animation, Bray
began experimenting with techniques and made his first film, The
Artist's Dreams, in 1913. He tried to print the backgrounds rather
than draw them by hand to save production time. PathC, a visiting
French film producer, was impressed by the film and offered Bray a
six-month contract.
He formed Bray Studios and produced films for commission,
including training films for the American government during World
War I. After his studio was established, Bray began to hire animators
to do the work and he was able to focus on the business. He concen-
trated on trying to develop the technical aspects of production and
applied for several patents, including the use of transparent celluloid
30 BRICK FILM

for the backgrounds. However, Earl Hurd had already successfully

patented a similar technique that was better than Bray's. Rather than
compete, Bray went into business with Hurd and formed the Bray-
Hurd Patent Company that sold licenses to companies to use the
patented techniques and were profitable for the company until the
patents expired in 1932.
Bray released the first color animated film in 1920, The Debut
of Thomas Cat. However, despile the film's success, the two-color
technique was too expensive to continue to use. The studio was suc-
cessful with the series of Colottel Heeza Liar cartoons, which began
in 1914, and Earl Hurd's Bobby Bumps series. In 1917, Bray hired
the Fleischer brothers, who stayed with the company until 1921.
Bray continued experimenting and branched out into live-action
comedies, newsreels, and educational films. In 1927, he closed the
entertainment division to concentrate on the educatio~lalfilms. See
also CEL.

BRICK FILM. See LEG0 HLM.

BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION (BBC). The British

Broadcasting Corporation is Great Britain's public service broad-
caster and, after originating in radio, provided the country's first
television channel in 1936 (though during the war years the channel
essentially closed down until 1953). A second channel was commis-
sioned in 1964 and became BBC2, with the original channel renamed
BBCI. As part of its public service remit to "inform, educate and
entertain," the corporation included children's programming that
featured animation. From the early Watch with Mother strand in the
1950s with presenters accompanied with puppets such as Muffin the
Mule (19&1955), the channel has always provided a platform for,
and encouraged the development of, a variety of animated series,
including Andy Pandy ( 1950), The Flowerpot Men (1952-1 954),
Smallfilms' Bagpuss ( 1976) and The Clangers ( 1969), Camber-
wick Green ( 1966), and Bob Godfrey 's Henry's Cat (1982-1 993)
to name a few. By 1985, the children's strand had been renamed to
Children's BBC (CBBC by the mid-1990s), which continued to show
animation among other programming in a dedicated time slot. When
 BUGS BUNNY 31

the BBC expanded into digital television, the strand got its own chan-
nel, which is available during the day.

BUGS BUNNY. The biggest cartoon star of the Warner Brothers

(WB) studio made his first appearance in Porky's Hare Hunt (1938)
and was directed by Ben Hardaway, and by his third appearance
in Hare-urn Scare-urn he had been given his name. The character
evolved over time; he was originally a white rabbit but by 1939 was
grey. His creation can be attributed to Hardaway as well as Chuck
Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Friz Freleng who all directed
cartoons with Bugs over the years, and his character and design was
affected by whomever was making the film.
His initial design was suggested to have been influenced by Walt
Disney's Max Hare, and when he first appeared his character was
fairly manic with a crazy laugh, similar to the other well-known WB
character Daffy Duck, who also changed over the years. Bugs was
voiced by Mel Blanc, who made the character famous with his trade-
mark question "What's up, Doc'?" In 1940, Chuck Jones directed
Elmer's Candid Camera and Bugs changed slightly but it was also
the cartoon in which the characters' relationships were fully real-
ized, such as Bugs continually tormenting Elmer while he is hunting
him. Tex Avery directed his first starring role in A Wild Hare in
1940 and made him less of a loony and more mischievous. This film
established Bugs Bunny as a star and is often credited as Bugs' first
film. The character was also directed by Frank Tashlin and Robert
McKinson, the latter being the creator of a model sheet for Bugs in
1943 that became the standard for his design. Some of the best films
over the years were said to be those directed by Bob Clampett. Bugs'
antagonists varied over the years and included Elmer Fudd, the Tas-
manian Devil, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy Duck, whom he tormented
as the unseen animator in Duck Amuck (1953).
Bugs was made part of the war effort in 1944 when Friz Freleng
directed an anti-Japanese film, Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips. His most
famous cartoon was What's Opera Doc? Chuck Jones' 1957 film
featuring Bugs and Elmer in a six-minute version of Wagner's epic
opera Ring Cycle. Friz Freleng was awarded an Academy Award in
1958 for Knighty Knight Bugs. By 1960, the theatrical shorts were
32 BULGARIA

ending and television was becoming the home of cartoons. Ameri-

can Broadcasting Company broadcast The Bugs Bunny Show,
which consisted of a compilation of six-minute films in a half-hour
series. Bugs Bunny appeared in 175 shorts over the years, though the
WB studio stopped distributing them in 1974; in 1979, he returned in
the feature-length The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Movie. He also
starred in the live-actiontanimation movie Space Jam in 1996 and in
1998 was given the privilege of appearing on a U.S. postage stamp.

BULGARIA. See EASTERN EUROPE.

BURTON, TIM (1958- ).Burton grew up in Burbank, California, and

is perhaps better known as a director of live-action feature films,
though he trained as an animator and attended the California Insti-
tute of the Arts in 1976 on a Disney fellowship. He later joined the
studio as an animator where he worked on The Fox and the Hound
(1981) and The Black Cauldron (1985). During this time, he wrote
the story for The Nightmare before Christmas. His directorial debut
was the animated short Virzcent ( 1982), narrated by his childhood
hero Vincent Price, and won the audience award at the Ottawa Inter-
national Animation Festival.
Burton made his first live-action short, Frankericveenie, for Dis-
ney before leaving to direct his first feature-length film, Pee Wee's
Big Adventure (1985). His li1.e-action films have retained a certain
graphic visual aesthetic; examples include Beetlejuice (1988), But-
man ( 1989), and Edrvard Scissorharzds ( 1 99 1 ). He produced The
Nightmare before Christmas (1993), directed by Henry Selick, and
went on to produce Selick's James and the Giant Peach (1996). In
2005, he directed the animated feature Corpse Bride, which was
stylistically similar to Nightmare, using the same stop-motion tech-
nique and echoing some of the gothic imagery in his earlier work.

BUTE, MARY ELLEN (1906-1983). American abstract filmmaker

described as a pioneer woman in animation. Bute studied art at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then moved to New York,
where she learned stage lighting at the Intertheatre Arts School. She
attended Yale in 1925 and in 1926 got a place on the ship Ryndom,
the first floating university, taking in 33 countries in eight months.
 CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS 33

The experience left Bute feeling that film was too commercial; she
decided she wanted to work in abstract animation, inspired by the
work of artists Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Fischinger. She ex-
perimented with a variety of techniques and made her first abstract
film, Rhythm in Light, in 1934. Many of Bute's films were influenced
by pieces of music and she became very interested in the relationship
between line and color as counterparts to compositions in sound. Her
filmmaking and painting continued to explore this and she began to
use new technologies such as the oscilloscope to create animated
patterns. Other films include Synchrony No. 2 (1935), Escape ( I 938),
and a series of shorts, including Spook Spot, which was animated
by Norman McLaren. Many of her films were produced by her
husband, Tim Nemeth, and in 1965 she made the award-winning
Finnegans Wake as a reaction to the James Joyce novel; the film was
very successful and was shown commercially.

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS. The California In-

stitute of the Arts or CalArts was the first U.S. institution to offer
degrees in visual and performing arts. It was established in 1961 by
Walt Disney through a merger of two professional schools, the Los
Angeles Conservatory of Music (founded in 1883) and the Choui-
nard Art Institute (founded in 1921). CalArts moved to its permanent
home in Valencia in 1971. Since its founding, it has been recognized
internationally as a leader in every discipline in which it provides in-
struction. Its faculty and alumni have defined and continue to expand
the very forefront of creative practice. Disney's original plans for the
school began in 1960 with the founding in 1961. In 1964, it received
accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
and was introduced to the public by Disney in a fund-raiser at the
Hollywood premiere of Mary Poppins. In 1966, Walt Disney died but
his plans continued through his family and benefactors, and in 1969
CalArts accepted its first students and hired its necv faculty, including
Jules Engel, who would go on to provide the first animation courses
in the country. In 2006, CalArts became the first U.S. film school
to be honored with a full retrospective at the Museum of Modern
34 CAMBERWICK GREEN

Art (MOMA) in New York. Notable alumni include John Lasseter,

Henry Selick, Brad Bird, and Joanna Priestly, among others.

CAMBERWZCK GREEN. Camberwick Greetz was part of an inter-

related trilogy of television series that aired on British television in
the 1960s as part of Watch with Mother, a children's strand. Created
by puppeteer Gordon Murray, who had previously been successful
at British Broadcasting Corporation with The Woodetztops (195.5-
1957) and several one-off adaptations of fairy tales, such as The
Ernperor's Nightingale (1958), the series was formed from a pilot he
created in 1966. Working with stop-motion animators Bob Bura and
John Hardwick, the three men produced a series that became iconic
in British television animation history, particularly in the use of pup-
pets without visible strings as had previously been seen on television.
The Trumptotzshire Trilogy ran from 1966 to 1969 and comprised
Camberwick Green, Trutnpton (1967), and Chigley (1969), each set
in a different area of the same county. The series featured the lives of
the village, town, and industrial hamlet respectively; they focused on
the old versus new ways of life in 1960s Britain and were narrated
by popular children's television presenter Brian Cant. The series was
shown in reruns and though it has not aired for over 30 years, there
are still references made to the series, either in advertisements or in
television drama, demonstrating the longevity of the show.

CAMERALESS ANIMATION. This method of animation is also

known as "direct on film animation" and is made by working di-
rectly on the surface of a clear, white, or black film or on pieces of
"exposed and developed film which [might1 contain other images"
(Furniss 1998,40). One of the earliest uses of this technique was by
Arnaldo Ginna, who painted directly onto film. Ginna believed that
color and form could develop in the same way as musical notes and
chords. He suggested that a "chromatic motif"-the progression of
color combinations through an animated time sequence-was similar
to a "musical motif' that developed through a piece of music. Some
animators work in this method frame to frame, whereas others use
the film as a whole canvas to work on. A wide variety of effects can
be achieved from linear, horizontal, and random images that can be
drawn, painted, or scratched onto the surface of the film. The method
 CARTOON 35

can be difficult due to the size of the film stock (though larger stock
can be used), and the level of detail required is very time consuming.
No assistance can be given to the animator in the way that cel anima-
tion, for example, can be traced by one artist, painted by another, and
filmed by yet another.
Examples of this method can be seen in Norman McLaren's
Fiddle Dee Dee (1947) and Begone Dull Care (1949), which he
produced while he was at the National Film Board. For the latter
film, created with Evelyn Lambart, he recorded the sound and then
cut the film into lengths to match the musical score. He also used
this method in Lines Vertical, Lines Horizontal (1960) and Mosaic
(1965). Caroline Leaf also uses cameraless animation, both scratch-
ing and painting onto the film; her film Two Sisters (1990) was made
by scratching the emulsion from the surface of the film. Len Lye
created A Colour Box (1935) using this method, and experimental
filmmaker Stan Brakhage created images by burning the film.

CARTOON. The term cartoon has become a ubiquitous name for

anything animated but its origins come from print media and earlier
types of illustration. The modern style of the cartoon was generally
found in newspaper comic strips, often in the form of political sat-
ire or short gags. The accompanying text was presented as speech
bubbles or lines of dialogue below the picture panel.
Many newspaper cartoon strips were used as the basis for early si-
lent animations, and the artists are among the pioneers of animation,
such as John Randolph Bray and Winsor McCay. McCay's "Little
Nemo in Slumberland" began as a newspaper serial cartoon and thus
the artists were known as cartoonists (also included in this group is
The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, who began his career as a
print cartoonist), a term that transferred to those who produced ani-
mated cartoons. In the 1930s and 1940s, "cartoon" referred generally
to the short animated films produced by studios such as Warner
Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Paramount, rather than the
feature-length "films" by Disney.
The interchangeable term is somewhat problematic in that while
it correctly refers to the short comedy animation, it has also become
aligned with animation for children and assumed as such. Any other
animation, such as abstract, experimental, or in broadcast media for
36 CARTOON NETWORK

an adult audience that is called "cartoon" has a sense of inferiority

to other filmic or art forms. This is a historical problem that the in-
dustry and scholars have long since attempted to rectify, particularly
as technology blurs the definitions between live-action film and
animation.

CARTOON NETWORK. Cartoon Network is a cable television

channel in the United States, created by 'Turner Broadcasting and
dedicated to showing cartoons, that premiered in October 1992. Ted
Turner's cable TV conglomerate had acquired the Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer film library that included several old Warner Brothers films,
and Turner Network had acquired an audience when they purchased
Hanna-Barbera Productions. Cartoon Network was created as an
outlet for this back catalogue of animation. Initially, it was set up
as a classic animation channel, and in 1996 Time Warner purchased
Turner Broadcasting (TBS), which brought access to the rest of the
Warner Bros. library from the 1950s and 1960s, increasing the choice
of cartoons they could broadcast.
In 1993, Hanna-Barbera held a storyboard competition with Car-
toon Network. The What a Cartoon! program was designed to give
new animators an opportunity and creative freedom that had not been
available since the Golden Age. In 1994,30 storq boards were chosen
for a final competition based on the criteria of originality of concept,
character, and humor. Hanna-Barbera would negotiate rights with 10
winners. The short subjects were shown as World Premier Toons,
and Cartoon Network became a place for opportunity and new ani-
mation. Winners include Dexter's Laboratory ( 1996),Genndy Tarta-
kovsky ; Cow and Chickerl ( 1997),David Fleiss; Jorirzy Bravo ( 1997),
Van Partible; and The PowerpuflGirls (1998), Craig McCracken. All
of these shows enjoyed associated merchandising and a level of fame
unseen on television for a number of years.
The channel branched out with international versions including
Great Britain, Japan, India, and Latin America, showing similar
cartoons and a block "Toonami" featuring anime. A spin-off chan-
nel, Boomerang, began to show the older cartoons that the Cartoon
Network started with as they were filling their schedule with newer
animation. A late-night block Adult Swim began in 2001 to show-
 case new animation that was not suitable for children, as it had been
recognized that there was an adult market for animation.

CEL. Cel or celluloid is the use of a transparent substrate to create and

film animated movement; the term is now shorthand for traditional
two-dimensional (2D) drawn animation. The earliest forms of ani-
mation of the lightning sketch and stop motion, such as J. Stuart
Blackton's The Enchanted Drawing (1900), led to an increase in
animators, largely former comic-strip artists, developing techniques
to produce moving, animated images. One of the most famous ani-
mators of this early period was Winsor McCay, who would produce
thousands of drawings on rice paper, a very thin paper on which he
would create his animations. Each of the pages would feature the
character with slight changes in position that, when filmed, would
have the appearance of movement. A good example of this can be
seen in Gertie the Dinosaur (1916) in which McCay combines drawn
animation with stop-motion techniques.
Animators in the early days of the industry worked to speed up
the production process and in doing so developed new techniques. In
1914, Earl Hurd applied for a patent on a process called celluloid,
or cel, animation. This involved a stationary background painted
onto paper with characters painted onto various layers of celluloid,
a transparent substrate, that would be laid on top. The process saved
time as previous methods had involved all of the elements drawn
onto translucent paper that was laid over others. Hurd's use of cel-
luloid was developed further by John R. Bray, who in 1916 patented
a similar technique but instead painted the background on celluloid
as well. This enabled the characters to move behind images in the
background as well as in front of them.
Other animators tried to improve on this method but it has re-
mained largely the same since 1916. This standard was generally
used in what was becoming an emerging industry. The only changes
in the technology were improvements in the registration process, but
the cel itself remained essentially unchanged.
Cel has become one the most recognizable and widely used
(mainstream) forms of 2D animation, popularized by the success of
Disney, Warner Brothers, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),
as well as other studios in the 1930s and 1940s, such as those of the
Fleischer brothers, Terrytoons, and Walter Lantz.
Cel animation was originally exhibited in short format before
feature-length films or in packages with other shorts, but with the
development of the medium and industry it has become popular in
both feature-length animation released theatrically in its own right
and, since the 1950s, in television. Popular examples of cel anima-
tion in short form are the Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Mer-
rie Melodies series and MGM's Tom and Jerry series, though all
shorts from the 1920s onward were produced in this way.
In feature animation, Disney pioneered the use of the multiplane
camera that could provide a depth of field to the flat cels. Though
tested in The Old Mill (1937) and developed in various forms by
other animators, Disney's first feature, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves (1937), utilized the multiplane and revolutionized the scope
of what cel animation could look like. The film's success also paved
the way for more feature productions of cel animation from compet-
ing studios.
The form has developed over the years from the original, fairly
slow method of painting on the cels to more recently using digital
technology to produce and print the images onto the cels, as well as
photograph them. The technology has allowed the form to be pro-
duced with more detail in the images and with better tlow between
the frames.
Newer examples of cel animation using digital technology include
television series Futurama and the feature-length movie by Brad
Bird, The Iron Giant (1 999). The images still take on the same ap-
pearance as their earlier counterparts, with the cel animation becom-
ing a style more than a production method. In the case of The Irorz
Giant, the film has a historical narrative and therefore the animators
deliberately colored the animation to give it an older appearance of
an original "cel" animated film.
The benefit of using the digital technology to produce something
that has the appearance of the traditional is thus recognizable, famil-
iar, and widely accepted by audiences. Digital technology, although
expensive (though the cost is always coming down), enables the ani-
mator to produce the film more efficiently. The drawings are often
still made initially by hand and then scanned or drawn on computer,
 CENSORSHIP 39

but the images can be manipulated quickly and different poses can be
tried without having to redo all of the original images.
Many animators continue to produce 2D animation either fully
hand-drawn such as Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendezvous
(2003), or using a mixture of digital and traditional cel techniques, as
preferred by the Japanese animation Studio Ghibli.

CENSORSHIP. The introduction of the Production Code Administra-

tion (PCA; also known as the Hays Code) in the United States in
1934 was the beginning of censorship in the American film industry.
The code outlined suitable content for motion pictures and could af-
fect the content of a film or stop distribution if the film failed to meet
the standards.
Precode animated cartoons included drawings of sex (implied and
otherwise), drug usage, nudity, snearing, stereotypes, homosexual-
ity, extreme violence, toilet humor, and gags that were considered
to be in very bad taste. Live action was essentially the same at this
point, though there are indications that when the code first emerged
the animations were looked upon as less consequential than the live-
action films, as there was an assumption that the animated status (and
inherent lack of realism) made the films relatively harmless.
A comparison of pre- and postcode shows the effects of the censor-
ship, the lengthening of Betty Boop's skirt being one notable exam-
ple. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) was not subject to as
much censorship in the United States as it was in other countries-for
example, Great Britain gave it a "16" certificate and in Australia
sections of the film were cut out. The Disney Studio had little trouble
with censors, though it self-censored a lot of its work. However, in
Fantasia they were instructed to cover the centaurs' bodies, despite
their mythical origins, and there were problems with the language in
Song of the South (1946).
Broadcast standards in television deal with such areas of concern as
violence, sexual content, issues of replication, offensive language, and
suitability for family viewing. Ralph Bakshi's series Mighty Mouse:
The New Adventures (1987) fell foul of the censors for a scene in
which the lead character sniffs a crushed flower and gets pollen on
his nose. Television watchdogs suggested that this connoted drug use
and led to the scene being cut from future airings. John Kricfalusi's
 Ren and Stimpy series was accused in 1991 of being "outrageous"
and "raunchy," though he refused to self-censor and was fired from
his own show. The long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons is
occasionally censored-often depending on what time of day it is
broadcast, as it is repeatedly rerun. The computer-generated Reboot
was not allowed to show characters in "jeopardy," and there are strict
guidelines on showing nudity or guns.
1960s Japanese cartoons were sanitized in order to be shown on
U.S. television in the 1970s, with censors more concerned about the
language and sex than violence in the animation. Content regulation
became stricter in the 1980s with increasingly conservative politics
within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and pressure
from religious and parent groups. In China, the Cultural Revolution
essentially closed down production of animation altogether until
1976, after which animation studios were free to produce creative
animation such as A Da's One Night in an Art Gallery (1978), which
caricatured the infamous "Gang of Four."
Elsewhere, in Eastern Europe, Jiri Trnka's film Ruka (The
Hand, 1965) was a commentary on state censorship and a feature
of many of the films produced in Eastern Europe and Russia. Many
of the countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union had state-
sponsored production companies. As a result, no criticism of the gov-
ernment was allowed in the animation and the producers had to prac-
tice a form of self-censorship, though some animators used subversion
to include satirical messages. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer moved
to Great Britain so he could produce films free from the censorship of
his native government. See also PROPAGANDA; VIOLENCE.

CHANNEL 4. Founded in 1981 after parliamentary legislation gave

a license to a new public service channel on British television, the
channel included the public service ethos but was funded by adver-
tising. The main aim of the channel was to encourage innovation
and experimentation and commission programming from outside
companies. Channel 4 began broadcasting in 1982 and the anima-
tion it showed was largely aimed at an adult audience. The channel
deliberately tried to differentiate itself from the other three chan-
nels on British television at that time, and animation for adults was
rarely seen. Channel 4 was instrumental in the production of some
 remarkable films of the 1980s from the works of David Sproxton and
Peter Lord of Aardman, those of the Quay brothers, and Jimmy T.
Murakami's When the Wind Blows (1986) to Alison De Vere's The
Black Dog ( 1987).
After the success of Sproxton and Lord's films, the channel went
on to commission the animated adaptation of Raymond Briggs' The
Srzowman, which first aired on Boxing Day 1982 and has aired virtu-
ally every Christmas period since. In the mid-1980s, it funded more
and more animation from the Quays, in particular Street of Croco-
diles (1986), and incorporated Candy Guard's work into a current
affairs documentary.
In 1989, Channel 4 appointed a full-time commissioning editor for
animation, Claire Kitson, and set up the Animate! initiative in part-
nership with the Arts Council of England. This quickly reinforced
the channel's reputation as an innovative animation broadcaster, and
gained international acclaim by sponsoring animators' work, includ-
ing Nick Park's Creature Comforts (1989) and Bob's Birthday
(1993) by Alison Snowden and David Fine. It also began to commis-
sion new work from foreign talent, including Jan Svankmajer.
In 1994, the animation budget was increased and a number of
animated series appeared on the channel, including Crapston Villas,
Bob and Margaret, and Porzd Life. Kitson left in 1999 and her posi-
tion was not replaced, with animation coming under the remit of the
commissioning editor for arts and music; as a result, the animation
became a marginal concern. However, it still supports new animators
through the Animate! program, and new comedy series Modern Toss
(2006- ) has renewed some interest in the form on the channel.

CHINA. Animation has a long history in the Asian continent, with the
Chinese animation sector developing in the early 1920s, inspired by
what had been produced in the United States. One of the earliest ex-
amples of Chinese animation demonstrates Western influence. Uproar
in an Art Studio (1926) was created by the Wan brothers of Shanghai,
twins Wan Lai-ming (1899-1997) and Wan Gu-chan (1 899-1995),
Wan Chao-chen (1906-1992) and Wan Di-huan (1907- ), who had
taught themselves animation. Their film was a mixture of live action
and animation, inspired by the Fleischer brothers' Out of the Inkwell
series. Their next film, A Paper Man Makes Trouble ( 1 930), used the
42 CHINA

same technique. Chinese animation continued to develop with their

first sound cartoon, The Camel's Dance in 1935, produced by the
Wan brothers, who began to work for the Mingxing Film Company.
Chinese animation contained anti-Japanese feelings due to the
conflicts, and the capture of Shanghai by the Japanese in 1937 closed
the Mingxing studio. The Wans relocated to Wuhan Province and
made anti-Japanese propaganda films, though they were not com-
mercially successful. Wan Lai-ming and Wan Gu-chan were invited
to set up an animation studio in Shanghai by the Xinhau United Film
Company. They were inspired by Walt Disney's feature-length
achievements and in 1941 made the first Chinese animated feature
The Princess with the Iron Fun. Though the Chinese Cartoon As-
sociation was established in Hong Kong in 1941, the only film to be
produced was The Hunger of the Stupid Old Dog. Once the Japanese
occupied Hong Kong, production ceased. The industry was essen-
tially shut down due to World War 11, stopping in 1941; nothing was
produced again until 1947.
The changing political landscape led to encouragement for the
animation industry from the communist-controlled northern China,
which subsidized satirical animation. In 1950, the government aided
further development with the creation of the large Shanghai Film Stu-
dio, which became the dominant producer of animation, primarily for
a domestic audience. It was encouraged to create a distinct Chinese
style of animation. The studio was successful and found international
success with their second feature, Havoc in Heaven (1961). Others
were also successful with a mixture of films being produced using
cel, cutout, and puppet animation, including the traditional puppet
film The Peacock Princess (1963) by Jin Xi. The Cultural Revolution
saw the close of the major studios in 1%5. However, after 10 years
of repression and the end of the revolution, the Shanghai film Studio
returned and a so-called second Golden Age of Chinese animation
began. The studio divided into three sections, each concentrating on a
different production method-puppet, cutout, or cel. One of the most
successful films was The Three Monks (1980) by A Da ( 1 934-1 987),
who was a dominant figure in the Chinese animation industry in the
1980s. He was responsible for creating the first animated film for
adults, Buttegy Spring (1983), and he continued working until he
died in 1987. The Shanghai Studio continues to be successful and
 CHOMET, SYLVAIN 43

new studios have opened in China, though there is more competition

now from foreign imports such as television animation from Japan.
The production rate has increased and new computer animation was
first produced in 2000. Despite overseas competition, the Chinese
animation industry continues to produce award-winning, internation-
ally recognized animation.

CHOMET, SYLVAIN (1963- ). French animator Sylvain Chomet

earned his diploma from the comic book school of Angouleme and
published his first comic book, Le Secret des libellules (The Secret
of the Dragonjlies), in 1986. He then adapted Victor Hugo's first
novel, Bug-Jargal, into a comic book.
Chomet began his career in animation in September 1988 when
he went to work as an assistant at Richard Purdum's studio in Lon-
don. He moved on to work freelance for several London animation
studios, during which time he directed animated television adver-
tisements. He continued writing and publishing comic books and in
1989 began his first animated short, La Vielle Dame et les Pigeons
(The Old Lady and the Pigeons). This was completed in 1996 and in
1997 was nominated for an Academy Award.
In 1997, Chomet briefly worked for the Disney Studio in Toronto,
until he was given the go-ahead by his producers to start a storyboard
for his first animated feature, Les Triplettes de Belleville (Belleville
Rendezvous). The film was made in Montreal and took five years to
complete. It was sold to over 33 countries worldwide and in 2004
was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Song at the
Academy Awards.
In 2004, Chomet moved to Scotland and founded his flagship ani-
mation studio, Django Films. The studio's latest project, L'lllusioniste
(The Illusionist), is a two-dimensional (2D) animated feature based
on an original script by French comedian Jacques Tati, due to be re-
leased in 2009. As well as work for his own studio, Chomet collabo-
rated on the feature film Paris Je T'aime, which was his first project
writing and directing live action. The success of his five-minute sec-
tion in the film inspired him to write a live-action musical feature set
in Paris in the 1970s. Django also works on advertisements that are
produced by the London-based company Thing.
44 CLAMPETT, BOB

Chomet includes Nick Park, Hayao Miyazaki, and John Las-

seter among contemporary artists he admires, though he prefers
traditional hand-drawn 2D animation to computer animation.

CLAMPETT, BOB (1913-1984). Born in San Diego, California,

Clampett began working as a newspaper cartoonist before he went to
work for Harman-Ising at Warner Brothers in 1931 . He worked
at the studio alongside Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bobe Can-
non. In 1937, he began supervising his own cartoons. Clampett was
responsible for creating Tweetie Pie and commissioned a new design
for Porky Pig. In 1938, he directed Porky in Wackylarzd, inspired by
the Lewis Carroll story Alice in Wonderland; he references the work
of surrealist artist Salvador Dali and cubist Pablo Picasso, and took
full advantage of the medium. Clampett's reputation as a director
was reinforced between 1942 and 1946 when he is said to have made
his best films for the studio, including Coal Black and de Sebben
Dwarves (1942). Clampett's version of the Snow White story was
controversial, though it has been suggested that it could be seen as
a film of its time, with excellent performances by black artists and
first-class animation-though it may also be viewed as the perpetu-
ation of racial stereotypes. Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943) and The
Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) demonstrated his attention to
detail and at the same time the fast pace he set for his work. In 19-6,
he left Warner Bros. to work at Screen Gems for a short time. In
1949, he moved into television animation with the series Time for
Bearzy, featuring a boy called Beany and his friend Cecil, a sea ser-
pent who was seasick, animated with puppets. In 1962, he produced
a 72-episode series, Beany and Cecil, but this time the show was cel
animated. He is perhaps better known for his work with Beany and
Cecil than his work at Warner Bros., but critics and historians suggest
that this was in fact some of his best work, though largely forgotten.

CLAY. A three-dimensional (3D) animation technique using model-

ing clay, often referred to as Claymation. Plasticine, the oil-based
clay substance, is used commonly, as it does not dry out in the same
way as water-based clay used in fine art. Clay animation generally
falls under the category of stop motion, as the models are filmed
frame by frame as in puppet animation. The clay models or pup-
 CLOKEY. ART 45

pets are moved in small increments, each filmed separately and then
compiled into a film. When the film comes together in a continuous
form, the individual movements are barely detectable, giving the
model or puppet life.
When Will Vinton's Academy Award-winning film Closed Mon-
days (1974) used the technique and the term Claymation was trade-
marked in 1981, the technique became a consolidated, recognized
animation technique. Vinton's documentary Claymation (1978)
addresses some of the key aspects of clay animation, illustrating its
malleability and consistency, as well as its ability to be manipulated
from a colorless mass into moving forms. Another example of clay
animation in the United States is Art Clokey's Gumby series, which
ran for a number of years on U.S. television.
Probably the most well-known, recent example of clay animation
is the Wallace and Gromit series by British animator Nick Park at
the Aardman Animation studio. The studio has been producing clay
animation for many years, becoming the most familiar example of
the form, from their early Lip Synch series that featured the highly
popular Creature Comforts and their award-winning music video
for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. Other examples from Aardman
include the popular short series Morph and the feature-length
Chicken Run (2000).
Clay was also used in the short-lived television series The PJ'S
(1999-2001) and to particularly great effect in the popular Music
Television (MTV) series Celebrity Deathmatch (1998- ).

CLOKEY, ART (1921- ). Born in Michigan, Clokey is considered

a pioneer in stop-motion clay animation. He studied under Slavko
Vorkapich at the University of Southern California, and began us-
ing stop-motion techniques when working on an advertisement
for Anderson's Pea Soup. Other companies such as Coca Cola and
Budweiser then hired him to make similar advertisements for them.
Clokey is probably best known for his clay character Gumby, who
first appeared in the experimental short film Gumbasia (1955),
which used a jazz soundtrack. A representative of 20th Century Fox
was impressed by the film and asked for a children's television show
that he hoped would "improve" children's TV. After the pilot, the
show ended up on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as the
46 COHL, MILE

series The Gutnby Show, which ran from 1956 to 1957. The model
was made using a wire armature under the modeling clay that could
be manipulated in a variety of ways. Clokey and his wife, Ruth,
had met at seminary school and their values were passed on in the
series.
These views were particularly evident in their next series, Davey
and Goliath ( 1 960-1962, 1969-1971), which featured a young boy
and his moral, talking dog. The show was funded by the Lutheran
Church. For this series, Clokey moved away from clay and began
using soft foam rubber over armatures. In the 1960s, they moved
to a new studio space in Glendora, California. In the 1970s, Clokey
produced The Clay Peacock (1963) for NBC and the film Mandala
in 1964. He also remarried in the 1970s, at which point Ruth closed
the studio; he then created a toy called "Moody Rudy" that was a
bendable figure. After Gumby reaired on the Disney channel in the
1980s, there was a new interest in merchandise and Gumby became
something of a cult classic. Clokey and his new wife, Gloria, toured
college campuses and in 1987 to 1988 they created 99 new episodes
with their new company, Premavision, and Lorimar Studios. In 1995,
they made The Gumby Movie after Nickelodeon began showing the
episode in the early 1990s. In 2000, the distribution company Rhino
released the series on DVD. This increased interest in Clokey's work
over the years and even saw the creation of a new series of Davey
and Goliath in 2004, produced by Clokey's son, again funded by the
Lutheran Church.

COHL, EMILE (1857-1938). French caricaturist often credited as the

father of the animated cartoon. Born mile Courtet, he changed his
name once he became an artist. Cohl was jailed in 1879 for a carica-
ture he drew of the French president. After working in caricatures,
Cohl became interested in puppets, particularly fantoche, which fea-
tured a puppeteer's head stuck through a black sheet with a puppet's
body below. He became aware of moving pictures and, after seeing
J. Stuart Blackton's Haunted Hotel in Paris in 1907, he was inspired
to create Fantasmagorie (1908), said to be the first true animated
film, for the Gaumont Studio. The film featured 700 drawings on an
illuminated plate, giving the impression of a chalkboard and similar
in appearance to the fantoche. There is no distinct narrative; the film
 COLUMBIA AND SCREEN GEMS 47

is made up of a sequence of moving images. Cohl continued to make

films in this style and was very successful in Paris and in the United
States, though in 1910 he began making live-action films. He moved
around between a variety of studios, and in 191 1 moved to the United
States to work as an animator. However, after the outbreak of World
War I, Cohl and his family returned to Paris where he eventually
made his last film, La Maison du farltoche (The Puppet's Mansion),
in 1921.

COLONEL HEEZA LIAR. Silent era character that featured in John

R. Bray's second film based on the stories of Baron Munchausen.
Colorzel Heeza Liar in Africa (191 3) sees the character in a parody of
American President Teddy Roosevelt's travels in Africa. The char-
acter was a late middle-aged man, a type of boaster who told impos-
sible stories. He was drawn as fairly short and rotund. The supporting
dialogue track is a commentary in rhyming verse and was the first
commercial cartoon release. The beginning of the series of films was
seen as a turning point in animation development and history. The
films were later animated by Walter Lantz. Scenes from the Colo-
nel series were used in Bray's patent application for his background
techniques. There were 59 cartoons in the series, the last one being
Colonel Heeza Liar's Romance in 1924.

COLUMBIA AND SCREEN GEMS. Charles Mintz made a dis-

tribution contract with Columbia Pictures in 1930 to distribute his
Screen Gems animation. This came at the same time as many studios
were converting to sound, and Mintz moved away from his previous
distributor, Paramount. Mintz transferred his studio from New York
to Los Angeles, and his reputation of getting Oswald the Lucky Rab-
bit from Walt Disney led to rivalry and success. In 1932, Disney left
its distribution deal with Columbia, leaving Mintz's Screen Gems the
sole animation producer.
The Krazy Kat series continued, though the studio was never as
successful as Disney. Mintz was not concerned with the production
process, which afforded the animators a form of autonomy, though
he did want to limit the dialogue in order to increase foreign sales. A
new star, "Scrappyw-a little boy with good characterization-was
added to the Screen Gems output. Many animators came through the
48 COMEDY

studio in the 1930s but there was little opportunity for development
of their skills and many moved on. The studio made the move into
color in 1934 with the Color Rhapsodies series.
Financial problems with Screen Gems led to Columbia taking
over responsibility, though Mintz remained in charge until ill health
forced him to leave in 1939. Over the next eight years, there were
seven different managers, including Mintz's brother-in-law, and in
1941 Frank Tashlin joined as writer and director. Tashlin took ad-
vantage of the strike at Disney and hired many of the staff, including
John Hubley. The new team brought a new look to the cartoons but
after one year Tashlin left and was replaced by Dave Fleischer. His
stay was also brief and again the studio went through various man-
agement changes. In 1946, Leon Schlesinger's "right-hand men,"
Henry Binder and Ray Katz, came on board from Warner Brothers
and brought Bob Clampett with them. The studio never regained the
early success and by 1948 Columbia was working more and more
with United Productions of America (UPA) and let Screen Gems
fade into the background, essentially killing off the studio. Columbia
found success with UPA.

COMEDY. Comedy is often considered the generic dominant in ani-

mation, informed by the history and dominance of the cartoon. The
comic-strip basis for many of the silent era cartoons set a precedent
for the subject matter, which most studios followed. Once feature-
length animation became more frequent, adaptations of literature
and fairy tales became more commonplace and saw a slight shift from
comedy. However, the dominance of the cartoon was such that the
term cartoon became the descriptive noun for all animation, despite it
only referring to comedic animation. From J. Stuart Blackton's Hu-
morous Phases of Funny Faces, Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, Mickey
Mouse, and the Looney Tunes series to the animated sitcoms such as
The Fliritstones and The Simpsons, comedy has remained an impor-
tant factor in animation, particularly that which cannot be described
as abstract or experimental, drama or documentary.
The language of animation lends itself to comedy and according
to Paul Wells (1998) can be used for the following comedic devices:
unexpected or surprise actions; comic performance and caricature;
visual puns and satire; exploitation of expectation; alienation and the
 COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGERY 49

shaggy dog story; literal, verbal, and visual gags; and objects brought
to life.

COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGERY (CGI). Digitally produced

animation has its origins in the development of simulation graphics in
the military and industrial sectors. Computer technology has become
more sophisticated, from the earliest programmable computer in
1946 (developed by the U.S. Army at the University of Pennsylvania)
to the development of more pocverful and efficient processors. In
animation, it was John Whitney who became a pioneer in the field
with his Motion Graphics Inc., making analogue computer-generated
light effects. His son John Whitney Jr. took these experiments and
developed the technology while working with computer companies.
By 1964, with the first digital recorder, the abstract computer image
became a reality.
John Whitney Sr. continued with his experiments and in 1975
made Arabesque with Larry Cuba, also a computer graphics pio-
neer, with First Fig (1974). Another pioneer, Ed Emshwiller, made
Sunstone (1979), a three-minute three-dimensional (3D) computer
graphic film using frame-by-frame methods. These experiments with
geometric patterns in the 1970s led to interest from the entertainment
industry, notably George Lucas who founded Industrial Light and
Magic (ILM) to create CG effects for his science fiction epic Star
Wars (1 977). This company led Steve Jobs (of Apple Computers) to
form Pixar in 1985.
By 1982, Disney's Tron became one of the first feature films to
fully utilize the applications of CGI. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan,
also in 1982, used the technology to create the opening segment in
the film. John Whitney Jr. moved on with his development of CGI
and created 25 minutes of footage for the live-action science fiction
feature The Last Sta@ghrer (1984). By this time, the use of the tech-
nology in terms of the aesthetic and economic values was becoming
established. By 1985, John Lasseter's The Adventures of Andre' and
Wally B, among others, was demonstrating the potential for the tech-
nology. However, initially the costs and the lack of standardization
in the technology slowed the mainstream execution. In 1991, James
Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day demonstrated the extent to
which CGI could be useful in story-telling.
50 COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGERY

Gradually, the software became standardized and CGI became a

commonly used tool in video games and multimedia applications, as
well as film. The effects used in Jurassic Park (1993) showed how
useful the tool was to live-action film. The process of animation prac-
tice also changed, with much of the production work being done on
a computer, such as painting, lighting, and eventually camera work.
Postproduction also increasingly used computers. The technology
became the normal process quickly, particularly with advances from
Pixar, from the early shorts Tin Toy and Luxo Jr. to the groundbreak-
ing, first fully CGI-animated feature Toy Story (1995), the success of
which arguably brought CGI animation to the mainstream audience.
On television, Reboot became the first CGI series to be broadcast,
with the characters living inside a computer (recalling Tron). As the
technology improved, other studios in film and television have tried
to capitalize on Pixar's success with new animation in CGI such as
Antz (1998) and Shrek (2001). Attempts to create perfect photoreal-
ism have also been an issue, seen in the poor reception of Final Fan-
tasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and the more successful financially,
but still poorly received, The Polar Express (2004). In 2003, Disney
announced that all future feature animations would be produced us-
ing digital technology, essentially ending the era of traditional anima-
tion, which Disney had championed since the silent era.
In terms of production, the industry suggests that CGI is very simi-
lar to traditional filmmaking:

Perhaps the best way to understand CGI is to consider it a merger of

two methods of filmmaking: 2 D animation and live-action. The pro-
cess for generating CGI animated projects is very similar in many ways
to traditional animation, with some subtle but significant differences in
production procedures. llnlike hand-drawn animation, in CGI, artists
must create a three-dimensional world in the computer. Three-dimen-
sional sets must be built, lit and painted, much in the way that sets
are constructed for live-action films. CGI also resembles live-action
filmmaking in terms of spatial conceptualization, lighting, cinematog-
raphy, scene hook-ups and blocking of actor's movements. T o get from
idea to screen, however, CGI follows the traditional animation model
in which the artist must go through a series of steps to first create and
then define the image. The main advantage to CG animation is that it
is a non-linear process. (Winder and Dowlatabadi 2001)
 CREATURE COMFORTS 51

These advantages have become firmly entrenched in many parts of

the animation and filmmaking industries, with features becoming so
full of CGI that audiences increasingly find it hard to determine the
difference between live action and animation.

COSGROVE HALL. Studio based in Manchester, Great Britain, that

is one of Europe's largest and most prolific animation companies
and one of only a few studios in the world that produce animation
in hand-drawn/2D, stop-motion, puppet, and computer-generated
imagery (CGI) under one roof. The studio was founded in 1976 by
Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, who had worked together at Granada
Television, which they left to set up Stop Frame Animation. In 1972,
they began creating the title sequence to the children's television
series Rainbow with Thames TV, of which they became a subsidiary
in 1976 and changed their name to Cosgrove Hall.
The studio has grown to become one of the world's premiere ani-
mation studios, producing countless hours of animation each year.
With sales to over 150 countries, it has a worldwide appeal that is
reflected in the numerous awards the studio has won. Over the years,
the titles have included Noddy, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Chorlton
and the Wheelies ( 1 976), Cinderella (1979), Danger Mouse (198 l),
The Wind in the Willows Special (1983) and the subsequent 1984 se-
ries, Count Duckula (1988), The BFG (1989), Discworld (1996), Bill
and Ben (2001), Engie Benjy (2002), Fifi and the Flowertots (2005),
Doctor Who-The Scream of the Shalka (2005), and Pocoyo (2006).
This list of titles covers a range of techniques and age ranges from
preschool to teen and several long-running television series. Though
the founders retired in 2003, they continue to support the studio,
which employs 80 people.

CREATURE COMFORTS. In 1989, Channel 4 commissioned Aard-

man Animation to make a series of five-minute films, Lip Synch,
which used vox pop recordings. The series included Nick Park's
Creature Comforts, which won an Academy Award for Best Ani-
mated Short Film in 1990. The short features a number of animals
that are interviewed about their living conditions while living in a
zoo. The comments were made by people talking about their own
living conditions. The voices and dialects were "matched" to animals
52 CULHANE, SHAMUS

and given distinct personalities, which is also emphasized in the

movements of the animals. The film strongly exhibits the anthro-
pomorphic tendencies of Walt Disney in three dimensions (3D).
Humor derives from the tension between the ordinariness of the
opinions and the visual gags. The animation technique is 3D clay
animation using Plasticine. The lighting and camera style is designed
to give a documentary feel to the film.
The characters were used later in a series of advertisements for
Heat Electric and were again revived in autumn 2003 when Creature
Comforts made its debut as a series for the British television channel
ITV, with a second series broadcast in 2005.

CULHANE, SHAMUS (1908-1996). James "Shamus" Culhane, who

was born in Massachusetts, had a career in animation that reads like
the history of animation on its own. Throughout his long career, he
worked with a variety of studios and individuals, including Bray,
Fleischer, Disney, Ub Iwerks, Paramount, and Walter Lantz, as
well as at one time running his own studio.
Culhane moved to New York as a child and very quickly identi-
fied the desire to become an artist. His school friend Michael 1,antz
introduced James to his brother, Walter Lantz, who hired him to work
at Bray Studios. Culhane carried out a number of different jobs at the
studio and was able to try his hand at animation, completing his first
film by the age of 17. He was employed as an inker for Charles Mintz
on the Krazy Kat series, but when the studio moved west, Culhane
preferred to stay in New York. He found employment at the Fleischer
Studio, and due to many of its staff leaving, was quickly promoted,
even filling the role of head animator on some of its films.
In 1932, Culhane decided to head west to California, like many
animators before him, and went to work for Ub Iwerks, working on
the Flip the Frog series. Despite the initial move to the West Coast,
Culhane moved back to New York and for a brief time worked at
Van Beuren's studio. However, he did not like the quality of the
work being produced and returned west to work for Disney. His
time there was described as a "grueling apprenticeship" (Langer
1992), though he went on to animate on Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves ( 1937).
 DEITCH. GENE 53

After becoming ill, Culhane left Disney and moved to Miami to

work with the relocated Fleischer Studio in 1939, where he worked
on the feature-length Gulliver's Travels (1939). This led to yet an-
other transfer to the West Coast, where he worked briefly for Chuck
Jones at Warner Bros. During World War 11, Culhane worked with
Lantz for the war effort, and developed an interest in educational and
children's projects. He started his own company, Shamus Culhane
Productions, with operations on the East and West coasts. This ven-
ture collapsed in the 1959-1960 recession, after which he worked
with John and Faith Hubley. Between 1966 and 1967, Culhane was
the head of Paramount Cartoon Studios.
He returned again to making educational films for children and
wrote books about his experiences, Talking Arlimals and Other
Funny People ( 1986) and Animation: From Script to Screeri ( 1 988).
He returned to New York where he continued to work, and became
an educator. In 1986, he was awarded the Winsor McCay Award at
the Annie Awards. He worked in New York, where his career ended
with his death in 1996.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. See EASTERN EUROPE.

DEITCH, GENE (1924- ).Chicago-born animator who joined United

Productions of America (UPA) in California in the late 1940s as an
assistant to Bill Hurtz, where he was trained and later became princi-
pal director at its New York studio. The progressive design style he
learned at UPA carried through his work elsewhere, and he became
artistic director at Terrytoons from 1956 to 1958, after CBS took
over the studio from Paul Terry. Deitch founded his own company
in New Y ork in 1958, but this was absorbed by Rembrandt Films two
years later, though during this time he made Mlirzro (1960), which
won an Academy Award. Between 1961 and 1962, Deitch turned
out 13 new Tom and Jerry films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He
moved to Prague, where he married and set up a new studio and has
made films for the U.S. market with Czech animators.
DESTZNO. Destino is a film made in collaboration in 1946 between
the surrealist painter Salvador Dali and Walt Disney, which began
when Dali painted in Hollywood for a time in the 1940s. Storyboard-
ing for the film took place for eight months in 1946 but was aban-
doned. The short film consisted of numerous images that morphed
into each other, like a series of Dali paintings dissolving into one
another, to the soundtrack of a Mexican ballad.
The film contains signature Dali imagery such as figures and ob-
jects morphing or "melting" into other forms, and was brought to life
when Roy Disney, Walt's nephew and the executive producer of the
Disney Studio, came across the drawings when working on Fanta-
sia 2000. The film was not legally the studio's until it completed the
film, so it was decided to try to complete it retaining Dali's vision.
The studio still had some of the original drawings and storyboards
and began to reconstruct the film, using drawings and computer-
generated imagery (CGI) that were seamlessly blended together.
The new version was directed by French director Dominique Mon-
frey at Disney's Paris studio, who was initially reluctant to take on the
project but after encouragement to re-storyboard the film, he agreed.
The completed film premiered at the Annecy Animation Festival in
June 2003 and has since been shown as part of Dali exhibitions.

DISNEY STUDIO. Possibly the most well-known animation studio

in the world, the Walt Disney Studio was founded by Walt Disney
in partnership with his brother Roy, the studio having emerged from
Walt's previous attempts in the industry. In 1923, Walt moved to
Hollywood where he found a new distributor and went into partner-
ship with Roy. For four years, they worked on the Alice series before
bringing Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, and Friz Fre-
leng on board. After the loss of copyright of Walt's first character,
Oswald, he set about creating his most famous starring character,
Mickey Mouse. Premiering in Plane Crazy, Mickey made history
when he appeared in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first sound-
synchronized animated cartoon. Walt was inventive and developed
a variety of techniques to aid the development of his animation. He
developed the multiplane camera that created a depth of field in the
animation.
 DlSNEY STUDIO 55

The studio was successful in the production of shorts and ex-

panded its business by creating spin-off companies, eventually com-
ing together as Walt Disney Productions. It found particular success
with the Silly Symphonies series and with The Country Cousin in
1936, which Frank Tashlin said "featured a mouse that would be
a prototype for all cute mice in cartoons thereafter." In 1937, it re-
leased Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the first feature-length
animated film in the United States. The success of the film changed
the animation market and led to the production of several features
over the years. Following these successes, the studio expanded from
6 employees in 1928 to 187 in 1934, and by 1940 the studio had
over 1,600 staff members. As a result, the company moved to larger
premises.
By 1938, having spawned a variety of spin-off costars, Mickey
Mouse was essentially retired and the studio began to focus on a new
type of realism that, having studied facial expressions and details,
would endow characters with individual personalities, as had been
seen in Snow White. Disney wanted to hire the best animators in the
market but many did not want to work to his philosophy, and so the
company began to hire and train new animators. In seven years, it
screened 35,000 applicants for a Disney art school that until 1941
educated animators and introduced them to new styles and technical
principles. New methods of production and the rationalization of labor
led to specialized teams in animation, scene design, layout, scripts, ef-
fects, inking, overlaying, and filming. A main storyboard was used to
keep the films under control. The company was structured to reflect
the founders' personalities. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney established
the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) through a merger of
two professional schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music
(founded in 1883) and the Chouinard Art Institute (founded in 1921),
to offer education in visual arts and particularly animation.
The company continued to thrive, though it had its first significant
failure with Fantasia in 1940. The film had been very expensive
and time consuming to create and with a different approach than
audiences had previously seen. This, combined with the outbreak of
World War I1 that essentially closed the overseas market, led to a
very poor box-office result.
56 DISNEY STUDIO

In 1941, the studio was hit again, but this time by an animators'
strike. The staff had issues with wages and contracts and even when
it was resolved many left, including John Hubley, uncomfortable
with what was perceived as a change in the mood. The studio then
became involved in the war effort with the government and military
after Pearl Harbor. It produced training films and was permitted to
keep the studio, during which time it released Dumb0 (194l), Bambi
(1942), Saludos, Amigos ( 1943), and The Three Caballeros (1 943).
The production of shorts included anti-Nazi propaganda.
After the war, animation became less popular and the production
of shorts was reduced to cover the rising costs of producing features.
Disney began to branch out into production of documentaries, live-
action children's films, and television. Walt spent less time on the
production part of the business, leaving his "Nine Old Men9'-Mil-
ton Kahl, Marc Davis, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les
Clark, Ward Kimball, John Lounsberry, Frank 'Thomas, and Ollie
Johnston-in charge. The term was coined by Walt, who said they
reminded him of the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Fol-
lowing Walt's death in 1966, Reitherman oversaw the completion of
Walt's last film, The Jungle Book (1 967).
The studio continued after the death of its founder, though the
name was changed to Walt Disney Enterprises in 1968 (and is cur-
rently known as the Walt Disney Company, encompassing all the
ventures under the umbrella ownership) and began the 1970s with
The Aristocats ( 1970) and Robin Hood ( 1973). The style had changed
and the material was thought to be weaker. The studio was facing
increasing pressure from rising costs and staff issues; no new staff
had been hired after Sleepirzg Beauty ( 1959), which was four years
overdue and very expensive. Staff was lost due to death and retire-
ment, and as a result new features were only released every three
years. The studio began recruiting from art schools and Eric Larson
took charge of a new training program.
In 1977, The Rescuers was released and marked the end of the era
of the old animators. Koy took over the running of the company but
was not as innovative as Walt had been. However, in 1982 the studio
released Tron, which marked a significant point in the development
of computer-generated imagery (CGI). A new generation of anima-
 DISNEY STUDIO 57

tors came on board and produced The Fox and the Hound (1981) and
The Black Cauldron (198.5)' but these films were not successful.
The studio went through management changes with Ron Miller,
Walt's son-in-law, replaced as CEO by Michael Eisner, and the
original studio was moved. Its next release, The Great Mouse Detec-
tive (1986), did better and the studio improved again when they col-
laborated with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment to produce
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1987), directed by Robert Zemeckis and
Richard Williams. The film was a major success and capitalized on
nostalgia for classic animation.
In 1989, The Little Mermaid was released and was the first film
since Sleeping Beauty to feature a princess. It was very successful
and the end of the 1980s marked the beginning of a new era of hits for
the studio. The 1990s saw the success continue with Beauty and the
Beast (1991), which was the first animated feature to be nominated
for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Their next film, Aladdin
(1992), was even more successful at the box office and in 1994
The Lion King set the record for the highest grossing traditionally
animated film. However, in 1995, Pocahontas marked the start of
another decline in Disney animation as the film lacked the warmth
and success of The Little Mermaid.
Other late 1990s releases- Hercules ( 1997), Tarzan (1 999), and
The Emperor's New Groove (2000)-were similarly received. The
company had opened a satellite studio in Florida to increase produc-
tion, and it produced Mulan (1998), which did quite well, as did
Lilo and Stitch (2002), but Brother Bear (2003) was to be its swan
song and the Florida studio closed in 2004. At the same time, the
size of the California studio was reduced and management decided
to abandon drawn animation in favor of computer animation. It re-
leased Dinosaur in 2000, attempting to the push the boundaries of
digital animation. The film featured more than 30 separate species,
mapped into real location shots. A flexible motion control "Dino-
cam" was used, attempting to give the film a documentary feel. The
studio even created new computer software to create realistic lemur
fur. The film is considered to have made a significant development
in computer-generated "realism" with thousands of "naturalistic"
character shots. Home on the Range (2004) marked the end of the
58 DISNEY. WALT

traditional animation as practiced by Walt Disney. After agreement

with Pixar and the success of Toy Story, the Walt Disney Company
now has a stake in Pixar as well as a variety of other enterprises in
television and film. The international reach of the company now
includes theme parks around the world as well as film and televi-
sion broadcasting networks, production companies, and distribution
firms. The company also owns shares in sports teams.

DISNEY, WALT (1901-1966). Walt Disney is probably the most

famous animator of all time, with the most influential and success-
ful studio. Walt was born in Chicago but his family moved around
frequently when he was a child. A brief stay in Missouri is said to
have been a particularly happy time and the idyll of farm life and
pastoral themes are often represented in his early films. In 1918,
he volunteered for the Red Cross and was sent to France where
he developed his drawing skills with caricatures, popular with the
soldiers. Upon returning home, he decided to become a comic-strip
artist. He moved to Kansas at age 19, where he met Ub Iwerks and
together the pair began animating for the Kansas City Film Advertis-
ing Company producing animated advertising reels. Disney became
enterprising and inventive with his work and Iwerks was a talented
animator. In 1922, Disney resigned and founded Laugh-0-Gram
Films, and he hired Iwerks and Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising.
They began producing fables but the distributors were bankrupt and
though they produced a series pilot, Alice in Cartoonland, Disney ran
out of money and filed for bankruptcy too. In 1923, Disney moved
to Hollywood and Margaret J. Winkler, who distributed films for the
Fleischer brothers and Pat Sullivan, placed an order for the Alice
series. Some of the films were the last Disney himself animated,
leaving this task to Ub Iwerks and Rollin Hamilton. Walt went into
partnership, founding the Disney Studio with his brother Roy, who
would be his business partner throughout their careers, and he re-
sumed work on the Alice series. Initially, Walt worked alone but was
again joined by Iwerks, Harman, Ising, and Friz Freleng. In 1927, he
created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was fully animated with no
live actors and distributed by Charles Mintz for Universal; however,
Mintz obtained copyright of the character.
 DISNEY. WALT 59

After this loss of a star character, Disney worked to come up with

another one. Stories have suggested that he drew a mouse that he
named Mortimer, but his wife suggested Mickey. The credit for the
creation of Mickey Mouse should be shared with Iwerks, who first
drew the character fully. Mickey's first appearance was in Plarle
Crazy, but after the release of The Jazz Singer (1927), Disney sensed
an industrial revolution and created a makeshift system to synchro-
nize sound with animation. He used this in Steamboat Willie, Mick-
ey's third film and the first sound-synchronized cartoon. After some
technical problems, the film was first shown at the Colony Theatre
in New York on 18 November 1928. This film was extremely suc-
cessful and Disney patented Mickey's name and this time retained
the rights.
Disney collaborated with musician Carl Stalling, who wrote the
music for Mickey's films, and the music dominated their new series,
Silly Symphonies, with the first film The Skeleton Dance (1929).
Disney continued developing technology and techniques and in
1933 began producing films in color. By 1943, Disney had won 11
Academy Awards (22 during his life and one posthumous), Mickey
Mouse became a phenomenon, and as the years went by Disney
turned his attention to "drawn actors" with carefully studied features
and gestures. His characters were to have full personalities and obey
the logic of reality. This form of realism became dominant in the
studio; as he strived toward better representations, he developed the
multiplane camera and feature-length animation with full narra-
tives, first seen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves ( 1937).
As the studio became more successful, Disney was keen to train
new animators to conform to his style of working and he set up an art
school to help develop new talent. He came to organize his company
in a very particular way and hired people who shared his sensibili-
ties. Disney had the same impact on animation as sound did to live-
action cinema; his successes led to more company developments and
relocation.
Disney's most sophisticated and ambitious work was Fantasia
(1940), but the war-torn European market was closed to him and the
film failed at the box office. In 1941, Disney clashed with staff over
pay and contracts, resulting in a strike. Disney took this as a personal
60 DOCUMENTARY

attack on his leadership and he took a trip to South America, during

which time the strike was resolved. Though he lost some of his staff,
Disney continued production through the war, supporting the war
effort.
Disney again sensed changes in the industry following the war and
in the 1950s and 1960s he began producing live-action children's
films and documentaries and developed television shows, once
more becoming an industry leader. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney
established the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) through a
merger of two professional schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of
Music and the Chouinard Art Institute.
Disney began to take less interest in the studio and concentrated on
his project to build an amusement park, Disney Land, in California.
He left more responsibility to his lead animators, or "Nine Old Men"
as he dubbed them. Walt died in 1966 and one year later the last film
he had worked on, The Jungle Book, was released. Walt Disney Pro-
ductions continued operating with large profits and his amusement
park was so successful that another was opened in Florida. More
movies were made in the Disney style.
Disney was defined as a complicated man who was said to be often
harsh and distant with his employees but was also a good husband
and father and was generous to old friends. He demanded high qual-
ity and was ambitious, never losing sight of the commercial potential
of his product. He felt that he shared the aspirations and social origins
of his audience. His films set a standard that was dominant for a long
time; however, due to this, he has been criticized for creating hege-
mony in the industry and spreading a particular American ideology
throughout the world. Despite these criticisms and those against his
character, he remains one of the most innovative animators in history
whose contribution to the medium was vast and lasting.

DOCUMENTARY. Though animation cannot present the "live"

element that is generally thought of in documentaries-to present
real events-it can be used subjectively to present the emotion of
the subject. Live-action documentaries are often edited to present a
particular point of view and are not always entirely objective either,
so in this respect animation is no different from live-action foot-
age. A very early example of an animated documentary is Winsor
 DUCKAMUCK 61

McCay's The Sinking of the Lusitania (19181, which depicts what

happened as factually as any newsreel but injects emotion through
the visuals. Marjut Rimmerien's film Slow Protection (1987) docu-
ments the experiences of a woman who has suffered great anxiety
due to past abuse and the film shows her perception of the reality of
a variety of events in her life. Peter Lord of Aardman Animation
used clay to produce Going Equipped (1989), an interview with a
young man in prison, and presents a realist agenda using real voice
footage with the animated characters. Paul Wells (1998) suggests
that there are four modes of documentaries that can be used in
animation:
imitative-such as the newsreel or travelogue
subjective-individual perspectives or social narratives
fantastical-which repositions the social or historical subject to
offer a different point of view
postmodern-where the social or cultural narrative may be sub-
ject to no proven authority but may offer a relevant truth
Since 1997, Bob Sabiston's Flat Black Films has helped popularize
animation as a medium for documentary in such films as Srzack and
Drink (1999), which uses his digital rotoscoping technique over live-
action documentary footage. See also GENRE.

DUCK AMUCK. One of the most famous of the Looney Tunes series
from the Warner Brothers studio, directed by Chuck Jones and
written by Michael Maltese. The 1953 film stars Daffy Duck and
begins with him fencing; as he lunges toward the screen, he moves
past the painted background and into blank white space. He then ad-
dresses the unseen animator. As they discuss and argue over the miss-
ing backdrop, it keeps changing, along with Daffy's costumes and
voice, which increasingly annoys Daffy. After feeling very harassed,
he pleads with the animator to stop and asks to see who is responsible
for his torment. The animator is revealed to be Bugs Bunny, who
then addresses the audience and says, "Ain't I a stinker'?" The film's
use of the break in the fourth wall with the interaction between the
character and animator and the direct address to the audience refers to
the Fleischer brothers' Out of the Inkwell series where Koko would
interact with his animator-master.
62 DUNNING, GEORGE

DUNNING, GEORGE (1920-1979). Dunning was a Canadian anima-

tor who attended Ontario College of Art and later became a member
of the National Film Board, where he worked on a team editing
films with Norman McLaren. Dunning's early films include Grim
Pastures (1944), Three Blind Mice (1945), and Cadet Rouselle
(1946, in collaboration with Colin Low). In 1946, he went to Paris
but returned to Canada to cofound his own production company in
Toronto with his former colleague Jim McKay. In 1956, Dunning
joined United Productions of America (UPA) in New York City.
He then moved to London to open a production company with John
Coates in 1957. Dunning's films from that period included The
Apple ( 1962), Moonrock ( 1970), The Maggot ( 1 973), and Damon the
Mower ( 1972).
Dunning is perhaps best known for directing Yellow Submarine
(1968), which was inspired by and set to the music of the pop group
the Beatles. It was described as groundbreaking and featured the psy-
chedelic images and stylized movement that influenced commercial
design for many years. The film inspired a reemergence of feature-
length animation, which helped the Disney Studio. The success of
Yellow Submarine led Disney to reissue Fantasia, which it described
as "the ultimate visual experience," to reach the youth market who
would be interested in the psychedelic nature of the imagery.

EASTERN EUROPE. The historical divide of Eastern and Western

Europe has been varied and is largely geopolitical, particularly since
the end of World War 11. The majority of the animation produced in
Eastern Europe has been postwar; however, there were a few notable
exceptions. IstrBn Kiszly Kat6 was considered to be the father of
Hungarian animation, making cutout animated cartoon news films in
1914. He moved on to producing short films and animated advertise-
ments. In 1928, a school for art of promotion was set up and from it
emerged a new studio, founded by former students Gyula Macskassy
and Jhnos Halhsz in 1932. They produced over 100 animated adver-
tisements using various techniques, though JBnos Halhsz moved to
England and became John Halas, and Gyorgy Marczincsak became
 EASTERN EUROPE 63

George Pal. Few of the artists remained in Hungary and the industry
lacked an identity or an audience until after the war.
In Yugoslavia, Zagreb would be the defining studio and later
school of animation throughout the postwar years. The Bulgarian
state-run film studio started its animation division in 1948. The first
Bulgarian animation was by Dimitar Todorov-Jarava, It's His Own
Fault (1949), followed by Wolfand Lanzb (1953) and the first color
film, Woodland Republic (1954). Puppet animator Dimo Lingurska
made his first film, The Terrible Bomb, in 1951 and set the ground-
work for the industry, though there was a lack of funding and the
animation was fairly crude. Todor Dinov is considered to be the
father of Bulgarian animation; he studied under Soviet animator Ivan
Ivanov-Vano. His first film was Marko the Hero (1955), though his
career was short-lived due to political interference.
Ladislas Starevitch (1882-1965), though born in Russia (and
included in the Soviet Union entry), was born to Polish parents
and is often claimed as a Polish animation pioneer for his puppet
animation. There was no organized animation industry in Poland
until after World War 11, and what there was, was considered to be
less "serious" than live-action film. Zenon Wasilewski, a prewar ani-
mator, wanted to finish a film he had started in 1939 that had been
interrupted by the war, and moved to Lodz where he established an
animation company, which later became the well-known puppet stu-
dio Semafor. A drawn-animation studio was established in Katowice
in 1947 though the ruling communist government kept a close eye on
the productions. It followed the Soviet model, which was dominated
by propaganda and folk tales, though training was available. This
training led to Witold Giersz's debut in 1956, The Mystery of the Old
Castle, and Little Western (1960). The duo Wlodimierz Haupe and
Halina Bielinska made Poland's first feature animation, the puppet
film Janosik (1954). This was followed by Changing of the Guard
(1959), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In
1955, the Arsenal Art Exhibition in Warsaw featured Polish fine art,
which was very different from the usual "social realism." It proved
to be very inspirational to Jan Lenica (1928-2001) and Walerian
Borowczyk (1923-2006), who went on to collaborate on several
films. The Polish state restrictions were gradually relaxed and new
studios emerged such as Studio Miniatur Filmowych, making short
64 EASTERN EUROPE

films by young artists. Lenica and Borowczyk made five films to-
gether in the late 1950s. The pair later went their separate ways but
had brought a new sense of graphic design to Polish animation.
Two of Czechoslovakia's most notable animators, Jiri Trnka and
Karel Zeman, are featured in their own entries, both creators of
groundbreaking puppet animation.
Bulgarian animation took off in the 1960s and became one of the
most creative studios in Eastern Europe, the Sofia Animation Studio.
Joining Todor Dinov were Zdenka Doycheva, Pencho Bogdanov,
Radka Buchvarova, and Roman Meitzov. The studio was divided
into two sections headed by Donio Donev and Stoyan Dukov, who
brought morality and humor to the animation, seen in Donev's popu-
lar Three Fools series and Dukov's The Blackest Mouse (1971).
The Hungarian film industry nationalized in 1948 and animation
slowly came with it, though only a few films were made initially. The
Little Cock 's Dianlorld Halfpenny ( 1 95 1) by Gyula MacskBssy and
Edit Fekete was made for children and was the first Hungarian film
in color. The 1950s saw the development of the Pannonia Film Stu-
dio under the guidance of Gyorgy Matolcsy. It gained international
attention in 1960 with the award-winning Pencil and India Rubber
and Duet by Gyula MacskAssy. Jbsef Nepp's Passion (1961) was
the first animation to move from folk tales to feature contemporary
issues. In the 1960s, the television series Gustavus was sold to more
than 70 countries from 1964 into the 1970s, consisting of over 160
episodes. Ambitious shorts and good new animators coming through
brought a new dark humor to much of the animation produced. In
1968, economic reforms led to the studio having to find its market. In
the 1970s, Pannonia continued to create shorts and television anima-
tion. One of the most successful animators of the 1960s and 1970s,
Marcell Jankovics released Deep Water in 1971, The Fight (1977),
which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and The Son
of White Mare (1980). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, television
production reached new heights and saw 20 features produced, with
many new talented animators such as Csaba Varga, Ferenc Cokb, and
Gyula Nagay. In 1986, Pannonia Cartoon and Animated Film Studio
became an independent company, Pannonia Film Company, with
artists holding rights to their work, though they also had to face new
competition from the new Varga Studios.
 ENGEL, JULES 65

Poland in the 1980s saw the emergence of two notable animators,

Zbigniew Rybczynski (1949- ), who won an Academy Award for
Best Animated Short with Tango (1981), and Piotr Dumala (1956-),
whose notable works include The Black Hood (1983) and Freedom
of the Leg (1989).
After a decline in Bulgarian animation production in the 1970s,
there was a comeback in the 1980s with Anri Kuler's Labyrinth
(1984), Nikolai Todorov's Successful Test (1 984), Boyko Kanev's A
Crushed World ( 1986), and Pencho Kanchev's Romance of the Wind
(1986).
All of the Eastern European animation industries encountered
some difficulties after the collapse of the Soviet Union and com-
munism in 1991, but Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Zagreb, and the
newly "European" Estonia found success in television animation and
international collaboration, and continually supported emerging new
talent.
In Prague in the 1990s, the fall of communism led to a lack of
guaranteed work for the animation industry. However, one studio
that managed the change was Kratky Film's Brati v Triku. U.S.
kmigrk Gene Deitch helped the studio's continued success over the
years, bringing in many international clients. The studio production
included the adaptation of Dutch author Dick Brunna's Miffy sto-
ries.

ENCHANTED DRAWING, THE. J. Stuart Blackton's first film, The

Enchanted Drawing (1900), was presented as a vaudeville lightning
sketch. The film shows Blackton standing at a blackboard on which
he draws a man in a top hat and proceeds to interact with him. He
draws a glass of wine and the man smiles but Blackton "removes"
the glass and drinks from it himself and the man frowns. Blackton
then gives him a cigar and he happily puffs smoke, which appears
onscreen. There is no animation as such, it is a trick film but it is
worthy of inclusion as it was influential in the development of anima-
tion, not least in Blackton's next film, Humorous Phases of Funny
Faces ( 1906).

ENGEL, JULES (1909-2003). Born in Budapest, Hungary, Engel

moved to the United States as a child and grew up in Illinois. He
 moved to Los Angeles in 1937 hoping to attend one of the universi-
ties but ended up working as an assistant to a local artist, drawing
landscapes. Engel moved into animation through Charles Mintz at
Screen Gems and was hired by Walt Disney in 1938 to choreograph
a sequence in Fantasia. He continued with Disney, where he worked
as a colorist and on the storyboard for Bambi (1942). During World
War 11, Engel worked on army training films with Hal Roach and
many other Hollywood animators.
Engel cofounded United Productions of America (UPA) after the
war and was involved in the development of Gerald McBoing Boing,
Madeline, and Mr. Magoo, among others. Engel left the studio in
1959 and, with former UPA colleagues Herb Klynn and Buddy Ge-
zler, formed Format Films and produced several popular television
series. He was also a painter and after 1945 had several exhibitions of
his work, which was said to have been inspired by modernist artists
Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.
In 1962, Engel moved to Paris and directed The World of Sine
and codirected The Little Prince. He also directed his first live-
action film, Coaraze (1965), which was award winning. He returned
to America, where he directed both live-action and animated films,
winning several awards; in 1968, he created the first experimental
animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, which
he directed from 1970 to 200 1. He was an inspirational teacher and
taught several well-known animators, including Henry Selick and
John Lasseter.

FAMILY GUY. This anicom, which airs on the Fox network in the
United States, was created by Seth McFarlane (who also voices
many of the characters). The series is similar in its domestic sitcom
structure to The Simpsorzs with a family of 2.5 children. The family
consists of Peter Griffin, an overweight buffc)on, though far more
grotesque than Homer Simpson; his wife, Lois; and their children,
Chris, Meg, and baby Stewie. The main differences are Stewie, who
is something of a megalomaniacal figure intent on killing his mother,
 FANTASIA 67

and the family dog, Brian, who walks upright, talks, and has a very
high IQ and love of culture.
The show began airing in 1999 but was cancelled in 2002. After a
campaign by fans and strong DVD sales (as well as successful rerun
airings on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim slot), Fox recommis-
sioned the series in 2005, and the sixth season began in 2007. The
comedy is lowbrow and focuses largely on parody and a satire of
U.S. culture, specifically television and film.
In 2005, McFarlane released American Dad, similar in style to
Family Guy but the father is a Secret Service agent, and instead of a
talking dog, the family has an alien living with them. The premiere
of the sixth season of Familj~Guy, which aired in September 2007,
presented the characters in an hour-long edited version of the sci-
ence fiction epic Star Wars. Titled "Blue Harvest," the episode was
released on DVD.

FAMOUS STUDIOS. Company formed in 1942 out of the previous

Fleischer Studio, which Paramount Pictures had foreclosed on. The
brothers were forced out and Paramount took the existing staff back to
New York, from Miami, where the studio had relocated. Paramount's
original company name was Famous Players, so they renamed the
Fleischers' studio as Famous Studios. The quality of the Fleischers'
work was retained and the business was initially doing well until Para-
mount backed out of series production, leaving Famous in a rut. After
the 1943-1944 movie season, all Famous cartoons had to be made
in Technicolor, including Popeye. As a result, the Superman series
was dropped and the studio introduced Little Lulu, another adapta-
tion of a popular comic strip. This proved to be very successful for
the studio and the cartoons were increasingly aimed at the children's
market. Several of the Fleischers' old films were reworked to create
more output. The series Casper the Friendly Ghost did well on televi-
sion and in 1956 Famous was dissolved and the name was changed to
Paramount Cartoon Studio. See also FLEISCHER BROTHERS.

FANTASIA. Walt Disney's most sophisticated work, which consisted

of the illustration of eight pieces of classical music, was released in
1940. Despite the ambitious scale and scope of the project as well as
 the length of time the project took to complete, the film failed at the
box office; it was suggested that the music and images clashed.
Oskar Fischinger was known to have created drawings used by
the animation team, though he was not credited because he had left
the studio. Among the other staff on the film were Preston Blair as
animator and Jules Engel on choreography. The segment entitled
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which starred Mickey Mouse, was made
first (1938) and treated as special and separate to the Mickey Mouse
shorts. Leopold Stokowsky, a celebrity conductor, was brought in
to collaborate on the project and create what was originally titled "A
Concert Feature." However, theaters were not equipped to play the
"Fantasound" soundtrack, which was considered a unique experiment
within the industry. Fantasound was a stereo sound system developed
by the studio to create a dimensional sound environment. The music
selections used in the film included Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
by Johann Sebastian Bach, Nutcracker Suite by Pytor Ilyich Tchai-
kovsky, The Rite of Sprirzg by Igor Stravinsky, Pastoral Symphony by
Ludwig van Beethoven, Datzce of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli,
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, Ave Maria by Franz
Schubert, and Claire de Lurie by Claude Debussy (though this was
recorded but not used).
Audiences were divided; the masses were put off by "highbrow"
connotations, and the result was a commercial failure. There were
also problems due to the war and the loss of the European market.
When Fantasia was reissued in 1969, the film did better with youth
audiences, partly due to the previous success of George Dunning's
Yellow Submarine. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, management
changes at Disney saw a rerecording of the soundtrack with Leopold
Stokowsky and the commentator.
The 50th anniversary edition was reissued in 1990 with the origi-
nal "Fantasound" soundtrack. The film was also re-released, after
being remastered in 2000, in an original "uncut" version featuring all
of the elements that had previously been cut in 1942 and 1946; it was
the full 124-minute 1940 version.

FANTASMAGORZE. Fantasmagorie (1908) was the first animated

film in Prance, made by French filmmaker mile Cohl, and was
first shown at the Thkitre du Gymnase on 17 August 1908. There
 FEATURE LENGTH 69

is little narrative in the film; rather, it is made up of sequences that

morph into each other. However, they actually move across the
screen, animated, unlike J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases
of Funny Faces (1906), which used stop motion as more of a trick
film. Fantasmagorie was made up of 700 drawings on an illuminated
plate; the black lines were filmed on paper and printed in negative so
it looks like a chalkboard. This is considered by many historians to
be the first fully animated film.

FEATURE LENGTH. A longer form of animation, with a typical

running time of over 40 minutes (though commonly lasting over an
hour) that is shown theatrically as the main feature, unlike the short,
which was historically packaged as part of a film bill, or lined up and
shown alongside the live-action main feature. One of the first feature-
length animated films came out of Europe with Lotte Reiniger's sil-
houette-puppet-animated The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which
was released in 1926.
The first U.S. feature-length animation was Disney's Snow White
and the Seven Dwarves (1937), and the success of this film led to the
development of more features from the studio with its next feature,
Pinocchio, in 1940. In the meantime, the Fleischer brothers entered
the market with their adaptation of Gulliver's Travels in 1939. The
first British feature-length animation was Halas and Batchelor's
Animal Farm (1954), though Disney continued to dominate the
market.
In 1972, Ralph Bakshi directed the first ever X-rated animated
feature for adults, Fritz the Cat, which he followed up with Coonskin
(1975). Hanna-Barbera contributed to the feature market in 1973
with Charlotte's Web, adapted from the popular children's book,
though it later produced feature-length versions of its television se-
ries. The use of adaptations continued to be popular with Watership
Down in 1978.
Over the years, Western audiences lost interest in the form, though
they continued to be produced. The Japanese market continued to
include feature-length and television animation, and Akira (1988)
proved that there was an audience for anime in the West as well as
science fiction animation in feature length, and was very successful.
In 1994, Disney released The Lion King, which was so successful it
70 FELlX THE CAT

essentially recaptured the studio's previous success, which had been

declining. This also marked a resurgence in the popularity of feature
animation and was reinforced with the release of the hugely success-
ful Toy Story in 1995.
Pixar became dominant in family feature animation over the next
few years, though television series and short-form spin-offs saw the
production of Beavis and Butthead Do America (1996), South Park:
Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), and Wallace and Gromit: The
Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). The release of Shrek (2001), which
parodied fairy tales and animation, was so successful that it spawned
two sequels and several imitators. However, in recent years the at-
tempts by studios to enter the market have resulted in some poor-
quality films. The increasing use of computer-generated imagery
(CGI) in animation made it easier for filmmakers to produce features
but also led to an increase in lifelike representations of people in
films such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and The Po-
lar Express (200.1). These films have been criticized for the anima-
tion that is not entirely successful in capturing the human actor, and
instead lends an uncanny or unsettling quality to the performance.

FELIX THE CAT. Felix was a popular cartoon character from the si-
lent era. The name was coined by John King, who liked the contrast
of "felix" for "felicity" with the tradition of superstition of black cats.
The character was created by Otto Messmer at Paramount Pictures
for Pat Sullivan, who had hired Messmer and encouraged him to
create something for the studio when other animators were very
busy. The first episode of short films he appeared in was Feline Fol-
lies (1919), but he was officially named in his second appearance in
Musical Mews. Sullivan was the producer of the films and his name
appeared on the title as Felix's creator. The success of Felix led to
Sullivan leaving Paramount in 1921 and starting his own company,
with the distribution of his films by successful distributor Margaret
J. Winkler. The films were then released on a monthly schedule, the
next one being Felix Saves the Day in 1922. Sullivan promoted the
films heavily and Felix became very popular in Great Britain as
well as in the United States. The character was merchandised and
was featured in a comic strip that Messmer drew.
 FESTIVALS 71

Felix had a distinct personality and a slightly pensive walk with his
head down and his hands clasped behind his back. His tail could turn
into a variety of tools, such as a baseball bat, a telescope, or a fishing
hook, among others. He was described as, and probably modeled on,
the "Charlie Chaplin of cartoon characters" and even met the actor in
Felix in Hollywood, in which he was accused of stealing Chaplin's
material. The cartoon was self-reflexive and saw Felix using his
paycheck from Sullivan's studio and going to the movies, only to see
himself on the big screen and talking back to his animator.
The success led to an increase in production to 26 a year, and in
1923 Bill Nolan was brought in to help the production; he left in 1925
and was replaced by Raoul Barre (who then left in 1927). These car-
toons from the late 1920s were described as sophisticated in humor
and technique. For example, in Comicalamaties (1928), the animator
forgets to fill in Felix's body and so the cat fills himself in with boot
polish, interacting with the animator.
Once sound emerged in film, the production ended, as Sullivan
was unimpressed by the technology and did not want to make the
transition; this led to a decline in Felix's popularity. Sullivan had
many personal problems with his business and, when he died in 1933,
his affairs had not been organized and Messmer could not carry on
with the character. There was a brief revival by the Van Beuren
studio in 1935, but it only produced a few films. Felix did, however,
live on in cartoon strip form for another 25 years.

FESTIVALS. Animation festivals play an important role in the industry,

particularly for independent animators who do not distribute their work
in mainstream venues. Festivals provide the opportunity to reach new
audiences and share new work and techniques with peers and crit-
ics. They are often the first exposure for filmmakers and can lead to
more work and potential success. Though many film festivals include
animation sections and accept animation in their programs (such as
Cannes, Toronto, and Edinburgh), the first festival dedicated solely
to animation was the Annecy International Animation Festival. An-
necy was first launched in the French town of the same name in 1960
and was held biennially, though this changed to annual in 1998. It is
still regarded as one of the most important festivals in the animation
72 FILM ROMAN

industry calendar. Another major festival is the World Festival of Ani-

mated Films, held in Zagreb (known generally as the Zagreb Festival),
which was first held in 1972, again biannually. In 1976, the Ottawa
International Animation Festival became the first North American
festival and has also become a major part of the festival circuit; it was
held biennially until 2004 when it became an annual event. In Japan,
the International Animation Festival of Hiroshima began in 1985 and
is held biennially.
Other international festivals of note include Anima Mundi, Rio de
Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil; Holland Animation Festival, Utrecht,
Netherlands; Cartoons on the Bay, Positano, Italy, which special-
izes in television animation; Fantoche international Animation Fes-
tival, Zurich, Switzerland; and BAF, Bradford Animation Festival, in
Bradford, Great Britain.
Alternative festivals began to appear in North America as tour-
ing festivals in the 1970s, including the International Tournee of
Animation, which became Expanded Entertainment in the mid-1980s
(though it only lasted until the 1990s). Spike and Mike's Festival of
Animation also emerged in the 1970s, and became well known for
its "Sick and 'Twisted" program, which it is often known by. Most
festivals have an opportunity for members of the public to view
screenings, often accompanied by discussions and lectures, as well
as an awards ceremony for achievements in the field.

FILM ROMAN. Animation studio based in Hollywood, California,

that animates the television sitcoms The Simpsons and King of the
Hill, though some of the animation is done overseas in Korea. The
animation is an example of contemporary limited animation, though
they have higher production values for the technique than when it
was heavily used in 1960s television.
The studio was founded in 1983 by Phil Roman and is part of
Starz Media Company. The studio has won several awards, including
20 Emmy awards, several Annie awards, a Grammy, and a Music
Television music video award. The studio produces a range of other
animated series for television, including Garjiield and X-Metz Evolu-
tion. It also produces visual effects for live-action television series,
including Law and Order, effects for studio features (I, Robot, 2004),
and music videos and commercials.
 FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN 73

Previous animated sitcoms also produced by the studio are The

Critic (1994-1995), Family Guy, three seasons of Futurama for
20th Century Fox, and The Simpsons Movie (2007).

FILMATION. U.S. animation studio founded in 1962 by Lou Scheimer

and Norm Prescott specializing in documentary and advertising. In
1965, it began producing animation series for Saturday morning
television, including Superman, The Archies, The Brady Kids, and
Cilligan's Planet. The studio also produced Fat Albert and the Cosby
Kids (1972-1979) and The New Fat Albert Show (1979-1984) star-
ring Bill Cosby.
Filmation produced an animated version of the live-action science
fiction series Star Trek that featured much of the original cast and
writers. It used rotoscoping and frequently reused the backgrounds,
which saved money and time. The studio is perhaps best known for
the 1980s series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-
1985), which brought renewed success to the studio and a spin-off
series two years later, She-Ra, Princess of Power. The series was
popular in part due to collaboration with the toy company Mattel,
which produced a line of toys based on the characters. The show was
criticized as a veiled advertising campaign by parent groups, but the
studio countered this by inserting moral lessons in each episode. The
company employed an exclusively American workforce, not out-
sourcing the animation to East Asia as many other companies did.
The studio changed ownership many times until it was finally pur-
chased in 1988 by L'Oreal and closed in 1989. Since then, a variety
of companies have secured the rights to redistribute the old series on
VHS and DVD, including He-Man in Great Britain.

FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN. Directed by Hironobu

Sakaguchi, creator of the long-running, multiplatform science fic-
tion video-game series Final Fantasy, on which the feature was
based. FF: TSW was codirected by Moto Sakakibara and released in
2001. The film is set in the year 2065 A.D. on an alien-infested planet
Earth with humans facing extinction. The lead character, Aki Ross,
is guided by her mentor, Dr. Sid, and an odd dream that holds clues
to saving the human race. Ross must collect spirits who will create a
force strong enough to fight the alien Phantoms.
74 FINE ART

FF: TSW was the first animated feature to try to fully re-create
computer-generated humans. The result was technically brilliant
but fans of the game series did not recognize the story, which was
outside their cannon. Likewise, critics and animators were unim-
pressed by the result, particularly the close-up human features that
engendered an uncanny or unsettling feeling in the viewers. See also
JAPAN.

FINE ART. Despite common misconceptions that cartoons are merely

popular culture or children's entertainment, there are numerous ani-
mators who produce distinct works that can be considered to be, and
are often inspired by, fine art. This perception of animation as a chil-
dren's entertainment form is largely in part due to the great success
and dominance of the Disney Studio with its largely comedic and
family films, which are generally taken less seriously than fine art.
Many independent animators have worked as fine artists for years,
using various media combined with animation to develop their vi-
sions and explore movement; these have perhaps been less well
known in the mainstream, which has led to the dismissal of the form.
In the 1920s and 1930s, experimental artists in Europe such as Mar-
cel Duchamp (Anemic Ciizema, 1927), Hans Richter (Rhythnzus 21,
1921), Walther Ruttmann (Lichtspeil Opus 1, 1921 ), and Fernand
Uger (Ballet Mkchanique, 1924) used animation techniques in con-
junction with their other work. Oskar Fischinger was a producer of
experimental animation as well as a painter, and would use some of
his painting techniques in his films.
Animation is increasingly being considered as an art form within the
animation industry as well as gradually without. It is developed by art
galleries displaying animated films, as well as being used more within
art; as such, the boundaries of the forms have become blurred.

FISCHINGER, OSKAR (1900-1967). Born in Germany, Fischinger

worked as a technical artist in Frankfurt and was inspired by Walther
Ruttmann's Opus 1 in 1921 and began making abstract films. He
moved to Munich in 1922 to become a full-time filmmaker, estab-
lishing a production company, where he produced animated shorts.
However, after some financial problems, he closed down and moved
to Berlin in 1927 and began producing abstract animation synchro-
 nized to classical music. These "studies" were shown in Europe,
Japan, and the United States, and Fischinger's work came to be
in demand. By 1932, he had established Fischinger Studios with his
brother, wife, and three other employees.
Fischinger pursued the abstract relationship to music and began
to use a three-color process, completing his first color film, Kreise,
in 1933. He attracted acclaim and was offered a contract with
Paramount Studios in America in 1936. He then moved to Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1937 and later the Disney Studio from
1938 to 1939, where he worked on Fantasia (1940), though at the
time he was not credited for his contribution to the film. Fischinger
continued to paint, as he was frustrated at not being able to produce
independent films in Hollywood. He came under the patronage of
Hilla Rebay, curator of the Guggenheim Foundation, who provided
him with grants during the war. Motiot~Painting No. 1 (1947) was
one of his most famous films, using the music from Johann Sebastian
Bach's Third Braridenburg Cotzcerto. He used a technique of paint-
ing on Plexiglas. However, he was never able to secure enough fund-
ing to produce another finished work and spent the last 20 years of
his life experimenting with, but never completing, another film.
Fischinger's work inspired the Whitney brothers, among others,
particularly regarding his experimental techniques such as oil paint
on glass and wax strata cut. He was also said to have been interested
in science, particularly physics, philosophy, and Tibetan Buddhism.

FLASH. Computer animation software developed in 1996 by Macro-

media (which was taken over by Adobe in 2005), Adobe Flash is
increasingly being used in animation, particularly in Web anima-
tion. The software is described by the producer of the software as an
"authoring environment for creating interactive content for digital,
web and mobile platforms." It allows amateur animators to make
and display films without expensive technology and equipment. The
format is easily distributed through the Internet. A recent example
of Flash used in television was in the animated sitcom Home Mov-
ies (1999-2004), which produced a very smooth and stylized look.
Another good example is in the Web animation Homestar Runner
(2000), and it has been suggested that there are feature-length films
being made in Flash.
76 FLEISCHER BROTHERS

FLEISCHER BROTHERS. Max Fleischer (1883-1972), the second

son of a Jewish family who moved to New York in 1887, was inter-
ested in drawing and small mechanical inventions. He invented the
rotoscope (around 1915) and collaborated with his brothers Dave
and Joe. The patent became active in 1917. The brothers showed a
short sample film to John R. Bray, who hired Max and Dave. Max
worked on military films during World War I and in 1919 he created
a series, Out of the Inkwell, which starred Koko the Clown (Dave
posed in a clown suit for the image). The format was the standard of
the time; Max the artist who would create Koko from his inkwell,
and Koko would live in the drawn world and try to play tricks on his
creator. In 1921, the brothers left Bray and founded their own studio,
which was second only to the Disney Studio in the United States
(worldwide until 1942). The studio was a family business with Dave
(1894-1979) second in command as artistic director, after Max. The
remaining brothers-Charles, Len, and Joe-participated in the com-
pany at various times over the years.
In 1924, economic expansion of Out of the Inkwell Studio led Max
to found Red Seal Distribution Company to circulate the Koko, Song
Car-Tunes, documentaries, and li ve-action series, but the company
only lasted for two years and Paramount Pictures took over distribu-
tion. In 1928, the production company was renamed Fleischer Stu-
dios. Song Car-Tunes with the Bouncitzg Ball and their educational
films did well. The styles of films varied with the animators and
studio hierarchy.
The Fleischers' found great success with their Betty Boop films,
particularly Minnie the Moocher (1932) and their new Popeye (1933)
series. Max's technique of shooting with a great depth of field pre-
ceded Walt Disney's multiplane camera by two years. In 1939, they
produced Gulliver's Travels, which was the second feature-length
animation (after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves).
Until the mid-1930s, the studio lacked a story department and the
animators created their own stories; Dave would sign off each one as
director. Evolution within the studio was casually paced, especially
the transition to sound. In 1937, it faced a strike, the first in a U.S.
studio, which led to nine months of intransigence on both sides. Max
left New York to move the studio to Florida, where he worked on
Culliver. Its second feature, Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941), was re-
 FLINTSTONES, THE 77

jected by the public and contributed to the financial ruin of the studio.
The Superman series was released, though the unprecedented high
budgets of $100,000 per episode were nearly four times the amount
spent on comparative cartoons. The result was a very impressive se-
ries that borrowed heavily from comic book graphics and modernist
abstraction but retained a sense of realism.
Due to insolvency, the studio was acquired by Paramount Pictures
in 1942 and Max was dismissed, Dave having left earlier due to a
dispute with his brother. The studio was renamed Famous Studios
and returned to New York, where production continued on Popeye
and the Fleischers' Superman series.
Dave was hired by Columbia for Screen Gems and replaced
Frank Tashlin as production supervisor, but left in 1944. He went
to Detroit to make commercials and educational films for the Jam
Handy Company, and in 1961 he participated in the production of a
new Out of the Inkwell series with a former colleague.

FLINTSTONES, THE. The Flintstones was produced by Hanna-

Barbera and premiered in 1960 on the American Broadcasting
Company (ABC) network and was the first animated sitcom, or ani-
com, as well as the first to air in prime time, for a family audience. The
show originally ran for six years, though there were a number of spin-
off series and feature-length movie-style episodes in later years.
The main plot follows husband and wife Fred and Wilma Flint-
stone, and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble, in the same
domestic sitcom structure as the live-action series The Honeymoon-
ers, which was said to have influenced the show, but transposed into
a Stone Age, prehistoric setting. Like many live-action sitcoms of the
time, such as The Honeymooners (1955-1956), I Love Lucy (1951-
1961), and The Burtzs and Allen Show (1950-1958)' the narrative of
many of the episodes focuses on male versus female power struggles.
As well as the supporting characters, such as Fred and Barney's boss,
Mr. Slate, and Wilma's mother, there was another key member of the
Flintstone household: the pet dinosaur, Dino. The series incorporated
references to social issues of the time with consumerism, fame and
celebrity, new technology and popular culture, and the rise of televi-
sion all included in the storylines. Many of the gags in the series were
visual and puns on prehistoric versions of "new" household gadgets
78 FLIP THE FROG

that typified the 1950s and 1960s. There were later additions to the
show, with Fred and Wilma having a child, Pebbles, and Barney and
Betty adopting their son, Bamm-Bamm. When the children were
introduced, they became a major part of the episodes with less of a
focus on gender power struggles. Toward the end of the run, Fred
was joined by the Great Gazoo (created by Iwoa Takamoto), an
alien whom only he could see or hear, and this marked a clear decline
in the series.
As well as following the generic conventions of the sitcom, the
show also appropriated features of other forms such as the use of
slapstick and parody as well as anthropomorphism, traditionally
used in theatrical animation but unlike anything seen in live-action
sitcom. These features of the anicom, as demonstrated in The Flint-
stones, provided a template for the animated series and would be
used to great success with The Simpsons in 1989.

FLIP THE FROG. Character created in 1930 by Ub Iwerks, who had

previously been a producer and animator with the Disney Studio.
Flip the Frog appeared in a series of cartoons featuring Flip as a
caricature frog who wore a bow tie and had buttons on his chest.
The films were distributed by Celebrity Productions. The first film
to feature the character was Fiddlesticks, though he does not speak
but dances, and the film was in two-color Technicolor. Producer Pat
Powers was unhappy with the films, and the design of Flip was modi-
fied to be less froglike and more anthropomorphic, like Mickey
Mouse. Powers sold the films to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
to distribute. The character was never as successful as Mickey, as
the style was seen as lacking in comedic timing. Thirty-seven shorts
were produced in total until 1933.

FRANCE. The origins of animation can be traced largely to France,

where French pioneers of the moving image such as mile Reynaud
and the Lumikre brothers, among others, began experimenting and
demonstrating their new technologies. George Melib' use of stop
motion in A Trip to the Moon in 1902 and mile Cohl's Fatztas-
magorie (1908) are among the earliest animation. The early indus-
try was largely driven by advertising, but in the 1930s and 1940s
animators began experimenting with techniques, producing shorts.
 FRANCE 79

Jean Delaurier, who often collaborated with other artists, made Un

concours de beaute' ( A Beauty Contest) in 1934 with Alain de Saint-
Ogan and Meunier ti1 dors (Miller, You Are Sleeping, 193 1 ) with Jean
VarC. Fine artist Fernand LCger experimented with filmmaking and
animation to create his influential work Ballet Michanique (1924),
demonstrating the potential for animation to be used as art.
Animation techniques developed in France when Russian-born
Alexandre Alexieff moved to Paris and began experimenting with a
pin screen device. Night on Bald Mountain (1933)used the painstak-
ing device to create the light effects of the animation. After World
War 11, he was asked to produce films for the National Film Board
of Canada (NFB), including En Passaut (1943),and the pin screen
was used effectively again in Le Nez (1965).Painters and illustrators
also began experimenting with animation, including Andre Marty
(Calisto, la petite nymph de Diane, 1943) and Albert Dubont, who
created a series based on his comic strip "Anatole" and was assisted
by animator Jean Junca. The film was made during World War I1 and
distributed in 1947.
A key postwar French animator was Paul Grimault (1905-1994)
who formed a studio with AndrC Sarrut in 1936. Their studio, Les
GCmeaux, produced hand-drawn animation until Grimault was
drafted into the war. In 1941, he returned to the studio and in 1943
released LJEpouvantail (The Scarecrow), which was well received.
He joined Jacques PrCvert to produce an adaptation of Hans Chris-
tian Andersen's The Little Soldier (1947). Due to differences in the
studio, Grimault founded his own in 1951, Les Films Paul Grimault,
producing animated advertisements. In the late 1970s and into the
1980s, he returned to producing films, including Le Roi et l'oiseau
(The King and the Mockingbird, 1980), which many consider to
be his finest work. His contemporary Jean Image had come to
work in France from his native Hungary (given name Imre Hajdu,
1911-1989). Image had moved around Europe, including a time in
Great Britain in 1936, before moving to Paris where he initially
worked under his given name. He changed it in 1944 and produced
The Black Plays and Wins (1 944) and Saturn Rhapsody (1946),and
later he produced the award-winning Johrzrzy the Giant Killer (1950).
A former collaborator of Grimault, Henri Lacam (191 1-1979), made
Les Deux Plurnks (19.57) and Jeu de cartes (1960). Other notable
80 FRANCE

animators of this period are Albert Champeaux and Pierre Watrin,

who collaborated on several productions such as Paris-Flash ( 1958)
and Villa mon r2ve ( 1960).
The interest and enthusiasm for animation in France increased in
the 1950s and saw the creation of Association Internationale du
Film d'Animation (ASIFA) and the Annecy Festival (second only
to Cannes in France). In the 1960s and 1970s, traditional French
animation styles remained but new directions in the 1980s saw di-
versity in productions from animators such as AndrC Martin, Michel
Boschet, Jacques Espagne, and Jacques Vausser. A prominent studio
in this period was Idefix, founded by Rene Goscinny, cocreator of the
extremely popular Astkrix series of comics, which led to the success-
ful animated feature-length adaptation, Astkrix le Gaulois (1967);
this was followed by several others over the next 20 years. Artist
RenC Laloux (1929-2004) produced animation based on the work of
patients at a workshop in a private psychiatric clinic. This work led
to other projects, including La Platiite Sauvage (The Savage Planet,
1973), a science fiction film that took three years to complete.
During this time, a new generation of artists had emerged, includ-
ing Paul Dopff, who released several films with his company, Pink
Splash Productions. Bernard Palacios directed Le cagouince migra-
teur (The Migratory Cagouirzce) in 1971 and Les trouble f2tes (The
Kill-Joys) in 1979, among others. Michel Ocelot became successful
in the 1980s (and continues to be) with such films as Les trois inven-
teurs (1980) using cutout paper, and La Prirlcesse insensible (The
Insensitive Princess, 1984), a series of five 5-minute shorts. Chris-
tophe Villard demonstrated a new dynamic style of animation using
graphic line drawings in his films such as Le r2voeil (The Dreaming
Eye, 1980), Corite & rebours (The Tale of the Cantankerous One,
198l), and Nkanderthal ( 1 983).
In the early 1980s, the French government injected some much-
needed aid into a somewhat faltering industry. It founded OCTET, a
state organization to act as an intermediary between animators, spon-
sors, and technology. Alongside this were plans to create computer
animation for television and establish industry standards, as well as
decentralizing production. Though not always thriving, the industry
was able to become better established and develop with new technol-
ogy, and increasingly produced animation for television. One of the
 FRELENG, FRIZ 81

most profitable studios, DIC, was founded by Jean Chalopin and

operated in the United States and Japan. The company began by
animating advertisements and, as it grew more successful, moved to
Paris and became more ambitious in its productions. They made sev-
eral very successful television series, including Ulysses 31 (made in
Japan) and Itzspecteur Gadget (coproduced with the United States),
before they eventually moved to Los Angeles.
Other key animators from this period were Jean-Franqois Lagui-
onie, who worked with Paul Grimault, Polish-born Pietr Kamler,
and fellow Pole Walerian Barowczyk, both of whom immigrated to
France and found fame in the French animation industry. In recent
years, Sylvain Chomet's success has brought new international at-
tention to the French animation industry, though the animator has
established his studio in Scotland.

FRELENG, FRIZ (1906-1995). Born Isadore "Friz" Freleng in Mis-

souri (there are some discrepancies regarding the year of his birth,
some sources state 1905 and some 1906), he began his animation
career with Walt Disney in the silent era, working on Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit in 1927. Freleng worked with Harman-Ising in 1928
drawing character layouts for Warner Brothers on their Merrie
Melodies series. He then went to work for Leon Schlesinger, though
in 1937 he left Warner to work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM),
before coming back to Warner Bros. in 1939, where he remained
until the animation section was closed in 1963. Freleng worked with
Hanna-Barbera in 1962 on a feature-length Yogi Bear film. He
directed over 300 cartoons with Warner, including the development
of Bugs Bunny, and won five Academy Awards for his work.
After Warner's closed the department, Freleng began working
with artist David DePatie and they formed a partnership that lasted
until the 1980s. They leased Warner's studios and produced new
theatrical cartoons under the Warner banner until 1964 (50 cartoons).
However, these were not very successful and they finally moved
away from Warner Brothers in 1967. They were commissioned to
produce the title sequence for Blake Edwards' live-action movie Pink
Panther (1964). This then led to a Pink Panther television series that
included The Ant and the Aardvark and The Inspector, though the
quality of the production was not as high as the previous animations
82 FRITZ THE CAT

Freleng had worked on and he was reported to have not been keen
on the series; however, he produced it through the 1970s and into
the 1980s with occasional specials. Freleng also directed television
specials for Warner Bros. in the late 1970s and a Bugs Bunny feature,
Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, in 1982.

FRITZ THE CAT. Feature-length animation released in 1972 directed

by Ralph Bakshi and produced by Steve Krantz. The film was based
on Robert Crumb's underground comic book featuring the titular cat
and included all of the drug taking and sex that the comic contained.
It was the first X-rated cartoon feature and Crumb was said to
have disliked the film. The film was described as a vibrant personal
statement of life in the 1960s that included the political and sexual
revolution and revealed hypocritical attitudes about "good taste."
Bakshi was pleased with the strong reactions to the film, as he felt
that they ignored the fact that it was animation and only commented
on the content. This was taken as a compliment on the animation, as
he wanted to make a feature that, even though it was animated, was
taken as seriously as a live-action feature.

FUTURAMA. Following the success of The Simpsons, Matt Groening

created a new animated sitcom called Fururama, which premiered in
March 1999. The series began airing on the Fox network but after its
cancellation in 2003 it moved to the Cartoon Network until 2007;
since 2008, it has been broadcast on the U.S. cable channel Comedy
Central. Futurama follows the structure of the workplace-based sit-
com and is set in the future, with the main protagonist coming from
our time, with an overall science fiction theme. The imagined future
is much like that of the Hanna-Barbera science fiction sitcom The
Jetsons with many high-tech gadgets. The animation is stylistically
similar to The Simpsons; however, the people don't have yellow skin
and Futurama is produced digitally.
The show follows Fry, a pizza delivery boy from the 21st century,
who is accidentally cryogenically frozen and woken up at the dawn
of the year 3000. Fry befriends an alcoholic robot named Bender and
a one-eyed alien woman named Leela. Together they work as a de-
livery crew on an intergalactic spaceship that is run by Fry's "great-
great-great etc." nephew, Professor Farnsworth. There are a number
 of recurring characters who also work for the Planet Express delivery
company, and whom the group encounters from time to time, provid-
ing an ensemble cast that can occasionally become the focus of an
episode that offers some variation in the plots.
With its use of science fiction iconography, Futurama could be
described as a hybrid genre combining the sitcom with science fic-
tion and animation, like The Jetsons before it. The future is presented
with numerous Star Trek references, as well as many other sci-fi
references from both live-action movies and television.

GENRE. Animation is often wrongly considered to be a genre of film.

A genre is essentially a label that categorizes the type of the product,
be it film, book, or animation. The genre is largely determined by the
producers and directors, who use shared characteristics to emulate
success of previous products, to alert the audience to the type, and to
provide expectations of what they will consume. The audience must
understand what the characteristics of the genres are in order to accept
new entries to the genre. Genre can work in cycles and develop new
facets that producers can emulate. The most obviously cited examples
of film genre are westerns, musicals, and film noir, due to clear char-
acteristics such as location and setting, costume, and style of plot.
There are numerous genres of animation, the most obvious of
which are the comedic genres of sitcom, sketchlvariety show, and
vaudeville. The musical is represented largely by the features of the
Disney Studio, though these began with the music hall shorts such
as Silly Symphonies and Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and
Looney Tunes. Science fiction has a fairly long history, notably in
Japanese anime features and television series, such as Astro Boy,
Ghost in the Shell, and Akira. In the United States, the Hanna-
Barbera studio began to feature science fiction with The Jetsons,
Jonrzy Quest, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and Space Ghost, and
latterly Matt Groening's Futurama. In Great Britain, Gerry An-
derson dominated sci-fi with his Thunderbirds series.
Animated documentary essentially began with Winsor McCay's
The Sinking of the Lusitarzia (1918). The genre tends to focus more
84 GERALD MCBOlNC BOlNG

on representations of the real, examples of which include Peter

Lord's Going Equipped, Bob Sabiston's Snack and Drink, and Mar-
jut Rimmerien's Slow Protection.
Although there are perhaps fewer genres of animation than in
live-action film, there are examples of the fantasy genre in Japanese
anime and Eastern European films. Indeed, the work of Jan Svank-
majer and the Quay brothers could be described as horrorlfantasy.
Though there are dramas, they tend to be less mainstream than the
dominant U.S comedies and musical films like Ralph Bakshi's Fritz
the Cat, or are generally adaptations, such as Brad Bird's The Iron
Giant. Genre is less considered in animation due to the long and
dominant history of the cartoon. Similarly, the nature of animation
lends itself to comedy and fantasytscience fiction very well; as such,
these become successful examples, with less attention paid to other
genres. Film and television animation frequently borrow from other
genres to create hybrids, such as sci-fi fantasy, musical comedy, and
musical drama.
These examples of genres of animation are restricted to film and
television animation, as there are many other forms of animation
such as advertisements, music videos, abstract and avant-garde
works, and installations. Thus animation is not merely a type or genre
of film.

GERALD MCBOZNG BOZNG. Directed by Robert "Bobe" Cannon for

United Productions of America (UPA), the film, released in 1951,
features a small boy named Gerald who cannot speak words but in-
stead makes the sound "boing boing." He is rejected by his friends
and his father and is about to leave home to unburden his parents
when he is hired by a radio producer to provide sound effects for his
programs. The story is based on the record "Gerald McBoing Boing"
by Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Geisel). Geisel had worked with
UPA during the war so they already had a connection. The animated
version is slightly different from the original.
The animation consists of bold, stylized drawings and colors, and
the overall design was critically acclaimed and often referred to as
the epitome of the modernist style in animation in the 1950s. Jules
Engel was the supervisor and colorist on the film. The initial success
was followed up with Gerald McBoing Boing's Syniphony (1953),
 GERMANY 85

How Now McBoing Boing (1954), and Gerald McBoing Boing on

the Planet Moo (1955). These films were as visually striking as the
original, though the stories were not as strong. In 1956-1957, the
CBS network broadcast the Gerald McBoing Boing Show, which was
a half-hour showcase of UPA cartoons. The character reappeared in
two Mr. Magoo films, Magoo Meets McBoitzg Boing (1961) and Mr.
Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962), on television. In 2005, the Car-
toon Network broadcast a television series of l l-minute episodes
that aired until 2007 and was produced by the Canadian company
Cookie Jar Entertainment.

GERMANY. The main centers of animation and avant-garde film grew

up in Berlin and Munich. Early animators include Julius Pinschewer
(1883-1961), who worked on advertising films and went on to col-
laborate with some of the best-known German animators. He fled
Nazi Germany in 1934 and moved to Switzerland. Another animator
who began in advertising was Guido Seeber (1879-1940), who was
known for a variety of talents including animated advertisements and
abstract film.
German animation (and live-action film) was largely influenced
by art movements such as expressionism and the Bauhaus. Though
often cited as an experimental filmmaker rather than an animator,
Hans Richter was a member of the Dada art movement. His work is
often cited as an influence to both animators and filmmakers. Other
pioneering German animators include the Swede Viking Eggeling,
who primarily worked and lived in Germany, Lotte Reiniger who
began creating cutout puppet animation; her masterpiece, The Ad-
ventures of Prince Achmed, in 1926 was highly influential (and the
first feature-length animated film in Europe) and her contemporary
and one-time collaborator was Walther Ruttman, the abstract film-
maker of such films as Lichtspiel Opus 1 (1921), before going on to
make documentaries.
One of the most notable German animators of the war period,
Hans Fischerkoesen (1896-1973) began with Das Loch im Westen
(The Hole in the West, 1919), using 1,600 individual drawings. He
worked on advertisements during the 1920s, and in the 1930s was
pressed to move to front the new animation industry at the behest of
the Nazi regime to produce propaganda films. He declined and was
assigned to work with a newspaper cartoonist. The Nazis were keen
to develop three-dimensional (3D) animation techniques, worked on
multiplane cameras, and developed stereoptical processes, seen in
Verwitterte Melodie ( Weatherbeatetz Melody, 1942). Fischerkoesen
was imprisoned for a time after the war and then moved to West
Germany, where he reestablished his studio and made commercials
until 1969.
Due to the level of control by the Nazi government, many of Ger-
many's finest animators emigrated. Among those working through
this period were the aforementioned Hans Fischerkoesen and Fer-
dinand Diehl, who produced puppet animated films. Kurt Stordel
began his animation career, like so many European animators, in ad-
vertising before moving to Berlin and animating fairy tales. He found
commercial success in 1938 with Purzel, Brunim utzd Quak, his first
color film. He went on to make Zirkus Hunzsti Bumsti (H~lmstiBunz-
sti Circus) in 1944 and Rotkappchen ~rtzdder Wolf(Red Ridirlg Hood
and the Wolj) in 1945.
Oskar Fischinger was making experimental films; he is often
considered a pioneer of abstract animation. He created what he
termed "visual music," such as Kompositiorl in Blau (Conlposition
in Blue, 1934), bringing him international attention and an invitation
from Walt Disney to contribute to Farrtasia ( 19-lo).
Of the animators who survived the war or returned to the new West
Germany, several found success in the rising entertainment industry,
including Hans Fischerkoesen, the Diehl brothers, and Kurt Stordel,
who went on to make children's television in the 1960s. The anima-
tion industry was enhanced in the 1960s alongside new developments
in the live-action film industry. Advertising and television were the
most lucrative and productive sectors for animation. In the late 1970s,
new courses to teach a new generation of animators were developed.
This new generation included Wolfgang Urchs, who made satirical
films such as Itz der Arche ist der Wurnz driti (The Worm Is in Noah's
Ark, 1988). Acclaimed feature producer Helmut Herbst worked with
other animation directors, particularly the husband-and-wife team
Franz Winzensten and Ursula Asher, who made numerous success-
ful shorts and television series for children such as Geschichterl vom
Franz (Stories of Frarzz, 1971-1975) and Als die Igel grosser wur-
den (How the Hedgehog Got Bigger, 1978-1979). Katrin Magnitz
 GHOST IN THE SHELL 87

had her own studio in Hamburg that made educational, industrial,

and television animation. Twin brothers Christoph and Wolfgang
Lauenstein achieved Academy Award success in 1990 for their 1989
puppet film Balance. Urlich Konig has done well making television
series and feature-length films for large audiences. His series include
Joke on Freud and Woizdetjul Trip to the Past, and in features, The
Conference of the Animals (1969), Greetings, Pharaoh (1982), and
Harold and the Spirits (1 988). Two of the most prominent production
companies are Berlin Film & AV and Film & AV.

GERTZE THE DINOSAUR. Directed by Winsor McCay, Gertie the

Dinosaur (1914) was at one time named as the first animated car-
toon and at the time of its release it made a big impact on audiences
and the industry. The film was advertised as an act in which McCay
would make a dinosaur come to life. He would act as a trainer in a
vaudeville show and present Gertie to the audience. She would react
to his commands and catch a pumpkin that he threw. A longer film
in which McCay is seen at the beginning accepting a wager that he
could not make a dinosaur come to life was shown, and his dialogue
was shown on title cards. The film consisted of 10,000 drawings on
rice paper mounted on card and then filmed in one reel. Despite the
fairly crude animation, the film still impresses as the character of
Gertie was fully realized and given a distinct personality by McCay.

GHOST IN THE SHELL. Directed by Mamoru Oshii, this Japanese

feature-length anime is an adaptation of a manga series by Masa-
mune Shirow. Ghost in the Shell (1995) is set in the future, 2029, and
is located in Hong Kong (though in the comic it was set in Tokyo).
Artificially enhanced humans are populating both the real and online
worlds, and national and physical boundaries have become obsolete.
Society is monitored by enforcement agents, "Section 9." Major Mo-
toko Kusanagi, a highly trained female agent, is trying to uncover a
new threat in the form of a hacker who is able to infiltrate the minds of
its victims. Although they have named the hacker "Puppet Master," it
is actually a prototype of an entity created by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs as the ultimate espionage tool. The top secret Project 2501
has become self-aware and is seeking political asylum in defiance of
its creators and host body. It threatens to expose the government and
88 GILLIAM, TERRY

solicits help from Kusanagi, who becomes trapped in an artificial cy-

bernetic body and struggles with the nature of humanity and identity.
The film has been held up as an example of the best adult anime that
is both literary and visually excellent.

GILLIAM, TERRY (1940- ). Born Terence Vance Gilliam in Minne-

apolis, he moved to California with his family in 1951. Gilliam had
an early interest in film, in particular science fiction and animation,
though he was also influenced by radio and comic books. He studied
physics at the university and also edited a college journal, which led
to an assistant editor position for a New York magazine after gradu-
ation. He went on to work in advertising and later as a freelance
illustrator, but in 1967 Gilliam moved to London where he began
meeting television producers and started creating animated sections
for sketch shows.
Gilliam joined the Monty Python's Flying Circus team and cre-
ated animated sequences, as well as acted, and his surreal segments
are among some of his best-known work. With the Python team, he
developed into a director, codirecting the live-action comedy Monty
Python and the Holy Grail (1974). He maintained his surrealist
style in his live-action films, particularly in his adaptation of Jub-
benvocky ( 1977).
His particular style was maintained throughout his films: Time
Bandits (198 I ) , Brazil ( 1985), The Adventures of Baron Murichuuseri
(1988), The Fisher King (1991), Twelve Monkeys (1995), and Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas ( 1998).All of these movies were live ac-
tion but featured the surrealist style he created in his animated work,
and often have an animated quality. See also GREAT BRITAIN.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT. British animator Joanna Quinn's debut film,

Girls Night Out (1987) was developed from an art college film with
funding from Channel 4 and the Welsh television network S4C. The
film features Beryl, an ordinary Welsh housewife, going out for a
quiet drink with the girls where they end up watching a male strip-
per, who is shown from the female point of view. The character of
Beryl is engaging and authentic aided by the realist environment and
the quasi-documentary approach to the subject. The imagery and
language is feminized and the film is energetic.
 CODFREY, BOB 89

The film has a sexual agenda as Beryl fantasizes about the man of
her dreams taking her away to a desert island. These fantasies appear
as thought bubbles and blurred images. Her husband is portrayed as
a couch potato and Beryl is ignored when she announces she is go-
ing out. The film depicts a bored woman who is looking for some
excitement in her dull life. The design of the character is of a large
middle-aged woman, a figure underrepresented in the media. The
film shows the audience life from Beryl's perspective and shares her
point of view.
The film's success saw Quinn feature Beryl in her second film,
Body Beautiful (1990). Girls Night Out won several awards, includ-
ing the Annecy Special Jury Prize 1987 and the Krakow Film Festi-
val Silver Dragon Award 1988.

GODFREY, BOB (1921- ). Born Roland Frederick Godfrey in West

Maitland, New South Wales, Australia, Bob Godfrey was raised in
England (his parents returned to their homeland when Bob was six
months old). He studied at Leyton Art School at the age of 14, where
he developed his love of art, though at that point showed no interest
in filmmaking.
Godfrey is perhaps best known to many in Great Britain as the
animator of the cartoon television series Roobarb (1974-1975; cre-
ated by Grange Calveley) and Henry's Cat (1982). Godfrey began his
career as a graphic artist in the 1930s for Lever Brothers and worked
on advertising materials. He worked for the GB Animation unit,
which was run by David Hand, a former Disney Studio director, and
worked in London on the Disney-style A~zimalundseries. In 1950,
Godfrey joined W. M. Larkins Studio and was initially unhappy with
the animation aspect of the work there, mainly working on back-
grounds, which he felt did not allow him to learn much, although it
was there that he made his first animated cartoon, The Big Parade
(1952). He remained with Larkins for four years, during which time
he became a member of the Grasshopper Group, a semiprofessional
distribution company for whom he wrote and directed his first ani-
mated films.
Godfrey joined with other animators Jeff Hale, Keith Learner,
Nancy Hanna, and Vera Linnecar to form Biographic and made some
of the earliest advertisements for Britain's third television channel,
90 GREAT BRITAIN

ITV, including commercials that aired on the launch night of the ITV
channel in the London region. Godfrey was influenced by music hall,
avant-garde comedy, political satire, and British attitudes to sex and
social conduct, which were recurrent themes in his films, particularly
in his first two personal films, Polygamous Polorzius (1959) and
Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961). The latter film was a particular
comment on the practices he disliked in the Disney Studio. The film
had an energetic pace that set the tone for his work, which attempted
to break away from the dominance of the U.S. style of animation and
at the same time mock the establishment. It is also often mistakenly
credited as being by filmmaker Terry Gilliam. The script was devel-
oped by Colin Pearson, who wrote the satire A Plairz Man's Guide to
Advertising (classified in Britain in 1960).
In 1964, Godfrey left Biographic to form Bob Godfrey Films and
create his own style of films. He produced a series of films that par-
ticularly mocked the British attitudes to sex and masculinity in Henry
9 'ti1 5 (1970), Karna Sutra Rides Again (1971), Dream Doll (1 979),
Instant Sex ( I 980), Bio- Woman ( 1981), and Revolution ( 1988).
Godfrey's biography of the Victorian industrial inventor Isambard
Kingdom Brunel, GREAT (1975), won an Academy Award and sati-
rized Victorian attitudes and Brunel's failures as well as achievements.
He was nominated for an Oscar for Small Talk (1993) and in 1995 he
contributed to the Know Your Europeans series by John Halas. He
continued with his examination of British history in Millenniurn-
The Musical (2000), which condensed all of British history into half
an hour. Despite repeated criticism of the British government in his
films, Godfrey was awarded an MBE in 1986.
Godfrey is perhaps best known, however, among younger audiences,
for Roobarb (1974-1975), Skylark (1978), and He~iry'sCat (broadcast
from 1982-1993). The Roobarb series and Henry's Cat were very
popular on television and have been released on DVD. Roobarb atzd
Custard Too began broadcasting on British television on 2005.

GREAT BRITAIN. The history of animation in Great Britain follows

a similar path in terms of technology and production as the United
States; indeed, one of the first animators, J. Stuart Blackton, was
British by birth and moved to the United States, where he is credited
with developing his animation techniques. Likewise, many of the
 GREAT BRITAIN 91

earliest moving-image devices were developed in Britain at the same

time as they were being pioneered in France.
The industry proper, though, arguably began with George Studdy
(1878-1 948), a comic-strip artist from Devon, England, who became
established as an artist through his work in The Big Budget Comic.
In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, he created a series of
shorts, Studdy's War Series, using stop-motion techniques like the
early lightning sketches. His best-known series featured a dog called
Bonzo, who starred in shorts released fortnightly from 1924 until
1925. The series was heavily merchandised and was as successful as
the contemporary U.S. character Felix the Cat. During this period,
Anson Dyer (1876-1962) began doing a variety of jobs at the Brit-
ish Colonial and Kinematograph Company and in 1927 produced
Britain's earliest feature, The Story of the Flag, using cutout anima-
tion. Dyer founded his own animation production company, Analysis
Films, in 1935 and produced color cartoons and advertisements for
British and U.S. sponsors, using traditional drawn animation. Dyer
made government war effort films, after which he made shorts for
children, including The Squirrel War (1947), Who Robbed the Robins
(1947), and Fowl Play (1950). He retired due to ill health in 1952.
Another prewar animator was Anthony Gross who, with the in-
vestment of U.S. financier Hector Hoppin, found some success and
began to work in Technicolor, though the war cut short their pro-
duction output. During and prior to the war, the GPO (General Post
Office) Film Unit, established in 1933 and headed by documentary
filmmaker John Grierson, was instrumental in the emergence of
many of Britain's top animation talent. The public service films were
made by Halas and Batchelor as well as New Zealander Len Lye.
Scottish-born Norman McLaren produced several films for the unit
before moving to the United States in 1949 and eventually heading
the new animation unit at the National Film Board of Canada, for
which he is probably best known.
Halas and Batchelor's films for the GPO (which had become the
Ministry of Information) were very successful, and their postwar suc-
cess was reinforced by their feature adaptation of George Orwell's
Animal Farm, released in 1954. They also moved into commercials
for the increasingly popular television as well as producing early
experiments with computer animation.
92 GREAT BRITAIN

In 1944, U.S. native David Hand (1900-1986) moved to England

to launch a British animation studio for the Rank Organization,
named Gaumant British Animation Ltd. (GMA). 'The studio estab-
lished a training school for new animators using ex-Disney staff
brought over from the United States. GMA was responsible for pro-
ducing commercials and instructional films, as well as the Animaland
series in the late 1940s and The Musical Paintbox series featuring
folk tales. The studio was short-lived as Rank decided in 1949 that
it was not making enough money and ceased production; the studio
closed its doors in February 1950.
London-based TV Cartoons (TVC), one of the most prolific stu-
dios in Britain, was established in 1957 and contributed to the 1960s
"flower power" movement by producing George Dunning's psy-
chedelic, Beatles-inspired feature Yellow Submarine (1968). In the
1960s and 1970s, one of Britain's most distinctive comic animators,
Bob Godfrey, emerged working in both children's and adult anima-
tion ranging from the very popular series Roobarb to The Do-lt-
Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961), and the mock erotic Katna Sutra Rides
Again (1971). Another notable animator of the period was Gerry
Anderson, whose unique puppet animation series such as Captain
Scarlet and Thunderbirds brought a new aesthetic to television ani-
mation and science fiction to mainstream audiences.
With the launch of Britain's fourth terrestrial television channel in
1982, Channel 4, began its long-running support for independent an-
imation, starting with the perennial Christmas favorite, The Snowman
(1982), produced by TVC and directed by Dianne Jackson. Channel
4's animation consultant Paul Madden followed this success with
other adaptations of Raymond Briggs' work and began to finance
the Quay brothers' productions, leading to the acclaimed Street of
Crocodiles (1986). Other successful animators to emerge with Chan-
nel 4 backing were Alison De Vere with The Black Dog (1987) and
notably Aardman Animation, whose series of Conversation Pieces
led to some of the most successful and well-known British animation,
such as Creature Comforts and the Wallace and Gromit films.
Other notable British animators who emerged in the 1980s are
Geoff Dunbar, whose early career was working at Halas and Batch-
elor; satirist Gerald Scarfe, well known for his music video for Pink
Floyd's The Wall; Barry Purves, who began with Cosgrove Hall
 GROENING, MATT 93

before making his award-winning puppet films; and Joanna Quinn,

whose early work with Channel 4 and TVC has led to a multi-award-
winning output of films and commercials. One of the biggest markets
for British animation is children's television, with studios such as
Smallfilms and Cosgrove Hall both producing a variety of highly
popular animation series for children.
The industry was booming in the 1990s but a decline in the support
from Channel 4 into 2000 has seen less new talent emerge from the
festival circuit or big budget cinema. Aardman's continuing success
grew with features such as Chicken Rurz (2000) and is probably the
best-known British studio in the contemporary animation industry.
British animation in the music video sector has increased in exposure
and success-in particular, illustrator Jamie Hewlitt's animated band
Gorillaz, which emerged in 2001. See also LEEDS ANIMATION
WORKSHOP.

GROENING, MATT (1953- ). Animator and cartoonist born in Port-

land, Oregon, Matt Groening is famous for creating the long-running
animated sitcom The Simpsons. Groening studied art at Evergreen
State University, a progressive arts school. In 1977, he moved to
Los Angeles where he started writing the comic strip "Life in Hell,"
which he would hand print and circulate from a local record store.
The series was picked up by the magazine Wet and became popular
underground. In 1980, it was printed in the Los Arzgeles Reader and
began appearing weekly. The success of the strip caught the attention
of television alumni James L. Brooks, and Groening was hired to cre-
ate interstitial cartoons for The Tracey Ullman Show, a new comedy
on the Fox network.
Groening created The Simpsons for the show in 1987, and in 1989
it was picked up as a full half-hour series, which has run since 1989;
in 2007 it began its 19th season, becoming the longest running sitcom
in U.S. television history. In 1993, Groening founded Bongo Comics,
which published several spin-off series from The Simpsons, including
Itchy and Scratchy, Bartman, and Radioactive Man. In 1995, he also
launched Zongo Comics, which was an imprint of Bongo but aimed
at an older audience. After the success of The Simpsons, Groening
created another hit animated sitcom, Futurama, in 1997, which was
a combination of a workplace sitcom and a science fiction series.
94 GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

This series ran on the Fox network for four seasons until it was
cancelled. However, it was later picked up by the cable network Com-
edy Central and new episodes were produced, including a feature-
length movie. Groening's success with The Simpsons increased in
2007 when a feature-length movie was released in cinemas world-
wide and was a box-office success. While working in television, he
continues to draw his cartoon strip.

GULLZVER'S TRAVELS. Released in 1939, Gulliver's Travels

was the Fleischer brothers' first feature and, though it came after
Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), it was said to
have been conceived of as early as 1934. The film was the second
feature from the United States of this scale and the first from a stu-
dio outside Disney. The adaptation of Jonathan Swift's satire sees
Gulliver washing up on an island after a storm, revealed as Lilliput, a
land inhabited by tiny people. The people believe Gulliver is a giant
and try to enlist his help to defend them from an invading neighbor.
Eventually, Gulliver convinces them that the islands should unify
and cease the violence. Gulliver's Travels was filmed in color and,
like the Fleischers' other work, used rotoscoping for the character
of Gulliver. The distribution company Paramount Pictures pressured
the studio to release the film for the Christmas market. The film was
successful at the box office, though it made no profit. Unfortunately,
it suffered the loss of foreign markets due to the outbreak of World
War 11. Gulliver's Travels was directed by Dave Fleischer and pro-
duced by Max Fleischer.

HALAS AND BATCHELOR. British animation studio formed by

John Halas and Joy Batchelor in 1940 after the two artists had
previously worked together. The pair married two years later and
together produced a number of groundbreaking works in a variety of
outputs, from educational and training films, advertisements, and
propaganda to television and theatrical releases. They suggested
that animation should show what things mean rather than simply how
they look; the latter was the job of live-action film.
 tIALAS, JOHN 95

Their wartime production Abu was an antifascist, anti-Nazi film

that addressed Middle Eastern audiences and was very highly re-
garded. They continued to produce films within the war context,
producing Handling Ships in 194-1 945 for the Admiralty and the
Charley series in 1946-1947, which conveyed postwar legislation
information for the Central Office of Information.
Perhaps their most well-known and acclaimed film was Animal
Farm in 1954, based on George Orwell's nobel and the first feature-
length animation produced in Great Britain. In 1960, Halas and
Batchelor began to produce their first television series with Foo
Foo (33 episodes), Snip and Snap (26 episodes), and Habatales (6
episodes). They were the first European company to use computer
animation in their 1969 film, What Is a Conzputer? and then again
with Autobahn ( 1979), Corztact (1973), and Dilenzma (198 1).
The company was sold twice, once in the 1970s to Tyne Tees
Television and then to the German company Telemundi in the 1980s.
The latter stripped the company of its assets but John bought the
company back to preserve their legacy. The company event on to
collaborate with other artists, notably British animator Bob Godfrey
with Dream Doll (1979) and Know Your Europeans (1995), made
after Joy's death in 1991. The latter was part of a series but was never
completed due to John's death in 1995. The archive of the company,
one of Britain's best and most innovative animation studios, was left
to their daughter, Vivien, who continues to maintain it.

HALAS, JOHN (1912-1995). Born Jhnos Halhsz to a large poor fam-

ily in Budapest, he began working as soon as he was able. His first
job was at a film studio, Hunnia Films, painting sets and copying
film posters. He found a natural talent for drawing and learned how
to make animated films with George Pal, and became his assistant.
Pal left the company to develop Puppetoons and Halas left as well,
moving to Paris where he worked briefly as a sign writer. After a
brief return to Budapest, he made his way back to Paris where he
found work as a graphic artist. He again returned to Budapest where
he attended a graphic arts school that became known as the Hungar-
ian Bauhaus, referring to the German design school.
Halas set up a small animation studio, Colortron, with fellow
students and they produced 42 short films together, commercial and
96 HAND, THE

experimental, over a four-year period (1932-1936). Their work at-

tracted the attention of a London-based company, British Colour Car-
toons Limited, which offered Halas a contract. He moved to London
and set up a studio. His first film was to be based on the life of Hans
Christian Andersen and in order to complete the project he had to hire
animators. In doing so, he met Joy Batchelor, who would become
his wife and business partner. He hired her again for his second film
and they found that they had an excellent working relationship, with
Joy writing the scripts, translating John's Hungarian, and planning
the production.
The couple spent some time in Hungary, visiting John's native Buda-
pest, but with the war looming they returned to London. They formed
Halas and Batchelor cartoons in 1940. During the early war years,
John and Joy married but had to convince the British government that
John was not an enemy, and the studio was taken over by the Ministry
of Information and used to create propaganda films. He became a
British citizen and Janos Halhz became John Halas. They continued to
work on films to help the war effort and created the Charley series.
In the 1950s, the studio began to work on Animal Farm, which
became one of their best-known films as well as Great Britain's
first feature-length animation. The pair continued developing tech-
niques and produced a variety of films throughout the 1960s and
1970s, including some very early computer animation. John was in-
strumental i n the formation of Association Internationale du Film
d'hnimation (ASIFA) in 1960 and served as president from 1976 to
1985, though he continued to promote animation. He wrote a number
of books on animation, including Masters ofAnimation, published in
1987. I11 health forced him into semiretirement in 1993 and he died in
1995, four years after Joy. See also EASTERN EUROPE.

HAND, THE. Czech animator Jiri Trnka's last film before he was
forced to stop working due to ill health, The Hatzd, or Ruka (released
in 1%5), is a dark film that describes the role of the artist and the im-
portance of free expression in spite of totalitarian regimes. The film,
using stop-motion puppets, features a potter and sculptor who has
been commissioned to make a monument by a giant Hand. He refuses
but the Hand turns to coaxing, then force. He locks the sculptor in a
golden cage; at first, the sculptor abides but then escapes to his home
 HANNA, WILLIAM 97

and finds the flower that he had lovingly made pots for. However,
the Hand, a symbol of power, causes the man's death and gives him a
grand funeral. It has been suggested that the film is an autobiographi-
cal work and reflects a bitterness that Trnka was said to possess at the
end of his career. See also EASTERN EUROPE.

HANNA, WILLIAM (1910-2001). Born in New Mexico, William

"Bill" Hanna began his animation career as a cel washer and general
office clerk for Harman-Ising in 1931, having previously studied
journalism and engineering at college. He was keen to work in anima-
tion and stayed with Harman-Ising learning the industry until 1937,
when he moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Hanna began
working for Fred Quimby in the story department and had ambi-
tions to direct, and admitted that he was never very good at draw-
ing, though he had a good sense of timing. Hanna met Joe Barbera
after Fred Quimby left the studio and though they had been working
on the Barnaby Bear series, they were encouraged to develop their
own ideas. The pair began working together to create a new series,
Tom and Jerry, which first appeared in their debut film Puss Gets
the Boot (1940). The series earned them several Academy Award
nominations over its 15-year run and won seven, their first for Yan-
kee Doodle Mouse in 1943. They produced their last run of Tom and
Jerry cartoons in 1955 and 1956, including some of their best.
In 1957, MGM closed and Hanna and Barbera decided to continue
their partnership and open their own studio. Hanna-Barbera became
one of the most successful studios, and concentrated on producing
animation series for television, which was becoming increasingly
popular. Together they created and produced Yogi Bear, Huckle-
berry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat, The Hair Bear
Bunch, Wait 'ti1 Your Father Gets Home, and Scooby Doo, among
many others. They were also responsible for the first prime-time ani-
mated sitcom with The Flintstones and helped develop a new genre
in animation that would be successfully developed in the 1990s with
The Simpsons and others.
They sold the studio to different companies over the years but al-
ways maintained a controlling interest; Hanna remained involved in
the production of the shows from the studio (by then under Warner
Brothers' control) until he died in 2001.
98 HANNA-BARBERA

HANNA-BARBERA. In 1957, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

closed its animation studio, leaving animators William Hanna and
Joe Barbera, who had worked together producing Tom and Jerry
cartoons, out of work. The studio closed due to the diminishing
market for theatrical shorts as support for the main feature and the
growing success of television, which could attract larger audiences.
The production costs for theatrical releases rose while profits fell,
prompting the decision by MGM to halt all production on animation,
preferring to rely on a library of older cartoons that could be repack-
aged and resold. Television was a growing industry and thus the
logical place for the animators to turn for work. Forming their own
company, Hanna and Barbera began to produce cartoons specifically
for television, initially for the Saturday morning children's market.
In order to find a cost effective way of producing a high volume
of animation in a short time, they adopted the technique of limited
animation, which enabled them to reuse backgrounds and, with
limited movement, would reduce the amount of images and film that
were required. But the studio was subject to criticism by some who
felt that the quality of the animation was not as good as the pair had
previously produced at MGM. Hanna-Barbera (HB) instead concen-
trated on the narrative story-telling and good dialogue delivered by
the best voice-over artists.
The pair created new characters Yogi Bear and Huckleberry
Hound, and their success led American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) television to commission a prime-time animated series that
could appeal to a family audience, rather than just children. By look-
ing to the live-action sitcom for examples, Hanna-Barbera came up
with The Flintstones, the first ever prime-time animated sitcom,
which provided a model that many producers would emulate years
later. The series was very successful, and they followed it up with
two more hits in prime time, Top Cat and The Jetsons.
In 1967, after several offers, Hanna-Barbera agreed to sell the
studio to Taft Broadcasting, with Joe Barbera and William Hanna
running the studio and maintaining the name. In the 1970s, Hanna-
Barbera only produced one prime-time show, in syndication, Wait
'ti1 Your Father Gets Home, but also had success with shows such
as Help It's the Hair Bear B U I I C( 1~971) and Horig Korig Phooey
(1974). The audiences' tastes were changing and in order to meet this
 Rotoscope Patent Document. Max Fleischer. Public Domain Image.

Ray Harryhausen with Hansel and Gretel. Courtesy of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen
Foundation.
Ray Harryhausen with Medusa. Courtesy of the Ray and Dialla Harryhausen
Foundation.

Animal Farm. Copyright RD-DR 1954 renewed 7982. Courtesy of the Halas and
Batchelor Collectio~iLimited.
Charley, 1947. Courtesy of the Halas
and Batchelor Collection Limited.
The Clangers. Copyright 2008 Oliver Postgate
and Peter Firmin. Courtesy of Licensing by
Design Ltd.

Bagpuss. Copyright 2008 Oliver Postgate

and Peter Firmin. Courtesy of Licensing
by Design L td.
Henry's Cat. Bob Godfrey Films and Stan Hayward.

Revolution. Courtesy o f Bob Godfrey Films.

Girls Night Out. Beryl Prodtrctions International Ltd. Courtesy ofloanna Quinn.

Dreams and Desires-Family Ties. Beryl Productions International Ltd./S4C. Courtesy

of Joanna Quinn.
The Death of Patroclus from Achilles, a Bare Boards production for Channel 4
Television 7 995, still by Paul Smith. Courtesy of Barry Punies.

Hot Dog. Courtesy of Bill Plympton Studio.

Perot and King for Saturday Night Live. Courtesy of). I. Sedelmaier Procl~~ctio~~s
Inc.
 HARMAN-ISING 99

Hanna-Barbera began to create more shows to appeal to children and

teenagers with music and comedy in Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
(1969), Josie and the Pussycats (1970), and an animated version of
the live-action music show, The Partridge Family (1970-1974) in
The Partridge Family: 2200 A.D. (1974). These shows became hits
for Hanna-Barbera and became the templates for many of the shows
they produced throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In the 1980s, however, advertising became a dominant force
in children's television; cartoons, which had become relegated to
Saturday mornings, began to be produced in conjunction with toy
manufacturers, and in 1986 HB produced Pound Puppies.
In 1991, parent company Taft put the company up for sale and the
library was sold to Turner Broadcasting. The company continued
production with a name change to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc.,
and in 1995 it sponsored "World Premiere Toons" with the Cartoon
Network to help encourage and develop new animation talent. With
a merger between Turner and Warner Brothers (WB) in 1996, the
production division remained but shortly moved to the WB premises.
It continued to produce cartoons with Cartoon Network, but when
William Hanna died in 2001 the company was absorbed by Warner
Brothers where Joe Barbera continued to work until his death in
2006. Over nearly 50 years, Hanna-Barbera had been one of the most
prolific producers of animation for television and encouraged and
inspired many new shows and talents.

HARMAN-ISING. Partnership of Hugh Harman (1903-1982) and

Rudolph Ising (1903-1992). Both men were American animators
who started working with Walt Disney in Kansas in 1922 and fol-
lowed Disney's move west to California in 1925. They worked on the
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series until the strike in 1928, after which
Harman led staff away from Disney. Harman and Ising started work-
ing together in 1930 and created Bosko. With this character, Harman
produced the first synchronized talking animated short, Sinkin' in the
Bathtub. Making use of this synchronized sound and animation, they
teamed with Leon Schlesinger and used the back catalogue of songs
from Warner Brothers to create the Merrie Melodies and Looney
Tunes series of shorts. Harman continued working on Bosko while
Ising concentrated on the Melodies.
100 HARRYHAUSEN. RAY

The pair split from Warner Brothers in 1933 and they went to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), taking Bosko with them. There
they created Happy Harmonies, which were also similar to the Dis-
ney Silly Symphonies. They left after a disagreement over finances
but were unable to get their own studio started properly so went back
to MGM in 1939. At MGM, they began to produce the Tom and
Jerry series until Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera showed success
with the characters.
Harman and Ising began to make other films and among the most
notable are The Old Mill Pond (1936), The Blue Danube (1939),
and Peace on Earth (1939), which featured a pacifist theme, earning
Harman a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and an Academy Award
nomination. They won an Oscar in 1940 for The Milky Way. Ising in-
troduced Barnuby Bear for MGM in 1939 in The Bear That Couldn't
Sleep and continued to work on that series. The pair later worked on
army training films, including Private Snafu Presents Seanzarz T a ~ u
in the Navy ( 1 946).

HARRYHAUSEN, RAY (1920- ). Born in Los Angeles, Ray Har-

ryhausen began his animation career after seeing King Koizg in
1933. Unable to figure out how the effects were created, he became
awestruck by the process and the creator, Willis O'Brien. He started
trying to make his own films and began by making a model of a bear
from his mother's fur coat (he asked for permission afterwards) and
a friend's 16 mm camera. Though he found it difficult to control, he
was excited by what he had created and decided to develop his inter-
est by studying photography, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, and life
drawing at the University of Southern California's night school.
His father encouraged him by building a small studio in the garage
and by 1940 he owned his own single-frame camera and had begun
work on his first full-length feature, Evolution, based on the origin of
the species. The project became overly ambitious and after Disney
released Fantasia, he gave up on it. He later showed his footage of
Evolution to George Pal, who made shorts called Puppetoons and
who subsequently gave him a job. This employment lasted until
World War I1 when Harryhausen was drafted into the Army Signal
Corps. However, he was able to continue with his work, as he was
charged with making animated segments for orientation films.
 HENSON, JIM 101

After the war, he returned to his home studio and began making
fairy tales. His first was a 10-minute film, Mother Goose Stories,
which was released by Bailey Films. Having earned some money,
Harryhausen was able to continue and make other fairy tales. He was
able to meet his hero Willis O'Brien in 1939, and in 1946 O'Brien
asked him to assist on Mighty Joe Yoi~ng.Harryhausen moved to
RKO studios, and the film, released in 1949, won an Academy
Award. Harryhausen continued with O'Brien but preproduction
problems led him back to the garage studio.
He was introduced to producer Jack Dietz and they made The
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), which was Harryhausen's first
feature-length film. Following the film's success, he developed
ideas for other films but, without financing, he again returned to his
fairy tales. He soon met Charles H. Schneer, a producer for Universal
and Columbia. They made It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) and
forged a partnership that lasted several years and included Earth vs.
the Flying Saucers (1956) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).
At the end of the 1950s, they decided to move away from science
fiction and into fantasy and myth, producing The Seventh Voyage of
Sinbad, which was so successful they followed this up with two more
Sinbad films, ending the series in 1977. In the late 1950s and early
1960s, they moved production from Hollywood to London to utilize
European locations.
In 1963, Harryhausen made his most famous film, Jasorz and the
Argonauts, which features his best stop-motion animation. Over the
years, he continued to contribute to many films, which led to Clash of
the Titans (1981), the biggest hit of his career. Despite this success,
his animation, like O'Brien's, was not properly acknowledged as
animated art; instead, it was dismissed as part of the special effects,
though in 1992 he was honored at the Oscars for his lifetime achieve-
ments. He has continued to work, overseeing colorization of early
works and publishing collections of prints of his artwork. Special
edition DVDs of his films have been released and collectors' items
have been marketed.

HENSON, JIM (1936-1990). Puppet animator born in Mississippi,

Henson was interested in art from an early age, particularly influ-
enced by his grandmother, who was a painter. His family moved to
102 HENSON, JIM

Maryland when he was in fifth grade and he began experimenting

with art techniques. In 1954, while at high school, Henson began
performing with puppets on television for a Saturday morning
program in Washington, D.C., WTOP TV. In 1955, while studying
at the University of Maryland, he began a twice daily, five-minute
show, Sam and Friends, on an NBC affiliate station, WRC-TV,
with Jane Nebel, who would later become his wife. He started us-
ing music, humor, and television as a stage for his act in which he
introduced one of his most famous characters, Kermit the Frog. He
began in advertisements and was invited to appear on the Steve
Allen Show.
In 1961, Henson formed Muppets Inc. and in 1963 moved to New
York, where he teamed up with Frank Oz. Between 1964 and 1965,
they began to produce films. In 1966, he started developing charac-
ters for the new Children's Television Network series Sesame Street.
With financial backing from London-based television pioneer Lord
Lew Grade, Henson's best-known series, The Muppet Show, began.
With a mixture of his Muppet (puppet) characters and human celeb-
rity guest stars, the show was like a theater revue. The success of the
Muppet Show led to feature films starring the characters, such as The
Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Muppets
Take Manhattan ( 1984), and The Muppet Christmas Carol ( 1992),
to name but a few.
Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which he had founded in 1979, was
used to create similar techniques in the feature films The Dark Crys-
tal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), which Henson also directed. The
company also produced the 1980s television show Fraggle Rock and
the cel-animated series Muppet Babies and The Storyteller (1988).
The Jim Henson Company was sold to the Disney Studio in 1989. In
1990, after a short illness, Jim Henson died. The effects of his influ-
ence were felt throughout the world, with separate memorials being
held in the United States and in Great Britain.
The Jim Henson Foundation, the Jim Henson Company, and Jim
Henson's Creature Shop continue, with the involvement of his fam-
ily, and more Muppet films have k e n produced. Other popular series
such as Bear in the Big Blue House on the Disney network have kept
the style of the Muppets and Henson's legacy alive. In 2004, the
Muppets and the Beur in the Big Blue House properties were fully
 HUBLEY, FAITH 103

sold to Disney, with the Sesame Street characters remaining with the
Sesame Workshop.

HOMESTAR RUNNER. Homestar Runner is an example of Web

animation, which has grown in popularity since its first appearance
in 2000. The animation was first created by brothers Matt and Mike
Chapman, who created the characters in an idea for a children's book.
They began creating various animated versions of the story until they
began using Flash to animate cartoons.
Homestar has demonstrated what Web animation is capable of in
terms of audience reach and flexibility of output. The website is set
up as a world for the characters of the cartoons to inhabit, the star
of which is Homestar Runner, a dim-witted athlete, and his friends,
with sections dedicated to serial cartoons, in a similar format to those
broadcast on television. The site also includes interactive games and
opportunities to interact with the creators. In this way, the viewers
can alter the way they experience the site. By using the Web to dis-
tribute the animation, there are no restrictions on content or delivery.
Fan numbers have increased steadily over the years and the content
on the site has developed to include more cartoons featuring a variety
of subjects, though generally they are satires or parodies of popular
culture and, in particular, of video games and television. The site is
included here as merely one example of the increasing use of the
Internet to distribute animation, which can reach wide and varied
audiences.

HUBLEY, FAITH (1924-2001). Faith Elliott was a screenwriter

and novelist prior to her career in animation; notable work includes
screenwriting on Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1956). After her
marriage to John Hubley, Faith took an interest in addressing what
they perceived to be problems with figurative art and attended art
school. She shared her husband's belief that cinema should have a
social content, and together they made a number of films with social
and political themes, including The Hole (1962), The Hat (1964),
Windy Day (1968), and Everybody Rides the Carouse1 (1976), among
others. They won an Academy Award in 1965 for Tijuarza Brass
Double Feature, which featured the music of Herb Alpert and the
Tijuana Brass.
104 HUBLEY, JOHN

After John's death in 1977, Faith began a solo career and between
1976and 2001 completed 25 films, including her only feature-length
film, The Cosmic Eye (1985). In 1996, she made the autobiographical
My Universe Irzside Out. Her last film was Northerrz Ice, Golden Surz
in 2001, and her work was said to be characterized by her exploration
of world mythology and an interest in indigenous cultures. She had
a reverence for nature, which inspired much of her work, which she
passed on to audiences throughout the world.

HUBLEY, JOHN (1914-1977). John Hubley was raised in Michigan

and as a teenager demonstrated his artistic abilities when he won a
local newspaper drawing competition. During the Depression, he
moved to Los Angeles to live with his uncle, and after graduation
he went to work for Walt Disney, where he remained from 1935 to
1941. He left the studio during the strike, after which he went to work
for Screen Gems under Max Fleischer.
Hubley contributed to the war effort and in 1944 helped produce
a campaign film for Franklin D. Roosevelt with what would soon
become United Productions of America (UPA). Joining the com-
pany at the beginning, he was involved in the debut of the character
Mr. Magoo in 1949. His landmark film was Rooty Toot Toot (1952),
which took its subject from the ballad of Frarzkie and Johnrzy. The
film was heralded as brilliant, ironic, and disenchanted, making revo-
lutionary use of color and drawing, which reinforced the modernist
aesthetic coming out of UPA. Unfortunately, the studio forced him to
resign due to the McCarthy trials, despite his share in the company.
However, during this time, he met Faith Elliott and in 1955, the two
married. They moved to New York, where they founded their own
specialized production company making advertisements and educa-
tional movies.
The two artists collaborated on The Adverltures of an *, an ex-
perimental film financed by the Guggenheim Museum. The film was
influenced by the work of Norman McLaren, whom Faith had met
years earlier. Moorlbird (1959) demonstrated an inventive freedom
that John had not previously had. In 1962, they collaborated with
Harlow Shapley to make Of Stars and Men, an educational feature.
Politics and racism were themes of The Hole (1962),and they con-
tinued the social and political themes in The Hut (1964), Windy Duy
 HURD, EARL 105

(1968), Of Men and Demons (1970), and Everybody Ride the Carou-
sel (1976), which was John's last film. They won an Oscar in 1965
for Tijuana Brass Double Feature, which featured the music of Herb
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. They also created animated shorts for
the television series Sesame Street (1969) and The Electric Company
(1 971). John died in 1977 and Faith continued to produce animation
until her death in 2001.

HUMOROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES. Humorous Phases of

Funny Faces, released in 1906, was one of J. Stuart Blackton's
lightning sketches and his most famous production, which uses stop
motion to create the animated movements. The film features comic
portraits of a man smoking and rolling his eyes and the reactions of
the woman next to him when he blows smoke in her eyes, which
is animated. The film also shows a clown figure with a jumping
dog. The artist's presence was only suggested by the appearance of
his hand in shot, as opposed to his full appearance in his film The
Enchanted Drawing (1900), which was more like a chalk talk than
an animated film. Humorous Phases is generally cited as the first
animated film.

HUNGARY. See EASTERN EUROPE.

HURD, EARL (1880-1940). Like many other animators from the si-
lent era, Hurd was a newspaper cartoonist in New York and Chicago
before becoming an animator. He then began as an animator for John
Randolph Bray when he patented the technique using celluloid, or
cels, in 1914, which are still used in animation. With Bray, he formed
the Bray Hurd Patent Trust, after which license fees were required
to be paid by every studio that used cels in their animation. Though
probably best known for inventing the cel technique, he also made a
series of cartoons in 1915 for Universal called Bobby Bumps. The
cartoons were successful and a forerunner to the Fleischer brothers'
Out of the Inkwell series, with Bobby sitting on the live action (but
mostly unseen) animator's hand. These films set a high standard for
the industry. However, when Hurd tried to start his own company and
make films in 1920, the films were technically good but ultimately
unsuccessful.
106 INDIA

In 1921, Hurd moved to Paramount with Bobby Bumps, leaving

Bray. He worked with Charles Mintz at Screen Gems in the 1930s
before he joined Disney in 1934, where he worked on Snow White
and the Seven Dwarves and Fantasia. He remained at the Disney
Studio until his death in 1940.

INDIA. See ASIA.

INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC (ILM). Part of the Lucas Films

Company founded in 1977 by director George 1,ucas to create the vi-
sual effects for the science fiction epic Star Wars. 'The effects studio
at 20th Century Fox had closed and Lucas needed a California-based
effects studio for his movie. Special effects were revolutionized and
the studio was the first to use a motion-control camera. In 1979,
George Lucas set up a computer division to begin to develop com-
puter-generated imagery (CGI). In 1982, they produced the visual
effects for the live-action feature Star Trek II. In 1986, they set up a
division specializing in rendering software that became the basis of
Pixar films. In 1988, ILM premiered the first "morphing" sequence
in the live-action film Willow. ILM created the first computer-
generated three-dimensional (3D) character in The Abyss and in
1991 took this further by creating a fully 3D CG character in T2.
The studio won an Academy Award in 1993 for its effects work on
Death Becomes Her. The effects used to enhance live-action films
became more advanced over the years, and in 1999 ILM created the
most realistic digital human character (to that date) in The Miimnzy.
The company is included here due to its contribution to CGI tech-
nology, which has influenced the animation industry as well as the
effects business.

IRELAND. See WESTERN EUROPE.

IRON GIANT, THE. Directed by Brad Bird and released by Warner

Brothers, The Iron Giant (1999) is based on the book The Iron Man
by Ted Hughes (1968), though some of the details were changed
 for the film. The story features a boy named Hogarth Hughes who
lives with his mother in rural Maine in 1957, at the height of Cold
War paranoia. Hogarth befriends a 50-foot giant alien robot who has
fallen from the sky. The giant is innocent to the ways of humans and
Hogarth attempts to teach him about his life, but while Hogarth tries
to keep him a secret, he is eventually discovered.
The giant's size causes fear in the town and the army is called in as
he is perceived as a threat. The antagonistic treatment of the giant by
the army reactivates the giant's weaponry functions, which are inbuilt,
and he starts to fight back. The film was made with traditional cel
animation, though the giant was created with computer-generated
imagery (CGI). Stylistically, the film has the feel of 1950s modern-
ist animation, which suits the period of the story. The film was not as
successful at the box office as Bird's later film, The Incredibles (200iF),
possibly due to the darker tone this film has with imagery less suited to
a family audience. However, the animation is of very high quality.

ITALY. Like many European countries, Italy's early animators were

inspired by the animation from the United States and artists such
as Gino Parenti (1871-1943), Umberto Spano, Luigi Giobbe (1907-
1945), and the Cossia brothers began creating short films. Just as
Winsor McCay and other comic-strip cartoonists had made the
transition from print to film, Roberto Sgrilli (1897-1985) developed
his talents and made an adaptation of Baron Munchauserz, I1 Barone
di Miinchhausen, in 1941. During the disruption of World War 11, one
animator of note who continued production was Nino Pagot, who had
founded his own company in 1938 with his brother Toni. During the
war, he produced and distributed propaganda films. His first film
to achieve critical acclaim was the mid-length feature Lalla, piccolo
Lalla (Lalla, Little Lalla) in 1946. He was then able to release his
first feature-length film, Ifratelli Dinamite (The Dynamite Brothers,
1949), which he had developed during the war. The film was in col-
laboration with other animators but was not very successful. This led
the studio to relocate and concentrate on producing advertisements.
In the 1960s, the company found success with the television series
Calimero; the titular character remains popular.
Though released in the same year as Pagot's feature, La Rosa
di Baghdad (The Thief of Baghdad, 1949) is considered to be the
108 ITALY

first Italian feature animation to be produced. It was also the first

Italian film in Technicolor. The film was directed by Antonio Gino
Domeneghini (1897-1966) and produced by his studio, Ima-Film
Productions; the studio worked throughout World War 11. Another
key animator of this period was Luigi Veronesi (1908-1998), an
artist who used a variety of styles and techniques, including photog-
raphy, painting, and engraving; his first film used wooden objects.
Veronesi had an interest in the Bauhaus and contemporary art and
created a series of films from Film No. 1 to Film No. 9 made between
1939 and 1941. These abstract animations were considered to be
experiments in the art form.
In the late 1950s, Bruno Bozzetto (1938- ) was one of the first
Italians to make "homegrown" animation. He began experimenting
with animation at an early age and at age 20 he made Tapuni! La
Storie delle Arnzi (Tapunz! The Story of Weapons, 1958) and entered
it in the Cannes Film Festival, receiving favorable reviews. His first
feature was West arzd Sodu (1965), created with hand-drawn anima-
tion, and he moved on to other features. By the late 1970s, he had
made his third feature, Allegro Norz Troppo ( 1 977). He continued into
the 1980s, producing a variety of work, but always with a satirical
perspective.
One of the most successful Italian animators of the 1970s was
Osvaldo Cavandoli (1920-2007). He began his career working on
Pagot's feature The Dynamite Brothers. In the 1950s, he worked on
animated advertisements and specialized in puppets, though his most
successful advertisement did not feature puppets and instead used a
line drawing. La Linea (The Line, 1969) was so successful that he
created a television series starring "the line." The series consisted
of 88 episodes and featured the animator's hand interacting with the
line. This interaction either aided or hindered and annoyed the man,
who appeared out of the line in each episode.
Bruno Bozzetto's team member Guido Manuli was an influential
artist and successful gag writer. He collaborated with Bozzetto on
Opera in 1973 and again on Strip Tease in 1977. Manuli went on
to work freelance and created such works as Fanatabiblical (1977),
Count Down (1978), Solo urz bacio (Only a Kiss, 1983), and Incubus
(1985)' though Solo un bacio is considered to be one of his finest. His
energetic style was compared to Tex Avery.
 IWERKS. UB 109

One of the dominant studios in Italian animation was Gamma

Films, well known for their advertisements. The studio's success
peaked in the 1960s, at which point it was one of the largest in
Europe. Developments in the industry led to the first computer-
animated film Pixnochio (1982) by independent animator Giuseppe
Lagan. Other key studios include Pagot Film (revised after the death
of founder Nino in 1972), Paul Film in Modena founded by Paolo
"Paul" Campani, Florence-based Studio Limite, and Cooperativa
Lanterna Magica.
Other key figures in developing the Italian animation industry were
Giorgio "Max" Massimino-GarniCr (1924-1985), a director of Asso-
ciation Internationale du Film d'hnimation (ASIFA), who directed
films and collaborated with other artists as a scriptwriter, cartoonist
Pino Zac (1 930-1 985), and painter Stelio Passacantando (1927- ).

IWERKS, UB (1901-1971). Born in Kansas City, Ub Iwerks' name

reveals his Dutch heritage; his father was an immigrant. His given
name was originally Ubbe Ert Iwwerks, simplified to the shorter
version in his 20s. At age 19, he went to work for the Kansas City
Film Advertising Company, where he worked with Walt Disney
and later Harman-Ising. In 1922, Disney founded Laugh-0-Gram
and Iwerks went to work with him. He moved with Disney in 1923
and continued to work with him until 1930. Iwerks created the draw-
ing for Mickey Mouse, based on Walt's idea, and animated him in
Steamboat Willie ( 1928).
In 1930, Iwerks met Pat Powers with whom he opened his own
studio, under Iwerks' own name. His creation Flip the Frog had
been patented while he was with Disney, so he revived the charac-
ter in a series that lasted for 36 episodes. Between 1930 and 1934,
Iwerks supplied shorts to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). In 1933,
he released a series featuring Willie Whopper, but this only lasted
one year. The last series that Iwerks produced with Powers was the
Comicolor Cartoons series that included The Little Red Hen (19341,
Humpty Dump9 Jr. (1935), and Tom Thumb (1936), all shot in
Cinecolor. The studio closed in 1936 and Iwerks was subcontracted
to Warner Brothers by Leon Schlesinger and Charles Mintz at
Screen Gems from 1936 to 1940. In 1937, he directed Merry Man-
nequins for Mintz.
1 10 J. J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS INC.

In 1940, Iwerks returned to Disney where he would remain until

his death in 1971. He won Academy Awards in 1959 and 1964.
'Though not known for his comedy or story-telling, Iwerks has been
heralded for his speed and skill as an animator. He also was respon-
sible for developing a version of a multiplane camera years before
Disney.

J. J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS INC. J. J. Sedelmaier Produc-

tions (JJSP) is a design and animation studio based in White Plains,
New York. The studio was founded in 1990 by J. J. Sedelmaier
(1956- ), a Chicago native, and his wife, Patrice. Sedelmaier stud-
ied art at college, graduating with a bachelor of science degree, and
moved to New York to find work, initially in comics, but instead he
found a thriving animation industry. His professional career began in
1980, and he became an animator in 1984, and then a producer and
director before opening his own studio.
JJSP produces work for both print campaigns and animated film
using a variety of styles and techniques. They are primarily known
for their cutting-edge commercial animation and include such clients
as such as Slim Jim, Speed Racer, Hotwire, and 7Up, among others.
The studio has also been involved with some of the most ground-
breaking animation television series in the 1990s, animating part
of the first series of Mike Judge's Beavis and Butthead for Music
Television (MTV). It also produced animation for the 1993 relaunch
of the series Schoolhouse Rock for the American Broadcast Com-
pany (ABC) and was cocreator with Robert Smigel of Saturday TV
Funhouse cartoons for the comedy series Saturday Night Live on
NBC.
JJSP became the exclusive animation house for the first three
seasons of cartoons for Saturday Night Live, and from 1996 until
2000 engaged in designing characters and animating such series as
The X-Presidents, Fun with Real Audio, Atzimated Outtakes, and
perhaps the most well known, The Ambiguously Gay Duo (originally
designed by J. J. Sedelmaier himself, and created by JJSP and Robert
Smigel for the short-lived Dana Curvey Show).
 JJSP developed the pilot episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at
Law, with Cartoon Network, that helped initiate their Adult Swim
block of cartoons. They also collaborated with Cartoon Network
writer Stuart Hill to develop and animate, for the network, a series
of interstitial shorts based on an ever-present Captain Linger, a
superhero character. The studio's most recent television project was
the creation of the animation for the first season of the Tek Jansen
series for the late-night satirical comedy series The Colbert Report
(2005- ). The studio has won numerous awards for animation and
print work.

JAPAN. Japanese filmmakers were inspired by films from the United

States and France in the early 1910s. The first attempt at animat-
ing chalk drawings was made by Oten Shimokawa (1892-1973),
but he failed and painted directly onto the film stock using ink (an
early example of cameraless animation). His first five-minute short
was The Cotzcierge (1917). The first Japanese animation studio was
founded in 1921 by Seitaro Kitayama, beginning with educational
films and industrial films for the government, eventually moving on
to animated folk tales. The great Kanto earthquake and fire in 1923
destroyed all prints, with the oldest prints dating from 1924-1925.
Among the early animators, the most influential were Sanae Yama-
moto (1898-1981), Yasuji Murata (1898-1966), and Naburo Ofuji
(1900-1974). Murata studied Western techniques and brought cel
animation to Japan, which began to be used after the late 1920s, by
which time they were beginning to use recorded music to accompany
the films.
In the 1930s, Japanese animation shifted from folk tales to more
political films and propaganda (anti-West), but the production was
still done by what was essentially a cottage industry. Between 1934
and 1939, the animation production remained in black and white, and
became increasingly nationalistic.
During World War 11, Japanese animation concentrated on war
propaganda for children and families, including caricatures of the
"Anglo enemy" exemplified by Sanae Yamamoto's Spies Defeated
(1942) and Rjoji Mikami's Hooray for Japan (1943). One of Japan's
finest animated films, The Spider and the Tulip (1943) by Kenzo
Masaoka, was made in this period. The only feature-length film to
1 12 JAPAN

be made until the late 1950s was Momatoro's Divinely Blessed Sea
Warriors ( 1945).
The studio Nihon Doga was formed in Japan in 1948 and began the
production of shorts but a lack of facilities left films looking dated,
especially in competition with the U.S. films being imported. In the
1950s,Japanese cartoons moved into color production and a division
emerged between popular animation for theater and television and
fine art animation for the festival circuit. In 1951, Toei Company
Ltd. was founded and grew quickly to become one of the largest
producers of live-action films, and an animation division was added
in 1955, merging with Nihon Doga into Toei Doga in 1956. This
became the country's first major animation studio.
With the success and popularity of television, the Japanese anima-
tion industry really flourished, adapting folk tales (both Japanese
and European) and science fiction and manga. The first significant
television series was Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy produced by his
Mushi Production Company. Other studios found success and diverse
subjects from sci-fi, horror, and fantasy to domestic comedy were
produced. The success began to open international markets and col-
laborative projects.
Japanese television animation flourished in the 1 970s7especially
science fiction and as a result of a change in audience from children
to young adults. The success continued into the 1980s, including
television, direct-to-video releases, and the international market. One
of the most successful television franchises was Dragonball in 1986
and the follow-up Dragonball Z. During this time, Hayao Miyazaki,
whose career began at Toei, gained increasing success, leading to
the founding of Studio Ghibli. In 1988, the science fiction feature
Akira was released, arguably the first feature to really break into the
international, specifically Western market.
In the 1990s, the Japanese animation market opened up inter-
nationally, in part due to the phenomenal success of the Poke'rnon
television series. The features from Studio Ghibli such as Princess
Mononoke (1997) found international success and elevated the status
of anime still further, as did Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell
(1995). Miyazaki's next feature, Spirited Away (2001), arguably
overshadowed other feature releases and the success of television
animation continued. Into the 21 st century, there was an increase in
 JONES, CHUCK 11 3

coproductions between the United States and Japan with such films
as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (200 1 ) and The Animatrix
(2003). See also ASIA; JUMPING.

JETSONS, THE. Hanna-Barbera's third prime-time animated se-

ries was The Jetsons, which premiered in 1962 on the American
Broadcasting Company network. The situation in The Jetsorzs was
a contrast to The Flintstones, as it was set in the distant (or not-too-
distant) future, as opposed to the Stone Age era. There were the simi-
lar running gags of the household gadgets, but this time they were
space age fantasies, with automatic food makers and dressing rooms,
rather than a mammoth for a dishwasher as in The Flintstones.
As well as the science fiction setting and surroundings, the plots
differed from the previous Hanna-Barbera animated sitcoms. The
humor was mainly derived from misunderstandings and farcical
situations in the tradition of the comic narrative and the live-action
sitcom. The setting for the show was the domestic family sitcom. The
family consisted of George and Jane Jetson and their children, teen-
age daughter Judy and younger son Elroy. Like the Flintstones, the
Jetsons also had a family pet, but this time it actually was a dog.
The Jetsons originally only aired for one season, but in the 1980s was
revived with new shows, which ran until 1987. Jetsons: The Movie, a
feature-lengthversion of the series, was released in 1990, directed and
produced by Hanna and Barbera but through Warner Brothers.

JONES, CHUCK (1912-2002). Born in Washington State, Jones'

family moved to Southern California when he was six months
old. He attended Chouinard Art Institute, which later became the
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). In 1930, after art school,
Jones found work in a commercial art studio and in 1931 began his
animation career, washing cels for Ub Iwerks. He began the transi-
tion from washing to cel inking and then to assistant animator. He
was fired from Iwerks and then had brief employment with Charles
Mintz at Screen Gems and Walter Lantz, before going back to
Iwerks, though he was later fired again. Jones worked for a time
in Los Angeles as a portrait artist, and in 1933 was hired by Leon
Schlesinger. He stayed at Warner Brothers from 1933 to 1963 and
advanced from animating to directing.
1 14 JONES,CHUCK

When Friz Freleng joined the company, Jones was assigned to

Tex Avery's division with Bob Clampett, and when Frank Tashlin
left, Jones was put in charge of his unit. His prime products were
Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. His first directorial achievement was The
Night Watchman (1938), and in 1940 he was awarded the Best Ani-
mated Cartoon of the year from Newsreel Theatres for Old Glory.
During World War 11, Jones collaborated with Theodor Geisel (Dr.
Seuss) on the Private Snafu series, and 25 years later they worked
together again to produce How the Crirlch Stole Christmas! (1966)
and Horton Hears a Who (1970). In 1942, Jones directed The Do-
ver Boys, which set a method of style and timing for the studio. He
worked alongside the staff of what would become United Produc-
tions of America (UPA) on the Franklin D. Roosevelt campaign film
Hell Bent for Leather, which he directed in 1944.
After the war, Jones introduced the new characters Road Runner
and Wile E. Coyote, Pepe le Pew, and with Friz Freleng and Robert
McKimson shared the character drawing and de\~elopmentof Bugs
Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig. Jones won two
Academy Awards in 1950 for his films. In 1955, he went to work
for Disney for four months while Warner Bros. was closed, though
he rejoined when it reopened. In 1962, Warner Bros. closed the plant
completely and he began directing work for commercials. In 1962,
he cowrote the story and screen play for Gay Purree, with his wife
Dorothy. The film was produced by UPA.
Jones was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1964 to make
more Tom and Jerry cartoons after Hanna-Barbera had formed
their own company. He also directed the Oscar-winning The Dot and
the Line (1965) as well as Dr. Seuss films during that period. He was
vice president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for
a year between 1972 and 1973 to try to help develop children's tele-
vision. In conjunction with the National Film Board and Zagreb
School, he produced The Curiosity Shop, which consisted of 17 one-
hour Saturday morning cartoons. He was also producer for Richard
Williams' adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
In 1962, Jones established an independent production company,
Chuck Jones Enterprises, which ran from 1962 to 2002 and produced
half-hour prime-time television specials, several featuring classic
WB characters. He consulted at WB when they returned to animation
 IONNY QUEST 1 15

production and lectured at a variety of U.S. higher education estab-

lishments, including Stanford, University of Southern California,
University of California Los Angeles, CalArts, and the University of
Kansas. In 1978, his first wife died, and he remarried in 1983.
Jones was honored by the British Film Institute (BFI) with a
three-day retrospective and twice by the Kennedy Film Center and
the American Film Institute. He was also honored in a Golden An-
niversary exhibition of WB work at the Museum of Modern Art,
New York. In 2000, he established the Chuck Jones Foundation to
recognize, support, and inspire continued excellence in art and the art
of character animation. He died in 2002, aged 89, and was one of the
most loved animators in the history of animation.

JONNY QUEST. Prime-time action adventure series produced by

Hanna-Barbera that aired on the American Broadcasting Company
network; the series ran from 1964 to 1965. The show was a new style
of television animation and was very different from Hanna-Barbera's
prime-time animated sitcoms such as The Flintstones (1960-1966)
or Top Cat (1961-1962). The series design went through changes
before it broadcast, and Joe Barbera brought in comic book artist
Doug Wildey to oversee the series. The show featured an 11-year-old
boy named Jonny who had a thirst for knowledge and excitement.
He traveled around the world with his father, scientist and inventor
Dr. Benton Quest; his mother had died. Dr. Quest was a scientific
troubleshooter for the U.S. government, which took them around the
globe. They were aided by Roger "Race" Bannon, an ex secret agent
who took on the role as a companion and bodyguard, as well as being
a tutor to Jonny. They were also accompanied by a young Indian boy,
Hadji, and their bulldog, Bandit.
There were various villains throughout the series who would try
to thwart their work but a recurring villain was an evil mastermind
called Dr. Zin, who had plans for world domination. The show cost
a lot of money to produce and the ratings were quite low, which led
to only a single season. In 1967, the show began to air on Saturday
mornings and aired as reruns until 1972 when various parents groups
objected to some of the violent content. The show was edited and
continued to run until 1978 (though it has been rerun on all networks
at various times).
116 JUDGE, MIKE

In 1996, Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio produced an anime-style

sequel, The Real Adventures of Jorzny Quest, which consisted of 26
episodes and ran on the Cartoon Network.

JUDGE, MIKE (1962- ). Born in Ecuador, Judge was raised in New

Mexico. Judge studied physics at the University of California, San
Diego, and worked as an engineer and musician. He moved to Dal-
las, Texas, and continued to work as a musician before he began to
make animated films; he relocated again to Austin, Texas, where he
currently resides.
Judge's first short, Oftice Space ( 1991 ), was picked up for broad-
cast by the cable network Comedy Central after it was screened at
the Dallas Animation Festival. In 1992, he made Frog Baseball,
which featured two characters, Beavis and his friend Butthead, who
would become stars of their own series, Beavis and Butthead. The
show ran on the cable channel Music Television (MTV) from 1993
until 1997 and also spawned a feature film, Beavis and Butthead Do
America. Judge performed many of the voices for the series.
He left MTV in 1997 and produced his long-running animated
sitcom King of the Hill for the Fox network, again providing many
of the voices himself. In 1999, Judge wrote and directed a live-action
version of Oftice Space and though it did poorly at the box office its
DVD sales were high.
Judge teamed up with animator Don Hertzfeld in 2003 to launch
The Animation Show, a touring animation festival that has become
very successful. He ventured into live action again in 2006 for Idioc-
racy, a satire of U.S. culture; however, it was poorly distributed and
received no marketing and as a result virtually disappeared. In 2007,
King of the Hill began its 12th season on Fox.

JUMPING. Directed by Osamu Tezuka, Jumpirzg (1984) is a six-

minute film shot from an unseen protagonist's viewpoint as he or she
continually jumps up and down and forward in ever-higher and larger
jumps. The film's narrative consists of 30 leaps each up and down,
revealing a different view and passage of time. It begins in a road with
the credits bouncing up and down. The cameralprotagonistjumps up
and down along the road, a car passes, and they jump over an oncom-
ing car and then higher over some trees, onto a house, down into a
 KING OF THE HILL 117

garden, into woods and a field in which they encounter a grasshopper.

A bigger jump takes them into a henhouse, which is disturbed and
broken, they jump into and out of a lake, up past a crow in the sky,
past an Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA)
sign, over another crow and down into the city past chimneys. As they
get further and higher, they jump up to skyscrapers and past airplanes.
Eventually, they end up out at sea and jump over a whale, over rain
clouds, into a country at war, into an attack, over an H-bomb explo-
sion, and down into hell, from where they then leap back into the
street in which they started. The sounds from the last section sound
like a young child suggesting who the protagonist might have been,
though the creator suggested that by seeing over the world they have
a god's-eye view over humanity's fate. The film won the grand prize
at the Zagreb International Animation Festival in 1984.

KING OF THE HILL. After finding success with Beavis and Butthead,
Mike Judge went on to create the animated sitcom King of the Hill
for the Fox network, and the series premiered in 1997. King of the Hill
follows the Hill family who live in Arlen, Texas, Judge's home state.
The show's situation is a family domestic sitcom with the focus on the
father, Hank Hill, a propane salesman (which he proudly tells everyone)
and his wife, Peggy, a substitute teacher. They have a son, Bobby, and
a pet dog. Early in the first series, niece Luanne was introduced and
moved into the household. This created a balance in the ratio of male
to female characters and a foil and ally for Bobby as well as an ally for
Peggy. There are a number of other characters that feature frequently,
including their neighbors and Hank's friends. Hank spends much of his
free time in the alley beside his house drinking beer with his friends,
Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer. These peripheral characters provide a
different type of comedy; they are more prone to slapstick behavior,
representing some of the stereotypical sitcom characters, whereas Hank
and Peggy provide a darker and more observational humor. The anima-
tion itself is quite different from Beavis and Butthead and indeed other
anicoms, with the drawing having something of a realist quality. The
show is largely character driven and in 2007 began its 12th season.
1 18 KLASKY CSUPO

KLASKY CSUPO. Independent animation studio formed by Arlene

Klasky and her husband, Gabor Csupo, a Hungarian artist, in their
apartment in Hollywood in 1982 (the couple had married in 1979).
Klasky Csupo Inc. later moved to new premises at Seward Street in
Hollywood. In 1988, they began to animate The Simpsons intersti-
tials for The Tracey Ulltnan Show on the new Fox network. They also
created music videos and TV titles. In 1990, they created interstitials
for Sesame Street and in 1991, with Paul German, created the long-
running series Rugrats, helping to launch Nicktoons. They animated
the adult series Duckniarz in 1994 for the USA network and Aargh
Real Monsters for Nickelodeon. In 1995, the couple opened their
commercial division.
The studio has been successful in creating animation for all mar-
kets and audiences, and in 1998 The Rugrats Movie became the first
non-Disney animated feature-length film to break $100 million at
the U.S. box office. This was followed by a second feature, Rugrats
in Paris, in 2000. They have also animated the long-running series
The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, and As Told by Ginger for
Nickelodeon and various other movies.

KOKO THE CLOWN. Koko the Clown is the star of the Fleischer
brothers' Out of the Inkwell series, which Max animated and Dave
directed. Koko was aware that he was made of pen and ink and in-
teracted with Max. In each episode, he left the inkwell and tried to
explore the studio. Dave was the original model for Koko when he
posed in a clown suit. Max was Koko's master and sometimes nem-
esis. He was referred to only as "the clown" until 1923 when he was
named Koko (though the name was changed to KO-Koin 1928, due
to copyright issues).
In every episode, Koko's appearance out of the inkwell is differ-
ent; he always uses a new trick to emerge. In Koko Gets Egg-cited,
he takes a pen and "draws" the live-action background. He was given
a dog named Fitz as a sidekick later in the series. He also appeared
in the Fleischers' Bouncing Ball series and in some of their Betty
Boop cartoons. Koko was semiretired in 1929 as the Fleischers con-
centrated on their work on other cartoons for Paramount Pictures.
However, he was brought back in 1931 to support Betty Boop and
her dog, Bimbo, and starred with her in Snow White (1933).
 LAMBART, EVELYN 1 19

KOREA. See ASIA.

KRICFALUSI, JOHN (1955- ).Born in Quebec, Canada, John Kric-

falusi started working on Saturday morning cartoons such as The
Jetsons revival. In 1987, he was hired by mentor Ralph Bakshi as
supervising director on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. The
show was cancelled due to controversy over a scene where Mighty
Mouse sniffed a flower and got pollen on his nose; this was read as
drug use by some groups.
Kricfalusi created the television series The Ren and Stimpy Show and
founded the company Spumco. He sold the show to children's televi-
sion network Nickelodeon in 1988, where it aired in 1991 to great suc-
cess. Kricfalusi was fired in 1992 after several years of network execu-
tive interference with demands for changes in content, though the show
remained with the network. In 1996, he created The Goddam George
Liquor Program, a Flash-animated Web cartoon. Despite his problems
with Nickelodeon, he returned to working with children's television in
2001, creating The Ripping Friends for the Fox Kids network.
Kricfalusi has revisited Ren and Stimpy, creating a new adult show
that was released on the cable network Spike, and has been released
on DVD. He keeps an online blog with which he chats with fans and
posts educational information about animation history and discusses
his new work. He is a fan of Bob Clampett, whose influence can
be seen throughout his work, particularly in the music of Ren and
Stimpy, which he suggests is key to the success of the show.

LAMBART, EVELYN (1914-1999). Canadian animator encouraged

in art by her father, who was a photographer, and her mother, a bota-
nist. Evelyn Lambart studied commercial art at Ontario College of
Art. She spent a year and a half after graduation working on Canada's
"Book of Remembrance" doing illuminations. This was delicate
work that showed her skill with fine work and color. She then went
to work at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Ottawa in
1942. It was here where she began to work with Norman McLaren,
at first assisting him, then working as his partner.
120 LANTZ, WALTER

Lambart began creating maps and diagrams for the World irz Ac-
tion series and in 1947 began her first solo work, The Impossible
Map (1947). She resumed her partnership with McLaren in 1949
with Begone Dull Care ( I 949), which was a very inventive film and
is often thought of as the partnership's best film. They continued
to work well together but in the 1960s McLaren's interest in dance
films grew and Lambart began making her own films. She began to
use a technique of paper cutouts transferred onto litho plates and then
painted and animated. This was used to make seven award-winning
films, including Fine Feathers (1968), The Hoarder (1%9), Paradise
Lost (1970), The Story of Christmas (1973), and Mr. Frog Werzt A-
Courtitzg ( 1974).
She retired from the film board in 1975 and moved to the country,
where she made her last film, The Town Mouse arzd the Country
Mouse (Le Rat de ~~zaison et le Rat des champs, 1980).

LANTZ, WALTER (1900-1994). An American animator from New

Jersey, he moved to New York at the age of five. Walter Lantz started
his animation career in the silent era cvith William Randolph Hearst
in 1916 but was hired by John Randolph Bray in 1921, where he
worked for four years; during this time he made his directorial de-
but. He made Dinky Doodle in 1923 and would act in his films in a
combination of live action and animation. In 1929, he began to make
films for distribution at Universal, including Oswald the Lucky Rab-
bit, which had previously been made by Walt Disney. He did well at
Universal with The Kirig of Jazz (1930) and Depression (1933).
Lantz started his own studio in 1936 but closed it in 1940 to recoup
losses. He did this again when business was slow, reopening when
things were favorable. In the early 1930s, Lantz hired Tex Avery to
work for him. Lantz is perhaps most famous for his Woody Wood-
pecker films, which first appeared in 1940 with Krzock Knock. His
studio lasted longer than most of that era, finally closing in I972 due
to high production costs, and he instead concentrated on merchandis-
ing.

LASSETER, JOHN (1957- ). John Lasseter was born in Holly-

wood, California, and attended the character animation program at
California Institute of the Arts. where he was awarded two student
 LEAF, CAROLINE 121

awards for Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980). Lasseter
worked for the Disney Studio for five years. While he was working
on Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983, when Tron was being made,
he was invited to view some of the early footage. Lasseter was very
impressed by the computer animation and felt that it was the future of
animation. He left Disney in 1984 and went to work at Lucas Films,
where he made The Adventures of Andre' and Wally B (1983).
Lasseter wrote and directed a series of shorts over the years, in-
cluding Luxo Jr. (1986), Red's Dream (1987), Tin Toy (1988), and
Knickknack (1989). He demonstrated the computer technology that
was purchased by Steve Jobs (of Apple Computers) in 1986 and
named Pixar after the computer they had used. Lasseter used Pixar's
three-dimensional (3D) software Renderman to create his films, and
they formed the Pixar animation studio. Tin Toy won an Academy
Award for animated short.
After the initial success in shorts, Lasseter moved on to feature-
length animation and directed the first fully computer-animated
feature-length animation, Toy Story (1995), which earned him a
Special Achievement Oscar for "inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy
Story Team resulting in the first feature-length computer animated
film." This was followed by A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999),
Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Iizcredibles (di-
rected by Brad Bird, 2 W ) , and Cars (2006). Lasseter was honored
by the Art Directors Guild in 2004 for Outstanding Contribution to
Cinematic Imagery. He is currently chief creative officer of Pixar and
Disney Animation Studios.

LEAF, CAROLINE (1946- ). Born in Seattle, Caroline Leaf studied

visual arts at Radcliffe College (affiliated with Harvard University).
Leaf was encouraged into animation, though initially reluctant, but
after experimenting found she enjoyed working with a "sand on
glass" technique. She found she preferred animating objects rather
than drawings-the movement was what was important. Her first
film was Sand or Peter and the Wolf(1968). After she graduated, she
moved to Rome for a year.
Leaf returned to America with a fellowship at Harvard and made
the film Orj5eo (1972) by painting on glass. She worked freelance
while living in Cambridge and made How Beaver Stole Fire (1972)
122 LEEDS ANIMATION WORKSHOP

for a St. Louis company; however, they disagreed when the company
wanted to alter the animation. Leaf joined the National Film Board
of Canada's (NFB) English Animation Studio, and went to work in
the far north, inspired by Inuit tales. She returned to the NFB in 1974
and made The Owl Who Married the Goose: An Eskimo Legend using
sand on glass and won 11 awards.
Leaf's next two films, The Street (1976) and The Metamorphosis
of Mr. Samsa (1977), brought international acclaim and awards, in-
cluding 22 for The Street. For this film, she used paint mixed with
glycerin so it would not dry and would have the same consistency on
the glass as sand. Metamorphosis used the sand technique and won
10 prizes.
Leaf worked with experimental filmmaker Veronika Soul to make
The Interview, with each woman illustrating her perceptions of her
filmmaking techniques. She tried documentary with Kate and A~zrza
McGarrigle (1981) but preferred to work on fiction, and in 1982
made an educational drama for the Canadian Labour Congress.
Leaf took a hiatus of nearly 10 years and then she began trying
new techniques, including the cameraless technique of scratch-
ing directly onto film. Two Sisters (1990) won the best short film
at Annecy and she was once again in the international spotlight.
In 1996, Leaf was awarded a Life Achievement Award at Zagreb
International Animation Festival. She has spent some time teaching
at Harvard (1996-1998) and since 2001 has lived in London, Great
Britain, continuing to animate and paint.

LEEDS ANIMATION WORKSHOP (LAW). A British film col-

lective founded in 1978 to produce animated films on social issues,
Leeds Animation Workshop has produced 24 short films as well as
title sequences for television programs. The group, based in York-
shire, Great Britain, was formed as a women's collective, commit-
ted to feminist and collectivist principles and an integrated practice
of production. The group has five members-Jane Bradshaw, Terry
Wragg, Stephanie Munro, Janis Goodman, and Milena Dragic-and
together they combine their artistic and educational skills, and media
and cultural work experience to work together on all aspects of film-
making, from the initial ideas stage to distribution of the final film.
 LEGO FILM 123

The workshop has organized international festivals for women

and ethnic minority filmmakers and runs workshops in animation for
community groups. They have been sponsored by a variety of bodies
from Channel 4 to the British Film Institute and local and regional
arts councils.
Their first production was Who Needs Nurseries? We Do! (1978),
which was an eight-minute film promoting child care provision for
preschool children. Other films have dealt with domestic violence,
homelessness, harassment, racism, bullying, and environmental
concerns, to name a few. The films have been repeatedly shown in
a variety of locations from government and public organizations to
schools and hospitals. The films are useful training tools as they are
accompanied by discussion notes.
The animation is used to convey some serious subjects in an acces-
sible way, and the films are often entertaining. The Leeds Animation
Workshop has continued to maintain its initial purpose and make
films that promote its principles.

LEGO FILM. Lego or "brick" film is stop-motion animation using

Lego bricks. A movement emerged when independent animators
began using the plastic toy building bricks to re-create animated
versions of live-action films in the mid-1980s. Though it was not
actively encouraged by the toy manufacturer, the company responded
to the demand in 2000 by creating a "Lego Steven Spielberg 'Movie
Maker' Set" that encouraged people to try to make films using the
bricks. However, although the set was not popular, the films con-
tinued to be made. Largely through Web distribution, a community
formed to share films. The technique is relatively easy to use as the
pieces themselves are durable plastic and accessible, as well as pro-
viding a fairly iconic look, which gives the films a certain aesthetic.
The form lends itself to stop motion and appeared in the main-
stream when music video director Michel Gondry used the bricks
to create a video for the U.S. band The White Stripes. The video
was played on Music Television in heavy rotation and the phenom-
enon began to increase in popularity. Another good example is the
Carnelot musical sequence, which was created based on the Monty
Python live-action comedy The Holy Grail and which stars Lego
124 LIMITED ANIMATION

brick men instead of the actors performing the songs. The short is
available on the live-action film's DVD release. The popularity of the
Star Wars Lego films led to the creation of video games that use the
principles of the animated films in their graphics.
The Lego Company now hosts a website that allows filmmakers
to display their cvork. The site includes over 600 films by over 32
filmmakers actively distributing their work through the site, with
other animators starting to use the technique. What began as a small,
male-dominated group has grown and become influential in the
mainstream.

LIMITED ANIMATION. The term limited animatiori is at its most

basic definition a quantitative measure where cycles of animation are
utilized or backgrounds are reduced to save time and often money.
It uses fewer images per increment and includes extensive camera
movement instead of character or background movement. The cam-
era may be used to pan over the background to create a sense of
movement. The narrative is frequently driven by sound and narration
or dialogue, though often with a lack of detailed lip-synching.
Although limited animation can save time and money, it also cre-
ates a particular stylized effect on the finished animation and first
became commonly used in the mainstream at United Productions of
America, whose modernist aesthetic lent itself to a more minimalist
approach. The technique was more frequently used as a labor- and
time-saving device in television animation, particularly by Hanna-
Barbera. Despite the high quality of writing and dialogue in many
of Hanna-Barbera's series, it became heavily criticized as lacking
in visual quality in comparison to the theatrical cartoons of Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, or the Disney Studio. This
opinion became dominant and the term has virtually become synony-
mous with poor quality animation. However, in Japan there has been
less of a stigma attached to using limited animation and the stylized
anime has used the technique for many years, a good example of
which is Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
Limited animation has remained in use in television production
but recent examples such as The Simpsons or King of the Hill, like
Hanna-Barbera's series, include good writing and dialogue that en-
hance the overall quality of the programs.
 LOONEY TUNES 125

LION KING, THE. In the early 1990s, the Disney Studio enjoyed
a brief renaissance with its feature-length productions, following
the release of the very successful The Little Mermaid (1989) and
Beauty and the Beast (1991). This was followed by The Lion King
(1994), an anthropomorphized animal tale, a loose adaptation
of William Shakespeare's Hamlet with lion cub Simba trying to
avenge his father's death. The film was directed by Roger Allers
and Rob Minkoff. The Lion King broke the box-office record for the
highest grossing traditionally animated film. Despite this success, it
was also the subject of some criticism for its unacknowledged close
resemblance to Osamu Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion (1965). The
studio was said to have been unconvinced that the film would be a
success but it proved to be so successful that a spin-off television
series, Timon and Pumbaa (1995-1998), was launched featuring two
popular sidekicks from the film.
Unfortunately, the triumph of The Lion King also led to an increase
in the production of features at other studios trying to capitalize on
its success, which consequently led to increased budgets, costs, and
management interference. The level of success could not be repeated
in later features such as Pocahontas (1995) and Hercules (1997), and
marked a decline in the studio's feature production.

LITTLE NEMO. Winsor McCay's first animated film based on his

comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland," which first appeared in
the New York Herald in 1905 and was released in 1911. Inspired by
flip books, McCay worked for four years on Nemo before its debut in
1911 and it was first unveiled in a vaudeville act. The film consisted
of 4,000 hand-colored drawings and was shot in 35 mm frames.
There was no storyline to the film, just the characters who in speech
balloons said "watch us move" and the movements showed examples
of the common animation action "Squash and Stretch" (an example
of one of the Twelve Principles of Animation). The film tvas well
received and was shown in theaters.

LOONEY TUNES. Series of shorts produced by Warner Brothers

studio that echoed the trend of the late 1920s and early 1930s for
music-based series such as the Disney Studio's Silly Symphonies
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's later Happy Harmonies.
126 LORD OF THE RINGS, THE

The Looney Tunes series was the first series of shorts created by
duo Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising from their Harman-Ising ani-
mation studio, produced by Leon Schlesinger to take advantage of
Schlesinger's access to Warner's vast music library. The first short
in the series was Sirzkin' in the Bathtub, which was released in May
1930. The title is a play on a popular song title that featured in the
introduction of the Warner Brothers' feature The Show of Shows.
The first Looney Tunes featured the Bosko character starring in what
amounted to a musical interlude with a few gags included. The in-
spiration was said to have come from Mickey Mouse and Aesop's
Fables.
A second series was commissioned by Schlesinger in 1931, this
time called Merrie Melodies, and had more focus on the music it
used, rather than just using it in the background. 'Ihe series was again
run by Harman and Ising, but the pair gradually divided the workload
among their respective teams. Harman and lsing left the studio in
1933, taking Bosko with them, but Schlesinger gave the series to Friz
Freleng and his new animators to take over.
By the early 1940s, branded cartoons Merrie Melodies and Looney
Tunes were produced simultaneously with little distinction between
the two. Looney Tunes was later to be produced in full color and they
used different theme tunes but they seemed to share characters.
Most of the best-known character "stars" of the Warner Bros.
studio appeared in the series, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and
Daffy Duck, though the Looney Tunes brand was the strongest and
is the most frequently referred to. Even in later films, the character
groupings were known as the Looney Tunes characters, such as
Space Jam ( 1996) or Looney Tunes: Back in Actiorz (2003).

LORD OF THE RINGS, THE. Adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's fan-

tasy epic, featuring hobbits and wizards who inhabit Middle Earth
and the quest for a magical ring, released in 1978 and directed by
Ralph Bakshi. After the success of Fritz the Cat, Bakshi was able
to secure funding (in part by United Artists) to produce an animated
version of the trilogy. Despite planning the three films, however, he
was only able to make the first one, due to the loss of funding after
mixed reviews, despite being financially successful. The first install-
ment was intended to be subtitled as part one, but this was removed
 LYE. L E N 127

from publicity material and as a result many Tolkien fans felt that
Bakshi had left out vital elements from the original text. He was also
criticized for his extensive use of the rotoscope, which produced a
visual quality different from his previous work.

LYE, LEN (1901-1980). Len Lye was born in Christchurch, New Zea-
land, and from an early age had an interest in drawing and movement.
He was interested in representing kinetic energy and was inspi red by
aboriginal art. Lye moved to London, Great Britain, in 1926 and
joined a modernist group of artists, the "Seven and Five Society."
He exhibited work with the group but became more interested in
animation than static art. His first film, Tusalava ( 1929), was created
over a number of years, involving over 4,000 drawings. The film
featured abstract images and shapes but was not well received and
he found it difficult to support his work.
Lye made a puppet film, Experimental Alzimation (1933), with
sponsorship from an exhibitor, and then joined the General Post
Office (GPO) film unit where he was able to experiment with
techniques while creating his films. He began to experiment with
cameraless animation techniques, painting directly on the film. His
first film with the GPO was A Colour Box (1935) and still managed
to include his abstract shapes as long as the sponsor's message was
within the film. The film was successful and Lye began to achieve
some acclaim.
He began to experiment with technique, using even more silhou-
ette or stencil patterns but always maintained a concrete symbol in
the films. He produced the puppet film Kaleidoscope (1936) with
Humphrey Jennings, and in Trade Tattoo (1937) he incorporated
documentary footage with his abstract animation. His last film with
the GPO was N or N. W. (1937), which took a slightly more conven-
tional approach. After this, Lye made some advertising films and
then during the war worked on propaganda films.
Lye moved to New York in 1944 and codirected a series of four
educational films with I. A. Richards. At this point, he began ex-
perimenting with kinetic sculptures as well as continuing with his
abstract films. He moved back to New Zealand in 1968, by which
time his reputation as an important nonrepresentational artist had
been founded.
MACHZNZMA. Machirzima is the use of computer game engines to cre-
ate animation, often subverting the original intentions of the graphics
or engine by creating a narrative where there was not one previously
or changing what had been there before. A conglomeration of fan
culture and Web animation culture, the games are re-edited and the
graphics are modified creating animation. The creators are essentially
hybrid authors with an interactive and creative approach to an exist-
ing game. This form of animation has become a growing phenom-
enon that has seen the creation of websites dedicated to showing the
films. A frequently used game is the very popular Halo video game,
which is a first-person shooter game where the player controls the
protagonist's actions, but there are numerous other characters to al-
low multiple players.
The best example of machirlima using Halo is the increasingly
popular series Red vs. Blue, which parodies the military nature of
the game in a sitcom-like series. The series was created in 2003
and episodes are available to buy on DVD. The interactive soft-
ware Second Life is also increasingly being used for machirzirna.
The process has been described as "filmmaking within a real time
3D [three-dimensional] virtual environment, often using 3D video
game technologies." It is a convergence of filmmaking, animation,
and game development and can be controlled by script, humans,
or computer artificial intelligence. The users describe it as a cost-
effective and efficient way to make films. In March 2002, an Academy
of Machinima Arts and Sciences was established in New York to offer
support and credibility to members of the machirlima community.

MANGA. The term manga has two distinct meanings. The word comes
from the Japanese word for comic or print cartoons. These cartoons
are often serialized and occasionally printed in black and white. The
popular television series Astro Boy began as a manga series before it
was an animated cartoon. The industry has increased over the years
and has become successful with Western audiences, though often the
original publications have to be adapted to suit this audience as the
Japanese books are printed to be read from the right to left and back
to the front, rather than front to back and left to right as in the West.
 MCCAY, WINSOR 129

This increase in exposure in the West led to the term manga being
used for any Japanese animation in place of anime.
Since 1994, Manga has also been the name of a publishing com-
pany that distributes anime in Japan and worldwide. Based in To-
kyo, the company also has offices in Los Angeles and London, and it
publishes films for the theatrical and home DVD market. It has dis-
tributed some critically acclaimed and award-winning anime, includ-
ing Ghost in the Shell (1995). The company also hosts a website to
market the films and is a division of Starz Media, which is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Group.

MCCAY, WINSOR (?-1934). His date of birth is listed in various

sources as either 1867 or 1871. Winsor McCay began his career as
a newspaper cartoonist, with his longest position at the New York
Herald (1904-191 I), and was known for the strip "Little Nemo in
Slumberland" (1905). He was inspired by flip books and the films of
J. Stuart Blackton (Blackton directed the live-action sequences for
McCay's first film).
McCay's first animated film was based on the "Little Nemo" car-
toons and was released in April 191 1. The film comprised 4,000 draw-
ings all hand-colored by McCay. The film was very popular and was
followed by The Story of a Mosquito in 1912. McCay's next film was
possibly his best known, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), and consisted
of 10,000 drawings on the one-reel film. The films were presented
by McCay in a similar style to the chalk talks used by Blackton and
b mile Cohi, but differed from them in featuring the actual animated
films within the larger film and McCay interacted with the film as part
of the routine. Gertie was shown as part of a tour where McCay would
bet the viewers that he could make a dinosaur come alive.
McCay also made (arguably) the first animated documentary, The
Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), describing the events of the ill-fated
liner. After leaving the Herald, he worked for William Randolph
Hearst, who largely controlled his tours and output, and McCay con-
tinued to produce cartoon strips for Hearst's papers. He moved away
from animation in 1920 and in 1924 left Hearst to return to what was
now the Herald Tribune. He tried to revive "Little Nemo" but that
only lasted two years. He spent the remainder of his life drawing
editorial cartoons at the American, a Hearst paper.
130 MCLAREN, NORMAN

MCLAREN, NORMAN (1914-1987). Born in Stirling, Scotland,

Norman McLaren has been described as one of the most significant
abstract filmmakers in Great Britain, in the interwar period. He
is also well known for work he produced in Canada later in his life.
McLaren attended Glasgow School of Art (1932), where he pro-
duced his first film, a stylized documentary on dance, Seven Till Five
(1933), which showed his influence by Sergei Eisenstein; in his next
film, Camera Makes Whoopee (1935), he began to experiment fur-
ther with techniques including pixilation and abstract animation.
McLaren won Best Film at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival in
1935 for Colour Cocktail and attracted interest by Scottish filmmaker
John Grierson, who invited him to work with the General Post Office
(GPO) Film unit for whom he began to produce films, including Love
on the Wing (1938), an animation promoting the postal service.
McLaren moved to the United States in 1939 and in 1941 moved
to Canada, where he was invited again by Grierson to join the Na-
tional Film Board (NFB). where he spent most of his career. There,
McLaren put together the board's first animation team. His first films
for the board were to support the war effort, but he was given enough
freedom to be able to make his experimental films as well. He was
interested in exploring new techniques in creating animation and also
experimented with sound and dance.
McLaren made 59 films over his career; among the most notable
were Boogie Doodle (1 940), Begone Dull Care (1949), Neighbours
(1952), Blinkity Blarzk (1954), and A Chairy Tale (1957). His last
film was Narcissus/Narcisse in 1983.
Many of his techniques emphasized synchronization of sound, and
he was interested in the relationship between sound and image. He
used cameraless animation, where he painted directly onto the film
surface or scratched out the images.
McLaren worked closely on several films with Evelyn Lambart,
who was said to share his artistic sensibilities. He is often quoted for
his fairly profound view on animation, which has become something
of a definition: "Animation is not the art of drawings-that-move,but
rather the art of movements-that-are-drawn" (Solomon 1987, 11).
McLaren is suggesting that what happens between the frames was
more important than what happened on each frame.

MELIES, GEORGE (1861-1938). Born in Paris, Georges M6liBs be-

gan his career as an illusionist. He bought the Robert Houdin Theatre
 METRO-COLDWYN-MAYER 131

and became an artist, an impresario of magic and variety shows. As

a prospective client of the Lumikre brothers, MCliks was invited to a
screening at the Salon des Indiens on 28 December 1895, after which
he was inspired to go into directing and producing film.
MCliks was a leader in his field for 10 years, as the first filmmaker
to use cinema as a tool for imagination; he made 520 films. He often
kept the movie camera stationary and suggested that the action oc-
curred like an "animated puppet theater." MCliks is included here for
his role in the origins of cinema and the related techniques in anima-
tion, particularly his innovative use of special effects and time-lapse
dissolves. MCliks also used hand-painted color. His most famous film
was A Trip to the Moon (1902), which uses some animated tech-
niques with the live action to create a dreamlike moonscape. By the
mid-1900s, MClib' techniques were no longer viable as they required
painstaking attention to detail, and exhibitors required quicker turn-
around due to the increasing demand for films. See also FRANCE.

MESSMER, OTTO (1892-1983). Born in New Jersey, Otto Messmer

was interested in drawing and film early on. He was taught the ba-
sics by Hy Mayer, a cartoonist animator, in 1914 and they began to
create advertising films together. In 1915, Messmer was hired by
Pat Sullivan, with whom he collaborated for 20 years. He produced
Twenty Thousand Laughs under the Sea (1917), a short inspired by
the release of Jules Verne's story.
In 1919, Messmer created the character Felix the Cat for Para-
mount Pictures' newsreel Screen Magazine. The films were well re-
ceived and the rights were patented by Paramount, though these rights
were later acquired by Sullivan and the films were instead distributed
by Margaret Winkler. Messmer directed the Felix cartoons, though
Sullivan's name appeared on them, but he also drew the "Felix" car-
toon strip. After Sullivan died in 1933, Messmer stopped producing
Felix due to rights issues and retired from filmmaking to concentrate
on comics and illustrations. Messmer briefly worked for Famous
Studios in the 1940s but never made any more animated films. He
was recognized for his pioneering work with Felix in 1967.

METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER (MGM). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayerhas

been described as the "Tiffany's of motion picture studios" due to the
quality of its output, particularly in the Golden Age of the studio sys-
tem. Although the studio had no cartoon releases in the silent era,
132 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER

it became interested in the medium following the success of Walt

Disney. It was rumored that MGM wanted to try to hire Disney in
1929 but did not want to negotiate with his distributor, Pat Powers.
However, it later secured a deal with Ub Iwerks to distribute a series
of Flip the Frog cartoons; their relationship lasted four years.
In 1934, MGM signed with Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising. The
pair had been involved in a dispute with Leon Schlesinger at War-
ner Brothers the year before and as a result MGM was able to hire
other Warner Bros. staff who had been sympathetic to the duo. They
produced 8 to 12 shorts a year in their Happy Harmorzies series, an
attempt to rival Disney's Silly Symphonies. Harman-Ising produced
high-quality personality animation but the costs overran and in 1937
MGM decided to open its own animation studio to reduce the cost of
contractors. Fred Quimby was installed as the head of the studio and
hired many of Harman-Ising's staff, including William Hanna as a
director. MGM also hired several former Terrytoons employees from
New York, including Joe Barbera, and also in 1937 Friz Freleng.
The studio attempted to make a series, The Captairz and the Kids,
based on a comic; however, the series failed and the budgets were too
high with the top staff. Harman and Ising were brought back in for a
few years to save the department but Freleng left and returned to War-
ner Brothers. In 1939, the studio produced its first Burrley Bear car-
toon, which was successful, as was Harman's film Peace or1 Earth.
Ising's unit produced Puss Gets the Boot in 1940, which was the
first Tom and Jerry cartoon, created by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera,
who would become the studio's most successful pair, and Torn and
Jerry became the leading stars. Bill and Joe won an Academy Award
for the cat-and-mouse duo in 1943 for Yarzkee Doodle Mouse, which
was the first of seven. Harman and Ising left the studio in the early
1940s and Tex Avery was brought in. l h e work blossomed under his
direction and he introduced some new characters.
In 1944, Gene Kelly, who was under contract with MGM, wanted to
feature an animated section in his film, but was turned down by his first
choice, the Disney Studio. Instead, he turned to the animation studio
within MGM and one of the most famous sequences, featuring Gene
dancing with Jerry Mouse, appeared in the musical Anchors Away.
Avery left the studio in 1950 for a break until returning in 1951.
In the 1950s, the characters Droopy, the wolf from Red Hot Riding
 MICKEY MOUSE 133

Hood, and Screwball Squirrel arrived. Changes in the industry saw

rising costs and the adoption of Cinemascope in 1954. The designs
had to be changed to fit the new format. In 1954, Avery left, this time
for good, and in 1955 Quimby retired. Hanna and Barbera were the
successors who continued to produce Tom and Jerry from 1955 to
1956. However, in 1956, MGM decided to close the animation divi-
sion and all of the staff were laid off, including Hanna and Barbera,
who went on to form their own studio in partnership.
In 1961 and 1962, MGM contracted Gene Deitch to produce new
Tom and Jerry films for theaters. In 1964, this task was passed to
Chuck Jones, who went on to produce a number of other films for
MGM with his own staff, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
(1967). Despite the lack of a dedicated animation studio, MGM con-
tinued to distribute animated films.

MICKEY MOUSE. Walt Disney's most enduring character and one of

the most famous cartoon characters in the world; Mickey Mouse is the
image of the Golden Age of animation and Disney's corporate image.
The character originated after Disney had a disagreement with Charles
Mintz over the distribution of another character. In an attempt to come
up with something new, Disney drew a mouse figure and it has been
suggested his wife named him Mickey. The character was then drawn
by Ub Iwerks, though he received little credit for the actual design.
Mickey's first appearance was in the film Plane Crazy (1928) with
Mickey as a pilot, which was supposed to capitalize on the Lindbergh
craze. It was Mickey's third appearance in Steamboat Willie (1928)
that made him a star, as he featured in the first sound-synchronized ani-
mated cartoon. It only took a few years for Mickey to become famous
internationally, and in 1930 he became the star of his own comic strip
by Floyd Gottfredson (it ran until 1975) as well as countless items of
merchandise, such as T-shirts, combs, watches, and dolls.
Despite his continuing success, Mickey only appeared in Disney's
films until 1953, after 121 films, with the exception of Mickey's
Christmas Carol in 1983. He was surrounded by sidekicks in his
films, such as Pluto the dog and Goofy, who would fulfill the com-
edy gag element of the cartoons, but eventually they became stars
in their own rights. Mickey was seen as "good" and it was up to his
sidekicks to play the naughty or mischievous role in the films. He is
1 34 MINNIE THE MOOCHER

accepted as a boylmouse with human qualities and realism. His suc-

cess brought in enough money for Disney to be able to experiment
with other projects such as Fantasia (1940), though Mickey starred
in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence in the elaborate film. Disney
was awarded a Special Academy Award in 1932 for his creation that
remains popular into the 21st century.

MINNIE THE MOOCHER. Directed by Dave Fleischer, Mirzrlie the

Moocher (1932) has been noted as a masterpiece of the Fleischer
studio. The film is based on the song of the same title by Cab Callo-
way, who appears in the opening scene. This was due to his contract
with Paramount Pictures and the Fleischers' good relationship with
the studio at the time. The film also features Betty Boop and Bimbo.
Koko the Clown makes an appearance from the inkwell as Betty
writes a note to her parents to tell them that she is leaving home. Her
dog, Bimbo, goes with her but as they approach the woods it gets
darker and more sinister. They become afraid of ghosts, who start
to appear, and they then encounter a walrus as Cab Calloway sings
and dances to "Minnie the Moocher." Calloway's performance was
rotoscoped for this section, as was Betty's and the dancing skeletons
that appear. The imagery in the film is very dark and includes a sec-
tion where ghost prisoners go to the electric chair and skulls move
around. In the final scenes, a ghost chases them out of the woods and
they run home to safety. It has been suggested that ihese visions are
allusions to sex and danger, and the dance is a dance of death.

MINTZ, CHARLES (1896-1940). Charles Mintz became involved in

the animation business through his wife, Margaret Winkler, who was
one of the key distributors of animation in the silent era, and of particu-
lar support to Pat Sullivan and the Fleischer brothers. As the business
grew, Charles became increasingly involved, eventually becoming her
successor. One popular story surrounding Mintz was his wresting the
control of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series from Walt Disney, who,
forced to find a new character, came up with Mickey Mouse.
By taking control of Oswald, Mintz was able to build a studio that
was staffed by some of the best animators of the time. In the 1920s,
Mintz continued to distribute the Krazy Kat series of shorts, which
came under the banner of Charles Mintz's Screen Gems. He moved
 MODERNISM 135

the studio from New York to Los Angeles and was known for allow-
ing the animators to retain autonomy over their creations.
Mintz signed a deal with Columbia in 1930, with them eventually
taking over due to financial difficulties. He ran the studio with them
until 1939, when poor health forced him to step down. He died in
1940, shortly after Columbia took over full control.

MIYAZAKI, HAYAO (1941- ). Born in Tokyo, Japan, Hayao Mi-

yazaki is considered to be one of Japan's foremost animation direc-
tors. Miyazaki began his career as an assistant and later animator at
the studio Toei Doga, where he developed a keen drawing ability
and suggested many film ideas. In 1971, Miyazaki moved to A Pro,
where he began to work with Isao Takahato, a collaboration that
would endure throughout his career.
In 1973, Miyazaki moved to Nippon Animation, where he worked
on the World Masterpiece Theatre television series for five years. His
directorial debut was the television series Conan, the Boy in the Future
(1978). He moved to Tokyo to work at Movie Dhinsha in 1979, where
he directed his first feature, Lupin 111: The Castle of Cagliostro.
In 1984, Miyazaki was commissioned to adapt his manga Nausi-
cad of the Valley of the Wind for cinema. In order to undertake such
a project, he enlisted Takahato; the success of this relationship led to
their formation of Studio Ghibli, whose films have been critically
and commercially successful.
Miyazaki (and Studio Ghibli) is perhaps best known and interna-
tionally acclaimed for his feature-length animation, or anime, films
Princess Mononoke ( I 997) and Spirited Away (2001), the latter of
which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003.
He continues to draw manga and direct feature films. Other notable
films include Porco Rosso (1992), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and
Ponyo on a Cliff (2008).

MODERNISM. Art movement of the pre-World War I period, extend-

ing from the late 19th century into the early 20th, which began with
a rejection of traditional forms of art and architecture. The movement
emerged alongside industrialization, the rise of the scientific method,
and modern capitalism. Its proponents questioned traditional hier-
archies and the movement is particularly evident in the art of Pablo
136 MOTION CAPTURE

Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

and Mies van der Rohe. Design was more concerned with the function
of an object than the aesthetic, seen in the German Bauhaus designs.
Stylistically evidence of modernism is seen in the animation of post-
World War 11, typified in the United States by United Productions
of America (UPA). It included a rejection of Walt Disney's realist
style during the 1950s, and a desire to move beyond slapstick gags
and routines and "instead use the language of animation to convey
contemporary ideas and themes" (Amidi 2006). The animation was
influenced by modernist artists such as the cubists, surrealists, and
expressionists. The result was highly stylized and "designed" with
an often abstract approach, particularly in the background designs.
The advent, and increasing use of, television affected the scale and
scope of the output as well as the increasing use of animation in
advertisements.
Other U.S. studios that favored the modernist style are Columbia
and Screen Gems, late output from Warner Brothers, Academy
Pictures, Creative Arts Studio, Elektra Films, Fine Arts Films,
Hanna-Barbera, John Sutherland Productions, Playhouse Pictures,
Shamus Culhane Productions, Terrytoons after the CBS purchase,
and Walter Lantz, to name a few.

MOTION CAPTURE. Computer animation technique where sensors

are placed, typically, on a body to record the movement of the body
or object. It is perhaps closer in this respect to live action than anima-
tion though the recorded image can be manipulated as the recorded
movements are mapped onto a computer model frame, or skeleton.
The computer-driven system allows directors to rehearse and direct
movements of a three-dimensional (3D) cartoon character. It can
be used by puppeteers to manipulate "models" or actors connected to
the sensors for "lifelike" movement. The technology was originally
used by the military in the 1970s and began to be used in television
production from the 1990s, particularly in children's television.
Motion capture is also often used to record realistic movement for
video games. It was used very effectively in the special effects for
the live-action science fiction movie T2 and is used in the animated
television series Reboot for facial expressions. There are some limi-
tations in the technique, though technological advances are improv-
ing its applications. It is similar in some respects to the rotoscope.
 MUPPET SHOW, THE 137

MULTIPLANE CAMERA. Animation tool developed by Walt

Disney and first used in the introduction sequence of his film The
Old Mill (1937). The camera cost $70,000 dollars to make and was
mounted in a frame that measured 14 feet tall. A moveable camera
was mounted in a frame that allowed it to capture the image at the
bottom through a series of backgrounds, or planes, that achieved the
perception of depth in the film. Ub Iwerks had developed something
similar in the early 1930s that was horizontal and had a fixed camera,
but it had never been as successful in capturing intricate details. The
camera maintained sharp focus, and illumination could be controlled
on seven levels. The tool was used to great effect and was instrumen-
tal in the success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
(1937), the first feature-length animation in the United States. The
multiplane was patented in 1940 and the technique is still used in
contemporary animation.

MUPPET SHOW, THE. Series starring Jim Henson's puppets, the

Muppets, debuted in 1975. The series was created after Henson's
Muppets were successful on Sesame Street. He felt that the charac-
ters would appeal to a wider audience than the children that Sesame
Street was aimed at. He tried to sell the idea in the United States
for several years until finally receiving backing from English televi-
sion producer Lew Grade. As a result, the initial production began at
Grade's London-based ATV studios.
The main characters were Miss Piggy, a feisty starlet; Fozzie Bear,
an aspiring but terrible comedian; Animal, a wild drummer; the Great
Gonzo, of unknown species but all-around entertainer; and Scooter,
the assistant. The show was set in a theater with most of the action
happening backstage as host Kermit the Frog tried to organize a show
each week. The house band was led by Dr. Teeth and was accom-
panied on piano by Rolph, the dog. Each week a human guest star
would appear alongside the Muppets and perform in their show.
Stars lined up to be on the show and ranged from Gene Kelly to Steve
Martin. The sketches in the show were generally parodies of popular
film and television, including Pigs in Space as a Star Trek spoof and
Veterinarians Hospital for the long-running soap opera Gerzeral Hospi-
tal. The success of the show led to the creation of a succession of Mup-
pet movies such as The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper
( 1 98 1), Muppets Take Manhattarz ( 1984), and The M ~ p p e tChristnzas
 Carol (1992).The series ran from 1976 until 1981 with 120 episodes.
The series was revived as The Muppets Tonight in 1996 and was hosted
by the character Clifford. This series ran until 1998.

MUSIC. Animation and music have gone together since the invention
of the form, when music accompanied the "lightning sketch" per-
formances of the first animators. The music was always used to ac-
company and lead the narrative, and with Walt Disney's Steamboat
Willie in 1928 the sound era had begun. The next two decades saw
several music-themed cartoon series, including Disney's Silly Sym-
phoriies and Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes
series. These shorts would typically be named for the song that they
accompanied and, in the case of Warner Bros., was a good use of the
back catalogue of the studio; the studio also produced some of the
major singing stars of the time. Music became a driving part of fea-
tures, and like live action, the musical genre emerged and increased
in popularity and production.
Although music was often used to accompany the animation, ex-
perimental artists such as Oskar Fischinger, Hans Richter, and Nor-
man McLaren were interested in the relationship between sounds
and movements, essentially creating animation "in time" to their
chosen music. A new practice of "visual music" emerged and many
animators over the years would experiment with sound. This practice
developed with new technology, as video and later computers would
make it easier for animators to record the images and sound together.
John Whitney developed computer technology to aid his experiments
in creating and composing such work as Catalog (1961). His work
was very influential to the development of animation technology.
In the late 1930s, Walt Disney took a different approach to music
in his films and set about making Fantasia (1940), which was divided
into segments, each using a different piece of classical music as its
inspiration and accompaniment (Fischinger was initially hired to work
on the project but later left). In this instance, the relationship of the
music and image was as important to Disney as to the experimental
filmmakers, but was essentially the first time to be done on such a scale
in the mainstream. Unfortunately, the film was not a box-office suc-
cess, though in later years, the film was re-released to a more receptive
audience. This was partly due to the success of the music-based Yellow
Submarine (1968), which used the music of the Beatles as its focus.
 MUSIC TELEVISION 139

In the 1980s, a new relationship between music and animation

emerged with the launch of the television network Music Television
(MTV). MTV initially launched in the United States but soon had
international variations and supported the development and broadcast
of music videos, many of which were animated. It also commissioned
animated advertisements and idents as well as supporting new ani-
mated television series. A new generation of contemporary animators
began their careers in music videos, just as their predecessors had
done with advertising.

MUSIC TELEVISION (MTV). Music Television or MTV began in

1981 in the United States as a cable channel dedicated to playing mu-
sic videos. The channel is worthy of mention here with respect to the
animation shown and the animated music videos that have frequented
the channel over the years. The success of the channel materialized
very quickly and it was soon an important part of the popular music
industry and youth culture. The station commissioned a variety of
animators to create idents, shorts that would reinforce the corporate
image. Among these were a series by Bill Plympton that provided the
animator with a showcase for his work. Animation continued to have
a home on the network and from 1993 to 1997 it was home to Mike
Judge's Beavis and Butthead series, which combined animation and
music video. The success of this series led to Judge's long-running
animated sitcom King of the Hill (1997- ) and the Beavis and Butt-
head spin-off Daria, which also appeared on MTV.
In 1995, the channel broadcast a series of short films, including
Aeon Flux, as part of its animation showcase "Liquid TV." From
1998 to 2002, the clay animation series Celebrity Deathmatch aired
in its late-night lineup, a parody of pro wrestling and celebrity cul-
ture. The channel broadcast Ren and Stimpy from 1995 to 1998
(2002 in Great Britain) in reruns. As well as providing an alterna-
tive to network television for animation, the channel has provided
a platform for animated music videos from A-ha's Take on Me and
Dire Strait's Money for Nothing to the Aardman-produced Sledge-
hammer video for singer Peter Gabriel. Since the early 2000s, there
has been a resurgence in animators making music videos; despite
fewer music videos being shown in favor of reality TV programming,
particularly in the late 1990s, the channel provides a place for the
medium to flourish.
MUSICAL. Although animation and music have a long relationship,
in terms of the genre "musical," it could be argued that one of the
first musicals in the modern sense of songs driving the narrative and
revealing plot was the Fleischer brothers' version of the Snow White
fairy tale starring Betty Boop. In Snow White (1933), Betty takes
on the titular role, with a major part of the action taking place in the
musical number sung by a rotoscoped Cab Calloway. The Disney
Studio developed this further with its version, Sttow White and the
Seven Dwarves (1937), which was one of the first feature-length
animated films, as well as being a musical. This would be a major
element of Disney's features over the next few decades. The studio
would later alter its presentation of musicals by producing the mixed
live-action and animation films such as the popular and multiple
Academy Award-winning Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and
Broomsticks (1971).The revival of Disney features in the early 1990s
saw the return of the song-led narrative and a new trend of major stars
of the music world contributing songs to and in promotion of the films
such as Beaut.y and the Beast ( 1991) and The Lion King ( 1994).
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park: Bigger, Longer and
Uncut (1999), intended as a feature version of the anicom television
series, was generically a musical, as musical numbers drove the nar-
rative and revealed the plot, though it was not explicitly marketed as
a musical. See also FANTASIA.

MUTT AND JEFF. Comic strip created by Bud Fisher that first ap-
peared in the Sarz Francisco Chronicle in 1907 and was believed to
be one of the first daily comic strips. It was produced as an animated
cartoon series in 1916 by Charles Bowers, though Bowers was
kicked off the project in 1919 (he would later return as an independent
contractor). Raoul BarrC initially worked with Bowers on the series.
The first two episodes were drawn by Bud Fisher, J e f s Toothache
and The Submarine. The films were snappy and entertaining and re-
flected the other comedies of BarrC and his team, in particular Soda
Jerks (1920). The characters were Augustus J. Mutt, who was tall
and lanky, and his friend Edgar Horace Jeff, who was short. They
were an easygoing pair who enjoyed gambling, particularly horse
racing, and drinking. They were often unsuccessful in their pursuits
but were quite jovial. The production of the series ended in 1927.
 NEIGHBOURS 141

NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA (NFB). Founded by the

documentary filmmaker John Grierson, who aimed to build and
train a Canadian Film Industry. The board was established in 1939,
and the start of World War I1 led to the production of patriotic films.
In 1940, the board signed a commercial distribution agreement with
Columbia Pictures for English-language films and with France-Film
for French-language versions.
The government of Canada merged the Canadian Government
Motion Picture Bureau with the NFB in 1941 and Norman McLaren
was hired to organize an animation division. They began to distribute
the films to rural areas, factories, and unions, and they opened offices
in New York, Chicago, and London; in 1943, the films became avail-
able in diplomatic posts. In 1944, McLaren and his team began Let's
All Sing Together and newsreels were produced.
As well as production and distribution, the NFB was an innovator
in technology and in 1947 invented the world's first RGB (red-green-
blue) additive light film printing machine. Over the next few years,
the divisions were reorganized, and in 1951 McLaren began work-
ing with a three-dimensional (3D) camera and produced Around Is
Around, Now Is the Time, and in 1952, Neighbours with the aid of
government grants. By 1955, films were being made for television
and they continued producing films in English and French.
The 25th anniversary in 1962 saw continuing work and develop-
ment of technology, and in 1977 it began to experiment with com-
puter animation in cooperation with the National Research Council.
The first Computer Animation Centre opened in 1981, and in 1989,
on their 50th anniversary, the NFB received an honorary Academy
Award for its contribution to film. The board has continued to
support and develop animation since then and still produces award-
winning films, including an Oscar in 1995 for Bob's Birthday by
Alison Snowden and David Fine.

NEZGHBOURS. Neighbours (1952) was directed by Norman McLaren

and produced while working at the National Film Board of Canada
(NFB). Using real actors in a real environment, McLaren uses pixi-
lation to create the animation, which has a mechanistic appearance
142 NETHERLANDS

and is accompanied by mechanical noises. The film features two

neighbors who, in the beginning of the film, respect and like each
other until the matter of property boundaries arises. A beautiful
flower grows in between the two gardens and after admiring it, each
man claims it as his own. They each attempt to shift the boundaries
to claim the flower but the situation escalates into increasing violence
and destruction.
The film is described by the NFB as "a parable about two people
who come to blows over the possession of a flower. A film without
words." The message is antiwar and refers to human greed and ego-
tism; the film won an Academy Award. The actors were required to
continually jump in the air so a frame of film could be exposed each
time. The film is very physical in that respect, and the background is
filmed on location with chairs and a scale fence that end up, like the
flower, being broken during the escalating fight.

NETHERLANDS. See WESTERN EUROPE.

NEW ZEALAND. See AUSTRALASIA.

NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE. Directed by Henry

Selick and written by Tim Burton with music by Danny Elfman,
The Nightmare before Christtnas was released in 1993. Burton's
story was based on a poem he had previously written and illustrated.
Animated using puppets in stop motion, the film features Jack Skel-
lington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. He discovers Christ-
mas Town but does not understand the different place. He decides to
try to spread Christmas joy to his world but his well-meaning mission
puts Santa Claus, or Sandy Klaws as Jack mistakes him, in jeopardy,
which results in a nightmare for children around the world. Jack has
to help rescue Christmas. He finds his way to the different world
through a tree in the woods that has doors on it, all leading to dif-
ferent holiday worlds, and ultimately saves the day and the holiday.
The film was rereleased in a three-dimensional (3D) version by the
Disney Studio in 2006.

NORSTEIN, YURI (1941- ). Russian animator Y uri Norstein origi-

nally trained in cabinet making and drafting before he joined So-
 OSHII, MAMORU 143

juzmultifilm at the age of 20 to work as an artist and art director.

Norstein worked on a variety of projects, including Who Has Said
Meow? (1962) and My Green Crocodile (1966). His directorial debut
was with 25th October, The First Day (1968), which was a comment
on the October Revolution. The film featured paintings by avant-
garde artists and was very successful.
Norstein went on to codirect The Battle of Kerzhents (1970) with
Ivan Ivanov-Vano, a colleague from the studio, and won the highest
recognition at the Zagreb Film Festival in 1972. He directed his first
solo film, The Fox and the Hare, in 1973, which followed the Soviet
requirement to be a children's film based on folklore but managed
to maintain a sense of originality within it. His next film, The Heron
and the Crane (1974), was also based on a popular tale but was not
made for children. In 1975, Norstein made The Hedgehog in the Fog,
which was said to have a "thin plot" but the creative visuals made up
for any lack of action.
In 1979, Norstein released Tale of Tales, which is considered
by many to be his masterpiece, as well as a masterpiece of Soviet
animation. The film lasts 27 minutes and is described as a mental
association of images, a mixture of fantasy and memory in various
sequences that have a dreamlike quality. Each sequence was created
as he went through the filmmaking process.
It has been suggested that Norstein produced his best work while
under the constraints of a company, but his artistic talents have rein-
forced his reputation for presenting Russian culture in a skilled and
creative way. He is also described as one of the "most accomplished
cutout animators" who even designed his own version of the multi-
plane camera to create his work. Norstein animates all of his own
work, often mixing live action and rear projection with animation.
See also SOVIET UNION.

OSCARS. See ACADEMY AWARDS.

OSHII, MAMORU (1951- ). Born in Tokyo, Japan, Mamoru Oshii

began his career in television animation before making his name with
144 OUTOF THE INKWELL

feature-length anime, his best known in the West being Ghost in

the Shell (1995). Oshii has a reputation for making darker films with
a specifically adult audience in mind than does his contemporary
Hayao Miyazaki, whose work has a shared audience of adults and
children. While Oshii does not have the same popularity as Miyazaki,
he is regarded as one of Japan's major animators. Thematically com-
plex, Oshii's films are often ambiguous in narrative or closure with
protagonists often facing internal dilemmas as in Ghost irz the Shell.
His work in television began on the long-running series Urusei
Yatsura in 1983, and he made his commercial and critical break-
through in 1984 with Urusei Yatsiira 2: Beautiful Dreamer, which-
like Miyazaki's Nausicaa, released in the same year-was based on
Japanese mythology and folklore.
Oshii's first major project was Angel's Egg (1985), which was de-
scribed as a variation of a Holy Grail-type quest, though it was not
commercially successful and remains obscure in Japan. Although he
had some success with eight other films in between, one of his most
important and acclaimed films is the feature-length Ghost in the Shell.
Oshii has also worked in live action and produced Avalon (2001),
a "Polish language blend of sepia-toned live-action and computer-
generated artifice" (Suchenski 2 W ) , which was shown at the Cannes
Film Festival in 2001. In 2004, Oshii released blnocerlce, which is a
partial sequel to Ghost in the Shell, but less interested in technology
than how it changes the human experience. Despite a long gap in pro-
duction between Ghost in the Shell in 1995 and Avulon in 2001, when
he concentrated on writing, Oshii has released a new film approxi-
mately every year since 2004, with Sllkai kurora (The Sky Crawlers)
released in 2008.

OUT OF THE INKWELL. Series of animated shorts by the Fleischer

brothers that ran as part of a regular theatrical "magazine" series from
1915 to the early 1920s in the silent era. The series starred Koko the
Clown, who was a character brought to life by Max Fleischer. The
films always started with Max in live action at his drawing board; as
he began to draw, Koko would emerge from the ink. He was always
trying to get out of the inkwell and into a real form but at the end of
each film he returns to the inkwell once more.
 PAL, GEORGE 145

Other studios were increasingly using cels as their production

technique, which would speed the process and reduce costs. The
Fleischers were also trying to mix mediums and techniques, includ-
ing one example using clay in Modeling (1921). The audience would
experience behind-the-scenes action in the studio and enjoy the slap-
stick antics of Koko, who goes between his animated background
and the live action of Max in the studio. This mixture of live action,
stop motion, and cel animation enabled the studio to advance the
characters beyond the traditional cartoon worlds.
Some of the best known of the series include Perpetual Motion
(1915 and 1920), Koko in 1999 (1924), and Koko's Earth Control
(1928). The narrative was fairly fixed and allowed experiments in
technique. The audience was familiar with Koko's perpetual struggle
and enjoyed seeing the variations of his escape attempts. The film's
self-reflexive nature was highly influential in animation. The films
were animated by and starred Max and were directed by Dave. They
were distributed by Margaret Winkler.

PAL, GEORGE (1908-1980). Born Gyorgy Pal Marczincsak in Hun-

gary, George Pal traveled the world and collaborated with many
well-known animators during his life, including Hans Richter,
Oskar Fischinger, and John Halas. Pal's career began as a scene
designer in Budapest, Hungary, at the Hunnia Studio, where he
worked alongside John Halas. Pal went on to join the Universum-
Film-Aktiengesellschaft Studios (UFA) in Berlin, where he made his
first puppet film. In 1934, he worked for the Philips Corporation in
Eindhoven, Netherlands, working in a studio creating the Philips
Broadcast (1938) series with puppets. The series consisted of at
least 10 Puppetoons between 1934 and 1939 and featured carved
wooden puppets that used Pal's own invention of the "replacement
technique," separate puppet parts for each motion rather than hinged
parts. His work was stylistically similar to live action and Pal was
known for technical ability and timing. He also made advertising
films for Great Britain.
146 PARAMOUNT CARTOON STUDIOS

In 1940, Pal moved to the United States, where he worked under

contract for Paramount to create an animated puppet series of Pup-
petoons, for which he is well known. He later went on to work in spe-
cial effects for live-action feature-length films, which over the years
won him five Academy Awards. He was involved in War of the
Worlds (directed by Byron Haskins, 1953) and The Time Machine.
Following this success, Pal went on to direct and more often produce
features, including Doc Savage: The Matz of Bronze (directed by
Michael Anderson, 1975).

PARAMOUNT CARTOON STUDIOS. Formed in 1956 out of the

dissolved Famous Studios, which had previously been Fleischer Stu-
dios before Paramount Pictures took over and got rid of the Fleischer
brothers. The staff and budgets were cut, which was evident in the
quality of the cartoons produced. In 1957, the Popeye series ended as
a theatrical subject and the entire post-1950s back catalogue was sold
to television. The catalogue was purchased by a publishing firm, the
Harvey Company, which acquired the rights to all of the characters
in perpetuity and turned them all into comic books.
Attempts at Paramount to create new characters failed, and re-
petitive stories about space travel were not successful. Seymour
Kneitel was in charge and was to supply packages of cartoons for
television, including Krazy Kats and new Popeye films. The work
was divided among studios in Los Angeles and New York and due
to budget constraints animation was reused, which reduced the
quality. The studio returned to producing work for theatrical release
but in 1964 Kneitel died and was replaced by Howard Post, who
wanted to increase the use of music. He was replaced in 1965 by
Shamus Culhane, who attempted to revitalize the studio. Producer
Steve Krantz wanted to produce a Spidermatt series for television
but the studio heads refused. Culhane left and Ralph Bakshi moved
from Terrytoons in May 1967, but in December of that year the
studio finally closed.

PARK, NICK (1958- ). Nicholas Winston Park, born in Preston,

England, made his first film at age 13; his animated short Archie's
Corzcrete Nighttnare (1975) appeared on the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC). Park studied communication arts at Sheffield
 PARKER, TREY, A N D STONE, M A T T 147

Polytechnic and then went on to the National Film and Television

school, where he began to make the short A Grand Day Out using
clay stop-motion techniques; this would be his first film featuring
Wallace and Gromit.
Park joined Aardman Animation studios in Bristol in 1985,
where he was able to finish his student film. There he worked on
the well-known Peter Gabriel music video Sledgehammer. He made
Creature Comforts as part of the studio's series for Channel 4. Park
won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award
and an Academy Award for A Grand Day Out (1989). This was fol-
lowed by The Wrong Trousers ( 1993) and A Close Shave ( 1 995).
His first feature-length film was Chicken Run (2000), which was
codirected with Peter Laird. Park supervised the Creature Comforts
series for television in 2003. His second theatrical feature film
starring Wallace and Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, was
released in October 2005 and won the Best Animated Feature Oscar
in March 2006. Park was awarded a CBE in 1997.

PARKER, TREY, AND STONE, MATT. Trey Parker (1969- ) and

Matt Stone (1971- ) are the creators and executive producers of the
award-winning television series South Park. The pair met while
studying at the University of Colorado. Their first film together was a
Christmas greeting they made at the university that featured the char-
acters who would later star in South Park. The card was circulated
and they were offered a TV series on the cable network Comedy
Central. South Park is their best-known project and focuses on four
irreverent fourth-grade schoolchildren in the quiet, dysfunctional
town of South Park, Colorado, using a technique of computer anima-
tion that looks like it has been cut out of paper. The pair also pro-
vides most of the voices for the main characters. The series debuted
in 1998 and in 1999 they produced a feature-length film version of
the series, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, that was produced
by Paramount Pictures. The film was critically acclaimed and led to
an Academy Award nomination and several awards. In 2001, they
created That's My Bush, a live-action parody sitcom.
Paramount again released their next animated feature, Team Amer-
ica, World Police (2004), this time animated using puppets. They
have also written, directed, and starred in the live-action feature-length
 comedies BASEkerball ( 1998) and Orgazmo ( 1997). South Park began
its 12th season in 2008.

PERSEPOLZS. Released in 2007, Persepolis is a feature-length

animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical comic
book about growing up in Iran; the title refers to the city of the same
name. Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the film
is mostly in black and white with a distinct graphic visual style that
emulates the original drawn comic. The plot follows a young girl
coming of age during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and struggling
to deal with the changes imposed on society. She rebels in a vari-
ety of ways and ends up having to leave the country in exile. The
film received international acclaim and was nominated for the Best
Animated Feature at the Academy Awards in 2008. It won the Jury
Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The dialogue is in French,
though in some regions has been dubbed into English.

PHILIPPINES. See ASIA.

PIXAR. American animation studio founded by Ed Catmull, Steve

Jobs, and John Lasseter in 1986, named for the computer system
used in creating the digital animation. When Lasseter left the Dis-
ney Studio to join George Lucas' Lucasfilm in 1984, he joined the
computer graphics division, which had been formed to create special
effects for Lucas' live-action films. This division was purchased by
Jobs for $10 million and established as an independent company. Ed
Catmull, who had been with Lucasfilm since 1979, was named as
cofounder and they employed 44 people.
Their first film, Luxo Jr., premiered at the computer graphics expo
Siggraph in 1987and was followed by Red's Dreanz in 1988, by which
time Luxo Jr. had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Animated Short. In 1989, Tilt Toy premiered at Siggraph and won
the Oscar. Following these successes, the company moved to bigger
premises and began to make commercials. In 1991, Pixar teamed
up with Disney to develop, produce, and distribute three feature-
length animated films.
Over the next four years, Pixar made 15 commercials, which won
numerous awards. In 1985, the company went public on the stock mar-
 PLYMPTON, BILL 149

ket, made 12 commercials, and released Toy Story, directed by John

Lasseter and was the first fully computer-generated imagery (CGI)
feature-length animated film, and the highest grossing film of 1995.
The film was hugely successful and in 1996 Lasseter was awarded a
Special Achievement Oscar for the film. The company expanded again
in 1997, now with 3,785 employees, and released Geri's Game, cvhich
won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1998. The com-
pany released their second feature, A Bug's Life, which was the high-
est grossing film in 1998. Toy Story 2 was released in 1999 and was
the first film ever created, mastered, and exhibited digitally and made
more money at the box office than the first installment of the film.
In 2000, the company moved premises again and won awards
for Toy Story 2. In 2003, Pixar released Finding Nenzo, which won
the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2004. This was followed in
2004 by The Incredibles, which was directed by Brad Bird and won
the Oscar in 2005. John Lasseter directed Cars in 2006. Brad Bird
directed the Oscar-winning feature Ratatouille in 2007.

PIXILATION. Animation technique that comes under the category

of three-dimensional (3D) animation, and though it is close to live
action in practice, it falls within the realm of animation. Where clay
and puppet animators move inanimate objects incrementally before
a camera and shoot frame by frame, with pixilation, the animator
shoots "live" objects, generally people, frame by frame, using the
people as stop-motion models. Some of the best examples of pixila-
tion can be found in the work of Norman McLaren in such films
as Two Bagatelles (1952), A Chairy Tale (1957), and perhaps most
famously, Neighbours (1952). The technique is not widely used in
commercial animation, though this is probably due to the difficulty
in directing such disciplined performances from live actors and the
highly stylized look of the film. Another good example of the tech-
nique is the British Bolex brothers' 1993 film The Secret Adventure
of Tom Thumb, which was produced as a feature-length film. Many
critics describe the finished films as having a sense of "the uncanny"
due to the odd, slightly unsettling style of movement it creates.

PLYMPTON, BILL (1946- ).An independent filmmaker born in Port-

land, Oregon, Plympton studied at Portland State University, where
150 POLAND

he joined the film society and attended festivals, becoming interested

in animation. He moved to New York in 1968 to attend New York
University and studied at the School of Visual Arts. Plympton started
his career as a newspaper cartoonist and illustrator for New York's
many publications, including "Plympton" for the Soho Weekly News,
a political cartoon strip that was syndicated by Universal Press into
over 20 papers in 1981.
In 1983, he was approached to animate the film Boomtown and
rediscovered his previous love of animation (he had submitted dracv-
ings to the Disney Studio at age 13 and though he was told he had
promise, he was too young). He demonstrated his energetic humor
and lively crayon-drawing style in Your Face (1986) and One of
Those Days (1987). His next film, Drawing Lessori #2, took a long
time to produce but in 1988 it was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Animated Short.
Plympton's popularity quickly increased as he attended festivals,
and his series of Microtoons appeared on Music Television (MTV).
He self-financed his first feature-length film, The Tune, which won
several awards on the festival circuit. He produced the live-action
comedy J. Lyle (1994) and though he continued to dabble in live
action, he released I Married a Strange Person in 1998, which was
entirely self-drawn and -financed. His 2001 film, Mutarzt Aliens, won
the Grand Prix at the Annecy Animation Festival and was released in
theaters in 2002. He followed these films with Hair High (2004) and
Guard Dog, which was nominated for an Oscar in January 2005. His
2008 feature Idiots arid Arzgels received critical acclaim and success
at several festivals.

POLAND. See EASTERN EUROPE.

POLAR EXPRESS, THE. Feature released in 2004, The Polar Ex-

press is an adaptation of books by Chris Van Allsburg that follows
a young boy as he travels to the North Pole to meet Santa. Directed
by Robert Zemeckis, who had previously found great success direct-
ing Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the film was shot in live action and
animated using a full three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated
imagery (CGI) technique known as "performance capture" where,
like the rotoscope, the live actor is used as a model to animate on
 POPEYE 151

top of. The technique attempts to capture a photorealistic rendering

of the actor-in this case, Hollywood star Tom Hanks, who played
multiple roles; however, this resulted in mixed reviews. The tech-
nique does not have the "painterly" aesthetic of rotoscoping or its
modern equivalent, "Rotoshopping," the proprietary technique used
by Bob Sabiston. The performance capture does not fully animate
the eyes, which results in a "dead" expression in the characters. This
is said to give them an unsettling, uncanny feel, which many viewers
were uncomfortable with. Though the film was fairly successful at
the box office, it is often cited in animation studies and criticism as
an example of unsuccessful CGI, despite being nominated for three
Academy Awards.

POLITICS. Politics can be seen in various forms in animation, from

political satire in the tradition of newspaper cartoon strips to com-
mentary of social and political situations in films, such as the films
of John and Faith Hubley. Political critique and subversion can
appear in seemingly innocent films such as Jiri Trnka's Ruka (The
Hand, 1965). Animation has also been used for political support,
such as the campaign film created for Franklin D. Roosevelt by John
Hubley and the founders of United Productions of America (UPA).
Political ideology appeared as propaganda in the films of the World
War I1 effort, such as the training films featuring Private Snafu,
which were designed to encourage the mood of servicemen. In Great
Britain during the 1980s, political satire was the main theme of the
puppet-animated series Spitting Image.

POPEYE. Character created by cartoonist Elzie Segar in 1929, he

was the basis for the animated series from the Fleischer studio. The
character was first introduced in a Betty Boop cartoon before appear-
ing in his film Popeye the Sailor in 1933. Popeye was an angular,
grouchy, selfish, and difficult-to-understand man. He was surrounded
by supporting characters, including Wimpy, Olive Oyl, and the bully
Bluto.
By 1935, Popeye was more popular than Mickey Mouse and his
character was refined by Jack Mercer. He was able to perform great
feats of strength with the aid of cans of spinach that would give him
Herculean strength and often come to the rescue of Olive, who would
152 PRAXINOSCOPE

typically be harassed by Bluto. The act of eating the spinach was

shown with a literal transformation of his muscles into some sort of
weapon such as a hammer with which he could "pound" his enemy.
In 1943, Famous Studios took over production of the series and
produced them in Technicolor. The series was retired as a theatrical
cartoon in 1957 and the back catalogue was sold to television, where
it would continue in rerun form.

PRAXINOSCOPE. Close in design to the zoetrope, the praxinoscope

consists of a cylinder that is lined inside with sequential images.
When the cylinder is spun, the observer looks in at mirrors that are
attached to the core of the machine and sees the illusion of moving
pictures. Such machines were considered as novelties or toys, and the
praxinoscope was patented by mile Reynaud in 1877. After some
success with the smaller praxinoscopes, Reynaud began to develop
the device into something for larger audiences. In 1889, he patented
a new version, the Thkiitre Optique, which used a magic lantern to
project the images from a larger praxinoscope. In this version, the
images were not on individual short strips but instead on long canvas
on a spool, as a precursor to film. The machine was cumbersome and
expensive and Reynaud had to act as the projectionist. He received a
contract for the machine in 1892 but did not develop it much beyond
this model. These machines were the forerunners and inspiration for
the animation that would develop later. See also FRANCE.

PRIESTLY, JOANNA. Portland, Oregon, based animator whose

interest in animation began as a child. Joanna Priestly studied paint-
ing and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design and the
University of California-Berkeley, where she received a bachelor of
arts degree with honors. She then went on to attend the California
Institute of the Arts where she received her master's degree in film
and video and was awarded the Louis B. Mayer Award.
Priestly has directed, animated, and produced 16 films through her
company, Priestly Motion Pictures, and won numerous awards and
fellowships. Her films include The Rubber Stamp Film ( 1983), Times
Square ( 1986) codirected with Jules Engel, After the Fall ( 1991),
Hand Held (19 9 3 , Utopia Parkwa)~(1997), and Surj+ke Dive (200 1 ),
and she has experimented with a variety of animation techniques. She
 has been the co-coordinator of the Northwest Film and Video Festi-
val, editor of The Animator, and founding president of Association
Internationale du Film d'Animation (ASIFA) Northwest (now
ASIFA Seattle), among others.
Priestly has run an apprenticeship program since 1986 and has
taught animation and cinema history at Pacific Northwest College of
Art and at Volda College in Norway; she is currently on the faculty
of the Art Institute of Portland. As well as making films, she attends
conferences to highlight the status of animation in academia, muse-
ums, galleries, and the media.

PRINCESS MONONOKE. Feature-length anime produced by Stu-

dio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan's fore-
most directors. Princess Mononoke (1997) was one of the studio's
first films to break into the international market, though they had
previously enjoyed great success in Japan.
The story follows Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Ainu
tribe, who has been cursed by a demonized boar god. He must jour-
ney to the west to find a cure from the Forest Spirit. Along the way,
Ashitaka encounters San, the Princess Mononoke, a young human
woman, fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is the
head of Tatara Ba (Iron Town). Ashitaka is forced to find a middle
ground between the two ambivalent forces.
Based on Japanese folklore, Princess Mononoke touches on subjects
such as war, ecology, morals, and principles. The film was critically and
commercially successful and is one of the studio's best-known films
in the West. Hand-drawn with the exception of some digitally created
special effects to enhance the backgrounds, the film is representative of
the quality and style of animation that Studio Ghibli produces.

PRIVATE SNAFU. Private Snafu was a character in a series of war-

time cartoons produced by Warner Brothers, as part of the Ameri-
can Army-Navy Screen Magazine, which was shown to U.S. service-
men during World War 11. The soldier was named Private Snafu (the
army's acronym for "Situation Normal, All Fucked Up") to appeal to
average soldiers but also to demonstrate how to act, or rather how not
to act, in particular situations. The storyboards for the series had to be
approved by the Pentagon before the cartoons could be produced.
154 PROPAGANDA

The production of the series was carried out by a variety of staff,

including at one time Frank Tashlin, Chuck Jones, Ted Geisel (Dr.
Seuss), and Phil Eastman. As the series was commissioned for the
armed forces, there was a certain amount of swearing and sexual
content allowed, a "barracks-room humor," to appeal to heterosexual
males. The three- to four-minute films would show what would hap-
pen if a regular recruit did not do his job properly. The series began
in 1943. See also POLITICS.

PROPAGANDA. Animation has been used for the purposes of propa-

ganda almost as long as the form has existed. In many cases, govern-
ment support for the development of the industry had implied regula-
tion on the content, which was not to be critical of the government.
This form of propaganda was frequently seen in communist countries
such as China or those in the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe, such
as Poland, North Korea, and Vietnam's state-sponsored Hanoi Film
Studio, with controlled output. Despite a lack of creative control for
the animators, it was often the case that the industry relied on the
state funding to survive and as such considered a trade-off; however,
it was possible for animators to subvert the meanings of their work
through the animated form. In some cases, the propaganda was seen
as a means of boosting patriotism and support against a specific en-
emy as seen in the animation of Japan and China in the 1930s, which
contained antienemy messages about each other. This was designed
to increase support from the public.
During World War 11, the Western Allied countries used propa-
ganda to gain support as well as to inform the public and troops of
appropriate wartime behavior, though these films were sponsored
by ministries of information and not referred to as propaganda as
such. Many well-known animators and studios were involved in this
work, in some cases simply to keep their studios running, as was the
case for Walt Disney. Several Warner Brothers animators such
as Frank Tashlin and Chuck Jones worked for the Army-Navy
Screen Magazirze, which was shown to U.S. servicemen. Their Pri-
vate Snafu series of shorts were part of a package of information
and entertainment for the troops. The United States also sponsored
anticommunist films to be produced in Thailand. In Great Britain,
 PUPPET 155

Halas and Batchelor produced films for the war effort in order to
keep their studio and to allow John Halas to remain in the country.
See also CENSORSHIP: POLITICS.

PUPPET. Three-dimensional (3D) animation that uses models of

figures, akin to theater string-manipulated marionettes. Although
marionette puppets are controlled by string, rod, or hand in a live per-
formance setting, puppets in animation are filmed using stop motion
to capture the images and often to disguise the form of manipulation
to only show the resulting movements.
The technique has a strong connection to the practice in Eastern
Europe, exemplified in the work of Jiri Trnka and his film Ruka
(The Hand, 1963), who is considered to be a master of the form
and had previously trained as a puppeteer in the theater. His studio
released many celebrated Czech films. It has been suggested that
these Eastern European puppet films have been able to "smuggle"
subversive content and ideology within them due to the perception
that the form is children's entertainment.
George Pal brought puppets to Hollywood from his native Hun-
gary with his Puppetoons series (1940-1949) that he created for
Paramount. Together with Ray Harryhausen, Pal became known for
creating effects for live-action films, particularly in creatures for the
science fiction and fantasy genres.
Puppet animation has also been widely used in children's televi-
sion, particularly in Great Britain, and can be seen in such series
as Camberwick Green, Smallfilms' Bagpuss and The Clangers,
and recently in Cosgrove Hall's Fifi and the Flowertots. Puppets in
Britain have also appeared in the adult television series such as the
political satire Spitting lnzage ( 1 984-1 996).
More recently, the use of puppets has been seen in the work of Jan
Svankmajer, the Quay brothers (particularly their Street of Croco-
diles, 1986), and Barry Purves' Rigoletto (1993). Henry Selick
brought puppets to mainstream Hollywood once more in The Night-
mare before Christmas (1998). All of these films feature puppets in
stop motion with the manipulation of the figures invisible. However,
there are also puppet animations that are filmed "performances"
such as Gerry Anderson's Stingray (1964) or Thunderbirds (1965).
156 PUPPETOONS

This method of filmed puppetry was recently used (and parodied) in

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's feature-length film Team America,
World Police (2004).
Another type of performance puppet animation is Jim Henson's
Muppets as seen in Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.These pup-
pets are manipulated by hand and filmed "live."

PUPPETOONS. Puppet animation series created by the Hungarian-

born animator George Pal, which began as a short series for the
Philips Company in the Netherlands from 1934 to 1939. In 1940,
Pal was contracted to create the series in the United States for
Paramount; the series lasted until 1949. The series featured carved
wooden puppets that used Pal's own invention of the "replacement
technique," using separate puppet parts for each motion rather than
hinged parts. The stories often featured Jasper, a young black boy
who was based on American black vaudeville stereotypes that were
heavily criticized after World War I1 for racism and "perpetuated the
misconception of Negro characteristics" (Cohen 1997,58).
Pal's Puppetoorzs were the first animated characters that Para-
mount licensed into a comic book range, which was very popular.
Unfortunately, the production costs rose dramatically from prewar to
postwar and Paramount refused to continue to fund the series, ending
it in 1949.

PURVES, BARRY. British animator Barry Purves has produced a wide

variety of animation for film, television, advertisements, and title
sequences, and he frequently conducts workshops. His career began
in stage management and occasionally acting, mostly in theaters in
Great Britain. His work largely consists of puppet animation, and
he has worked with a variety of companies throughout the world.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Purves ~vorkedfor Cosgrove
Hall as a director and animator on such television programs as Chorl-
ton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse, and The Wind in the Willows.
In 1989 he directed, wrote, and animated Next: The Infinite Variety
Show for Aardman Animation and Channel 4, which featured the
complete works of William Shakespeare in five minutes.
He has gone on to adapt other "classics" such as Rigoletto (1 993),
based on Verdi's opera, and perhaps his best-known film, Achilles
 QUAY BROTHERS 157

(1995), which has been described by the animator as "a passionate

look at the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus" and "a mas-
terpiece of eroticism" (Morris 2001) based on the Greek mythology.
He also re-created a Japanese Noh play with an 1 I-minute film,
Screen Play, from 1992.
In 1995, Purves worked in Hollywood on Tim Burton's Mars
Attacks! as animation director, though his puppets were reportedly
not used, after which he returned to Britain and Cosgrove Hall. He
has continued contributing material to the studio while working on
independent films such as Gilbert arzd Sullivatz: The Very Models
(1998) and Hamiltoti Mattress (2001), as well as advising on King
Kong (2003) and continuing to hold workshops for new animators
around the world.
Purves' puppets and sets are always very elaborate, and the pup-
pets themselves animated with a particular attention to detail, as
though he were directing live actors, which results in very dramatic
and moving films. He has won over 60 major awards and been nomi-
nated for Academy Awards and BAFTAs.

QUAY BROTHERS (1947- ). Steven and Timothy Quay, identical

twin brothers, were born near Philadelphia and attended the Phila-
delphia College of Art, where they studied illustration and graphics.
After winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, the brothers
moved to London. They studied at the School of Film and Television
and began to make short films. With fellow student Keith Griffiths,
they produced Nocturrza A r t i f i c i a l (1979) with support from the
British Film Institute Production Board.
At K'onick Studios, the brothers worked with Griffiths producing
and creating various animated films featuring puppets. They have
also produced work for television and advertisement but are best
known for their puppet films, which are surreal and unusual.
The brothers are influenced by Jan Svankmajer and create films
with a similar eerie sense of uncanny as the Czech animator's films,
even making a tributary film, Cabinet of Jan Svarzkmnjer, in 1984.
They often use found objects and dolls in their films and draw heavily
158 QUIMBY, FRED

from European literary and visual culture, notably Franz Kafka, as well
as Svankmajer. One of their best-known films, Street of Crocodiles
(1986), is based on the novel by Bruno Schulz and is set in a mythical
representation of prewar Poland. This was their first film to be shot
on 35 mm film and features an assortment of found objects to create a
mechanical, underground world.
The Quay brothers have continued to produce films in this style,
including The Conzb (1990) and De Artificiali Perspectiva (1991). In
1995 they produced their first live-action film, Institute Benjumerzta,
inspired by the Swiss novelist Robert Walser. Despite its live-action
status, the film follows similar themes as Street of Crocodiles and
has a similar aesthetic. They continued to work on live action with
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) and often collaborate with
others, but concentrate most on their animation.

QUIMBY, FRED (1886-1965). Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fred

Quimby is notable for his long-held position at Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer (MGM). After a successful career as a film salesman and
executive, MGM hired Quimby to install a new in-house animation
studio after it decided that Harman and Ising were becoming too
expensive to continue production with. Quimby was said to have had
no sense of humor and was disliked by many of his staff but he ran
the department until his retirement in 1955.
Quimby's first task was to organize the staff, which he did by hir-
ing much of the talent away from Harman-Ising and Terrytoons,
including Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and later Friz Freleng from
Warner Brothers. One of the first series under his responsibility
was Captain and the Kids, which was unsuccessful; the budgets were
high and the concepts poor. In order to rectify this, Quimby went
back to Harman-Ising and contracted them to produce films for him
again. In the meantime, Freleng returned to Warner Bros. and the
department tried to find new ideas for a series. Hanna and Barbera
began to work together and came up with a "cat and mouse series"
that Quimby was reported to have found rather unimpressive. How-
ever, he allowed the pair to proceed and Tom and Jerry became one
of the biggest series for the studio, with the biggest stars, and earned
them several Academy Awards, all of which Quimby shared with
his "producer" credit.
 REALISM 159

There were several changes in Quimby's department over the

years, including the arrival and later departure of Tex Avery and
his impact on the output of the studio. In 1955, Quimby retired, and
MGM closed the animation studio in 1957.

QUINN, JOANNA (1962- ). English animator born in Birmingham,

she started her career as an illustrator and graphic designer after
studying graphic design at Middlesex University. Her first film, Girls
Night Out, was shown in line-test form at her graduate degree show
in 1985 and was completed after she moved to Cardiff in 1986, where
she still lives and works. She was given funding from Channel 4
and the Welsh network S4C to complete Girls Night Out, which she
describes as "for women by a woman"; it was released in 1987 and
won several awards.
In 1987, Quinn founded her own production company, Beryl
Productions International, with producer Les Mills. The operation is
based in Cardiff but some of the work is carried out in Spain. Her
second film, Body Beautifill (1990), also featured the character Beryl,
who had appeared in her debut film. The character and the environ-
ment depicted in her films are a reflection of Wales and represent
female images and experiences.
Her films have strong narratives that are advanced by dialogue,
humor, and her representational drawing style. Her third film, Elles
(1992), features Toulouse Lautrec's models taking a break from
their posing. Much of her work has won awards internationally
and includes such films as Britanrlia (1 993), Famous Fred (1996),
and Wife of Bath (1999). As well as short films, Quinn also makes
advertisements, notable examples of which were for Charmin and
United Airlines. See also GREAT BRITAIN.

REALISM. It has been suggested that definitions of realism relating to

any image-making practice are open to interpretation (Wells 1998);
animation is no different. It is generally understood that filmmaking
practices provide authentic representations of reality, particularly
seen in such forms as nonfiction films, travelogues, documentary,
160 REBOOT

and neorealist films. Although animation does not share the same
methods and approaches of the live-action film (though this is
sometimes the case), it can prioritize its capacity to resist "realism"
as a mode of representation and uses various techniques to create
numerous styles that are "about realism" (Wells 1998). Animation
often aspires to the creation of realistic image systems that echo the
"realism" of live action; this is termed "hyperrealism." This was
typified by the Disney Studio through conventions of the physical
laws of the real world, source, construction of body movement, and
behaviors.
As computer-generated imagery (CGI) techniques have im-
proved, studios have been attempting to create CGI "actors" as real,
examples of which are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
and The Polar Express (2004). However, these films failed to an
extent as the realism was incomplete and instead instilled a sense of
the uncanny in the characters. These films strive for photorealism and
demonstrate what the computer is capable of, but the characters lack
emotion and thus the realism is not there.

REBOOT. Reboot (1993- ) was the first fully animated computer-

generated television animation and was produced by British anima-
tors Ian Pearson, Gavin Blair, and Phil Mitchell, who set up their
studio in Canada. The series features the characters of Bob, Enzo,
and their friend Dot Matrix in the city of Main Frame. The world
is the interior of a computer system and sees the friends battle with
"viruses" Megabyte and Hexadecimal.
The original concept was created in the late 1980s, inspired by the
movie Tron. The characters were designed to reflect the technology
and inside of the computer. The season was critically acclaimed and
the first season ran for 16 episodes, which included 320 minutes of
computer-generated imagery, whereas Toy Story (1 995) had 80
minutes. Two episodes were created every six weeks. In 1994, the
American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network wanted the
character Dot's sexy figure toned down and in 1997 the characters
were remodeled to be more "lifelike." Three seasons were produced,
after which two movies were made and were broadcast as a fourth
season. The series was revived in 2007 in a new film trilogy.
 RED VS. BLUE 161

RED HOT RIDING HOOD. Directed by Tex Avery and animated by

Preston Blair for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios, this 1 943
film is part of a collection of six works featuring the "voluptuous"
Red, who is clearly aware of her sexuality and who in this instance
performs a sexy dance as a nightclub singer in front of a lascivious
wolf. The story begins with the traditional story of Little Red Riding
Hood and the narrator is telling the story; however, the wolf breaks
the convention and complains about the "boring" old story. The
action is then transposed to Hollywood where Red is a nightclub
singer, Wolf a very excited patron, and Grandma appears as a sexu-
ally voracious society dame. After watching Red, the wolf takes a
cab to Grandma's house where she turns the tables by pursuing him
and wanting to marry him. Unable to cope with her advances, the
wolf shoots himself in the head and his spirit ends up whistling at
Red instead.
The film was fairly controversial in its depiction of sex, with the
wolf getting very excited by Red's performance as his eyes popped
out of his head and repeatedly banged on the table of the club. There
were also issues regarding the grandmother's lust for the wolf and
her desire to marry him, as there were suggestions of bestiality; in the
original ending, they married and had children, with a scene of them
all in the theater box watching Red. The gags are in the reversal of
the traditional roles. However, the Production Code Administration
(PCA; the body responsible for censorship) made them change the
ending to the wolf shooting himself. The film is often cited as one of
Avery's best and the character of Red was said to have inspired the
design of Jessica Rabbit in Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger
Rabbit ( 1988).

RED VS. BLUE. Red vs. Blue is a Web animation series created using
machinima. The series uses the video game Halo as the basis for a
comedy series that spoofs the science fiction adventure game. The
series is produced by Rooster Teeth Productions and has proved so
successful since its launch in 2003 that it has been distributed on
DVD as RVB or Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles.
The original series was intended to be short but was expanded due
to overwhelming popularity. The series' creators-Burnie Burns,
162 REINICER. LOTTE

Matt Hullum, and Joel Heyman-originally met while studying at

the University of Texas, Austin. Their first project together was the
film The Schedule, though with limited success, and Hullum and
Heyman then moved to Los Angeles. Burns met Gustavo Sorok and
Geoff Fink and together they ventured into the Internet by creating
drunkengamers.com, featuring films of games being played while
they provided amusing commentary. This provided the basis for Red
vs. Blue, which they were inspired to create after they were contacted
by Computer Gaming World Magazine for permission to use clips of
their "work" on a DVD. At this point, Hullum and Heyman became
involved and they all worked together to produce the series.
The series features red and blue teams of soldiers and their at-
tempts to capture the other team's flag but are reluctant to fight (op-
posite to the purpose of the original video game). There is a variety
of characters in the series and many are voiced by the creators. The
scripts and outlines are generally prepared in advance; within the first
day of the first post, they had 20,000 downloads. The group cites in-
fluences from other parody television shows such as Mystery Scierzce
Theatre 3000 and the Web animation Homestar Runner.
The Halo video game creators are said to enjoy the series, which
released its 100th episode in June 2007 and spawned a spin-off in
2008.

REINIGER, LOTTE (1899-1981). German animator Lotte Reiniger

began working in film at an early age, after being inspired at a lecture
by actor and champion of German cinema Paul Wegener. She joined
an acting school attached to his theater and drew attention to herself
from the cast by creating silhouettes of them in their roles. They were
well received and a book of the images was published in 1917. Her
professor, Max Reinhardt, liked the cutouts and allowed Reiniger to
go on stage, even though students were not normally permitted to do
so, and she eventually met her hero Wegener. He was also impressed
by Reiniger's cutouts and asked her to create extra for his films. She
created the captions for his 1918 film Der Rartetlfariger von Hamelirz
(The Pied Piper of Hamelirz).
In the summer of 1919, Reiniger was introduced to a group of
young men from an experimental animation studio; among them
were Carl Koch and Berthold Bartosch. Dr. Hans Curlis formed the
 REN AND STlMPY 1 63

Institute for Cultural Discovery with them and encouraged Reiniger

to make her first film, Das Orriament des Verliebteri Herzerzs (The
Ornament of the Enamored Heart), in 1919.
Reiniger was invited to make a feature-length film by Louis Ha-
gen, a banker from Berlin, and so she set about making the Die Ce-
schichte des Prinzerz Achrned (The Adventures of Prince Achmed,
1926). She was aided by Carl Koch, whom she had married, and their
friend Bartosch. Reiniger had seen the films of Walther Ruttman in
Berlin and asked him to collaborate on the project. Though he was
said to be unhappy with the length of time it took, he created the
backgrounds for Reiniger's animation. The film was released in 1926
and is one of the world's first feature-length animations, a credit usu-
ally given to Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,
even though Prince Achmed was 11 years earlier.
Following the success of Prince Achmed, Reiniger and her hus-
band worked all over Europe, including Germany, Italy, and Great
Britain, where they were invited to contribute films to the General
Post Office (GPO) film unit, as Halas and Batchelor and Len Lye
had also done. The couple made 26 films for the unit before World
War 11, including Papagerzo, based on Mozart's Magic Flute. When
the war broke out, Reiniger was in Italy so she returned to Germany
with her husband.
In 1948, Reiniger returned to Great Britain and in the 1950s
opened Primrose Productions, where she made 15 films. After the
death of her husband, she continued to work and moved to Canada in
1976, where she joined the National Film Board (NFB) and made
Aucassin et Nicolette. As well as filmmaking for the NFB, she gave
seminars. Reiniger died in Dettenhausen, Germany, in 1981. She was
a highly praised and inspirational animator and was considered to be
very influential to women animators.

REN AND STZMPY. Television series The Ren and Stimpy Show was
created by John Kricfalusi in 1988 and sold to Nickelodeon for
broadcast. The series stars a bad-tempered Chihuahua dog named
Ren and his roommate, Stimpy the cat. The style, and occasionally
the content of the show, is reminiscent of classic 1950s cartoons by
animator Bob Clampett, whom Kricfalusi cites as an influence. The
era was often spoofed in the series, which was set up like a domestic
164 REYNAUD, (MILE

sitcom and included advertisements and television shows within

the episodes in the 1950s style. The episodes were often violent, par-
ticularly in Ren's treatment of Stimpy, but the over-the-top style was
also similar to that of Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes or Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer's classic Tom and Jerry.
The show, produced by Kricfalusi's company Spumco, aired from
1991 until 1992 when Kricfalusi was fired. He was accused of push-
ing boundaries on the children's network with extreme violence and
gross-out body humor. He constantly battled with the network over
its demands to alter content and in the end it was too much for them.
The series remained on the network, produced by Games Animation
from 1993-1996; however, the quality was not the same and the
series was not as successful. In 2003, Kricfalusi revived the series as
Ren and Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoorz for the cable network Spike
and released the series on DVD.

REYNAUD, EMILE (1844-1917). mile Reynaud was a French

moving-image pioneer who invented the praxinoscope. Reynaud
learned about optics from working in a mechanics shop as a child
and put this knowledge to use in creating machines that could project
moving images. His praxinoscope, which he patented in 1877, earned
him an Honorable Mention at the Paris World Exhibition, which led
to the manufacture of his machines throughout Europe, though they
were generally considered as toys. He has previously been described
as "the father of the animated cartoon" though animation historians
refute this and suggest that, although the praxinoscope advanced
the development of the moving image, he was not as influential on
early animators such as Winsor McCay, who were known to have
been influenced by flip books. However, other early filmmakers and
lightening-sketch artists such as J. Stuart Blackton were impressed
by other demonstrations of the moving image, and as such Reynaud
is worth acknowledging as being part of the early process.

RICHTER, HANS (1888-1976). German filmmaker Hans Richter is

probably best known as an experimental filmmaker rather than as an
animator. He started his artistic career as a painter, said to have been
inspired by cubism, and was later one of the artists involved in the
founding of the Dada art movement in Switzerland. The movement
 ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE 165

railed against what the participants saw as the "emptiness of static

painting." Richter was keen to develop from this and was interested
in movement and the rhythm of music. By breaking down his work
into "rhythmic" components, he began experimenting with Swedish
artist Viking Eggeling. They created paintings on rolls of paper, like
rolls of film, and created a continuity of movements that led to the
production of Horizontal-Vertical Mass in 1919.
Realizing the potential in the cinema, Richter created three short
films between 1920 and 1925, using animation of cut-out shapes. The
films, entitled Rhythmus 21, Rhythmus 23, and Rhythmus 25, featured
the captured motion of squares and triangles. These films were in-
fluential to experimental animators, even though his later work only
used minimal animation.
Richter continued making films of "visual rhythm" and, having
learned more about lenses and cameras, made Filmstudie in 1926.
Between 1927 and 1928, he made Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts before
Breakfast), which was seen as a move away from making image
through music, as it had more of a sense of a clear narrative.
After making Renrzysymphonie in 1929, Richter worked on ad-
vertising films in Germany before moving to the United States in
1940. He continued to make experimental films throughout the 1940s
and 1950s but rarely used animation. He is included here as an early
pioneer of experimental animation techniques, particularly those that
involved sound.

ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE. Created by Jay Ward and Alex An-

derson, produced by Jay Ward Productions, the television series fea-
turing the characters Rocky and Bullwinkle was produced by veterans
of the United Productions of America (UPA) studio, which provided
the series with a particular modernist aesthetic as well as the credence
of artistic integrity due to its UPA heritage. Rocky and His Friends
(1 959-1 961 ) and The Bullwirzkle Show (1961-1964) were targeted
for children and adults. The series were based on The Frostbite Falls
Revue of forest animals, including Rocket J. Squirrel and Canadian
B. J. Moose (Bullwinkle). The lead writer, Bill Scott, was joined on
the project by Allan Burns and they began production on the pilot epi-
sode, Ready the Flying Squirrel, in 1958. Voice actors included June
Foray and Paul Frees. The series aired in reruns until 1973.
166 ROTOSCOPE

The premise saw the two leads constantly battling against the Cold
War-style spies Natasha Fatale and Boris Badenov, agents from Pott-
slyvania. The series was structured like a radio serial with narration
and cliff-hangers between acts. The shorts were book-ended \vith
others and packaged together with Dudley Do-Right of the Mount-
ies, Peabody's Improbable History, and Fractured Fairy Tales. A
live-actiontanimated feature-length film The Adverzt~lresof Rocky
and Bullwinkle, using computer-generated imagery to create the
animation, was released in 2000 to a mixed reception.

ROTOSCOPE. The process of tracing over live-action film (as refer-

ence) frame by frame to accurately capture human and live move-
ment that, when the images are retraced, provides a guide to create
"lifelike" animation. The technique has been used since the late
1800s but the rotoscope was patented by Max Fleischer in 1917.
Patent illustrations show the technique of the artist tracing over film
footage then refilming the drawings. The technique allows for a high
degree of realism on movement. The Fleischer brothers used the
rotoscope frequently in the Koko the Clown series (1917-1929) and
Betty Boop; it was particularly well used in Mirzrtie the Moocher
(1932). A distinctive example from the studio was in the feature-
length film Gulliver's Travels (1939). Fleischer used the rotoscope
sparingly, only to capture lifelike movement.
The Disney Studio also used the process for the human characters
in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937). Ralph Bakshi used
the rotoscope in his films Wizards (1977) and The Lord of the Ririgs
(1978). Max Fleischer also developed the rotograph, a variation of
his earlier design, where rotoscoped painted cels could be overlaid
back onto live-action footage and thereby have animation inter-
act with the real world as Koko the Clown did in Bedtime (1923).
The process was developed digitally by Bob Sabiston, naming the
technique Rotoshop, using photographic reproduction tools, such as
the software Photoshop, to create a similar effect on the computer,
examples of which can be seen in his films Waking Life (2001) and
A Scanner Darkly (2006). However, these films trace the entire film,
not only the lifelike movement the Fleischers used it for.

RUSSIA. See SOVIET UNION.

 SABISTON, BOB 167

RUTTMAN, WALTHER (1887-1941). Walther Ruttman was a Ger-

man abstract filmmaker who began his career painting and engrav-
ing. He had initially studied architecture in Zurich before moving on
to study fine art in Munich. Between 1912 and 1918, his paintings
and engravings developed into an interest in abstraction, which be-
came an interest in abstract film.
Ruttman served in World War I, though afterwards he became ill.
He later became more interested and involved in filmmaking and
in 1921 produced Lichtspeil Opus I accompanied by Max Butting's
music. The film, one of the first public screenings of an abstract film
in Berlin, was successful both at home and abroad.
Ruttman continued his filmmaking and collaborated with anima-
tor Lotte Reiniger on her 1926 film, The Adventures of Prince
Achmed, by creating the background scenery. He then moved away
from creating abstract film and became interested in rhythmic motion
and image. In 1927, he made Berlin: Die Symphonie der Grojstadt
(Berlin: Symphony of a Big City),a documentary that included an
animated opening sequence. He continued making documentaries in
this rhythmic style, working for a short time in Italy.
He died in Berlin in 1941 after succumbing to injuries he sustained
as a war correspondent. Though his work in animation was very
limited, he is said to have been a great influence to many animators,
such as Hans Richter, Oskar Fischinger, and Norman McLaren,
particularly in his use of abstract rhythms and movements.

SABISTON, BOB (1967- ). Austin, Texas, based animator, a graduate

of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab with both
a BSc and an MSc in computer graphics research. Sabiston founded
his production company, Flat Black Films, in 1997 and has produced
independent shorts, including Grasshopper (2004), Snack and Drink
(2000), and Roadhead (1999), which have helped popularize anima-
tion as a medium for documentaries. The films have a painterly
approach that gives computer animation a hand-drawn feel. Sabis-
ton uses a proprietary rotoscoping technique, Rotoshop, which has
been used to create the features Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner
168 SCHLESINGER, LEON

Darkly (2006), both directed by Richard Linklater as well as the film

directed by Lars Von Triers, The Five Obstructiorzs (2003).The films
all have a distinctive look, which Sabiston has used in commercials
and other short films. As well as filmmaking, Sabiston is develop-
ing portable paint and animation programs for the computer games
company Nintendo.

SCHLESINGER, LEON (1884-1949). A native of Philadelphia, Leon

Schlesinger was chief of Pacific Art and Title, which specialized
in creating the main titles and credits for movies. A good working
relationship with Warner Brothers led to a position as producer of
animated film. At Pacific Art, he had expressed a commercial interest
in Harman-Ising's Bosko series. Schlesinger was not an artist but a
money man and entrepreneur with a good sense for investment. He
helped Warner Bros. in backing The Jazz Singer (1927) and became
involved in the distribution and production.
Schlesinger was involved in the idea that they could promote
popular songs and music publishing with cartoons, which led to
the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. In 1930, he brought
Harman-Ising to the studio with Bosko and was instrumental over the
years in bringing in talent to the studio. Schlesinger formed his own
unit within Warner Bros. in 1933 and appointed Bob Clampett as
head. He employed 200 staff. In 1944, he sold his studio to Warner
Bros. for $700,000 and retained 25 percent of the profits from mer-
chandising of characters.

SCIENCE FICTION. Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a genre character-

ized by futuristic andlor space settings, often featuring alien charac-
ters and worlds but reflecting contemporary social and political con-
cerns. This was particularly the case during and after the Cold War
in the United States, where the genre was increasingly popular. In
literature, the genre was made famous by authors such as H. G. Wells
and Arthur C. Clarke, who were influential in the film and television
boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In animation, notable examples of sci-fi include Hanna-Barbera's
The Jetsons (1962),a family animated sitcom akin to The Flintstones
but set both in the future and in outer space with futuristic gadgets,
 and Gerry Anderson's Stingray (1 964), Thunderbirds ( 1965), and
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967). In the 1970s and 1980s,
Hanna-Barbera produced a number of action-adventure series, among
which were the sci-fi shows Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Space
Ghost (Space Ghost and characters from the series were revived in
late 1990s and early 2000s). Other television sci-fi from the same
era includes Battle for the Planets (1978), a Westernized version of a
popular Japanese series, and The Fantastic Four, based on the Mar-
vel comic book series.
Sci-fi has been a dominant genre in Japanese animation, both
cinematic and television, for many years. Examples of this include
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki and other
well-known features such as Akira (1988), Ghost in the Shell (1995),
and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). Popular Japanese
television sci-fi originated with Astro Boy (1963-1966) and contin-
ues with shows such as Dragonball Z (1983-2003).
More recently, Matt Groening's Futurama uses sci-fi generic
characteristics to satirize the human "development" in the year 3000
from the point of view of a man who had been frozen in the year
2000. Despite its nostalgic appearance, Brad Bird's The Iron Giant
(1999) could arguably be classed as sci-fi.

SCOOBY DOO. Iconic character who featured in series produced by

IIanna-Barbera and premiered in 1969. The character was designed
by Iwao Takamoto and first appeared in Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
It was the first animated television series to deal with the supernatural
and Scooby Doo is one of the most enduring, popular characters of the
past 50 years and still appears on television. The series was designed to
be exciting and thrilling, but also funny and nonviolent. Fred Silverman,
head of CBS Children's Programming, wanted a show like the mystery
plays on the radio. The network rejected ideas for straightforward ideas
so when he approached Hanna-Barbera it suggested a dog sidekick
would make a good comedy star. Scooby Doo was part of "Mystery
Inc.," which consisted of teenagers Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy.
Scooby and Shaggy always teamed up together and were always scared
of whatever they were supposed to be chasing; however, with their
cowardly actions they always inadvertently caught the villains.
170 SCREEN GEMS

Takamoto's design was of a Great Dane breed of dog, but with

his features greatly exaggerated and he was named after the Frank
Sinatra ad lib "scooby dooby doowfrom the song Strangers in the
Night. He was fond of "Scooby snacks" and of eating in general, and
he and Shaggy often snuck off in search of food. Scooby was voiced
by veteran voice actor Don Mesick, and the series ran until 1976 on
CBS before it moved to American Broadcasting Company (ABC),
where it ran until cancellation in 1986.
The show inspired numerous spin-offs and the addition of other
characters, including Scrappy Doo, Scooby's nephew, and Scooby
Durn. The series was revived by the Cartoon Network in 1993 in
reruns after the successful re-release of the 1988 series A Pup Named
Scooby Doo, which demonstrated the character's continuing popular-
ity. What's New, Scooby Doo (2002-2005) was produced by Warner
Brothers, which had absorbed Hanna-Barbera in 2001. In 2006, the
feature-length film Shaggy and Scooby Get a Clue was released
as one of several straight-to-video films between 1998 and 2007.
A live-action feature and a sequel featuring a computer-generated
animated Scooby were released in 2002 and 2004. In the 20042005
Guinness Book of World Records, the series was named for the most
episodes of any animated television series with 12 series overall,
though this has now been surpassed by the animated sitcom The
Simpsons.

SCREEN GEMS. See COLUMBIA AND SCREEN GEMS.

SELICK, HENRY (1952- ). American animator, well known for his

stop-motion animation and his collaborative work with director Tim
Burton on The Nightmare before Christmas (1993). Selick studied
at Rutgers University and St. Martin's College in London, before
moving to California to attend the California Institute of the Arts,
where he studied with John Lasseter and Brad Bird. He worked
for the Disney Studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where he
collaborated on The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Return to Oz
(1985).
Selick started his own company in 1986, Selick Productions,
which was renamed Twitching Image Inc. in 1994, and produced
spots for Music Television (MTV) and commercials for Pillsbury.
 SESAME STREET 1 71

He has been heavily influenced by Ray Harryhausen, which can be

seen in the style of his films. He first gained attention as a director in
1991 with Slow Bob irz the Lower Dimensions, before working with
Burton (who was the writer) on The Nightmare before Christmas in
1993, which has become one of his best-known films.
Selick went on to direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and
the Giant Peach in 1995, which won him the top award at the An-
necy Animation Festival in 1997; his company changed names again
about this time and was operating as Skellington Productions, after the
lead character Jack Skellington in The Nightmare before Christmas.
Selick's studio closed in 1997, though records on this are vague, and
he directed Monkeybone in 2001, produced by 20th Century Fox.
Selick worked on the effects for the live-action film The Life
Aqliatic with Steve Zissou (2004), after which he moved to Portland,
Oregon, to join Will Vinton's studios (after Vinton was forced out),
which was renamed Laika Inc. His later films include Moongirl
(2005), his first computer-generated imagery (CGI) film, and
Coraline (2009), which is based on a Neil Gaimen graphic novel.

SESAME STREET. Founded by documentary maker Joan Cooney,

who in 1966 started to develop the Children's Television Workshop
and Sesame Street, educational programming that could inform as ef-
fectively as advertising. The show, which began airing in 1969, had
four educational objectives: symbolic representation, cognitive pro-
cesses, physical environment, and social environment. Jim Henson's
Muppets were to appear in some pretaped segments but the children
lost interest in the street-only segments so the creators decided to
integrate the humans with the Muppets. The cast was chosen by chil-
dren, and real children (not actors) were also chosen to appear in the
show. Numerous guest stars have appeared over the years (over 250
celebrities) on the U.S. public service network PBS, and the show has
won over 100 awards.
There is a successful merchandise line in both educational books,
toys, and DVDs of popular episodes. The series appears in over 140
countries worldwide and there are 19 international "local" versions.
The series has produced some well-loved stars and was the starting
point for the popular Kermit the Frog, who became the host of the
Muppet Show. The series also features a good comedy writing team
172 SHORT

and musicians, which have contributed to the series' continuing suc-

cess for over 35 years.

SHORT. This refers to the length of the film and is used as a descrip-
tion of the form of animation. Until Walt Disney's Snow White and
the Seven Dwarves in 1937, all animated films were short format and
could be anything between 2 and 10 minutes in length. Even after
Disney's breakthrough feature-length animation, studios continued
to produce the short forms, which were distributed as part of a theatri-
cal film bill, a larger time slot that showed a variety of short pieces,
typically a newsreel, a cartoon, and a travelogue along with the main
feature. From the 1910s to the late 1950s and early 1960s, the form
remained popular in theaters.
When animation began to be shown on television, shorts were
packaged together to fill 30-minute time slots, which was the com-
mon format of television, and suited the advertisers. In 1960,
Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones was the first half-hour prime-
time animated sitcom that was produced to fit the television format
rather than the theater. Shorts are still produced as individual films,
commonly in the independent and experimental sectors, and recently
as part of the bill with Pixar films, as a showcase for its own films.

SHREK. Released in 2001, Shrek is a satirical take on the traditional

animated fairy tale. The titular character (voiced by comedian Mike
Myers) is an ogre in danger of losing his home to an evil prince. He
reluctantly leads a crusade against the prince, aided by a wise-crack-
ing donkey, and ultimately falling in love with the beautiful Princess
Fiona, who in a typically postmodern twist actually turns from beauty
to so-called beast at nightfall. It turns out that Fiona is an ogre just like
Shrek and the pair finds true love together. The film was produced
by Dreamworks SKG, in partnership with digital animation studio
Pacific Data Images (PDI) and was the second digitally produced fea-
ture by the partnership (the first was the moderately successful Antz,
1998). Attempting to replicate Pixar's success, the studio worked
to create some of the most advanced digital animation of the time.
Indeed, the film was very successful financially and critically, with
Shrek winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
in 2001. The film led to an increase in digitally produced features
 SIMPSONS. THE 1 73

from other studios trying to capitalize on the success, and two sequels
to Shrek. The comedy was pitched at both children and adults, creat-
ing the potential for a wider audience, with several "in jokes" about
the Disney Studio, as a reference to Dreamworks' founder Jeffrey
Katzenberg's former employer. A fourth sequel is due to be released
in 2010.

SILENT ERA. From the first animations of s mile Cohl and J. Stuart
Blackton until Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie in 1928, animation
was silent, though it was accompanied by music and often used cards
to display the dialogue as in live-action cinema, or it used speech
bubbles within the animation in the style of a printed comic strip
used in the Krazy Kat series. The era includes animation by Winsor
McCay, John R. Bray, Earl Hurd, Raoul BarrC, the Fleischer
brothers, Otto Messmer, and initially Disney. By 1930, synchro-
nized sound was vital to production and many of the aforementioned
animators finished production at this time, either due to poor transla-
tion of their films once sound had been added, or as in the case of Pat
Sullivan with Felix the Cat, a disinterest in the technology and re-
fusal to change. The Fleischers quickly adapted as Disney continued
to pioneer technologies and ultimately the change to sound increased
the prosperity of animation.

SIMPSONS, THE. The Simpsons was created by cartoonist Matt

Groening and began as 30-second "interstitials" (short segments
surrounding the commercials) for the Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.
It first appeared in its half-hour form as a pilot episode in December
1989 and began in a prime-time slot in January 1990.
The Simpsons focuses on the Simpson family, which consists of
parents Homer and Marge and their "2.5" children. At the head of
the family is Homer, a rather lazy and overweight buffoon who often
gets into crazy schemes (the source of a great deal of the slapstick
comedy in the show) but ultimately cares about his family. His wife,
Marge, acts as the moral center of the family; she has a strange blue
beehive hairdo, is much slimmer than her husband, and is usually
content with her role as housewife. Their relationship is reminiscent
of that of many sitcom couples of the past, including The Flint-
stones. The other members of the family are 10-year-old Bart, who
174 SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA, THE

is the epitome of the rebellious youth figure in U.S. culture (though

never as bad as some of his schoolmates). Eight-year-old daughter
Lisa is the brain of the family and with her mother tries to uphold its
moral fiber. The stereotypical "nuclear" sitcom family is completed
by the 0.5 child, baby Maggie, who never speaks but constantly sucks
a pacifier. They also have both a cat and dog with which they live in
their "middle" American detached house. The Sinzpsons is set in the
fictional location of Springfield, an "average" American town.
The series has been immensely popular and is credited with not
only the return of animation to prime-time television but also a
resurgence in adult animation and interest in animation in general.
The Simpsons' humor is derived from physical comedy, a mixture of
slapstick and visual gags, as well as satirical references to American
culture, both popular and political. Part of the appeal of the show
is the ability to reach a wide range of audiences from children who
enjoy slapstick comedy but don't understand the political references
to the keenly observant adult who is familiar with the popular culture
references. This broad appeal is the reason why in 2007 the series
was named as the longest running sitcom on IJ.S. television.
The feature-length Simpsons Movie \brasreleased in 2007 and was
very successful commercially. The film was surrounded by a vast
marketing and merchandising campaign and reinforced the main-
stream popularity the show has gained since it began in 1989.

SZNKZNG OF THE LUSZTANZA, THE. Directed by Winsor Mc-

Cay, The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), considered to be the first
animated documentary, is based on the World War I incident of the
sinking of British ship Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915.
The incident was instrumental in causing the United States to join
the war; in all, 1,198 passengers died, 124 of them U.S. citizens. The
outraged McCay created a dramatic and highly detailed film that
had the style of a newsreel. McCay's style gave the film even more
dramatic undertones, and at one point in the film the head of a child
can be seen surfacing in the waves. 'l'he film included a very lifelike
depiction of the human form on a large scale.

SITCOM. The animated sitcom, or anicom, first appeared on U.S.

television in 1960 when American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
 SLASH SYSTEM 1 75

aired The Flintstones, produced by Hanna-Barbera (HB). The

series had been commissioned to include more programming suit-
able for the whole family. HB decided to use the popular live-action
sitcom The Honeymooners as a model for its new cartoon series, and
after some modifications, it released the Stone Age version of the
popular family domestic sitcom. The show was so successful that the
studio followed with Top Cat (said to be loosely based on live-action
sitcom The Phil Silvers Show) and The Jetsons. They later returned
to the format with Wait 'ti1 Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s.
By utilizing the generic characterizations of narrative structure,
character, and location, the studio established a new genre for anima-
tion. Comedy had been widely used in variety, sketch, slapstick, and
vaudeville formats but never before the increasingly popular sitcom,
which had essentially developed with television. These series were
successful with adult audiences as well as children and were shown
in a prime-time slot initially.
By the 1980s, cartoons had returned to children's television time
slots and the genres of the shows reflected this. However, in 1989, the
new cable network Fox broadcast a new anicom, Matt Groening's
The Simpsons, which had been spun off from a series of shorts. Like
The Flintstones before it, The Simpsons aired in a prime-time slot and
found success with a mixed audience, but significantly a new adult
audience that had grown up with animation on television.
This led to a whole new generation of anicoms, including shows
such as The Critic, Futurama, King of the Hill, Duckman, The PJs,
The Tick, Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, South Park, Family Guy,
and Home Movies; however, many of these new shows were short
lived. The shows that stood out in the genre were The Simpsons, King
of the Hill, South Park, Family Guy, and Futurama, which all lasted
into 2009 (though Family Guy and Futurama had been cancelled and
then reinstated on cable). In 2007, The Simpsons was recorded as the
longest running sitcom in U.S. television history.

SLASH SYSTEM. An animation production method (also known as

the slash-and-tear system) introduced by Raoul BarrC in the early
1910s. The background would be drawn and laid over another sheet
that contained the moving elements and a space would be cut out so
the images on the sheet underneath could be seen. This was done in
 progressive phases of movement. Retracing was required for any fig-
ures that moved, but the backgrounds could be reused, which saved
time and the work of having to retrace every image. The system
was used at several studios throughout the 1920s and worked as a
variation of John R. Bray's method of overlaying images on cels or
translucent paper.

SMALLFILMS. Smallfilms, based in Great Britain, has produced

some of the best-known British television animation of the 1960s
and 1970s. It was founded by Oliver Postgate (1925-2008), who had
been an inventor, actor, writer, and television production assistant be-
fore he decided to try children's story-telling as a career. His first ani-
mated series was Alexa~zderthe Mouse for LIVE television in 1958,
for which he asked Peter Firmin (1928- ), a freelance illustrator and
part-time teacher, to provide background drawings and cutouts. Their
partnership has lasted for 50 years.
Working together with very small budgets and using simple equip-
ment and materials in the old barns on Firmin's farm, Postgate wrote
scripts, narrated, and animated films using Firmin's drawings and
cutouts. They initially produced drawn animation in black and white
and were successful with lvor the Ettgirle ( 1 958-1 963) for ITV and
The Saga of Noggin the Nog (1959-1965) for BBC. These series
were both later remade in color.
The premises were restored and developed so that stop-frame
animation could be made using puppets on large sets. Firmin made
most of these puppets with the help of his wife, Joan, who even used
hand-knitting for The Clangers.
Postgate's first series using this method was Pirtgwirzgs (ITV,
1962-1963) for which Firmin's sister Gloria knitted the puppets.
He was offered backing by Talbot Television, which sold their films
abroad, though they preferred to keep the operation small. In 1968,
they moved into color production and created their best-known
series, The Clangers (BBC, 1968-1971) and Bagpuss (BBC, 1973-
1974). Smallfilms continued production into the 1980s, including
Tottie-The Story of a Doll's House (BBC, 1982) from a book by
Rumer Godden and Pirtrly's House (BBC, 1986) based on a series of
books for preschool children by Firmin.
 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES 177

SNOW WHITE. The Fleischers' version of the classic Brothers Grimm

fairy tale, released in 1933, preceded that of the Disney Studio's by
four years and starred Betty Boop and Koko the Clown. Like their
previous hit Minnie the Moocher (1932), the film also featured Cab
Calloway as the band leader. The film was a musical number set to
"St. James Infirmary Blues," with the ghost of Calloway singing.
The surreal nature of the film was compared to the Luis BuAuel and
Salvador Dali film Un Chierl Andalou (1929).
The film opens in the Royal Palace as the queen looks in the mirror
and asks, "Who is the fairest?" Betty arrives to meet her "stepmama"
the queen and is welcomed by sentries Koko and Bimbo. The queen
is jealous of Betty as she is proclaimed to be the fairest, and the
queen demands, "Off with her head!" Bimbo and Koko try to trick
the queen by faking a grave but Betty ends up encased in an icelike
coffin and lands at the seven dwarves' cottage. The dwarves then
take her on to a mystery cave. The queen finds out and follows them.
Koko sings "St. James Infirmary Blues" and turns into a ghost whose
figure changes to reflect the lyrics of the song. When the queen again
asks the mirror, it declares she is the fairest but transforms her into a
dragon, which then chases the fleeing Koko, Bimbo, and Betty (now
freed from her ice coffin). Bimbo saves the day as he turns the dragon
inside out by pulling its tongue. The film is considered to be one of
the Fleischers' most surreal and dark films.

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES. Walt Disney's ver-

sion of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, which was the first
feature-length animation in the United States, took several years of
planning before its release in 1937. The preliminary work began in
August 1934 with a lot of time spent on the planning. The venture
was risky for the studio, as it was a more daring project than anything
it had previously done in terms of scale and budget. There was also
the added complexity of the number of characters, with each of the
seven dwarves requiring its own detailed personality, which along
with their names was subject to a variety of changes during the pre-
liminary stages. This put a great deal of pressure on the production
team, which included Art Babbit and Grim Natwick. They attempted
to keep the fairy tale simple and the human characters were largely
178 SOCIETY FOR ANIMATION STUDIES

rotoscoped, though there was some criticism over the quality of the
finished item, particularly of the prince.
After a huge amount of work and staff, the film opened in De-
cember 1937 and was a big hit between 1937 and 1938, earning
over $8 million around the world. The film originally had a budget
of $250,000 though the final cost was $1.5 million. There was some
initial skepticism over the dramatic nature of the film, with audiences
used to their animation being largely comedic, but the universal suc-
cess proved that the medium could be used for more. The risk Disney
took with this film-the studio almost went bankrupt-paid off with
its painstaking attention to detail in animation, characterization, and
music.

SOCIETY FOR ANIMATION STUDIES (SAS). The SAS is an in-

ternational organization dedicated to the study of animation history
and theory and was founded by U.S. academic Dr. Harvey Deneroff
in 1987. The society holds annual conferences in different loca-
tions around the world each year, where members can present their
research and discuss current debates in the field. The SAS members
pay an annual fee to join, which gives them access to the directory
of animation experts, a biannual newsletter, and an online peer-
reviewed journal, Animation Studies. Like Association Internationale
du Film d'hnimation (ASIFA), the SAS has a mixed membership of
theorists, historians, practitioners, and educators. The members elect
a president to oversee the running of the society for a three-year term,
assisted by a board of directors. As well as encouraging scholarship
in animation studies, the SAS presents an annual award for scholarly
writing in essay form and published books. The society has grown in
number and scope over the past 20 years, with its 20th annual confer-
ence held in 2008 in Bournemouth, Great Britain.

SODA JERKS. Part of the Mutt and Jeff series produced by Raoul
Barre, Soda Jerks (1920) is a good example of the early cartoon
form and how it developed from the newspaper cartoon strip. Bud
Fischer's characters were adapted from print to the animated film
and are characterized by comic gags of role reversal. The animated
form reinforces the slapstick visual comedy and the manipulation of
the expected outcomes, but the cartoon is familiar to audiences and,
 SOUTH PARK 179

by retaining the speech bubble for dialogue, it is easily translated

into the silent film. This episode features Mutt as a soda parlor owner
with Jeff as his underdog employee. The cartoon uses Barre's slash
system to produce the animation.

SOUTH PARK. South Park first aired in the United States in August
1997 and currently airs on the cable network Comedy Central. Un-
like its animated sitcom counterparts, South Park is not broadcast in
a prime-time slot but in an evening slot due to the adult nature of the
comedy, which is often subversive in nature. The creators explicitly
state that this show is not suitable for children and even include a
disclaimer at the start of the credit sequence each week, though this
forms part of a gag by saying that the show is not actually suitable
for anyone.
South Park originated as an animated short film made as a Web
Christmas card that, after achieving a great deal of interest from
television executives, was developed into a full-length sitcom for-
mat. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who also voice many
of the characters, produced an anicom like no other in production at
the time. The animation has the appearance of crudely cut out paper
figures, in the style of something a child might produce as opposed
to the traditional cel style used in other anicoms (with the notable
exception of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist), which complements
the themes and humor of the show. Initial observations of the show,
with four schoolchildren as central characters, give the impression of
something childlike; however, the animation and humor, as well as
the themes and plots of the show, are revealed to be far more sophis-
ticated. The animation is produced digitally, though designed to have
a distinctly handmade appearance.
The show features eight-year-olds Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and
Kenny (all voiced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone) and their relation-
ships with each other and their families. Best friends Stan and Kyle
often join forces against Cartman, a rather overweight kid who seems
to hang around with the others despite his constant attacks on them;
Kenny usually joins with Cartman. The four tend to argue a lot, gen-
erally picking on how fat Cartman is or how poor Kenny's family is.
There are also a number of supporting characters who occasionally
feature as the focus of episodes. The general themes of the episodes
180 SOVIET UNION

are fairly diverse and often political. They range from such issues
as euthanasia, censorship, religion, and drug use to globalization.
These issues are examined using the device of the innocence of the
children who question the, to them, odd and often illogical rules that
the adults in their town are governed by. This allows the creators
to address controversial issues. A feature-length film of the series,
South Park: Bigger, Lotlger and Uncut, was released in 1999 and
addressed much of the criticism of bad language and violence that
the show (and others) is accused of. In 2008, the show began its 12th
season on Comedy Central.

SOVIET UNION. The Soviet Union entry is largely dominated by

Russian animation, which shaped much of Eastern Europe and
modern Russian animation. The pioneering Russian-born puppeteer
Ladislas Starevitch (1882-1965) has been compared to Winsor Mc-
Cay in terms of his significant contribution to the development of
animation. He established stop motion, beginning his career making
films of the habits of insects for a museum using preserved speci-
mens, such as The Battle of the Stag Beetles (1910). He first used
puppets in The Fair Lucanida (1910) and developed a method of
wire and wood frames for the puppets. He fled Russia during the
revolution and continued his filmmaking in France.
During the 1920s, animation in the Soviet Union was marginal-
ized, though Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1900-1987) directed The Adven-
tures of Baron Miinchausen (1928), one of the first Soviet animated
adaptations of folk and classic stories. The most famous film of
the time was Post Office (1929) by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, popular
outside the Soviet Union as well as within. The Soviet State Film
Committee was dedicated to promoting communism and produced its
first animated film, Soviet Toys, in 1924. The stereotypes of workers,
peasants, and capitalists were then seen throughout Soviet animation
for the next 70 years. Animation was the main route for delivery of
the state's message to the public.
Another state-run studio, Soyuzmultfilm, was founded in 1936 and
started by trying to emulate Walt Disney by adapting fairy tales. The
first director of the studio was Alexander Ptushko, whose first film
was It Happened in the Stadium (1928). In 1935, he made The New
Gulliver, a combination of live action and stop-motion animation,
 SOVIET UNION 181

though he later went on to direct live-action films. Soyuzmultfilm

was influenced by Hollywood during the 1930s with little distinction
between its films and Disney's. During this time, Ivan Ivanov-Vano
and Lev Atamanov emerged as the most significant directors. By the
late 1930s, the studio was producing 20 films a year and began to
make them in color.
Soyuzmultfilm made patriotic shorts following the Nazi invasion
in 1941. The urgency for the these films continued for a short time
into the war, but eventually most projects were put on hold until
after the war. Following the war, the films continued to be produced
largely for children and were still very similar to Disney, as they had
been in the 1930s.
The majority of Soviet animation was produced on cels, with a
"social realism" mandate. Many beautiful films were made in the
1950s, such as Ivanov-Vano's The Twelve Months (1956) and The
Snow Queen (1957) by Lev Atamanov. Other notable animators of
the period were the Brumby sisters and Boris Diskin.
Arguably one of the most important animators working in the
1960s and 1970s, Yuri Norstein reflected the political changes in the
Soviet Union at the time with 25th October, the First Day (1968) and
the masterpiece Tale of Tales (1979). However, when communism
and the Soviet Union collapsed, the state funding largely went with
it and many animators were out of work.
Estonian director Elbert Tuganov (1920-2007, born in Azerbai-
jan), hailed as the father of Estonian animation, began his career
in Germany before working at the state film studio Tallinfilm for
11 years, where he developed new techniques and technologies for
filmmaking. This led to the formation of a puppet animation divi-
sion in the studio. The first film from the new Nukufilm was Little
Peter's Dream (1957). Animation production grew over the next few
years and the number of staff also increased. This led to the hiring
of Heino Pars as the second director of the division, making Little
Motor Scooter in 1962.
Estonian Rein Raamat (1931- ) established a cel animation di-
vision at Tallinfilm and was one of the first animators there to be
internationally recognized. His masterwork is considered to be Hell,
made in 1983. After the re-independence of the country in 1991,
new animators emerged, creating something of a new Golden Age,
182 SPAIN

including Mati Kiitt, Janno Paldma, Hardi Volmer, and Riho Unt.
With them, a new style of animation with less censorship and more
adult themes emerged.
By the early 1990s, Soyuzmultfilm's influence had faded and in
1993 its most prominent animators (including Norstein) left to estab-
lish an animation school, Sher. One of the leading studios since is Pilot,
which produced Alexander Petrov's Academy Award-nominated The
Mermaid (19%). See also PROPAGANDA.

SPAIN. See WESTERN EUROPE.

SPIRITED AWAY. Feature-length anime directed by Hayao Mi-

yazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, Spirited Away (2001) is one
of the studio's most internationally successful films to date, winning
the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003. The film
is a fantasy tale, essentially aimed at children age 10 and older, but
with an appeal to adults. The visual production is of a very high qual-
ity, as is the musical accompaniment. The film has been compared
thematically to Alice i ~ zWonderland, particularly due to use of food
and drink to magically transform the body.
The story follows 10-year-old Chihiro who, while traveling to a
new home with her parents, becomes trapped in a forbidden world of
gods and magic. They are transported after traveling through a tunnel
and arrive in another world inhabited by spirits. Chihiro must take on
work in order to survive as well as find a way to save her parents, who
have been turned into pigs. Ultimately they escape, Chihiro having
completed a rite of passage of sorts, and return to their own world,
back through the tunnel, her parents having no memory of what oc-
curred. There are many elements adapted from Japanese folklore
and culture as well as a strong environmental theme. Spirited Away
was redubbed into English for the North American DVD market.

STEAMBOAT WILLIE. Inspired by the sound synchronization of the

first "talkie," The Jazz Singer (1927), Walt Disney used a makeshift
system to create the synchronized music for Steamboat Willie (1928),
which was the first to do so and marked the end of the silent era. It
was the third film to feature Mickey Mouse, with the title of the film
taken from the song "Steamboat Bill." There were some technical
 STREET OF CROCODILES 183

problems in its development but it premiered at the Colony Theater in

New York on 18 November 1928 and was very successful.
The plot consists of Mickey working as a pilot of a river boat. He
has trouble with a villain named Peg Leg Pete (though it is unclear if
he is meant to be a crew member) and Minnie Mouse. The story was
only constructed to synchronize with the music. The characters and
the boat dance with the music, using farm animals as instruments (a
cow's teeth are played like a xylophone). The film was animated by
Ub Iwerks with music by Wilfred Jackson and composed by Carl
Stalling. In order to get the synchronization exactly right, the bar
sheets of the music were prepared almost simultaneously with the
exposure of the animation.

STONE, MATT. See PARKER, TREY, AND STONE, MATT.

STOP MOTION. Stop motion is the technique of filming small in-

crements of movement that, when put together, give the illusion of
movement. The process is very time consuming and painstaking, as
the increments are very small, frame by frame. Three-dimensional
(3D) stop-motion animation has two distinct histories. The European
tradition is of the (often individual) artist creating a film by stop mo-
tion for short, feature-length, or children's television. The second
is the Hollywood tradition that emerged through the special effects
that were created for live-action films.
Either process can be accomplished using a variety of 3D mod-
els, from clay and puppets to found objects and artifacts, or even
humans in pixilation. Examples of stop-motion animation include
Arthur Melbourne Cooper's Dreams of Toyland (1908) from Great
Britain, Ladislas Starevitch's Tale of the Fox ( I 930) from the Soviet
Union, and Willis O'Brien's creature effects in King Kong (1933)
from the United States, which influenced the work of Ray Har-
ryhausen. Other animators who typically use stop motion include
Henry Selick, Barry Purves, Jiri Trnka, Jan Svankmajer, the
Quay brothers, Will Vinton, and Aardman Animation.

STREET OF CROCODILES. Directed by the Quay brothers, Street

of Crocodiles is one of the brothers' best-known films and appeared
in 1986. The story is based on a subject by Polish author Bruno
184 STREET, THE

Schulz and is animated using stop motion and puppets. It was the
first film they shot in 35 mm film. The story features a museum
keeper who spits into the eyepiece of an ancient peep show, which
sets the old machine in motion. This takes the viewer into a night-
mare, and the caretaker into a netherworld of bizarre puppet rituals
among dirt and grime. The map on the machine indicates the Street of
Crocodiles and the internal mechanisms are released with the move-
ment into a permanent flux. The eyeless puppets that inhabit the other
world act as tailors, manipulating the caretaker and altering his body
to be doll like and mechanical. The imagery has been described as
uncanny due to the unsettling sense of horror the film presents with
the inanimate objects coming to life. The film shows the Eastern
European influences of Jan Svankmajer whose films used similar
techniques and images.

STREET, THE. Caroline Leaf's multiple-award-winning film The

Street (1976) was largely responsible for her international success.
The film-painted onto glass, using glycerin to slow the drying pro-
cess-is based on a story by Jewish writer Medecai Richler about
a family in which the grandmother is dying and the grandchild is
trying to make sense of what is happening. The child's sense of loss
is confused with the desire for his own room, which he will inherit
after the grandmother dies. The 10-minute film took Leaf a year and
a half to complete and deals with the subject in a thoughtful way with
small movements reflecting behaviors and observations. The fluid
nature of the paint allows for metamorphosis of images and creates
a moving film.

STUDIO GHIBLI. Japanese animation studio that specializes in

traditional hand-drawn animation, though in recent years has been
incorporating a partial use of computer graphics. Studio Ghibli is
very successful in the production of feature animation in Japan (or
anime to use the term that refers specifically to Japanese animation)
and since the late 1990s worldwide. Despite less focus on television
animation than many other major Japanese studios, it is considered to
be Japan's top animation studio.
The worldwide success was particularly evident when one of the
studio's top directors, Hayao Miyazaki, won the Academy Award
 SULLIVAN. PAT 185

for Best Animated Feature for 2001's Spirited Away. Miyazaki works
with senior colleague and mentor Isao Takahata, a working relationship
that has existed since the 1970s when they collaborated in television
production. In 1982, Miyazaki was asked to adapt his manga Na~tsicaa
of the Valley of the Wind (1984) for cinema. With Takahata's aid, they
produced the film, the success of which led the pair to found Studio
Ghibli. Their first film under the new studio was Luputa Castle in the
Sky (1986),and the studio continues to produce a feature approximately
every two years, including Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso
( 1992), Porn Poko ( 1994),and Tales fronz Earthsea (2006).
There has been a gradual increase in digital techniques used in
their films, though the biggest international hits, Spirited Awa.y and
Princess Mononoke (1997), were drawn by hand with only limited
digital special effects.

SUBVERSION. The language of animation allows it to be used as a

device that can disguise and essentially redefine the everyday. By
not simply capturing the live action, animation can subvert our ac-
cepted notions of reality and challenge our understanding. By being
able to do so to represent and give "life" to anything, animation can
be used in any way the animator chooses. It can represent the real in
documentary or have no narrative function in abstract animation,
all of which can be used to subvert the perceived meaning. Comedy
in animation can be used as a subversive tool to insert political
criticism and can be seen in Jan Svankmajer's work as well as that
by Ralph Bakshi and Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Often oppor-
tunities for subversion arise due to the perceptions of animation as
children's entertainment and, as a result, the content of the form is
often dismissed as unimportant. See also SIMPSONS, THE; SOUTH
PARK; REN AND STIMPY.

SULLIVAN, PAT (1887-1933). Born Patrick O'Sullivan in Australia

to an Irish family, Pat Sullivan traveled around as a boxer and an
artist, and ended up working at a newspaper in the United States as
assistant to cartoonist William F. Marriner. Sullivan inherited Mar-
riner's strips after Marriner died in 1914 and decided he would like
to turn them into an animated cartoon. He approached Raoul BarrC,
who taught him animation techniques and let him use his studio.
186 SUPERMAN

Sullivan opened his own studio in 1915 and released Sambo and
His Funny Noises as the animated series Sammy Johruirz in 1916.
Sullivan had met Otto Messmer at Universal's New Jersey studio
and hired him. They worked closely together until Sullivan's death
in 1933.
Sullivan produced a series of animated cartoons about Charlie
Chaplin, and in 1919 began to produce animated shorts for Para-
mount's Screen Magazine. In 1919, Messmer created "Felix the
Cat" for the magazine that Sullivan produced, and took full credit
for in the titles of the films. In 1921, he left Paramount and signed
with Margaret Winkler to distribute the films. Sullivan promoted
Felix heavily around the world, which contributed to the series' great
success. In 1922, he secured the rights to Felix from Paramount and
Messmer continued to animate them at Sullivan's studio. He capital-
ized on Felix's success with merchandise and was one of the first to
do so.
Sullivan left Winkler in 1925 after several disagreements and
signed with Educational Films for distribution. They began producing
new films every two weeks to meet demand. However, in 1928, when
studios began converting to sound, Sullivan expressed his disinterest
in the technology and the expense and problems involved in convert-
ing, and Educational did not renew their contract for 1928-1929.
In 1930, he changed his mind and went to California to attempt to
set up another studio to produce Felix cartoons but poor health pre-
vented him from completing the venture. Both Sullivan and his wife
were hard drinkers and in 1932 his wife died after falling from their
apartment window; Sullivan never got over the tragedy. In 1933, he
died of pneumonia. The studio was left in disarray with legal prob-
lems that took a long time to resolve and as a result was closed.

SUPERMAN. Fleischer brothers-animated series based on the char-

acter created by Jerry Siege1 and Joe Schuster that first appeared in
Action Comics. The brothers were approached by Paramount to cre-
ate the series but they were reluctant to do so and, in an attempt to
put them off, told the studio it would cost $100,000, but Paramount
agreed and heavily promoted the series. It was very successful, but
the production required a lot of preparation as everything had to be
laid out very carefully due to the high costs. Some rotoscoping was
 SVANKMAJER, J A N 187

used but they largely relied on the animators to capture the appear-
ance of the comic. Very detailed modeling, background, and fore-
ground work was required and pencil tests were used for every film.
Lighting effects were created using double exposure. The result was
one of the Fleischers' finest achievements. The series consisted of 17
episodes in total between 1941 and 1943, with nine at Fleischer and
eight produced by Famous Studios.

SURREALISM. Art movement beginning in 1924 and including such

artists as Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp,
RenC Magritte, Marc Chagall, and Joan Miro, among others. The
movement came into being after the French poet Andre Breton
published his Manifeste du Surrkalisme in 1924. It suggested that
rational thought was repressive to the powers of creativity and
imagination and inimical to artistic expression. He was an admirer
of Sigmund Freud, and such theories of the subconscious and the
meaning of dreams began to feature heavily in the artwork. Examples
of surrealism's influence in animation can be seen in Dali and the
Disney Studio's Destino, and in the work of the Quay brothers and
Jan Svankmajer, who was a member of the Prague Surrealist Group
in the late 1960s. The influence of the movement can also be seen in
experimental animation.

SVANKMAJER, JAN (1934- ). Czech animator well known for his

work in a wide range of three-dimensional (3D) materials, including
puppets, clay, and pixilated humans, his films are diverse and in-
triguing. Svankmajer studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
and began his artistic career as a painter, sculptor, and engraver
before moving to cinema in 1964. His first film was The Last Trick
(1964) and much of his early work displays stylistic choices seen
from his earlier career, notably the sculptural textures and use of
found objects. His film Byt (The Hat, 1968) sees an old man struggle
against his furniture and in Alice (1988), based on the Lewis Carroll
story, Svankmajer makes use of old toys. His aesthetic is rooted in
horror and unsettling images of dreams and nightmares. The content
is often symbolic to escape Czech censorship and he has been af-
filiated with the Prague Surrealist Group since the late 1960s. One
particularly notable film is the trilogy Moznosti dialogu (Dimensions
188 SWEDEN

of Dialogue, 1982), which features sculpted heads. In the first part,

the heads are made of food and other metallic objects and fight each
other; in the second part, two Plasticine torsos are consumed by an
ever more destructive love for each other; and in the third section,
two clay heads give each other objects. He has acknowledged the
influence that 16th-century mannerism and surrealist art had on his
work, in both his animation and the live-action films he has made.
His work has particularly inspired the Quay brothers.

SWEDEN. Swedish cartoonist Victor Bergdahl (1878-1939) was

inspired by Winsor McCay's Little Nemo films and in 1915 made
Trolldrycken. He created a series, Captain Grogg 's Adventure, which
ran for 13 episodes from 1916 until 1922, stopping when he felt
that U.S. animation was overwhelming the market. Another Swede,
Viking Eggeling (1880-1925), was pivotal in developing experi-
mental animation. He traveled around Europe in his youth and was a
founding member of the Dada art movement in Zurich, Switzerland.
His experiments in animation including the series, Horizontal-Verti-
cal Orchestra (1919-1920) (the first of which, Horizontal-Vertical
Mass, was made with Hans Richter in 1919) and Diagonal-Sym-
phonie (1 923), were unfortunately never released and he died early,
aged 45, in 1925.
The Swedish animation industry was slow to develop, though
in the 1950s groups such as Gunnar Karlsson's GK Film and Stig
Lasseby's Team Film formed to produce animation. GK Film was
particularly known for its puppet-animated series Patrik and Putrik.
In the 1960s, the long-running and extremely popular series featuring
Bamse, a bear cub, was created by Rune Andreasson. The character
returned in the early 1970s and again in the 1980s. ?'he first feature-
length animation made in Sweden was Per Ahlin's I huvet pd gam-
ma1 gubbe (In the Head of an Old Man), produced by GK Film in
1969. After the release of this film, ~ h l i nformed his own production
company, Penn Film, and went on to produce short films as well as
the 1989 feature Resan till Melonia (Joiirtiey to Melonia), an adapta-
tion of William Shakespeare's The Tenzpest.
The 1970s saw an increase in demand for children's television,
and several young animators found new opportunities in the industry.
The main focus of much of Sweden's animation was on children's
 TAKAMOTO, IWOA 1 89

films with educational and often social issues included. There was
less of an emphasis on the creation on art films or large studio-based
features as in their European neighbors. The Team Film studio pro-
duced the popular television series Agaton Sax and the Max Brothers
in 1972, the success of which led to spin-off specials. The studio
was one of the largest producers throughout the 1970s and 1980s,
with some of the top animators such as Jan Gissberg creating several
series and films.
In the 1980s, several new animators contributed to the develop-
ment of the industry, including a shift toward more artistic produc-
tions, such as Karl-Gunnar Holmqvist, who won several awards for
his feature Alban (1981) and later Johnriy Kat and the Waltz of the Pi-
rates (1986). In television production, Gilbert Elfstrom made several
popular series throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The award-winning
animator Birgitta Jansson used the modeling clay Plasticine to create
her animated pseudo-documentary Vacation House ( 1981). Other
animators of note include Peter Kruse, Marja Seilola, Olle Hedman,
and Peter Larsson, to name a few.

TAIWAN. See ASIA.

TAKAMOTO, IWOA (1925-2007). Japanese-American animator

born in Los Angeles, California, he was sent to Manzanar internment
camp during World War 11, where he learned illustration from other
detainees. He joined the Disney Studio in 1947, where he worked
on Cinderella, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty,
and 101 Dalmatiarzs. During the production of Sleeping Beauty, he
was able to work with Tom Oreb, previously of United Productions
of America (UPA). He learned from Oreb's minimalist style and
design, which helped and influenced his work. He went to work at
Hanna-Barbera in 1961, where he created his most famous char-
acter (though the character is undoubtedly better known than Taka-
moto), Scooby Doo. He also worked on Jonny Quest, Josie and the
Pussycats, and The Jetsons. As well as Scooby, he created Mutley,
Astro, Penelope Pitstop, and the Great Gazoo in The Flintstones.
190 TASHLIN, FRANK

In 1973, he codirected the feature-length animated adaptation of

Charlotte's Web.
Takamoto was awarded the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award in 1996 from the Animators Guild. His last position
before retirement was as vice president of creative design and special
projects at Warner Brothers, where he storyboarded the 2005 Tom
and Jerry short Karateguard and created the character Krypto.

TASHLIN, FRANK (1913-1972). Born in New Jersey to a French-

German family, at age 15 Frank Tashlin became an errand boy at
the Fleischer brothers' studio in New York. He later became an
animator for Van Beuren. He moved to Los Angeles in 1933, where
he worked for Leon Schlesinger at Warner Brothers until 1935
and worked on such characters as Porky Pig. He was said to have
been more interested in fast-paced cartoons than Tex Avery and had
a strong cinematic approach and interest in film techniques. From
1934 to 1936, he also drew a comic strip, "Van Boring," for the Los
Angeles Times.
Tashlin returned to Warner's from 1936 to 1938, where he di-
rected 21 films (1 3 featuring Porky Pig). Between 1938 and 1941,
he worked for the Disney Studio before moving on to Screen Gems.
He ran the studio for a time after Charles Mintz's death and when
Columbia took it over, he recruited staff from Disney. He returned to
Warner Brothers in 1942 but in approximately 1945 gave up anima-
tion to become a script writer for live-action comedies. He also wrote
and illustrated children's books.
Tashlin wrote gags for stars such as the Marx Brothers and Lucille
Ball and scripts for such films as Son of Paleface (1951) starring
Bob Hope and Artists and Models (1955) starring Jerry Lewis. His
animation career influenced his filmmaking, which had previously
influenced his animation techniques. His live-action film career went
beyond writing and he was quite a prolific director, including Will
Success Spoil Rock Hul~ter(1957). With such a varied career, Tashlin
was said to have left a mark on each sector he worked in.

TEAM AMERICA, WORLB POLICE. Animated feature directed and

produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the duo responsible for
the long-running anicom South Park. Their first animated feature,
 South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), was a spin-off from
their successful television series and was animated in the same style.
For Team America, World Police (2004), the pair chose to animate
the film using puppets, very similar to that of Gerry Anderson's
super-marionettes from Thunderbirds. The themes of a daring (not
so) secret rescue organization are included here and parodied, right
down to the use of various transportation devices from motorbikes to
jet planes, in a satirical look at U.S. politics and foreign policy.
The tag line for the film-"Putting the 'F' back in freedomw-re-
flects the tone and the content of the film, which is strictly for adults,
demonstrated in the frequent use of swearing and a deliberately long
sex scene involving puppets that drew great criticism from censors
and gave the film an R rating.
The synopsis outline describes Team America as an international
police force "dedicated to maintaining global stability." When we see
them in action at the start of the film, they are causing more dam-
age than they resolve, a theme that continues throughout. The North
Korean dictator Kim Jong 11 has joined forces with terrorists around
the world in a plot to destroy it. Team America recruit top actor Gary
Johnston to try to infiltrate the group and help them stop the plot.
The film satirizes U.S. foreign policy, media coverage of terror-
ist activity, terrorist groups, and Hollywood actors who voice their
opinions on political issues, criticizing them all equally and includes
many musical sequences. The film won a variety of awards interna-
tionally, including a Music Television (MTV) award.

TELEVISION. Animation has appeared on television since the incep-

tion of the technology. The first animated series to appear in the
United States was The Comic Strips of Television by Jay Ward
and Alexander Anderson in 1949. In the United States in the late
1950s, animation on television was typified by the repackaging of
theatrical shorts into lengths appropriate for the television format.
Early examples include Warner Brothers' The Bugs Bunny Show
and Hanna-Barbera's Huckleberry Hound. These new shows took
the format of variety shows with shorts compiled together into half-
hour segments. In Great Britain, it was common for puppets to be
used either in fully animated series such as The Flower Pot Men or
accompanying live human hosts in MufSin the Mule.
192 TELEVISION

These shows were very successful and as TV executives recog-

nized a children's audience, new series were commissioned to ap-
peal. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was keen to
capture a family market and commissioned Hanna-Barbera to create
a prime-time series, the result of which was The Flintstones, fol-
lowed by Top Cat and The Jetsons, among others. Throughout the
1%0s and 1970s, the market expanded to include more shows in a
variety of time slots, including Saturday morning and after school, to
fully capture the younger market. In the mid-1970s, the U.S. market
was keen to reach the teen market and Hanna-Barbera responded
with shows based on music, including Josie and the Pirssycats and
The Archies.
By the 1980s, in part due to a changing political environment and
the television market in general, the shows produced were keenly
marketed and heavily merchandised, which led to a great deal of
criticism of animation in general as a lower form of entertainment.
In Great Britain, the market had seen variations in animation style
from the puppet animation of Gerry Anderson in Thunderbirds and
from Smallfilms to the drawn 2D animation from Cosgrove Hall or
Bob Godfrey.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, largely due to the introduction
of The Simpsons, the new prime-time animated sitcom from Matt
Groening, animation on television became more popular and saw
a resurgence with a new variety of shows and audiences. This has
continued with the emergence of new adult audiences being specifi-
cally catered to with shows such as South Park and the Adult Swim
initiative on the Cartoon Network.
While the reputation of television animation in the West has been
quite poor, television animation in Japan enjoys a greater status as
a cultural form. Animation is generally a more prevalent form of
entertainment there, with different types and genres as well as very
specific markets, separate for children and adults.
One of the criticisms of television animation from its inception was
the use of limited animation in its production. The quality was deemed
to be much lower than the full animation of Warner Brothers, Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and Disney that had preceded it. Its use was
necessary due to budget and time constraints. This is no longer such an
issue, particularly as new digital animation techniques aid the creation
 TERRY, PAUL 193

of the products. As well as aiding 2D animation, digital animation in

the form of full computer-generated imagery (CGI) has been used to
create full television series, first seen with the Canadian series Reboot.
Many other series since have followed that format, though the technique
is generally used for science fiction and fantasy adventure series.
As new broadcast methods have increased with the use of the
Internet, television animation is still broadcast in the mainstream,
but new producers are able to reach new audiences worldwide. The
technology has been changing the animation created just as the new
television animation changed that which had been shown in cinemas
previous to the advent of television.

TERRY, PAUL (1887-1971). Born in San Mateo, California, the

youngest of five children, his mother died when he was one year old.
Paul Terry lived in San Francisco and after high school went to work
as an office boy for the San Francisco Bulletin. He then became a
photographer for the Chronicle and was there during the earthquake
and fire of 1906. Terry then traveled around until he ended up in New
York in 1911.
After seeing Winsor McCay and Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914,
Terry began working in the animation industry. His first film was
Little Herman, after which he was contracted by Hearst to make a
pilot for Mutt and Jeff with Bud Fisher. He made a deal with John
R. Bray to make a series of Farmer A1 Falfa and was one of the first
animators to adopt the Bray cel process.
Terry had a break from animation in 1917 when he went into the
army to film medical history. After the war, he returned to New York
where he formed a company with Earl Hurd, Frank Moser, Hugh
(Jerry) Shields, Leighton Budd, and his brother, John Terry, but they
soon broke apart. He continued creating the A1 Falfa series for Para-
mount Pictures in 1920 and a series of Aesop's Fables ( 1921-1929)
that was so successful they were produced one a week for eight years
at his "Fables Studios." In 1928, Terry's films were distributed by
the new Van Beuren studio. Terry's Dinnertime (1928) use of sound
led to his claims of the first sound cartoon, but it fell short of the full
sound synchronization in Steamboat Willie.
In 1929, Van Beuren took over Fables Studios because Terry was
reluctant to convert to sound too quickly. In 1929, Terry started his
194 TERRYTOONS

own studio, Terrytoons, with Moser, which ran until Terry sold the
studio to CBS in 1955. The studio had success with the series Mighty
Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle. In 1952, Terry sold the cartoons to
CBS for television but then in 1955 sold the entire studio and its as-
sets. He retired and lived until the age of 84.

TERRYTOONS. Studio created by Paul Terry in 1929 that produced

the popular series Mighty Mouse, originally known as Super Mouse,
in 1942 and Heckle and Jeckle in 1946. Terry sold the studio and its
assets to CBS in 1955, after which it only took CBS two years to
recover its investment. It was able to utilize the cartoon library and
take advantage of merchandise opportunities, which Terry had rarely
ventured into. CBS retained the original staff and continued to pro-
duce theatrical shorts as well as other projects. It hired Gene Deitch
from United Productions of America (UPA) in 1956 as artistic su-
pervisor and he remained at the studio for t ~ v oyears. Unfortunately,
attempts to revitalize the studio were resisted by Terry's staff. Even-
tually, new staff were brought in to introduce new characters. There
was a new design and style present in these new films, but they were
unsuccessful due to a lack of humor.
In 1958, Bill Weiss fired Deitch and took over control of the stu-
dio. He had over 30 years of studio experience and a good business
sense. He did not like Deitch's cartoons so he dropped his characters
and brought back some of the old Terrytoons, such as Mighty Mouse
and Heckle arld Jeckle. He switched the studio from Technicolor to
Deluxe Color to save money and wanted to break into the television
business with new characters. The Deputy Dawlg Show began in 1960
and consisted of 104 episodes.
New staff was brought in for television production, including
Ralph Bakshi, who joined in 1956, aged 18. By 1966, Bakshi was
directing his own cartoons, having worked his way up through the
studio and produced Mighty Heroes, new Mighty Mouse episodes.
After 26 episodes, however, Bakshi left to become a director at
Paramount Cartoon Studios. Aging skeleton staff led to a decline
in production and output, and the plant in New Kochelle, New York,
closed down. Studio activity did not entirely cease. Bill Weiss went
to Viacom, which took ownership of all Terrytoons films through
 THREE-DIMENSIONAL 195

CBS Films and continues to broadcast and distribute for foreign

markets.

TEZUKA, OSAMU (1928-1989). Born in Osaka, Japan, Osamu

Tezuka began his early career as a comic-strip artist, which earned
him the reputation of a living legend. His work was influenced by
his interests in Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, and the Fleischer
brothers. He attended medical school from 1947-1952 but retained
his interest in art.
In 1947, Tezuka published Shin Takar Jim (The New Treasure
Island), which sold half a million copies. His comic book success
made him something of a celebrity. Tezuka went into animation
in 1959 when he was hired by Toei Doga. In 1961, he founded his
own production company, Mushi Production Company Ltd., and
produced its first animated film in 1962, Stories on a Street Corner.
The company moved into television production and Tezuka created
Astro Boy in 1963, which was so successful that it was syndicated in
the United States later that year, and was essentially responsible for
the new Japanese television animation industry.
Tezuka continued to produce work for television but also worked
in feature-length animation as well as exhibiting short independent
films. Notable shorts include Jumping (1984), Broken Down Film
(1985), and Legend of the Forest (1987).

THAILAND. See ASIA.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3D). Three-dimensional (or 3D) animation

refers to animation that is created with solid objects, generally pup-
pets, clay, found objects, or pixilation using stop-motion techniques.
The objects are filmed and manipulated in small increments to create
the illusion of movement. With the increasing use of computer-
generated imagery (CGI), animation can be created to appear 3D
without having to physically make models to film; the "models" are
created by computer. This can be seen in such films as Pixar's Toy
Story ( 1995) or in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (200 1). The in-
creasing success of this type of film-particularly from Pixar, which
uses the technique in most of its films-has potentially led to the
 decline in traditional 2D (or drawn) animation. The Disney Studio
stopped producing drawn animation in 2004 despite its long history
in 2D animation and, indeed, much of the pioneering work from the
studio in the early days of animation.

THUNDERBIRDS. Created by Gerry Anderson, the Thi~riderbirds

series was one of his most well known and enduring. The puppet-
animated series originally ran on British television from 1964-1965
and took the form of a science fictionlaction adventure series in
which a family, the Traceys, ran a global rescue service from a secret
island base. The series was set in the year 2065 and featured five
high-tech vehicles and rockets. The series was very popular, lasting
26 episodes of 50 minutes in length each.
In 1966, a second series of six episodes was produced that con-
tinued to focus on International Rescue, but this time included a
London-based agent, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, and was set
in 2067. The series was followed by a feature-length film, Thun-
derbirds Are Go (1966), that saw the agency called to supervise the
arrangements for the launch of a manned mission to Mars.
Anderson followed up the success of Thuizderbirds with other
series in the same style but the original has remained popular with
renewed repeat broadcasts since the 1990s and the creation of a live-
action feature film in 2004. The merchandise from the series has also
continued to be popular with record sales of a particular toy, "Tracy
Island," performing as the top-selling Christmas toy in 1993 and
again in 2000.

TOM AND JERRY. Characters introduced by Bill Hanna and Joe Bar-
bera at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1930; they first appeared
in the short Puss Gets the Boot, though in this film Tom was named
Jasper. The series of cartoons featuring the pair was so successful it
ran for 15 years and was nominated for several Academy Awards
over the period of the run, and won seven. The series featured a mis-
chievous mouse, Jerry, and an angry put-upon cat, 'Tom. Over the life
of the series, the episodes became faster paced and more violent, with
Tom always trying to catch Jerry, who always got away.
The music was scored by Scott Bradley and the compositions used
were always of a high quality, which was important due to a lack of
 TOYSTORY 197

dialogue; the action of the chase drove the narrative. In 1943, Bill and
Joe won their first Oscar for Yankee Doodle Mouse. The best output
of the series was in the 1940s, and the influence of Tex Avery, who
was in control of the studio, can be seen in many of these films.
Success of the series was said to be due to good characters, good
stories, and good gags. Jerry (the mouse) appeared in a now-famous
dance sequence with Gene Kelly in the live-action musical Atzchors
Away (1944) and with Esther Williams in Darzgerous When Wet
(1953). In the 1950s, new characters were introduced, including
a duckling and a bulldog named Spike (and later, Spike's son). In
1957, MGM closed its animation studios and Bill and Joe went on to
form their own studio, Hanna-Barbera.
After an animation revival on television, MGM decided to re-
lease new Tom and Jerry cartoons; in 1961 and 1962, they hired
Gene Deitch to produce them from his Czech studio. Chuck Jones
was later brought in and redesigned the characters, with more ex-
pressive features and less chase and violence. Eventually, MGM
ended the series and old episodes were shown on television on
Saturday mornings.
Hanna-Barbera proposed a new series in 1975 but was told that the
violence would not be acceptable any more. They tried to produce the
cartoons with Tom and Jerry as friends instead of enemies, but they
were not of the same quality and the pair was not the same; however,
the series ran into the 1980s and is still popular in reruns.

TOY STORY. Toy Story (1995) was the first fully computer-generated
feature-length film and was directed by John Lasseter of Pixar and
distributed by the Disney Studio. Though the film uses full com-
puter-generated imagery (CGI), the development of the film was
all hand-drawn and storyboarded. The film is the story of Woody,
a toy cowboy, who is the favorite toy of a young boy, Andy. The
toys come to life when the humans are out of the room and we see
that they have virtually a full society in Andy's bedroom. This was
inspired by Lasseter's earlier short film Tin Toy (1988). When Andy
receives a new "Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger" doll/action figure for
his birthday, Woody is worried that he will be replaced in Andy's af-
fections. Woody tried to get Buzz out of the way, but Buzz does not
realize he is a toy and thinks he is the actual space ranger.
198 TRNKA, JIRI

In a fight between the two toys, they end up falling out of Andy's
house and into the back yard of the neighbor Sid, a child who likes
to torture and take apart his toys. By working together, they manage
to escape and resolve the situation. They also then accept each other
and their place in Andy's life. The story and dialogue are very good,
which very much added to the success of the animation. The film
was very successful and in 1999 a sequel, Toy Story 2 , was released.
There has also been a spin-off television series, Buzz Lightyear, and
a vast amount of merchandise for the films.

TRNKA, JIRI (1912-1969). Born in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, Trnka

was thought of as a master of animation due to his skill. His art
teacher was Josef Skupa, a puppeteer who encouraged him and took
him on as an assistant. During this time, Trnka learned the art of carv-
ing puppets, which-due to a long tradition of puppetry-was very
popular in Czechoslovakia after World War I. Trnka initially made
his name as a painter and satirical illustrator with an interest in book
illustration and theater. He founded the Wooden Theatre and follow-
ing World War I1 made a transition from puppet theater to animated
cinema. Grandfather Planted a Beet (1945) was his first film and
used animated drawings that demonstrated his artistic skills. Darek
(The Gift) (1946) was a surrealist film; Zvi'ratha a Petroviti (The
Animals and the Brigands, 1946) was a rendition of a popular tale;
and Pe'ra'k a SS (The Springer and the SS Men, 1946) was an anti-
Nazi film. Trnka complained that all of these films had been made
with "too many middlemen" and he changed from animating with
drawings to using puppets.
His puppet films were even better than his previous films as he was
able to present expressive "performances" from his puppets, aided
by skillful framing and lighting. His first feature was The Emperor's
Nightingale (1948), based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale.
Many of his films were adaptations of Czech folktales and his last
feature-length film was based on William Shakespeare's A Midsum-
mer Night's Dream (1959). The rest of his works were shorts after
he had experimented with a variety of genres.
Trnka became pessimistic and his work became bitter, which can
be seen in his final film, Ruka (The Hand, 1965). 111 health prevented
him from working and he became depressed due to this inability to
 TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION 199

work. He died in Prague in 1969 aged 57 but has been heralded as

a national poet who brought his love of nature and faith in people's
traditions to his films.

TRON. Directed by Steven Lisberger for Disney Studios, Tron (1982)

was a live-action feature film with digital animation sequences.
Despite poor reception and box-office takings, the film was a break-
through in computer animation in motion pictures. The film includes
235 computer produced scenes, totaling over 15 minutes of computer-
generated imagery (CGI), which was more than any previous film,
and the production involved four leading computer graphics com-
panies. The poor takings affected the prospects of any other films
using CGI but the film was highly influential on a number of people,
including John Lasseter of Pixar, who saw early scenes of Tron in
production and decided that CGI was the future of animation.
Jeff Bridges plays a computer programmer who makes games in
his spare time while working for a large company, Encom. After he
is double-crossed by a colleague, he tries to investigate and ends up
inside the computer mainframe and has to play the games to get back
out. The section inside the computer is digitally created with digital
renderings of the people Bridges worked with in the system; the film
also stars Bruce Boxleitner. The film was influential on the television
series Reboot ( 1993).

TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF ANIMATION. The Twelve Principles

of Animation are a set of guidelines developed by the Disney Studio
in the 1930s to guide the animation staff in the design of the animated
movements of characters. They are outlined in the book Disrzey
Animation: The Illusion of Life (1981) by Frank Thomas and Ollie
Johnston, two of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men."
1. Squash and stretch
2. Anticipation
3. Staging
4. Straight ahead action and pose to pose
5. Follow through and overlapping action
6. Slow in and out
7. Arcs
200 UNITED PRODUCTIONS OF AMERICA

8. Secondary action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
1 1. Solid drawings
12. Appeal
These rules devised for animators to work by are still used in
the industry and as a teaching tool for animation students. They are
particularly used for two-dimensional drawn animation, though the
principles can be used as a rough guide in creating computer anima-
tion or computer-generated imagery (CGI).

UNITED PRODUCTIONS OF AMERICA (UPA). The United Pro-

ductions of America studio, commonly known as UPA, was a critical
and popular success in the early 1950s. Its reputation was based on
its style, which was a radical departure from Walt Disney, and most
of its staff had been employed by the Disney Studio at some point.
New talent from art schools had been snapped up by Disney in the
early 1930s, but these new employees clashed with the older staff
who had no fine art background, and as a result they did not share
the new artists' artistically progressive sensibilities. The leaders of
the strike in 1941 were active in the newly formed Screen Cartoonists
Guild and wanted to use animation as an expressive medium. When
Frank Tashlin hired the strikers, the group that formed became the
basis for UPA.
Some made war pictures but Zachary Schwartz of Screen Gems
and Dave Hillberman rented a Los Angeles office space to paint and
got an opportunity to produce a film strip on air safety. United Auto
Works approached the Screen Cartoonists Guild to produce a pro-
Roosevelt campaign film. To do this, John Hubley got together with
Phil Eastman and Bill Hurtz. Other studios felt it was too political
so the company, Industrial Films and Poster Services, was formed
to make it. Hell Bent for Election was heralded as a major success
and the company grew, changing its name to UPA, formed with
Schwartz, Hillberman, Steve Bosustow, and Jules Engel. They were
 UNITED STATES 201

commissioned to make more safety films, but there was a change of

ownership after the war. The studio produced Robin Hoodlum (1949)
and The Magic Fluke (1949, featuring one of its star characters, Mr.
Magoo), which were Academy Award nominated, and Columbia
agreed to distribute the films, guaranteeing the success of the com-
pany e

UPA's first major popular success after Mr. Magoo was with Ger-
ald McBoing Boing, reinforcing the studio's reputation when it was
released in January 1951. The films reflected a modernist style and
used a limited animation technique that would influence many other
animators in the 1950s and beyond. Despite the success, the studio
ran into financial problems with films going over budget. In order
to solve this, it began to produce advertisements, which essentially
saved the studio. During the 1950s, the studio had a good output
with Madeline, John Hubley's Rooty Toot Toot (1952), The Telltale
Heart (1953), and the animated credit sequence for the live-action
film The Four Poster (1952), which was shown in Europe and said
to be influential on the Zagreb School. In 1956, CBS commissioned
a Gerald McBoing Boing, which was the first animated series made
for network television and ran from 1956-1958.
A second studio opened in New York and was equally successful.
It hired Gene Deitch and soon the studio had become the name for
style. In 1959, Jules Engel and others left to form their own studio
with some employees leaving to join Jay Ward; only Bosustow re-
mained. The studio was sold to Henry G. Saperstein, who went into
TV production with Mister Magoo and a series of Dick Tracey. In
1962, the film Gay Puree was produced, but this was the last. The
studio's aesthetic style was highly influential around the world.

UNITED STATES. The United States has been the dominant country
in terms of the origin and development of animation since the early
days of the form. Though there was a great deal of technological
innovation and development in Europe in creating moving images,
and specifically moving drawings, the United States with Thomas
Edison's vitascope has been a major part in the success of the form.
When J. Stuart Blackton, an Englishman by birth, opened his
company with Edison's technology, he sought to create animation just
as the French had been doing. Others in New York were impressed
202 UNITED STATES

by the technology and the desire to move from newspaper cartoon-

ing to moving, animated drawings created a burgeoning new industry.
Pioneers like Winsor McCay, J. R. Bray, and Earl Hurd developed
their skills with a view to making the process of animating quicker
and more cost effective. By developing cel animation and registration
systems, these early animators were quickly joined by the likes of Pat
Sullivan, Ub Iwerks, the Fleischer brothers, Otto Messmer, and
Walt Disney. The success of the latter is well known but it undoubt-
edly helped put the United States in the lead as the top producer of
animation.
Hollywood's dominance in the cinema business continued and was
joined by animation at the top, with continual success for Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, Disney, Terrytoons, and
Walter Lantz, among others. Of course, the United States had an
advantage over Europe, which since the early part of the 20th century
had either been at war or recovering from it. It was not until World
War I1 that the U.S. market suffered any effects with the loss of the
overseas market.
With the U.S. position as a world power increasing in the postwar
period, there was an increasing interest in its exports, particularly
entertainment, and especially in Great Britain. This success con-
tinued and as technology developed, the United States had the staff
and money to develop with it, the best example of which is the Pixar
studio. Though many of the most innovative animations were coming
from Eastern Europe, political conditions kept them from distribu-
tion as such. Equally, the increasing ubiquity of television-and with
it television animation-has seen a dominance of U.S. production.
Though in Britain, for example, a large part of children's television
animation is produced within the country, it mostly imports prime-
time or adult animation.
As globalization and technological developments worldwide have
opened markets, more diverse animation is available, and likewise
is influencing the U.S. animation industry. The country remains one
of the major producers of animation, though in recent years a new
interest in Japanese animation in the United States and the West in
general has perhaps influenced some of the output. See also ACAD-
EMY AWARDS; CARTOON NETWORK; MllSlC TE1,EVISION;
SITCOM.
 VAN BEUREN 203

URUSEZ YATSURA. Japanese anime, adapted from a manga series,

was produced as a series of six films as well as a long-running televi-
sion series. The television series ran from 1981 until 1986, contain-
ing 195 episodes. One of the directors of the series was Ghost in the
Shell director Mamoru Oshii. The series was dubbed in Great Brit-
ain and the title was changed to Lum the Invader Girl after one of the
main characters, though the original Japanese title is a pun, roughly
translated as "those obnoxious aliens." The story follows a young
man named Ataru Morobishi, who is described as the "unluckiest
and most lecherous young man alive" who is chosen to defend the
Earth when it is attacked by aliens. Though he will save the world if
he wins the battle (a game of "tag"), he is inspired to fight by the ap-
parent promise of winning the marriage (and, more importantly, the
marriage night) of his girlfriend if he can defeat the invaders. After
a battle lasting 10 days, Ataru makes a mistake in his declaration of
victory and marriage when he catches the curvaceous alien Princess
Lum, and it is she he becomes "married" to.
The series' success led to its broadcast in a variety of countries
worldwide, including versions in French, Italian, and Spanish. The
series also inspired a range of video games, the last of which was
released in 2005; this combined with the release of the series on DVD
suggests a lasting popularity.

VAN BEUREN. Production studio of Armadee J. Van Beuren (1879-

1937) and probably the least-known studio in the United States in the
1930s. It took over the Fables Studio from Paul Terry in 1928 and
decided to produce all of the Aesop's Fables in sound, though the studio
had to cut production rates from 52 films a year in order to cope with the
production demands. The studio attempted to introduce new characters,
including a boy and girl mouse pair, but Walt Disney filed an injunc-
tion due to the resemblance to Mickey Mouse. The first original charac-
ters produced by the studio came in the series Tom and Jerry, featuring
two Mutt and Jefftype (human) friends. They later introduced another
new character, Cubby Bear, but the series was not very successful. The
studio had a high turnover of staff, with employees frequently being
204 VIETNAM

fired. However, a number of talented, successful animators passed

through, including Frank Tashlin, Joe Barbera, and Burt Gillett, who
had directed Disney's Three Little Pigs. The studio was eventually
successful in 1935 when it was responsible for the revival of Felix the
Cat. It also secured a contract with RKO, but the studio closed in 1936
and Van Beuren died in 1937 of a heart attack. In 1930, the cartoons
were sold to Official Films and later sold for home movie rentals and
television broadcast.

VIETNAM. See ASIA.

VINTON, WILL (1947- ). American animator born in Oregon, Will

Vinton studied at the University of California-Berkeley, where he
produced shorts, both animated and live action. His live-action
experience was helpful as he began to produce three-dimensional
(3D) animation for models in his architecture studies. He was also
interested in the classic Walt Disney style of animation as well as
the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. He graduated in 1971 and began to
work as a freelance filmmaker. In collaboration with Bob Gardiner,
he made his first clay animated short, Closed Mondays (1974), which
won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1975. The film
was about a drunken man who enters a closed museum and reacts in
a disorderly way to paintings, and objects come alive.
Vinton patented his Claymation process, which gave new promi-
nence to the technique. This clay technique offered the ability to cre-
ate metamorphosis and surrealism and Vinton left the partnership to
found his own studio, Will Vinton Studios Inc., in Portland, Oregon.
He made a variety of shorts between 1978 and 1985 including Martin
the Cobbler (1976), Rip Vaiz Wiiikle (1978), and The Little Prince
(1979). For television, he created The California Raisirzs, which be-
gan as an advertising campaign and then became a television series,
The Califorr~iaRaisirls Show.
Vinton produced the prime-time series The PJs for Warner
Brothers and Gary and Mike for U P N , using foam for modeling in-
stead of clay. He also created the M&Ms characters using computer-
generated imagery (CGI) instead of his Claymation. In 2002, he lost
control of his studio, which was taken over by Laika, who dismissed
 VIOLENCE 205

Vinton and hired Henry Selick. Vinton set up a new studio, Free~~ill
Entertainment.

VIOLENCE. The introduction of the Production Code Administra-

tion (PCA, also known as the Hays Code) in the United States in
1934 was essentially the beginning of censorship in the film indus-
try. A set of rules was established that could affect the content of
a film or stop distribution if the film failed to meet the standards.
The code was increasingly enforced as talking pictures became
popular and animation content was altered, with the lengthening of
Betty Boop's skirt being one notable example. l'he PCA was aban-
doned and replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA) in the 1960s that provided certification for films. While
the PCA and MPAA were censoring content, the debates began
surrounding the violence in cartoons and the effects it might have
on young viewers. Warner Brothers had produced numerous car-
toons with violent content, particularly in the Road Runner series,
which featured repeated violence done to Wile E. Coyote in his
pursuit of the Road Runner. Likewise Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's
(MGM) Tom and Jerry series was little more than a constant chase
and fight scenario, with Tom bearing the brunt of most of the vio-
lence inflicted upon him by Jerry. Despite the extreme violence,
it was presented in a slapstick, comedic way and there were no
real repercussions or effects on the characters, who were always
restored in the next scene.
The increase in television animation brought a change in the
viewing habits of the (often) young audiences who could now watch
cartoons repeatedly and often without supervision. This was viewed
as potentially damaging, as it was felt that children would mimic
what they saw. Over the years, television became more conservative
with the rise of parents groups, religious groups, and the Federal
Communications Commission (also formed in 1934), which acted in
a similar manner to the PCA for television. William Hanna said that
they tried to make new Tom arzd Jerry cartoons in the 1970s but due
to stricter codes on violence they could not be made in the same way,
and it was suggested that had those codes existed when the series was
originally produced it would not have been released.
206 WAKING LIFE

A variety of studies have been carried out over the years to prove
and disprove the effects of cartoon violence on children but with no
coherent conclusion. The issue has been satirized in The Simpsons
and South Park, themselves subject to complaints about content.
Japanese cartoons are more violent than their U.S. counterparts
and have been for many years, but these are marketed at different
age groups and are perhaps more appropriate. One of the key issues
in this debate is the suitability of animation for children, but often
the perception of animation as a children's entertainment medium
ignores the vast array of other, adult animation.

WAKING LIFE. Directed by Richard Linklater, Waking Life (2001)

is an animated feature film with art direction and animation by
Bob Sabiston using his digital proprietary rotoscope technique,
Rotoshop. The film tackled the question of "Are we sleepwalking
through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?" The
main protagonist, Wiley Wiggins, searches for answers to life and
the nature of reality in a variety of sequences and discussions. The
Rotoshopped technique lends a dreamlike quality to the aesthetic of
the film, the success of which brought attention to Sabiston and the
animation process. The pair later collaborated on the feature A Scan-
ner Darkly (2006), an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel.

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS. Produced by and broadcast on the

British Broadcasting Company's television channel, the series
Walking with Dirzosa~u-s(1999) was trying to recreate an accurate
portrayal of prehistoric animals not previously seen on screen. The
series was produced by Tim Haines and Jasper James, and devel-
oped by Andrew Wilks. By combining fact with what they termed
"informed speculation" and state-of-the-art computer-generated
imagery (CGI) and animatronics, the series, which took two years to
make, was highly successful. The series was narrated by actor Ken-
neth Brannagh when the series was broadcast on British television in
1999, but when it aired in the United States on the Discovery Chan-
nel the narration was changed and featured Avery Brooks. The Guin-
 WARD, JAY 207

ness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most
expensive documentary series per minute ever made. It consisted of
six episodes, each 30 minutes long, and covered the Triassic to late
Cretaceous periods. The series won three Emmy Awards including
Best Animated Program. The success of Walking with Dinosaurs
led to the production of the spin-off series Walking with Beasts and
Walking with Monsters. See also GREAT BRITAIN.

WALLACE AND GROMIT. Characters created by Aardman Ani-

mation's Nick Park. The characters of the man (Wallace) and his
dog companion (Gromit) are animated in clay and first appeared
in the comedy A Grand Day Out (1989), which won an Academy
Award for the Best Animated Short. This film was followed by
The Wrong Trousers ( 1 993)' A Close Shave (19 9 9 , and the fea-
ture-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), which won the
Academy Award for the Best Animated Feature. All of the films
won BAFTA awards in Britain. Wallace is described as an eccentric
cheese-eating inventor, with a particular fondness for Wensleydale
cheese, and is rather nai've. His dog Gromit is the brains in the part-
nership. Though Gromit does not speak, he uses expressive facial
movements that communicate (to the audience at least) his thoughts.
In their first film, they went to the moon in search of cheese in a
rocket they built themselves. In their second film, Wallace created
mechanical trousers that were used to foil the plans of the villainous
penguin, who was also their lodger. The visual puns and gags are
very successful and include spoofs of movies. The films are aimed at
audiences of all ages and the quality of the animation has raised the
standards for clay animation. A spin-off from the third film featured
character Shaun the Sheep and was developed in shorts for the Brit-
ish Broadcasting Company's children's channel CBBC.

WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS. See DISNEY STUDIO.

WARD, JAY (1920-1989). California native Jay Ward attended the

University of California-Berkeley and was awarded an MBA at
Harvard Business School. Ward was working in real estate when he
was approached by Alexander Anderson (nephew of Paul Terry) to
invest in Anderson's animation business. As partners, they created
208 WARNER BROTHERS

The Comic Strips of Television in 1949, the first animated television

series in the United States. The series featured Ward's creations
Crusader Rabbit and Dudley Do-Right and used limited animation
techniques. In the late 1950s, Ward founded Jay Ward Productions
and was joined by several veterans of United Productions of Amer-
ica (UPA), including Bill Scott.
In 1958, Rocky and His Friends was produced, launching the pop-
ular characters Rocky and Bullwinkle. Ward also created the Capt'n
Crunch character, who is still a cereal box mascot, and the cartoon
character of George in George of the Jungle. The old cartoons are
still broadcast in reruns and the studio continues production. Several
of Ward's cartoon characters have been transferred into live-action
feature films, including Boris and Natasha (1992), George of the
Jungle (1997), and The Adventures of Rocky arzd Bullwinkle (2000),
which combines live action and animation.

WARNER BROTHERS. Film production studio founded in 1918, with

the animation division arising out of the work produced by Harman-
Ising, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Leon Schlesinger had
previously worked with Warner Bros. on The Jazz Siriger (1927) and
sold the idea of a cartoon series, Bosko, created by Harman-Ising, by
claiming that they could promote popular music from its films and
publishing companies in the cartoons. 'I'he first production of the new
Looney Tunes series was Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930). The second
series commissioned was Merrie Melodies, which was to specifically
feature songs from Warner's back catalogue; this series was well
liked but never lived up to the potential success of the Looney Tulles
series.
Schlesinger's animation studio began by imitating the Disney
Studio and hired many of Disney's staff, though by the mid-1930s
many of those staff had left. A new group joined, which initiated a
distinctive style and format that had little in common with Walt Dis-
ney. The animation was bold, brash, innovative, and funny in a way
that Disney had never been. It never tried to compete with Disney on
feature-length animations, instead concentrating on the production
of shorts.
The studio had a remarkable track record and dominated the in-
dustry for over 20 years. It had more lasting cartoon "stars" than
 WEB ANIMATION 209

any other studio, including Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny,
the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Tweety, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd,
Yosemite Sam, Pepe le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, and Speedy Gonza-
les. The studio also launched the careers of many of the best-and
best-known-animators, for example, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett,
Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, and Frank Tashlin, giants in animation
history. By 1933, Harman and Ising had moved to Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer (MGM) and Freleng, Clampett, and Jones became the new
guard whose new style emerged in 1934. At this point, the animation
division was referred to as "Termite Terrace."
Warner Bros. served as a Rooseveltian stronghold during World
War I1 and this was reflected in the films. The Private Snafu series
was created to help the war effort on behalf of the U.S. government
for military audiences.
In 1944, Schlesinger sold his studio directly to Warner Bros. and
Clampett and Jones began to direct even more films. The 1950s were
a particular high point for Jones and included Duck Amuck (1953)
and What's Opera Doc? (1957). In 1960, with the increasing popu-
larity of television animation, The Bugs Bunny Show was broadcast
and consisted of old shorts repackaged into a television-friendly half-
hour format. In 1963, Warner closed the in-house animation studio.
However, in 1996 it returned to animation with the live-actionlani-
mated feature Space Jam, which starred basketball player Michael
Jordan with Bugs Bunny and several of the Looney Tunes alumni. In
1999, it released The Iron Giant, which was directed by Brad Bird,
though it was not commercially successful. Likewise, Loorzey Tunes:
Back in Action (2003) failed to capture attention.
Attempts were made at the television market once more in 1990
with Tiny Toon Adventures, in collaboration with director Steven
Spielberg, which was created in homage to the classic cartoons.
After years of mergers and takeovers, Warner Bros. Entertainment
took over Turner Broadcasting, which had previously purchased the
Hanna-Barbera library. With the combined libraries, the cartoons
began broadcast on the Cartoon Network.

WEB ANIMATION. Web animation refers to the use of the Internet,

or Web, as a platform for distribution of animation. The increasing
development and popularity of the Web has enabled a vast explosion
21 0 WESTERN EUROPE

of animation, from animated GIFS and logos in advertising to ama-

teur filmmakers using Flash, machinima, or brick films. The Web
can be used as an outlet for reaching audiences with little creative,
financial, or bureaucratic restrictions, or the censorship that the tele-
vision and feature animation can be subject to through networks and
government bodies.
Animation can reach international audiences that may be beyond
conventional broadcasting, but while the market is essentially freely
open, in terms of content and creativity, there is also no quality con-
trol. The platform can also offer interactivity and can develop series
for animation, such as Homestar Runner and others that may have
the potential to move to television. Web animation can also provide
support for existing animation, theatrical or television, by showcas-
ing the product.
Another good example of the potential for Web animation is the
series Red vs. Blue, which uses machillima animation and began in
2003, and received 20,000 downloads on its first day. The series'
success has seen the expanded development of more series and spin-
offs. The series has also moved beyond its Web platform to being
distributed on DVD. This success demonstrates how the Web can be
used to launch animation that may not have been seen elsewhere.

WESTERN EUROPE. Western Europe has produced much of the ear-

liest and most experimental animation, particularly that of France,
Germany, and Great Britain, and as such they have their own
entries. Elsewhere in the continent, the early animators were being
inspired to create their own films from the northern Scandinavian
regions, such as Sweden, to the Mediterranean coastal countries such
as Spain and Italy.
The Dutch animation industry is said to have begun in the 1930s
with a puppet film made with silhouette cutouts by Otto Van Nei-
jenhoff and Frans ter Gast. The puppet form was traditional and
became a dominant feature in the animation industry. Hungarian
animator George Pal established his Puppetoons in the Netherlands
with a contract from the electronics firm Philips. After he left for the
United States, the company commissioned Johan Geesnik to create
new works. He formed his own company, which produced numer-
ous films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, eventually moving into
 WESTERN EUROPE 21 1

television, though in 1971 the company went bankrupt. The studio

was sold to Cinecentrum, who had already bought out other studios
and in 1973 produced the popular television series Barbapapa. In the
1980s, Dutch art cinema was developing and new animators working
in this area included Ronald Bijlsma, Gerrit van Dijk, and Nick Reus.
Independent animator Paul Driesson (1940- ) was invited early in his
career to work with George Dunning at TVC on Yellow Submarine
(1968), which he followed by making his own film, Het Verhaal von
Klein Yoghurt (The Story of Little John Bailey, 1970). In 1972, he
immigrated to Canada and joined the National Film Board (NFB),
and he has won over 50 international awards.
The early Spanish animation industry was centered in the Catalan
city of Barcelona, though Madrid played a small part as a center for
puppet animation. As in France, the very earliest animation took the
form of trick film and effects creation, though the civil war halted
the development of the industry somewhat. In the postwar period,
much of the animation produced was connected to comic book art
with artists working between crafts and with most of the focus on
children's entertainment. The main studios were Hispano Grdfic
Films and Dibsono Films (which later merged to form Dibujos Ani-
mados Chamartin), Diarmo Films, and Estela Films. These studios
produced a variety of films in the late 1930s and 1940s. The 1950s
saw a decline in the production of Spanish animation, with the in-
dustry essentially sustained by the advertising industry, though the
increasing popularity of television led to new productions in that sec-
tor. Several adaptations were made by Madrid-based studios, includ-
ing CantinJas by Estudios Moro and the internationally successful
Don Quijote de la Manchu by Cruz Delgado's self-named studio.
Barcelona remained a key area for animation production, and in the
1960s, 1970s, and 1980s more independent animators were produc-
ing feature-length films. Francesc MaciBn's El mago de 10s sueiios
(The Magician of Dreams, 1966) is considered to be one of the fin-
est animated films produced in the region since the war. Jordi "Ja"
Amor6s founded the Equip Studio, producing shorts and advertise-
ments as well as a feature for adults, Historias de amor y massacre
(Stories of Love and Massacre, 1976). Independent animators of note
from this period include JosC Antonio Sistiaga, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi,
and Gabriel Blanco.
2 12 WESTERN EUROPE

Ireland's relatively small animation industry was given a boost

in 1985 when Don Bluth left the Disney Studio and established a
new studio in Dublin, the Sullivan Bluth Studios in partnership with
Morris Sullivan. The most notable Irish animator is Aidan Hickey,
who created the popular television series A Dog's Tale (1981) and
An Inside Job (1987).
Belgium's animation industry began in the 1920s with a father-
and-son team, the Houssiaus, who began producing advertising films.
Like many other European countries, puppet animation became a
dominant form, though not always liked by censors. There was some
disruption during World War I1 due to the German occupation but
Paul Nagant founded a studio and produced several short films. After
the war, there was an increase in production, particularly for televi-
sion, including the adaptation of the popular Tiittin comic by author
HergC. Belvision, founded in 1955, was devoted to productions
featuring the Tintin characters, including a series of 104 television
episodes in 1960. In the mid-1960s, the company produced Tintin
features as well as those featuring the popular French comic char-
acter AstCrix. In the 1970s, animators began producing shorts with
a less commercial focus and more experimental approaches, such as
the cameraless animation produced by Louis Van Maelder, Aim6
Vercruysse, and Raymond Antoine, who produced a number of films
in the 1960s and 1970s. Other notable animators include Gerald Fry-
dman, Vkronique Steeno, and perhaps one of the best known, Raoul
Servais, whose work used a variety of techniques and formats. His
best work is considered to be Harpya (Harpy, 1978).
Although the countries that make up the geopolitical region of
Western Europe have their own distinct styles, there are commonali-
ties in the development pace in many of these countries. By the turn
of the century, the animation industry was developing worldwide
and Western Europe was no exception. By the year 2000, European
feature animation had increased production with the aid of more
available funding. Spain became the highest producer of animation
after France and Britain, due to lower production costs. Animation
festivals increased in number and scope, including one of the major
festivals, Annecy, in France. There was also an increase in collabora-
tion between countries. Breakthrough films include the French fea-
 WHITNEY, JAMES 2 13

ture Kirikpou and the Sorceress (2000) directed by Michel Ocelot;

Momo: The Conquest of Time (2000) directed by Enzo d'Alo, which
was a joint venture between Italy and Germany; El Cid: The Legend
(2003) is a Spanish feature by director Jos6 Pozo. Other notable con-
temporary animators include Gerrit Van Dijk, Steffen Schaeffer, and
Andreas Hykade. One of the most successful features in 2004, Les
Triplettes de Belleville (Belleville Rendezvous), directed by Sylvain
Chomet, was coproduced by France, Belgium, and Canada, and was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

WHAT'S OPERA DOC? Perhaps Chuck Jones' greatest film, What's

Opera Doc? (1957) sees Bugs Bunny starring with Elmer Fudd in
this animated version of Richard Wagner's 14-hour Ring Cycle in six
minutes. Bugs plays the role of Briiunhilde with Fudd as Seigfried
chasing him. The dialogue is sung and uses some of Wagner's music,
with the rest of the soundtrack in the same style. 'The backgrounds
and visuals were designed to portray the dramatic nature of the epic
story. A total of 104 backgrounds were made for the film rather than
the usual 60 for a six-minute film.
The film made use of the full Warner Brothers orchestra and was
designed by Maurice Noble, who worked at the studio as a layout art-
ist. The complete soundtrack was recorded in advance of the anima-
tion. The final scene of Rugs' death with Elmer tentatively picking him
up and carrying him off in regret of his actions sees Bugs deliver his
trademark last word as he addresses the audience with the line, "Well,
what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?" What's Opera
Doc? often rates as one of the best animated films of all times.

WHITNEY, JAMES (1921-1982). At the beginning of his animation

career, U.S. animator James Whitney collaborated with his brother
John and their first films were the result of experiments. James
had an interest in painting and craftsmanship rather than music and
technique, like his brother. Instead, he devoted himself to the study
of Oriental philosophy, yoga, poetics, and quantum physics. He
withdrew from the world and chose a life of meditation in a small
Japanese-style house that had been adapted by some friends, and
from it he was able to observe the changing seasons.
2 14 WHITNEY, JOHN

From the early 1950s until his death in 1982, Whitney only made
five films but these are considered to be of such high quality that he
has a reputation as one of the best creators of nonobjective cinema
and a great visionary. He attempted to create a visual alphabet that
would be a basic element and in Yarztra (1955), whose title was de-
rived from Sanskrit, he conceived a "spiritual experience" with only
optical images and no soundtrack, although one was added in later
distribution.
His paintings were similar in form to his films, and his film Lapis
(1965) look three years to make, created manually on cels but with
his brother's help on the computer. His last project was a trilogy that
examined the natural elements of fire, water, air, and earth; however,
it remains unfinished. He directed one segment, Karzg Jing Xiarzg, but
never edited the film; it was completed by his nephew Mark Whitney
and William Moritz on his instruction.

WHITNEY, JOHN (1917-1995). Often considered to be the father of

computer animation, U.S. animator John Whitney began his anima-
tion career when he changed his interests from music to science, spe-
cifically astronomy. He approached frame-by-frame cinema through
this interest in astronomy after recording the evolution of an eclipse
with an 8 mm camera.
Whitney became interested in abstract filmmaking with his brother
James and the two set up a small laboratory to carry out experiments
that combined John's musical knowledge with James' pictorial inter-
ests. John invented an optical printer for their 8 mm camera and made
several short, experimental films, including Twenty-Four Variations
(1940) and Film Exercises (nos. 1 to 5, 1943-1 944). The films have
been described as the most stimulating and complete abstract films
ever made. They would put a light source in front of the camera and
derive an image from masks above the light. The sound accompani-
ment was created with a system of pendulums that John invented.
The brothers then parted ways and John continued to develop and
experiment with new techniques such as filming a luminous surface
covered in oil and tracing images out with his finger, creating soft
edges and subtle effects. This technique was used in Mozart Rorzdo
(1949), Hot House (1949), and Celery Stalks at Midnight (195 1 ) .
However, during the 1950s, he lost interest in these methods and
 WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT 2 15

began experimenting more with sound and image, trying to compose

visual music in Catalog (1961). He would create the effects using a
computer and made Permutations in 1968, which was the first film
he felt was complete.
Whitney was hired by the computer company IBM in 1966 as a
research consultant. He created a series of films, Matrix (1971-1972)
and Arabesque (1975), using computer-generated lines. While he
was known to be dissatisfied with much of his own work, it has been
very influential in the development of animation technology and
techniques. His sons John Jr. (1947- ), Mark (1951- ), and Michael
(1948- ) have continued his work and updated some of his computer
techniques.

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and

animated by Richard Williams for Disney Studios. Following the
Disney tradition of mixing live action with animation (such as Mary
Poppins), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is a noir detective story
set in 1947. Marvin Acme has been murdered and Roger Rabbit is
the main suspect. Claiming to have been framed, he appoints private
detective Eddie Valiant, played by Bob Hoskins, in live action. Val-
iant dislikes "toons," as his brother was killed by a piano falling on
his head, but reluctantly takes the case.
Roger is a suspect due to incriminating photographs of his wife,
Jessica, with Acme, though he trusts her story and did not take the
revenge the police accuse him of. Jessica is an animated human de-
signed with Red Hot Riding Hood in mind and Tex Avery's influ-
ence can be seen throughout the film. With Acme dead, Toon Town
is in danger of being bulldozed to make way for a new highway, at
the instruction of Judge Doom, who turns out to be a toon disguised
as a human. Eddie solves the case and helps Roger, at the same time
helping all of Toon Town, as Acme's will is found, in invisible ink,
and he has left the town to all of the toons.
The film plays on classic animation history and Hollywood studio
conventions and uses familiar jokes and characters to develop the
story. The film was released at a time when commercial animation
was not very successful, but the success of Who Framed Roger Rab-
bit demonstrated the potential for animated features to attract an adult
audience as well as children.
2 16 YELLOW SUBMARINE

YELLOW SUBMARINE. Directed by George Dunning and designed

by Heinz Edelman, produced by United Artists. Yellow Submarine,
released in 1968, is based on the music of the Beatles and featured
the voices of the band as well as the British actor Dick Emery. The
story has the Beatles accompanying Captain Fred in his yellow
submarine on its journey to Pepperland to free it from the music-
hating Blue Meanies. The film used limited animation and was
groundbreaking with its stylized design, movement, and psychedelic
imagery. The original story was written by Lee Minoff and was based
on the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The film has ef-
fectively set pieces to a variety of Beatles songs with in jokes and
references to the band. The film's success led to the Disney Studio's
reissue of Fantasia, marketed to the audience that had enjoyed the
"psychedelic" experience of Yellow Submaritze.

ZAGREB. The Croatian (formerly Yugoslavian) city of Zagreb is

included as an entry due to its significance in European anima-
tion. After World War 11, there was little background in animation
as production was not sponsored by the state, but there were a few
Zagreb-based enthusiasts, including Sergije Tagatz ( 1 898- 1 973),
who had trained in the Soviet Union, the Maar brothers from Ger-
many, and Fadil Hadzic, who created the satirical short Veliki Mititzg
(The Big Meeting, 1951). Hadzic formed Duga Film, with a group of
100 developing artists who used Czech animation and Walt Disney
as examples to train. Zora Film, ~vhichproduced educational films,
collaborated with Duga (which became defunct), and success led to
the incorporation of the group as Zagreb Film in 1953.
In 1955, it developed a limited animation style similar to that of
United Productions of America (UPA). Success and support con-
tinued and in 1958 the entire animation section of Zagreb Film was
praised at the Cannes Film Festival. Work from the group became
known as the Zagreb School and can be divided into two periods. The
first, from 1957 to 1964, was dominated by Vakatic, Mimica, and
 ZEMAN, KAREL 2 17

Kristle, who legitimized the limited animation style and had a tendency
toward avant-garde style. The subject matter dealt with the anguish and
horrors of existence and became almost a trademark of the animators.
By 1963, the leaders of the school had moved on and the second
phase was characterized by art cinema and filmmakers writing, direct-
ing, and drawing their own films. A new style prevailed but avoided a
collective model and strived toward the individual animators' styles.
The new generation of Zagreb Film gained prestige as one of the ma-
jor artistic powers in world animation and their animation spread to
other cities. The company now operates in three locations and since
1953 has received more than 400 awards around the world, including
Academy Awards. Over 600 animated films have been produced.
As well as continuing production in film and television, the annual
film festival showcases the best new animation in the world.

ZEMAN, KAREL (1910-1989). Czech-born stop-motion animator

who was said to have been inspired by his contemporary Jiri Trnka.
His debut film was The Christnlas Dream (1943) and he produced
five shorts featuring the character Mr. Prokouk, which were very
popular with children. He went on to make the beautifully crafted
lnspirace (Inspiration, 1938) and the satire Kral Ldvra (King La'vra,
1948) adapted from the novel by Karel Harlicek Borovsky, using
puppets. Zeman went on to produce the features The Treasure of
Bird Island (1952) and A Journey into Prehistory (1954), the latter
featuring animated models of dinosaurs, though the rest of the film
was in live action.
Zeman again combined live action with animation, this time draw-
ings and models in Vyndlez Zkdzy (The Deadly Invention, 1958),
which took two years to complete. The film was based on Jules
Verne's novel Face the Flag and was critically successful. He fol-
lowed up with another adaptation, this time Baron Prdsil (Baron
Munchausen, 1961) based on Gottfried Biirger's novel and the en-
gravings of Gustave DurC.
Zeman continued making films of this type, including On the
Comet (1970),Sinbad the Sailor (1972), The Sorcerer's Apprentice
(1977),and Karel Zeman for Children (1980). His films evoke fan-
tasy brought to life and his work became an influence on later East-
ern European animators.
2 18 ZOETROPE

ZOETROPE. Also known as the "Wheel of Life," the zoetrope was ad-
opted from the notion of persistence of vision that was established in
1829. Scientists around the world (though mostly in Europe) devel-
oped models to demonstrate the phenomenon using discs with slots
cut out and images behind, which when spun would give the illusion
of movement to the still images. Variations on this were developed
until, in 1834, William George Horner proposed a device that con-
sisted of a spinning drum with an open top into which was placed a
hand-drawn sequence of pictures on a piece of paper. The pictures
were placed around the inside of the drum and could be viewed
through slots on the outside of the drum. The illusion of movement
was given when the drum was spun. This machine was referred to
as a daedalum but was forgotten about until 1887 when the machine
was patented by William Lincoln in the United States and M. Brad-
ley in England as the zoetrope. This machine led to the development
of animation and the moving image in general.
 Appendix:
Academy Award Winners

SHORT SUBJECT (CARTOON)

1931-1932 (5th) Flowers and Trees- Walt Disney, Producer

1932-1933 (6th) Three Little Pigs-Walt Disney, Producer
1934 (7th) The Tortoise and the Hare-Walt Disney, Producer
1935 (8th) Three Orpharz Kittens- Walt Disney, Producer
1936 (9th) The Country Cousirz-Walt Disney, Producer
1937 (10th) The Old Mill-Walt Disney, Producer
1938 ( I lth) Ferdinand the Bull-Walt Disney, Producer
1939 (12th) The Ugly D~icklirzg-Walt Disney, Producer
1940 (13th) The Milky Way-Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Fred Quimby
and Rudolph Ising
1941 (14th) Lend a Paw-Walt Disney, Producer
1942 (15th) Der Fuehrer's Face-Walt Disney, Producer
1943 (16th) The Yankee Doodle Mouse-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1944 (17th) Mouse Trouble-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1945 (18th) Quiet Please!-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1946 (19th) The Cat Concerto-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1947 (20th) Tweetie Pie-Edward Selzer, Producer
1948 (21 st) The Little Orphan-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1949 (22nd) For Scent-imental Reasons-Edward Selzer, Producer
1950 (23rd) Gerald McBoing Boing -Stephen Bosustow, Producer
1951 (24th) The Two Mouseketeers-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1952 (25th) Johann Mouse-Frederick Quimby, Producer
1953 (26th) Toot, Whistle, Plurzk arzd Boom-Walt Disney, Producer
1954 (27th) When Magoo Flew-Stephen Bosustow, Producer
1955 (28th) Speedy Gonzales-Edward Selzer, Producer
1956 (29th) Mister Magoo's Puddle Jumper-Stephen Bosustow,
Producer
1957 (30th) Birds Alzonymous-Edward Selzer, Producer
1958 (31st) Knighty Knight Bugs-John W. Burton, Producer
1959 (32nd) Moonbird-John Hubley, Producer
1960 (33rd) Munro- William L. Snyder, Producer
1961 (34th) Ersatz (The Substitute)-Zagreb Film
1962 (35th) The Hole- John Hubley and Faith Hubley, Producers
1963 (36th) The Critic-Ernest Pintoff, Producer
1964 (37th) The Pink Phink-David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng,
Producers
1965 (38th) The Dot and the Line-Chuck Jones and Les Goldman,
Producers
1966 (39th) Herb Alpert and the Tijuuna Brass Double Feature-
John Hubley and Faith Hubley, Producers
1967 (40th) The Box-Fred Wolf, Producer
1968 (41st) Wirznie the Pooh and the Blustery Day-Walt Disney,
Producer (posthumous win)
1969 (42nd) It's Tough to Be a Bird- Ward Kimball, Producer
1970 (43rd) Is It Always Right to Be Right?-Nick Bosustow,
Producer

Category Name Changed to Short Subjects (Animated Film)

1971 (44th) The Crunch Bird-Ted Petok, Producer
1972 (45th) A Christmas Carol-Richard Williams, Producer
1973 (46th) Frank Film-Frank Mouris, Producer

Category Name Changed to Short Films (Animated Films)

1974 (47th) Closed Mondays- Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner,
Producers
1975 (48th) Great-Bob Godfrey, Producer
1976 (49th) Leisure-Suzanne Baker, Producer
1977 (50th) Sand Castle-Co Hoedeman, Producer
1978 (5 1st) Special Delivery -Eunice Macauley and John Weldon,
Producers
1979 (52nd) Every Child-Derek Lamb, Producer
1980 (53rd) The Fly-Ferenc Rbfusz, Producer
1981 (54th) Crac- Frkdkric Back, Producer
 ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS 221

1982 (55th) Tango-Zbigniew Rybczynski, Producer

1983 (56th) Sundae in New York-Jimmy Picker, Producer
1984 (57th) Charade -Jon Minnis, Producer
1985 (58th) Anna & Bella-Cilia Van Dijk, Producer
1986 (59th) A Greek Tragedy-Linda Van Tulden and
Willem Thijsen, Producers
1987 (60th) The Man Who Planted Trees-Fridiric Back, Producer
1988 (61st) Tin Toy- John Lasseter and William Reeves
1989 (62nd) Balance -Wolfgang Lauenstein and
Christoph Lauenstein
1990 (63rd) Creature Comforts-Nick Park
1991 (64th) Manipulation-Daniel Greaves
1992 (65th) Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase-Joan C. Gratz
1993 (66th) The Wrong Trousers-Nick Park
1994 (67th) Bob's Birthday-Alison Snowden and David Fine
1995 (68th) A Close Shave-Nick Park
1996 (69th) Quest-Tyron Montgomery and Thomas Stellmach
1997 (70th) Geri's Game-Jan Pinkava
1998 (71st) Bunny -Chris Wedge
1999 (72nd) The Old Man and the Sea-Aleksandr Petrov
2000 (73rd) Father and Daughter-Michael Dudok De Wit
2001 (74th) For the Birds-Ralph Eggleston
2002 (75th) The Chubb Chubbs!-Eric Armstrong
2003 (76th) Harvie Krunzpet-Adam Elliot
2004 (77th) Ryan-Chris Landreth
2005 (78th) The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation-
John Canemaker and Peggy Stern
2006 (79th) The Danish Poet-Torill Kove
2007 (80th) Peter and the Wolf--Suzie Templeton and
Hugh Welchman
2008 (8 1st) Les Maison en Petits Cubes- Kunio Kato

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

2001 (74th) Shrek-Aron Warner

2002 (75th) Spirited Away-Hayao Miyazaki
2003 (76th) Finding Nemo-Andrew Stanton
222 APPENDIX

2004 (77th) The Ijzcredibles-Brad Bird

2005 (78th) Wallace arzd Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit-
Nick Park and Steve Box
2006 (79th) Happy Feet-George Miller
2007 (80th) Ratatouille-Brad Bird
2008 (gist) WALL-E-Andrew Stanton
 Bibliography

CONTENTS

Reference Works
History
General
Pre- 1 960s
Post- 1960s
Biography
Individuals
Studios
Theory and Criticism
Art and Animation
Animation Practice
Periodicals
Websites

The dominance of the West-in particular, the United States-has

largely influenced the progression of much of the animation industry,
particularly in the early days and what has commonly become known as
the Golden Age of Hollywood animation. The literature has reflected this
and although the main focus in the history texts has been on the United
States, there is a wider scope in the reference works that can cover more
general aspects of animation. The vast majority of the books that are
included are in the English language, and indeed largely concentrate on
Western animation. However, Helen McCarthy has attempted to redress
the balance with her work on Eastern Asian animation, specifically the
increasingly popular anime (The Anime Enc~~clopedia, Anime: A Begin-
ner's Guide to Japanese Animation, and The Anime Movie Guide).There
are a number of general guides to animation, particularly cartoons, but
224 BIBLIOGRAPHY

in The Furzdamentals of Arzirnation, Paul Wells goes beyond the guide

format to include histories, animation techniques, and even industry
models. This most recent text is indicative of a shift to close a perceived
divide between animation history and animation practice.
Though these guides are becoming more widely available, there is
still a significant emphasis on the history of animation. The most no-
table and most widely regarded (and useful) text in this area is Giannal-
berto Bendazzi's thorough account of the history of animation cinema
(Cartoorzs: 100 Years of Cirzema Aninzatiorz). The book covers a global
history in such depth that there has been little attempt to replicate the
precise nature of Bendazzi's work. With the obvious limitations of writ-
ing such books such as time scale, a great companion to this is Jerry
Beck's (ed.) Anirnatiorl Art, which essentially picks up where Bendazzi
leaves off and also examines the global development of animation. His
text not only goes further by being able to cover more up-to-date anima-
tion but also includes television animation, an area largely neglected.
Beck's book is also an update of Leonard Maltin's Of Mice a~idMagic,
another fairly in-depth account of the history of animation, but with its
main focus in the United States and the pretelevision era.
This Golden Age created an enormous amount of animation and
undoubtedly had a worldwide impact, not least the vast success of (and
subsequent dominance by) the Walt Disney Studio. This is an area
covered in many of the books on Walt Disney himself, and the studio,
particularly in Michael Barrier's excellent overview of this successful
period in the United States (Hollywood Cartoons: Atlimatiotz itz Its
Golden Age). This nostalgia for the 1930s and 1940s dominated the
literature for a long time before Donald Crafton (Before Mickey: The
Animated Film 1898-1928 and Emile Cohl, Caricature, arzd Film) and
Eric Smoodin (Allimating Culture: Hollywood Cartoorzsfrom the Sound
Era) provided in-depth accounts of both Disney's contemporaries and,
indeed, what had preceded Disney. During this period in animation his-
tory, the form began to be subject to the same regulations as live-action
film from censors, who had previously largely ignored animation. This
is explored in some detail in Karl Cohen's excellent Forbidden Arzima-
tion: Censored Cartoons arzd Blacklisted Animators irz America. It is
one of the few texts to look at a hidden aspect of animation history.
Just as the United States and the Golden Age have dominated the
literature on the history of animation, cinema animation has also been
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 225

subject to most study. The few texts to look at television animation in

a historical context almost fall into the nostalgic guide category, look-
ing back at shows watched in childhood, such as in Timothy and Kevin
Burke's Saturday Morning Fever. As will be seen below, the majority
of the work on television has been in the theoretical examination of the
form.
As animation became a more successful industry, a number of names
stood out, not necessarily as auteur directors-though in the case of
Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett this was, to a certain
extent, the case-but also in terms of the successful businesses these
studios had become. The largest volume of written work in animation
is therefore on the people and studios that created it; like any art form,
this is generally the case, and as a growing field, the scope for study is
getting wider. Many of the studio biographies examine the legacy of the
"stars" and production teams, and again, there is a particular focus on
the popular U.S. animation from the Warner Brothers studio, as well as
the excellent and moving account of working in the industry by Chuck
Jones (Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist)
and by William Hanna ( A Cast of Friends) and his longtime business
partner and friend Joe Rarbera (My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to
Bedrock in Under a Century).
These autobiographies lend a personal perspective to the numerous
accounts of the people who made the animation industry so successful by
such authors as John Canemaker (Winsor McCay: His Life and Art, Felix:
The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, and Tex Avery: The
MGM Years, 1942-1955); Joe Adamson (Tex Avery: King of Cartoons,
The Walter Lantz Story: With Woody Woodpecker and Friends, and Bugs
Bunny-Fi& Years and Orzly One Grey Hare); William Moritz (Optical
Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger); and more recently, Ter-
ence Dobson (The Film Work of Norman McLaren).
Insights into the creative process from animators are useful to his-
torians and scholars of animation and, in addition to biographies on
individuals, there are number of key texts that examine entire studios.
One of the most notable works in this area is Frank Thomas and Ollie
Johnston's Disney Animatiorz: The Illusion of Life. Two former anima-
tors of the studio provided a rare insight into the studio's work at the
time. This has led to a number of other interesting accounts of the inner
workings of the industry.
226 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Although the historical accounts of the animation industry have a

fairly long history (though several early and out-of-print works are not
included here), the establishment of a body of literature in the theory
and criticism of animation has only recently started to develop. One of
the earliest texts to address this gap is Alan Cholodenko's (ed.) The Il-
lusiorz of Life: Essays on Animation, which came out of one of the first
international conferences to examine animation studies as a separate
discipline from film studies. The essays look at individual films using
critical methodologies and provide a basis for the development of the
area of study. Indeed, the increase in conference activity stimulated the
increase in literature, such as Jayne Pilling's (ed.) A Reader in Anima-
tion Studies and Suzanne Buchan's (ed.) Animated Worlds, and gave
many scholars an opportunity to address the form in a way that had
previously been only recognized in the more established film studies.
Probably one of the most important texts in this area is Paul Wells'
Understanding Animation, which has become one of the most valu-
able in the field as a starting point to more theoretical approaches, and
indeed one of the most often cited. Wells' follow-up books (Animatiorz
and America and Animation: Genre arzd Authorship) have reinforced
his earlier work and have provided many with the opportunity to take
the area further in recent years, and in turn develop the literature.
Another key text in this area of introduction to animation is Maureen
Furniss' Art in Motion: A~zinzationAesthetics, which combines histori-
cal and theoretical approaches with a consideration of aesthetics of the
form and its status as an art form.
Critical approaches to understanding and analysis of animation have
also seen a shift away from the dominance of Disney and the Golden
Age of Hollywood, as these areas are well represented in historical ac-
counts. Newer studies are more international in scope, which in turn
has allowed the area to widen as awareness of animation on a global
scale increases. As well as critical approaches such as those taken by
Esther Leslie (Hollywood Flatlands, 2002) and continued by Alan
Cholodenko, the theoretical side of animation research has developed to
include examinations of representation and gender issues in the content
of animation, in Sean Griffin ("The Illusion of Identity: Gender and
Racial Representation in Aladdin") and Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and
Laura Sells (eds.) (From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gen-
der, and Culture). There has also been some interest in the producers
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 227

of the films. Jayne Pilling (Women in Animation: A Compendium) and

Marian Quigley (Women Do Animate: Interviews with I0 Australian
Animators) looked at the producers of animation often neglected in the
biographies of individuals in an industry dominated largely by males.
Meanwhile, there has been an increase in the study of television anima-
tion from the effects of the medium on children to the specific cultural
elements of U.S. or Japanese television. Carol Stabile and Mark Harri-
son's (eds.) Prinze Time Animation: Television Animation and Ameri-
can Culture began the process of examination of a particular group of
television shows and genres that is gradually being built upon.
Beyond the criticism and history of animation, there exists a fairly large
volume of work on the art of the animation, from the mainstream cartoon
to the avant-garde. John Canemaker is one of the most prolific authors in
this area (Storytellirzg in Animation: Alz Anthology, Before the Aliimation
Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists, Paper
Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disizey Storyboards, Walt Disriey's Nine
Old Men and the Art of Aninmtion, and The Art and Flair of Mary Blair:
An Appreciation).Many of these books rely heavily on illustration to dem-
onstrate the skill of the animator and aesthetic quality of the films.
As much of the understanding of animation is as a technique for
making a particular type of film, separate from live action, the largest
collection of literature is instructional in the variety of techniques and
technologies in animation. These range from the basics of drawing and
creating storyboards to writing scripts for animation, model making,
and with the increasing use of new digital technology, accompanying
guides for using computer-generated imagery in animation. These tend
to be of most use to the practitioner of animation, though they can pro-
vide an insight into the skills and work required to produce animation,
particularly those books written by well-known animators such as John
Halas (How to CartoorlforAmateur Films, Design in Motion, Computer
Animation, Film Animation: A Simplified Approach, Visual Scripting,
Graphics in Motion: From the Special Effects Film to Holographies,
Masters of Animation, and The Contemporary Anirnator).
There are fewer periodicals for animation than film studies, as
again there is often more emphasis on the practice, and thus, industry
magazines such as Imagine. A number of new academic journals have
emerged in recent years to support the previously lone Anirnatiorl Jour-
nal, such as Animation: An Interdisciplitzary Journal and Animation
228 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Studies, but many of these publications are online, like the excellent
Animation W o r l d Magazirze.
The Internet has become a vast support network for the distribution
of animation, which enables independent animators to reach audiences
worldwide, though due to the temporal nature of the Web, it is impos-
sible to list all sites in one bibliography. Those included are among the
most reliable.

REFERENCE W O R K S

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY 231

Smoodin, Eric. Animating Culture: Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era.
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 BIBLIOGRAPHY 233

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY 237

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PERIODICALS

Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2006- )

Animation Journal (1991- )
Animation Studies (2006- )
Animation World Magazine (1996- )
Cartoons: The International Journal of Animation (2006- )
Imagine (2005- )
Screen (1959- )

Animation Resources: www .toonhub.com

Animation World Network: www.awn.com
Anime News Network: www.animenewsnetwork.com
ASIFA: http:l/asifa.netl
BFI Screenonline: www.screen0n1ine.0rg.uk
Cartoon Brew: www.cartoonbrew.com
National Film Board of Canada: www.nfb.ca
Origins of American Animation: http:/lmemory.loc.gov/ammem/oahtml/
oahome.html
Society for Animation Studies: http://gertie.animationstudies.org/
US AnimatedCartoons Reference: www .toonarific.com
UK Animated Cartoons Reference: www.toonhound.com
 About the Author

Nichola Dobson was born in Scotland, Great Britain. She obtained her
BA (Hons) from Napier University, Edinburgh, in graphic communica-
tions management. She then changed discipline and moved on to media
and cultural studies, and animation studies. She completed her PhD in
the animation genre and, more specifically, her dissertation on "The
Fall and Rise of the Anicom: The U.S. Animated Sitcom 1960-2003" at
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Visiting lectureships have been
held at Queen Margaret University and Glasgow Caledonian University
in a variety of subjects such as media studies, cultural studies, discourse
and ideology, and media language. In 2006, she was a researcher on a
joint project between Glasgow Caledonian University and Universitat
Rovira i Virgili Tarragona, Catalonia (Spain), on national identity in
television soaps. Her research interests are divided between animation
and television studies and genre, reflected in a range of publications in
journals and book chapters. A member of the Society for Animation
Studies since 2001, she is the founding editor of their journal Animation
Studies. She is currently an independent scholar based in Edinburgh.