OUGD401 ANIMATION: A BRIEF HISTORY LECTURE

I have just had a rather extensive (or so it felt) lecture on the history of Animation, right from the beginning with the Shahr-i Sokhta pottery bowl which is 5000 years old, to present day with dumb ways to die by Metro.

Shahr-i Sokhta pottery bowl.

Dumb ways to die by Metro.

As I said earlier Animation began with the Shahr-i Sokhta pottery bowl, which is one of the earliest forms of animation. 

Next came the animation works on Egyptian burial chamber memorials in Cairo, which is another very basic forma of animation over 4000 years ago.

Next came the Magic Lantern by Huygens in 1650, the very earliest form of movement in the 'modern era'.

This is the Phenakistoscope that was produced in 1831 by both Plateau and Vonstampfer, funnily enough independently of one another but in the same year. This was revolutionary of the moving image.

This is the Zoetrope that was produced in 1834, which is very similar to the Phenakistoscope but a lot easier to use.

This is the Kineograph, or as we more commonly know it as these days, the 'flip book'. It was first produced in 1868 by Pierre-Hubert Desvignes, and although it's a very simple idea, it is actually very hard to make an effective Kineograph with all the images lining up exactly.

Next came the Praxinoscope projector in 1882 by Charles-Emile Raynard, which in some ways was the first projector.

Traditional Animation - a global perspective.

Georges Melies - A trip to the moon in 1902 was the next big thing in animation.

Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl in 1908 was another major thing in animation, which was produced using black and white drawings really simply.

Gertie the Dinosaur by Windsor McCay in 1908 was really unusual for the time, as it used both animation and regular film, with the actors interacting with the animation.

The Golden Age of Cartoons (1928-1957)
Walt Disney was a major  contributor to the golden age of cartoon's.

Steamboat Willie by Walt Disney in 1928 was a real stepping stone for animation as it was the first animation to use moving image and music in sync effectively.

The Skeleton Dance by Walt Disney in 1929 was another really unusual animation as well, as it could be considered as a music video because the animator responded to the music rather than the other way around which it normally is.

Novvy (the new) Gulliver by Aleksandr Ptushko was the next big animation in 1929, which had to work with two completely different scale people, which at the time was revolutionary.

Ladislaw Starewicz's The Tale of the Fox in 1930 took 10 years to make, and was the first animation that gave humans animal qualities, something that had never been done before.

A cartoon that is still popular today is Max Fleischer's Dizzy Dishes, or as we more commonly know it as, Betty Boop, made in the 1930. It challenged views of the day, with Betty Boop being sexy, and when she kissed an animal, uproar came from everyone watching it, as it was seen as a disgrace.

Another of todays most classic animation is Popeye by Max Fleischer, about a sailor who eats spinach and gets really strong.

Willis O'Brien's King Kong of 1933 is another animation that is still massively popular today, with several versions of the animation being made, the latest being in 2005, and is still a classic in the film industry.

Oskar Fischinger's Komposition in Blau is another amazing animation. It is a beautiful animation that is full of colour and fun. It was produced in 1935. Oskar Fischinger had an excellent career after this animation and went on to work with Disney and on Fantasia.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney in 1937 was a ground breaking animation, with 1000 people working on it.

Fantasia is an animation that was produced by Walt Disney in 1941 to bring back Mickey Mouse, to try and make him popular again, and at the time it was a total flop, however as the years passed people started to realise just how special an animation it was, and how well it has been produced. It is still popular today, and even I remember watching it as a child on video, loving the music and the dancing and the imagery.

During the second World War Disney was commissioned by the US government to produce war propaganda films in support os the US government, to get the message out that they were the good guys. This not only helped give a happier view to the war, but also kept Disney in business over the war, as people stopped going to the cinema.

In response to this, Walt Disney produced the film Victory through air power in 1943, where the US planes defeated the Nazi planes.

UPA films produced the film Gerald McBoing-Boing in 1951, about a child who could only speak noises, and how his family thought something was wrong with him and doctors didn't know what to do with him, but went on to doing great things with his life. It is a funny little animation with a lot of heart and soul.

Neighbours was produced in 1952 by Norman McLaren, which is absolutely hilarious, about two neighbours who see a flower and both want it, so try and kill each other to get it. It uses a combination of stop motion and regular filming during different parts of the film.

Duck Amuck was produced by Chuck Jones in 1953, and has lasted a very long time, and is an extremely light hearted and comical animation. Duck Amuck is better known today as the ever famous Daffy Duck.

Halas and Batchelor produced the first British full feature film in 1954, called Animal Farm.

The next stage in this animation extravaganza is from 1958-1985, The Television Age.

Hanna Barbera produced The Flinstone's in 1960, which is an incredibly lovable cartoon that has had a movie produced about it and is still running on TV today.

Ray Harryhausen produced Jason and the Argonauts in 1963.

Astro Boy was produced by Osamu Tezuka in 1963.

The Dot and the Line - A Romance in Mathematics was produced by Chuck Jones in 1965 and is an absolutely adorable animation about a line that falls in love with a dot, but the dots in love with the line, and it's all about the line's journey to make himself more attractive to the dot.

Oliver Postgate produced The Clangers in 1969, an incredibly adorable programme about mice like creatures living on the moon. Oliver Postgate also produced Bagpuss, about a pink cat that lives in an antique shop, which is just adorable.

Richard Williams produced Roger Rabbit, a little animation similar in the rabbit's drawn style to Duck Amuck.

In 1975 George Lucas formed and started producing Star Wars, the international phenomenon, which was a massive breakthrough in technology at the time it was produced. Disney has recently bought the rights for Star Wars off George Lucas and is produced three new films, the first to be released in December 2015, which everyone, including myself, is very excited for. Hopefully they will live up to George Lucas' previous standards.

Roobarb and Custard was produced by Bob Goodfrey in 1977, who also funnily enough produced Kama Sutra Rides again, an erotic film that actually got banned. Bob Goodfrey was Britain's first Oscar winning animator.

Tim Burton produced Vincent in 1982.

Steven Lisberger produced Tron in 1982, which cost $20 million to produce. The film itself wasn't that much of a hit, however it gave birth to Tron Legacy, which is an international success.

Gerald Scarfe produced Pink Floyd the Wall in 1982, which was all to do with the rise of Nazi'ism. 

Wind in the Willows was produced by Cosgrove Hall in 1983, an animation about animals.

Pixar created Luxo Jr in 1986, and even today the lamp in this animation is part of their logo.

In 1988 Disney produced Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is very similar to Richard William's Roger Rabbit. It had a $70 million budget, which was an all time high. 

Beauty and the Beast was produced by Disney in 1991, and was one of the first films to be produced completely out of CG.

Jurassic Park is an iconic film produced by Steven Speilberg in 1993. It was amazing how they made the dinosaurs look so realistic with such limited technology. There is now a new film coming out about Jurassic Park, called Jurassic World, where the park is open to the public.

Toy Story was first created in 1995 by John Lasseter, which changed children's lives forever, when their toys came alive. This was a whole new style of animation, where the characters didn't look realistic, but where meant to look that way.

Dave Borthwick created Thumb in 1995, a very different looking animation to Toy Story. 

Aardman created Walace and Grommit: A Close Shave in 1995, made mainly using plasticine, when most other animations were turning to technology to produce their stories. 

Lasseter and Stanton created A Bug's Life in 1998, a Disney Pixar collaboration.

Les Triplettes de Belleville was created in 2003 by Sylvain Chomet, and looks very different to all the other animated films that were produced around this time, purely because the aim of Chomet was for it to look handcrafted. 

Coraline was created in 2009 by Stephen Jones.

Avatar was created by James Cameron in 2009, which was years in the making, as in the beginning he wanted to produce a certain kind of image, but the technology hadn't been invented to create this kind of image yet. It started a whole new era for motion picture.

Finally, Dumb Ways to Die was created by Metro in 2012, a funny animation featuring dumb ways to die.

This was a really interesting and captivating lecture, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the history of animation. I only wish we would of watched much shorter clips of the animations so we wouldn't of been turfed out of the lecture theatre in such a rush at the end, not going into any detail at all for the last 30 years of animation, which is really the most exciting and interesting part, as this is when we've been alive and we can relate to how it has impacted on our lives, or future films we have watched.