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Golden age of American animation

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The Golden Age of U.S. animation is a period in the United States animation history that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928, with a peak between the second half of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, and continued into the early 1960s when theatrical animated shorts slowly began losing to the new medium of television animation. Many memorable characters emerged from this period including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Popeye, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Mr. Magoo, Tom and Jerry, and an incredibly popular adaptation of Superman. Feature length animation also began during this period, most notably with Walt Disney's first films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

History of animation in the United States

The early years

The first animation was made in Britain by Arthur Melvin Cooper in 1899, he tied matches together and moved them slightly for each frame. The motion picture industry was revolutionized by the introduction of sound film, and within two years this innovation spread to animation. Although the first cartoon to use synchronized sound was Max Fleischer's My Old Kentucky Home in 1926, Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928), the third theatrical appearance of Mickey Mouse, was more successful and popular. Considered an enormous financial gamble, Steamboat Willie was a box-office success, drawing in crowds and sparking Disney's rise to fame.

Disney's influence

After Steamboat Willie was released, Disney had gained huge dominance in the animation field by using sound in his future cartoons as well. During the early 1930s, animation seemed to be divided into two factions: Walt Disney and "everyone else". Mickey Mouse's popularity put the animated character into the ranks of the most popular screen personalities in the world (ranking alongside Charlie Chaplin), and for a while it seemed that everything Disney touched was successful. Merchandising based on Disney cartoons rescued a number of companies from bankruptcy during the depths of the Depression, and Disney took advantage of this popularity to move forward with further innovations in animation. He worked with the Technicolor company to implement their new full-color three-strip process, first used in the 1932 Disney short Flowers and Trees. After the success of this cartoon, Disney negotiated a two-year exclusive deal with Technicolor for use of the three-strip process in animated films [1][2]; the deal was later extended three extra years[3]. Continuing emphasis on story development and characterization resulted in yet another smash hit for Disney: Three Little Pigs (1933), which is seen as the first cartoon in which multiple characters displayed unique, individual personalities; the cartoon is still considered to be the most successful animated short of all time [4], and also featured the hit song that became the anthem in fighting the Great Depression "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf"[5]. In 1937, Disney was the first to use advanced multi-plane camera shots in his Silly Symphony cartoon The Old Mill [6]. Much of Disney's work was heavily influenced by European stories and myths, and the work of illustrators such as Doré and Busch. By 1934, Mickey was also making 600,000.00 a year in merchandise and cartoons[7]

Disney had competitors, though none were able to topple his studio from the throne of animation until the 1940s. Disney's greatest competitor during the silent era, the Pat Sullivan studio, faced its downfall after the failure of the Felix the Cat sound cartoons, which had already been drawn [1]. Without another star power competitor for Mickey, this downfall was a big break for Disney, as Mickey's popularity would afterwards skyrocket throughout the early 1930s[8]. In addition, Disney was able to make Mickey more appealing among theater audiences by colorizing and partially redesigning him in 1935 [2]. Mickey was later redesigned again by Fred Moore when the production of the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment for Fantasia began in 1938, but not seen until the 1939 short The Pointer. This redesign of Mickey is still in use today. [2].

At first, Mickey was drawn by Disney's long-time partner and friend Ub Iwerks, who was also a technical innovator in cartoons, and drew an average of 600 drawings for Disney on a daily basis [3]; Disney was responsible for the ideas in the cartoons, and Iwerks was responsible for bringing them to life [3]. However, Iwerks left the Disney studio in 1930 to form his own company, which was financially backed by Celebrity Pictures owner Pat Powers [4]. After his departure, Disney eventually found a number of different animators to replace Iwerks. Iwerks would produce three cartoon series during the 1930s: Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the ComiColor Cartoons for Pat Powers' Celebrity Productions. However, none of these cartoons could come close to matching the success of Disney or Fleischer cartoons, and in 1933, MGM-Iwerks' cartoon distributor since 1930 ended distribution of his cartoons in favor of distributing Harman and Ising cartoons, and Iwerks left after his contract expired in 1934 [9]. After his stay with MGM, Iwerks' cartoons were distributed by Celebrity Pictures, and Iwerks would answer to Disney's use of Technicolor and create the Comicolor series, which aired cartoons in two-strip Cinecolor[10]. However, by 1936, the Iwerks Studio would lose a lot of money and would close after Pat Powers withdrew financial aid to the studio [5]. Iwerks returned to Disney in 1940, where worked as the head of the "special effects development" division until his retirement in the late 1960s.

Fleischer's influence

One of Disney's main competitors was Max Fleischer, the head of Fleischer Studios, which produced cartoons for Paramount Pictures. Fleischer Studios was a family-owned business, operated by Max Fleischer and his younger brother Dave Fleischer, who supervised the production of the cartoons. The Fleischers continued the innovation and creativity they had developed during the silent film era, and they scored successful hits with the sexy Betty Boop cartoons and the surreal Popeye the Sailor series. Popeye's popularity during the 1930s rivaled Mickey Mouse at times, and Popeye fan clubs sprang up across the country in imitation of Mickey's fan clubs; in 1935, polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse [11]. However, during the early 1930s, stricter censorship rules enforced by the new Production Code in 1934 required animation producers to remove bathroom gags and risqué humor. The Fleischers in particular had to tone down the content of their Betty Boop cartoons, which waned in popularity afterwards [12]. The Fleischers also had produced a number of Color Classics cartoons during the mid- and late-1930s- which attempted to emulate Walt Disney's use of color-, but the series was not a success [13]. Despite all this, the Popeye series remained strong.

Origins of the Warner Bros. and MGM cartoon studios

Meanwhile, in 1930, former Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising began producing a series of Looney Tunes cartoons starring their character Bosko, which were distributed by Warner Bros. by arrangement with Leon Schlesinger Productions. A second Harman-Ising series, Merrie Melodies, followed in 1931. Both series showed the strong influence of the early Disney films. Despite his popularity, Bosko, however, could not match the success of Fleischer Studios and Disney Studios, nor could he gain star power.

After disputes over money, Harman-Ising parted company with Schlesinger in 1933, taking Bosko with them, and began producing Happy Harmonies cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after that studio's contract with Ub Iwerks had run its course in 1934. The Happy Harmonies shorts were also emulative of Disney's works, in particular the Disney Silly Symphonies cartoons, and were in Technicolor as well [14]. At Warner Bros., Schlesinger began his own cartoon operation, hiring Harman-Ising animator Friz Freleng and several others to run the studio. Schlesinger also answered to Disney's use of color in Silly Symphonies cartoons in 1934, and began making all future Merrie Melodies cartoons in color [15]. In 1935, Schlesinger hired a new animation director who proceeded to revitalize the studio: Tex Avery. Avery brought a wacky style of animation to the studio that would increase the Warner Bros. cartoons' popularity in the crowded marketplace. With Avery's influence, Schlesinger's staff would give birth to a new crowd of popular animated cartoons stars: Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and many others. Under Avery, Porky Pig would become the first Warner Bros. character to achieve star power, and followed by characters such as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny[16].

Meanwhile, Happy Harmonies failed to make a success in the theaters, and by 1937, Happy Harmonies and the cartoon's main character Bosko were cancelled by MGM. MGM fired Harman and Ising as the head of the animation department and replaced them with Fred Quimby[17]. After Quimby took over, he kept a number of Harman and Ising's staff and created an animated adaptation of the comic book series The Captain & The Kids, which was a flop [18]. In 1939, however, Quimby gained success after cancelling The Captain & the Kids series and rehiring Harman & Ising. After returning to MGM, Ising also created MGM's first studio-originated animated star, Barney Bear [19].

Lantz and others

In addition to these studios, a number of other cartoon studios thrived during the 1930s. Another name to the list of Disney's was Walter Lantz, who replaced Charles Mintz as producer of Universal Studios cartoons in 1929. Lantz's main character at this time was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, whose earlier cartoons had been produced by both Walt Disney and Charles Mintz. Also Lantz started to experiment with color cartoons, and the first one called Jolly Little Elves was released in 1934. In 1935, Lantz made his studio independent from Universal Studios, and Universal Studios was now only the distributors of his cartoons, instead of the direct owners[20].

Mintz, meanwhile, was still in charge of his own cartoon operation producing Krazy Kat cartoons, and a new series featuring a boy named Scrappy, created by Dick Huemer in 1931. Scrappy was a big break for Mintz and was also his most successful creation too, but his studio would suffer irreparable damage after Dick Huemer was fired from the Mintz Studio in 1933 [21]. In 1934, Mintz, like most other animation studios at the time, also attempted to answer Disney's use of Technicolor, and began making color cartoons through the Color Rhapsodies series [22]; the series was also featured in three-strip Technicolor after Disney's contract with Technicolor, which guaranteed him to be the only animator to use three-strip Technicolor, expired in 1935[23]. However, the series failed to garnish attention, and by 1939, Mintz was largely indebted to Columbia Pictures- who distributed his cartoons since his departure from Universal Pictures in 1929-, and sold his studio to Columbia as a result, and Columbia renamed the studio -which Mintz still managed- as Screen Gems [24]; Mintz died the following year.

After losing his Aesop's Film Fables series to the Van Beuren Studio in 1929, Paul Terry established a new studio called Terrytoons. Neither the Van Beuren studio nor the Terrytoon studio were able to compete with the success of any of the other studios, Disney in particular. In 1934, as other studios were putting cartoons in Technicolor to answer to Disney's cartoon series, Van Beuren Studios abandoned its remaining cartoons and answered Disney's use of Technicolor by creating the Rainbow Parade series, which was all color[25]. However, the series was not a success, and by 1936, RKO Pictures-the owner of the Van Beuren Studio- closed the Van Beuren Studio as RKO chose to instead distribute Disney cartoons[26].

Feature-length animation

In 1937, Walt Disney produced Snow White, the first American feature-length animated movie. This was the culmination of two years of effort by Disney studios. Walt Disney was convinced that short cartoons would not keep his studio profitable in the long run, so he took what was—yet again—seen as an enormous gamble. Disney's financial ruin was predicted as a result of Snow White, but his critics were proven wrong. Snow White was a worldwide box office success, and a landmark in the development of animation as a serious art form.

However, Disney was not the first animation producer to make an animated cartoon longer than the standard one reel. In 1936, Fleischer Studios produced the first of three two-reel Popeye Technicolor features: Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936), Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937), and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1939). The Fleischer studio relocated from New York to Miami, Florida in 1938-in order to avoid organized unions, which became a threat to the studio after a five month strike occurred among Fleischer Studio workers in late 1937[27]- and there the Fleischers produced an animated feature version of Gulliver's Travels in 1939. A small success, it was followed by Mister Bug Goes to Town in 1941, which was a failure. Shortly after this film failed at the box office, Paramount fired the Fleischers from their own studio, which was now completely owned by Paramount; the facility was renamed Famous Studios and moved back to New York. These two Fleischer features were the only American animated features other than Disney's until 1959, when UPA released 1001 Arabian Nights. Other non-Disney animated features made in America were not released before 1962 with Gay Purr-ee (also by UPA). The avant-garde film Heaven and Earth Magic was released the same year, although not theatrically.

As Disney began to concentrate on the production of animated feature films, he did not personally oversee his short cartoons in the manner that he had before. While the Disney short films remained inventive, entertaining, and always featured exquisite animation, the stories began to lag and become predictable. This left an opening for the animators producing cartoons at the Leon Schlesinger studio for release by Warner Bros. The Schlesinger staff produced a series of zany and creative Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons which have influenced animators and other filmmakers for generations afterwards. After Daffy Duck was created in 1937, in the cartoon Porky's Duck Hunt, he would add even more success to Warner Bros cartoons and replaced co-star Porky Pig as the studio's most popular animated character[28]. Bugs Bunny would also and add to studio's success after being created in the successful, as well as Academy Award nominated, cartoon A Wild Hare in 1940, and quickly replaced Daffy as the studio's top star[29]. Because of Bugs Bunny, the Schlesinger studio now had risen to new heights, and Bugs quickly also became the star of the color cartoons Merrie Melodies, which had previously been used for one-shot character appearances. Warners' cartoon directors came into their own at this time, and the 1940s cartoons of Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett are now considered classics of the genre. By 1942, Warners shorts had surpassed those of Disney in popularity [30].

Sound in animation

While much of the focus in an animated cartoon is on the visuals, the vocal talents and symphonic scores that accompanied the images were also very important to the cartoons' success.

As motion pictures drew audiences away from their radio sets, it also drew talented actors and vocal impressionists into film and animation. Mel Blanc gave voice to many of Warner Bros. most popular characters, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig (starting in 1937), and Daffy Duck. Other voices and personalities from vaudeville and the radio era contributed to the popularity of animated films in the Golden Era.

Cartoons of this era also included scores played by studio orchestras. Carl Stalling at Schlesinger/Warner Bros. and Scott Bradley at MGM composed numerous cartoon soundtracks, creating original material as well as incorporating familiar classical and popular melodies.

Many of the early cartoons, particularly those of Disney's Silly Symphonies series, were built around classical pieces. These cartoons sometimes featured star characters, but many had simple nature themes.

The wartime era

After the success of Snow White, Disney invested heavily into three additional animated feature films, all of which have been widely acclaimed as among the greatest animated productions of all time: Pinocchio, Bambi, and Fantasia. However, none of these films were box-office hits that came anywhere near the level of Snow White. Fantasia in particular was looked down upon by literary critics and audiences, who felt that Walt was striving for something beyond his reach by trying to introduce mainstream animation to abstract art, classical music, and "elite" subjects. However, the film would be reevaluated in later years and considered a significant achievement in the art of animation. To compensate for the relative failure of Pinocchio and Fantasia, Disney produced a low-budget feature film, Dumbo, that brought in much-needed revenue and kept his studio afloat.


Felix the Cat in The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg (1936)

With the advent of the 1940s, two major events evoked change in the status quo of the Hollywood cartoon studios. The first was the entry of the United States into World War II, and the mobilization of all the studios (including their cartoon divisions) to produce propaganda material to bolster public confidence and encourage support for the war effort. The second was the Disney animators' strike of 1941, caused by the Screen Cartoonists' Guild who had been formed in 1938, which severed many ties between Walt Disney and his staff, while encouraging many members of the Disney studio to leave and seek greener pastures. Two Disney animators who left during the strike named Frank Tashlin and John Hubley had also obtained jobs at Screen Gems as well, where Tashlin served as head producer and Hubley served as a director for studio [31]; Tashlin helped Screen Gems gain more success, and also maintained his position until Columbia Pictures released him from the studio in favor of Dave Fleischer in 1942[32]. Some of these former Disney employees also went on to form UPA, a studio which would have a significant impact on the look of cartoons throughout the 1950s. Other Disney staff members migrated to competing cartoon studios, including MGM, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The consequence of this event was that the animation studio employers were forced to give their employees higher salaries, which had a feedback effect; with the higher salaries, the studios could no longer afford to keep all their workers, and many of them lost their jobs. And smaller staffs meant lesser animation resources.

File:TomandJerryTitleCard2.jpg
Tom and Jerry, the MGM animation studio's most important property.

The major Hollywood studios contributed greatly to the war effort, and their cartoon studios pitched in as well with various contributions. Over at the Fleischer studios, Popeye the Sailor joined the Navy and began fighting Nazis and "Japs"; while the Warner Bros. studio produced a series of Private Snafu cartoons especially for viewing by enlisted soldiers.

The war was the second of two major blows to shake Walt Disney's empire, as the US Army had seized Disney's studio as soon as the US entered World War II in December 1941[33]. But while Disney lagged, it didn't fall. Disney contributed to the war effort with propaganda shorts and a feature film entitled Victory Through Air Power . Victory Through Air Power was a box office failure and the studio lost around $500,000 as a result[34]. The required propaganda cartoon shorts were also not as popular as Disney's regular shorts, and by the time the Army ended its stay at Disney Studios when the war ended in 1945, Disney struggled to restart his studio, and had a low amount of cash on hand [35]. Further Disney feature films of 1940s were modestly-budgeted collections of animated short segments, including Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Melody Time. The most ambitious Disney film of this period was Song of the South (1946), a film blending live-action and animation which drew criticism for racial stereotyping in later years. During this era, Mickey's popularity sharply declined as well [36]. However, during this era, Donald Duck's popularity would remain very high among theater audiences [37]; even by 1938, Donald had even become so popular that polls showed he was even more favored than Mickey Mouse[38]. In 1949, he had replaced the fading Mickey Mouse as Disney's most popular character[39].

The Schlesinger studio, meanwhile, hit its stride and saw a surge in popularity that would propel its animation studio through the next fifteen to twenty years. These years are seen as the time when Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett reached the peak of their creativity. Clampett in particular brought the six-minute animated cartoon to a level of wild surrealism, directing noted cartoons such as Porky in Wackyland (1938), Tortoise Wins By a Hare (1943), and Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943).

Leon Schlesinger sold his studio outright to Warner Bros. in 1944. In 1946, a dispute with the studio led Clampett to leave Warner Bros. and strike out on his own. He worked as one of the pioneers of children's programming in the newly-born field of television, where he created the popular Time for Beany television show.

File:Fleishersuperman.jpg
A scene from the opening prologue to a Fleischer Studios Superman cartoon. The series was the studio's most successful late period project.

At MGM, directors Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera scored a hit with their short film Puss Gets The Boot, which was nominated for an Oscar, and they then set themselves to producing a long-running series of Tom and Jerry cartoons that won accolades for MGM - as a string of Academy Awards that was unmatched by any other studio save Disney. After appearing in Puss Gets the Boot, Tom & Jerry quickly became the stars of MGM cartoons[40]. Meanwhile, Tex Avery left Warner Bros. after a dispute with Leon Schleisinger, and he came to MGM and revitalized their cartoon studio with the same spark that had infused the Warner animators. Between the Tom and Jerry series and Tex Avery's wild, surreal masterpieces of his MGM days (including a saucy, sexy Red Hot Riding Hood series that set new standards for "adult" entertainment in Code-era cartoons), MGM was finally able to compete with Disney (and now Warner Bros.) in the field of animated cartoons.

Another thriving studio in the 1940s was the Walter Lantz studio. Since Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz and his staff worked on several ideas for possible new cartoon characters (among them Meany, Miny and Moe and Baby-Face Mouse). Eventually one of these characters clicked - his name was Andy Panda[41], who aired in Technicolor. However successful Andy was, it was not until the character's fifth cartoon, Knock Knock that a real breakthrough character was introduced. This was none other than the great Woody Woodpecker, who become Lantz's most successful creation ever[42].

The winds of change also blew in the direction of the Fleischer studios, though the results were not as beneficial and inspiring as the events at MGM. In May 1941, the Fleischers gave Paramount full ownership of the studio as a collateral to pay off their debts left from the loans they obtained from the studio to make unsuccessful cartoons like Stone Age, Gabby, and Color Classics, though they still maintained their positions as heads of their studio's production [43]. Paramount also requested the brothers to submit undated letters of resignation in order for this acquisition to take place, as the brothers were drifting apart due to disputes [44]. Under Paramount rule, the Fleischers brought Popeye into the Navy and contributed to the war effort, and would gained more success by beginning a series of spectacular Superman cartoons (the first of which was nominated for an Oscar) that have become legendary in themselves. Despite the success Superman gave the studio, a major blow to the studio would occur as Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another due to their disputes [45]. In 1942, after Mr. Bug Goes Town failed at the box office and Dave Fleischer, still maintaining his position as co-chief of his studio, had left Fleischer Studios to run Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems cartoons, Paramount Pictures suddenly accepted the brother's letters of resignation and expelled the Fleischers from their positions as the head of the cartoon studio [46]. In a move that remains controversial to the present day (though it has not been closely examined by film historians), Paramount took over the Fleischer studio completely and brought it under the fold of their own studio, renaming it Famous Studios and continuing the work that the Fleischers began, and also discontinued the expensive Superman cartoons. The departure of the Fleischers had an immediate effect on the studio: while the Paramount cartoons of the war years continued to be entertaining and popular, a decline in story quality began that would become more and more evident as the decade came to a close.

Stop motion and special effects

For a great part of the history of Hollywood animation, the production of animated films was an exclusive industry that did not branch off very often into other areas. The various animation studios worked almost exclusively on producing animated cartoons and animated titles for movies. Only occasionally was animation used for other aspects of the movie industry. The low-budget Superman serials of the 1940s used animated sequences of Superman flying and performing super-powered feats were used in the place of live-action special effects, but this was not a common practice.

The exclusivity of animation also resulted in the birth of a sister industry that was used almost exclusively for motion picture special effects: stop motion animation. In spite of their similarities, the two genres of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation rarely came together during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Stop-motion animation made a name for itself with the 1933 box-office hit King Kong, where animator Willis O'Brien defined many of the major stop motion techniques used for the next 50 years. The success of King Kong led to a number of other early special effects films, including Mighty Joe Young, which was also animated by O'Brien and helped to start the careers of several animators, including Ray Harryhausen, who came into his own in the 1950s.

George Pál was the only stop-motion animator to produce a series of stop-motion animated cartoons for theatrical release, the Puppetoon series for Paramount, some of which were animated by Ray Harryhausen. Pál went on to produce several live-action special effects-laden feature films.

Stop motion animation reached the height of its popularity during the 1950s. The exploding popularity of science fiction films lead to an exponential development in the field of special effects, and George Pál became the producer of several popular special-effects laden films. Meanwhile, Ray Harryhausen's work on such films as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms drew in large crowds and encouraged the development of "realistic" special effects in films. These effects used many of the same techniques as cel animation, but still the two media did not often come together. Stop motion developed to the point where Douglas Trumbull's effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey seemed lifelike to an unearthly degree.

Hollywood special effects continued to develop in a manner that largely avoided cel animation, though several memorable animated sequences were included in live-action feature films of the era. The most famous of these was a scene during the movie Anchors Aweigh, in which actor Gene Kelly danced with an animated Jerry Mouse (of Tom and Jerry fame). But except for occasional sequences of this sort, the only real integration of cel animation into live-action films came in the development of animated credit and title sequences. Saul Bass' opening sequences for Alfred Hitchcock's films (including Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho) are legendary, and he had several imitators.

The 1950s, 1960s and the end of the Golden Age

UPA's new style

However, all of this activity among the major studios distracted their attention from still another development taking place. In 1943, John Hubley left Screen Gems and formed a studio with former Disney animators Stephen Bosustow, David Hilberman, and Zachary Schwartz, who -like Hubley- had left Walt's nest during the animator's strike. The studio Hubley founded was a newer, smaller animation studio that focused on pursuing Hubley's own vision of trying out newer, more abstract and experimental styles of animation [47]. Bosustow, Hilberman, and Schwartz named the new studio as Industrial Film and Poster Service, or IFPS[48]. Artistically, the studio used a style of animation that has come to be known as limited animation. The first short from the newly-formed studio was Hell-Bent for Election (directed by Warners veteran Chuck Jones), a cartoon made for the re-election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although this new film was a success, it did not break the boundaries that Hubley and his staffers had hoped. It wasn't until the third short, Bobe Cannon's Brotherhood of Man, that the studio began producing shorts aggressively stylized in contrast to the films of the other studios. Cannon's film even preached a message that, at the time, was looked down upon – racial tolerance. By 1946, the studio was renamed as United Productions of America (UPA), and Hilberman and Schwartz had sold share of studio stock to Bosustow[49].

In 1948 UPA also found a home for itself at Columbia Pictures and began producing theatrical cartoons for the general public, instead of just using propaganda and military training themes[50]; UPA also earned itself two Academy Award nominations during its first two years in production. Columbia was also looking for a new cartoon production company after the unsuccessful cartoon series Screen Gems -which was scarred after Columbia Pictures fired Frank Tashlin in favor of Dave Fleischer in 1942 - closed in 1946[51]. From there, the UPA animators began producing a series of cartoons that immediately stood out among the crowded field of mirror-image, copycat cartoons of the other studios. The success of UPA's Mr. Magoo series made all of the other studios sit up and take notice, and when the UPA short Gerald McBoing-Boing won the Oscar, the effect on Hollywood was immediate and electrifying. The UPA style was markedly different from everything else being seen on movie screens, and audiences responded to the change that UPA offered from the repetition of usual cat-mouse battles. Mr Magoo would go on to be the studio's most successful cartoon character[52]. However, UPA would also suffer a major blow after John Hubley was fired from the studio during the McCarthy Era in 1952, due to suspicions of having ties to Communism[53]; Steve Bosustow took over, but was not as successful as Hubley, and the studio was eventually sold to Henry Saperstein [54].

By 1953, UPA had gained great influence among the industry. The Hollywood cartoon studios gradually moved away from the lush, realistic detail of the 1940s to a more simplistic, less realistic style of animation. By this time, even Disney was attempting to mimic UPA. 1953's Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom in particular were experiments in stylization that followed in the footsteps of the newly-formed studio.

Theatricals win awards

Prior to the UPA revolution, both the Warner Bros. and MGM cartoon studios were at the peak of their creativity during the early 1950s. In particular, director Chuck Jones at Warner Bros. turned out a number of classic shorts, among them the popular Road Runner series, Rabbit of Seville (1950),Feed the Kitty (1952), Duck Amuck (1952), What's Opera, Doc? (1957), and the Bugs Bunny vs. Daffy Duck "Hunter's Trilogy" - Rabbit Fire (1951), Rabbit Seasoning (1952), and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (1953). Duck Amuck and What's Opera, Doc? were considered "culturally significant" by the United States government, and were added to the U.S. National Film Registry. Friz Freleng directed three Oscar-winning cartoons: Speedy Gonzales (1955), Birds Anonymous (1957) and Knighty Knight Bugs (1958).

The MGM cartoons of the 1950s also continued to win Oscars. The Tom and Jerry series developed two more Oscar winners—The Two Mouseketeers (1952) and Johann Mouse (1953). Tex Avery also continued at MGM until 1953, when, after a brief tenure at the Lantz studio, he left the animated shorts business to go into commercial animation. By then, the studio found itself facing budgetary problems[55]. By 1957, the MGM studio had closed, after MGM decided to reissue the older cartoons instead of making new ones. Finances also became an issue for Lantz Studios, which moved to United Artists after failing to renew its contract with Universal, and by 1948, that studio closed as well.[6] However, the studio reopened in 1950, releasing cartoons Lantz and his staff had begun work on prior to the studio's shutdown, with Lantz's wife Grace Stafford now serving as Woody's new voice.[6] By the 1960s, Lantz and many other theatrical cartoon producers (such as Famous Studios, Disney Studios, Terrytoons, and Warner Bros.) began contending with the medium of television.

In 1946, the animation union of the time negotiated a pay increase on 25%, making the cartoons more expensive to produce on a general basis.

After the 1948 verdict following the Hollywood Antitrust case, there was no longer a booking guarantee on the theatres for cartoons from any of the studios, making it a more risky business and because of this less resources were invested in the theatrical shorts, causing a gradual decline.

Screen Gems, Ub Iwerks and Van Beuren and others had already closed their animation studios before 1950, and in 1953 the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer closed down the Tex Avery unit, before the rest of the cartoon studio followed in 1957.

Walter Lantz Studio had money problems as well, causing them to close at the end of 1948. It opened again in 1950 with a downsized staff.

Warner Bros. Cartoons closed their doors for five months in 1953. During this time, some of the driving forces like Chuck Jones left. The studio was never able to recover, and the decline would continue into the 60's.

Paul Terry sold his Terrytoons to CBS in 1955. Under the new management, each cartoon had to be made with a lower budget.

After Hubley left UPA in 1952, Bill Hurtz would leave as well in 1953. In the same year, Columbia renewed its contract with UPA, this time forcing them to make the cartoons less expensive, and non-Magoo films had to be approved by them first. Within three years, the only cartoons the staff made were Mr. Magoo shorts, who by then had lost most of its innovations and turned into a routine. About the same time, UPA went into television animation, which had a further negative impact on the cartoons.

In 1956, Paramount took full control over Famous Studios by integrating it into Paramount Pictures Corporation, downsized, reorganized and renamed it Paramount Cartoon Studios. The following year, Famous Studios stopped producing theatrical Popeye cartoons after a 24-year period. As the 1960s came by, the cartoons of Famous Studios became forgettable, and in 1967, Paramount Pictures shut down Famous Studios.

Due to its distribution contract with RKO, Disney would continue to produce shorts into the early '50s, even if they had to cut some corners to keep the costs down. When the contract expired at the end of 1953, Disney started distributing its own films through its newly created Buena Vista Distribution. This allowed a higher budget for shorts than the last few years of cartoons made for RKO dictated, but the budget per short was nowhere near as high as it had been in the '40s as Disney had been focusing more on live action, television, and feature animation and less on short animation. In 1953, shortly after the switch from RKO to Buena Vista, Disney released its final Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Simple Things. From there the studio produced fewer animated shorts by the year until the animated shorts division was eventually closed in 1962. Any future short cartoon work was done through the feature animation division.

Disney's animated feature films continued to draw in large crowds through the 1950s. After a series of feature films in the late 1940s that were essentially series of short cartoons strung together, the studio saw a return to the successful formula of adapting fairy tales and children's stories to animation. Disney produced a number of classic films in the 1950s, including Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland (which wasn't a commercial success), and Sleeping Beauty, though even Disney found it impossible to reproduce the stunning quality of Fantasia, Pinocchio and Bambi. Cinderella was a big break for Disney, and would become Disney's most successful film since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs[56]. Upon building Disneyland, Walt Disney regained a huge amount of popularity among the public[57], and turned his focus at producing his most ambitious movie; Sleeping Beauty. However, the expensive failure of Sleeping Beauty almost bankrupted the studio, resulting in a reduced staff and less money invested in animation projects. In 1960 Disney (soon followed by other studios) replaced traditional hand-inking with Xerography, a technique that resulted in films where the drawings had a "sketchier" look. Films like 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book in the 1960s had that sketchy animation.

Depatie-Freleng in the 1960s

The 1960s saw some creative sparks in the theatrical film medium, in particular from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. When the Warner Bros. cartoon department closed in 1964, DFE picked up where it left off. Most of the post-1964 Warner shorts produced by the studio paired Daffy Duck with Speedy Gonzales (a character devised by Robert McKimson for Warner Bros. in 1953) and varied in quality. By far, however, DFE's most successful endeavor was animating the opening titles for the 1964 film, The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers. The film and its animated sequences were so successful that United Artists commissioned the studio to produce a Pink Panther cartoon series. The first short, The Pink Phink won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of 1964. The studio also produced other successful cartoon series such as The Inspector and The Ant and the Aardvark. Meanwhile, Chuck Jones, who had been fired from Warner Bros., moved to MGM to produce thirty-four theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoons, animated in his distinctive style, but never quite matched the popularity of the Hanna and Barbera originals of the 1940s and 1950s heyday.

Moving to the small screen

Despite strides such as these, the industry began to shift again and the future of the theatrical animated cartoon seemed bleak. The medium of television was beginning to gain more momentum. At the head of this change were the duo William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of Tom and Jerry. The new Hanna-Barbera studio utilized the limited animation style UPA pioneered as an artistic form. Except now, it was being used largely to shortcut budgets.

With television's growing popularity, there began a decline in moviegoing. To face the competition from TV, the theaters did what they could to reduce their own costs. One way of doing so was booking features only and avoiding the expenses of shorts, which were considered unnecessary and too expensive. Those few shorts who did find their way to the theaters despite this, had to be cheap, and because of that lacked the quality of their predecessors. When a new decade arrived, the Golden Age of American animation had become a thing of the past.

Partial list of noteworthy shorts from the Golden Age of U.S. animation

Walt Disney Productions

Warner Bros.

Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios

MGM

Walter Lantz Productions

Terrytoons

Charles Mintz/Screen Gems (Columbia)

UPA

Others

References

  1. ^ Gordon, Ian. "Felix the Cat". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  2. ^ a b Solomon, Charles. "The Golden Age of Mickey Mouse". The Walt Disney Family Museum. disney.go.com.
  3. ^ a b http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/ubiwerks.html
  4. ^ Johnson, Gary. "The Ub Iwerks Collection DVD review". Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture.
  5. ^ Lemay, Brian. "Ub Iwerks Biography". The Animated Cartoon Factory.
  6. ^ a b Adamson, Joe (1985). Pg. 172-175
  • Barrier, Michael (1999): Hollywood Cartoons. Oxford University Press.
  • Maltin, Leonard (1987): Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Penguin Books.
  • Solomon, Charles (1994): The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings. Outlet Books Company.

See also

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