Disney

Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928) was the first Disney cartoon with sound, and one of Mickey Mouse's earliest appearances; definitely a classic. It is actually very funny, and the music is perfectly synchronised with the animation. Mickey's design in this animation is slightly different to how he looks now, as gloves have been added so that his hands are more distinguishable and he now looks generally more polished. His personality is also very different; in this animation, Mickey is shown as being really quite mischievous and a little mean, whereas now he is seen as being a very innocent character.

Disney's Flowers and Trees (1932) is part of the Silly Symphonies series, and is Disney's first cartoon using tricolour technicolour; which is greatly boasted about in the beginning sequence to show how upto-date Disney was with their technology and techniques. Also at the beginning, Disney has stated "Mickey Mouse presents...", however Mickey doesn't appear in the cartoon at all; people will see the words "Mickey Mouse" and associate them with the cartoon celebrity and be more inclined to watch the animation.
          I like this animation as the animators have cleverly animated the trees in a way that they can be believable as human characters so the actions are easily read, whilst still keeping it very clear that they're trees. This is also true for the other plants in the forest. The music also goes very well with the animation; it is an early example of sound-on-film synchronising.

Mickey Mouse

The design of Mickey Mouse has changed greatly since he was first seen in 1928. He was originally designed by Walt Disney, with contributions from Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harmon. He was also originally voiced by Walt Disney himself. Mickey became a cartoon celebrity and Walt Disney even won a special oscar in 1935 for his creation. The financial gain from Mickey's success became the basis for the massive Disney empire; without Mickey it is unlikely that Disney studios would be as successful as it is today.

The original Mickey design is shown above. Since then, he has gained white areas in his eyes, his nose has become flat, he has gained gloves and the soles on the bottoms of his shoes are now flat. Mickey now looks generally more polished than before. Of course he is also now in colour, but in the times of Steamboat Willie, coloured animation was not possible, or was very difficult.

Plane Crazy (1928) is an early Mickey Mouse cartoon, and is one of the first Mickey cartoons with sound, a relatively new idea in 1928. It shows the old design of Mickey, and also shows how his personality has changed over the years. In the earlier cartoons, he is seen as being a bit mean and not as innocent as he is now. I like this cartoon, as I like many of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, because it is funny and I like the light-hearted cartoony style of the characters, particularly the cows. The music is also very well synchronised with the animation, adding to the humour and effectiveness.

The Opry House (1929) is another early Mickey Mouse cartoon. You can see Mickey's design has changed slightly in that he now has gloves, however he still has the old Mickey personality as he comes across as being irritable and angry, however it is still a very comedic cartoon. This is helped by the inanimate objects doing human actions, such as when the stool kicked Mickey in the bum.

The Band Concert (1935) is one of the first Mickey Mouse cartoons which uses colour. In this cartoon, Mickey is conducting an orchestra of animals, when a storm hits. But this opens the animation to a bunch of gags as the orchestra carries on playing while they are being chucked around by the storm. The music the animals are playing also fits perfectly with what is happening in the animation, so it is very cleverly done, as if the characters are providing their own music.

Donald Duck

After time, Mickey's popularity began to fade, so Donald Duck was created as a more mischievous character on the basis that the audience would love a character with a bit of a dark side. After his first appearance in The Wise Little Hen (1934), Donald became very popular and often appeared alongside Mickey. This led to further associated characters; Minnie Mouse and Huey, Duey and Louis.

Disney's Propaganda

Der Fuehrer's Face was made by Disney as propaganda in order to show Nazi's as being the evil and to get America to join in the war. Even though it is clearly about something very serious, Disney has put the message across in a funny and entertaining way; it needs to be funny and entertaining otherwise viewers would get board and stop watching it, and the point of the animation would be missed. I think that the way the Nazi's are put across is quite clever, such as the way they march is quite funny, and an exaggerated version of the stereotype. Although many people nowadays do find this cartoon quite comical, it can also sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable to watch and can give you a "is it OK that I'm laughing at this" kind of feel, because it could offend quite a few people in quite a big way.

The Spirit of '43 was made to try to persuade people to save their money so they were able to pay the high taxes. Disney did this by showing the bed duck as a Nazi and showing Scrooge McDuck as the American side. It then talks about how the money from the taxes will all be used to buy weapons to defeat the Nazi's, leading to America's victory in the war. Like a lot of American propaganda, this could possibly offend some people, however it is less potentially offensive than Der Fuehrer's Face.

Donald Duck Gets Drafted (1942) is another propaganda animation by Disney. At first, the army is advertised as being a great things to work for by showing advertisements with soldiers and pretty women and advertising there to be "pretty hostesses" in the air force planes. However, when Donald joins the army, asking to be a part of the air force, he is quickly let down and employed in a different field. After this let down, he then soon discovers that army life is not as glamorous as the adverts were claiming. From this it is clear that this is propaganda made to put people off joining the American army as they promise the world and don't deliver.

Education for Death is a propaganda animation by Disney about the raising of a Nazi, following the life of a boy named Hans, starting from his birth. A fiarytial of sleeping beauty is used as a methaphor; the "sleeping beauty" called Germany is shown as an unattractive woman, and Hitler is the prince who rescues her, however is not a hero of the story as he is temporarily shown growing devil horns. When Hilter rescues Germany spend spend a lot of time yelling "hail Hitler" which makes them seem a bit stupid, and the making fun of Hitler's relationship with Germany is confirmed by the narrator making the rude comment "the moral of the story is Hitler got Germany on her feet, climbed in the saddle, and took her for a ride". When Hans is slightly older, he becomes ill and the Nazis threaten to take him from his mother because she is mollycoddling him too much. When Hans returns to school he is punished for giving the wrong answer, and the schools are shown to be teaching children to be more power hungry. When Hans is finally grown up he is a Nazi soldier, shown with blinders, a muzzle and a collar, representing him as being one of the Nazis dogs. He then marches into battle and dies, showing America that the Nazis will die and America will win the war. This piece of propaganda is a lot darker than the Donald Duck ones, however it is more emotive and was probably more effective as an older audience is more likely to pay attention to it.

Ladislaw Starewics

The Cameraman's Revenge by Ladislaw Starewics (1912), is a stop-motion using puppets of insects. I don't really like this animation because parts of it are difficult to understand what's happening, and it drags out a bit. However i think the detail of the puppets is quite impressive, and of the background and props. Towards the end of the animation, the storyline gets a bit weak and the ending feels a little rushed.

Felix the Cat

Felix the Cat in Hollywood was made in 1923 by Pat Sullivan Cartoons. I like this animation because many of the older animations we've watched were a bit tedious to watch as they use a bit too much looping, but Felix the cat is still quite entertaining to watch. It is also easy to read Felix’s actions and emotions because, even though he still looks like a cat, he has human facial expressions and reactions, making the storyline easier to understand, and therefore more enjoyable.

Winsor McCay

Gertie the Dinosaur was created in 1914 by Winsor McCay. While showing the animation, McCay would stand beside the animation and "talk" to Gertie. Since the script was written beforehand, the reactions of the animated dinosaur would fit with what McCay was saying, appearing to the audience that he could control the drawing. At the time this animation was incredibly popular and Gertie became a bit of a celebrity. While it does have a few witty gags, it does become quite tedious to watch as looping is a little overused and it does become quite repetitive.

In 1918, McCay created The Sinking of the Lusitania, which was about the attack on the maritime ship during World War 1. This animation is quite well animated given its age, the smoke effects when the Lusitania is hit by the missile are particularly well animated. However there are a few points in the animation where some things, such as the people on board, are animated a bit too quickly, so the event around those point happen a bit too quickly.

The Sinking of the Lusitania is a lot more detailed than Gertie the Dinosaur, and is less "cartoony" and more realistic. The Sinking of the Lusitania is also more serious as it was created as a message to try to convince America to join World War 1, whereas Gertie the Dinosaur is far more light-hearted as it was created purely to entertain an audience.

Emile Cole

Fantasmagorie was created in 1908 by Emile Cole using chalk on a blackboard. Similar to The Enchanted Drawing, it shows the main charcter being drawn, providing human interaction into the animation. This gives the audience a feeling of the animator having like a special power which can control the chalk-drawn characters.

J Stuart Blackton

The Enchanted Drawing is a silent film made in 1900 by director and animator J Stuart Blackton. It is one of the first know examples of animation. Watching this made me realise how far back animation dates, and I was surprised as I didn't know it was that old. The animation in this video was ahead of it's time, so was amazing for the audience to see, while including quite frequent comical gags to keep the animation entertaining.

Zoopraxiscopes

The zoopraxiscope was created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1879. It works when a series of images depicting movement are placed around a disk. If you focus on a fixed point of vision, when the disk is spun rapidly the images are seen at a high enough speed that you can see the subject, in this case a race horse, moving.

Zoetropes

This is video shows, and explains zoetropes and I found it very useful in understanding how this works, by flashing strobe lights on fast-spinning models, which are slightly different in position, making it look as though the models are moving. It takes this early method of animation and makes it slightly more modern, and giving the audience movement of characters which are actually there as opposed to on the cinema screen.

Commercials

This advert for twinings tea has a really nice ocean effect, realistically showing the movement and appearance of waves in the sea. And when the boat lands back into the water, the reaction of the woman in the boat and the splashing of the water makes it look as though the boat has hit the water with a great force. The slowed, swaying, movements of the sea weed under the water and the reaction of the sand when the woman puts her foot onto the bottom of the sea, also shows a force pushing them, and makes it very clear that they're underwater.

I also really like the simplicity of the animation, and the mood change from being stormy to being on a clean, warm beach is a very effective metaphor for putting across the company's selling point.

Ryan Woodward

Johnathon showed us this animation, Thought of You by Ryan Woodward, in one of our first lectures.

This animation shows an amazing attention to the natural form and movement of the human body and is really well observed. It contrasts beautifully with the more abstract details and morphing. The choreography also fits perfectly with the accompanying music. Loved it!

Tintin

I just got back from seeing the new "Adventures of Tintin" movie.

The animation in this was amazing as the characters move so fluidly and their movements and reactions were so life-like.

Also, I was impressed with the character designs because most of the characters almost look as though they could be real people, probably to do with their accurate proportions and colourings as well as a very clever use of textures.