Another major influence on the development of early animation was the American Winsor McCay. He was born in Michigan, the United States, in his early years, used to make a living by drawing posters for the circus, popular theater, and later became a newspaper reporter and cartoon columnist. 1914, McKay launched a drama animated film "Gertie the Dinosaur" (Gertie the Dinosaur). The launch of this cartoon changed the purely artistic tendencies previously seen in animated works by organizing the story, characters and live action into an interactive plot, to considerable effect. Gertie the Dinosaur became a cartoon star for a while. After Gertie the Dinosaur, McKay produced The Sinking of the Lusternia. This was the first documentary to be animated.
Winsor McCay's success is symbolic. With his training and accumulation as a cartoonist, he pioneered a new mode of animation creation that emphasized characterization, story structure, and popular interest. After McKay, American animators began to embark on a very different path from their European counterparts. A cartoon era was coming to the New World.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the level of development of American cartoon art in the world's leading position. And there is no doubt that this leadership was all-encompassing.
As early as 1840, Boston's DC Johnston issued a single-page pictorial called Crespa, which was probably the first cartoon to appear in the United States. Since then, with the constant influx of European immigrants, cartoon art, originally popular in Europe, has also begun to land in the United States.
In 1880, the American newspaper mogul Pulitzer added a Sunday special to his New York World newspaper and added a cartoon column to it. Shortly thereafter, another newspaper magnate, Hearst, also began to publish cartoons regularly in his own publications such as New York Magazine and American Humorist. This means that the role of cartoons in increasing newspaper circulation has been widely recognized. And the above two newspaper system's strong intervention, is undoubtedly still in the infancy of the United States cartoon injection of a booster, since then the development of the United States cartoon into the fast lane.
In 1895, the famous cartoonist R.F. Outcault (Outcault) created a series of cartoons, "Yellow Kid" (Yellow Kid) began to be published in the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York World (New York World). Soon after, however, Outcault took the Yellow Kid with him to Hearst's New York Journal. Originally titled Hogan's Alley, the Yellow Kid series featured a six- or seven-year-old kid in dirty pajamas with a big head named Mickey Dugan. Mickey Dugan. In fact, the pajamas started out blue. In 1896, Dugan changed to yellow when a new technology made it easy to dye paper yellow. Later, Outhcott added dialogue from the story's main characters to the comic to make it easier for people to understand the theme of the story. This made the Yellow Kid a true comic strip. Since the image of the Yellow Kid had become so popular, shrewd businessmen developed a large number of peripheral products based on this image, including toys, statues, and advertising posters. Despite the many ups and downs of the Yellow Kid, the series was finally published in 1902, the seventh year after its debut. It should be noted that the success of the Yellow Kid not only promoted the development of American cartoon comics, but also provided a classic paradigm for the commercial operation of comics.
Throughout the early twentieth century, cartoon comics were always looking for a meeting point with American culture. In the process, many great works and memorable cartoons were produced. However, it wasn't until the early thirties that the golden age of American cartoon caricature actually arrived.
The "Golden Age" has been eloquently described as the era of superheroes in cheap pictorials. As we all know, such as Superman (SUPER MAN), Batman (BATMAN), Flash (FLASH), Aquaman (AQUA MAN) and many other superhero images are produced in this period. These superheroes are characterized by the same **** bodybuilder-like figure, ordinary people can not have superpowers, and continue to beat the evil and tough enemies to save the world. And the most representative and continuous influence, I am afraid to be considered Superman and Batman.
The protagonist of Superman is Clark, a super-powered alien from the planet Krypton. He came to Earth from Krypton in a space ship when he was still a baby, and was adopted by the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Kent. As he grows up, he begins to realize that he has superpowers that Earthlings don't have. In order to conceal his identity, Clark traveled from a remote town to Metropolis and took a job as an editor at the Daily Planet, where he befriended Lois, a young and beautiful female reporter. Since then, whenever the safety and order of the city is threatened by evil forces, there is always a flying hero in cape and tights who shows up in time to save those in crisis. However, most of the time, Superman's main task is to heroically save people.
The Superman series was first published in the first issue of ACTION COMICS and quickly became popular throughout the U.S. On January 16, 1939, Superman began being serialized in newspapers. By 1941, more than three hundred newspapers were publishing Superman comics on a daily basis. Cartoons, movies, and TV shows featuring Superman have been produced over the past half-century. It's no exaggeration to say that Superman has become an icon of the times.
Almost simultaneously with Superman's success, Batman, the other superhero of the Golden Age, came into the spotlight.
Batman, whose original name was Quibbles, came from a wealthy and prominent family. When he was very young, his parents were killed by thugs and he was orphaned and raised by a butler. When he grew up, he swore to fight for the eradication of evil. Thus, he became a masked hero in a bat costume. The most important mission for him is to eliminate violence and sanction those who fall through the net of the law.
Batman's story first appeared in the twenty-seventh issue of DETECTIVE COMICS. Compared to Superman, Batman is an ordinary man with no superpowers, which is what makes him so appealing. The main tools Batman uses to fight evil are a variety of technological inventions, the most famous of which is the all-powerful Batmobile.
Among the many superheroes of the Golden Age, Wonder Woman (WONDER WOMAN) can be said to be an "alternative". This is not only because it breaks the monopoly of the previous male superhero image, more importantly, her appearance completely reconfigure the cartoon world in the order of the sexes, so that the female characters are no longer just the male heroes of the subordinate, and really become the dominant story of the protagonist. As a result, when the Wonder Woman series was launched in ALL STAR COMICS at the end of 1941, it was very well received by female readers.
The emergence of the comic book hero was no accident. In fact, it is the inevitable result of the collision of comic art and American culture. The core of American culture is the so-called "individualism". This is a culture that advocates personal struggle and emphasizes the priority of protecting personal interests. Because of this cultural background, especially in the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II, which brought a severe impact on American society, people appreciate and desire "savior"-style superheroes, and regard them as symbols of hope and strength. Because they could not find such characters in the real world, people turned to the invented world to seek spiritual support.
During the Second World War, the American society and economy were not dragged down by the war, but gained unprecedented development and strength. The patriotism inspired by the war became the mainstream of American culture. As a result, the superheroes in the comics were also involved in the defense of the country and the fight against the Nazis. The "Golden Age" reached its peak.
With the increasing influence of cartoon comics in American society, the development of American comics has gradually diversified, with the emergence of educational comics, science comics, western comics and other new subjects. At the same time, the single-minded pursuit of profit maximization of commercial speculation, making the United States in the cartoon violence, pornography and other undesirable factors increased, and some comic publications and even clearly marked "children should not". As a result, the comic book industry became the focus of public criticism and public opinion, and ultimately led to the decline of the "Golden Age".
In the spring of 1945, Dr. Frederick Weisman's book Seducing the Innocent was published. Dr. Weismann was an influential intellectual in society at the time, as well as a prominent member of the political establishment. He was a firm believer in the idea that "cartoons, filled with violence and dark content, are the root cause of juvenile delinquency and social disruption". Although investigations later showed that most of Dr. Weisman's assertions were unsubstantiated, the publication of the book coincided with the widespread criticism of the comic book industry by mainstream public opinion at the time, and therefore immediately gained the support of all sectors of the community. For a while, comics became super-prohibited, and people often talked about them in the same breath as they talked about drugs.
In April 1954, the U.S. Senate Committee on Juvenile Delinquency held a public hearing on the effects of comics on young people, and Dr. Weisman appeared as a witness. He claimed that comics were responsible for tainting children's innocence and triggering juvenile delinquency, and that Hitler was child's play compared to comics. "Children often suffer from the poison of comics from the age of four." He even called for an immediate ban on the sale of comics.
Although, the hearing was not able to form a definitive conclusion, the Senate ultimately demanded the issuance of a censorship standard that would eliminate all content in comics that could poison young people and corrupt morals. This was a death sentence for the Golden Age in the eyes of the public. Shortly after the Senate hearing, comic book publishers formed the American Federation of Domestic Comic Book Magazines (AFDCM) on October 26, 1954, and established the AFDCM's internal censorship standards. The rating was also required to be clearly labeled on the cover of comics published thereafter.
This was an event with far-reaching consequences for the American comic book industry. As a result of this overkill, the previously best-selling horror and police comics almost disappeared; the cowboys in the western comics had to restrain themselves significantly, and the scenes of physical combat and gunfighting were significantly reduced; and even the funny animal comics in the "violent" action also became fearful. Many publishers and publications went out of business because of the dramatic drop in circulation, and most professional cartoonists were forced to change careers. Of course, teenage comic book writers such as Joe Simon, author of Captain America, also became popular for a time because of the absence of superheroes. But overall, the U.S. comics industry is still hurt by this, and although it has recovered, it has not been able to revitalize its former glory.
Compared with the development of the U.S. comic book industry, the U.S. animation industry has always maintained a strong momentum of development. And to look back at this history, you can't help but mention Walt Disney and his Disney Company.
In fact, before Walt Disney, the U.S. already had a lot of outstanding animators, but as a latecomer, Walt was the one who really pushed the U.S. animation industry to take a leap forward. Therefore, we have good reason to think that "Walt Disney is the first master in the history of animation".
In 1923, at the age of 22, Walt Disney said goodbye to his hometown of Kansas, and left for Hollywood to seek development. At that time, Hollywood is a piece of entrepreneurial hot spot, and at this time the film is still in the silent stage, as for the animated film is only placed in the movie before the opening of the show is just a show of excitement. There, he started from scratch, with only $3200 to register the establishment of "Disney Brothers Animation Company". In the year that Walt came to Hollywood, he completed his first animated feature, Alice in Cartoonland, a silent animated film starring live action and animated characters.
During his first few years in Hollywood, Disney and his company gradually gained a foothold, but in 1927 Walt suffered the first crushing blow of his career. This year, he created the first popular cartoon character "lucky rabbit Oswald" by the distribution company with deceptive means, the company was almost in a desperate situation. Exasperated and helpless, Disney embarked on a train back to his hometown of Kansas. However, it is in this homecoming trip, Walt's mind appeared a lively and lovely little mouse. Later, Walt's wife gave this new cartoon image a loud name "Mickey Mouse"! This is the later world-famous, for the children of various countries love the cartoon star - Mickey Mouse.
The emergence of Mickey Mouse, of course, for the Disney company to provide a huge intangible assets. However, to make Mickey and his pals become a favorite superstar, Disney must also have a novel production concept. And at the heart of that new philosophy is an emphasis on plot design and constant innovation.
Before Disney, animated films as a general movie screening before the matinee program, often only valued the visual effects and pay little attention to the arrangement of the storyline. Disney's Mickey Mouse series is the opposite, in the early stages of production on the plot of the work of the well-thought-out arrangements, so that just seven or eight minutes of small films become very engaging, coupled with well-produced images, Disney's animated films at once dumped almost all of its competitors.
In addition to advanced creative concepts, sensitivity to innovation was another one of Disney's trump cards. in the mid-to-late 1920s, movies bid farewell to the silent era, and the emergence of talkies triggered a revolution in the entire film industry. Walt, keenly aware of the coming change, began to try to produce sound animated films. on November 18, 1928, as the first sound animated film synchronized with sound and picture in the history of cinema, Steamboat Willie made its grand premiere at the Colonial Theatre in New York City, and was a success. By 1932, Disney followed up with Flowers and Tree, the first color animated feature. In addition to being an expected sensation, it won Disney an Academy Award for animated shorts. Five years later, in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first fully animated cartoon feature, took years to create. It was a landmark animated film. And because of its huge commercial success, Disney's production schedule began to shift toward feature films. Immediately afterward, in 1940, Disney released two animated feature films, Pinocchio and Fantasia. Fantasia is regarded as a classic of modern animation and was widely acclaimed from the outset. In addition to Mickey Mouse, new characters such as Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck have also appeared in Disney's animated films. With a steady stream of great works and cartoon stars, the Disney Company finally established its dominance in the cartoon empire in the early 1940s.
For the entire U.S. animation industry, Disney's success was a huge demonstration and impetus. Due to the expansion of the animation market, many new animation companies have been set up, at this time, Hollywood has been the whole of the United States, and even the world's animation industry center. Van Beuren Studio was one of these new animation companies, and under its banner it also gathered a group of outstanding young animators. In the late 1930s, the company launched the famous and successful animated series Tom and Jerry. Another influential animation production organization was the animation department created by Warner Productions in 1934, with major works including: Porky and Beans, Daffy Duck, and Bugs Bunny. Like Disney's Mickey Mouse, they are well known cartoon stars.
However, in the brilliant success of Disney, the crisis is also quietly breeding. At the beginning of the establishment of the Disney company, to art and creation as a credo net a large number of first-class animation talent. However, with the company's continuous development and growth, Disney's art style also gradually tends to be fixed, catering to the audience and market demand has become the basis and premise of the program production. More importantly, Disney employees increasingly felt that the company's prosperity did not bring them the expected increase in income, and discontent began to spread within Disney. By the early 1940s, Disney's animators were preparing to unionize in hopes of fighting the company's executives for better pay. However, the executives' attitude seemed to be tougher than expected, which led to a prolonged "war of words". In the end, many of the company's business leaders left in anger and formed a partnership called United Productions of America (UPA).
Despite all the ups and downs, Walt Disney and his company remain the undisputed successes of their time. Today, Disney has become a worldwide "entertainment empire", which is another proof that Walt's ideals and successes are ahead of their time.
All in all, both the comic book industry and the animation industry in the United States made great progress during this period. It is worth noting that, in this development process, around the cartoon products, the U.S. entertainment industry has formed a complete set of commercial operation system, the realization of the benign cycle of the development of cartoon itself. And "American cartoon" is also based on this, to realize it in the global scope of the expansion, became a cultural force can not be underestimated
Before and after the Second World War, although Europe and the United States cartoon products still occupy the mainstream of the world's cartoon market, but due to economic and social and popular culture change, cartoon art in the global The development of the scope of the cartoon art in the world, also presents an unprecedented all-round, diversified development situation. Undeniably, a new wave of cartoon industry is emerging, and will sweep the world.
In the United States cartoon on the road to commercialization at the same time, the European cartoonists and animators still seem to stick to their inherent artistic concepts. But even so, the European cartoons of this period are not short of classic works.
In Germany, this period saw the emergence of a cartoonist with world-wide influence, E. O. Braun. Braun's original name was Erich Oser, born in a remote town in Saxony, Germany. Later, due to job changes, Erich's father and his family moved to Braun, the capital of the Vogtland mountains. It was out of nostalgia for this city that Erich used the name "Braun" as his pen name. Between 1921 and 1933, Erich published a large number of cartoons as a painter and illustrated many of the works of his close friend, the writer Erich K?stner. However, the socio-political climate in Germany took a rapid rightward turn with the rise to power of the Nazi Party. Dissatisfied with the Nazi Party's perversions, Erich created caricatures that satirized the Nazi Party, which resulted in the hatred of Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels and others. For a time, Ehrlich's cartoons were censored.
Later, because the Berliner Illustrirte at the time needed an artist who could draw serialized cartoons, Dr. Kurt Kusenberg, the famous writer, publisher, and editor in charge of the matter, approached Erich Ossel to take on the job. Eventually, thanks to the active maneuvering of the Berliner Illustrirte, the Nazi authorities lifted the ban on Erich, but attached a series of harsh conditions of censorship and an absolute ban on anything politically related in his work.
Nonetheless, between 1934 and 1937, Erissi completed more than 200 sets of the famous Father and Son comic series. In the years of fascism, this series of cartoons was like an oasis of humanity, and became the best comfort for the German people when they faced the cruel reality of life, and thus won the hearts of many people. Fathers and Sons was hailed as a symbol of German humor, and its reputation soon spread across national boundaries.
In 1929, the Belgian cartoonist Elgee began work on The Adventures of Tintin series. From then until his death in March 1983, The Adventures of Tintin was completed in more than twenty volumes. 1986, as the last work that Elger was unable to complete during his lifetime, Tintin and Alpha Art, was published, and the Tintin series was completed. Critics generally agree that the success of the Tintin series should be attributed to the author's emphasis on combining the main story line with real-life backgrounds, which has led to Ergé being called a "comics journalist". In any case, thanks to its blend of documentary style and humor, the Tintin series is one of the most outstanding works in the history of comics, and Eliezer has become a master of comics.
While American animators were enjoying their "golden age," European animators were still experimenting and being artistic. This can be seen in the use of synchronized sound technology. In the United States, character voices are mainly used to show the character's features and personality; while in Europe, sound effects are used as "material" for experimentation. As a matter of fact, European animators have almost maximized the cooperation between picture and sound effects in animated films. These useful attempts and explorations have greatly enriched the expression of animation, and played a driving role in the development and progress of animation art. However, after all, animation is a kind of cultural product requiring high investment, if there is no complete industrial chain support, it is difficult to make big and strong. With the entry of American animated films, the experimental animation in Europe has gradually withered away.
Perhaps no one would have thought that the outbreak of the Second World War gave the European animation industry a chance to "revitalize". As a result of the impact of the war, the world's cartoon market was divided into a number of pieces, objectively stimulate the independent development of the cartoon industry in various countries. At the same time, because many governments have animated films as an important means of mobilization and propaganda, so began to appear to the government investment to foster the development of national animation industry situation.
In wartime Britain, the newly established "Haras and Bachiller" animation company commissioned by the British authorities, before and after the **** production of more than seventy to support the war animation propaganda short films. These short films were shown in cinemas and theaters all over Britain, and played a positive role in inspiring the fighting spirit of the British people. Similar "war animation" also appeared in the homes of warring countries such as the United States and Japan. After the war, although it was no longer necessary to use cartoons as a means of mobilizing for war, it was still an important propaganda medium, and was therefore widely valued by both governmental and civil institutions. Animation was used as a medium for everything from public relations, corporate advertising, cultural education, and even political campaigning. This has allowed the European animation industry to find a new fulcrum.
Compared with Western European countries, the animation industry in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union lagged a little behind, but had its own style and system. Alexander Baskin and the Brampag sisters were outstanding representatives of the Soviet animation industry. Among them, the Brampager Sisters' "Chinese on Fire", completed in 1925, is especially well-known to Chinese audiences. Although some Western critics consider Russian cartoons to be too stereotypical, on the whole, the Soviet animators have explored a great deal of excellent material from their country's rich cultural heritage, and produced a number of outstanding animation works.
Let's go back to the United States. The diversity of styles that emerged at the end of the "Golden Age" was inherited by a new generation of American cartoonists, resulting in a number of excellent cartoons.
On October 2, 1950, the famous American cartoonist Charles Schulz (Charles Schulz) began to publish his Peanuts cartoon series (PEANUTS). In the fifty years since then, the Peanuts series has achieved unprecedented success, has been translated into 21 languages, published in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Snoopy, the main character of the comic strip, became a superstar with "350 million loyal readers worldwide". The appearance of Peanuts marked the rise of a new force in the American comic book industry. Similar success stories include Jim Davis and his Garfield series.
Over time, as the effects of the Weisman Incident faded, superhero stories began to return to American life, and in 1956, in the fourth issue of Show Magazine, a new generation of The Flash made his debut, marking the return of the superhero. In 1956, in the fourth issue of Show Magazine, a new generation of "The Flash" was introduced, marking the return of the superhero. Since then, most of the heroes of the Golden Age have returned, and a new generation of superheroes has emerged, including Spider-Man in 1962, Wolfman, who made his debut in 1974, and the first ever superhero. "WOLERINE" in 1974, and GHOST RIDER in the early 90's. However, the new generation of superheroes is still emerging. However, it seems that the new era of superheroes can no longer recover their former "hero". After all, the "Golden Age" has become history, and people's desire for heroes has gradually faded.
During this period, the development of the U.S. comic book industry is another outstanding performance is the consolidation of the commercial profit model. In the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. comics industry has initially formed a "comic book author → publisher → distribution network (including specialty stores) → readers" business model. In the post-war period, there was basically no major change in this mode of operation, but the difference was that the scale of the sales network and the coverage of the readers' base were significantly expanded. The difference is that the size of the sales network and the reach of the readership has expanded significantly. Some general bookstores, which were not involved in the sale of comics, have also begun to deal in comics.
Today, the U.S. comics industry is worth about $2.3 billion a year, which is still quite limited in absolute size, but the profit margin is quite substantial. The largest U.S. comic book publisher Marvel Comics Publishing (Marvel), for example, the publisher in the fiscal year 2000 gross sales of 231 million dollars, while the total net income is as high as 88.9 million dollars, accounting for 38.9% of gross sales. In addition to comics periodicals and book publishing, the development of comics peripheral products and intellectual property redevelopment (image licensing) is also becoming the U.S. comics industry's new profit growth point.
In the post-war world of American animation, Disney's dominance remained unrivaled. Throughout the 1950s, the Disney Company has launched the "Wonderland", "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan" and other fairy tale themes, not only continued the reputation of Disney animation, but also achieved good box office results. However, Disney did not revel in its success, but instead kept groping for innovations. They have launched the "Treasure Island", which is performed by all real people, "Miss and the Rascal", which takes the real society as the animation scene, "101 Loyal Dogs", which takes animal characters as the protagonist, and "The Sword in the Stone", which is adapted from the historical legend, and so on. In 1964, the Disney Company released the movie Joy to the World, a combination of live action and animation, which won 13 Oscar nominations for Best of the Year. All this shows that Disney is still an animation company with a good capacity for innovation.
Along with his success in animation, Walt boldly led his company into the amusement park business, establishing the world's first theme park, Disneyland, in 1955 in Los Angeles on the West Coast. To this day, Disneyland, which is located all over the world, has become an everlasting paradise for people who love cartoons all over the world.
While the old animation companies like Disney stick to the traditional animation concept, the small animation companies represented by UPA started to try the production concept of "limited animation". They no longer pursue the kind of high-cost, large-scale production of Disney animated films, gorgeous scenes, but rather low-cost production strategy, and through the elaborate storyline and sound effects to make up for the visual shortcomings. This avant-garde philosophy has proven to be valuable. Especially after the rise of television as a new mass medium, animated films originally shown in movie theaters were subjected to the same powerful impact as other types of films. By virtue of the concept of "limited animation", animation began to gradually adapt to the requirements of television broadcasting, and then became the major television stations to compete for ratings of the trump card program. With the expansion of the animated television market, almost all the animation companies have shifted their main focus to the production of television animation, and the world of animation on television has become colorful.
By the end of the twentieth century, with the rise of computer multimedia technology, the production of animated cartoons faced a new revolution. Disney once again acted as a new technology trendsetter, launched a series of large-scale production of animation giant, including from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" (1990), according to the Arabian classical masterpieces of the "Thousand and One Nights" (1992), according to Shakespearean masterpieces of the Lion King (1994), reflecting the early colonial life in North America, Pocahontas (1995), and the first all-digital technology production. The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), the first animated film to be produced entirely in digital technology, and Toy Story. The launch of these animated blockbusters not only reflects Disney's ability to master new technologies, but also triggered the return of the "theater tradition", people no longer stay at home with the TV set but to buy tickets to the theater to watch animated films. This is a phenomenon that has never happened since television replaced film as the most important animation medium. On the other hand, the "DreamWorks" as the representative of the industry's newest and Disney's competition is gradually rising, and continue to provide the world's cartoon fans with exquisite "animation meal".