What inspires you to animate?

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:35 pm

Since all of us here have an interest in animation, I was wondering who/what inspires you to animate and why?

My inspirations/influences:

Disney- They pioneered the animation process, they're the most important studio in animation history, and they made the animated feature film what it is today.

Pixar-A great studio that carries on what Disney used to do before Eisner took over... making great stories that people of all ages can enjoy.

Brad Bird- A genius. He's made 3 great animated films (Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille) that are some of the best films of all time.

Disney's Nine Old Men:

Frank Thomas

Ollie Johnston

Milt Kahl

Les Clark

Marc Davis

Ward Kimball

Eric Larson

John Lounsbery

Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman

Bill Tytla- Famous for his animation on Grumpy in Snow White and Stromboli in Pinocchio. He's also known as the first guy to really put emotion into his characters.

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:30 am

Almost any animator inspires me, but I wanted to add that Brad Bird was consultant on The Simpsons for eight years (the best eight years of The Simpsons) -- not sure exactly what that means in terms of work, but certainly increases my admiration for his work.

I also know that when Disney went back to doing animated films (starting with The Little Mermaid) I was *really* stoked -- I was doing 3D animation then but was still inspired by the great work of that and Aladdin, two of the greatest animated movies of all time (I think The Little Mermaid is almost alone in animated history as being a film that has absolutely not one wasted frame -- there is nothing in it you could take out nor want to. No matter how much I appreciate such films as Toy Story and The Incredibles you cannot say that about them).

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:00 am

personally I like the more conceptual animators

bruno bozetto

don hertzfeldt

paul driessen

to name a few

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:45 am

Can't even begin to list my influences - I'm lucky to have seen a very broad selection of animation of all ages from all corners of the world. But OK, I'll try:

Disney - my first cinema experience, best craftsmanship, definition of industry.
Bozetto - Signor Rossi and Allegro Non Troppo.
Cavandoli - La Linea.
Curt Linda - Geschichten aus der Geschichte - UPA-inspired satirical stuff.
(Freleng) Pink Panther - Sheer elegance. The little Man.
(Freleng) Ant and Aarvark - Sheer failure. Rough lines.
(Hanna-Barbera) Flintstones - see Krikfalusi's praise of it.
Driessen - dreamlike movements, always fluid.
Yellow Submarine - my favourite of all times.
Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Babitt, Clampett et al. - Warner stuff.
Len Lye, Norman McLaren - direct to film and lots of experiments.
Bartosch - the textures!
Svankmajer - the material
Borowczyk - The cabinet of Mr and Ms Cabal
Vlado Kristl - Don Quihote - anarchy. Sheer punk.
Loriot - Serious fun.

and lots and lots more, hundreds of shorts from independent filmmakers, plus everything which pops up on the net now. But I think the list is pretty representative for my influences - from animators. I've got other sources as well, especially cartoonists from the 50's and 60's like Bosc, Chaval, Flora, Searle, Stepan, Ungerer, Gorey ...

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:03 pm

There has been so much great animation (and a lot of crap too, it goes without saying!) But my favourite animator? Milt Kahl.

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:39 pm

I have lots of free time to waste. If I was not doing this I would be into needlepoint or stacking dominos. I plan to copy and ripoff, I mean learn from everyone I can.

Dale

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:55 pm

hey mr. tiger

thanks for your list! I will print out this page
and look up the work I am not familiar with.
This will be a nice guide for more exploration!

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:01 am

Here's some more:

Mark Dindal- Didn't like Chicken Little so much but I really liked Cat's Don't Dance and The Emperor's New Groove a lot. Mark is great at doing cartoony stuff.

James Baxter, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg- All excellent animators who worked on a lot of the great modern (1980 on) Disney classics.

Chuck Jones and his crew (Ben Washam, Ken Harris, etc)- Enough said.

Bob Clampett- Enough said.

The rest of the Warner Bros. directors and animators are great too.

FCSnow · Post by **FCSnow** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:33 am

A lot of the names here I know about. Some I haven't but probably have seen their work but just can't make the connection.

I come from an age when television was still new and novel. To my Mom it was a god sent. Me and my sister would sit all day in front of it. During the early days of broadcast television, stations were desperate to fill the time with anything they could. I must have watched thousands of hours of old silent cartoons. Who made them? I haven't a clue.

There was one man that comes to mind that also had influence on me. His name was Walt Stanchfield (not sure of the spelling), he worked for Walt Disney. He took me on a private tour of the Disney Studios when I was just 18. He taught my sunday school class. I would later write to him about troubles I was having with my early animation efforts. It's funny that I would remember him after all this time.

Walt never gained any great fame as an animator, but I do remember him when I see his work on DVDs or television. Have you ever seen "101 Dalmation"? He worked on the maid. How about "Mary Poppins"? He was the key animator on the penquin sequence. I'm sure he worked on much more but that all he told me about.

I haven't heard from him in years and don't even know if he's still alive. I just want to say, "Someone still remembers you, Walt."

FCSnow

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:36 pm

He died in 2000.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/walt-s ... -animation will give you some material, a google search will turn up more.

spoooze! · Post by **spoooze!** » Tue May 06, 2008 4:38 pm

His name was Walt Stanchfield (not sure of the spelling), he worked for Walt Disney. He took me on a private tour of the Disney Studios when I was just 18. He taught my sunday school class. I would later write to him about troubles I was having with my early animation efforts. It's funny that I would remember him after all this time.

Yep. Definitely heard of him. Great animator.