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Jackie Clark Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1103 November 8, 2012 Through the Looking Glass: Animation as a reflection of culture. Have you ever wondered what the point of art is? Why do people paint, sculpt, and create? To Walt Disney he saw art as a universal language, a means by which all people can understand each other, learn about each other, and understand truths. In reference to his animated art Disney is quoted saying in two contexts: Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This Facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication .(in another situation) We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us. (Kurti, Jeff) Animation is a modern art form; it developed at the turn of the century as the world was entering a new modern age. Through its continued development, and change to stay relevant to audiences of its time, animation reflects the continual evolution of culture throughout history. However this reflective ability is not unique to animation, but all art no matter the means. Therefore to fully understand how present animations reflect our culture, we have to look at how art in general and by extension animation have been reflective of past societies. Therefore we can see that animation does reflect the culture that produced it threw the historical basis that art traditionally is a reflection of the society that produce it.

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Art as a reflection of Culture: To see how animation reflects culture we have to start with the historical basis to show the inherently reflective nature of art. Many people believe that animation began all the way back with the Egyptians; they would paint pictures on walls to preserve stories. However Egypt is a prime example of how a societys art reflects the culture that produced it. Egypt was one of the first major civilizations of the world; they built architectural art forms that still dumbfound scholar, and stand today. The great pyramids are amazing architectural achievements, but besides that, they are important because of what they reveal about Egyptian culture. The pyramids are huge tombs built to bury the pharaohs and wealthy, inside of them. Egyptians would bury the decease with all kind of treasures, money, maps, and sometimes even servants to go with them into the after life. From this we can see that the Egyptians were superstitious people, whom had stronger religious beliefs about the after life and the need to take worldly goods to survive. Also the Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods themselves, therefore they created a canon of proportion that pharaohs could only be depicted as, to preserve their godliness. Therefore painting or sculptures of Egyptian pharaohs are not realistic, but maintain the same consistent proportions, so to show the pharaohs proper respect. This intense control of details of the depiction of the pharaohs show how Egyptian culture held their leaders to the state of a god, and sought only to glorify them (metmuseum.org). In Greece also we see another example of how an important civilization can show a societys art can as reflective culture. To the Greeks the creators of the Olympic Games put a great emphasis physical perfection, and strength. This cultural value of physical fitness is reflected in all of the Greek sculptors of the human form, because they are seen in a glorified state of human physical perfection (metmuseum.org).

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Finally paintings from the dark ages show arts reflective nature because they are mostly two Dimensional and flat drawings without depth of detail, yet as the Renaissance takes place, and a new spark in learning begins through out Europe. Therefore European paintings begin to have depth and dimension to them. Also the content of both these ages of western art, have to do with religious subjects, this is because most of Western Europe was under the influence of the Catholic Church at the time (metmuseum.org). Therefore from these few examples we can see that, historically there is precedence for art having a reflective nature, because we saw that all three the Egyptians, Greeks, and Europeans all created art that had to do with the values of their societies at that time. History of Animations development and its reflective ability: Since we understand how art reflects culture historically, now we need to see how by extension animation reflects the culture that has produced throughout history. Animation developed in the early nineteen hundreds, it was 1906 when the first animated film was made by Stuart Blackton. He accomplished it by filming a picture on a chalk broad, then when pausing his recording he would erase and draw a new picture then continue on recording continue on (The History of animation). Ten years later, in 1915 Max Fleischer the famed animator of the iconic Betty Boop created the rotoscope, which allowed Disney to make his legendary film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Betty Boop: Queen of Cartoons). In 1923 Walt Disney and his brother Roy opened up shop, as the Disney Brothers Animation studios. From that point on Disney created the first animated feature to successfully mix film and sound in its animated short Steam Boat Willie. This short introduced the world to the now most recognizable face of animation, Mickey Mouse. Thus Disney continued on his pioneering path went on to create the first animated hand drawn feature film in color, the

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legendary Snow White (The History of Animation). From that point on Disney animations have dominated the field of animation itself, almost instinctively when people think of animation they think of the Walt Disney Animation Studio. These advancements throughout animation history show the advancement and change throughout American culture. First off the continued development in technology from the First animated film to the rotoscope, to animation with sound and color is reflective of the centurys technological advancement. Also the content matter of these animations reflects the values of the society that they came from. For example Fleischers Betty Boop, was first introduce in 1930. Right out of the roaring twenties, a decade infamous for its moral looseness, and partying youth. Betty Boop reflects this, she is known for her sensuality and her cartoons address adult themes of sexual harassment, race and woman roles. While on the other hand, Disneys animations released in the 1950s, such as Cinderella and Pinocchio reflect the good family virtues of the attributed with the Baby boom era. Also Cinderella is the story of a girl whom stays in the house and passively waits to be saved; this subject matter shows the iconic place of the 1950s woman, June Cleaver style (Ohmer, Susan). Yet in the 1990s Disney animated features changed the way they approached their heroines. Now they went from the passive homemaking girl to the independent women who take charge seen in the characters of Belle, Ariel, and Pocahontas. This change in the development of the female characters shows the cultural shift in its view toward woman as the 1990s feminist movement became prominent in American Culture (Waking Sleeping Beauty). These are few examples in how animation had to continue evolving its techniques to stay current and connected with its viewers. This evolution is seen in how the world was technologically advancing, and animation had to keep up or be left behind. Therefore animation

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is reflective, of the developing society that produced it. Also its changing subject matters and character portrayals reveal the morphing cultural values of the times as well. Therefore there is precedence to the reflective ability of this entertainment as an art. Animation and what its saying about US: In the late 1990s, Pixar animation studios had dawned a new era of animation through it continued success of it computer generated films, Toy story, Bugs Life, and Monsters Inc. This was a new form of animation that would come in and dominate the traditional hand drawn style, which had been popular for so long. After the undisputed success of CG features, Disney even came out and said that they would stop producing hand drawn feature and focus primarily on computer generated animations, despite the legacy and extreme success these movies have had over the last eighty or so years (Holson, Laura). This dominance of the computer animated film shows how our culture has become computer obsessed. Everything about our culture has to do with a computer, from our art, and our education to our simple everyday communication. This generation is growing up on Brave, and the Lorax, while the just a generation or so before had the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Therefore the technological advancement and cultural change from ten years ago till present day are seen in the simple everyday childrens movie. The huge popularity of CG feature, are reflective of our current cultures life threw the computer whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Tmblr, Linked In, MySpace, YouTube, Blogger, Instagram ect. The computer seems to be our major means of communication and CG films are revealing that, Like Disney said, animation is the best means of communication. However recently released to theaters with the new Disney CG film Wreck it Ralph was Disney animations studios new short PaperMan. Which mix the traditional hand drawn

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animation with that of CG. The creator John Kahrs is saying that this is an innovative technology that is going to change the art, make it easier for them to animate hair and furs, that were difficult with CG, and help restore some of the expressionism that was lost we hand drawn animation was given up (Hill, Jim). This technology could be the future of animation, and it would reflect a culture willing to mix the traditional with the new to create something completely fresh. So Walt seem to be right, that animation can teach us more about our selves, and reveal cetian truth. Through its technology and subject matter animation has been a mirror for a society to see themselves for what they really are.

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Work Cited Desowitz, Bill. Animation World Network. Ron Diamond. 25 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011 Hill, Jim. Disneys Paperman short showcases new CG/ Hand-drawn Animation Hybrid. HuffingtonPost.com. Huffington Post Entertainment, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. Weeks, Linton. The Fairy Tale Struggles to Live Happily Ever After. NPR.org. 21 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012 Ohmer, Susan. That Rags to Riches Stuff: Disneys Cinderella and the Cultural Space of Animation. Film History 5.2 (1993): 231-249. Web. 16 Oct. 2012 Holson, Laura M. Disney moves away from hand-drawn animation. NewYorkTimes.com. New York Times, 18 Sept. 2005. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. Betty Boop: The Queen of Cartoons. Biography. A&E. Kathleen Callan, 1995. the History of Animation.animazing.com. Animazing Gallery. Nick Leone. 1984 Kurti, Jeff.The Wonderful World of Walt. Disney.go.com, nd Metropolitian Museum of Art. metmuseum.org. Waking Sleeping Beauty. Don Hahn. 2009 Nice intro, make sure that information about the Egypt art work is clear, you said many people believe, which makes it sound like an opinion. Both the greek and roman information is interesting, if you tied it to animation a little bit more it would really add to your main point. I really like the comparison of betty boop and Disney. Maybe you could elaborate on the way those two cartoons fit into their time periods a little more, that is a strong point that really goes well with your topic. I also think that the Disney womens roles changing through out the years

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could be played up more those are very good points and could make your paper a lot stronger if you elaborated more on them.