Innovation In Animation Essay Research Paper Innovation

Innovation In Animation Essay, Research Paper

Innovation in Animation

In the early 1900 s, people from across the globe migrated toward a common land,that land being the newly established United States of America. The U.S. offered these immigrants freedom and a chance at success that was unthinkable anywhere else. Everyone who entered America was on the same boat, and each had their own contributions to make toward bettering the country. The sudden explosion of residents however, left America lacking certain necessities to hold on to the loyalty of these people. These foreigners required jobs, better living conditions, and maybe most importantly,entertainment. The solutions to these quandaries came in the forms of large industries,

skyscrapers, and movies. America was growing in industry but a country that does nothing other than work cannot stand for very long. Necessity is the mother of invention and the United State needed entertainment. Early animators managed to get the attention other performers lost because they not only used technology, but a way of creating life in things that weren t alive. Had not animation come into the picture when it did, visual arts today would not have come so incredibly far as they have. Today, animation can be made to look so realistic, it can actually take the place on an actor in a film. In addition, without the cartoons that were made in the past 60 years, millions of people would not have an escape from the toil and hardships of everyday life. This was done through humor and the misfortunes of characters it was all right to laugh at, as such was the case with characters only in animation, like Mickey mouse or Popeye. Animation aided in America s growth by opening gates to creativity and relating to people and the issues the faced.

As early as the late 1920 s, people were already looking into a new medium we now know to be animation. One such entrepreneur was Winsor McCay, a cartoon strip columnist from two New York newspapers (Kanfer 19). McCay, often referred to as the father of animation merely evolved an idea that had been around for hundreds of years. Working on the first ever cartoon was actually done on a bet between McCay and some of his friends, and the idea to use several different pictures to create a fluid motion on film came from a toy of his sons, a flipbook (Kanfer 24). These toys had been in circulation for a number of years before anyone ever thought of putting them to film, and McCay was the first to do so. Creating a number of characters based on those from his comic strip, Little Nemo, McCay began work on his project without any information on how to do so other than basic camera operations. Upon releasing this cartoon, people were instantly awe struck as they had never seen feat in the arts so technically genius before. The only thing Winsor could do was make more cartoons for the enjoyment of others and himself. McCay decided his next work would be of a monster of long ago, and finally decided upon Gertie the Dinosaur. This latest production proved to be a striking film with both live

action and animation intermixed. This technique only gave more praise to animation and it s splendor, and before anyone could put a word in edgewise, animation studios began to spring up out of the woodwork to gain an upper hand in this new business. Most of those interested in this medium were young men with a desire to reach a level that hadn t been reached by those before them. The silent era came abound without anyone know and crept into the heart of Americans in the forms of Felix the Cat and Betty Boop, two awkward,comically drawn characters that took peoples minds off times of hardship and onto better

things. Felix s creator was Otto Messmer, a genius of his time. Using gags that would appeal to audiences of all ages, Messmer, caught America by storm and introduced it to animation and other cartoon related topics( Kanfer 38). Messmer used very un-feline like characteristics for his cat in order to make him better relate with the audiences. Upon doing this, Messmer played funny and sometimes harsh tricks on Felix in order to make the audiences forget about their worries, and feel okay laughing at someone else s. Along with Felix and his Charlie Chaplain like adventures, other characters were eventually introduced into the animation scene during the silent era, however, none ever gained so much popularity as Felix. Felix s personality also added in his portrayal of people of that time as he questioned things, but displayed himself as being sure footed. Obviously,animation wasn t very far in terms of technology or originality, however, the innovation itself is what led to the things to come.

Despite the recent birth of animation and it s ability to appeal to both young and old, people grew weary of the same sort of cartoon recreated in theaters and desired something that would be more refreshing. For this reason, animators struggled to find ways to liven up their cartoons, a sure fire way of doing so was by adding music to the cartoons. Prior to this time, cartoons were shown with the accompaniment of a live pianist to offer something other than a visual pleasure, but this wasn t doing enough for audiences. This was all changed however by an unpopular and unheard of animator by the name of Walt Disney who was credited with creating the first cartoon that had sound (Bohl 16). This wa