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The films in Origins of American Animation provide an opportunity to examine a number of historic events in the early-twentieth century. Topics range from U.S. involvement in World War I and Prohibition to cultural phenomenon such as consumer culture and the relationship between vaudeville and the motion picture industry. 1) World War IWhen Germany and Great Britain entered into a war in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson announced that the United States would remain neutral. Investments with the English and strained diplomatic ties with the Germans, however, prompted the U.S. to declare war against Germany on April 2, 1917. Two propaganda films from the following year reflect the different roles of the U.S. in the European conflict. An advertisement for war saving stamps, W.S.S. Thriftettes (ca. 1918), features a funeral procession for the German Kaiser while imploring the audience to "Save and buy" war stamps and "Hurry the end of the war." Meanwhile, AWOL-All Wrong Old Laddiebuck (1918), points out that military actions don't officially end with the restoration of peace.
After a series of mishaps, including an appearance in a local court, the soldier returns to camp. The rest of his battalion, however, turn their backs on the deserter. The soldier is then imprisoned while everyone else celebrates their return home by jumping and leapfrogging on their way out. As the soldier angrily shakes the bar of his jail cell, the bars form the ominous letters, "AWOL."
2) Consumer CultureLate-nineteenth-century industrialization created a culture of high consumption and low self-esteem. Advertisers regularly marketed products on their ability to improve the consumer's social standing and cultural worth. Successful ad campaigns often increased a product's demand and kept the consumer prepared to buy into the next new trend. "Pop" Mormand satirized this consumer culture in his comic strip, "Keeping Up With the Joneses," a chronicle of Ma and Pa McGinnis's quest to become as refined as their neighbors. Harry Palmer later adapted the strip in a series of animated cartoons, represented in this collection with two related films.
The companion piece, Women's Styles (1915), focuses on the female fashion sense. Pa criticizes his daughter for wearing trendy, revealing, "hyphenated dresses." He turns to his cook and wife for support but discovers that both women have embraced "this reckless display of limb." The film ends when Pa buys extremely dark glasses to protect himself from seeing the disturbing fashion trend.
3) VaudevilleVaudeville entertained middle-class audiences throughout the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries by offering a variety of entertainers on a single stage. Actors, comedians, singers, dancers, musicians, athletes, and other performers presented a series of attractions on any given night. Motion pictures arrived in the vaudeville theatres in 1896 and quickly became the biggest draw on the bill. Two films in this collection demonstrate how new animation techniques could extend traditional vaudeville magic performances.
Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902), on the other hand, presents a similar premise within a larger sketch. A baker enters the scene and throws a lump of dough at a scurrying rodent. The dough sticks to a barrel and the baker becomes a sculptor through trick photography, using the dough to fluidly create a series of funny faces. When the baker completes the caricatured image of an Irishman, his colleagues start to laugh and then throw him headfirst into a barrel of flour.
4) ProhibitionThe temperance movement gained momentum as a religious and political cause in the late-nineteenth century. Efforts to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol within local communities ultimately led to a national ban in October 1919 with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The U.S. officially remained "dry" throughout the 1920s, but prohibition also increased crime with the continued sale and distribution of alcohol through bootleggers and speakeasies (illegal saloons). U.S. Treasury agents often confiscated alcohol and fined and imprisoned offenders but their actions accounted for little more than a drop in the bucket. The Eighteenth Amendment was finally repealed in 1933.
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Origins of American Animation offers a variety of ways to examine the early days of films and its relationship with popular culture. The films in this collection can be used to trace the development of animation during the early-twentieth century and to understand its roots in comic strips. Other animated motion pictures provide an opportunity to assess the role of consumerism in the United States and to analyze the depiction of ethnicity in popular culture.
Chronological Thinking Skills
Historic Comprehension: Comic Strips to CartoonsSome early animated characters
made the leap from the newspaper comics page to the movie screen.
Rudolph Dirks started chronicling the adventures of twins Hans and
Fritz in The Katzenjammer Kids for the New York Journal
in 1897. The series was first adapted for the stage in 1903 and spawned
a number of plays and cartoons throughout the years. Policy
and Pie (1918) features the pranks of the Katzenjammer Kids.
After their surrogate father, the Captain, buys a life insurance policy
and lists their mother as a beneficiary, Hans and Fritz put toads
in their mother's freshly baked pie to make the Captain think that
she's trying to poison him.
The same year that the Krazy Kat films reached the screen, Tom Powers's "Phable" series also transformed itself into an animated series. The difference, however, was that films such as The Phable of a Busted Romance, The Phable of the Phat Woman, and Never Again! The Story of a Speeder Cop didn't feature common main characters. One of the few recurring elements in the pieces were personifications of emotions such as "Joy" and "Gloom."
Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Animating the PrehistoricIn 1858, the first nearly-complete
dinosaur skeleton was excavated from a pit in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
The project became the basis for the founding of the Academy of Natural
Sciences in Philadelphia and sparked an interest in dinosaurs and
fossil hunting. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution appeared a year
later in his book, On the Origin of Species. The notion of
"survival of the fittest" and a prehistoric populace including
dinosaurs became familiar features of popular culture in subsequent
decades.
Other animators kept their dinosaurs in a prehistoric age but that didn't stop them from commenting upon contemporary culture. Willis O'Brien's The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, A Prehistoric Tragedy (1917) presented a tale of three stone-age suitors competing for the affections of Miss Araminta Rockface. The stone-age story contains plenty of modern references such as a character bringing a bouquet of cactus and Ms. Rockface requesting, "Won't you come into the drawing room? I should offer you tea, but tea has unfortunately not yet been discovered." Theophilus Ivoryhead ultimately
wins out over his rivals after it appears that he killed Wild Willie,
the Missing Link. An irate dinosaur, however, caused Willie's untimely
extinction after the dim ape mistook the lizard's tail for an edible
snake. The prehistoric humans fare slightly better with animals that
outwit, but never really hurt them.
Four years after Sarg's films, the famous Scopes trial tested the theory of evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom. Biology teacher John Thomas Scopes was ultimately convicted of teaching the theory of evolution in a Tennessee high school and fined $100. Both evolutionists and fundamentalists claimed the case as a victory for their side.
Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: Ethnicity in Animated FilmsMedia often reflects and influences the culture in which it appears. Political cartoons and animated films in particular, rely upon common stereotypes and caricatures to convey an idea in a limited amount of space. A number of films in this collection depict various classes and ethnicities in different lights. Please note that when viewing these works, it is important to keep in mind the cultural climate in which these films first appeared.
The collection's only representation of African Americans occurs in Bobby Bump Starts a Lodge (1916). Bobby offers to initiate his black friend into a club but sets him up for a goat to hit him from behind. The boy turns around to stop what he thinks will be a paddle and butts heads with the goat--only to knock the goat unconscious. Bobby chases his friend into the woods until they run into a bear. The black child saves Bobby after he promises to let him into the lodge. The boys plan to be initiated into their lodge by submitting to being hit by the goat. When the goat approaches them, however, both children jump out of the way.
Research Capabilities:
Tony Sarg
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The films in Origins of American Animation allow an opportunity to examine a variety of elements that go into the creative process of developing and interpreting animated motion pictures. This collection can provide the basis for discussions on the visual personification of emotions and imagination and can serve as a guide for developing and illustrating original comic strips and animated films. Personification:
Joy and Gloom
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It is perhaps due to the time, spacial, and stylistic constraints of comic strips and animation, that such pieces rely heavily upon visual symbolism. Two films by Raoul Barre (based on Tom Peters' "Phable" comic strip) use personification to depict the struggle between two emotions, joy and gloom, furthering the plots of the films. The Phable of the Phat Woman (1916) features a woman trying to lose weight. The smiling female figures of joy engage in a series of slapstick moments with the hunched-over, bearded male figures of gloom at each step of the woman's efforts (exercising, dieting, etc.). On two occasions, the gloom figures actually run into the joy figures with a car. This motif continues in Never Again! The Story of a Speeder Cop (1916), the tale of a police officer trying to stop speeders along a road. As cars rush by the bewildered cop, joy and gloom attack each other in a car, a hot-air balloon, and an airplane. When the officer finally quits the force because he is worn out by the experience, three figures of gloom follow him into the precinct and pile on top of one another as he turns in his badge. Joy and gloom are also represented in slightly different incarnations throughout AWOL-All Wrong Old Laddiebuck (1918). When a soldier refuses to stay on his base, "Miss AWOL" arrives for him in a car with the word, "Joy," written on its door. The couple travels across the countryside and, after a series of mishaps, they're arrested and taken to Judge Gloom's court. The offense, the police officer reports, is "Joy riding." |
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Cartoons have the ability to entertain and influence a young audience. Two films in this collection from Wallace Carlson's "Dud" series attempt to use humor and gentle scares to demonstrate how children should behave.
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In, He Resolves Not to Smoke (1915), Dud becomes fascinated with smoking and blowing smoke rings and he steals a man's pipe to try this himself. The smoke from the pipe transforms into a ghost that carries him into the sky and leaves him on the moon. Dud falls off the moon and wakes up on the floor of his room but his dream is frightful enough to make him declare, "Jimminy crickets . . . but that uz an awful one! I ain't never goin' to smoke. I ain't." |
Dud Leaves Home (1919) features imaginary ghosts in a different setting. The young boy runs away from home after his mother punishes him for breaking her bank to buy his girlfriend an ice cream. Dud reconsiders his plans, however, when ghosts visit him at night. He becomes so scared that he runs home and winds up receiving a spanking from his mother.
Representation in Animation: Fantasy and Feelings
Animated films are an ideal medium for representing the farthest reaches of the imagination. An illustrator can present whatever he or she sees in the mind's eye without relying on special effects or trick photography. This collection features a number of characters that primarily dwell in the realms of fantasy.
| Browse the Subject Index of this collection to examine familiar themes such as courage, dreams, love, and success.Talking animals in Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse and Bobby Bump Starts a Lodge, romancing creatures such as the half-human, half-horse characters of The Centaurs, and the stone-age suitors in The Dinosaur and the Missing Link. . . . all sprang to life from an illustrator's pen. Even when these films don't feature humans, however, they attempt to speak about the human condition. |
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Creating Comic Strips and Flip Books
Select an animated film in this collection that originated on the comics page (for example, the "Katzenjammer," "Phable," and "Keeping Up With the Joneses" series). Break down the plot of the cartoon and recreate it in a five-to-six panel comic strip, making sure that it stays true to the original premise. (This is similar to "reverse engineering" a machine by taking it apart to see how it works.)
Create a five-to-six-panel comic strip, featuring original characters and a unique storyline. Select one major action or scene from this comic strip to try some original animation in a flip book. A flip book can be a book of sketch pages or a stack of paper on which a single image is slightly altered to convey a sense of motion when presented, or "flipped," in order. Keep the following questions in mind throughout this project.
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