Major Blog Post 14- Czech animation

Posted on by Wendy Kong

Czech animation has been one of the most developed in history. It has started for about 100 years, Czech animators are known as the innovator in film animation. Czech animation started in the 1920s, they reached the peak and produced some of the best anime between 1950s and 1980s, the period is known as the “Golden Era”. Cutout animation, Puppet animation, and Clay animation are largely used by the Czechs. However, they seldom use 3D animation because of the financial and technical issues. 3D animations are more expensive than what they used in the past, because what they used to make anime, clay and puppets, are low cost. Also, they do not have a lot of trained 3D animators. That is the reason they become less successful and unpopular after the 1980s.

Other countries employed 3D animation because it is fancier and more realistic, which eliminated Cutout, Puppet, and Clay animation. Rumors are saying that Czech animation is coming back, the new generation of animators are currently students, and the universities in Czech support the creation of animated films. I think one of the reasons for the revival is the 3D animation technique getting more common, the price of animation programs varies more than the 1990s. I am looking forward to the new generation of Czech animators! I have a feeling that they are going to kill it!

Wendy Kong

Major Post 11: The Pied Piper

Posted on by LeAnn Schmitt

Yesterday we learned about Czech animation. This style emerged around the 1920s and its “Golden Era” arrived between the 1950s and the 1980s. There were many amazing Czech animators that have made very political and surreal pieces that make your skin crawl. The main medium of this type of animation being the use of wooden dolls, Claymation, puppets, and cutouts. 3D animation is seldom used since there is not enough finances to implement it and there is a deficient of trained 3D animators.

Some of the most outstanding animators from this era include: Jiri Trnka, Karel Zeman, and my personal favorite Jan Svankmajer. But since I have already discussed Jan Skankmajer’s work I plan on talking about Jiri Barta and his Czech Horror Film Krysa (The Pied Piper). It was inspired by German legends. Jiri uses his film as a metaphor to discuss the decay of society as we have fixated on material things. His character and environment design helps create a very easy and uncanny feeling to the movie.  Below I have included the a link to the film itself.

LeAnn Schmitt

https://vimeo.com/257047826