History of Animation

THE ORIGINS

From the beginning of history, the man was motivated by the desire to represent plastically the movements, so we can go back to cave paintings, interpreting the animals with many legs in graffiti as a primitive method of representing the movement.

Then there was the birth of the shadows shows of ancient Egypt as well as of India and China with the famous "Chinese shadows". Time passed by and men invented a singular object: the Magic Lantern that projected pictures frame by frame. This is the first true form of cinema. The history of magic lanterns, begins in fact in 1500 with the studies of Leonardo da Vinci and Leon Battista Alberti.

Through the overlapping of sheets of glass containing portions of the drawing to be moved and the aid of ropes or rods, they obtained images of partially self-propelled.

But it's from the nineteenth century that some projector machines were developed, for example, the Phantasmagoria by Étienne-Gaspard Robert patented in 1799, the Thaumatrope by Dr. John Ayrton Paris, the Phenakistoscope (1833) by Joseph Antoine Plateau.

The animation movies start right from the magic lantern and these mechanical toys, in which the searching of the movement is closely linked with the design and illustration. In fact, the impressionists such as Manet, Degas, Monet, Redon, Rodin, introduced in the visual arts the need of movement and dynamism.

In any case we don't have to forget the relationship even closer with the caricatures and comics.

The first persons to try this new medium will be illustrators, caricaturists and later, in the new century, the avant-garde painters, and especially the cartoonists, infact animation and comic born together.

Cinema was patented in 1895 by Auguste and Louis Lumière.

THE PIONEERS: ÈMILE REYNAUD AND GEORGES MÈLIÈS

Émile Reynaud worked in a machine shop and simultaneously was interested in photography and drawing. In 1877 he patented the praxinoscope and two years later he perfected it inventing the praxinoscope-theater.
The machine consisted of a rotating cylinder, on which were drawn figures, at the center of it was placed a prism formed by small mirrors. In this way the individual images were reflected in the mirrors and illuminated from above by a lamp, the images projected mingled each others to form an uninterrupted succession of the planned movements.

The scenes were painted on a transparent glass placed in front of the machine, revealing, for transparency, the image of the animated character.

The movement of the characters was limited and repetitive. For this reason small movements in the form of ballet and acrobatic exercise were suitable for this type of show.

In 1888 Reynaud patented optical theater that marks the transition to the popular show, mass. The new invention is based on the same principle of the praxinoscope but updated and expanded on the basis of recent scientific discoveries.

The machine used, in place of the cylinder, a transparent film of celluloid with holes at the edge to allow it to slide in front of the light source by means particular sprockets and was able to project images on a large screen.
The "light pantomime", the name by which Reynaud called his shows, were projected on the big screen for the first time in 1892 and had a length varying from five to fifteen minutes and were accompanied by music played by a special orchestra. It was a simple story with very few characters that moved in a colorful envirorment such as in Autour d'une cabine.

The invention of cinema in 1895, and the subsequent public screenings of films by the Lumière brothers, progressively reduced the interest of the audience for the Reynaud's light pantomime.

Starting from 1895 there was a multiplication of cinemas in Europe and the United States.

The creator of the movie show was Georges Méliès, which was opposed to the documentary and reality film by Lumière, and replaced them with fantasy film by inserting special effects.

He was the firts who discovered, and certainly used, the technique film of "one-shot" for the sudden appearance or disappearance of objects or people.

The animated films were developed through the contribution of real pioneers, especially Spanish, French, Americans and British.

James Stuart Blackton would have been the caricaturist who first introduced the animation in a film of 1906 (Humorous Phases of Funny Faces), considered the first animated cartoon in the history, and the following year he would have even shocked European audiences with The Haunted Hotel where the spectator can see objects transforming into other objects and objects moving by their own.

Another one of the recognized pioneers of animation was Segundo de Chomón. Among his films we can mention El Hotel Electrico (1905), based mostly on the technique of animation, used to move inanimate objects. He also introduced the technique of animation, made with the technique of "one - shot", in a short sequence in the film La Legende du fantôme made ​​in Paris in 1907.

Émile Cohl, caricaturist for several satirical magazines, (1857 - 1938) is probably the greatest pioneer of animation.

In 1907, he was incharged by the film company Gaumont in Paris to make some animated films following the success of The Haunted Hotel. In 1908 in Paris, his film Fantasmagorie is presented and it can be considered as the first true animated film in the history of cinema.

At the first film will follow other ones, longer and with varied subjects, such as Le Cauchemar du fantoche and Un drame chez le fantoches. The design is of a great simplicity, and there aren't sceneries. During the First World War, Cohl was devoted more specifically to cartoon animation realising some propaganda films, as well as documentary films with educational purposes.

Between 1912 and 1914 he moved to the United States where he was in charged of animating the strip drawn by George MacManus called The Newlyweds.

In 1917 he dedicated to the production of animated films drawn from other successful comics with a series of short films entitled Les aventures des Pieds Nickelés based on the strips drawn by Louis Forton.
In 1921, he returned to his favorite character in a Fantouche cerche un logement, in which relives his magical and naive world before the war. But now we are in a phase of decadence and creative involution. After the war, the situation in Europe was also dramatic with regard to the animation that has to deal with the American production more and more impressive and massive, the Cohl's cinema, naive and childish, was no longer understood by an audience attracted by other novelty.

The initiator and principal investigator of the lodging of the film made with puppets was the Russian Vladislav Starevitch (1882 - 1965). His films have mainly insects as protagonists of adventure and humorous stories. Like Cohl also Starevitch is an artist-craftsman who must do almost everything by himself, in fact he is at the same time director, cameraman, set designer, as well as the creator of the puppets, mostly made in wood. He moved to France in 1919 where he dedicated to the production of films of puppets geared mainly to childhood (Le rat de ville et le rat des champs, La Cigale et la fourmi). In 1933 Starevitch invented a character suitable to interpret numerous stories, this is the puppet Fètiche, starring in numerous films. The films in the series were Fètiche mascotte (1933), Fetish prestidigitateur (1934), Fetish se marie (1935), Fetiche en voyage de noces (1936) and Fetish chez le sirènes (1937).

AMERICAN CINEMA ANIMATION

Winsor McCay (1871 - 1934) known as the most brilliant and poetic artist of the first strips, emerged in 1905 with the adventures of Little Nemo published in serial form in the "New York Herald".

In a film in 1914 called Gertie the Dinosaur there is the mixing of the techniques of animation and recording "from live". In the first part of the film appears McCay himself dressed as a trainer who present to a group of friends Gertie's character that appears in a white screen on the back of the room - a screen in screen - presenting it to the public. Gertie follows the orders given from McCay.

McCay also tried to import in animation his most successful cartoon character, Little Nemo, but the operation failed due to the complexity of the design that couldn't be reproduced with the techniques of that time. In the following years he realised two films of great interest: The Story of a Mosquito, the story of a mosquito surrealistic character in a like – Kafkaesque style, and The Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. In this case the sinking of the English ocean liner in 1915 by a German submarine, is the excuse for a dramatic representation transfigured by the graphic sign. Around the first decade a vast production of animated series was born in the United States that took inspiration from the world of comics. The reasons for this success were different: the ability to get into a boundless panorama of comics, the ease of implementation of the "stripes" into animation, with a very low cost, the invention of Earl Hurd who helped enormously into the lowering of the costs and reducing the work required to do an animation using the cel consisting of a transparent sheet of acetate, that allowed to maintain the background on which, for transparency, were filmed the movements of the characters drawn. Edison began to produce in 1914 the series Buster Brown Cartoons and the following year produced Animated Grouch Chaser composed of a dozen films. In the years 1916/1917 appear on the screen the series of Krazy Kat, Mutt and Jeff, the Katzenjammer Kids, Happy Hooligan (Fortunate), Bringing up Father, all derived from previous comics of great success.

Earl Hurd realizes for Universal the series of Bobby Bumps and for Paramount produces a serie of Farmer Al Falfa by Paul Terry, Earl Hurd and others.

Felix the Cat (Mio Mao) by Pat Sullivan (1887 - 1933) has Felix as protagonist, a witty and cute cat, who always manages every situation, with thousands of ideas represented by the tail, which is shaped like a question mark, that comes off from its body. The series is one of the most successful works of the twenties.

Paul Terry (1887 – 1971) designer and cartoonist for several newspapers, in San Francisco around 1914 approaches the film and begins with Little Herman (1915). Terry moved to film his drawings and small characters of his fantasy world. He is the author in 1916 of a series devoted to the farmer Al Falfa which will be distributed by Paramount until the '30s.

In the twenties he realized independent films and some popular series as Paul Terry-Toons and Terrytoons.

A very important place in the history of animated cinema is occupied by Max (1883 - 1972) and Dave (1894 - 1979) Fleischer brothers whose debut dates back to 1921 when the two brothers founded the Out of the Inkwell Films Inc. Between 1921 and 1927 they produced about eighty films in the series Out of the Inkwell and the Inkwell Imps, based on the animation of characters and objects that arose directly from the ink. The characters, among which stood out the clown Ko-Ko, came to life little by little.

In 1923 he built a film, long about an hour, entitled The Einstein's Theory of Relativity, under the direct supervision of Einstein with educational and scientific purposes.

Then the activity of the two brothers will be marked by the films of Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop. Fleischer brothers also tried to do feature film, with some films including Gulliver's Travels in 1939, but without much success, as they were crushed by the increasingly competition of Disney.

In the thirties with the advent of sound before and with that one of the color few years later, we have a real revolution in animation, in the fields of technology and in the arts. The United States were the first to develop new technologies. New figures emerged in animation field like that one of Walter Lantz (1899 - 1994), author of several fortunate series such as that one of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, created in collaboration with Walt Diney in 1927, and that one of Woody Woodpecker and others such as Gregory La Cava (1892 - 1952) director of numerous animated series, William C. Nolan, Frank Tashlin, etc.

Since the thirties in America and in the rest of the world, born the myth of Walt Disney. In 1922 he founded the Laugh-O-Gram Films producing 7 films including Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. In 1923 he also produced the first episode of the series Alice in Cartoonland, but his company failed. After he moved to Hollywood, the series Alice Comedies was distributed by Winkler Pictures Inc., until 1927. The series consisted of thirty episodes in which the protagonist - a real baby - faced with a reality that was designed to represent, in a naive and simplistic manner, the world of dreams and fantasy.

In 1928 Mickey Mouse appeared for the first time. The little mouse appears immediately in three films in 1928, Plane Crazy, Gallopin 'Gaucho and the most famous Steamboat Willie.

In the years between 1928 and 1942 all the characters and the most significant series emerged: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy.

In the thirties the tradition of the animated feature began. The first to come out was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Disney continued in the fifties and sixties with other films such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Cinderella (1950), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and many others.

Other studios, however, carried out a speech that deviates markedly from the Disney style, among them we can mention the Metro Goldwyn Mayer with series such as Tom and Jerry (Tom and Jerry Cartoons) and Droopy, and thanks mainly to the Fred Quimby (1886 - 1965) and Warner Bros that relying on the figure of Leon Schlesinger created several series including the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. There were also other "minor" houses such as the Vitagraph, RKO and Screen Gems, all united by following the school of cartoon anti - disney.

Through the series of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and especially Bugs Bunny they developed those anti – disney characters that can be characherised by a greater "evil" temperament in a more aggressive graphic, in a fast rythm of the story and in the absence of moralistic aspects.

Is also important to remember the role of the UPA (United Productions of America) detached by Disney in 1941 by Stephen Bosustow and other artists, which passed in history for series such as Mister Magoo and feature films such as The Princess and the sorcerer. In the production of Hanna-Barbera company we can remember the series of Hucleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, The Flintstones, etc..

We don't have to forget the role played in the history of American animation, by many independent artists like Ralph Bakshi that realised the film Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, the year after. Subsequently Bakshi has produced the feature films The Lord of the Rings (1978) from GRR Tolkien, American Pop (1981) and Cool Word (1992).
We must also mention the importance covered in the history of animated films by the American war propaganda. All great authors, and Disney in particular, compete in the creation of educational and military documentaries, also in propaganda film, and it is very unusual to see, for example, the funny and syrupy Disney characters in "military version" ready to defend the cause of the United States.

EUROPEAN CINEMA ANIMATION

The animation was developed in Europe around the second decade of twentieth century and thanks to the work of pioneers such as Chomón, Blackton, Cohl and Starevitch and other artists, even if it is discontinuous and predominantly experimental.

In the years during the First World War, the production became more abundant and several films of political propaganda appeared.

The entire production of the Old Continent from the beginning of the century until the mid-twenties is linked to the name and to the activity of few authors and studios. In those years the animated film had found its development on the commercial and industrial fields almost exclusively in the United States.

The United States industries will impose themself in Europe for decades and will have the monopoly of the cartoon world, nipping in the bud the European production.

However, the European animation from the twenties to the forties was able to experiment with new techniques and new ways of expression thanks to the work of some avant-garde artists. Painters such as Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, Man Ray, Fernand Léger, approach the animated films with the intention of using it as a means to give to their paintings that real movement that could not be obtained by other means. Thus the animation abstract was created.

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) deserve a special place. She was born in Berlin, she approaches the cinema when she was still very young to give movements to her silhouettes that, referring to the theater of shadows spread all over the East, she had carefully studied and tested.

In 1918 she collaborates to the film by Paul Wegener Die von Rattenfänger Hamelin (The hunter mice of Hamelin) where she solved with the use of animated silhouettes, the problem of making the theory of mice that must follow the piper.

Between 1923 and 1926 she made her first feature film, which will be for a long time considered her masterpiece The Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed), taken from the Thousand and One Nights.

The period from 1927 to 1939 is the most fruitful of her activity, in which she makes films like Die chinesische Nachtgall (1928) and the three episodes of the series Das Abenteuer des Dr. Doolittle (The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle) based on the tales of H. Lofting. She moved to England where she continued her activities founded her own production company.

Berthold Bartosch (1893-1968), made a film called L'idée, shot in France betweee was a painter and architect and he intends to use the animation to clearly didactic and propagandistic purposes.

L'idée is the result of a collaboration with the expressionist painter and graphic artist Franz Masereel. The film tells the story of the “idea", depicted like a nude young woman rejected by all men she finds a young militant who defends her and he fights a battle that unfortunately will end tragically.n 1929 and 1932.

Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982) was an indirect student of Bartosch, he was a painter, book illustrator, printmaker and stage designer. In 1932, after a careful research that occupied him for some time, he realized a strange and original technical equipment that he will call écran d'épingles (screen pins). It consisted of a board pierced by hundreds of thousands of small holes, through which flowed many steel pins. Being able to vary at will the length of the individual pins and illuminating the table, he could obtained on the surface of the table lights and shadows properly arranged to form any image.

After a year and a half of working, Alexeieff and his wife Claire Parker completed in 1933, their first work: a kinetic view of the symphonic poem of Mussorgsky Une nuit sur ​​le Mont Chauve.

In 1943 in Canada they produced a short film illustrating a Canadian folk song entitled En passant.

Respectively in 1963 and 1972 were made the movies Le nez, based on the story by Gogol, and Tableaux d'une exposition, based on some of the themes of the homonymous piano works by Mussorgsky.

The exponent of animation in the postwar period is Paul Grimault (1905-1994) who made ​​several movie-themed fairy tale, in which, however, there was a clear political commitment.

His main work is the film released in 1979 entitled Le roi et l'oiseau.

We can mention also the works of Jean-François Laguionie, a student of Grimault, where the magic fairy atmoshere turns into a heartfelt meditation on man, with movies like La demoiselle et le violoncelliste (1965) and Une bombs par hasard (1968), and of Jacques Colombat with Calaveras (1969) and La montagne qui accouche (1973).

The couple composed by René Laloux and Roland Topor, formed in the sixties, realised Le temps morts (1964), made in black and white, it's a collage of different images, which is nothing more than a series of variations on a single theme: the death and the horror of death. Les escargots made ​​in colors the following year, is a tale set in a surreal and apocalyptic tragic dimension, and finally The planète sauvage of 1972 is a science fiction story with a clear pacifist message.

In the sixties and seventies in France will be formed a group of artists gathered around the house of production Cinémation, called the "Young Turks", including names such as Jacques Leroux and Manuel Otero, which created a cinema made of cartoons of "dispute ". In England, the production is concentrated mainly around the production company Halas and Batchelor, founded in 1940. It was an industrial production that was dedicated both to the cinema for children film and consumption. Among the commercial series we can cite Foo-Foo and Snipp Snapp and, made in the 60s, a movie for the cinema called History of the Cinema (1956) and Automania 2000 (1963).

George Dunning (1920-1979) also starts an activity that led him to create some of the most interesting films of British animation. Like The Wardrobe (1960), and absurd Kafkaesque story of two men and a mysterious box. Other films worth to be mentioned are The Apple (1962) and The Flying Man (1962). In 1968 Dunning directed the film feature, based on the drawings by Heinz Edelmann, The Yellow Submarine, with lyrics and songs by Beatles.

At the end Richard Williams also realised some films of interest such as The Little Island (1958) and A Christmas Carol (1971), winner of the Oscar in 1972.

In Belgium, the studio Belvision in 1959 gave rise to the television series Tintin. Ray Goossens began to produce at the end of the sixties the film Asterix the Gaul and the film Lucky Luke (1971). In the same years (1960-66) the series of adventures of the Smurfs was produced.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the animated film was closely related to the advertising and television. An animation industry didn't exist as in the other European countries, which would allow a regular production of films.

In Netherland we can highlight the works of Ronald Bijlsma, the best of which is probably Het duel (The Duel, 1966), a short antifeminist and antiwedding film. It should be also noted the television series Barbapapa (id., 1973-74) produced by Marten Toonder Studio, which had a big success.

In the socialist countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union the animated film developed on two levels: on one hand the film is devoted to childhood, is built by quite rigid contents and is a flat imitation of the Disney style, on the other hand the film is devoted to political propaganda commitments, not excluding a certain satirical and humorous content. Other socialist countries developed a national animation film that often took inspiration by the tradition of folklore and folk art.

Since the Thirties there is a strong emphasis and commitment to production in the field of cinema for children. The American cartoon in the Disney version, is imposed gradually as a model to be imitated, and the themes and subjects are increasingly derived from the fairy-tale world. The most important figure of the Soviet cartoon of thirties and for the next decades is Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1900-1987). He realized in 1932 in collaboration with L. Amalrik, Blek end uait (Black and white), based on the poem of the same name by Mayakovsky, and then Skazka or care Durandae (The Tale of Tsar Durando, 1934), in collaboration with the sisters Brumberg, Tri musketera (The Three Musketeers, 1938), IVAs (1940). During the war he dedicated to propaganda film.

As far the other socialist countries are concerned, the production of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia stands out clearly. In Czechoslovakia there is a tradition of animated puppets thanks to the works of Jirí Trnka (1912-1969), of Hermína Týrlová and Karel Zeman (1910-1989).

With the creation in 1956 of the Zagreb Film in Yugoslavia a group of authors begins to gather and surely among them the best known is Vukotic (192-1998), author of works such as Surogat (The surrogate 1961) - that was enough for Vukotic to be the first Oscar awarded to a non-American animated film - Sedmi kontinent (The Seventh Continent 1966) and Ars gratia artis (1969).

The first italian animated film was made in Turin in 1916 by Giovanni Pastrone, the director of Cabiria, in collaboration with Segundo de Chomón and was La guerra e il sogno di Momi a live film in which there was a dreamy scene made ​​with the animation of objects.

We can not speak of about a true Italian production of animated films until the '30s, when it began to work for advertising film.

There are two feature films begun in 1942 and completed both only after the war: La rosa di Baghdad by Anton Gino Domeneghini and I fratelli Dinamite by Nino and Toni Pagot. The Italian animators of post-war was devoted almost exclusively to advertising. In 1957, the national television began to broadcast advertising with a special formula of "Carosello": they had to produce short television series shows to be combined with an advertising message.

The Carosello was loved especially for the drawn characters – from Unca Dunca by Bozzetto to the Linea of Cavandoli, from Calimero by Pagot to the plasticine by Fusako Yusaki created for Fernet.

There are some other works by Bozzetto that we have to mention: West and Soda (1965), Vip mio fratello superuomo (1968) e Allegro non troppo (1977) and some other works based on the character of Mr. Rossi reppresenting the average man.

Gino and Roberto Gavioli created La lunga

calza verde (1961) and the feature film for childre Putiferio va alla guerra realised in 1967.

Guido Manuli produced Solo un bacio (1983), a parody of White Snow by Disney, Monster Mash (2000) and he directed Aida degli Alberi (2001).

Gibba (Francesco Maria Guido) produced L'ultimo Sciuscià (1947) and Manfredo Manfredi was the author of Dedalus (1976) nominate for Oscar award.

In the '60 Giulio Gianini and Emanuele Luzzati produced films with paper puppets that were relate to sicilian pupi tradition: La Gazza Ladra (1962), Pulcinella (1973) L'Italiana in Algeri (1968), insipered by Rossini's music, and Il Flauto Magico (1978).

In 1977, the "Carosello" was deleted from the RAI and replaced by more direct advertising, so the animation productions crumbled.

Later on RAI promoted several new Italian series such as "Lupo Alberto" by Silver, "Pimpa" by Altan or Winx club by Igino Straffi.

In the 1996 there was a big success with La Freccia Azzurra and La Gabbianella e il gatto, directed by Enzo D'Alò.

JAPANESE CINEMA ANIMATION

In 1917 there was the first animation movie titled Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki (The porter Imokawa Mukuzo) of Hekoten Shimokawa (1892-1973), a real experiment because the author "invented" the animation techniques.

These ancient Japanese films are inspired by the Kabuki theater and popular legends.

In 1932 there is the first animated film with sound realised by Kenzo Masaoka and titled Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka (What matters in the world are the power and women).

Momotaro no Umiwashi (Momotaro the eagle of the sea) and Momotaro Umi no Shimpei (Momotaro the divine sailor) by Mitsuyo Seo, realised in 1943 and 1944, tell the story of a mythological character That fights agains demons.

In 1963 starts the first animated television series, Tetsuwan Atom (Atom by arm wrestling) by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989).

The relationship between the animation (anime) and comics (manga) is crucial in Japanese industry.

Other important works to mention are: Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke (The Little Samurai, 1959) Taiji Yabushita, Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Taitei, 1965) and Senya ichia monogatari (The Thousand and One Nights, 1969) by Osamu Tezuka, Puss in Boots (Nagagutsu or Haita neko, 1969) by Kimio Yabuki.

Yoji Kuri (Tokyo, 1928) has been a “dispute” symbol with his works such as Human Zoo (1960), the cruel war of the sexes, The Man Next Door (1965) which describes the reactions of a man continually disturbed by the noises that come from the adjoining room and Crazy World (1970).

In the seventies emerged some television series such as Mazinger (1972) and Atlas Ufo Robot Goldrake (1975), both taken from comic by Go Nagai.

These series, purchased by RAI and broadcasted at the end of the seventies in Italy, met a considerable success but also shocked audiences accustomed to American cartoons from the tone much more "quiet".

Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, realized Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa (Nausicaa from the Valley of the Wind, 1984), Tenku no Shiro Ryaputa (Laputa the castle in the sky, 1986), Tonai no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro, 1988) and The Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime, 1997).

In the 1983 the home video anime started to diffuse, with the appearance of the OAV (Original Anime Video), that are anime designed directly for the market of videotapes. The first OAV, the sci-fi Dallos: Remember Bartholomew (1983), opens the way for a new revolution to understand anime.