It's spring, a favorite theme for early animators.
Once color came to motion pictures, early animation artists loved playing with the design potential presented by spring: bright flowers, blue skies, butterflies, and cute, young animals.
The ComiColor Cartoon below was produced by Ub Iwerks Studio in 1935. Iwerks was Walt Disney's collaborator in the formative years of Disney's studio (Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy). The ComiColor cartoons take advantage of Cinecolor, the two color film process detailed in February's MuskegonOnline.NET. Watching them, it's hard to believe this is a two color process.
You might think characters in this short were based on designs from Disney's Fantasia, but Summertime was released a full five years before. Creatures from myth and legend have always been popular with cartoonists. Here, a young pan character ushers in spring, despite the objections of Jack Frost.
(Video at MuskegonOnline.NET)
Below we revisit Molly Moo-Cow from Van Beauren Studios. As discussed in last month's MuskegonOnline.NET, two Disney veterans were brought in to the Van Beauren Studio in 1934 to raise the style and quality of the company's cartoons. The result was the handsome Rainbow Parade series.
(Video at MuskegonOnline.NET)
Those interested in classic cartoons can visit the The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum, library and digital archive dedicated to serving the worldwide animation community. A project of ASIFA-Hollywood, the archive receives support from The Walter Lantz Foundation. Go to http://www.animationarchive.org and prepare to be entertained.
These Works are in Public Domain and not Derivative as specified by U.S. copyright law (title 17 of the U.S. Code).
Editor and Publisher Gary Scott Beatty has been working in printing and publishing for over 35 years, including editing Muskegon's On the Shore magazine and typesetting Muskegon Magazine. In 2008 he won a Xeric Foundation Grant to publish Jazz: Cool Birth, a murder mystery in a 1957 jazz club with illustrations inspired by '50s album cover design. This and his other Aazurn Publishing books can be purchased through Amazon.com. Worldwide, he edits and publishes Indie Comics Magazine, 64 pages of the best story and art from today's independent comic book creators.
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