What is the history of European animation?

1906, J. Stuart Blackton, who worked in Edison's laboratory, made a humorous picture of funny faces, which was also the first animated film in the world. Since then, Emile Cohl from France has further improved his cartoon shooting skills and produced more than 250 animated short films. At the same time, he was also the first pioneer to combine animation with real life performance by screen photography. It is precisely because of Cole's outstanding contribution to the development of animation that he is also known as the father of contemporary animation.

Another American who had an important influence on the development of early animation was Winsor McCay. He was born in Michigan, USA. In his early years, he made a living by painting posters for circuses and popular theatrical troupes. Later, he became a newspaper reporter and comic columnist. 19 14, MacKay released a story cartoon "Gertie the dinosaur". The introduction of this cartoon has changed the pure artistic tendency in previous animation works, and organized stories, characters and live-action performances into interactive plots, which has achieved quite good results. Gertie, a naive dinosaur, has become a famous cartoon star. After Gertie the Dinosaur, MacKay filmed The Sinking of the Rousta Virginia. This is the first documentary made by animation.

Winsor McCay's success is symbolic. Based on his accomplishment and accumulation as a cartoonist, he created a new animation creation mode that attaches importance to characterization, story structure and public interest. After MacKay, American animators began to take a completely different path from their European counterparts. An animation era belonging to the new world is coming.

In the first half of the 20th century, the development level of American animation art was in the leading position in the world. There is no doubt that this lead is all-round.

As early as 1840, DC Johnston Company in Boston published a one-page pictorial called Crispa, which may be the earliest comic book in the United States. Since then, with the continuous influx of European immigrants, the comic art that was originally popular in Europe has also begun to land in the United States.

1880 Pulitzer, an American newspaper tycoon, added a special Sunday issue to his new york World newspaper and added a comic column to it. Shortly thereafter, another newspaper giant, Hearst Company, began to publish cartoons regularly in its own publications, new york Magazine and American Humor Master. This means that the role of comics in increasing the circulation of newspapers and periodicals has been widely recognized. The strong intervention of the above two newspaper departments has undoubtedly injected a growth promoter into American cartoons, and the development of American cartoons has entered the fast lane since then.

From 65438 to 0895, a series of cartoons "Children of the Yellow Race" created by the famous cartoonist R.F.Outcault began to be published in new york World founded by Pulitzer. But not long after, Outcault took the "yellow race" to Hurst's New York Daily. The original name of the yellow children's series is Hogan's Alley. The protagonist of the story is a six-or seven-year-old boy named Mickey Dugan, wearing dirty pajamas and having a big head. In fact, this pajamas is blue from the beginning. By 1896, due to the application of a new technology, people could easily dye the paper yellow, and Dugan also changed into yellow clothes. Later, Outcault joined the dialogue of the protagonist in the cartoon to make it easier for everyone to understand the theme of the story. This also makes the yellow children a veritable cartoon. Because the image of "yellow children" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, savvy businessmen have developed a large number of peripheral products about "yellow children" based on this image, including toys, statues, advertising posters and so on. Although "Children of the Yellow Race" experienced many twists and turns, in the seventh year after its first appearance, that is, 1902, the series of "Children of the Yellow Race" was finally published. It should be pointed out that the success of Yellow Man not only promoted the development of American cartoons, but also provided a classic paradigm for the commercial operation of comic works.

Throughout the early 20th century, comics have been looking for the intersection with American culture. In this process, many excellent works and unforgettable cartoon images have been produced. However, it was not until the early 1930s that the golden age of American cartoons really came.

For the "golden age", there is such an incisive description: the golden age of American comics is an era when superheroes are rampant in cheap illustrated newspapers. As we all know, this period produced many superhero images, such as Superman, Batman, Flash, Aquarius Man and so on. The common feature of these superheroes is that they have bodybuilder-like bodies and superpowers that ordinary people can't have, constantly defeating evil and powerful enemies and saving the world. Superman and Batman are probably the most representative and influential.

The protagonist of Superman is Clark, an alien with super powers from Krypton. When he was a baby, he came to earth from Krypton in a spaceship and was adopted by the kind Kent family. When he grew up, he began to find that he had super powers that the earth people didn't have. In order to hide his identity, Clark came to the metropolis from a remote town and worked as an editor in the Daily Planet, thus getting to know a beautiful young female reporter Louise. Since then, whenever the security and order of the city are threatened by evil forces, there will always be a flying hero in a cloak and tights who will appear in time to save those in crisis. However, in most cases, Superman's main task is to save America by heroes.

Superman series was first published in the first issue of COMICS Action and quickly became popular in the United States. 1939 65438+1October 16, Superman started serializing in the newspaper. By 194 1, Superman comics are serialized in more than 300 newspapers every day. Comics, movies and TV plays with the theme of "Superman" emerged one after another in the next half century. It is no exaggeration to say that "Superman" has become a symbol of an era.

Almost at the same time of Superman's success, Batman, another superhero in the "golden age", also came into people's sight.

Batman, formerly known as Quinbussy, was born in a prominent rich family. His parents were killed by gangsters when he was very young, so he became an orphan and was raised by a housekeeper. When he grew up, he vowed to fight for the eradication of evil. As a result, he became a masked hero in a bat costume. It is his most important mission to eliminate violence and punish those who evade legal sanctions.

The story of Batman first appeared in the 27th issue of Detective COMICS. Compared with Superman, Batman is an ordinary man without super powers, which is his charm. Batman's main tool against evil is various technological inventions, the most famous of which is the universal bat chariot.

Among the many superheroes in the golden age, wonder woman can be said to be an "alternative". This is not only because it breaks the monopoly of men on superhero images, but more importantly, her appearance completely reconstructs the gender order in the comic book world, so that female characters are no longer just vassals of male heroes, but really become the protagonists of leading stories. Therefore, the wonder woman series was warmly welcomed by many female readers shortly after it was launched in All-Star COMICS at the end of 194 1.

The appearance of comic hero is no accident. Actually, it is the inevitable result of the collision between comic art and American culture. The core of American culture is so-called individualism. This is a culture that advocates personal struggle and emphasizes giving priority to protecting personal interests. Under this cultural background, especially when the Great Depression and World War II in the 1930s brought serious impacts to American society, people appreciated and longed for the "savior" superhero and regarded it as a symbol of hope and strength. Because there are no such characters in the real world, people turn to the fictional world for spiritual sustenance.

During the Second World War, the social economy of the United States was not dragged down by the war, but gained unprecedented development and growth. Patriotism inspired by war became the mainstream of American culture at that time. As a result, the superheroes in comics have also devoted themselves to defending the country and fighting against the Nazis. The "golden age" also reached its peak.

With the increasing influence of cartoons in American society, the development of American cartoons has gradually diversified, and new themes such as educational cartoons, scientific cartoons and western cartoons have emerged. At the same time, the blind pursuit of profit maximization has led to a surge in negative factors such as violence and pornography in American comics, and some comic publications have even been marked as "not suitable for children". As a result, the animation industry became the target of public criticism, and eventually led to the decline of the "golden age."

1945 in the spring, Dr. Frederic weismann's book Luring Innocence was published. Dr. weismann was an influential intellectual in society at that time, and also a well-known figure in politics. He has always believed that "cartoons full of violence and dark content are the root of juvenile delinquency and social chaos". Although after-the-fact investigation showed that most of Dr. weismann's arguments were unfounded, the publication of this book catered to the widespread criticism of the comic industry by mainstream public opinion at that time, so it was immediately supported and affirmed by all walks of life. For a time, comics became a super banned book, and people often talked about comics in the tone of talking about drugs.

1954 In April, the US Senate Juvenile Delinquency Investigation Committee held a public hearing on the influence of comics on teenagers, and Dr. weismann attended as a witness. He claimed that cartoons are the chief culprit that defiles children's innocence and causes juvenile delinquency. Compared with comics, Hitler was just a child's play. "Children have often been poisoned by cartoons since they were four years old." He even demanded an immediate ban on the sale of comics.

Although the hearing failed to reach a clear conclusion, the Senate finally demanded the introduction of censorship standards and deleted all the contents in cartoons that might poison teenagers and corrupt morality. This is actually the death penalty in the "golden age" of public opinion. Shortly after the Senate hearing, comic book publishers established the National Comic Magazine Federation on1October 26th, 1954+05438, and formulated the "internal inspection standards of the Federation", and also required that the restrictions be clearly indicated on the covers of comics published thereafter.

This is undoubtedly an event that has far-reaching influence on the American comic industry. Because of this somewhat overcorrected standard, the best-selling horror and gangster cartoons almost disappeared; Cowboys in western comics have to be greatly restrained, and hand-to-hand combat and gun battles are obviously reduced; Even the "violent" behavior in funny animal cartoons has become timid. Many publishing houses and comic books went bankrupt because of the sharp decline in circulation, and most professional cartoonists had to change careers under the pressure of livelihood. Of course, young comic writers, such as joe simon, the author of Captain America, were once very popular because of the lack of superheroes. However, on the whole, the American comic book industry has been greatly damaged. Although it recovered later, it failed to revive its former glory.

Compared with the tortuous development of American animation industry, American animation industry has always maintained a strong development momentum. Looking back on this history, we can't help but mention Walter Disney and his Disney Company.

Actually, before Walter Disney, there were many excellent animators in the United States, but as a latecomer, it was Walter who really promoted the American animation industry to leap forward. Therefore, we have every reason to think that "Walter Disney is the first master in the history of animation".

1923, at the age of 22, Walter Disney left his hometown of Kansas and set off for Hollywood to seek development. At that time, Hollywood was a hot spot for entrepreneurship, and at this time, the film was still in the silent stage, and the cartoon was just an interesting program before the film started shooting. There, he started from scratch and registered and established "Disney Brothers Animation Production Company" with only $3,200. In the year when Walter came to Hollywood, he finished his first animated work-Alice in a Cartoon Country, which was a silent cartoon performed by real people and animated characters.

In the first few years in Hollywood, Disney and his company gradually gained a foothold, but in 1927, Walter suffered the first heavy blow in his career. This year, his first popular cartoon character "Lucky Rabbit Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" was cheated by the publishing company, which was almost desperate. Angry and helpless Disney embarked on a train back to his hometown of Kansas. However, on this trip home, a lively and lovely little mouse appeared in Walter's mind. Later, Walter's wife gave this brand-new cartoon image a resounding name "Mickey Mouse"! This is Mickey Mouse, a cartoon star who will be famous all over the world in the future and loved by children all over the world.

The appearance of Mickey Mouse undoubtedly provided Disney with a huge intangible asset. However, in order for Mickey and his friends to become popular superstars, Disney must also have a novel production concept. The core of the new concept is to attach importance to plot design and continuous innovation.

Before Disney, cartoons, as a buffer program before the screening of ordinary movies, often only paid attention to visual effects and paid little attention to the arrangement of story lines. Disney's Mickey Mouse series, on the other hand, carefully arranged the plot of the works at the early stage of production, making the short film of seven or eight minutes very attractive. Coupled with well-made pictures, Disney's comics dumped almost all competitors at once.

In addition to advanced creativity, sensitivity to innovation is another trump card of Disney. In the middle and late 1920s, movies bid farewell to the silent film era, and the appearance of audio movies triggered the revolution of the whole film industry. Walter was keenly aware of the coming of change and began to try to make audio cartoons. 1928165438+1October 18 As the first animated film with sound in film history, "Steamboat Willie" premiered grandly in new york Colonial Theatre and achieved great success. 1932, Disney released the first colorful cartoon Flowers and Trees. In addition to the expected sensational effect, it also won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for Disney. Five years later, 1937, Disney's first fully animated cartoon drama Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released. This is an epoch-making cartoon with milestone significance. Due to the great commercial success of this work, Disney's production plan began to tilt towards feature films. Subsequently, 1940, Disney released two animated feature films, Pinocchio and Fantasia. Among them, Fantasia is regarded as a classic of modern animation, which has been widely praised since its launch. With the continuous release of new works, Disney's animation star lineup is also expanding. Besides Mickey Mouse, new images such as Minnie, Pluto, Gao Fei and Donald Duck also appeared in Disney cartoons. With the appearance of outstanding works and cartoon stars, Disney finally established its dominant position in the cartoon empire in the early 1940s.

For the entire American animation industry, Disney's success has a huge demonstration and promotion role. Due to the expansion of the animation market, many new animation companies have mushroomed. At this time, Hollywood has become the center of the animation industry in the United States and even the world. Van Buren Studio is one of these emerging animation companies, and a group of outstanding young animators also gathered under his banner. In the late 1930s, this company launched a famous series of cartoons, Tom and Jerry, which was a great success. Another influential animation production organization is the animation department founded by Warner Studio in 1934. His main works include: Piglets and Beans, daffy duck, bugs bunny and other series of cartoons. Just like Mickey Mouse in Disney, they are famous cartoon stars.

However, at the same time of Disney's brilliant success, the crisis is also quietly gestating. At the beginning of its establishment, Disney Company took art and creation as its creed and recruited a large number of first-class animation talents. However, with the continuous development of the company, Disney's artistic style is gradually fixed, and catering to the needs of the audience and the market has become the basis and premise of program production. More importantly, Disney employees increasingly feel that the company's prosperity has not brought them the expected income growth, and dissatisfaction has begun to spread within Disney. In the early 1940s, animators under the Disney Company began to prepare for the establishment of a trade union, hoping to confront the company's top management and strive for higher pay. However, the high-level attitude seems to be tougher than expected, which also triggered a protracted "war of words." In the end, the business backbones of many companies angrily left their jobs and formed the United States Joint Production Company (UPA) in partnership.

Despite many twists and turns, Walter Disney and his company are still the indisputable success of that era. Today, Disney has become a worldwide "entertainment kingdom", which also proves from another angle that Walter's ideal and success are beyond the times.

In short, during this period, the American animation industry and animation industry have made great progress. It is worth noting that in this development process, around the animation products, the American entertainment industry has formed a complete commercial operation system and realized a virtuous circle of animation development. It is on this basis that "American comics" can achieve its global expansion and become a cultural force that cannot be ignored.

Before and after World War II, although European and American animation products still occupied the mainstream of the world animation market, due to the changes in economy, society and popular culture, the development of animation art on a global scale also showed an unprecedented all-round and diversified development trend. There is no denying that a new wave of animation industry is emerging and will sweep the world.

While American comics are on the road to commercialization, it seems that European cartoonists and animators are still sticking to their inherent artistic ideas. But even so, there are many classic European cartoons in this period.

In Germany, an internationally influential cartoonist, E.O. praun, appeared in this period. Born as Aries Oszer, Braun was born in a remote town in Saxony. Later, due to job changes, Erisi's father and his family moved to Braun, the capital of Fortgrant Mountains. Eris took Braun as his pen name because of his nostalgia for the city. From 192 1 to 1933, Aries published a large number of cartoon paintings as a painter, and also drew illustrations for many works of his close friend and writer Aries kastner. However, with the Nazi Party coming to power, the social and political climate in Germany quickly turned right. Dissatisfied with the Nazi Party's perversion, Aries created some cartoons that satirized the Nazi Party, causing the envy of Nazi leader Yue Se Goebbels and others. Erisi's cartoons were once banned.

Later, because Berlin Pictorial needed a painter who could draw serial cartoons, Dr. Kurt Kusenberg, a famous writer, publisher and editor in charge of this matter, found erich Oszer, hoping that he could undertake this job. Finally, due to the active intervention of Berlin Pictorial, the Nazi authorities lifted the ban on erich, but attached a series of harsh censorship conditions, absolutely prohibiting his works from having any political content.

Nevertheless, Erisi has completed more than 200 sets of works from 1934 to 1937, which is the famous comic series Father and Son. In the era of fascism, this set of cartoons is like an oasis of human nature, which has become the best spiritual comfort for the German people in the face of cruel real life, thus winning the love of many people. Father and son are regarded as symbols of German humor, and their popularity soon crossed national boundaries.

1929, Belgian cartoonist Herge began to create the series "The Adventures of Tintin". From that time until Herge died in March 1983, The Adventures of Tintin had finished more than twenty volumes. 1986, as the last work that Herge failed to complete before his death, Tintin and Alpha Art was published, and the Tintin series ended. Critics generally believe that the success of Tintin series should be attributed to the author's full attention to the organic combination of the main line of the story and the realistic background, so Herge is also called "comic journalist". In any case, due to the combination of documentary style and humorous creative elements, Tintin series has become one of the most outstanding works in the history of comics, and Herge has therefore entered the ranks of comic masters.

While American animators are enjoying the "golden age", European animators are still clinging to the road of experiment and artistry. This can be seen from their application of synchronous sound technology. In America, characters' voices are mainly used to express their characteristics and personalities. In Europe, sound effects are used as "materials" for experiments. In fact, European animators have almost brought the coordination of pictures and sound effects in cartoons to the extreme. These beneficial attempts and explorations have greatly enriched the expression techniques of cartoons and promoted the development and progress of animation art, but animation is a cultural product that needs high investment after all, and it is difficult to make a masterpiece without the support of a complete industrial chain. With the large-scale entry of American cartoons, experimental cartoons in Europe gradually declined.

Perhaps no one would have thought that the outbreak of World War II gave the European animation industry a chance to "revive". Due to the influence of the Great War, the original world animation market was divided into several pieces, which objectively stimulated the independent development of animation industries in various countries. At the same time, because many countries' governments regard animation as an important means of war mobilization and propaganda, the situation of government investment to support the development of their own animation industry began to appear.

In wartime Britain, the newly established "Halas and Bachelet" animation company was commissioned by the British authorities to produce more than 70 animated short films to support the war. These short films were shown in cinemas and theaters all over Britain, which played a positive role in inspiring the fighting spirit of the British people. Similar "war animation" has also appeared in the United States, Japan and other countries. After the war, although animation is no longer needed as a means of war mobilization, it is still an important propaganda medium, so it has been widely valued by the government and non-governmental organizations. As a medium, comics are used in public relations, corporate advertising, cultural education and even political activities. This makes the animation industry in Europe find a new fulcrum.

Compared with western European countries, the animation industry in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is a bit backward, but it has its own style and system. Alexander baskin and The Branpag Sisters are outstanding representatives of the animation industry in the former Soviet Union. Among them, Sister Branpag finished "China People on Fire" on 1925, which is well known to domestic audiences. Although some western critics think that Russian cartoons are too rigid, on the whole, the animators of the former Soviet Union have excavated a lot of excellent materials from their rich cultural heritage and shot many excellent animation works.

Let's go back to America. The diversified styles at the end of the "golden age" were inherited by a new generation of American cartoonists, and many excellent comic works were produced.

102, the famous American cartoonist charles schulz began to publish his Peanut series. In the next 50 years, the Peanut series achieved unprecedented success, being translated into 2 1 language and published in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Snoopy, the protagonist of the cartoon, has become a super comic star, claiming to have "350 million loyal readers around the world". The appearance of Peanut marks the rise of a new force in American comic book industry. Similar success stories include jim davis and his Garfield series.

With the passage of time, the influence of "weismann Incident" gradually faded, and the stories of superheroes began to return to American life. 1956, in the fourth issue of The Show magazine, a new generation of "Flash" appeared, thus marking the return of superheroes. Since then, most of the heroes in the "Golden Age" have reappeared, and a new generation of superheroes have emerged constantly, including Spider-Man who appeared in 1962, Valentine who debuted in 1974, and the ghost knight who appeared in the early 1990s. However, the superheroes of the new era seem to never find their former "glory" again. After all, the "golden age" has become history, and people's desire for heroes has gradually faded.

During this period, another outstanding performance of the development of American comic industry was the consolidation of commercial profit model. In 1930s and 1940s, the American comic industry has initially formed a business operation mode of "comic author → publisher → distribution network (including specialty stores) → readers". After the war, this mode of operation has not changed much, but the scale of sales network and the coverage of readers have obviously expanded. And some ordinary bookstores that did not participate in comic book sales have also begun to set foot in comic book distribution.

Today, the annual output value of American comic industry is about $2.3 billion. Although it is still quite limited in absolute scale, the profit rate is considerable. Take Marvel Comics, the largest comic book publisher in the United States, as an example. In fiscal year 2000, the total sales of this publishing house was 23 1 100 million yuan, while the total net income was as high as 88.9 million dollars, accounting for 38.9% of the total sales. In addition to the publication of comic periodicals and books, the development of comic peripheral products and the redevelopment of intellectual property rights (image authorization) are also becoming new profit growth points of American comic industry.

In the postwar American animation industry, Disney's dominant position is still unparalleled. Throughout the 1950s, Disney Company successively launched fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and other fairy tales, which not only continued the reputation of Disney animation, but also achieved good box office performance. However, Disney is not intoxicated with success, but constantly explores and innovates. It has successively released Treasure Island, Miss and Rogue, 10 1 loyal dog with animal characters as the leading role, and Sword in the Stone adapted from historical legends. 1964, Disney released the film Happy People, which combines live performance and animation, and was nominated for 13 Oscar in one fell swoop. All this shows that Disney is still an animation enterprise with good innovation ability.

While succeeding in animation, Walter boldly led his company into the amusement park industry. 1955, Walter established the world's first theme park-Disneyland in Los Angeles on the west coast. Nowadays, Disneyland distributed all over the world has become an eternal paradise in the hearts of people who love animation all over the world.

While Disney and other established animation companies adhere to the traditional animation concept, small animation companies represented by UPA begin to try the production concept of "limited animation". They no longer pursue high-cost and large-scale gorgeous scenes similar to Disney cartoons, but adopt low-cost production strategies to make up for visual deficiencies through well-designed story lines and sound effects. Facts have proved that this avant-garde concept is valuable. Especially after the rise of television as a brand-new mass media, cartoons originally shown in cinemas have been strongly impacted as other types of movies. With the concept of "limited animation" put forward, animation began to gradually adapt to the broadcast requirements of TV programs, and then became the ace program for major TV stations to compete for ratings. With the expansion of TV animation market, almost all animation companies have turned their main energy to the production of TV animation, and the animation world in TV has become colorful.

By the end of the 20th century, with the rise of computer multimedia technology, the production and production of cartoons are facing a new revolution. Disney Company once again acted as the leader of new technology, and launched a series of large-scale animated blockbusters, including The Little Mermaid (1990) adapted from Andersen's fairy tales, Arabian Nights (1992) adapted from Arabic classics, and The Lion King (1994) adapted from Shakespeare's masterpieces. The launch of these animated blockbusters not only reflects Disney's ability to master new technologies, but also triggers the return of "theater tradition". People no longer watch TV at home, but buy tickets to watch cartoons at the cinema. This is a phenomenon that has never appeared since TV replaced movies as the most important animation media. On the other hand, the cutting-edge industry represented by "DreamWorks" is also rising gradually in the competition with Disney, constantly offering exquisite "animation feast" for animation lovers all over the world.