Contextual Essay

   My chosen time period for this contextual essay is the 1950’s, it was said that in the 1950’s America was ‘’standing at the summit of the world’’. It had the single largest military force, its economy was booming and masses of consumer goods were available to the public. Goods such as; Cars, Washing machines, Televisions, even Household pets started rise in popularity, as people had more money to spend and products got cheaper due to World War Two being won. However, there were still many problems in America and Britain alike. Issues such as racism and sexism still being massive and the ever-looming Cold War with Russia (for America). Russia and America were in a Cold War between 1947 and 1991. A cold war is where two or more countries are in a state of political hostility, threats and propaganda showing the other country is bad. So, America decided to use its new secret propaganda weapon; Animation. They used subtle hints within their Animations to make the Russians look bad. This Cold War ended in a truce, as both counties could’ve easily wiped each other out which would’ve been pointless, so both countries gave up. For this essay I will be looking into the growth of Disney, Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, as well as the creators of these shows/companies.

   My subject area of interest is Animation and the creation of moving images. The 1950’s were known as the Golden Age of Animation as many companies like Disney, Pixar and Merrie Melodies were formed or grew in popularity. Animation was used more commonly in advertising, television shows and movies in America and Britain. Animation was used to advertise everything from fuel to televisions themselves and animated television shows took majority over children’s’ channels, with shows like, Superman, Batman, Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Speedy Gonzales and Popeye The Sailor-man. Some of these are still even on television now, like Tom & Jerry and Batman. Most animations were done in the tradition flipbook method but had a team of animators working on it to cut down the workload. However this method meant the animations were quite short as they took time to make the scenes. Most Tom & Jerry episodes only last for a maximum of 10 minutes, so they usually put 2 or 3 back to back when shown on TV.

   Disney has been around since 1923, but it wasn't until the late 1940’s/early 1950’s that it grew in popularity. Releasing movies like Cinderella in 1950 and Alice in Wonderland in 1951. Snow White (which was released in 1937) being so popular and doing so well in the box office made Cinderella and all movies after this possible. Cinderella made $70 Million in the Box office and Alice in Wonderland making $116.1 Million on release. These two movies changed Disney forever and set them up to be the big animation company they are today. In 1953 they released Peter Pan, a tale of a young boy who never grew up and it was Walt Disney’s 14th film out of many to come. In 1955 Lady & the Tramp was released then four years later in 1959 Disney’s Sleeping Beauty released, which was Walt Disney’s 3^rd Disney Princess movie following after Snow White & Cinderella. However, Disney’s movies and shorts were known to have massive amounts of sexism, most showing women being useless/needing to be rescued by Princes and the women are shown cleaning & doing general ‘Woman Jobs’ in the 1950’s. Racism was less of a problem for them but there still were subtle hints hidden within their work. For example, there were no black main characters until Princess and the Frog in 2009.

   Walter Elias ‘Walt’ Disney is the founder of The Walt Disney Company or commonly known as ‘Disney’ now. Walt was a filmmaker, popular showman, innovator in Animation and theme park designer. Him and his staff at Disney created numerous famous fictional characters such as; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck & Goofy. He is the original voice of Mickey Mouse himself. He’s won 4 honorary Academy Awards, 22 Academy Awards and 7 Emmy Awards during his time, giving him more awards and nominations than anyone else in history. He gave his name to Disneyland, Disney World in the U.S as well as many international resorts/theme parks Tokyo Disney resort, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. Walt’s Disneyland’s grand opening was in July of 1955 during the ‘Golden Age’ for animation. He opened the park in hope that children would be able to see their favourite Disney characters in person and make their dreams come true. Walt patrolled around the place, introducing one land after another. At Fantasyland, he said, "Fantasyland is dedicated to the young and the young in heart, to those who believe when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true." However, sadly the legend died from lung cancer in December 1966 in California. He left behind him a strong legacy of animation shorts, featurettes, feature films, Theme parks, an animation studio in his name and his own University (California Institute of the Arts or CalArts for short).

   Disney's Nine Old Men were crowned Disney legends by Walt Disney himself and are the original nine creators of characters, settings, backgrounds and generally everything in most of the classic Disney movies. Working on everything from Snow White (1937) to even Disney's Robin Hood (1973) and there were many cameos of the creators in later Disney/Pixar movies such as The Incredibles. The Nine Old Men’s names were; Les Clark, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnson, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman and Frank Thomas. Together they lay the foundations for Disney’s style in Animation and without them Disney wouldn't be the big company it is today. Whilst at Disney the Nine Old Men refined the 12 basic principles of Animation, these being; Squash & Stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight Ahead Action & Pose to Pose, Follow Through & Overlapping Action, Slow in & Slow out, Arcs, Secondary Action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid Drawing and Appeal. These 12 basic principles helped the Nine Old Men make Disney the biggest and most commonly known Animation movies company in the world. Some Old Men trained many of the top Industry animators. They even opened their own University with the help of Walt Disney in California, based around Animation & the Arts. It is called California Institute of the Arts or CalArts for short and it takes on average 1,500 students a year. I love the style the Nine Old Men used and I’m inspired by how they built on the 12 principles of Animation and laid the foundations for the modern Disney we know now.

   Merrie Melodies (and more the commonly known Looney Tunes) grew massively in the 1950’s due the popularity of animated movies. Both were American made animation television shorts produced by Warner Brothers during 1930-Now. Looney Tunes grew to popularity after creating characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester & Tweety Bird, Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner and the Tasmanian Devil. Looney Tunes overtook Disney on popularity for Television and animated shorts. Even though Looney Tunes were popular and it was expected of them to show equality as a lot of children watched their shows, there was a lot of racism with their shorts and T.V shows. Such as black people looking stupid and even going as far as to obvious racist slurs & insults. Bugs Bunny had a whole episode where he mocked a black hunter who couldn’t catch him and made him look stupid, being obviously racist. Looney Tunes even had its own live action movies using CGI to bring Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote into the real, modern world. Looney Tunes: Space Jam was the first in 1996 which featured Michael Jordan. He agrees to help the Looney Tunes win a basketball game against a team of Aliens, which have sucked the power out of his friends. The second movie was Looney Tunes: Back In Action, which featured Brendan Fraser and the Looney tunes searching for Brendan’s father and a secret artifact known as the Blue Monkey which can turn people into monkeys. The main protagonist however is Daffy Duck as he wants his own feature movie and is sick of being second to Bugs Bunny.

   One of my favourite shows by Looney Tunes was The Road Runner Show, which ran from 1949 to 2000 but only had 44 episodes, as they were hard to make in the tradition style used back then. It featured Wile E. Coyote trying to hunt down the Road Runner to eat him, but every time he fails in funny and crazy ways. They very rarely spoke, other than the Road Runner saying ‘Meep Meep’ before it ran off after every attempt. Their rivalry is still going as they enter the new age of animation and technology, Wile E. Coyote continuing to try to catch the Road Runner in the Live Action/CGI movies and making cameos in other Looney Tunes shows.

   Casper The Friendly Ghost was a well-known Comic book series by Harvey Comics, which its first issue was released in 1949, his first appearance on television showed him trying to be scary but failing. He befriends a little fox, which is being hunted by a hunter & his dog, he scares the hunter but it’s too late and the fox died. However, the fox returned to Casper in the afterlife and followed him around in his own television series. But, when Harvey bought out the television series in 1959 they didn’t like the fox & erased him from Casper’s T.V show. Casper the Friendly Ghost went on to be super successful and even had s live action movie where Casper was made via CGI in 1995. Other popular Comic Book characters, which were adapted into animation, are Batman & Superman. Both were again super successful and are even animated series on T.V now, just with a more modern take on their stories and updated techniques and styles. However, not all animated TV series stayed popular as shows like Felix the Cat and Speedy Gonzales are no-longer well known are aren’t on television anymore. Speedy Gonzales stopped production in 1980 and now only appears as a cameo/supporting role in other Looney Tunes shorts, animation and movies.

   Felix the Cat’s last episode was aired in May 1961 as its ratings had dropped quite rapidly and less people liked the show. However, one character survived the show & went on to join the Looney tunes. This character was Marvin the Martian who helped Felix on the odd occasion he ended up in a ‘Space Jam’. Felix the Cat was a silent animation, which eventually adapted to having a narrator. An Australian cartoonist called Pat Sullivan created him. Aside from the animation shorts Felix was featured in many comic strips. Felix the Cat started to fade into the background once Disney started to make animated shorts with their new character ‘Mickey Mouse’. It died out once Sullivan refused to move into adding sound to his animations, he tried to revive it in later years of the 50’s by adding sound but it was just too late and people were no longer interested in Felix the Cat and preferred the cooler, better Mickey Mouse.

So, an overview of animation in the 1950’s would be that Disney made its rise the massive brand it is now; with Disney Princesses and the evolution of Mickey Mouse and his friends. Looney Tunes wasn’t far behind but took ownership of television. Many shows like Casper the Friendly Ghost, Speedy Gonzales and Felix the Cat died out due to the rise of Disney and Looney tunes and animation made a massive leap into advertising and media in general.