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UPA Animation Blog

October 17, 2024 / lizzy oleary

I choose The Unicorn in the Garden and Charlie the Unicorn for this assignment.

The Unicorn in the Garden written by James Thurber and directed by William Hurzt is an animation about a man who follows a unicorn into his garden and happily tells his wife about it. She doesn’t believe him and thinks he’s gone crazy, so she calls a doctor to tell him about her husband. When she went to the doctors to tell them in person they thought she was the crazy one and when they asked the husband he said he didn’t know what she was talking about. So they sent her away. The point of the story is to show that what your original intentions are may not be the outcome you hoped for.

Charlie The Unicorn. a short film made by an independent company made by Jason Steele. It is about these two unicorns who convince their “friend” Charlie to go to Candy Mountain with them. He agrees after a lot of begging, once they get to the candy mountain they convince Charlie to go into the mountains with a song that promises great things. Once he goes in he passes out with his kidneys taken out.

I chose these two to compare because they are both unicorns involved but not only that but the stories have a similar theme to each other. They both convey the theme that even if you think you’re doing something that would be harmless and couldn’t affect you actually can.

I believe the animation for both these films did a good job getting the message and idea of the story across to the viewers. I do think that Charlie The Unicorn could have used a different animation style rather than the simplistic style it has, however, I do think that the simplicity of it does add to its charm and silliness.

Works Cited

FilmCow, https://www.filmcow.com/. Accessed 17 October 2024.

“Charlie the Unicorn.” YouTube, 11 January 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGYh8AacgY. Accessed 17 October 2024.

Steele, Jason. “Llamas with Hats.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llamas_with_Hats. Accessed 17 October 2024.

Thurber, James. “The Unicorn in the Garden (film).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unicorn_in_the_Garden_(film). Accessed 17 October 2024.

“The Unicorn in the Garden.” YouTube, 8 May 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teJjX-smdE. Accessed 17 October 2024.

UPA and animation in the 1950s

October 17, 2024 / Oliver Hale

for my UPA animation, I was struck by the moral complexity of the UPA cartoon Brotherhood of Man.

the Brotherhood of Man is a short cartoon based on a pamphlet of the same name. the pamphlet was written by two anthropologists, Gene Weltfish and Ruth Benedict. The cartoon was commissioned by United Automobile workers to ease the ethnic tensions in the unionized southern branches. its depictions of other races as stereotypical caricatures are and will continue to be harmful.

to maintain the same age of cartoons, I chose the Native American scene in Peter Pan. Both of these films were produced in the 1950s and have harmful depictions and stereotypes of the races shown. while the animation style differs wildly as does the message. while the UPA film seeks to connect people over their similarities rather than differences. While as Peter Pan’s scene was used as a plot device to move along the story between Wendy and Peter.

in terms of considering the actual style of the animation, we have the classical Disney style in which these movements are fluid and real. The characters in Disney films, while being stylized, are more human than their UPA counterparts. Yet the Disney character of the chief is a racist stereotypical depiction of a Native American. As opposed to the appealing character design of, say, Wendy Darling. As Disney does, the film’s animation brings the story book to life, but at a cost of displaying harmful stereotypes. whereas UPA’s style while it plays into the stereotypes, it seeks to dismantle the views around them rather then let them continue to exist. I’d like to be incredibly clear in my beliefs surrounding both animations, they consist of harmful imagery and stereotypes but the message of UPA’s film stands out to me. while the fact we still deal with the same issues saddens me, art continues to give me hope that we can learn more about one another.

“the message that the similarities between people are greater than any racial differences, was part of a post WW2 optimism which was soon to be seen as leftist propaganda and now reads like simple multiculturalism.

UPA’s personnel and writer Lardner jr. (CLOAK & DAGGER, TOMORROW THE WORLD) soon came under the scrutiny of the McCarthyists.”

-anonymous critic

SPONSOR: United Auto Workers

PRODUCTION CO: United Productions of America

DIRECTOR: Robert Cannon

WRITERS: Ring Lardner Jr., Maurice Rapf, Phil Eastman MUSIC: Paul Smith

Robert Cannon	…	animator
Boris Gorelick	…	background artist
Ken Harris	…	animator
Ben Washam	…	animator

sources

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162213/?ref_=rvi_tt

Cartoon Modern and UPA

October 17, 2024 / Meghan Warner

By Meghan Warner

Digging for Diamonds

This animation is done in a simplified pen style, resembling quick doodles that an artist might make but with a fully colored and shaded finishing. This was created by Joost Lieuwma and produced by Frame Order. The animation depicts a man desperate to find riches and mining for diamonds.

Non cartoon modern

The Miner’s Daughter

UPA cartoon modern

This animation is done in the cartoon modern style and produced by UPA.
The directors of this film were Robert Cannon and John Hubley, created by the artists at UPA. The animation is about a miner and his daughter, the father wanting riches and the daughter wanting to marry the snobby miner next door.

These two cartoons share the similarity of a theme of greed. Both depict men trying to attain wealth through various methods. The difference is the ending where in the UPA cartoon the wealth is obtained, in the other it is not. The cartoons also have a similarity of simplified character designs, though contrast in line work and background styles. I feel as though both have a very effective style. Ironically, I think that the non cartoon modern cartoon could’ve benefitted by being cartoon modern instead.

https://youtu.be/V-87kXkATaA?si=tGpigOHQ_z7rZSCq

https://youtu.be/K0gG9KreOlc?si=xNgtkIlJMTYeqpBE

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151579/

UPA ANIMATION BLOG (TA)

October 17, 2024 / Timothy Abrams

The animation in Rooty Toot Toot ranges from smooth and fluid, to very snappy and exaggerated. It is believable while not confined to realism.

Upon first appearance, RTT is a musical comedy, but it’s much deeper. The story hides a very good message on lying, manipulation, and persuasion.

For the parallel animation, I wanted to use something great. A cult classic the made a ripple through a generation. Dreamworks has made many masterpieces throughout the years, but the’ve made nothing like this movie.

Both animations boast a sleezy lawyer in a comedic courtroom setting, and both lawyers are able to persuade the people. Both are very exaggerated in performance and creativity. The characters in RTT are built with simple shapes, and have nice silhouettes, while the other characters are loosely modeled off the voice actors. Not to mention both lawyers have the sam build which I find funny.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I USED THE BEE MOVIE AS HOMEWORK AN YOU ALL GET TO SEE IT!

‘Rooty Toot Toot’

Director and Writer – John Hubbley

Choreography – Olga Lunick

Animators

Art Babbit, Pat Mathews, Tom McDonald, Grim Natwick

Color & Design – Paul Julian

Bee Movie – Dreamworks Animation

CARTOON MODERN vs GROTESQUE REALISM(?)

October 17, 2024 / Romie

Please note I did NOT understand the parameters of this assignment.

UPA… who’s behind it?

Upa, aka United Productions America is a production company centered around animation that arose in the 1940s (1941), and was formed after the Disney Animation Strike when long-time animators at disney went on strike to demand higher pay and better working conditions, as well as proper credit and better treatment in general. The artists who led and founded UPA were tired of Disney’s formula, and the painstaking process of imitating real life through animation. Creative lead at UPA, John Hubley explained that he didn’t want his animations to be imitations of live action, but rather to be something that live action couldn’t make in the first place. He, amongst others, (them being: Bobe Cannon, Henry G. Saperstein, Zack Schwartz, David Hilberman and Stephen Bosustow) were the founders and key members of UPA.

ROOTY TOOT TOOT

I know I wrote about this before, but Rooty Toot Toot is genuinely one of my favorite animated pieces of media at all time. Produced by UPA, directed by John Hubley, this was one of (in my opinion) UPA’s best films. It is directly inspired by the cartoon modern style with limited color pallet, exaggerated features and basic shapes. It is a really well executed film, because stylistically it was new, it was bold, it was unapologetically artistic. Exactly the goals of the animation? To tell a fun dark-musical story- but knowing the goals of the studio to push for artistic expression, artistic freedom and stylization, this style is absolutely the perfect style for this short. IF it were to take a more Disney approach to make the movements hyper-realistic, the music would end up feeling less like the story, and rather an addition to the story. It wouldn’t be as punchy, which would make the tone fall flat.

TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE

The Triplets of Belleville, or Les Triplettes de Belleville is a french animated feature film directed by Sylvain Chomet. If you have seen the Illusionist, you may recognize his name! Or at least the style. The Triplets of Belleville has a style that is much like UPA in the sense that the actions of the characters are exaggerated, however the approach to how they do so is different. With UPA, its stylistically, whimsically creative, whereas with this film, I would call it Grotesquely realistic. The characters move much like humans, even when they don’t. They twist and turn and warp around- having a very clear skeleton, however their joints articulate in such bizarre ways. For this movie, this style absolutely makes sense. It is supposed to be a bizarre and somewhat unsettling film, it isn’t supposed to be infused with a childlike wonder or a humorous lawyer who is more nose than man. The fellows who are more nose than man look that way in a comfortingly odd way. Everything down to the camera angles makes it feel unsettling. Which totally works with this style!