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History of animation in the United States

Animation in the United States during the silent era

Golden Age of American animation

Animation in the United States in the television era

Modern animation in the United States

v • d • e

Modern animation of the United States describes the history of animation in the United States of America from the late 1980s and forward. This period is sometimes referred to as the American animation renaissance, during which many large American entertainment companies reformed and reinvigorated their animation departments following general decline during the 1970s and 1980s.

Contents 1 Trends 1.1 The Return of Disney 1.1.1 Television and Direct to Video Sequels 1.2 Don Bluth: Triumphs, Trials, and Tribulations 1.3 A New Generation of Warner Bros. Cartoons 1.4 Bakshi returns 1.5 Outsourcing animation 2 Animation for adults 2.1 The Simpsons and Fox 2.2 Ren and Stimpy 2.3 Spike and Mike 2.4 Adult Swim 2.5 Other cartoons for adults 3 The fall of Saturday morning 3.1 From Hanna-Barbera to Cartoon Network 3.2 Broadcast falls as Cable rises 4 The rise of computer animation 4.1 Pixar 4.2 Dreamworks 4.3 Independents and others 5 The fall of traditional animation 6 Rise of Internet and Flash animation 7 Animation accolades 7.1 Recognition by the Oscars 7.2 Annie Awards 8 See also 9 External links 10 References

[edit] Trends

[edit] The Return of Disney

See also: Disney Renaissance

By the time the 1980s began, Walt Disney Productions had been struggling since Walt Disney's death in 1966, and the 1979 departure of Don Bluth and 11 associates from the animation department dealt it a major blow; Bluth's new studio soon went into direct competition with his old bosses. Still, there was a glimmer of hope as the Nine Old Men and their associates began to hand their traditions down to a new generation of Disney animators. New faces such as Glen Keane, Ron Clements, John Musker, Andreas Deja, and others came to the studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period that produced such features as The Rescuers, Pete's Dragon (a live-action/animation hybrid), and The Fox and the Hound, as well as the featurettes The Small One (Bluth's final Disney credit) and Mickey's Christmas Carol (the first screen appearance of Mickey Mouse since 1953).

At the same time, animator Steven Lisberger brought to the studio a concept about a computer programmer who is launched into a computerized world. The film would mix live action sequences with computer animation, which had seldom been used to such an extent up to this point. They were impressed with the idea, and the result was an ambitious $17,000,000 film entitled Tron. While Disney's stock dropped 4% after a screening for unenthusiastic investment analysts,^[1] and in spite of only moderate grosses at the box office ^[2], Tron received enthusiastic praise from film critic Roger Ebert ^[3], became a cult favorite and turned out — many years later — to have a greater influence on animation (at Disney and elsewhere) than expected.

In 1984, the company became the target of a corporate raid by Saul Steinberg, who intended to break up the company piece by piece. At the same time, Roy E. Disney, who had already resigned as President in 1977, relinquished his spot on the Board of Directors in order to use his clout to change the status quo and improve the company's declining fortune. Disney escaped Steinberg's attempt by paying him greenmail, but in its aftermath CEO Ron W. Miller resigned, to be replaced by Michael Eisner. Roy E. Disney, now back on the Board as its Vice-Chairman, convinced Eisner to let him supervise the animation department, whose future was in doubt after the disappointing box office performance of its big-budget PG-rated feature, The Black Cauldron ^[4]. The studio's next release, The Great Mouse Detective, fared better in relation to its significantly smaller budget, but it was overshadowed by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth's An American Tail ^[5], another film featuring mice characters that competed directly with Mouse Detective in theaters. In 1988 the studio collaborated with Steven Spielberg and produced Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a comedic detective caper mixing live action and animation while paying homage to the Golden Age of Cartoons. Disney characters appeared with characters from Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal Pictures and other rival studios for the first time. The film was a huge box-office success, winning four Academy Awards, reviving interest in animation made for theaters, creating new fans of the medium, and popularizing the in-depth study of the history and techniques of animation. Several aging legends in the business such as Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng suddenly found themselves the center of attention, receiving acclaim and accolades after decades of being virtually ignored by audiences and industry professionals alike. Additionally, the release of many older Disney features and short cartoons on home video, and the 1983 launch of the Disney Channel to exploit the library, renewed interest in the studio's legacy and created a new generation of Disney fans.

Disney followed up Who Framed Roger Rabbit and its commercially successful ^[6] 1988 fully animated feature Oliver & Company with The Little Mermaid, an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale with songs by Broadway composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Mermaid was an unexpectedly huge critical and commercial success, won two Academy Awards for its song score, and became the first of a series of highly successful new Disney animated features. The studio invested heavily in the new technology of Computer Animation Production System technologies to be used in tandem with traditional animation techniques. The first film to use this technology, The Rescuers Down Under, only grossed $27,931,461 ^[7], not even equalling the take of the original 1977 film^[8]. However, the films that followed it, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, won rave reviews, received multiple Oscars, and topped the box office charts. Beauty and the Beast would eventually become the first animated feature to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and the first and currently only animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The peak of Disney's success was in 1994 when The Lion King surpassed the wildest hopes of the studio, grossed $328,541,776, and currently stands as the 18th highest grossing motion picture of all time in the US ^[9]. Susbequent Disney films such as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan were box office and critical successes as well, albeit modestly when compared to The Lion King.

In 1994, the death of Frank Wells and the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg to co-found DreamWorks left Michael Eisner in full control of the company. Disney's upward surge eventually peaked and turned downward. At the turn of the century, films such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, and Home on the Range failed to meet the critical and commercial expectations set by the early 1990s phenomena, in spite of exceptions such as Lilo & Stitch. At the same time, the high level of popularity acclaim bestowed upon Toy Story, the first film animated entirely in CGI sparked an industry trend. Based on the commercial success of Pixar's computer-generated animated films and other CGI fare (especially Dreamworks' Shrek, which contained numerous jabs at Katzenberg's former workplace and boss), the studio came to believe that CGI was what the public wanted, so it followed suit by ceasing the production two-dimensional animation after Home on the Range and switching exclusively to CGI with 2005's Chicken Little. Public rifts grew between animation staff and management, as well as between Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney. Roy resigned from the board of directors in 2003 with a scathing letter calling the company "rapacious and soulless", adding that he considered it to be "always looking for the quick buck." ^[10] He then launched the internet site SaveDisney.com ^[11] in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the company and to oust Eisner, who resigned in 2005 after public opinion turned against him. Robert Iger succeeded him; one of his first acts as CEO was to regain the rights to Walt's early character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006, John Lasseter became head of animation with a plan to reintroduce two-dimensional animation, starting with The Princess and the Frog in 2009.

[edit] Television and Direct to Video Sequels

After 30 years of resisting offers to produce television animation, the studio finally relented once Michael Eisner, who had a background in TV, took over. The first TV cartoons to carry the Disney name, CBS's The Wuzzles, and NBC's The Gummi Bears, both premiered in the fall of 1985. Breaking from standard practice in the medium, the productions enjoyed substantially larger production budgets for better quality writing and animation in anticipation of recouping profitably in rerun syndication. While The Wuzzles only lasted a season, The Gummi Bears was a major sustained success with a six season run. In 1987, the TV animation division adapted Carl Barks' Scrooge McDuck comic books for the small screen with the syndicated smash hit DuckTales. Its success spawned a 1990 theatrical film entitled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and an increased investment in syndicated cartoons. The result of this investment was The Disney Afternoon, a two-hour syndicated television programming block of such animated shows as Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, and Gargoyles. TV animation also brought many theatrical characters to Saturday morning, including Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.

DisneyToon Studios was founded in Paris in the late 1980s to produce DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, which is not considered by the studio to be part of the Disney animated "canon".^[12] The practice of making non-canon direct-to-video sequels to canon films began in 1994 with The Return of Jafar, a sequel to Aladdin. This was a reversal of the long-standing studio policy against sequels to animated films (which did not apply to live-action films); Walt Disney has often been quoted on the subject as saying "you can't top pigs with pigs." ^[13] Because of strong video sales, the studio continued to make these films in spite of negative critical reaction; 2001's Cinderella II: Dreams Come True received a rare 0% rating from Rotten Tomatoes ^[14]. Under John Lasseter, the studio has brought this practice to an end.^[15][16].

DisneyToon also produced several non-canon entries that did receive theatrical releases, such as A Goofy Movie and The Tigger Movie. The latter brought the Sherman Brothers back to the studio for their first Disney feature film score since Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971.

[edit] Don Bluth: Triumphs, Trials, and Tribulations

Don Bluth's company had been driven to bankruptcy twice: once after the disappointing box office take of The Secret of NIMH coincided with an animator's strike, and again after the Video game crash of 1983, when Cinematronics, in an attempt to cut its losses, charged fees and royalties of over $3 million to Bluth's company while it was working on a sequel to Dragon's Lair. He had formed Sullivan Bluth Studios with backing from businessman Morris Sullivan while film director Steven Spielberg, a long-time animation fan who was interested in producing theatrical animation, helped him to produce 1986's An American Tail. The film was a hit, grossing $47,483,002 ^[17]. During its production, the studio relocated to Ireland to take advantage of its government's tax breaks for film production. Bluth's 1988 follow up The Land Before Time was a slightly bigger hit, grossing $48,092,846 ^[18] and spawning 12 sequels and a TV series. None of the Land Before Time sequels had the involvement of Bluth or Spielberg, but the 1991 sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was produced by Spielberg without Bluth. In order to gain more creative control, Bluth parted company with Spielberg on his next film, the 1989 release All Dogs Go to Heaven. While the film had the misfortune of opening the same day as Disney's The Little Mermaid, it fared much better on home video.^[19]

The early 1990s were not kind to Bluth. In 1992, Rock-a-Doodle was panned by critics and ignored by audiences; its dismal box-office performance of $11,657,385 ^[20] contributed to the bankruptcy of Sullivan Bluth. His next feature, 1994's Thumbelina fared no better critically or commercially, while A Troll in Central Park, also released in 1994, barely got a theatrical release, grossing $71,368 against a budget of $23,000,000 ^[21]. Bluth and his partner Gary Goldman pulled out of 1995's The Pebble and the Penguin before it was completed due to disagreements with its distributor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The remaining 30% of its work was done by a Hungarian studio, and Bluth and Goldman took their names off the film.

Sullivan Bluth Studios closed in 1995. Bluth and Goldman returned to the US a year earlier to discuss the creation of a feature animation division at 20th Century Fox; the studio's three previous animated films (FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Once Upon a Forest, and the live-action/animation combo The Pagemaster) all failed. Anastasia, a musical remake of the 1956 film with Ingrid Bergman, did far better than any Bluth film since All Dogs Go To Heaven ^[22], but the 2000 release of Titan A.E., a film far different from the ones Bluth had been making up to then, was a flop. Fox closed their animation studio soon afterwards and has outsourced all its feature animation since then to Blue Sky Studios.

[edit] A New Generation of Warner Bros. Cartoons

Spielberg, meanwhile, turned to TV animation and worked with the Warner Bros. studio to bring back animation, which it had abandoned in the 1960s. A team of former Hanna-Barbera employees led by Tom Ruegger formed a new studio, Warner Bros. Animation, to produce Tiny Toon Adventures, an animated series that paid homage to the Warner Bros. cartoons of Termite Terrace. The popularity of Tiny Toon Adventures among young TV viewers made the studio a contender once again in the field of animated cartoons. Tiny Toon Adventures was followed by Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. Not only did these cartoons bring in new viewers to Warner Bros., they also captured the attention of older viewers. Warner Bros., minus Spielberg, continued with work such as Batman: The Animated Series. Batman: the Animated Series quickly received wide acclaim for its animation and writing, and it also inspired a feature film. Combined, the four Warner Bros. series won a total of seventeen Daytime Emmy Awards.

When Disney surged upwards in the 1990s, Warner Bros. tried to capitalize on their success with animated feature films of their own, without the assistance of Spielberg. Unfortunately for the studio, their films (Cats Don't Dance, Quest for Camelot and The Iron Giant) failed to come close to Disney's success (although the latter film received critical praise and developed a cult following), and 2001's live action/animation hybrid Osmosis Jones, starring Bill Murray, was a costly commercial failure ^[23].

Even the perennially popular Looney Tunes characters made a comeback. While the older shorts continued to enjoy countless reruns and compilation specials (and a few compilation films), new Looney Tunes shorts were finally made in the 1990s. Inspired by the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a series of Nike commercials teaming the characters with basketball superstar Michael Jordan, the studio produced the live-action/animation combo Space Jam in 1996. The film received mixed reviews but was a moderate commercial success ^[24]. However, another 2003 feature, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, did poorly at the box office, grossing about a fourth of its $80 million budget ^[25]. Other modern Looney Tunes projects were in a different vein. Unlike the original shorts, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Baby Looney Tunes were aimed primarily at young children, while Loonatics Unleashed was a controversial revamping of the characters in the distant future.

[edit] Bakshi returns

Ralph Bakshi, director of ground-breaking animated films like Fritz the Cat and the original Lord of the Rings film, returned to animation after taking a short break in the mid-1980s. In 1985, he teamed up with young Canadian-born-and-raised animator John Kricfalusi and the legendary British band the Rolling Stones to make a part-live-action, part-animated music video of The Harlem Shuffle, which was released in early 1986. The music video put together a production team at Bakshi Animation whose next project was the short-lived TV series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. Bakshi and co. worked on several other projects in the late 1980s, but his biggest project, 1992's Cool World, was a critically panned commercial disappointment ^[26]. In 2005, Bakshi announced that he would begin working on another feature film, Last Days of Coney Island, which he is financing himself and producing independently.

[edit] Outsourcing animation

The major reason for the increase in the quantity of American animation was the ability to outsource the actual physical animation work to cheaper animation houses in countries in South and Southeast Asia, resulting in higher frame rates at lower costs. Writing, character design, and storyboarding would be done in American offices. Storyboards, model sheets, and color guides would then be mailed overseas. This would sometimes cause troubles as none of the final product would be seen until the completed cels were mailed back to the states. While budget became much less of an issue, overseas production houses would be chosen on a per episode, or even per scene, basis depending on the amount of money that was available at the moment. This resulted in wildly different levels of quality from episode to episode. This was particularly noticeable in shows like Gargoyles and Batman: The Animated Series where, at times, characters would appear wildly off model and require scenes to be redone, to the dismay of their directors.

[edit] Animation for adults

[edit] The Simpsons and Fox

The 1990s saw the beginnings of a new wave of animated series targeted primarily to adults, after a lack of such a focus for over a decade. In 1987,The Simpsons, an animated short cartoon segment of The Tracey Ullman Show, debuted. The creation of Matt Groening led to its own half-hour series in 1989, the first prime-time animated series since The Flintstones. Although 70% of the first episode's animation had to be redone, pushing the series premiere back three months, it became one of the first major hit series for the fledgling Fox network. It caused a sensation, entering popular culture and gaining wide acclaim for its satirical handling of American culture, families, society as a whole and the human condition. The show has won dozens of awards, including 24 Emmy Awards, 26 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. Time magazine's December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century's best television series. A movie version grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide ^[27]. On February 26, 2009, Fox renewed The Simpsons for another two years, "...which will secure its place as TV's longest-running prime-time series." On September 27, 2009, its 21st season began, breaking the 20-season record it once shared with Gunsmoke.^[28] Its success led Fox to develop other animated series aimed at adults, including King of the Hill, Family Guy, Futurama (also by Groening), American Dad! (also by MacFarlane), The Cleveland Show (also by MacFarlane), and the American animated remake of Sit Down, Shut Up. The first show, created by Mike Judge, was an instant success running 13 seasons, but the final two had less mainstream success (in spite of large, loyal, and vocal cult followings) and were cancelled by the network, only to be brought back on the strength of their DVD sales.

[edit] Ren and Stimpy

In 1991, Nickelodeon introduced The Ren and Stimpy Show. Ren and Stimpy was a wild and off-beat series that violated all the restrictions of Saturday morning cartoons and instead favored the outrageous style of the shorts from the Golden Age period. Indeed, the series creator, John Kricfalusi, a Ralph Bakshi protege, was largely influenced by the classic works of Bob Clampett. In spite of the show's popularity, the show was beset with production delays and censorship battles with Nickelodeon, who fired Kricfalusi in 1992. The show continued under the production of the network-owned Games Animation company until 1996, though many animators followed Kricfalusi out. TNN revived the show in a more risqué form in 2003, with Kricfalusi receiving more creative freedom, but it only lasted 10 episodes.

[edit] Spike and Mike

Alongside the mainstream revival of animation in the 1990s there was a stranger and more experimental movement occurring. In 1989 a festival of animation shorts, organized by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble (known as "Spike & Mike") and originally based in San Diego, began showcasing a collection of short subject animated films, known as the Classic Festival of Animation, in theatrical and non-theatrical venues across the country

The collections were largely made up of Oscar nominated shorts, student work from the California Institute of the Arts, and experimental work funded by the National Film Board of Canada. Early festivals included work by John Lasseter, Nick Park, Mike Judge and Craig McCracken. Judge's piece, Frog Baseball, marked the first appearance of his dimwitted trademark characters Beavis and Butt-head, while McCracken's short The Whoopass Girls in A Sticky Situation featured the introduction the trio of little girl superheroes that would later gain much popularity under their new moniker The Powerpuff Girls.

However, the festival gradually turned into a program of films called Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation which become an underground movement for adult humor and subject matter.

[edit] Adult Swim

In 1994, Cartoon Network gave the nod to a new series titled Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. In a particularly postmodern twist, this show featured live action celebrity interviews mixed with animation from the original Space Ghost cartoon. The series opened the vaults of Hanna-Barbera Productions, now owned by Cartoon Network. It was the beginning of the now common practice of using old Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters for new edgier productions, such as the surrealistic Sealab 2021, based on the early 1970s short lived environmentally themed cartoon, Sealab 2020. Also, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, about a lackluster superhero, Birdman who was originally the star of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, who has become a lawyer. His clientèle, as well as most of the other characters on the show are made up entirely of old Hanna-Barbera characters.

In addition to these new programs, American audiences—particularly those in geographic areas influenced by the intermixing of Pacific Rim cultures—began to embrace Japanese cartoons, or anime, sometime in the 1980s. This growing anime home video market catered to the teenage and college crowd, with a large number of Japanese animated series being translated into English. Initially access to the videos was limited, but as anime became more mainstream it found its way into the larger video stores all across the U.S. Because animation occupies a somewhat different place in Japanese culture, it includes a range of subject material not often addressed by American animation. (See also: manga)

Today, Adult Swim, a scheduling block of adult-oriented cartoons appearing on Cartoon Network beginning after primetime, leads the way in adult-oriented and cutting-edge animation. Adult Swim, which was originally on Sunday nights, now remains on the air until 5:00 a.m. ET, and is now broadcast every night of the week as of July 6, 2007. Series produced exclusively for Adult Swim include The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, The Venture Bros., Perfect Hair Forever, Stroker and Hoop, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and Metalocalypse. In addition to comedy cartoons, Adult Swim also runs several popular Anime series such as Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Eureka Seven, Bleach, and InuYasha.

[edit] Other cartoons for adults

Other TV networks also experimented with adult-oriented animation. MTV produced several successful animated series especially for its young adult audience, including Liquid Television, Æon Flux, Beavis and Butt-head (and its spin-off Daria), and Celebrity Deathmatch (in spite of the disastrous performance of 1994's The Brothers Grunt). Even USA Network's Duckman, starring the voice of Jason Alexander, found a cult following. But the most successful adult-oriented animated series of the 1990s next to The Simpsons was the extremely politically incorrect South Park, which saw its beginnings in 1995 with the short cartoon The Spirit of Christmas. It continues to be one of Comedy Central's top-rated series.

[edit] The fall of Saturday morning

[edit] From Hanna-Barbera to Cartoon Network

The late 1980s and 1990s saw huge changes in the Saturday morning landscape. By now, the once-prosperous Hanna-Barbera Productions was beleaguered by several factors. First of all, its dominance over the networks' schedules was broken by other studios' shows. Second, when The Smurfs was cancelled by NBC in 1990, it had no other hits on the air. Finally, its ability to successfully exploit older characters like The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo with new shows was coming to an end; although the 1990 theatrical release of Jetsons: The Movie earned $20 million ^[29]. In 1987, Great American Insurance Company owner Carl Lindner, Jr. became the majority shareholder of H-B's owner, Taft Broadcasting (now called Great American Communications), while in 1989 Tom Ruegger led an exodus of H-B staffers to restart Warner Bros. Animation. Great American wanted out of the entertainment business, and H-B was sold to Turner Broadcasting System in 1991. Turner's intentions were mainly related to ownership of the back catalog of shows; its launch of Cartoon Network in 1992 provided a new audience for H-B cartoons both old and new. At first the studio was constantly under threat of closure ^[30], but under Fred Seibert's guidance, Hanna-Barbera's new staff (whose ranks included Seth MacFarlane, Butch Hartman, and Genndy Tartakovsky, among others) created a new generation of Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. These shows were designed to appeal to adults as well as children, and thus incorporated plenty of "adult humor", such as pop-culture references and veiled sexual innuendos. Cartoon Network had so much success with original programming that reruns of old H-B cartoons and Looney Tunes were eventually moved to Boomerang.

Time Warner acquired Turner in 1996, and with it inherited the rights to all of H-B's properties, old and new. Around the same time, Fred Seibert left to found his own studio ^[31]. In 1998, H-B moved to the same building as Warner Bros. Animation, and the use of the H-B name ceased with William Hanna's death in 2001. Cartoon Network Studios now handles all original animation for the network.

[edit] Broadcast falls as Cable rises

As the 1990s began, the "Big Three" networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) were no longer a triopoly. The fledgling Fox network launched a Fox Kids on weekdays and Saturdays in 1990, while The WB joined the competition shortly after its 1995 launch. On cable TV, Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and the Cartoon Network also grew to a point where they were competitive with broadcast. Video games and movies available on video also helped to change the market. The effect on the traditional broadcast networks was noticeable. When it compared the success of the live-action youth sitcom Saved By The Bell to the paucity of their animated hits, NBC gave up on cartoons in 1992 and concentrated on live action teenage shows with its TNBC block. ABC was purchased by Disney in 1995, and Disney transformed its Saturday schedule into a series of Disney-produced animated cartoons with One Saturday Morning. CBS was simply never able to come up with any new hits once the shows that anchored its late 1980s/early 1990s Saturday morning lineup (Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Garfield and Friends, et al.) ran their respective courses. When they were purchased by Viacom, who also owned Nickelodeon, they simply repurposed much of the Nick Jr. lineup in addition to adding a Saturday edition of The Early Show.

As a result of years of activism by Action for Children's Television and others against shows they believed blurred the line between entertainment and advertising, the Children's Television Act was passed in 1990; it began to be strictly enforced in 1996. The Federal Communications Commission began requiring three hours a week, at times when children were awake, of educational and informational program intended explicitly for children. Since this required three hours to be "off limits" to programs aimed at the general public, the networks naturally chose to air them on Saturday morning, when children were already watching. As a result, almost every show is required to contain some educational content. Fox and The WB were able to get around this problem by airing short 1-hour weekday children's blocks instead of morning news shows, but those weekday blocks no longer exist. However, cable networks were not subject to these or most other FCC requirements, which allowed their series to have more leeway with content than network shows. Nonetheless, there were still a few toy-based children's programs in the 1990s, particularly Power Rangers and Pokémon.

While hits proved scarce for the broadcast networks in the 1990s, Nickelodeon gave birth to hit shows such as Doug, Rugrats, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold!, The Angry Beavers, CatDog, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Fairly OddParents. Many of these shows spawned successful theatrical films as well. The Disney Channel switched from pay-cable to basic cable in the late 1990s and launched a number of successful animated shows such as The Proud Family and Kim Possible. Around the same time it launched Toon Disney, a channel specifically intended for animation (which has since been replaced by Disney XD).

[edit] The rise of computer animation

The 1990s saw exponential growth in the use of computer-generated imagery to enhance both animated sequences and live-action special effects, allowing elaborate computer-animated sequences to dominate both. This new form of animation soon dominated the world of Hollywood special effects (the movies Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park included Oscar-winning special effects sequences which made extensive use of CGI). After decades of existing as related but separate industries, the barrier between "animation" and "special effects" was shattered by the popularization of computerized special effects, to the point where computer enhancement of Hollywood feature films became second-nature and often went unnoticed. The Academy Award-winning Forrest Gump (1994) depended heavily on computerized special effects to create the illusion of Tom Hanks shaking hands with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and to make Gary Sinese convincingly look like a double amputee. It won a special effects Oscar as well. The film Titanic used computer effects in nearly every scene of its three-hour running time; one of this all-time box office champion's 11 Oscars was for special effects.

It was only a matter of time before a full-length feature film would be produced entirely with computers. Once again, it was Disney that led the pack in this area. While they had made the film Tron, which extensively mixed live action and CGI in 1982, and introduced the CAPS system to enhance traditional animation in 1990's The Rescuers Down Under, a completely computer-animated feature film had yet to be made. In 1995, Disney partnered with Pixar to produce Toy Story, the first feature film made entirely from CGI. The movie's success was so great that other studios looked into producing their own CGI films.

Computer animation also made inroads into television. The Saturday morning animated series ReBoot won a large cult following among adults, and this was the first of a number of CGI-generated animated series, including Beast Wars, War Planets, and Roughnecks. The quality of the computer animation improved considerably with each successive series. Many live-action TV series (especially science fiction TV series such as Babylon 5) invested heavily in CGI production, creating a heretofore unavailable level of special effects for a relatively low price.

[edit] Pixar

The most popular competitor in the CGI race turned out to be Pixar. Founded by LucasFilm in 1979, it was sold to Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986 due to Lucas's financial problems related to the failure of Howard the Duck. The company was primarily in the development of computer animation systems but had made a name for itself by producing such acclaimed CGI short films as Tin Toy, which won an Oscar. When the company saw financial problems it branched in to TV commercial production; it also made a deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce feature films The first of these films, 1995's Toy Story, was a smash hit, giving way to the success of A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. Disney tried to create a CGI feature film of its own without Pixar (Dinosaur), but the film received a mixed reaction though it was a financial success. The Pixar juggernaut continued with Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up, all receiving rave reviews, earning huge profits, winning awards, and even overshadowing Disney's in-house offerings. During the later years of Michael Eisner's management, friction between Disney and Pixar grew to a point that Pixar considered finding another partner when they could not reach an agreement over profit sharing ^[32]. When Eisner stepped down in 2005, his replacement, Robert Iger, bought Pixar in a $7.4 billion all-stock deal which made Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder ^[33], while John Lasseter was placed in charge of greenlighting all new animated films.

[edit] Dreamworks

When Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney to become a co-partner of Steven Spielberg and David Geffen with Dreamworks, the new studio naturally became interested in animation. Though Antz and Small Soldiers did not do as well as the Disney-Pixar releases, they finally succeeded in scoring big in 2001 with Shrek, a gigantic box-office hit that pulled in audiences and overpowered Disney's summer release for that year, Atlantis. Dreamworks' commercial success continued with two Shrek sequels, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over the Hedge, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda, and Monsters vs. Aliens. It eventually became a separate company from its parent.

[edit] Independents and others

Other studios attempted to get into the CGI game. After ending its relationship with Don Bluth, 20th Century Fox released a hugely successful CGI animated feature in early 2002 entitled Ice Age, while Paramount offered Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, TWC offered Hoodwinked!, and Columbia produced Open Season.

In addition to the deep archives of old and cheap animation, independent animation has also begun to benefit from newer digital technologies. An artist with sufficient technical skills can explore new styles and forms with much greater freedom. The traditional animation skills of drawing and inking have given way to pilfering and digital manipulation to produce new and more aggressive forms of animation.

In spite of all its success, computer animation still relies on cartoony and stylized characters. 2001 saw the first attempt to create a fully animated world using photorealistic human actors in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which met with moderate critical success but did not do well at the box office.

CGI special effects increased to the point where George Lucas considered his 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, to be primarily an animated film that used real-life actors. A growing number of family-oriented films began to use entirely computer-generated characters that interacted on the screen with live-action counterparts, such as Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the title character of Hulk. While computer generated characters have become acceptable to moviegoers, there have yet to be any fully animated films featuring virtual human actors, or "synthespians".

[edit] The fall of traditional animation

Disney seemed poised to lead the pack in cutting back on hand-drawn animation; despite the box office success of Lilo & Stitch, but the colossal failure of their much-hyped Treasure Planet seemed to ensure that there would be major cutbacks at Disney's animation studio. Disney's loss was further undercut when the 2002 Oscar for Animated Feature Film went to the hand-drawn Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, giving Disney its second loss in a row at the Academy Awards.

In 2004, Disney released its final 2-D animated film, Home on the Range. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office failure. That same year, the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was released. It is notable for being filmed entirely in front of a bluescreen with the background being completely computer generated and only the actors and some props being real. Robert Zemeckis' film The Polar Express starring Tom Hanks in five roles is completely CGI animation but uses performance capture technology to animate the characters.

[edit] Rise of Internet and Flash animation

The late 1990s saw the rise of Flash animation, produced in the U.S. and elsewhere, through the Internet ^[34]. It can be created in Flash or with other programs capable of writing .swf files. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many circles, is seen as simplistic or unpolished. However, with dozens of Flash animated television series, countless more Flash animated television commercials, and award-winning online shorts in circulation, Flash animation is enjoying a golden age.

Some popular Flash animated cartoons include Joe Cartoons, Weebl and Bob, Stickdeath.com, Happy Tree Friends, Homestar Runner, The Brackenwood Series, and Salad Fingers.

[edit] Animation accolades

[edit] Recognition by the Oscars

Historically, despite the continuation of the Best Animated Short Subject category, animated feature films had seldom received much recognition from the Academy Awards for anything other than musical scores. The unprecedented nomination of Disney's Beauty and the Beast for Best Picture and five other awards (though only winning two for its song score) changed things. Animation had become so widely accepted by the beginning of the 21st century that in 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introduced a new Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The three contenders for first honoree in this award were both CGI feature films: Shrek, by Dreamworks, Monsters, Inc., by Disney and Pixar, and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, by Nickelodeon and Paramount. The award that year went to Shrek. Films that year which were passed up included the acclaimed adult oriented film Waking Life and the photorealistic CGI film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Hayao Miyazaki's critically acclaimed Spirited Away triumphed in 2002 as described earlier, and Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo received the 2003 award and defeated nominees The Triplets of Belleville and Brother Bear.

[edit] Annie Awards

The Annie Awards are presented by the Hollywood branch of the International Animated Film Association, each February for achievements in the fields of film and television animation in the US. Formed in 1972 to celebrate lifetime contributions to the various fields within animation, it started to honor animation as a whole, including current offerings. Recently, the awards have suffered two major blows to its credibility, one in 2008 over a voting eligibility controversy involving a Don Hertzfeldt short called Everything Will Be OK ^[35], and another in 2009 when Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda totally shut out Pixar's WALL-E.^[36]

[edit] See also

• History of animation
• List of animated feature films

[edit] External links

• The official site of the Annie Awards

[edit] References