#animation history

[palaeoplushies]

#holy crap#there was flip the frog merch i didn't even know#for those who aren't ye olde animation geeks#this was the cartoon franchise ub iwerks - animator of the early mickey mouse shorts#including steamboat willy#tried to establish via his own studio when he left disney after a big fight with walt#the animation was on point#but the stories were. not.#also disney had a monopoly on 3 color technicolor#so the flip the frog shorts had to be made with a 2 color process#which had a much more limited palette

Interesting info in the tags by @bobcatmoran!

Flip was actually really successful in the UK (where this plush was made) because the British Multicolour System was the 2-colour process mentioned above. They were the first animations shown in colour-sound in the UK. For a brief period in the early 1930s, Flip the Frog was more famous than Mickey Mouse in the UK.

However, in the US, they were only ever shown in B&W and after the first four shorts, MGM picked up the series and continued making them in B&W only.

He received a fair amount of merch before Mickey did, this plush was made in England by Deans Ragbook Company, I think most of his merch was England-only. If you want to see some more Flip merch, check out this website.

So I was recently tasked with a very well loved soft toy Flip the Frog from the 1930s to restore.

He was bought new for my great aunt-in-law when she was 10, and was gifted to her sister's children when they were young. My mother in law has memories of feeding him cornflakes and putting her hands in his mouth, which felt very soft and velvety.

He had been in the attic for a number of years, and had moths get to him. He had lost his eyes. Luckily there are some examples online which show what he was meant to be like!

I approached this project wanting to retain as much of the original plush as I could. I thought about doing a total restoration, but I would end up replacing so much I might as well be making a replica! I wanted to make sure I used fabrics that were sympathetic to the time period, so 100% wool felt and cotton velvet seemed appropriate. The only liberty I took was polyester thread, because that's what I had already.

I researched a lot of plush restorations and best practices. A lot of places recommended only surface washing, but poor Flip was so full of dust and the remains of moths, but his fabric body seemed rather sturdy still, I thought I would take the risk of un-stuffing him to give him a thorough bath. I very gently took him apart and unstuffed him. His stuffing material looked to be kapok. There was lots of moth poop.

I gave Flip a gentle bath with carpet cleaning solution, which is what is recommended for vintage plushies. It's designed to be used on lots of fabrics including natural ones like wool and doesn't leave a residue once it's done cleaning so won't degrade the fabric over time. Loads of grime came out of Flip, as well as some yellow dye from his feet.

Flip then had a good air-dry in the sun. He seemed to enjoy soaking up the sun, he was already looking a lot cleaner.

Flip's eyes (which once upon a time caused my cousin-in-laws nightmares) were particularly gross and moth-eaten underneath. I decided to re-cover the card disks that made up his eyes with velvet cotton instead rather than reuse the old eyes. His original velvet was really bright yellow but had faded over time. I decided to use a fabric that matched his more faded look, I felt the bright yellow would look out of place. I also got some wooden beads and cut them in half and painted them for his pupils, which I glued on.

When it came to restoring his feet, I tried to retain as much of the original material as possible. I enjoyed patching and repairing the felt, I chose a 100% wool yellow felt that was close to his old colour here. Highlights the age of the old parts, I feel like it draws attention to his history and age.

Time to put him back together! I bought some new kapok stuffing because I couldn't reuse the old dusty moth stuff. Luckily you can still get it. I wrapped his metal skeleton in felt so that if it got rusty it wouldn't stain him (he's already a little stained from it rusting). Then I slipped his limbs over the skeleton and sewed them back on!

Ta-daa!! Here's flip looking a lot better, even if I say so myself.

One of the things we noticed when looking at photos of these soft toys is that they seem to have pinkish or white bow-ties and this Flip was missing his! Looking at the character art, I believe they were originally red.

The orientation of the eyes also seems to vary because I think they were prone to falling off and being sewn back on. I chose to orient Flip's eyes close to how they were when I received him, but slightly more vertical to make him appear more friendly.

Flip was a very fun challenge and got me thinking a lot about restoration vs conservation of historical artifacts, he may not be super duper old or rare but I feel like I better understand the dilemmas and judgements that have to be made when working on objects like this!

[nazrigar]

Dinovember 2024: Children of the Lizard King

For Dinovember, a tribute to the one, and only, Tyrannosaurus rex.

A creature whose impact on pop culture is SO prevalent, it's basically an ambassador species to the field of Paleontology.

From King Kong, to The Land before Time, to Jurassic Park, to Prehistoric Planet, there has been SO many interpretations of the dinosaur, and creatures that took influence FROM Tyrannosaurus rex, I could have filled the entire page with more, but I had to stop at 65 so that the flow and composition of the piece would work.

See if your favorite T.rex or T.rex inspired critter is here!

And of course, a special shout out to @tyrantisterror , whose big green fella up top helped inspire me to continue doing art!

[artist-issues]

I Hate How She Talks About Snow White

"People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is − because it needed that. It's an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond 'Someday My Prince Will Come. "

Let me tell you a little something's about that "85-year-old cartoon," miss Zegler.

It was the first-ever cel-animated feature-length full-color film. Ever. Ever. EVER. I'm worried that you're not hearing me. This movie was Disney inventing the modern animated film. Spirited Away, Into the Spider-Verse, Tangled, you don't get to have any of these without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937.)

Speaking of what you wouldn't get without this movie, it includes anime as a genre. Not just in technique (because again, nobody animated more than shorts before this movie) but in style and story. Anime, as it is now, wouldn't exist without Osamu Tezuka, "The God of Manga," who wouldn't have pioneered anime storytelling in the 1940s without having watched and learned from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the 1930s. No "weeb" culture, no Princess Mononoke, no DragonBall Z, no My Hero Academia, no Demonslayer, and no Naruto without this "85-year-old cartoon."

It was praised, not just for its technical marvels, not just for its synchronized craft of sound and action, but primarily and enduringly because people felt like the characters were real. They felt more like they were watching something true to life than they did watching silent, live-action films with real actors and actresses. They couldn't believe that an animated character could make kids wet their pants as she flees, frightened, through the forest, or grown adults cry with grieving Dwarves. Consistently.

Walt Disney Studios was built on this movie. No no; you're not understanding me. Literally, the studio in Burbank, out of which has come legends of this craft of animated filmmaking, was literally built on the incredible, odds-defying, record-breaking profits of just Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, specifically.

Speaking of record-breaking profits, this movie is the highest-grossing animated film in history. Still. TO THIS DAY. And it was made during the Great Depression.

In fact, it made four times as much money than any other film, in any other genre, released during that time period. It was actually THE highest-grossing film of all time, in any genre, until nothing less than Gone With the Wind, herself, came along to take the throne.

It was the first-ever animated movie to be selected for the National Film Registry. Actually, it was one of the first movies, period, to ever go into the registry at all. You know what else is in the NFR? The original West Side Story, the remake of which is responsible for Rachel Ziegler's widespread fame.

Walt Disney sacrificed for this movie to be invented. Literally, he took out a mortgage on his house and screened the movie to banks for loans to finish paying for it, because everyone from the media to his own wife and brother told him he was crazy to make this movie. And you want to tell me it's just an 85-year-old cartoon that needs the most meaningless of updates, with your tender 8 years in the business?

Speaking of sacrifice, this movie employed over 750 people, and they worked immeasurable hours of overtime, and invented--literally invented--so many new techniques that are still used in filmmaking today, that Walt Disney, in a move that NO OTHER STUDIO IN HOLLYWOOD was doing in the 30's, put this in the opening credits: "My sincere appreciation to the members of my staff whose loyalty and creative endeavor made possible this production." Not the end credits, like movies love to do today as a virtue-signal. The opening credits.

It's legacy endures. Your little "85-year-old cartoon" sold more than 1 million DVD copies upon re-release. Just on its first day. The Beatles quoted Snow White in one of their songs. Legacy directors call it "the greatest film ever made." Everything from Rolling Stones to the American Film Institute call this move one of the most influential masterpieces of our culture. This movie doesn't need anything from anybody. This movie is a cultural juggernaut for America. It's a staple in the art of filmmaking--and art, in general. It is the foundation of the Walt Disney Company, of modern children's media in the West, and of modern adaptations of classical fairy tales in the West. When you think only in the base, low, mean terms of "race" and "progressivism" you start taking things that are actually worlds-away from being in your league to judge, and you relegate them to silly ignorant phrases like "85-year-old cartoon" to explain why what you're doing is somehow better.

Sit down and be humble. Who the heck are you?

[yunisverse]

the last post inspired a lot of discussion with friends about what animation style we thought each other would be so here we are

[veilofthorns]

I can't get over this new style they're doing. My animation history side is coming out full swing!

The rough outline, round heads, and dry brush. These are all nods to famous disney artist, Mary Blair. She was a concept artist during the golden age of disney and influenced the look and feel of many of the films from Fantasia to Sleeping Beauty.

She's also known for her work on the look of "It's a small world" at Disneyland. During Walt's time, he was strict with where women could work in his company. Mary was able to break through that wall Walt had put up and add a bit of her soul into these films and projects.

Mary's work is drenched in vibrant colors, strong shapes and layers of lighting. Her drybrush technique and simple blocks of color are what made me connect these two.

There is obviously an influence here and I'm so pleased to see twst acknowledge her contribution to the company with this new merch.

[prokopetz]

The fun thing about how American fandom culture seems to have settled the perennial What Is Anime debate by deciding in favour of "anything that was physically animated in Japan is anime, regardless of any other dimensions of its production" is how it interacts with all those American/Japanese and Canadian/Japanese co-productions from the 1970s and 1980s. If applied with an even hand, this rule would oblige us to conclude that the 1977 Rankin/Bass adaptation of The Hobbit is anime, which is both ridiculous and objectively correct.

[ridiculouslyaverageguy]

During the production of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Mystery Inc. was envisioned as five humans and a dog. But the final guy, described as a rich, snooty hipster (seemingly based on Milton from Dobie Gillis) was cut from the show. This is apparently due to Scooby gaining more prominence as the show was being made, to the point of being turned into the protagonist.

The above images come from Van Partible, the creator of Johnny Bravo. They are two of several, physical drawings that he got his hands on while working at Hanna Barbera.

This character was likely Mike Andrews mentioned in the initial pitch. (Geoff, Kelly, Linda, and W.W. are Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy respectively)

[empty-movement]

OLD SCHOOL ANIMATION NERDS, I SUMMON THEE TO ASSIST

Hey! Vanna here! So I recently, in a rage at the loss of the end-of-series lot of production materials, bought a cheaper lot I had been curious about, and I kinda struck animation history gold with it! Try as I might to pull the whole context together, I need y'alls help accurately naming and identifying what I have!!! There are MANY MORE of these, all from the same episode, an Utena one, a LOT of Nanami, and a group shot even, all following this similar formula. But let's be honest, Vanna and Yasha wanted that sweet Touga smugness. Analysis and questions below the cut! These aren't ALL the sheets, there are ones for the face shape and sleeve also but to demonstrate. Also, fucking amazingly, I also have the storyboards for this episode, so I can even tell you the shot number is 287 ISNT THAT COOL

So Utena fans. You may or may not know, but episodes 6 and 8 had very chaotic productions, and did end up getting swapped in the end. Per Ikuhara's directory commentary in the Nozomi Blu-ray:

He makes explicit reference here to Akemi Hayashi, credited as the animation director for the episode. I can't recall where I saw it now, but I know the difficulty of drawing Touga on model is mentioned somewhere in all the production stuff I have.

Now. Here's the problem. I DON'T FUCKING KNOW WHAT THEISIWEUGWEYGF what do I callll these. My understanding is the the douga is the final line art, transferred onto the cel, and that is the only thing that you call a douga. A douga is the 1:1 match to its cels in a sequence. With an anime like Utena, it's pretty often going to be included with the cel, if you obtain one. These are douga, the final line art that creates the animation, scans donated by JadeSabre and edited into sequence. The frames are numbered in the top right, and there are no notes or anything drawn on the sheets.

Now. That is NOT what I have above. So none of these materials are douga, they are...genga? Help? (This will get wild with Nanami, where I even have a green sketch that is clearly like, VERY FIRST draft of the shot...)

What I have are the key frames, to my understanding. Meaning these represent a point much earlier in the production process. On first glance, the white sheets are significantly cleaner, but they are also so far off model they're flying along with the Voyager probes in interstellar space. They're very capably drawn, don't get me wrong, but they're clearly done by someone who is not on the Dorito face bandwagon. This is apparently pretty common? You get your initial key frame sketches (genga??) made, and then the animation direction (Hayashi??) grades your work by making messier, but more on model versions of the shots. These are the yellow 'correction' genga?

The douga of this shot are likely with the cels. There are 11 distinct cels of Touga's face (others for the sleeve), guided by the 4 key frame sketches I have here. Looked at individually, I can even see where the filled in frames struggle a bit more to be on model than the key ones, even in the final product.

So clearly, what I have are some pretty early process materials where there was a bit of a back and forth about how to draw the characters. The others I have are similar corrections, but this is the absolute most drastic one. It's like they said 'just do it like kinda shoujo and we'll iron it out later.'

The question I have is...can I safely assume these yellow correction sheets are actually Akemi Hayashi originals? Or would there have been another person in this process doing this correction work instead? Would there be a way to know who drew the original ?genga? That may not be possible to ascertain, but it would be really cool to try, since this episode was a Chaos Production, since I have the actual storyboard for it, since I now have a neat piece of context about what the Chaos might have meant. This shot always stuck out to me in the first arc, because it's true that for a lot of the first arc, Touga and Saionji look....far more like the first drafts here. The strict adherence to the Hasegawa style gets enforced later in the series, but this is an example of the exchange that needed to occur to get folks on board with what was a pretty unique art style.

PS. This is torture, the shape of these means I actually need to make two scans of each one and stitch them together, which is nervewracking when you want them to overlap properly and also you don't want to wreck your toilet paper ass production materials pressing them into the scanner bed. Also several are fucking taped together and lemme tell you, 25 year old 'clear tape' don't stay clear and don't stay sticky.

Basically, any context or knowledge anyone can impart I would appreciate a lot! I know I've got something really cool here, but I am struggling to get much clear information about it, because Google is broken.

[postcard-memories]

Русалочка / The little mermaid - 1968 Director: Ivan Aksenchuk

[milday-dewinter]

I'm 48. About to turn 49 later this month. So I grew up with the original She-Ra. Watched the show religiously. Collected the toys and books.

She-Ra Princess of Power had to walk so She-Ra and The Princesses of Power could run.

I am watching He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword for the first time in four decades. And it holds up surprisingly well.

Character designs, and backgrounds are top-notch. Characterization is simple, sure. The storytelling is good but not groundbreaking.

Watching it made me realize that animation from the 90s to the present owes so much to the shows of the 80s. It's like a solid foundation on which a beautiful house is built.

Princess of Power was progressive but is still a product of its time. White, cishet characters, black-and-white morality, and everyone has the same body types.

Princesses of Powers pushes for more inclusivity. People of color, queer characters, moral ambiguity, and varied body types.

And on top of that, it's just a great show. I love it so much.

[dailylooneys]

Happy 80th Birthday to Pepe Le Pew

The world famous French skunk Pepe Le Pew now hits the big eight zero!

Created by director Chuck Jones and writer Mike Maltese, Pepe was inspired and based on famous womanizers of the 1930s and '40s, such as Clark Gable and Charles Boyer (with Pepe's name directly taken from Boyer's Pepe Le Monko (1937)), Pepe became an exaggeration of this characteristic.

Like many LT characters, Pepe started in as a prototype character named "Stinky" in Odor-able Kitty (1945), faking his French accent and revealed by the end that he is married and has kids.

Afterwards a couple more experimental shorts, such as Scent-imental Over (1947) and Odor of the Day (1948) (the only Pepe short directed by Arthur Davis), he would develop into the character that we know today. His most iconic for being oblivious to the fact that his odor is turns the "skunks" off. His relentless optimism, overtly romantic advances and overconfidence is part of what makes his character humorous and charming.

An interesting story to note is that while Jones adored the character and would continue his series well-after Mike Maltese left in 1953 during Warner Bros. Cartoons studio's brief shut down during the rise of the then-new and revolutionary 3-D in film, Maltese stated that wasn't too crazy about Pepe, according to Mark Evanier (animation historian and head writer of Garfield & Friends).

With the change in attitudes as times went on, along with Speedy Gonzales, Pepe has slowly garnered controversy in later years for being perceived as "problematic" and perpetuating assault. Interestingly, even as early as the 1990s, in Tiny Toon Adventures, this became one of the main reasons why Pepe's female counterpart, Fifi La Fume, is indeed a female, and why Pepe doesn't chase after Penelope that much in later Looney Tune productions or why Pepe is rarely seen in much merchandise. Though, despite this, Pepe still has his legion of fans to support him to this day, which resulted in his comeback after WB's brief decision to discontinue the character.

[marcanimation]

If you've been in the online animation space for a while, you may remember this website "animation meat" which is now defunct and only visible on the wayback machine.

I grabbed all the PDFs and stuff from there while I still could. There are notes by Eric Larson, Glen Keane, and others, and some other misc stuff like templates and field guides

[skullislandproductions]

Representatives from Matsuya department store in Japan visited Warner Bros. a year or so in advance of their exhibition celebrating 80 years of Tom and Jerry. After seeing my office, they came up with the idea to recreate it for the exhibit. So, I ended up in Tokyo for the opening in 2019, drawing at “my” desk.

[arconinternet]

Nightmare Ned (Videos, 1997)

The long-lost cartoon about childhood anxiety and misery that Disney had no idea what to do with. You can watch it all here.

You can find my post about the game here.

[thecartooncartoonshow]

ATTENTION, ALL ANIMATION LOVERS/SUPPORTERS

Our "Stand with Animation" Four-Part Video has JUST kicked off today, over on our YouTube channel. We're making these informative and entertaining videos to spread awareness about The Animation Guild and their goal to help all struggling animators and artists negotiate for better payments and protections against AI.

In our first video in this four-parter, we're going over the many innovative achievements in animation's LONG history from the 1900s to today in the 2020s, from Felix the Cat to Steamboat Willie, and from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Toy Story.

Click the provided video link below to watch our video, and be sure to like, comment, share and re-post our post, so MORE people can watch our videos and help STAND WITH ANIMATION!!!

[empty-movement]

Help Empty Movement Help You

Hey! Vanna here. I'm going to get to the point. There have been a rash of sales of Utena production materials that have gone for ludicrous sums, and I have won none of them. This sucks, because at this point, this is stuff I'd be scanning for Something Eternal, sure, but also, for the fucking Internet Archive. When I ask for help, it's because I want to contribute to the Utena museum, which I try to share as freely as possible. Y'all know the drill.

....But I'm gonna be fucking selfish here. Help me. I fucking need these. You need to remember.....

Akio is my favorite character.

My personal g-mail STILL HAS HIS FULL NAME IN IT. Forgive me this sin, and for a moment, consider...

I have this one cel. I cherish it for many reasons. It's a calm before a storm. It's his last little pretense of being a gentleman. And then he gets shoved the fuck off, in the face, full offense, in one of the most satisfying moments in the show, and I mean this as an Akio fan.

I mean, I like the character, I'm fascinated with him, etc....but no one else in the world is going to appreciate ownership of the fucking production materials of him getting shoved in the face like I will I KNOW YOU KNOW THAT ;_;

Just fuckin' help me, idk, there's Patreon, there's PayPal (emptymovement), there's the drop ship merch (I make very little off these tho tbh they're just kinda neat things I've made), there's sending me cursed pirate gold literally whatever I fucking need these so much, and that's not even to speak of the literal fucking series icon moments in this lot that I do, seriously, believe belong in a museum and would at least digitize them that way and make considerations for where they'd be safest long term

I'm so serious this is fucking history and I trust myself to ensure its survival better than whoever else is gonna bid just hekofeygfwefgqlufgew kufgwed