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Filip Stojanovski
Contemporary Storytelling: Comics and Animation
Classical Animation
People started using cinematography to tell stories
that included animated elements very soon after its invention of in
1895, with the goal of presenting the stories that resulted from their
imaginations. Early science fiction movies of George Melies feature special effects that can be classified as animations. In the U.S.A.
the studios of Thomas Edison were making experimental movies that
started to pioneer some of the animation techniques that are still used
(Simon, 1999). The principle of stop motion: filming (photographing)
inanimate objects one frame at the time, with doing slight changes in
between, was used with drawings (Falk, 1941, p.12), puppets, clay and
even human beings.
Although these animations seem crude and
unsophisticated when judged by the standards of the next era, they did
move in the direction of more elaborate portrayal of the fantastic world
of the human imagination. An early example of animation that meets
higher standards of use of the medium was Windsor McKay’s "Gertie
the Dinosaur," which appeared in 1916. Gertie was the first
animated character that possessed and expressed distinctive marks of
personality, showing more than the rudimentary emotional states (Thomas
& Johnston, 1981, p.22). It was drawn well, and the animator made
full use of perspective and background as elements in the scene. But,
once McKay stopped working, most of his techniques were forgotten. It
took about a decade for the world to see their revival by the mind and
hands of Walt Disney.
 It seems that Disney used a simple formula: create
good products so the audience returns for more. He correctly reckoned
that quality of entertainment product is essential. So, his goal became
to create animations that do not only provide an illusion of motion, but
an illusion of life. Disney pioneered the use of sound, color, and
feature length stories in animated movies, which proved quite profitable
(Falk, 1941, pp.22-23). His gathered financial strength was later used
to spawn an entertainment empire composed of movie and TV production,
theme parks (Finch, 1945, pp.148-160) and sale of trademarked
merchandise items, including comics. The mixing of the strife for
artistic excellence and the ability to turn it into money secured Disney’s
position in the business world and in history also.
The time period when it all began was the Great
Depression, when movie theaters lured audiences with the promise of
escape from the dreary reality. Movie shows were composed of a feature
presentation and auxiliary elements. Today these auxiliary elements are
replaced by commercials for the new releases. At the time, they composed
of animated cartoons, other sorts of short films, as well as
cinematographic news from the world.
Disney did not hold a monopoly on this market.
Several other cinematography firms had cartoon studios, often headed by
creative geniuses comparable to Disney: Max Fleischer, Paul Terry, Fred
C. Quimby, Walter Lanz, Leon Schlesinger and Charles B. Mintz. By the
beginning of the Second World War, each of these studios employed at
least a hundred staff members and produced 18-42 cartoons per year
(Falk, 1941, pp.24-31).
Contents
| Foreword |
Glossary |
Works Cited
Comics: Bits of History |
Modern Age |
Great Adventurers |
Vocabulary
| Grammar: Closure
Animation: Origins |
An Early Animator |
Classical Animation |
Making an Animation
| Epilogue
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