Animation Archives - Ben Brandt

Archives For Animation

Melody Time

December 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

As we near the end of Disney’s package films, we come to Melody Time, a collection of shorts set to popular music in the same vein as Make Mine Music. In my opinion, this collection is better than Make Mine Music; the shorts tell better stories, and frankly aren’t as boring. We meet famous folk characters such as Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill. Touching tales of bravery and love are found in “Little Toot” and “Once Upon a Wintertime.” And creative avant-garde imagination is found in “Trees” and “Bumble Boogie.”

Fun and Fancy Free

December 10, 2012 — Leave a comment

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

Now that the war in Europe was over, America needed relief from the many years of war. In comes Disney with Fun and Fancy Free, a film consisting of two cartoons joined together by narration from Jiminy Cricket who encourages the audience to enjoy life and live it fun and fancy free.

What’s interesting is that, despite Jiminy’s continual proclamation of a “hakuna matata” life, I didn’t find the two cartoons to join in with the same proclamation.

In Animation Bill Roberts, Clarence Nash, Dinah Shore, Disney Animation, Edgar Bergen, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney, Luana Patten, Walt Disney, William Morgan

Make Mine Music

November 29, 2012 — 1 Comment

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

While not every Disney film I’ve watched so far has engaged me, Make Mine Music unfortunately sits at the bottom of my list. It was boring and seemed to lack any coherent theme; I’m not surprised it was hard for me to track down a copy to watch. As Stuart Nicholson puts it quite succinctly:

…it is remembered today not so much for what it was, but for what it was not—another Fantasia. [1]

Disney tried to emulate the success of Fantasia, but fell far short. The failure of the film is understandable given the state of the studio at the time:

During the Second World War, much of Walt Disney’s staff was drafted into the army, and those that remained were called upon by the U.S. government to make training and propaganda films. As a result, the studio was littered with unfinished story ideas. In order to keep the feature film division alive during this difficult time, the studio released six package films including this one. [2]

The Three Caballeros

November 14, 2012 — 2 Comments

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

The second installment in Disney’s “Good Neighbor Policy” films, The Three Caballeros in many ways picks up right where Saludos Amigos left off. Not plot-wise, as both films were from

…the era of the “package” feature—films consisting primarily of miscellaneous shorts and sequences strung together on a loose and often musical theme. [1]

But the themes are similar. Once again, we have a variety of shorts, introducing Americans to their neighbors down south, exploring different countries and cultures through the eyes of Donald and his friends, José Carioca and Panchito Pistoles. And once again, it is unclear whether the shorts are intentionally propagandistic and demeaning to the countries they are trying to represent.

In Animation Aurora Miranda, Clarence Nash, Disney Animation, Frank Graham, Norman Ferguson, Pinto Colvig, Sterling Holloway

Saludos Amigos

September 28, 2012 — 2 Comments

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

Disney is in tough times. It’s 1942, and a war is raging in Europe, closing the international market to movies such as Bambi and Fantasia, movies in dire need of money to offset their budgets. But since the world is at war, America is in need of a better outlook on the world and in comes federal money to send Walt Disney to South America with a group of artists to do a good relations press tour. Out of this trip comes two films: Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, the first of which I will discuss here.

Saludos Amigos is partly a collection of short cartoons, and partly a documentary. Introducing each of the four short cartoons is footage of the people and sights of each nation visited. It begins with a short entitled “Lake Titicaca,” featuring Donald Duck exploring Peru as an American tourist. We then travel to Chile and watch “Pedro,” a cartoon about a little mail plane on his first flight. Then the team travels to Argentina where we meet the gaucho, prompting “El Gaucho Goofy,” where Goofy as an American cowboy learns how similar he is to the Argentinian rancher. Finally, we reach Brasil and see “Aquarela do Brasil”, and Donald meets the new character José Carioca and learns the samba.
Continue Reading…

Bambi

July 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

Bambi is a beautiful film, full of awe-inspiring nature, loveable characters, and a touching story. This didn’t come without a lot of work, however. Though originally slated to come after Snow White,

…and their first to be based on a specific, recent work…The artists also discovered that it was challenging to animate deer realistically, and at the same time keep the characters slightly exaggerated and “cartoony”. These difficulties resulted in Disney putting production on hold while the studio worked on several other projects. In 1938, Disney assigned Perce Pearce and Carl Fallberg to work on the film’s storyboards, but attention was soon drawn away as the studio began working on Fantasia (1940). [1]

Madagascar 3

June 8, 2012 — Leave a comment

Today is an exciting day for me: Madagascar 3 is in theaters today and that means for the first time my name is in the credits of a major motion picture!

So I’m going to tell you all to go see it this weekend! Although I am pretty biased, I will say the movie is a lot of fun and is my favorite of the three films. I think everyone involved did a great job at making this the best of the series.

And as a behind-the-scenes scoop, I can assure you that this film wasn’t just thrown together to make a quick buck. Hundreds of artists poured tons of effort into each scene, making it a very engaging and beautiful film. So check it out and let me know what you think!

In Animation DreamWorks Animation

Cannot wait to see this movie! It looks amazing! It’s like Monsters Inc for video games, and I love that they throw in a bunch of classic characters.

Are you excited?

Posted on June 7, 2012 In Animation Disney Animation

Dumbo

July 14, 2011 — 2 Comments

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

Dumbo was a delightful film, full of color, excitement, lovable characters, and a memorable soundtrack (as usual for Disney!) While this film certainly followed in the tradition of the films before, it also had its differences in many respects. Disney was certainly really starting to churn out these films in the early 1940s, this one being just a year after Fantasia. Quite a pace for such ambitious films!

Dumbo is different right from the opening scene, with a narrator and a choir telling the events, which carries on throughout the movie. The story is in some ways carried by these voices, helping the audience dive right into each new scene, which sometimes lack any other transition. The film also cleverly uses music as sound effects in areas, continuing these aural experiments.

Fantasia

July 2, 2011 — 2 Comments

(This is part of my journey through Disney Animation. For more thoughts on other films, check out my series!)

Beautiful images paired with beautiful music. That’s what you’ll find when you watch Disney’s third feature animation offering, Fantasia. This film is definitely a visual and auditory experiment, pushing the boundaries of the medium. It came after decades of audiences interacting with cinema, and they were capable of experiencing this new use of the medium. It pulled away from the traditional, narrative use of film and animation, and took people on an auditory adventure, aiding their imaginations in grasping the story of the music.

What I find most interesting with the film, is how it fit within the culture. It is a strange mix of “high” and “low” culture, and, as such, it fits in both, but not quite either of them, falling oddly in the middle. At this point in our history, cinema had almost fully replaced every other form of art in the country, dominating the imaginations of audiences all over the country. Then Disney comes in and brings audiences back to the culture of yesteryear.