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The Golden Age of American animation is a period in '', '' Pinocchio '', '' Fantasia '', '' Dumbo '' and '' Bambi ''. THE EARLY YEARS 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 , is often cited as the first sound cartoon due to its success and popularity. Although 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 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 . 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 an uninspired attempt at bringing Felix The Cat into the sound medium. Disney's long-time partner and friend Ub Iwerks left the Disney studio in 1930 to form his own company. 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 . 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. 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. The Fleischers produced a number of '' Color Classics '' cartoons during the mid- and late-1930s which attempted to emulate Walt Disney. Their ''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. Harman-Ising parted company with Schlesinger in 1933, and began producing '', Daffy Duck , Bugs Bunny , and many others. Lantz and others In addition to these studios, a number of other cartoon studios thrived during the 1930s. Like Fleischer, Walter Lantz and his associate, Bill Nolan had both worked in New York, so the early cartoons of Walter Lantz Productions showed a similar outrageous and surreal style. 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 . 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. After losing his Aesop's Film Fables series to the Van Beuren Studio , Paul Terry established a new studio called Terrytoons . Neither the Van Beuren or Terrytoons cartoons were able to compete with the success of some fo the other studios, Disney in particular. 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 '' (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 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. The Fleischers were fired 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 . 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 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 Orchestra s. 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 these projects, Disney produced a low-budget feature film, '' Dumbo '', that brought in much-needed revenue and kept his studio afloat. '']] 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, which severed many ties between Walt Disney and his staff, while encouraging many members of the Disney studio to leave and seek greener pastures. Some of these former Disney employees 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 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; but while Disney lagged, it didn't fall. Disney contributed to the war effort with a propaganda feature film entitled '' Victory Through Air Power ,'' though further Disney feature films of 1940s were modestly-budgeted collections of animated short films, including '' Make Mine Music '', '' Fun And Fancy Free '', '' Melody Time '', and '' The Three Caballeros ''. 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 Sterotyping in later years. 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 ti 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. '' Superman '' cartoon. The series was the studio's most successful late period project.]] At MGM, directors Will 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 well as a string of Academy Awards that was unmatched by any other studio save Disney. 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 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 . 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 . 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. While the Fleischers brought Popeye into the Navy and contributed to the war effort, they also began a series of spectacular . In a move that remains controversial to the present day (though it has not been heavily examined by film historians), Paramount took over the Fleischer studio and brought it under the fold of their own studio, renaming it Famous Studios and continuing the work that the Fleischers began. 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 '' Serial s 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 '' 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 caused them to or UPA. Artistically, UPA 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 second short, Bobe Cannon's '' Brotherhood Of Man '', that the studio began producing shorts so aggressively stylized in contrast the films of the other studios. Cannon's film even preached a message that, at the time, was looked down upon – racial tolerance. UPA eventually found a home for itself at Columbia Pictures and earned itself two Academy Award nominations during its first two years of production. 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. 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 '' Toot, Whistle, Plunk And Boom '' in particular was an experiment in stylization that followed in the footsteps of the newly-formed studio. Theatricals win awards Prior to the UPA revolution, both the '' (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 1957, the MGM studio had closed, after MGM decided to reissue the older cartoons instead of making new ones. Later trends The Paramount cartoon series did not fare as well, however. The Famous Studios cartoons saw a rapid decline in quality in the later half of the 1940s after World War II ended, and the cartoons became more dependent on formulas and violence. The 1950s saw the introduction of '' Casper The Friendly Ghost '' and '' Herman And Katnip ,'' while even the '' Popeye The Sailor '' series lost much of its creativity and originality. The Paramount cartoons sank to the level of theater time-fillers, and by the time the 1960s began they were largely forgettable. 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 United States V. Paramount Pictures, Inc. case, there was no longer a booking garantee 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 as already mentioned the same thing happened to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio in 1957. 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 , and '' Sleeping Beauty '', though even Disney found it impossible to reproduce the stunning realism of '' Fantasia '', '' Pinocchio '' and '' Bambi ''. The 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 1960's had that sketchy animation. In general, the trend was fewer theatrical cartoons and more television animated series. 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 this was booking features only and avoiding the expenses of shorts, which were considered as unnecessary and too expensive. Those few shorts who did find their way to the theaters despite of this, had to be cheap and because of that lacked the quality of their predecessors. The Golden Age was over and the state of American animation was changed forever. PARTIAL LIST OF NOTEWORTHY SHORTS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF ANIMATION Walt Disney Productions
Warner Bros.
Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios
MGM
Walter Lantz
Charles Mintz/Screen Gems (Columbia)
UPA
Others
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