Better Know A Studio Part I: Walt Disney Studios

With animated features becoming more and more successful and prevalent, it can sometimes get confusing about who makes which movie.  In this recurring series I'll cast some light onto each studio, it's history, and where it stands in the landscape of animated films today.  My other, slightly more selfish purpose for this series of articles is to try and teach that not every animated film is done by Disney, nor is every CGI one from Pixar or Dreamworks.  It's a serious pet peeve of mine, and dammit if I'm not going to try and do my part to educate the public.  Now then, onto the first (ironically enough): Walt Disney Animation.

Started by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney in Kansas City in 1923, Disney is the oldest, the largest, and for decades was THE standard by which all other works of animation were measured.  The studio pioneered many early technological and artistic breakthroughs, including sound, color, the multi-plane camera, and the so called, "imitation of life," school of animation.  It was this ambition that led to the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937, the first cel-animated feature length film.  

Snow White was, of course, only the first in a long line of animated films produced by the studio. I have lumped the long history of the studio into three rough periods.  The first, and arguably the best artistically, extended from Snow White in 1937 to Sleeping Beauty in 1959.  This era contained some of the most beloved films (Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Bambi) as well as some of the most experimental (Fantasia, Saludos Amigos).  These films had some of the best artists in the history of the medium working on them and they had no stifling limitations in regards to what was expected of them since they were the first.  The results were some of the best crafted and innovative films ever made.

The next era that I half-jokingly refer to as "The Disney Dark Ages" runs from One Hundred and One Dalmatians in 1961 all the way to Oliver & Company in 1988. Starting in the 60's, the quality of the films started to drop for a myriad of reasons. Walt's death in 1966 left the company and studio without his strong leadership and vision.  Additionally, the scores of talented animators who had worked on the earlier films had either moved on to other studios or were starting to get older and their skill had started to diminish. Finally the new, more efficient, method of xeroxing animation cels made production easier, but the image quality suffered, creating a signature look of slightly scratchy line work.  Not all of the movies produced in this time were not bad per se, and you definitely start to see an uptick in quality later on as the studio moved towards it's next big era.

The last major Disney epoch extends from The Little Mermaid in 1989 to the present. This is perhaps the most beloved era and contains some of the biggest and most popular Disney movies.  My generation was raised with these films.  Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan...I could go on and on.  After Tarzan, the studio started playing around again with less conventional stories (Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor's New Groove), all-CGI films (Dinosaur, Chicken Litttle), and some that we have collectively chosen to forget (Home on the Range, Treasure Planet).

After a few real misses in the last few years, the studio seems to be headed back in the right direction with Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph.  Pixar founder John Lasseter (more on him in a later post) is now in charge of the studio, and I had high hopes for what else is coming.  However, recent news about Disney laying off hundreds of employees has me worried that the company may in fact be moving away from producing animated films, or even original films at all.

I could do a separate article about each of the studio's fifty-two animated films, but for now this is where the studio is today.  Aside from Mickey Mouse & Friends, animated films are still the company's hallmark even though it has grown to be one of the largest corporations in the world. While the playing field has grown and more teams are springing up, Disney continues to be the Yankees of animation.  Love 'em or hate 'em the House of Mouse earned its place on the top of the pile, now they just have to not fall off.

"Croissant de Triomphe" Gives Hope to Disney Shorts

This past week Disney released Croissant de Triomphe, the first in a new series of animated shorts featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  You can watch the short HERE on Disney's website.  This is part of a series of 19 shorts that are going to be produced and aired on TV and online starting this summer.

I love the short.  First off, it looks great.  It blends design elements from classic thirties Disney cartoons (the "sliced pie" eyes being the most obvious one), modern design and backgrounds, and fun cartoon action. The dialogue is in French, but that's alright because the action speaks for itself. Sometimes things get a little too hectic, but the character movement is loose, fun, and looks fantastic.

Secondly, it's entertaining; something that I wasn't sure that I'd ever say about a Disney short.  Walt and his band of merry men were early pioneers of many aspects of animation as we know it. Sound, color, feature length animated films, and using different planes to create the illusion of depth were all techniques that, if not started by the studio, were definitely perfected there. Unfortunately, many shorts and longer films produced by Disney were more about showing off this technology or the quality of the art itself rather than to be entertaining.  

Most people who claim to be "Disney fans" are really just fans of the animated feature films that have become the studio's hallmark, not the animated shorts that preceded them.  In fact, once Walt Disney saw the possibility of animated features, he started devoting less and less studio time and resources to shorts until they were eventually phased out entirely.  It's a shame that these shorts don't get more airplay.  They hearken back to an era when Mickey was much more impish (lecherous even!), Goofy went full retard, and Donald Duck was a straight-up (albeit hilarious) asshole.

It's refreshing to see the Disney characters go back to their roots rather than stay in the bizarre mixed roles of marketing icons and preschool kiddie fodder.  At around three and a half minutes in length, Croissant doesn't overstay its welcome, has some good gags and action, and should hopefully just be the beginning of things to come.  The shorts have some strong talent behind them with directors that have worked on Dexter's Laboratory, Syn-Bionic Titan, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Chowder!, and SpongeBob SquarePants.  I'm hoping to see some of these shorts feature Donald and Goofy as well as some more of the other characters' personalities, but this is a fabulous inaugural effort and I can't wait for more.

Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men

Every once in a while, independent forces come together to create a perfect storm of meaning.  That's why this week I'm featuring two classic shorts from the MGM cartoon studio.  The first is "Peace on Earth" from 1939, directed by Hugh Harman.  The themes of the end of mankind, anti-violence, and the joy of Christmas feel all too relevant right now in the wake of the tragic events in Connecticut and supposedly imminent Mayan apocalypse.  

You won't see me sing the praises of Hugh Harman or his partner Rudolph Ising very often.  Even though their careers spanned the length of the Golden Age of Animation, the majority of their work is little more than a pale imitation of what Disney was producing at the same time.  It was all cutesy stuff with little humor unless you count the over-the-top innocence of it all.  In 1939 however, Harman created "Peace on Earth," an inspired short recounting the self-destruction of mankind told against the backdrop of the Christmas season.  While some of the scenes come off as silly and typically Harman-esque, others are nothing short of chilling.  The deaths of the last two men on Earth was shocking in 1939 and still sends a chill up my spine to watch. 

In 1955, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera (creators of Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, and countless other classic characters) remade "Peace on Earth" and tilted it "Good Will to Men."  The new version featured modernized violence that incorporated Cold War fears and the increased arsenal of World War II.  The grander scope creates a much stronger short than the original for modern audiences, even if the ending is a little religious by today's standards.  The climax of nuclear annihilation however does not impact me as much as seeing the last man drown in a mixture of mud and his own blood.  

Both shorts were widely praised and were nominated for Academy Awards in their respective years.  The bittersweet message of both shorts reminds us to be mindful of ourselves and each other, especially in times when the almost comical juxtaposition of seasonal joy and unimaginable cruelty make us question who we are and what we are to become.

Cartoon Shorts On The Rise (Hopefully)

Last week, the Motion Picture Academy announced its short list for the Best Animated Short category.  The news got me thinking: how often do people these days think about animated shorts?  If you showed a copy of the nominees list this year to the average person, I'd wager that most people would not recognize more than one or two of the entries.  

Even as an aspiring animation professional, I haven't had the opportunity to see most of the nominees since they usually only make the rounds on film festivals and art house theaters, and Orlando is seriously lacking in both when compared to New York, Los Angeles, or Toronto.  This troubles me because I love animated shorts.  They are my favorite form of animation and the fact they they no longer occupy the same level of notoriety in the popular consciousness that they once did bothers me.  Back in the Golden Age of Animation, shorts were a staple for the movie-going audience.  Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, and Tom & Jerry, as well as many other classic cartoon characters, were born and reached their creative peak in theatrical shorts.

Disney and Pixar are perhaps the two best  places for quality shorts to be made and get a reasonable amount of exposure.  Both studios,  under the leadership of John Lasseter, have encouraged artists to come forward with their pet project ideas and to use studio resources to make them a reality.  Last year there was Enrico Casarosa's deeply personal La Luna from Pixar, and this year there is Disney's Paperman.  

The short, directed by John Kahrs and playing in theaters before Wreck-It Ralph, is a sweet little boy-meets-girl story, but where it really succeeds is the visuals.  A new blend of CG and traditional hand-drawn animation makes for a final product that has all of the expressiveness and artistry of traditional techniques, but also the depth and complexity of the new school.  Still images (like the one at the top of this post) do not do the film justice.  It must be seen on the big screen to truly appreciate its value.  It is truly remarkable to watch, and I sincerely hope that it breathes some new life into more classical ways of producing animation.

There has been a growing trend in playing animated shorts before films.  In the last year or so, it seems that most animated films have been preceded by some kind of short, be it Maggie Simpson in the Longest Daycare, I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat, or Paperman. Even TV seems to be gravitating towards shorter programming with many of Cartoon Network's shows now being broken up into 15-minute segments.  Maybe studios are starting to see the viability of making shorts, and while we will almost certainly not be able to get back to the state of cartoon shorts were in their heyday, it's at least nice to see that they are starting to come back.  Hopefully some of the wonderful shorts that were not released with major films will also one day find a way to reach a larger audience as well.  Now all we need to do is get out and watch them!

Classic Cartoon Lineup on TCM THIS WEEKEND!

This weekend features a truly awesome event for fans of classic animation.  On Sunday October 21, Turner Classic Movies will be airing an evening of rarely broadcast animation that spans the Golden Era of animation.  

Included in the lineup are Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town, a collection of Jolly Frolics from UPA, a selection of Silent Era cartoons from the collection of animation collector and historian Thomas Slathes, and finally the 1926 German film The Adventures of Prince Achmed.  The evening will be hosted by TCM's Robert Osborn and renowned animation historian Jerry Beck.  They'll discuss each piece of the evening in detail, but here is a preview  to whey your appetite:

Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town were the only two animated films produced by the Fleischer Studio, the creators of many great cartoons that include Betty Boop and Popeye.  This was the studio's attempt to compete with Disney in the animated feature game, and while the results are pleasing, they lacked both Disney's finer touch and the mature surrealism that made earlier Fleischer shorts so enjoyable. Regardless, they are still great films and important entries in the early days of animated feature films.

When UPA came onto the scene in the late 40's, they revolutionized the way cartoons could look.  Run by intellectuals and artists, the studio's Jolly Frolics integrated modern art and jazz into the cartoons, creating a look and feel that was unlike anything that had ever been done before or since.  There were several fantastic one-off characters and shorts, but the biggest star to come from this studio was the myopic Mr. Magoo.

Silent-Era cartoons are a delight to watch, and since many of them exist in the public domain, they are easy to find online and on bargain bin DVDs.  They deserve better though since characters like Farmer Al Falfa and Koko the Clown were some of the earliest cartoon stars, so it's fantastic to see them on TV.

Finally, there is The Adventures of Prince Achmed.  German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger's adaptation of an Arabian fairy tale is one of, if not THE oldest surviving animated feature films.  Done in a unique cut-out silhouette style, it is a visually striking movie and one that shouldn't be missed.

Each of these selections is a priceless installment in the history of cartoons and animation, and as soon as I heard that they were all going to air I had an absolute fit of joy.  There needs to be more classic animation on TV besides the scraps that Cartoon Network throws us.  Nothing against Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry, but there is just so much more that can and should be shown to modern audiences.  If you have ever loved cartoons, then watch as much of this on Sunday as you can, and if you feel so inclined, let TCM know that there are people who want to see more of this type of thing on TV.  I know I will!  

Tune in starting at 8:00 EST on Sunday October 21.