The Hollywood Foreign Press
Association introduced the Best Animated Feature category at this year’s Golden
Globe Awards, reflecting the increasing importance of animation production
companies to film and television. This year’s winner, Disney/Pixar’s “Cars,”
took home the inaugural award. Backstage at the award show, director John
Lasseter exclaimed that 2006 had been a banner year for 3D animation — and it
was, as all three of the Golden Globe nominees were 3D animation films.
The heightened focus of computer
animation has caused traditional animation to become virtually obsolete. Gone
are the days of organic hand-drawn animation. Even immediately preceding the
rise of 3D animation, computers and scanners almost completely replaced
individually-drawn cels. It’s
because of this that the minimalism that was once found in animation’s first
films has evolved into a complex and highly modern art form.
Only in recent years has animation
become recognized as a genre by Hollywood’s most major award
shows, which some regard as a victory for the animation production industry. The
advancement of 3D animation is considered a milestone when discussing the course
of animation’s evolution, but it is only the latest notch in the ever-growing
timeline of animation’s history.
The genre first came to life
twenty years before Mickey Mouse ever whistled his way into stardom in
“Steamboat Willie.” It was in 1908
when Émile Cohl began drawing “Fantasmagorie,” a film featuring a stick figure
encountering a series of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that turns into
a flower. Ten years later, Felix the Cat was merchandised and made popular. The
merchandizing of Felix dolls, watches and lunchboxes paved the way for later
merchandizing of animated characters.
But soon audiences began to become
apathetic toward plot-less animation. It seemed as though all animation
cartoon’s early sketches revolved around one character beating the other
mercilessly, and the other quickly recovering to return the favor. As animation was losing its audience,
big studios began picking up small cottage industries and set standards for
animation. Animators were required to meet quotas, drawing a required number of
cels per day. Still, the audience did not fully regain its interest in watching drawings come to life, causing a depression in animation production that
coincided with the economic depression in the United States during that time. It
wasn’t until 1937 when the first animated feature film, Disney’s “Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs”, hit box offices around the country and revitalized the
animation industry.
Techniques have evolved much over
the years, with computer 3D animation being the most commonly used today. Prior
to computer-generated graphics, animation production companies have used a
variety of techniques, ranging from cel animation, where the animator
photographs each cel using a rostrum camera, to stop motion, which includes
subgenres like cutout animation and claymation.
Anime, or Japanese animation, has
also grown increasingly popular over the last 15 years, attracting its own cult
following. Anime has emerged in both the TV and film industries, but has most
recently become popular in video game production — all of which are moving to 3D
and computer generated techniques.
The recognition animation has been
receiving by the HFPA as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts &
Sciences (which began including a Best Animated Feature Film category at the
2002 Oscars), is reflecting the coming of age of a longstanding genre. And while
the inclusion of the new category will keep animated films from ever receiving
the Best Motion Picture award, animators can still look forward to the limelight
they’ll receive at the Annies, the awards show dedicated entirely to animated
production. (insert link)
