100 Years of Movie Posters: Cartoon Shorts 1928-1964

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Cartoon Shorts 1928-1964

From the 1920s to 1960s, theatrical cartoons were produced in huge numbers, and usually shown before a feature film in a movie theater.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons were the most popular cartoon series in the United States in the 1920's and 1930's. The Silly Symphonies, debuted in 1929 with 'The Skeleton Dance'. Each Silly Symphony was a one-shot cartoon centered around music or a particular theme. Walt Disney's 1928 cartoon 'Steamboat Willie' starring Mickey Mouse was the first cartoon to be perfectly synchronized with sound. The first cartoon to be released in three-strip Technicolor was the Silly Symphony 'Flowers and Trees' (1932).

Mickey Mouse had switched to Technicolor in 1935, by which time the series had added several major supporting characters, among them Mickey's dog Pluto and their friends Donald Duck and Goofy. Donald, Goofy, and Pluto would all be appearing in series of their own by 1940, and the Donald Duck cartoons would eventually eclipse the Mickey Mouse series in popularity. The Silly Symphonies, which garnered seven Academy Awards, ended in 1939.

Warner Bros Cartoons was one of the most successful animation studios and were responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short subjects. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases include slapstick comedy. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote, produced, and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood from 1940 to 1957. The original series is notable for having won seven Academy Awards, tying with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience and has been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. [Wikipedia]