The stability of animation as a viable economic industry was immeasurably supported and strengthened by the Walt Disney Studios’ aspirations to innovate. The desire of Disney (the man and the company) to harness the possibilities of technology during cinema’s first…
In 1932 Walt Disney tapped Herman “Kay” Kamen to be his first licensing representative in the character division of Walt Disney Productions. In Kamen’s days – and for a few decades after – Disney did not market their products specifically…
If it is difficult to imagine today the impact that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, by David Hand) had in the United States at the end of the 1930s, it is even more difficult to consider the effects it had…
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, or “Disney’s folly” as critics called it, was the Walt Disney Company’s first animated feature-film, but with a budget of over $1.5 million it was in no way a sure success. Walt, however, was…
Friday 29th September, Canterbury Christ Church University This year’s Canterbury Anifest, which celebrated its 10th anniversary, opened with a symposium coinciding with another major animated anniversary: the release of Disney’s first feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven…
According to a 2015 Los Angeles Times article, the majority of animation production students in the US are female, yet they comprise less than a fifth of the workforce in creative roles in the American animation industry. This situation is…
In a clip hosted on Cartoon Brew’s website Caroline Leaf relates her process and the gestation of the mesmerising, darkly etched film Entre Deux Soers (Two Sisters, 1990) stating that her film took ten years to come to fruition. This revelation…
Leeds Animation Workshop (LAW) started in 1977 as a campaigning group of female friends. This group was the first British, all female animation collective, and to date it has produced and distributed approximately 40 short films, making use of animation…
Asparagus (1979, by Suzan Pitt) follows a face-less blonde woman who unleashes her fantasy and creativity into bizarre visions and events, conjuring and transforming objects with vibrating colors and forms that often acquire sexual connotations. While Asparagus is now considered…
Last year, Studio Ghibli’s producer, Yoshiaki Nishimura, caused something of a stir when he stated that whether or not Ghibli would hire a female director would depend on the type of film it would be produced. He stated: “Women tend…
