Blog 3

September 12, 2014 by ashleynsmith12 Leave a comment

The Walt Disney Animation Studios

In the late 1930s, the animation departments of the Walt Disney Studios created a new type of system among its animators like that of a class system. The animators on the lower of the scale began to work on the short films that were sometimes worked into a bigger film. While that was their priority, the animators that were on the upper end of the company worked on the major films. In the early 1950s, the animation department of the Walt Disney Studios was decreased after the debut of Sleeping Beauty in 1959. They used a new technology used xerography, which was used to increase work of production time. Xerography is electric photography without film. In the 1980s, the entire animation department moved out of their building, which was then filled by television and production staff. They then moved to a different building that they began to work on their major films and short films. Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z2mrZtYdXZM/UAWX-OawRJI/AAAAAAAAZWc/LQAJttfsLqY/s1600/walt_roy1600.jpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwrir70KT7A A Tour of The Walt Disney Animation Studios In the early 2000s, the animation department knew that they had to expand, but it also was clashed with both revenue and the quality of work being produced. At that time, there were major competitions among other studios in the area, which made the animation department for Walt Disney Studios increase their animator’s salaries, just so that they could keep them on staff. However, the cost of the way that they were doing their animations still cost a lot, more than anywhere else. This caused a major layoff to take place in 2000, with only 600 animators left. A few years later, Disney laid off more animators because they converted their studio to more current equipment and techniques. This meant that they sold all of their old animation equipment. At that time, they decided that they needed to close down their studios in France and Florida. In 2009, the Walt Disney Animation Studios adopted a sister company, DisneyToon Studios, which was directed towards the video features for Disney consumers and Disney television programming. In April of 2013, the studio laid off more animators. The majority of the laid off animators were hand drawn animators. This led to the belief that they were doing away with the old way of animating, the way that Disney had revolutionized animation. Disney then claimed that it was a false accusation. Source: http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110608033334/pixar/images/b/b9/DisneyToon_Studios-logo.jpg The Walt Disney Studios is the parent company of the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of the Walt Disney Studios. DisneyToon Studios is the sister company of the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Walt Disney and his brother, Roy E. Disney, founded the Disney Cartoon Studio in Los Angelos, California in 1923. They began producing a series of short animated comedies called Alice Comedies, which featured a live girl in an animated world. The Alice Comedies were distributed by a number of production companies. Walt Disney then decided that he wanted to create a new character, since he could not have Oswald the Rabbit. Disney and his head animator, Ub Iwerks led the remaining staff and created the iconic character, Mickey Mouse. During the mid 1920s, Disney created two animated shorts featuring the beloved Mouse. Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kR0_ZK6wGKk/UM4mJVPbxJI/AAAAAAAA6CQ/xqpR0xzIAgk/s1600/wa_2201938b.jpg Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tTr4pCD3kb0/UM4mEwKSzrI/AAAAAAAA6Bo/KqQtU8hNiIk/s1600/0809_waltdisney.jpg It was in 1928, that Walt Disney created the first cartoon that featured synchronized sound, called Steamboat Willie. In 1929, Disney created more of a series of cartoons. In 1930, Walt Disney signed some new distribution contracts with Columbia Pictures and Powers, leaving Ub Iwerks to found his own animation studio. In 1934, they began production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was the first animation production to feature English and use Technicolor. It became the highest-grossing film at the time of their release, which was in 1938. The second feature to come out of the Walt Disney Animation Studios was Pinocchio, shortly followed by Fantasia. Dumbo was released in 1941, just before the United States entered World War I. During this time, Disney put off the productions of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland to focus on war propaganda and short animated features. Walt Disney died a peaceful death in 1966 while fighting with lung cancer. Disney produced two more animated films before his death, The Sword in the Stone in 1963 and The Jungle Book in 1967. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4 Steamboat Willie Video Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j5wMZ8MnrKc/UM4mG64nF5I/AAAAAAAA6Bw/_NuxMo9lims/s1600/Annex+-+Disney,+Walt_01.jpg After Disney’s death, the animators took a turn. They tried to make films using old animators and new animators, to see how it would work. However, during this trial period, eleven of the animators resigned saying that it was going in a downward spiral. One of the lead animators of the projects, Don Bluth, went on to found his own production companies that became one of Disney’s biggest competitors in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989, The Little Mermaid began production. The Little Mermaid went on to win two Academy Awards. In 1991, Walt Disney Animations Studios released Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast was nominated at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature for that year. It quickly became the most successful animation feature at that time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afzmwAKUppU “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK4HNNhQ0e4 “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid In the early 2000s, Disney continued to work on short films. Beginning in the mid 2000s, Disney began to create computer-animated films. In 2011, Tangled was released. Tangled was the most expensive animated film of all time to make. In November of 2013, Walt Disney Animation Studios premiered Frozen. Frozen won one Golden Globe and won both of their Oscar nominations. The same day that they won their Oscars, it peaked at generating one billion dollars, becoming the first animation movie to ever do that. Source: http://maiimoe.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/disney-tangled-pascal-wallpaper-1032.jpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbeSPgiVXGU Frozen winning “Best Original Song” at the 2013 Oscars There have been numerous claims made by parent groups and film critics that have been made against certain criteria within Disney animated films. They were especially concerned about the way that Disney portrayed whites compared to the minority races. This led them to believe that Walt Disney was a racist. This was especially the case of Song of the South and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, Disney never expressed any form of hatred of other races. The Walt Disney Studios hired people from the entire world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C9K3LEpm0k Song of the South song In 1995, the ALL (American Life League), convicted that several Disney films had promoted sexual images. In Walt Disney’s The Rescuers, it was said that there were two pictures in the background of naked women. In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, there was a scene where the character of Jessica Rabbit was naked for a brief amount of time. This scene was later re-done. In The Little Mermaid, on the cover, King Triton’s castle looked like a man’s genital parts. When the Anniversary DVD came out, they changed the cover to make it look like a real-life castle. Claims were made that in the movie, Aladdin, the scene where the tiger on the balcony attacks Aladdin, that he was yelling inappropriate things. In the movie, The Lion King, there is a scene where the Simba and his father and looking at the sky, and it was believed that instead of the letters, “S-F-X,” it was the letters, “S-E-X.” Animators then replied to critics saying that it was unintentional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Op1TaXmCw “A Friend Like Me” from Aladdin