Early Animation: Influences and Innovators

Matt Jones

Post Three

 “Early Animation: Influences and Innovators”

In order to understand the history of animation, one must consider all the innovations that came at the outset, as well as those who innovated and were largely forgotten.

A)           In the second chapter of his book Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928, Donald Crafton examines some of the precursors to the animated film and the influences they may have had on the evolution of the animated film.  He gives an example of how the western film was influenced by several forms of media which predate the invention of the film (“Dime Novels” and “Gaslight Melodrama” for instance).  Crafton is quick to point out that while the assumption may be that early films borrowed their narrative structure from comic strips, he declares this assumption to be a false one.  Instead he posits that early films borrowed their narrative structure from vaudevillian theatre in their approach to storytelling.  The stationary camera prevented excessive movement from the frame, and the application of cross-cutting in editing had yet to be implemented, therefore early films primarily consisted of staged actors or subjects and a camera capturing their movements on a small stage-like frame.  In much the same way as a vaudeville show would perform their act from a single stage, the film had little room for depth and movement.  However, early cinema did borrow small gags and jokes that had previously been seen in comic book strips.  For example Arrodeur et Arose (Tables Turned on the Gardener) (Lumiere, 1895) featured a gag wherein a gardener is watering his garden with a hose when a precocious boy steps on the hose and stops the flow of water, the gardener examines the nozzle of the hose and is met with a spray of water from the now unblocked hose.  This joke had been previously seen in several newspaper comic strips.

                

          One of the pioneers in the world of trick-photography and animation was James Stuart Blackton.  Crafton brings to light his first dalliance with the motion picture industry as he was called upon to sketch the “Black Maria”, the revolving studio built by Thomas Edison to film his kinetoscope pictures.  Although Blackton is seen as a pioneer and early contributor to animation he later grew to abhor the art form he had such a great hand in revolutionizing. 

                

          Crafton also mentions a form of theatre which would soon be incorporated into motion pictures both in appearance as well as underlying theory.  The lightning sketches, a show wherein the artist would stand beside an easel and begin to narrate a story.  As the narration progressed he would draw a picture which would be added upon and become a picture of another subject.  This would continue until the image and the story had reached their conclusion.  Soon after, several films appeared some featuring Blackton himself, that featured these shows unfold before the eye of the camera.  These shows were incredibly important to the development of animation in that it showed the artist as a magician, as a controlling entity who brought these drawing to life.  This underlying theory can be found in many animated shorts such as Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953).

                The history of the animated film is filled with those who pioneered and paved a way for modern animation.  Unfortunately, while some such as Walt Disney or Chuck Jones are forever remembered for their contributions others are forgotten and relegated to the back pages of dense books.  One such luminary was Lotte Reiniger, who is the focus of William Moritz’s essay “Some Critical Perspectives on Lotte Reiniger”. 

                Reiniger was born in Berlin at the end of the Eighteenth century.  She developed a hobby of cutting silhouettes out of paper.  After deciding to become an actress she was able to help fund her tuition to Max Reinhardt’s Drama School by cutting out silhouettes of the stars of the day.  This led her to become employed by Paul Wegener to animate the titles for his films Rubezahls Hochzeit (Rumpelstilskin’s Wedding) (Paul Wegener, 1916) and Der Rattenfanger von Hammeln (Pied Piper of Hammeln) (Paul Wegener, 1918).  From this work she was given the opportunity to create several short animated films, all of which were met with critical and commercial success.  It was the success of these shorter works that convinced financeer Louis Hagan to invest in a feature length animated film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Ahmed) (Lotte Reiniger, 1926) which predated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell & David Hand, 1937) by eleven years.    Reiniger continued to make films inspired by fairy tales and folk lore to great success. 

                Sadly, however, Reiniger has not enjoyed the mass acclaim that was afforded Walt Disney.  Moritz offers an explanation for this oversight. Unlike the films of Walt Disney, few quality copies remain of Reiniger’s films, which is unfortunate given her extensive filmography. 

B.)          After reading the Moritz essay I became intrigued and sought out some of Reiniger’s animation.  I found what appeared to be the title sequence to The Adventures of Prince Ahmed. 

 I was simply amazed.  For something so early the movement was so incredibly fluid and crisp, the silhouettes adding to the mystique of the tale.  I believe this would be considered an early example of Orthodox animation.  The short clip shows the reliance on configuration as well as a logic in the movements of the characters.  

C)            My final paper still has yet to complete itself, however I have discovered some research done regarding Clerks: The Animated Series and its subversion of the medium of television.  I have not found a wealth of information but several articles which have provided a nice start to the research.