Some say the dark age ended as early as 1981note when the The Fox and the Hound, the last Disney project Don Bluth was involved in before leaving premiered after a delay, others say it was in 1983note when cartoons in America began to become more merchandise-driven, and Dallos, the first OVA in Japan, was released, ...
The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended from 1957 to 1969, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the newer medium of television animation since in 1957, produced on cheaper ...
Why was there a decline in animation between 1970 and 1980?
The quality of American television animation continued to decline into the 1980s due to over-excessive merchandising. Many 'popular' cartoons of the era were little more than product commercials solely created to get parents to buy toys for the their children.
Cel animation was standard practice throughout the 1950s and 60s through to the 80s with films like The Little Mermaid. But by the early 1990s, the digital era was underway. Initially computers were used to colour film but soon the entire process was being handled digitally, Disney animator Floyd Norman told Collider.
The story goes that in the late 60s theatrical animation was drying up. There was no work. Hanna-Barbera, two enterprising directors from MGM, decided to find work in the new field of television animation. The budgets were terrible so they made the cartoons as cheaply as possible.
A traveler gets lost in a tiny human world and ends up being their hero
Why did Hanna-Barbera fail?
In a story published by The Saturday Evening Post in 1961, critics stated that Hanna-Barbera was taking on more work than it could handle and was resorting to shortcuts only a television audience would tolerate. An executive who worked for Walt Disney Productions said, "We don't even consider [them] competition".
When Cartoon Network was formed in 1992, Hanna-Barbera supplied most of the cartoons. Hanna-Barbera was eventually absorbed by Warner Bros., but the cartoons remain available in syndication and on DVD.
“Everybody shortens it to three fingers and a thumb... just simply for an economy of line. When you're having to animate 24 drawings per second, dropping one finger makes a huge difference," Marsh explained. They also had some advice for aspiring animators.
The most popular explanation for why cartoon characters only have four fingers is all about the animation process, as drawing only four fingers instead of five is a lot easier and thus saves the animators and the studio time and money.
In 1907, the French artist Émile Cohl started his filmmaking career with Japon de faintasie, with imaginative use of stop motion techniques. His next short can be regarded as the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation methods: the 1908 Fantasmagorie.
He reportedly admired the animation and humor of the Warner Brothers cartoons and often praised them in interviews and public statements. While there is no definitive statement from Disney himself, there is evidence to suggest he had a favorable view of these cartoons.
The Dark Age of Animation began as a response to the advent of television. Prior to TV, most cartoons in the U.S. were typically short films that were shown before the main feature film. Many of the classic Looney Tunes and Disney shorts were originally shown in such a manner.
Fiddlesticks is a 1930 Celebrity Pictures theatrical cartoon short directed and animated by Ub Iwerks, in his first cartoon since he departed from Walt Disney's studio. The short features Iwerks' character Flip the Frog. It is the first complete sound cartoon to be photographed in color.
While the plots of the original 2D animations were usually solid, they grew less and less so over the years. According to Digital Spy, John Lasseter, who pioneered 3D animation at Disney, said that the amount of work that was needed for the hand-drawn 2D animation somehow outweighed the content of the film.
Since there's no actual body under the clothes, an animated character is the costume. More practically, it's easier on the animators to stay consistent. And since animated characters don't age, there's no pressure to make changes that reflect the passage of time.
“Everybody shortens it to three fingers and a thumb... just simply for an economy of line. When you're having to animate 24 drawings per second, dropping one finger makes a huge difference," Marsh explained. They also had some advice for aspiring animators.
You don't need to know how to draw, but you need to understand composition aesthetics in order to create compelling poses for you animation and great angles for your shots. Basic animation principles are the same in 2D and 3D and you must know them.
While drawing skills can help you to improve, that is not the essential skill to do animation. For animation you need to understand the most basic principles in animation, like timing, anticipation, pose to pose.
In the early days of animation, black hands couldn't be seen against black bodies in black-and-white films. White gloves solved this issue. Gloves humanize the characters. Walt Disney explained that gloves were used to make characters like Mickey Mouse more relatable and human-like.
Meanwhile, the Schlesinger studio continued to make popular cartoons until 1944 when Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. Since then, Warner Bros. has owned all rights to all post-1933 characters created by Leon Schlesinger Productions and Warner Bros. Cartoons.
All 24 of the theatrical Droopy cartoons – with The Wolf and bulldog Spike joining the fun – are showcased in this one-of-a-kind 2-disc Collector's Set. You'll be happier than a flea in a doghouse.
From 1958 through the 1980s, a majority of those cartoons bore the Hanna-Barbera imprint. Creating scores of popular series such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, Super Friends, and The Smurfs, Hanna-Barbera was an animation powerhouse.
