Art Clokey

Clokey was born in . He began making animations in 1953, beginning with Gumbasia: an experimental film created as a parody of Disney's Fantasia. From Gumbasia sprung Gumby: the green Plasticine model whom Clokey is most famous for creating.

Gumby animations began in the late 1950s, they continued right through to Clokey's death in 2010. The character became really famous in 1982, when Eddie Murphy voiced the character in a number of Saturday Night Live sketches. It was this rise in fame that gave way to Gumby: The Movie in 1995. It is possible that Gumby inspired the, slightly later, Morph animations by Peter Lord - a great many themes are brought through from Gumby into that character.

The significance of Clokey is his early experiments with clay animation. Though he definately wasn't the first to use clay to animate characters; - he was a pioneer who, without him, Claymation would not be the same today.

Pixilation

The use of live actors in a stop motion sequence.

A classic example of this is is in the Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, in which actors are animated using stop motion techniques and integrated with claymation clips, notably, the film becomes less jumpy as it progresses and the animation gets much smoother (probably due to the production team being so used to the setup)-

                                              The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
Pixilation is also used in some of the early types of film, when film cameras were not available, actors had to use pixilation to move around in the shot

Really Early Animation

Phenakistoscope

An early animation technique, first pioneered by Greek mathematician: Euclid, and later by Newton; the Phenakistoscope was only fully realised in 1829 by Joseph Plateau. It could only be used by one person at a time, the user would spin the disk near their eyes and facing a mirror, so that they could look through the slits and watch the animation in the reflection.

the Zoetrope

Often used as a child's toy, the Zoetrope was invented around 180 AD, it was developed in 1833 in Britain by William George Horner and commercially released in Britain and the US. It works by spinning a drum with slits and frames of an animated loop spaced inside it, when a viewer looks through one of the slits, they can see the animation. Some subway stations have animation frames painted on the walls, so that passengers on trains could watch the animation while traveling at high speed. The world's largest zoetrope was made by Sony, it features as the subject of animation Kaka

1960s and 70s Cartoons in Britain

Yellow Submarine

Released in 1968, it was the first major Hollywood movie to feature the limited animation. The first movie to experiment with limited animation was 'the Dover Boys:' a Merry Melodies cartoon, the style would only be used in short films or TV. Limited cell animation was used considerably throughout the film although it was mixed with other limited forms like in the Eleanor Rigby sequence, where animators coloured black and white photograph cut-outs and moved them frame by frame (the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's animations in Do Not Adjust Your Set and Monty Python). Notably the film greatly contrasts the 'Disney' style animated films which existed before. Although the movie was American made, it features all British characters, settings and was partly produced in Britain. George Dunning, who previously produced the Beatles Animated Series in America, directed the overall film (with many individual sequences directed by Bob Balser and Jack Stokes). Though the animation style was similar to that of Warner Bros. -the design of the characters and scenery give the film it's recognition, derived from Heinz Edlemann's concepts, giving it the opportunity to add surrealistic elements.
 

Jamie and the Magic Torch

The show ran from 1976 to 1979 and was written and narrated by Brian Trueman, who went on to write Dangermouse and Count Duckula in the 80s and 90s. The programme followed Jamie and dog: Wordsworth on their adventures in Cuckoo Land. The pair would often meet with psychedelic characters like Officer Gotcha who always rode a unicycle, ate truncheons and was always chasing Yoo Hoo Bird, in fact, many characters were on wheels and some never moved at all. All characters but Wordsworth didn't move their mouths when they spoke either, another method of limited animation.
 

Bod

Bod ran up to 1984, but started in 1975- although there are only thirteen episodes. It was very basic, one voiceover and no backgrounds- the characters themselves look like they have been drawn at microscopic level and scaled up. The one factor which makes it so memorable is that each character had their own score, and each of those are now retro classics. Bod is a boy (although he is bald and wears a dress).
 

Willo the Wisp

Willo the Wisp was created in 1981. Written and directed by Nick Spargo, it followed the tradition of having one voiceover for narration and the voices of all the characters. Willo the Wisp was particularly famous for it's voiceover: Kenneth Williams, popular with adults for being in the 'Carry On' films since the 50s. Willo the Wisp was a ghost charicature of Williams, notably the character of Willo the Wisp narrated the story (instead of an unseen narrator). The characters themselves were very popular with all ages; although the plot would be aimed at children, the jokes outlined in them could also be enjoyed by adults. Mavis Cruet the overweight old fairy and Arthur the cockney caterpillar were the shows main characters. The villain was called Evil Edna, a witch in the form of an old television who would zap people with her aerials. Other recurring characters include 'the Moog' a dim witted dog, a clever cat oddly named: 'Carwash,' and 'the Beast'- similar to 'Beauty and the Beast,' Edna made Prince Humbart the Handsome into a beast because he bumped into her and because he had a lisp.

The show was revived in 2005 with some small changes: Marvis was now slightly slimmer, Willo no longer looked like Kenneth Williams and, most importantly, Evil Edna was a modern flat-screen TV who moved arround on a tall, wheeled stand.

the Clangers

Soon for a remake, the Clangers was a series which ran from 1969 to 1974. It featured a planet on which Clangers lived in craters protected by dustbin lids, the Clangers were knitted and spoke only in 'alien' language (produced by reading the script into a Swanee whistle). The series was so well thought out that the Clangers themselves, communicate via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance because they live in the vacuum of space but they have been translated into whistle for human audiences. The fact that they communicated like this meant that the script the Clanger voiceovers read often included swearing (only audible as a whistle), the script read by the narrator didn't feature swearing... Because it was a children's programme.

In addition to these were shows like: Bagpuss, Trumpton (et al), Crystal Tips and Alistair, and Mary, Mungo and Migie. All of the above shows featured only one voice: the narrator, which was a cheap alternative to having each character individually voiced.

The 1960s and 70s in America

The Phantom Tollbooth

A much loved film by many. It is the only feature length film to be directed by Chuck Jones: animator of Tom and Jerry in the 60s and the Loony Tunes shorts. The Phantom Tollbooth aims to teach both adults and children that life is not. Though the main character: Milo is a child, The Phantom Tollbooth aims to teach both adults and children the valuable lesson that life is not boring. Taking Milo from the regular world and showing him the surreal animated landscape of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. There are many obvious links to Jones in this movie - notably in his drawing style; but also in the actors he used to voice the characters, such as June Foray: famous for lending her voice to many Loony Tunes cartoons from the beginning, right to the present day. The methods used to animate the movie were very similar to the techniques Jones had used previously working on Warner Bros. shorts; so with a longer, vaster film commissioned; backgrounds became more detailed and various shots were thought out creatively - meaning that although they had a slightly higher budget, they specifically chose to design it this way not to make it look rushed, but to make it look artistic. It was announced recently that the Phantom Tollbooth is being remade by Warner Bros. who commissioned the original in 1970.

Scooby Doo

the first episode of Scooby Doo was broadcast in 1968, it was produced by Hanna-Barbera and later became a Warner Bros. production. The series would follow the titular character: a Great Dane and the members of Mystery Inc. who solve mysteries involving monsters and ghosts which would be reveled as people in costume, using it as a disguise to scare people away while they partook in criminal activity.

The animation of the show used a method in which only specific parts of characters moved, to reduce production costs and save time.

All Scooby Doo title sequences up to 2013- note the changes made to characters in the way that they look and in which characters are featured in each series. Towards the 80s, the original Mystery Inc. are not featured, Scrappy Doo is introduced, Scooby and Shaggy's character roles are beefed up and costumes and hair change on all characters throughout the years.  A child character is also introduced while Fred and Velma are completely removed

Dastardly and Muttley

Wacky Races ran between 1968-1970, the show was based on stereotypical cartoon characters (sometimes characters from other Hanna Barbera productions) competing in races. The show would have regulars like Penelope Pitstop (who sprung a spinoff show in 1969) and Dastardly and Muttley: the villain and dog duo who would try to stop other racers from winning. The two gained their own spinoff: Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The original run lasted from 1969-70. It centred around the two characters in their biplane, trying to catch a carrier pigeon, the show would feature other characters in biplanes trying to stop them. Dastardly was based on actor: Terry Thomas (from Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying machines, which the show was based on). As the show was based mostly in the sky, limited background painting was needed, saving time.

Top Cat

Cell

Disney

Before 1937, animation was really used in short films and parts of live action movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is the first feature length movie, produced by Walt Disney Productions, it began development in 1934. Disney carried on with production with no support from family or anyone in the film industry, he mortgaged his home to help finance the film. Inspiration for the movie came from th ebook by the brothers Grimm (with multiple changes), though many scenes were based on German movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari and Nosferatu. Jeckyl and Hyde provided the basis of the Witch's transformation. Disney used live actors as subjects which the characters were based on to make them realistic in shape.
The animation was well recieved, Disney won 11 academy awards and one full scale one. The money earned from the film was used to fund the animation studio where it was made and within two years, production had started on Bambi, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, as well as the Disney shorts which featured Mickey Mouse.

Tom & Jerry

The Tom & Jerry cartoons started in 1940 , they were created by Hanna-Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. Over the 40s Tom's design became less detailed and the character became more humanoid in appearance (much like Garfield would). The original Tom was called Jasper, Tom and Jerry was a phrase the producers decided to use as the title and the name stuck. The cartoons went through multiple producers up until the 60s when Chuck Jones produces, many people dispute the differences made with  each different producer's run but I disagree -particularly with Jones' contemporary take on the duo, which adds a very 60s feel and is reminiscent of the Grinch (which Jones animated).

Warner Bros. Cartoons

Harman-Ising Productions created the original Loony Tunes, they also created Merry Melodies- similar to Disney's cartoons of the time, though not as successful. The character Bosko was popular among audiences.

Leon Schlesinger Productions developed the Loony Tunes animations and created some of it's best known characters, Daffy Duck, Elma Fudd, Bugs Bunny, etc. 

Warner Bros. bought out the company and continued to produce Loony Tunes. There were several companies under Warner Bros. label, Chuck Jones' company, which created the new Tom and Jerry cartoons and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Hanna-Barbera Productions, creators of Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, etc.

Early Animation

Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès (1861-1938) was a French illusionist and filmmaker, famous for films like 'a Trip to the Moon' and 'the Impossible Voyage' -he made films which often involved special effects and hand colouring between 1896 and 1913. One of his early films: 'the Haunted Castle' is considered to be the first horror film ever made and is the first known film to also have special effects, these were done by stoping the camera and replacing things in shot or moving characters to look like they have appeared or disappeared.

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay (1867/71-1934) was the first cartoon animator; inspired by his son's flip book, he used rice paper to draw each frame of animation onto. McCay spent most of his times as a comic book artist and political cartoonist, though his animation later consumed so much of his time that he was forced to leave his illustrative career.

'His Best Customer'

His first animation was called Little Nemo (1911) and featured McCay's comic book character come to life for the first time. By 1914 he had created How a Mosquito Operates and Gertie the Dinosaur, in the latter film McCay had perfected his animation technique to the extent that he could draw a detailed background for every frame and developed 'inbetweening'-where the first and final frames of a movement are drawn first with all the inbetween frames drawn after, to make the animation smoother and more efficient; unfortunately, McCay suffered badly financially as his early animations required alot of paper and he had little funding, he would not patent his animation techniques either- meaning that when John Randolph Bray posed as a journalist investigating animation, he stole his methods and tried to sue (unsuccessfully). McCay gave up his animating career to return to newspaper cartoons after eleven films.

Lotte Reiniger

Charlotte Reiniger (1899-1981) was a German Silhouette animator.

As an animator, she began with animating wooden rats for the Pied Piper of Hamelin. She later discovered that using silhouettes, she could animate limbs on paper cutouts of people. One of the first animated films (and the oldest surviving) was produced by Reiniger: The Adventures of Prince Achmed- although it took half a year to release, at its premiere in Paris, it was well received. It took three years to make with 24 frames per second. After this, she went on to direct the adaptation of Dr. Doolittle and His Animals. Along with her animations, she directed many live action films. Her third attempt at making an animated feature was abandoned due to copyright issues, but she continued making short films.

Walt Disney

Disney produced movies in the 1920s featuring the character: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (until he lost the rights to the character), he continued experimenting with similar animal characters and produced Steamboat Willie in 1928. It saw the third outing of Disney's trademark characters: Mickey and Minnie Mouse and was one of the first animations to feature synchronised sound. The use of sound in Disney's cartoons proved successful.