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Collection Connections


 Origins of American Animation
U.S. HistoryCritical ThinkingArts & Humanities

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Go directly to the collection, Origins of American Animation, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

The films in Origins of American Animation allow an opportunity to examine a variety of elements that go into the creative process of developing and interpreting animated motion pictures. This collection can provide the basis for discussions on the visual personification of emotions and imagination and can serve as a guide for developing and illustrating original comic strips and animated films.

Personification: Joy and Gloom

It is perhaps due to the time, spacial, and stylistic constraints of comic strips and animation, that such pieces rely heavily upon visual symbolism. Two films by Raoul Barre (based on Tom Peters' "Phable" comic strip) use personification to depict the struggle between two emotions, joy and gloom, furthering the plots of the films. The Phable of the Phat Woman (1916) features a woman trying to lose weight. The smiling female figures of joy engage in a series of slapstick moments with the hunched-over, bearded male figures of gloom at each step of the woman's efforts (exercising, dieting, etc.). On two occasions, the gloom figures actually run into the joy figures with a car.

This motif continues in Never Again! The Story of a Speeder Cop (1916), the tale of a police officer trying to stop speeders along a road. As cars rush by the bewildered cop, joy and gloom attack each other in a car, a hot-air balloon, and an airplane. When the officer finally quits the force because he is worn out by the experience, three figures of gloom follow him into the precinct and pile on top of one another as he turns in his badge.

Joy and gloom are also represented in slightly different incarnations throughout AWOL-All Wrong Old Laddiebuck (1918). When a soldier refuses to stay on his base, "Miss AWOL" arrives for him in a car with the word, "Joy," written on its door. The couple travels across the countryside and, after a series of mishaps, they're arrested and taken to Judge Gloom's court. The offense, the police officer reports, is "Joy riding."

Line drawing of woman in skirt hitting man over the head with stick.
A joyful female figure hits gloom over the head in The Phable of the Phat Woman (1916).

Line drawing of man in car firing gun at a hot-air baloon that says "JOY" on it.
A plane of Gloom shoots down a Joy balloon in Never Again! The Story of a Speeder Cop (1916).

 
  • What do you think is the purpose of illustrating a physical conflict between joy and gloom?
  • Why do you think that these emotions are appropriate for each of these situations?
  • Why do you think that these emotions often appear driving automobiles and running into things?
  • Can you think of any other emotions that could be personified in these animated films?
  • How are these types of emotions represented in other visual media (painting, photographs, live-action film)?
  • How do these representations compare with animated cartoons?
  • Are there personifications of emotion in an contemporary cartoons?

Morality Tales

Cartoons have the ability to entertain and influence a young audience. Two films in this collection from Wallace Carlson's "Dud" series attempt to use humor and gentle scares to demonstrate how children should behave.

Boy smoking cigaretter with dog.
Dud smokes a pipe in He Resolves Not to Smoke.

In, He Resolves Not to Smoke (1915), Dud becomes fascinated with smoking and blowing smoke rings and he steals a man's pipe to try this himself. The smoke from the pipe transforms into a ghost that carries him into the sky and leaves him on the moon. Dud falls off the moon and wakes up on the floor of his room but his dream is frightful enough to make him declare, "Jimminy crickets . . . but that uz an awful one! I ain't never goin' to smoke. I ain't."

Dud Leaves Home (1919) features imaginary ghosts in a different setting. The young boy runs away from home after his mother punishes him for breaking her bank to buy his girlfriend an ice cream. Dud reconsiders his plans, however, when ghosts visit him at night. He becomes so scared that he runs home and winds up receiving a spanking from his mother.

  • Why do you think that Dud is scared into making a decision in both films?
  • Is Dud in any real danger in either film?
  • How do you think that children might respond to these stories? Do you think that they might think about the consequences of smoking or stealing any differently after seeing these films?
  • Do you think that there are any similarities between the ghosts of the "Dud" series and "Joy" and "Gloom" in Raoul Barre's "Phables"?
  • What do you think is the role of each non-human entity in these films?
  • How do these films compare to the 1904 "Buster Brown Series" (from the American Memory collection, Inventing Entertainment) about a mischievous boy and his dog?
  • Use the characters of Dud and his ghosts to write a new cautionary tale for children.

Representation in Animation: Fantasy and Feelings

Animated films are an ideal medium for representing the farthest reaches of the imagination. An illustrator can present whatever he or she sees in the mind's eye without relying on special effects or trick photography. This collection features a number of characters that primarily dwell in the realms of fantasy.

Browse the Subject Index of this collection to examine familiar themes such as courage, dreams, love, and success.Talking animals in Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse and Bobby Bump Starts a Lodge, romancing creatures such as the half-human, half-horse characters of The Centaurs, and the stone-age suitors in The Dinosaur and the Missing Link. . . . all sprang to life from an illustrator's pen. Even when these films don't feature humans, however, they attempt to speak about the human condition.

Two centaurs holding hands in a clearing amidst trees.
Lovers horsing around in The Centaurs.
  • Why do you think that animators often employ animal and fantasy figures within their stories?
  • What does the use of fantastic creatures and settings allow a storyteller to do?
  • What do you think is the underlying tone of the films in this collection?
  • How are an audience's expectations and reactions different when offered a fantastic story instead of a realistic one?
  • What are the advantages of discussing the human condition through fantastic stories?
  • Do you think that animation is as effective a medium for conveying emotion as is live-action film?
  • Do you think that contemporary animated films are different from these early examples? If so, how and why?

Creating Comic Strips and Flip Books

Select an animated film in this collection that originated on the comics page (for example, the "Katzenjammer," "Phable," and "Keeping Up With the Joneses" series). Break down the plot of the cartoon and recreate it in a five-to-six panel comic strip, making sure that it stays true to the original premise. (This is similar to "reverse engineering" a machine by taking it apart to see how it works.)

  • What is the tone of the story (humorous, dramatic, etc.)?
  • How do you think that the tone of the story is reflected in the illustrations?
  • What do you think are the essential actions of the story that should appear within the panels of the comic strip? (In other words, how do you get from point A to point B in five steps or less?)

Create a five-to-six-panel comic strip, featuring original characters and a unique storyline. Select one major action or scene from this comic strip to try some original animation in a flip book. A flip book can be a book of sketch pages or a stack of paper on which a single image is slightly altered to convey a sense of motion when presented, or "flipped," in order. Keep the following questions in mind throughout this project.

  • How does the story of a comic strip change when additional images are added to animate it?
  • What does the extra time that is added through this process allow for the story that would not otherwise be possible?
  • What are the differences between turning a comic strip into an animated film and into a live-action film?
  • How do these films compare to comic strips or comic books that are adapted from films?
  • What do you think are the differences in these media and how should these differences be accounted for in the development of a story?

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Last updated 09/26/2002