Compare and contrast the formal qualities of early animated films from 1920 to 1940s with animated films

from 1980 to 2010. Support your claims with relevant examples and citations or references from relevant literature. I have decided to discuss the formal qualities of animated films over a large timescale; There have been many areas in which animation has changed as both society and technology have moved film in general in new directions. Some of the changes in animation are the methods which were used to create the film, the overall depth of characters, and the general style of the animation. These have all effected their formal qualities. There is a lot to study in terms changes in animated film through time, I will narrow my research down and focus on specific areas and how they have affected the formal qualities of the animation, I have chosen to mainly look at the characters within animation and the changes I will be looking for will be in the depth of the character; and how emotion is shown using different techniques and levels of detail. First of all I will research early animated films ranging from the 1920s to the 1930s, I will chose a series of iconic animations from each decade as this will show me how characters were portrayed with technology inferior to present resources and techniques. In contrast to this I will chose to study and discuss a group of films ranging from 1980 to present day, I may already be familiar with these films as I grew up watching animations within this timescale. I will support the research into animated films with books on the aesthetics of animation and the development of animation studios or animators, alongside other accounts of the changes in character in animation. The first films from 1920 to 1930 I chose to study was a series of Felix the cat cartoons, followed by the early Mickey mouse films, both extremely iconic characters in history, Mickey still being a popular character within the Disney franchise today. It was interesting observing the animation in the Felix films especially as they were part of the silent film era as sound is very important in contemporary animations; often a characters dialogue is key in determining their personality. The style of Felix cartoons is very simple in comparison with contemporary animated films, they are in black and white with simple lines and filled shapes, meaning quite bland and empty settings that usually have to be confirmed by a form of text in the animation. Felix himself is a very cartoony character without realistic features, he is made of quite a simple silhouette, this means his movements are quite limited, and they are usually quick which emphasizes the playfulness of the character, though when he is supposed to be showing another emotion there is little change of pace. It is understandable that the way Felix is animated is not subtle in comparison with contemporary animations, because not only was inferior technology used to create the animation, but this a form of the earliest animated cartoons therefore Felix sets an example of the way animated films can differ from live action and the greater possibilities with animation.

As an actual character Felix is very simple and lacks depth, there is a lack of a range of facial expressions and body language; therefore only blatant emotions are achieved. An example of this is in the 1924 cartoon Felix Dopes it out, the characters line of sight at significant points is shown literally, as a line. When Felix is thinking, he taps his foot and holds his chin, a very typical way of showing that someone is thinking. Mickey had the same kind of exaggerated expressions in his early cartoons though with the addition of sound, text was not as significant in understanding what was going on, therefore it was a new step in creating more subtle and interesting characters. Besides changing in appearance over the years, in later Mickey Mouse cartoons, he has matured as a character in recent appearances; this is evident in his Disney programme that ran from 2001-2004 which featured cartoons of the iconic character, an example would be the short animation Mickey and Minnies big vacation in which Mickey plays a husband role and acts much more human than in the earlier cartoons and he is much more vocal. Animations in general are much more mature than they used to be, the characters are more human, and cartoons are often violent, this is because children are exposed to adult life at a younger age now, the films they watch and games they play are mature, this is reflected in animation aimed at them. This means the formal qualities such as the rhythm of the animation has been adapted to change throughout the sequence so the different moods are captured, as the ability for children to respond to more mature animation at a younger age has meant they are more mentally demanding. Many animators now aim to give characters such as animals realistic roles and characteristics, an example being The Lion King in which the lions are very human like, in the behind the scenes documentary on the making of the lion king, animators explain how they spent many hours researching lions and they had real life lions in the studio to study, as well as this they observe the facial expressions of the voice actors to capture the human characteristics. Andreas Deja, one of the supervising animators on the Lion King explains For a character like scar, it is an animal, you have to bring animal qualities: a real lion walk and how a lion moves, and their mannerisms, plus you have to humanize that, and have real facial The depth of contemporary animation contrasts with the early animated films, as Steamboat Willie (1928) for example, has the main character, Mickey perform a series of actions in a comedic way whilst he faces obstacles. The change in plots is parented with the development of live action film through time. As animation is now mainly constructed using computers now, as oppose to hand drawn, characters can look life like and convincing and show a great deal more of expressions and emotions which can be demonstrated both subtly and obviously, there is a larger workforce so greater work will go into the characters. An example being the Old man in the recent Disney Pixar film UP, he is shown happy at the start of the film, and then as he loses his wife to cancer and becomes miserable and bitter. This is also an

example of the level of maturity of contemporary animated films in which children are their target audience. As animations have also become darker, the introduction of colour in animation has allowed animators to explore a series of moods throughout a single animation,