History of Animation (Michael Withers)

History of Animation

I have chosen to write about the development of animation between the years of 1940’s to the 1980’s­ as I feel that there was a lot of change for the industry during these years, however I do also look at the history as a whole.

To begin with, stop motion animation peaked in popularity during the 1950’s due to the increasing success of science fiction films, creating a progressing in the field of special effects. It was enjoyed by a very wide audience and was accepted in pop culture, it was also a different options for animators to use, as apposed to the traditional hand drawn process that they had become accustomed to. You began to see stop motion everywhere, such as films, television and commercials. Stop motion animation has continued to grow to this day, taking into consideration technological advances in computers and software’s etc…

During the late 1940’s cartoons started to be shown on television. However a problems occurred in the fact that the animation progress was very slow, and labour intensive, and as network television wanted 10-20 half hour episodes each year, studios began to sacrifice quality for quantity. Despite the growth in stop motion animation, this era also saw a decrease in the quality of animation. American animation studios gradually began to move away from realistic and detailed animations that had previously been created in the 1940’s towards a much more simplistic style which proved to be a bad decision as viewers were put off by the bad quality.  Both Warner Bros and MGM were said to be at the peak of their creativity in the 1950’s, with MGM winning many awards such as the Tom and Jerry series winning 2 Oscars.

Most animation at this time was aimed mainly at children, and so Saturday morning tv was overloaded with poor quality animation. The only animation that seemed to have effort put into was animations being shown during prime time hour, as these animations had to appeal to adults as well as children.

As animation used to be primarily directed towards children, Saturday morning television was overrun with animations all day for children to watch. It was almost a tradition for children on Saturday to watch cartoons. This is a reason why many people have the attitude that animation is a Childs thing. Because of this, and as there was an increase in political correctness, many cartoons were censored, such as Tom and Jerry which was criticized for its extreme violence and racism. Many things were censored and changed, ethnic stereotypes that were used were cut out in the 19050’s, this included, blackfaces, impressions of Chinese and red Indians, “Mammy maid” was changed into a slim white lady. Also scenes that promoted and made smoking seem glamorous.  Animation however is not only aimed at children, for example cartoons such as family guy, and south park, are not aimed at children due to their, violence and adult humour. Also films such as the animation “9” deals with much darker themes that appeal more towards adults. On top of this there is the ever increasingly popular cgi animation for films, such as “Avatar” and “The Matrix” that uses animation mixed with real life filming to enhance the viewers experience, this definitely appeals to both adults and children.

Animation has greatly advanced over the years due to significant advances in technology. Disney introduced the Multiplane cameras which moved a number of pieces of artwork past the camera, and various speeds and distances, to create a 3D effect.  The use of CGI has increased greatly due to its use in commercial media, and so, increasing its development and popularity. New technologies such as Motion capture, blue screens, and film editing software’s have been used by movie animators to make animations seem much more realistic.