Post War Developments
- Matthew Leonard
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- Nov 20, 2020
- 2 min read
Once the first World War was over, different types of animations started appearing which were a huge improvement compared to what was there at the time; with the birth of Walt Disney birth in 1901 it was only time for the animation industry to start rapidly improving in quality.
The first of these animations to change history was the well-known "Steamboat Willie" which was Mickey's first ever appearance in an animation, as well as the first animation of the time to use synchronised sound... or at least tried to. Considering how old this animation is though I think the attempt of it is impressive as is.
Disney also published an animation short called "Silly Symphonies" which originally started off as an experiment for the artists to whatever they wanted. From the words of Disney: " We used them to test and perfect the color and animation techniques we employed later in full-length feature pictures like Cinderella, Snow White, and Fantasia." ("The Serious History of Silly Symphonies", 2020), During these experiments we can also see a lot of repeating frames which was an efficient way for animator to draw less frames and to also increase the time of the animation.
At this time one might be thinking that Disney was a lone competitor in the animation industry and that nobody would challenge his work, but as we move into the 1930's another animation company created by Max Fleischer would be the rival that Disney would be up against. Although they were both rivals it was actually quite common for the people working for them to be working with the other company; what I learned during my research is that even Max's son Richard also had the opportunity to work with Disney. More interesting facts between the two companies can be found in the website as it seems that both Disney and Fleischer had a very interesting relationship with one another: https://www.fleischerstudios.com/mickey.html#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20when%20Max%20Fleischer,Richard%20Fleischer%2C%20worked%20with%20Disney!
Fleischer was known as the creator of Betty Boop and created their first animation "Dizzy Dishes" in 1930. At this time, Betty Boop was originally designed as an anthropomorphic dog and in my personal opinion I am so glad she's now been changed into a human since her design in this animation looks uncanny.
If I were to compare both Disney's and Fleischer's work I would say that both of them are actually quite similar in style, which isn't really surprising if a lot of the same animators are working for both studios, however if I were to point out some differences between the two I would say that Disney's animations appear to be more creative in terms of storyline and actions: Fleischer's animations tend to use more repeated frames to drag the animation, and the storyline just leaves the viewer confused more often than not, however both of these points are opinionated and thus deciding what animation studio is better than the other just comes down to opinions instead of facts as they both feature conic characters and personalities.
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