MASTERS OF ANIMATION
John Halas
Topsfield, Mass.: Salem House Publishers, 1987
136 pp., $24.95
TOO FUNNY FOR WORDS- DISNEY'S GREATEST SIGHT GAGS
Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnson
New York: Abbeville Press, 1987
224 pp., $39.95
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED CHARACTERS
John Grant
New York: Harper & Row, 1987
320 pp., $35
Animation, like music, is truly an international art form. The "lovely magic," as Gilbert Seldes once called it, transcends linguistic and cultural barriers with witty, charming, and powerful imagery. From Mickey Mouse to colorful abstractions, animation has communicated directly with people around the world for nearly ninety years.
No one knows who the first animator was. The simple turn-of-the century camera technique of "one turn, one picture" must have led many anonymous early "animators" to experiment with stop motion. However, the earliest frame-by-frame films attributed to specific artists reveal an international list of contributors. Major forays into concepts, content, and styles came from England, France, and the United States.
Today, animation is created in every area of the globe, from huge cartoon factories in Korea and Japan turning out hundreds of TV series and feature-length animations, to one-person studios in Canada, Cuba, and Kuwait, laboring years over a singular independent vision. Clay animators in Portland, Oregon, and cel animators in London, England, produce scores of attention-grabbing TV commercials; puppet and paper cut-out animators in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Shanghai, China, sweep best-film awards at international film festivals. Computer animators in Santa Cruz, California, and Zurich, Switzerland, are forging new visual languages. The Russians have recently produced extraordinary work using traditional folk symbols and crafts in new, emotionally evocative ways.
Considering today's glorious smorgasbord of international animation treats and the cross-cultural development of the art form, it is ironic that to the American general public the art and history of animation are synonymous with the name "Walt Disney." It is a tribute to the enduring appeal and quality of the films and characters made by America's Walt Disney Studio, and a testimonial to the self-promotional skills of the Disney public relations organization--a conveyor belt of annual clockwork celebrations of the past, present, and future glories of Walt Disney, the cartoon Sun King.
Perpetuations of Disney mythology occur daily at Versailles-like theme parks (Disneyland and Walt Disney World), as well as on network, cable, and syndicated television programs, in theatrical features (both new and reissued), and in books, games, dolls, toys, and countless other areas of character licensing and merchandising. The overwhelming presence of Disney handily obliterates the origins of animation
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