This is a set of techniques that in audio-visual productions give movement to drawings, dolls, objects and materials of all kinds, including humans.
Some of the pioneers of animation are James Stuart Blackton with the short cartoon film The Enchanted Drawing (1900), Segundo de Chomón who animated objects and actors in The Electric Hotel (El hotel eléctrico, 1908) and Emile Cohl with the cartoon film Fantasmagorie (1908).
A good part of the production of animation in cartoons and in three-dimensional animation is linked to the genre of the white fantastic, like magic, the supernatural or the psychological or physical transformation into a better being
Much of the production in animated cartoon and three-dimensional animation is linked to the genre of light fantasy (the magical, the supernatural, the power of the human being, the psychological or physical transformation into a better being, the good). Examples include the output of the Disney factory, such as Peter Pan (1953), the story of the flying boy who didn't want to grow up, directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson, and those produced by the company Pixar, such as Up (2009) by Peter Docter, the adventure in the jungle of an elderly widower who wants to keep a promise to his late wife. Some animation also falls within the category of dark fantasy (the destructive power of human beings, the bad). Examples include some pieces by Jan Svankmajer -Dimensions of Dialogue (Moznosti dialogu, 1983) – and the different Japanese Manga. There are also independent animation styles, such as the works of black humour and poetry by Bill Plympton, the feature film Idiots and Angels (2008), and animation that moves in avant-garde directions, such as the pieces Rhytmus (1923) by Hans Richter and Diagonal Symphony (Diagonal-Symphonie, 1924) by Viking Eggeling; or in experimental directions, such as the abstract short films Begone Dull Care (1949) by Norman McLaren and The Dante Quartet (1987) by Stan Brakhage.
Up
Up / Là-haut | PIXAR / Pete Docter, 2009, U.S.
Carl Fredricksen is a retired balloon salesman who, at 78, decides to give everything up and fulfil the dream he had with his late wife of traveling by balloon to Paradise Falls in South America. Hounded by speculators and about to be put into a nursing home, the misanthrope Carl converts his old house into an amazing craft propelled by hundreds of balloons and leaves the dehumanised city, sailing through the clouds in search of his particular "El Dorado". However, once in the air he discovers that what could be the worst nightmare of his life is on board with him: Russell, a "bold" Wilderness Explorer who is only 8 years old, incredibly naive and clumsy but with bombproof optimism.
We tend to remember more the things that provoke emotions. If a dog bit you when you were 3 years old, you will surely remember this for all your life. However, it is possible that you don’t remember where you left the car keys yesterday. I want the audience to always remember my films
Pixar
(1986)
The result of the successful collaboration between John Lasseter (as creative director), Ed Catmull (as engineering genius) and Steve Jobs (as entrepreneurial visionary), Pixar Animation Studios, better known as Pixar, is today the world's most respected animation company. With its headquarters in Emeryville, California, the company, as we know it today, was officially founded in 1986, when Jobs, disenchanted with the direction taken by Apple, the "brand" that he had created but that had now dispensed with his services, paid George Lucas $5 for a small computer division belonging to his all-powerful Industrial Light & Magic. Three short films emerged from that agreement, generated entirely by computer, and these would change the course of the industry forever: Luxo Jr (1986), with the small lamp that would become the logo of the company, the melancholy Red’s Dream (1987), and the Oscar-winning Tin Toy (1988), the seed via Disney of the subsequent Toy Story (1995), the first Pixar feature film and the first film in history animated solely and exclusively using digital technology. The film grossed over $361 million worldwide and became the launchpad for an innovative model of production, creativity and technological development in which artists emerging at that time, such as Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, Brad Bird and Lasseter himself, could exploit all their talent. Since then, the company has produced 17 hugely successful films (all of them accompanied by their corresponding, and generally Oscar-winning, short), highlights among which are milestones of contemporary animation such as A Bug's Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Inside Out (2015). In January 2006 the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion dollars. Just one month earlier, on 14 December 2005, MoMa had opened Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, the first external exhibition of the original work of the studio. At the end of 2015, Pixar films had already generated more than $9.3 billion dollars worldwide, with average takings of $623 million per film, earning 16 Oscars, 8 Golden Globes and 11 Grammys during this time. On 6 September 2009, Lasseter, Bird, Docter, Stanton and Unkrich received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in recognition of their careers, an honorary award that was presented to them by George Lucas himself.