Influential Animators

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc was an American animation studio that dominated animated TV in America for nearly four decades from the mid-to-late 20^th century.

Although it sounds like it was founded by a woman, it was actually two men: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

Hanna and Barbera were former MGM animation directors and formed Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1957.

They are the creators of Tom and Jerry and also produced characters such as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs.

During their dominated of American television they earned 8 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

When smaller TV budgets appeared the quality of their animations began to decline. 

When the duo was at MGM they were being funded $35,000 for 7 minutes of Tom and Jerry. But most of the TV networks were only paying $3,000 for 5 minutes of cartoon. At lower than a tenth of the budget the quality of the animations was very poor and adopted a limited animation style was brought forward with simple frame doubling and also the usage of simplified backgrounds and recycled animate sequences throughout episodes.

Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966) was an American business magnate, animator, cartoonist, producer, director, screenwriter, entrepreneur and voice actor and the founder of The Walt Disney Company.

Before Walt Disney became famous for making family friendly movies, he made adverts for a living.

Even thought it wasn’t his first animation, Walt Disney is probably most famous for his 1928 animation Steamboat Willie. It was a black and white film and was the first animation featuring Mickey Mouse. It was the first successful animated film and one of the first films to have synchronized sound.

After Steamboat Willie, Disney produced Silly Symphonies, they were a series of animated short subjects and they were produced by Walt Disney Productions. In total there were 75 Silly Symphonies and they were made between 1929 – 1939.

The Old Mill (1937) was a part of the Silly Symphonies. The Old Mill won the 1937 Academy Award for Best Short Subjects: Cartoons. This animation was first of its kind to use a Multiplane Camera. This was a special camera that was used to create depth into a scene, with was meant to give it the illusion that it was 3D. To create this, multiple players drawn on sheets of glass and it was filmed from the top so it was looking down on the sheets of glass.

In 1937 color was being added to film. One of Disney’s first colored animations was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was the first full length animated feature film to be released in color. In addition to it being the first color animated film it was also the first film to use Rotoscoping; this is the process of capturing the motion. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs they used an actress dressed in a costume, filmed her doing the movement Snow White was going to do and then traced over the film in which she was moving so it could be animated. So this is why Snow White’s movements are a lot more fluid than the animals movements in the film.

The 1940’s film Fantasia, was another one of Walt Disney’s. this film was the first film to have stereophonic sound also known as Fantasound. Because the music in this film is very dramatic and orchestral Disney wanted to make it sound like a real orchestra was playing in the movie theatre. 

Even though lots of films had been made since the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia using the drawing technique. 2009 was the last time it was ever used for the film The Princess and the Frog. Since then mainly CGI has been used ever since the release of Toy Story in 1995.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. is an American film producer, television and also music. It was founded in 1923 by four brothers: Albert, Harry, Sam and Jack Warner.

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an in-house dvision of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American Animation. It is one of the most famous animation studios in American media history and it was responsible for the creation of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Some of the characters created include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner.

It was founded in 1933 by American film producer, Leon Schlesinger Studios which later became Warner Bros. Cartoons during the Golden Age of American Animation, and was an independent company which produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animations for release by Warner Bros. Pictures. In 1944 Leon Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros. who carried on operating it as Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. until 1963.