Sunday, October 03, 2010

The Entertainment Value Of Movement

One thing you see a lot of in cartoons from the 1930s and 40s is movement that is entertaining for its own sake.
You can tell this animator had fun making this cat shadow box.
The still drawings don't really convey the movement.
Clampett encouraged his animators to make every bit of their work move in a fun way. He figured it was "animation" and that was the main thing audience watched cartoons for. It wasn't enough to merely connect the narrative points, which more and more became the trend in later animation - even as the stories themselves got less entertaining.
The magic of animation is largely in the performance. Animated characters at their best move in unrealistic yet beautiful ways.


HEP CAT SHADOW BOXES