A Brief History of Animation - The Golden Age

In the Golden age which lasted from 1923 all the way through to the 1960's, America made it's firm place in the world of animation, with the likes of Walt Disney pioneering.

Disneys "Flower and Trees" was the first animation to use the 3 strip technicolour;

Which became one of its trademark symbols for the studio.

Snow White was also the first ever cell animation.

Disney's 'Nine Old Men' revolutionised the industry in the 1930's with the introduction of the 12 principles of animation, which they later published in 'The Illusion of Life' (1981)

Before these, animations were crude in style, mechanical stiff and rigid with lots of symmetry, which made their appearance very flat. The body parts looked all merged together too, rather than being connected at anchor points. This obviously changed with Disney's introduction of these 12 principles.

Fred Moore also began to edit Mickey Mouse's physical appearance, to become more pear-like and organic, this allowed for a 3-Dimensional look and a more pliable aesthetic of the character. This is something that we see all too frequently now in character design, characters being made from these native shapes as it gives us the ability to re-draw the same character over and over again efficiently.

In the 1950's - 60's we began to see TV's becoming more affordable for the masses, thus becoming an alternative to going to the theatre of cinema meaning the animation industry took a big hit. Also in the 1950's we saw a decline in the amount of companies deciding to animate because of the production costs and changing tastes. Animators were forced to cut more and more corners of their work and constantly adjust to new styles.

It was this that lead to sourcing for more economic ways of animating, and with a rise in computer technology and software, animators turned to computers which lead to the birth of CGI and 3D animation.

What we also saw in The Golden Age, was animation being used to achieve a more political purpose. In 1945 Mitsuyo Seo created Japans first animated feature film, 'Momotaro's divine sea warriors'. It was commissioned from the Japenese Naval Ministry as a form of propaganda to support the war. 

Later in 2004, Studio Ghibli created 'Grave of the firelies', however this was not a form of propaganda, it instead conveyed the political message of the hardships the Japanese endured during the war, leading to their eventual surrender.

Previous to 'Grave of the fireflies' In the western world Peter Folds created the animation 'A short vision' (1956) which also conveys a deep political message, warning of the horrors of warfare, specifically nuclear warfare and its power to kill all life.