History of Animation

Write a research paper that examines one animator, studio or animation in depth.

The sources you choose can be talking specifically about your topic, or they can be talking more broadly about general ideas related to your topic. For example, if your topic was the films of Yuri Norstein, good sources would be specific essays talking about his film Tale of Tales, as well as a book talking more generally about animation made in the USSR. You may use more than three sources if you like.

Your paper should address some or all of these angles

biographical information on an animator or artist

information about the social, political, cultural and artistic climate in which the work was made
what influenced the work you are writing about, and what it in turn influenced

an analysis of form and content for films that best illustrate what is unique about your topic
a discussion of what this topic can illuminate about the history and art of animation

Ideas
Early animation devices: zoetropes, phenakistascopes, etc

Edward Muybridge, Etiene-Jules Marey

Animation pioneers: Emile Reynaud, Emile Cohl, J. Stuart Blackton, George Melies

Early animation masters: Windsor McCayor Ladislaw Starewicz

Abstract and avant-garde films from Europe, 1920’s-30’s

Oskar Fischinger

Lotte Reininger and Prince Achmed

The method for drawn animation: Raoul Barre, John Bray, Earl Hurd

Early American studio animation: Otto Messmer, the Fleischer Bros.

Animation technology: Rotoscoping, the multi-plane, color film

Walt Disney studio, the 1920’s: Oswald, Mickey, Ub Iwerks

Walt Disney studio, the 1930’s: Snow White, etc.

Warner Bros. Studio: Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones

Banned cartoons of the 30’s and 40’s

Animation in Eastern Europe, 1950’s-1980’s: Yuri Norstein, Jiri Trnka, Priit Parn, Zagreb school

Norman McLaren and the National Film Board of Canada

The UPA studio

John & Faith Hubley

Hanna-Barbera studio

Animation on television, 1950’s-60’s

Halas and Batchelor studio

The Yellow Submarine

Bruno Bozzetto and Allegro Non Troppo

Ralph Bakshi

Rene Laloux and Fantastic Planet

Avant-garde animation of the 50’s-70’s: Robert Breer, Stan VanDerBeek, Len Lye, John Whitney

Fine-art animation: William Kentridge

Stop motion: George Pal, Jan Svankmajer, Ardman studios, Nick Park, Bros. Quay, Henry Selick

Stop motion special effects: Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen

Richard Williams: Roger Rabbit

Tim Burton

Osamu Tezuka: Astroboy

Hayao Miyazaki: Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro

Katsuhiro Otomo: Akira

TV animation of the 1990’s: Klasky-Csupo studio, John Kricfalusi, Matt Groening, Stone & Parker

TRON

Pixar

Motion capture

Suggested books for your research

Understanding Animation by Paul Wells. Routledge, 1998.
Animating Film Theory by Karen Beckman. Duke, 2014.
Hollywood Flatlands by Esther Leslie. Verso, 2004
The Anime Machine, Thomas Lamarre, U of Minnesota Press, 2009
Cartoons: 100 Years of Cinema Animation by Giannalberto Bendazzi. Indiana University Press, 1996.
Experimental Animation: Origins of a New Art by Robert Russett and Cecile Starr. Da Capo Press, 1976.
Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin. Plume Books, 1987
Disney Animation: the Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Hyperion, 1995.
Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics by Maureen Furniss. Indiana University Press, 1998
Before Mickey by Donald Crafton. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Masters of Animation by John Grant. Watson-Guptill, 2001.
A Reader in Animation by Jayne Pilling. Indiana University Press, 1998.
Animation and America by Paul Wells. Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Serious Business: The Art and Commerce of Animation in America by Stefan Kanfer. DeCapo Press, 2000.
A Reader in Animation Studies by Jane Pilling. Indiana University Press, 1999.
Re-Imagining Animation by Paul Wells. Ava Publishing, 2008.
When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Studio UPA by Adam Abraham. Wesleyan, 2012