For this project I decided to choose American animation, my group consisted of myself, Kori and Tiernan. It was obvious from the start that all of us were more interested in the Disney side of American animation. Each of us wanted to contribute as much as possible, so we began research as soon as we could.
I began doing as much research as I could. I started by looking into the history of music in Disney and found that ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928) was the first animation to have sound (1) I was intrigued to learn this as I didn’t know that Disney made such a historic move with sound in film, it was recorded with a 17-piece orchestra. Seeing the difference in sound production between now and then is bizarre to me, Disney still records their music live using instruments but with modern-day technology, these can be stitched together using computers. I wanted to know when and why Disney had such a drastic change in music. It wasn’t until after Walt died that these musicals were made by Howard Ashman who took over in some sorts, Ashman, unlike Disney, wanted the focus to be on the character when it came to the music, using Broadway as inspiration (1) Many mixed reviews said that the music became sloppy and unprofessional but I believe that Disney began focusing its music towards kids, upbeat and friendly, and taking out the deep parts allowed movies to feel more bright and child-friendly.
I also researched racism in Disney because I know without any research and from just watching old films that Disney has a controversial past. I found many examples of racism that really shocked me. I think what stood out to me the most was ‘Dumbo’ (1941) where the elephant encounters a group of crows throughout the film. One of the crows is named ‘Jim Crow’, a reference to southern segregation laws, it’s voiced by a white actor which is controversial due to the use of ‘jive talk’. Throughout the film, the song ‘Song of the Roustabouts’ includes racist lyrics sung by faceless black workers with lyrics such as ‘pull that rope you hairy ape’ and ‘we slave until we’re almost dead’.(2) I began looking back on these films with disgust, shocked that I watched them as a child and didn’t realise how bad they were.
Upon discussing with the group we decided to focus on the evolution of Disney through its eras. I researched the Silver era and the Modern era but I found that most of the research I had done wouldn’t fit in so I started again.
The silver era began post-WWII(1950-1959), Walt wanted to bring light back into homes post-war, which marks Disney’s return to making big-budget full-length films (3). When Cinderella was released, the postwar generation, many of them now with families of their own, found the same kind of euphoric entertainment they had found in snow white(4). I looked into what set this era apart from others and how animation was improved, I found that Sleeping Beauty (1959) was the first film to be presented in 70mm Technirama (5), The Technirama process used a film frame area twice as large as CinemaScope, this gave the former a sharper image with a less photographic grain(6). The film was intended to change how future movies were made, unfortunately, it did not do as well as planned. This meant Disney decided to simplify their animation techniques for television use. (5) Although the boundaries were pushed, racism slipped through the cracks. I figured that I would find racism embedded in this era and sure enough ‘The Lady and the Tramp’ (1955) has twin Siamese cats named Si and Am, the cats portray a racist stereotype of east asian people and mock their accents. (2)
The 2009 release of ‘The Princess and the Frog’ kicked off the start of the modern era, this film praises itself on Tiana being their first black-female protagonist film, yet the princess is only onscreen for a short 40 minutes and as a black woman for only 17 minutes (7), this really surprised me, it caused me to look back on myself and why I didn’t notice this when I watched the film, had this form of racism been engrained in my brain without me even knowing? When I think of modern-day Disney I think of 3D animated films like Frozen, Encanto, Tangled and Moana. This is the era that I grew up watching, the era that inspired me to pursue my passion for animation. The decision to move from 2D to 3D animation in Disney was due to lower labour costs, although there is more technology involved in 3D it is still cheaper than 2D animation. (8) I noticed that even though 3D films visually are beautiful, their storylines are beginning to lack, it seems that Disney is emphasising quantity over quality. Disney hired Lin Manuel Miranda to orchestrate and write the music in some recent films. He wrote the music for ‘Encanto’ and ‘Moana’ which are arguably some of the best musicals Disney has released within this era. Although he is the new and upcoming star when it comes to producing music for films it is hard to beat the 90s and early 2000s classic soundtracks. I personally find his work to have the best musicals, Miranda includes new cultures into Disney’s films which allows him to pull in wider audiences and educate people on cultures through his work. (9)
I really enjoyed working on this project and found my group to be really interactive and the workload was divided evenly, when it came to making the poster we split up the work very evenly. All in all, this has been my favourite group project as of yet because it let me dive deep into a topic that my love for animation came from and I got to learn so much more and get more educated on certain topics along the way.
REFERENCES
- Hubpages (2022)How Disney Film Music Has Evolved Over the Decades: From Snow White to Frozen. Available from:https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/How-Disney-Film-Music-Has-Evolved-Over-the-Decades-From-Snow-White-to-Frozen [acessed 14 April 2023]
2. Insider(2020) 17 moments in Disney movies that haven’t aged well. Available from:https://www.insider.com/moments-themes-in-disney-movies-that-havent-aged-well-problematic#the-crows-from-dumbo-reference-jim-crow-laws-and-portray-anti-black-stereotypes-3 [acessed 14 April 2023]
3. Dizavenue. (2015) The 7 Eras of Disney Filmmaking. Available from:https://www.dizavenue.com/2015/08/the-7-eras-of-disney-filmmaking.html#:~:text=Also%20known%20as%20the%20%E2%80%9CRestoration,common%20day%20settings%20look%20magical.[acessed 29 April 2023]
4. Thomas, B (1992) The PostWar Films, in: Lefkon, W. Disney’s Art of Animation. New York: Hyperion, pp.100
5. Holliss, Richard and Sibley, B (1988) Filmography, in: Darbyshire, L, The Disney Studio Story. Devon: Octopus Books Limited, pp.162-184
6. Wikipedia. (2023) Technirama. Available From:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technirama#:~:text=Technirama%20is%20a%20screen%20process,disuse%20in%20the%20mid%2D1960s. [acessed 29 April 2023]
7. Los Angeles Review of Books. (2021) Disneys Disembodied Black Characters. Available from:https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/disneys-disembodied-black-characters/ [acessed 14 April 2023]
8. Movie Webb. (2022) Explained: Why Disney Stopped Making 2D Animated Movies. Available from:https://movieweb.com/disney-2d-animation-movies-stop-why/#:~:text=Disney’s%20decision%20to%20move%20exclusively,effectively%20streamlining%20the%20animation%20process. [acessed 14 April 2023]
9. Mr Lucas (2022) Disney’s Encanto | A Journey Through Music (Featurette). Available at:https://youtu.be/1AF3r5NVLmU [acessed 4 May 2023]
REFERENCES FOR POSTER
Essence. (2018) Anika Noni Rose Admits She Was ‘Surprised’ Disney Lightened Princess Tiana’s Skin Color. Available from: https://www.essence.com/celebrity/anika-noni-rose-confronts-disney-for-lightening-princess-tianas-skin/ [acessed 14 April 2023]
The Science Behind Pixar. (2023). Rendering. Available From:https://sciencebehindpixar.org/pipeline/rendering#:~:text=They%20said%20it%20takes%20at,to%20render%20that%20many%20frames. [acessed 29 April 2023]
Vulture. (2022) A Crash Course In The History of Animation. Available from:https://www.vulture.com/article/disney-animation-history-crash-course.html#:~:text=Snow%20White%20and%20the%20Seven,both%20Disney%20and%20its%20rivals [acessed 29 April 2023]
IMAGE REFERENCE
creative arts year (2022) Frozen. available from: https://www.creativeartseast.co.uk/post/events/frozen [accessed 2 May 2023]
Slant (2009) Review: The princess and the frog. available from: https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-princess-and-the-frog/ [accessed 2 May 2023]
TV Guide (2012) Sleeping Beuty. available from: https://www.tvguide.com/movies/sleeping-beauty/2000267848/ [accessed 2 May 2023]
rotoscopers (2015) How did ‘cinderella’ save Walt disney animation?. Available from:https://www.rotoscopers.com/2015/03/18/how-did-cinderella-save-walt-disney-animation/ [Acessed 2 May 2023]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-DxJ5B78xWk4kYWAfQwZSGps-uQ2zdo-iVKeo8AE6H8/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xtt3W0V_ioMxOZHAvkSui4DLQeSq7n5S-SSz4QjNtIk/edit?usp=sharing