major post 04: Ub Iwerks

Posted on by hazelyin

As an Asian who hasn’t studied animation field for a long time yet, the name Ub Iwerks doesn’t ring a bell in my mind during class. I guess I hadn’t heard that name often in my life. When we talk about old Disney animation and Mickey Mouse, people only think of Walt Disney directly. I didn’t know that there was another “father” of Mickey Mouse out there! But I found that I am really into the work he worked with Walt Disney, including Steamboat Willie and The Skeleton Dance. They are creative and entertaining even for young adult like me.

Why he didn’t gain his reputation and what’s more about his life? I did some little  research and found out that he actually backed to Disney studio and mainly working on developing special visual effects after the failure of his own company. However, he wasn’t noticed by people as the creator of our beloved Mickey Mouse until Walt Disney died. And he died very soon after having back the frame! It seems to be a bit sad as an artist that no one remember him as a wonderful creator of a popular character during life time. Fortunately at least people praised him before death. I started wonder that what if he didn’t “break up” with Walt Disney at the very first place? I guess there will be some more interesting cartoon in the world and the name Ub Iwerks will be more common to hear!

Hazel Wong

Major Blog Post 5: Walt Disney- Early Life

Posted on by Wendy Kong

In this class, we studied the life of  Walt Disney, who was an animator, storyteller, film maker and entrepreneur. Disney’s interest in drawing grew when he was a child. He started as an illustrator for commercials in Kansas City where he met his best friend Ub Iwerks. They both had a passion for making their original animation. After a few times of failures, Disney began producing Alice’s Wonderland, combing live-action with animation in Laugh-O-Gram Studio. From there, we can see that Disney has a passion to work on fairytales and classical stories. Alice’s Wonderland was a big success so Disney invited his friend Iwerks to Los Angels.

Good days didn’t last long for them. After they created another successful character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927, it was stolen by their producer Charles Mintz. I felt very sad for Disney and Iwerks as their creativity was stolen. At the same time, I also respect their spirit of not giving up.

To replace Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, they created Micky Mouse together. An employee said that “Ub designed Mickey’s physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul.” Plane Crazy (1928) was the first appearance of Micky Mouse. Even though it was a silent film, I found it so interesting as it had tones of dynamic shots. Steamboat Willie (1928) which we might see it at the beginning of some of Disney’s famous animation, was the first Disney cartoon with sound and music. I love how the characters were moving with the beat perfectly. It soon became the most popular animation of its day. 

I’m sharing another old Mickey Mouse cartoon called Giantland (1933). Enjoy!! ^o^

Wendy Kong

Major Blog Post 4: Cut Out Animation-The Idea (1932)

Posted on by Wendy Kong

We looked at a few cut out animations in for this class. Out of all the animations we watched, The Idea (1932) by Berthold Bartosch impressed me the most. The Idea (1932) is the first poetic and tragic work in animation which shared an anti-capitalist idea. Berthold Bartosch used several layers of rice paper to create a mysterious effect and a sense of depth for the whole film. At the same time, he also used lather spread on the glass plates and lit from behind to create a halo, smoke effect. I am impressed by how he used different experimental techniques to enhance the mood of the animation. I can’t imagine how he pulled this 25 minutes film all out by paper cutting.

I also love the story of The Idea a lot. The naked woman was hinting the idea of anti-capitalist. She terrified authorities as she heads out into the street without clothes on. A man was executed because he stood up for her. At last, she sparks a workers ‘ revolution caused by the violent suppression by big business. The meaningful story matched with the visual style and music of the animation which I think is very unique and successful for cutout animations at that time. I enjoyed watching it a lot.

Image result for the idea 1932
The Idea (1932) 

Wendy Kong

Major Post 4 : UPA

Posted on by marissatso

In Class 8, we had gone through what is the United Production of America (UPA) and I was pretty amazed by their unique style and approaches. UPA was founded in 1943 by former Disney animators Steven Bosustow, Zachary Schwartz, and David Hilberman, after participating the Disney animators’ Strike against poor pay and conditions in 1941. UPA began as Industrial Film and Poster Service, breaking through Disney style which everyone was imitating at that time. Take the animation ‘Rooty Toot Toot’ as example, fully shown UPA’s experiment on minimal line drawing, use of movement and colors. The characters are created by flat, angular shapes with a loose connection between the colors and the lines, we can see paints actually spilling out over the borders. This unique figures and unreal use of color and backgrounds this is really a stylish thing done in animation. It is also impressing to use such a lively animation to criticize the judicial system.

Major Post 7: Limited Animation

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

At one point, animation was an even more time consuming and tedious job than it appears to be now. Early animations required each frame to be painted and drawn by hand individually and for new backgrounds to painstakingly made with hyper realistic details and lighting. This mean that animations required a lot of time and money to be produced. As a result of increasing budget cuts and even greater time constraints this old way was abandoned and replaced with a new method, limited animation. Limited animation implements techniques like animation cycles, mirrored-images, symmetrical drawings, and still characters.

Many early commercials utilized these techniques. The earliest shows to implement them were Warner Brother cartoons. Specifically, Dover Boys and Merrier Melodies.

Due to the financial benefit of limited animations, many shows have used it over the years. One famous studio famous for it would be Hanna-Barbera Productions. Linked below is a clip from Scooby Doo, one of the studios most famous shows, and in it you can see the use of cycled running, reused backgrounds, and sparse character actions.

LeAnn Schmitt

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A1evHuK7xUI

 

Major Post 5: Reason and Emotion

Posted on by Sammy Liu

In our earlier classes, we started to look at animation’s use beyond entertainment.

Donald duck, the fuhrer’s face
The animation was made to express anger or mocking, and many other emotions. It reminded me of HK’s current situation, where some artists also expressed their feelings, reasoning and information through animation.

Reason and emotion – Bill Roberts
I loved this animation as it was unexpectedly educational. Serious and rather psychological information was presented in a way where it was light-hearted and comedic – easier for people to swallow or accept. Its ultimate goal is to educate people to be able to choose how they act.

We see in the present that business and companies carry on using animation as a source to explain information. The development in this area is that there are now many different illustrative styles to choose from to convey different emotions and levels of seriousness.

Class notes:
“Iwerke-Disney Commercial Artist” (1920)
With Ub Iwerks
Started 19, young, failed.
Friendship, same goal, support.
Disney Bros Studio = Roy Disney in Hollywood
Experimental animation
Alice in wonderland
Disney studio: 6 to 100 to ~1600 employees

Sammy Liu

Major Post 6: Ub Iwerk

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

 

When you think of the creator of Mickey Mouse I bet your brain doesn’t jump to the name, Ub Iwerks.

Ub Iwerks was born in Kansas City Missouri and shorten his full name, Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, for ease. He was known for his fast ability to draw and his quirky sense of humor. He was Walt Disney’s partner and helped create the face of Disney itself, Mickey Mouse. He also was the lead animators in many of Disney’s early films such as the Skeleton Dance and Steam Boat Willie. But early on into the creation of the Disney empire Ub split off to start his own animation company, Iwerks Studios. This studio brought forth its own line of characters, such as, Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper. The studio didn’t last long and eventually tanked.

However, Iwerks legacy didn’t end there for he snatched up two Oscars for his work. As well as got to work on many other classics like the Looney Tunes and The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock.

LeAnn Schmitt

Below I have linked one of my personal favorite cartons produced by his studio

 

 

 

 

Disney’s racist history; Fantasia, The Pastoral Symphony, and even today? Part two.

Posted on by victoriacourchesne

Major Post 5 By Victoria Courchesne

Previously I discussed the 1940 Disney film Fantasia

    It is no shock to say the image of racial stereotypes can be seen in many of the early cartoons, such as Bosko from Looney Toons. Yet, today we can still these stereotypes in some of Disney’s recent films. Pocahontas, released in 1995,is one of the company’s most controversial films due to its stereotyping of Native Americans. Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, and more of Disney’s “classic” films have been called out and criticized for their orientalism, stereotypes, and other cultural insensitive factors.

But, does this mean we can’t enjoy these movies anymore?

  No, no, you can still watch the films if you want and appreciate the artistry and hard work that went into them. Some of the professors at SCAD even worked on those films. But you should be aware of each film’s controversial past and acknowledge that Dinsey at a time thought that these films were suitable for release.

   I will continue to watch Aladdin and annoy all of my neighbors as I burst out with all my heart the current lyrics to “Arabian Nights– But I will also acknowledge the original song’s original lyrics contained the orientalist stereotype line “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”.

Really Disney, really?

Sources :

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170714-the-aladdin-controversy-disney-cant-escape

https://medium.com/@nerdypoc/examining-racist-disney-tropes-continued-a5379acc5783

Disney’s racist history; Fantasia, The Pastoral Symphony, and even today? Part one

Posted on by victoriacourchesne

Major Post 4 By Victoria Courchesne

*To begin, watch the side by side comparison of The Pastoral Symphony on YouTube here.*

If you were to see the recent edition of the Disney film Fantasia, you would surely be marveled at the artistry of the film and leave pleasantly content. But, if you were to see the original edition of the film, I’m sure you would not come away from the film with the same feeling. This would be because the original film contained racial stereotypes, largely being in the short The Pastoral Symphony. The short features the character Sunflower, a young centaur who is the groomer to the older centaurs. Upon the films re-release for television in 1969 after the civil rights movement, the frame was cropped in the shots that had Sunflower in it. By sweeping the evidence of the stereotyped character under the rug, Disney has managed to pass the re-releases off as if the controversy never existed. In an Entertainment Weekly article in 1991, Disney editor John Carnochan said that he was appalled that the stereotypes were even in the film. Disney was re-releasing the film for its 50th anniversary for the first time on DVD, so Carnochan oversaw refurbishing the film. In conclusion, while some films might be viewed as masterpieces of their time, they could have dark pasts as such does Fantasia.

Part two in my major post 5

Sources:

https://ew.com/article/1991/11/29/changes-restored-version-fantasia/

Major Post 4 – Paper cutouts

Posted on by Julia Reymundo

We were able to learn about animating with cutouts for this class. Quirino Christiani was believed to have made the first feature-length animated feature. However, this was a lost film called El Apostol (1917) and Peludopolis (1983), which made use of cutouts. This was another fascinating way to animate and create films back then. It made use of different kinds of camera effects and it really helped create the atmosphere for the story.

One of the more interesting films we watched in class was, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger. The art style of the cutouts really intrigued me. Despite using the same color for each character, you can still tell them apart because of each character’s unique silhouette. While watching the film, I did get reminded of the style from a Japanese animated TV show. Here are some of the stills from the anime, Yuri!!! On Ice (2016), which tells the story of the main character’s interpretation of a song. This is animated in a similar fashion since there are limited movements. Not only does it makes use of color and detail, it also shows a clear difference in the silhouette that helps tell the two characters apart.

Julia Reymundo