188-536: Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and live-action . Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon . He developed an interest in the art of animation early on, and completed his first short subject by age 14. Bird sent the film to Walt Disney Productions , leading to an apprenticeship from
376-399: A Curious George adaptation for Universal, but he instead set his sights toward another animation studio: Pixar . In the late 1990s, Bird reconnected with old friend John Lasseter, who went on to work for Pixar, the computer hardware maker that had recently moved into animation. The company released the first fully computer-animated feature film, Toy Story , in 1995. Bird was stunned by
564-510: A nuclear extremist who gains access to Russian nuclear launch codes. Ghost Protocol was shot on location partially in Dubai , and includes a memorable scene when Cruise scales the newly erected Burj Khalifa . Upon release in December 2011, it became the highest-grossing film in the series up to that point, with $ 694 million worldwide. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2011 as well as
752-410: A "golden opportunity," recognizing that the material was more to his sensibility than the work he had done for Disney. On a personal level, the job was deeply fulfilling; he attended weekly read-throughs which he found delightful, and he considered the gig the only bright spot in the years following his sister's passing. The show's crew hoped to get Bird to direct its later 2007 film adaptation , but he
940-447: A "lodge meeting" in which they try to think of a gift for Snow White; this was to be followed by the elaborate 'bed-building sequence', in which the dwarfs and the forest animals construct and carve a bed for the princess. This was also cut, as it was thought to slow down the movement of the story. The soup-eating and bed-building sequences were animated by Ward Kimball , who was sufficiently discouraged by their removal to consider leaving
1128-400: A $ 1.5 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1938 and briefly held the record of the highest-grossing sound film of all time. It was also the highest-grossing animated film for 55 years. The popularity of the film has led to its being re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top-ten performers at
1316-540: A bent knee, and how the pant leg comes down from that knee and how important the wrinkles from it are to describe form. I learned a hell of a lot from him! Art Babbitt Art Babbitt , an animator who joined the Disney studio in 1932, invited seven of his colleagues (who worked in the same room as him) to come with him to an art class that he himself had set up at his home in the Hollywood Hills. Though there
1504-490: A consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before
1692-545: A cottage deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children. With the animals' help, she proceeds to clean the place and cook a meal. Snow White soon learns that the cottage is the home of seven dwarfs named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean, and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home. Snow White introduces herself, and
1880-522: A death-like sleep. She learns the curse can be broken by " love's first kiss ," but is certain Snow White will be buried alive before this can happen. Using a potion to disguise herself as an old hag , the Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away. The animals see through the disguise, but are unable to warn Snow White; they rush off to find the dwarfs. The Queen fools Snow White into biting into
2068-422: A dedicated Disneyana Fan Club (since 1984). Disneyland opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts . Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies. As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in
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#17327908954402256-705: A feature film to The Film Daily (although he had not yet managed to find a response from the United Artists executives), and around the same time, he was approached with an offer for an animated version of Felix Salten 's 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods in alliance with Sidney Franklin . Disney eventually rejected the idea, feeling that his studio was not ready for the technical challenges that Bambi would have presented. Homer 's poems Iliad and Odyssey , as well as Jonathan Swift 's 1726 book Gulliver's Travels , were also suggested to Disney at
2444-513: A film adaptation of Washington Irving 's short story " Rip Van Winkle " (1819) starring Will Rogers , but it did not work out either due to Paramount, which held the rights to the story, refusing to give permission. After the successful release of the Silly Symphony short Three Little Pigs in May 1933, Disney was strengthened in his decision to make a feature film and began introducing
2632-547: A love for hand-drawn animation and lamented its current absence from the industry. Some critics have suggested that Bird's films reflect novelist Ayn Rand 's Objectivism philosophy, which Bird has vehemently denied, saying that, "Me being the Ayn Rand guy is a lazy piece of criticism." Critic A.O. Scott originally advanced the idea that the Incredibles suggested a "feverish immersion" in "the philosophy of Ayn Rand," as
2820-506: A major milestone of the early animation industry, Snow White is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made and creating the new form of the golden age of animation ; Disney's take on the fairy tale has had a significant cultural effect, resulting in popular theme park attractions, a video game , a Broadway musical , and an upcoming live-action film . In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed
3008-424: A new foe who seeks to turn the populace against all superheroes. Though scheduled for release on June 21, 2019, the film was completed on an accelerated production schedule, as it was farther ahead in production than Toy Story 4 , which required more development and was later released on that day; the two simply swapped years, with Incredibles 2 debuting in theaters on June 15, 2018. Giacchino returned to compose
3196-439: A new generation of artists. What was left of the original staff got along with the newcomers, but Bird clashed with the middlemen in charge. While animating at Disney, he became a part of a small group of animators who worked in a suite of offices inside the original studio called the "Rat's Nest". There, Bird openly criticized the state of the studio, and characterized senior leadership as unwilling to take risk. He felt as though he
3384-451: A new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series. Hanna-Barbera Productions was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as The Flintstones (1960–1966) (the first prime time animated series), Scooby-Doo (since 1969) and Belgian co-production The Smurfs (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and
3572-597: A screenplay for The Incredibles , which he pitched to studios beginning in 1992. He also developed an original sci-fi feature titled Ray Gunn , with a script co-written by Matthew Robbins . Its futuristic story centered on a private detective in an Art Deco world of humans and aliens . Bird signed a production deal with Turner Feature Animation in January 1995, but the studio felt Ray Gunn would be too intense for its target demographic of young children. The following year, Turner merged with Time Warner , which contained
3760-520: A separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phenakistiscope , zoetrope , flip book , praxinoscope , and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally . For display on computers, technology such as
3948-473: A technical bone in his body and he didn't have any tolerance that you would need to have at the time to put up with some of the awfulness of the early technology," said Alvy Ray Smith . Bird's next credit was as an animator on the dark animated drama The Plague Dogs (1982); he was also fired by the film's director, Martin Rosen , during its production. One piece from his test reel, Family Dog , attracted
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#17327908954404136-399: A teenage science enthusiast ( Britt Robertson ) embark to an intriguing alternate dimension known as "Tomorrowland," where their actions directly affect their own world. The film ended up being a box-office bomb, losing Disney $ 120–150 million, and attracting a mixed critical response. Over the years, Bird mentioned the possibility of an Incredibles sequel in interviews. An official sequel
4324-619: A theater in Miami in January 1938, in which the strong box office sales encouraged RKO Radio Pictures to place the film into general release on February 4. It became a major box-office success, becoming the most successful sound film of all time, in which it displaced Al Jolson 's The Singing Fool (1928). Snow White would soon be displaced from this position by Gone with the Wind in 1939. Snow White proved equally popular with foreign audiences. In September 1938, Variety reported that
4512-605: A time, so he simply rested: "I just kind of didn't do anything," he confessed. Bird's cinematic sense of visual storytelling with Family Dog was uncommon in television animation to that point, mainly due to budgetary restrictions. Most television productions retained rudimentary cinematography, with frequent abuse of standard close-ups , medium angles, and establishing shots to move the story along. In contrast, Bird favored using more filmic techniques, utilizing extreme angles , long panning shots, quick camera cuts , pushed perspective , and so on. Bird's work on Family Dog caught
4700-521: A tour of Walt Disney Productions in Burbank, California . Bird met the Nine Old Men —the animators responsible for the studio's earliest and most celebrated features—and proclaimed he would join them one day. Bird has characterized his parents as generous and supportive of his interests. His mother once made a rainy drive two hours each way to the only theater playing a reissue of Snow White and
4888-450: A true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effective limited animation . Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching Saturday-morning cartoons . Many classic cartoons found
5076-536: A vengeful fan-turned-foe, Syndrome. Bird also provides the voice of costume designer Edna Mode . As an inside joke, the character Syndrome was based on Bird's likeness (as was Mr. Incredible) and according to him, he did not realize the joke until the movie was too far into production to have it changed. The animation team was tasked with creating computer animation's first all-human cast, which required creating new technology to animate detailed human anatomy, clothing, and realistic skin and hair. Michael Giacchino composed
5264-531: A very long history in automata . Electronic automata were popularized by Disney as animatronics . The word animation stems from the Latin animātiōn , stem of animātiō , meaning 'bestowing of life'. The earlier meaning of the English word is 'liveliness' and has been in use much longer than the meaning of 'moving image medium'. Long before modern animation began, audiences around the world were captivated by
5452-409: A wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Soviet Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became
5640-459: A young boy named Hogarth Hughes, who discovers and befriends a giant alien robot during the Cold War in 1957. He was quickly faced with assembling a team with little time to spare; most big-budget animated films of the era were workshopped for years, whereas Bird only had two. Adding to the pressure was Bird's frequent disagreements with the film's co-producer, Allison Abbate . In a trade-off,
5828-579: Is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images . In traditional animation , images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets ( cels ) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within the entertainment industry . Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation , in particular claymation , has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation
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6016-659: Is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of Alice Comedies (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, 1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US, 1988), Volere volare (Italy 1991), Space Jam (US, 1996) and Osmosis Jones (US, 2001). Snow White and
6204-448: Is contrasted with live-action film , although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of the two . As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery , filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation , while 2D computer animation (which may have
6392-538: Is in its 27th week at the New Gallery , London, and will continue to be shown through the regular London release dates, Sept. 19 for North London, and Sept. 26 for South London. There is a likelihood that the New Gallery first-run will run until Christmas. Picture reported to have exceeded $ 500,000, passing Radio City's five-week mark, which just fell short of the $ 500,000 mark. According to RKO, Snow White and
6580-410: Is now the fairest in all of the land. Angered, the Queen orders her Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest, kill her, and bring back her heart in a jeweled box as proof. The Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill Snow White and reveals to her the Queen's plot. He then urges her to flee into the woods and never return. Lost and frightened, Snow White is befriended by woodland animals who lead her to
6768-470: Is outspoken about the potential of the art of animation, and has asked the public not refer to his films as cartoons. In the audio commentary for the home release of The Incredibles , Bird joked he would fight the next person to refer to animated movies as a "genre", as opposed to an art form. He has also taken exception to the classification of modern animated fare as solely for children or families; suggesting it discriminatory and belittling. He has expressed
6956-413: Is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards , then handing the film over to
7144-449: Is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It
7332-404: Is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their Mickey Mouse mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products , as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name , but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called Disneyana has many avid collectors, and even
7520-661: Is the first animated feature film produced in the United States and the first cel animated feature film. Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California , on December 21, 1937, and went into general release in the United States on February 4, 1938. Despite initial doubts from the film industry, it was a critical and commercial success, with international earnings of more than $ 8 million during its initial release against
7708-505: Is the illusion of life, and you can't create that illusion convincingly if you haven't lived it," he later remarked. The family relocated to Corvallis, Oregon in his youth, and he graduated from Corvallis High School in 1975. That year, he was awarded a scholarship by Disney to attend the newly formed California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, California ; Bird has joked he
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7896-529: Is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio ( The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , The Lion King ) to the more 'cartoon' styles of
8084-432: Is the process that was used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels , which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on
8272-553: The 1916 silent film version , which he later cited as the primary reason for choosing "Snow White" for his first feature production. Disney had originally planned to produce Snow White as a Silly Symphony short, but reconsidered, believing that the story had enough potential for a feature film adaptation. He formally announced his plans on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The New York Times in June 1934, estimating that
8460-614: The Bay Area , eager to become a part of its burgeoning film scene, which birthed films like Apocalypse Now and The Black Stallion . He tried for several years to adapt Will Eisner 's comic book The Spirit to feature animation, but studios declined, unwilling to take a risk given Disney's dominance. He briefly attempted a computer-animated film at Lucasfilm with Edwin Catmull , presaging his later work with Pixar. "He had all these ideas for making animated movies, but he didn't have
8648-661: The Coen brothers have inspired Bird as well. His passion for the medium was evident even in his college years; friend John Lasseter remembered, "Brad would hang out all night talking about Scorsese and Coppola and how he could do what they did in animation." Bird himself has observed that his career was "very long, very delayed and full of disappointment," mainly because he aspired to "lofty" self-set expectations. He has been characterized as controlling with an exquisite attention to detail. His "demanding, often punishing" direction has prompted some to consider him difficult to work with. Bird
8836-647: The D23 Expo , Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter announced Incredibles 3 was in development, with Bird returning. I love all the arts, but I love movies most because they combine so many of them. —Brad Bird Bird says he was influenced by dozens of filmmakers, singling out early moviemakers Buster Keaton , Charlie Chaplin , and Harold Lloyd , to mid-twentieth century auteurs like David Lean , Alfred Hitchcock , Walt Disney , and Akira Kurosawa . More contemporary directors like Steven Spielberg , Francis Ford Coppola , George Lucas , Hayao Miyazaki , and
9024-763: The Internet ( web cartoons ). Rotoscoping is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other examples are Fire and Ice (US, 1983), Heavy Metal (1981), and Aku no Hana (Japan, 2013). Live-action/animation
9212-524: The Queen . Fearing that Snow White's beauty will outshine her own, the Queen forces her to work as a scullery maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all." For years, the mirror always answers that the Queen is, pleasing her. One day, Snow White meets and falls in love with a prince who overhears her singing. On that same day, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White
9400-525: The Warner Bros. animation studio . Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, The Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film. Limited animation involves
9588-556: The animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. In addition to short films , feature films , television series , animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, animation is also prevalent in video games , motion graphics , user interfaces , and visual effects . The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance, moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has
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#17327908954409776-415: The film's orchestral score , marking the first in a series of collaboration between the two men. The Incredibles was Bird's first global critical and box-office smash, grossing $ 631.4 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2004 . Bird won his first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , and his screenplay was nominated for Best Original Screenplay . It was the first animated film to win
9964-462: The flip book (1868), the praxinoscope (1877) and film . When cinematography eventually broke through in the 1890s, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. It took years before animation found its way to the cinemas. The successful short The Haunted Hotel (1907) by J. Stuart Blackton popularized stop motion and reportedly inspired Émile Cohl to create Fantasmagorie (1908), regarded as
10152-439: The persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and beta movement , but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect . While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over
10340-490: The screenplay for "The Main Attraction", the show's second episode, with Mick Garris . Spielberg enjoyed the script, and invited Bird to pitch other ideas. Bird storyboarded another Family Dog segment, which was decided to be adapted into an episode of Amazing Stories . The episode, which aired in 1987, was a ratings success. The experience was exciting for Bird; "Not only was Steven one of my favorite filmmakers, but he
10528-466: The second-highest-grossing animated film of all time , and earned him another nomination for the Academy Award. Bird has a reputation for supervising his projects to a high degree of detail. He advocates for creative freedom and the possibilities of animation, and has criticized its stereotype as children's entertainment, or classification as a genre , rather than an art. Philip Bradley Bird
10716-538: The 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as Barbapapa (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking) (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), Maya the Honey Bee (Japan/Germany 1975) and The Jungle Book (Italy/Japan 1989). Computer animation
10904-471: The 2008 Golden Globes ; it was also nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Feature, which it won. Midway through the aughts, Bird was attached to direct an adaption of James Dalessandro 's novel, 1906 , which chronicles the tumultuous earthquake that struck San Francisco a century prior. Due to the size and scale of such a project, three studios were to finance its making—Pixar, Disney, and Warner Bros.—but
11092-999: The Atlantic has suggested Bird's films are instead "stories about the frustrations of unbridled creativity [...] In each film, there's an indelible recurring image: the frustrated genius, locked away in a dusty closet, obsessing over the talents he has to hide." Bird and his wife Elizabeth (m. 1988) have three sons: Nicholas, who voiced Squirt in the Pixar film Finding Nemo and Rusty the bike boy in The Incredibles ; Michael, who voiced Tony Rydinger in The Incredibles and its sequel ; and Jack. Bird maintains properties in Tiburon, California, and Los Feliz, California . Uncredited brain trust Other credits Voice role Critical response to films Bird has directed: Brad Bird has cast certain actors and crew members in more than one of
11280-580: The Bay Area, where he had lived intermittently two decades prior. He purchased a home in Tiburon , across the bay from Pixar's Emeryville headquarters. He grew comforted by the "creative and supportive" atmosphere at Pixar, unlike many of the L.A. studios he had worked for; he convinced a core team to join him up north, including artists Tony Fucile, Teddy Newton , and Lou Romano , all of whom had contributed development artwork for The Incredibles for much of
11468-522: The Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture , in 1991. Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten. The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking , with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference
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#173279089544011656-488: The Chouinard Institute. Graham taught his first class at the studio on November 15, 1932, and was joined by Philip L. Dike a few weeks later. These classes were principally concerned with human anatomy and movement, though instruction later included action analysis, animal anatomy and acting. Though the classes were originally described as a "brutal battle", with neither instructor nor students well-versed in
11844-517: The Dwarfs, and their bird and animal friends appear". The names and personalities of the dwarfs, however, were still "open to change". A meeting of November 16 resulted in another outline entitled 'Dwarfs Discover Snowwhite', which introduced the character of Dopey, who would ultimately prove to be the most successful of the dwarf characterizations. In the original storyboard, Dopey was very talkative, but no suitable voice actors could be found. Mel Blanc
12032-712: The Friendly Ghost (1945), Warner Bros. Cartoon Studios ' Looney Tunes ' Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937), Elmer Fudd (1937–1940), Bugs Bunny (1938–1940), Tweety (1942), Sylvester the Cat (1945), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949), MGM cartoon studio 's Tom and Jerry (1940) and Droopy , Universal Cartoon Studios ' Woody Woodpecker (1940), Terrytoons / 20th Century Fox 's Mighty Mouse (1942), and United Artists ' Pink Panther (1963). In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made
12220-704: The North American box office and is still the highest-grossing animated film. Worldwide, its inflation-adjusted earnings top the animation list. Snow White was nominated for Best Musical Score at the Academy Awards in 1938, and the next year , producer Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar for the film. This award was unique, consisting of one normal-sized, plus seven miniature Oscar statuettes. They were presented to Disney by Shirley Temple . Its prototypical animated feature and use of fairy tale adaptations as well as technical innovation became
12408-535: The Queen described as "stately, beautiful in the way of a Benda mask ... a cool serene character who demonstrates her fury only in moments of great passion." One of the potential storylines developed for "Manuscript" involved the Queen imprisoning the Prince in her dungeon, after seeing his affection for Snow White, with the Prince later fighting his way out of her castle with "tricks that Doug Fairbanks would like to have thought." Other story suggestions included
12596-462: The Queen having a collection of her former enemies reduced to a few inches in size; a Gilbert and Sullivan -style musical number for the scene where the Queen orders the Huntsman to kill Snow White; and the sequence of the Queen trying to break the mirror upon learning that Snow White has survived, with the mirror detaching itself from the wall and smashing against the Queen after chasing her around
12784-518: The Queen's faces. Eventually, they found a red dye that worked and which was added with a small piece of cotton wrapped around a tipple pencil on each individual cel. Helen Ogger , an employee at the ink department, was also an animator and decided to use the same system used in animation. The method was so time-consuming that it was never used again on the same scale. It was also used to a smaller degree in Pinocchio and Fantasia but, after Ogger left
12972-478: The Queen, taking the wrong road in the process. Other discussions included the dwarfs' discovery of Snow White in their cottage; two disguises for the Queen ;– a "fat, bulgy" peddler and a "thin, hawk-faced" witch – for each of her attempts to kill Snow White; and the scene of Snow White kissing the dwarfs goodbye before they leave for work. At the meeting, Disney also insisted that
13160-478: The Seven Dwarfs for Bird's education. After two years, Bird had completed his first short, a fifteen-minute adaption of The Tortoise and the Hare . On his parents' advice, to "start at the top and work your way down", he sent the film to his idols at Disney. The studio responded with an open invitation for Bird to stop by whenever in town, which led him to make several visits to the studio's California headquarters in
13348-469: The Seven Dwarfs had earned $ 7,846,000 in international box office receipts by the end of its original theatrical run. This earned RKO a profit of $ 380,000. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first re-released in 1944, to raise revenue for the Disney studio during the World War II period. This re-release set a tradition of re-releasing Disney animated features every few years, and Snow White and
13536-430: The Seven Dwarfs marks La Verne's final film performance before her death in 1942. Kenny Baker was temporarily considered for the role of the Prince, with several other actors tested, before Harry Stockwell was cast in 1936. Reginald Barlow and Cy Kendall recorded the preliminary dialogue for the Huntsman, but both were deemed unsatisfactory for the final cut; the role was eventually given to Stuart Buchanan (who
13724-443: The Seven Dwarfs was re-released to theaters in 1952, 1958, 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987 and 1993. Coinciding with the 50th-anniversary release in 1987, Disney released one of many authorized novelizations of the story, this one written by children's author Suzanne Weyn . In 1993, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the first film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. The restoration project
13912-521: The Seven Dwarfs (1937 film) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures . Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm , the production was supervised by David Hand , and was directed by a team of sequence directors, including Perce Pearce , William Cottrell, Larry Morey , Wilfred Jackson , and Ben Sharpsteen . It
14100-618: The Seven Dwarfs , as well as the two Disney films to follow it, were influenced by such German expressionist films as Nosferatu (1922) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), both of which were recommended by Disney to his staff. This influence is particularly evident in the scenes of Snow White fleeing through the forest and the Queen's transformation into the Witch. The latter scene was also inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), to which Disney made specific reference in story meetings. Disney had to mortgage his house to help finance
14288-594: The Tramp (1955) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with An American Tail in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in
14476-524: The US. Successful producer John Randolph Bray and animator Earl Hurd , patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century. Felix the Cat , who debuted in 1919, became the first fully realized anthropomorphic animal character in the history of American animation. In 1928, Steamboat Willie , featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse , popularized film-with-synchronized-sound and put Walt Disney 's studio at
14664-498: The adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form a natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. A cartoon can also be a still humorous drawing, often with the same elements as animated cartoons but with still versions. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to
14852-469: The animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond
15040-521: The animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in
15228-469: The animators, the artists' animators disapproved of rotoscoping , considering it to hinder the production of effective caricature. Nevertheless, all of the above-mentioned characters were fully rotoscoped and utilized by their respective artists, some more, some less. Despite Graham and Natwick's objections, however, some scenes of Snow White and the Prince were directly traced from the live-action footage. It proved difficult to add color to Snow White's and
15416-408: The apple, and she falls into a death-like slumber. The dwarfs return with the animals as the Queen leaves the cottage, and give chase, trapping her on a cliff. She tries to roll a boulder onto them, but lightning strikes the cliff before she can do so, causing her to fall and get crushed to death by the boulder. In their cottage, the dwarfs find Snow White asleep by the poison. Unwilling to bury her in
15604-643: The attention of director Steven Spielberg . Family Dog centered on a pet's perspective of his dysfunctional suburban family, and its original pencil test featured designs by Bird's classmate Tim Burton. Bird had hoped to develop the concept into theatrical shorts, like those from the golden age of American animation , but the market simply no longer existed. Instead, Bird moved back to Los Angeles and joined Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment , and became involved with his television program Amazing Stories , an anthology series which debuted in 1985. He co-wrote
15792-474: The casting in a Variety article, Gilbert, who was known for his signature sneeze, telephoned Disney to try out for the role. Disney agreed to audition him and, upon witnessing Gilbert's "sneezing routine", hired him on the spot. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs features contributions from three European artists who came to work at the Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s. By 1936, Albert Hurter
15980-502: The chamber. Disney also decided from the beginning that each of the Seven Dwarfs ;– whom he considered the "strongest lure" of the story because of their comedic potential – should have a distinctive personality, identified by a respective name; a pool of over fifty possibilities was compiled for "Manuscript" (with names such as Sleepy, Hoppy, Bashful, Happy, Sneezy-Wheezy, Biggo-Ego, and Awful as
16168-420: The comb, the Queen would throw the Prince into a dungeon and use magic to make the skeletons of her previous victims dance for him (identifying one skeleton as "Prince Oswald"). When the disguised Queen would have left for the dwarfs' cottage with the poisoned apple, Snow White's bird friends were to help the Prince escape from the dungeon, fight the Queen's guards, and find his horse; the Prince would then go after
16356-534: The crew received significant creative freedom to make the film they wanted to make, though Bird occasionally fielded suggestions from executives to make the film more merchandisable or kid-friendly. The film scored highly on test screenings , but Warner neglected to secure prominent promotion for the movie as they were promoting Wild Wild West instead. The Iron Giant opened in August 1999 to rave reviews from critics, but very low ticket sales; theater owners discarded
16544-714: The demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker limited animation methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series, the first cartoon of The Simpsons (1987), which later developed into its own show (in 1989) and SpongeBob SquarePants (since 1999) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring stop motion and puppetry over cel animation. Japanese anime TV series became very successful internationally since
16732-422: The drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video . The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators ' work has remained essentially the same over the past 90 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on
16920-538: The dwarfs to pray; and the climactic scene of the dwarfs chasing the disguised Queen, followed by her death from falling off a cliff. For the next meeting, held on October 9, a typed sheet was complied, featuring a redefined selection of names for the dwarfs – Wheezy, Jumpy, Baldy, Grumpy, Happy, Doc, and Sleepy – and their respective characteristics; several alternatives were also suggested (including Hickey, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Shorty, Wheezy, Burpy, Dizzy, and Dopey). From
17108-410: The dwarfs welcome her after she offers to clean and cook for them. Snow White keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day; and at night, they all sing, play music, and dance. Back at the castle, the Magic Mirror reveals that Snow White is still living, and with the dwarfs. Enraged that the Huntsman tricked her, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into
17296-408: The dwarfs were cut from the film. The first, which was animated in its entirety before being cut, showed Doc and Grumpy arguing about whether Snow White should stay with them. Another, also completely animated, would have shown the dwarfs eating soup noisily and messily; Snow White unsuccessfully attempts to teach them how to eat 'like gentlemen'. A partially-animated sequence involved the dwarfs holding
17484-475: The end of his long-held love of the form. Still, he pulled together funds to make A Portfolio of Projects , a demo reel of potential animated projects, ones he felt the medium was capable of. Bird was hopeful of receiving financial backing from other studios, but ended up frustrated by Hollywood 's development system: "for every good project I've made, I've got equally good projects that are sitting [un-produced by] various studios," he said in 2018. He relocated to
17672-433: The ensuing years. This opportunity—an "unofficial apprenticeship" of sorts—was "never offered" to anyone previously. He worked closely with Milt Kahl , whom he considered a hero. He began another film, titled Ecology American Style , which was more ambitious and in color, but the workload was intense. Instead, Bird focused on other interests in his high school years, including dating, athletics, and photography . "Animation
17860-514: The eye of producers James L. Brooks and Sam Simon , who with Matt Groening were developing The Simpsons , the first prime time animated sitcom in decades for Fox . In 1989, he was invited to join Klasky Csupo (and later Film Roman ), where he served as "executive consultant" for the show. The role required Bird oversee the script-to-animation pipeline 2–3 days per week; the first episode produced on which Bird received credit (save for
18048-591: The fantastic things, based on the real, unless we first know the real. This point should be brought out very clearly to all new men, and even the older men. Walt Disney in 1935 Very few of the animators at the Disney studio had had artistic training (most had been newspaper cartoonists); among these few was Grim Natwick , who had trained in Europe. The animator's success in designing and animating Betty Boop for Fleischer Studios showed an understanding of human female anatomy and, when Walt Disney hired Natwick, he
18236-464: The feature film. At this time, Disney also encouraged his staff to see a variety of films. These ranged from the mainstream, such as MGM's Romeo and Juliet (1936)—to which Disney made direct reference in a story meeting pertaining to the scene in which Snow White lies in her glass coffin—to the more obscure, including European silent cinema . Romeo and Juliet also inspired the balcony scene between Snow White and Prince Charming. Snow White and
18424-815: The field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include ASIFA-Hollywood 's Annie Awards , the Emile Awards in Europe and the Anima Mundi awards in Brazil. Apart from Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for Best Original Song and Best Original Score . Beauty and
18612-531: The film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the National Film Registry . The American Film Institute ranked it among the 100 greatest American films , and also named the film as the greatest American animated film of all time in 2008. Having lost both of her parents at a young age, Snow White is a princess living with her wicked and cold-hearted stepmother,
18800-442: The film could be produced for a budget of $ 250,000, which was roughly ten times the budget of an average Silly Symphony . The project (then known as the "Feature Symphony") was initially developed by a small unit of writers that Disney personally supervised, before it was introduced to the studio staff at large on October 30, 1934, when the basic story outline was completed. As some animators later recalled, Disney assembled them on
18988-440: The film in a memorandum of November 25, 1935 and had decided on the personalities of the individual dwarfs. It had first been thought that the dwarfs would be the main focus of the story, and many sequences were written for the seven characters. However, at a certain point, it was decided that the main thrust of the story was provided by the relationship between the Queen and Snow White. For this reason, several sequences featuring
19176-585: The film was having a remarkably long box-office run at theaters in Sydney, Australia. In that city, it noted, "Walt Disney's 'Snow White' (RKO) experienced no difficulty at hitting 11 weeks, with more ahead." Variety reported as well that Snow White was having even longer runs in other cities overseas, such as in London , where the film had generated greater box-office receipts than during its exclusive New York screenings at Radio City Music Hall: 'Snow White' (RKO)
19364-431: The film's hero, Bob Parr, complains of society's "celebration of mediocrity," though Scott also noted the film's climax, in which Bob and his family learn to better serve society with their talents, would repudiate this idea. Some critics later pointed to Tomorrowland, in which a group of geniuses form a society sequestered from the rest of the world, as reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged and its Galt Gulch enclave. David Sims at
19552-415: The film's production, which eventually ran up a total cost of $ 1,488,422.74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937. Midway through, Disney needed a $ 250,000 loan to finish the film. Disney ran a rough cut for Joseph Rosenberg of Bank of America , who sat impassively during the showing. Then Rosenberg turned to the worried Disney and said, "Walt, that thing is going to make a hatful of money" and approved
19740-417: The film, and in 1997, the two began to negotiate Bird joining Pixar. In March 2000, Bird went to Pixar's Emeryville, California , campus and pitched his ideas, including The Incredibles , to Lasseter. The studio announced a multi-film contract with Bird in May of that year, making Bird the first outside voice for the studio, which previously required talent to rise through the ranks. He was excited to return to
19928-472: The films he has directed. In addition to his Academy Award , BAFTA Award and Saturn Award wins, Bird holds the record of the most animation Annie Award wins with eight, winning both Best Directing and Best Writing for each of The Iron Giant , The Incredibles and Ratatouille , as well as Best Voice Acting for The Incredibles . His eighth Annie was the 2011 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to animation. Animation Animation
20116-458: The first feature-length film El Apóstol (now lost ), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's Sin dejar rastros in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in 1926,
20304-406: The forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output, has always been very small; the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the golden age of American animation that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated
20492-459: The former episode. In his role, Bird pushed the show's artists to visualize episodes as miniature films, taking inspiration from the work of Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles . In the 1990s, he also contributed to other episodic animated sitcoms like The Critic and the first season of King of the Hill , both of which took cues from this established template. Bird called his work at The Simpsons
20680-409: The ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin in the forest. Together with the animals, they keep watch over her. The following spring, the prince learns of Snow White's eternal sleep and visits the coffin. Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the prince takes Snow White to his castle. Walt Disney conceived
20868-611: The humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals. Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid " Kills Bugs Dead " commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to comic books . While many comic book characters found their way to
21056-558: The idea of making his first feature-length film in 1933, when his animation studio was focusing on production of animated short films, such as the Silly Symphonies series. Although they were popular with the audience, Disney believed that the shorts did not bring enough profit for the further growth of the studio; he also saw the full-length film as a way to expand his "storytelling possibilities", allowing for elaborate plots and character development. By late March 1933, he
21244-597: The idea to his staff through a "slow infiltration" – sharing it with everyone individually during casual conversations. He entered into negotiations with Merian C. Cooper to produce a full-length animated version of Victor Herbert 's 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland in Technicolor ; the project was offered to RKO Radio Pictures , which owned the rights to the play, but RKO executives rejected it. In July 1933, Disney first revealed his plans on making
21432-463: The last three months of Bird's contract. Warner executives set up a meeting, and made it clear they had no interest in Ray Gunn . Instead, they offered Bird several in-development projects, including a musical version of poet Ted Hughes ' book The Iron Man , first envisioned by rocker Pete Townshend . Bird read the novel and felt "enchanted" by it; he felt drawn to Hughes' rationale for writing
21620-435: The late 1980s, in a style similar to traditional cel animation. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, became the dominant technique following the success of Pixar's Toy Story (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer-animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only
21808-569: The loan. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937. The film received a standing ovation at its completion from an audience that included Judy Garland , Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton . Six days later, Walt Disney and the seven dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Three weeks later, it opened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City and
21996-495: The look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings . Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts , puppets , or clay figures . A cartoon in the animation sense is an animated film, usually short, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips , often featuring anthropomorphic animals , superheroes , or
22184-421: The magic of moving characters. For centuries, master artists and craftsmen have brought puppets, automatons , shadow puppets , and fantastical lanterns to life, inspiring the imagination through physically manipulated wonders. In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phenakistiscope ) introduced the principle of modern animation, which would also be applied in the zoetrope (introduced in 1866),
22372-763: The oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020 . The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with Gulliver's Travels with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features Pinocchio , Fantasia (both 1940), Fleischer Studios' second animated feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941–1942) and Disney's feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and
22560-510: The oldest known example of a complete traditional (hand-drawn) animation on standard cinematographic film. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by Winsor McCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as Little Nemo (1911) and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated " cartoons " became an industry in
22748-484: The other's craft, the enthusiasm and energy of both parties made the classes stimulating and beneficial for all involved. Graham often screened Disney shorts and, along with the animators, provided critique featuring both strengths and weaknesses. For example, Graham criticised Babbitt's animation of Abner the mouse in The Country Cousin as "taking a few of the obvious actions of a drunk without coordinating
22936-493: The outset, Disney decided to discard the part from the Grimms' original story where the Queen tries to kill Snow White with a tightly laced bodice, but considered retaining the other two attempts (with a poisoned comb and a poisoned apple), both of which were discussed at the meeting. The storyline of the Prince's imprisonment by the Queen, first introduced in "Manuscript", was also elaborated: after failing to kill Snow White with
23124-404: The past decade. Bird's first film, The Incredibles , follows Bob ( Craig T. Nelson ) and Helen Parr ( Holly Hunter ), a couple of superheroes , known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, who hide their powers in accordance with a government mandate, and attempt to live a quiet suburban life with their three children. Bob's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with
23312-414: The picture after only a few weeks. Altogether, the movie grossed $ 31.3 million worldwide against its $ 50 million budget, which was considered a significant loss for Warner. Upon its arrival on home video , the film took on a cult following . Bird was disappointed by the failure of Giant ; he visited multiple cineplexes only to view the film in empty auditoriums. Afterwards, he was briefly attached to direct
23500-456: The prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation . Bird's next project was Ratatouille (2007), which follows a rat named Remy, who dreams of becoming a chef and tries to achieve his goal by forming an alliance with a Parisian restaurant's garbage boy. The film was developed by Jan Pinkava , who worked on the concept for many years. By the time the project was slated to enter the animation process, Pixar leadership became concerned it
23688-467: The process would only make stories smaller and more like everything else," he complained. In his personal life, he wed Elizabeth Canney, an editor on Batteries Not Included . In 1989, Bird's sister Susan, with whom he was very close, was killed by her estranged husband in a murder-suicide. The event was traumatic for Bird; he felt emotionally "kind of gone in that period. I don't really have a lot of memories from it." He had enough funds to support himself for
23876-477: The project stalled. He paused when Pixar management asked he take over Ratatouille , and returned afterward. He attempted to re-write 1906 to work within the confines of a feature's length, but struggled. Instead, Bird helmed the next installment of the action spy series Mission: Impossible , starring Tom Cruise . Bird's foray into live-action filmmaking after a major career in animation had little precedent, according to critics. Cruise had been impressed by
24064-600: The rest of the body", while praising it for maintaining its humour without getting "dirty or mean or vulgar. The country mouse is always having a good time". The first duty of the cartoon is not to picture or duplicate real action or things as they actually happen—but to give a caricature of life and action—to picture on the screen things that have run thru the imagination of the audience to bring to life dream-fantasies and imaginative fancies that we have all thought of during our lives or have had pictured to us in various forms during our lives [...] I definitely feel that we cannot do
24252-459: The reworked cut of the pilot episode " Some Enchanted Evening ") was " There's No Disgrace Like Home ". Bird worked on the show for its first eight seasons (with his final credited episode being " Treehouse of Horror VIII " (1997), the second episode of season nine to be produced), and directed the episodes " Krusty Gets Busted " (1990) and " Like Father, Like Clown " (1992). He also designed the character Sideshow Bob , who made his speaking debut in
24440-542: The role came naturally. When Bird took over, much of the design work had been completed, but Bird wrote an entirely new script that eschewed much of its original dialogue. Giacchino returned to compose the Paris-inspired music for the film. Upon release, Ratatouille was another huge hit for Pixar; the film grossed $ 623.7 million and earned critical acclaim. It won the Best Animated Feature award at
24628-408: The room labeled A113 —a small, sterile classroom with no windows. Bird later used A113 as an Easter egg in his films; it has since become a fixture of media made by the school's alumni. The first use of A113 was in the pilot episode for the short-lived television series Family Dog (1993). The pilot episode was a part of the series Amazing Stories (1985–1987), which aired February 16, 1987, and
24816-560: The score. Incredibles 2 made $ 182.7 million in its opening weekend, setting the record for best debut for an animated film , and grossed over $ 1.2 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing animated film at the time, the highest-grossing Pixar film, and the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year . Incredibles 2 was named by the National Board of Review as the Best Animated Film of 2018. The film
25004-768: The screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many manga are adapted into anime ), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for video games (an interactive form of animation that became its own medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media, The Walt Disney Company
25192-725: The screenplay for Batteries Not Included (1987), a comic sci-fi film that stemmed from an Amazing Stories outline. The film opened in fourth place domestically, and was overall a box office hit, generating $ 65.1 million on its $ 25 million budget. Bird also helped with Captain EO , a 3-D short film starring Michael Jackson viewed at Disney theme parks . These successes brought Bird more opportunity, but he continued to spend many years in development hell with studios. He grew irritated with notes from middle management: executives he felt "would analyze your work and dictate everything you'd need to do to make it 'more pleasing to an audience'—and in
25380-401: The second-highest-grossing film starring Cruise. Though he was asked to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Bird turned down the opportunity to focus on his new project: the sci-fi film Tomorrowland , named for the futuristic themed land found at Disney theme parks . Bird co-wrote the screenplay with Damon Lindelof . In the film, a disillusioned genius inventor ( George Clooney ) and
25568-424: The shorts, but an hour and a half, no way! Big reason was that you run out of funny things to do, you had to have a laugh-a-minute. And the bright colors would hurt your eyes, everybody would get up and walk out ... Walt, of course, plugged ahead, he didn't believe that. He felt that if you had a solid story, not only laughs in it, but tragedy, it would go." Both Disney's wife Lillian and his brother Roy (who
25756-848: The show), the widely panned animated sitcom Family Dog . Afterwards, Bird joined The Simpsons as creative consultant for eight seasons. He directed the traditional animated feature The Iron Giant (1999), adapted from a book by poet Ted Hughes ; though critically lauded, it was a box-office bomb . He moved to Pixar where he wrote and directed two computer-animated films, The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007) that were worldwide critical and financial smash hits; they earned Bird two Academy Award for Best Animated Feature wins and Best Original Screenplay nominations. He transitioned to live-action filmmaking with similarly successful Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), he then directed Disney's Tomorrowland (2015). He returned to Pixar to develop Incredibles 2 (2018), which became
25944-458: The side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. In modern traditionally animated films, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color
26132-430: The sound stage in the evening and acted out the entire story of Snow White for three hours, concluding with announcement of their first feature film. Although the studio staff were excited about the project, they were unsure that the full-length cartoon would sustain an audience's attention. Ward Kimball said that they were told by Hollywood moguls (such as W. C. Fields ) that "it was OK, six-seven minutes, like
26320-448: The story, offering five dollars for every 'gag'; such gags included the dwarfs' noses popping over the foot of the bed when they first meet Snow White. Disney became concerned that such a comical approach would lessen the plausibility of the characters and, sensing that more time was needed for the development of the Queen, advised in an outline circulated on November 6 that attention be paid exclusively to "scenes in which only Snow White,
26508-450: The story, which was to comfort his children after the death of his wife, Sylvia Plath . Bird connected with its themes, relating it to his sister's passing from gun violence . He significantly revised the entire story to center on a central question: "What if a gun had a soul?" Warner leadership was sold and Bird signed the contract to direct The Iron Giant in December 1996. Bird penned the screenplay with Tim McCanlies , which centers on
26696-491: The studio in 1941, there was no one else with the same skills who could replace her. The songs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey . Paul J. Smith and Leigh Harline composed the incidental music score. Songs from the film include " Heigh-Ho ", " Someday My Prince Will Come ", and " Whistle While You Work ". Since Disney did not have its own music publishing company at
26884-419: The studio since 1934, was also hired as the film's inspirational sketch artist, providing a number of dark concepts for the film. Many of his other designs were ultimately rejected since they were less easily translated into animation than Hurter's, and Hovarth didn't receive a credit for the film. By the spring of 1936, as the animation process begun, Hurter and Hovarth were joined by Gustaf Tenggren . Tenggren
27072-479: The studio's Nine Old Men . He attended the California Institute of the Arts in the late 1970s, and worked for Disney shortly thereafter. In the 1980s, he worked in film development with various studios; he wrote the screenplay for Batteries Not Included (1987), and developed two episodes of Amazing Stories for Steven Spielberg , including its spin-off (based on a segment written by Bird for
27260-433: The studio; Disney, however, persuaded him to stay by promoting Kimball to supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket in his next feature Pinocchio (1940). I wanted to get a voice for Snow White that would be kind of away from every day. You know kind of off in another world. And I was hunting for a certain quality voice. So I had a boy searching for voices. He went everywhere. I wanted someone who could sing, too, because I
27448-431: The style and storytelling of Incredibles , and urged Bird to contact him should he venture into the live-action sphere. The idea of combining the commercial aspects of a franchise—this was the third Mission sequel—and more artistic tones challenged Bird, who signed on to direct in May 2010. In the picture, Cruise reprises his role of Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt , who with his team race against time to find
27636-425: The synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s. Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation)
27824-652: The time, Disney adopted a "wide-ranging approach", remaining open to any idea that could be proposed; notably, one of the suggestions included Snow White traveling through a series of enchanted sites – such as the Sleepy Valley, the Morass of Monsters, and the Valley of the Dragons ;– before arriving at the dwarfs' cottage. Snow White was originally envisioned to be more tomboyish, with
28012-438: The time, the publishing rights for the music and songs were administered through Bourne Co. Music Publishers , which continues to hold these rights. In later years, the studio was able to acquire back the music rights from many of their other films, but not Snow White , Pinocchio , Dumbo or most Silly Symphony cartoons. Snow White became the first American film to have a soundtrack album , released in conjunction with
28200-462: The time. I don't know why I picked Snow White . It's a thing I remembered as a kid. I saw Marguerite Clark in it in Kansas City one time when I was a newsboy. They had a big showing for all the newsboys. And I went and saw Snow White . It was probably one of my first big feature pictures I'd ever seen. That was back in 1916 or something. Somewhere way back. But anyways, to me I thought it
28388-423: The top contenders). In October 1934, Disney began holding weekly story meetings with a small unit of writers, which included Creedon, Larry Morey, Ted Sears , Albert Hurter, and Pinto Colvig . During the first meeting on October 3, several scenes were proposed: the "Soup Eating" (where Snow White has dinner with dwarfs) and "Bed Building" (where dwarfs build a bed for Snow White) sequences; Snow White teaching
28576-847: The use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America , limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing-Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation , and other TV animation studios ) and later
28764-565: The value had increased to an estimated US$ 370 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s. The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation
28952-401: The very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects. In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$ 80 billion. By 2021,
29140-683: The words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), Lucky and Zorba (Italy, 1998), and The Illusionist (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994), Anastasia (US, 1997), The Prince of Egypt (US, 1998), Akira (Japan, 1988), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001), The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003), and The Secret of Kells (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009). Full animation
29328-482: The world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including Walt Disney Productions ' Goofy (1932) and Donald Duck (1934), Fleischer Studios / Paramount Cartoon Studios ' Out of the Inkwell ' Koko the Clown (1918), Bimbo and Betty Boop (1930), Popeye (1933) and Casper
29516-415: The writers refer to the dwarfs as "seven little men", which was maintained for the rest of the production. Other examples of the more comical nature of the story at this point included suggestions for a "fat, batty, cartoon type, self-satisfied" Queen. The Prince was also more of a clown and was to serenade Snow White in a more comical fashion. Walt Disney encouraged all staff at the studio to contribute to
29704-557: Was a "retired" animator by the time he received this offer. Instead, he considered attending the acting program at Ashland University . After a three-year break, Bird chose CalArts and moved down south. Bird's classmates included prominent future animators such as John Lasseter , Tim Burton , and Henry Selick . Like many students, they were dazzled by the special effects in Star Wars (1977); both Lasseter and Bird agreed these feats were possible in animation. First-year students met in
29892-406: Was a perfect story. I had the sympathetic dwarfs and things. I had the prince and the girl. The romance. I had the heavy. I just thought it was a perfect story. Walt Disney , on choosing "Snow White" for his first feature film Disney settled on the Brothers Grimm 's 1812 fairy tale " Snow White " in the spring of 1934. He had been familiar with the story since he was a teenager, having seen
30080-469: Was also his business partner) attempted unsuccessfully to talk him out of it, and movie-industry insiders derisively referred to the film as "Disney's Folly" while it was in production. The earliest known story outline – entitled "Manuscript" – was compiled by staff writer Richard Creedon on August 9, 1934, featuring twenty-one pages of suggestions for characters, scenes, and songs (including "Some Day My Prince Will Come"). At
30268-403: Was announced in 2014. Bird began writing its screenplay in earnest the next year; he attempted to distinguish the script from the breadth of superhero-related content released since the first film, focusing on the family dynamic rather than the superhero genre. The story follows the Incredibles as they try to restore the public's trust in superheroes while balancing their family life, only to combat
30456-517: Was announced that Bird had signed a deal with Skydance the previous year and reassembled frequent collaborators Michael Giacchino, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Darren T. Holmes , and Jeffrey Lynch for the film. According to The Hollywood Reporter , the presumptive production costs were estimated to be $ 150 million. This resulted in Skydance leaving its distributor deal with Apple TV+ , in which they later partnered with Netflix . In August 2024, at
30644-416: Was approached by Mary Pickford (co-founder of United Artists that was distributing Disney's works at the time) with a proposal for a feature-length animated/live-action version of Lewis Carroll 's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865); however, the project was soon scrapped when Paramount Pictures began production of their own film version . Disney then considered using the same concept for
30832-429: Was assigned to supervise the film's art direction; all the designs used in the film, from character costume designs to layouts and backgrounds, had to meet his approval before being finalized. Having had an academic art training, Hurter was instrumental in devising the film's overall Germanic look, incorporating European illustrations and painting techniques into the animation. Ferdinand Horvath, who had been working at
31020-435: Was believed that the Silly Symphony short The Goddess of Spring (1934) may have placed doubt in his studio's abilities to animate a realistic girl. Apparently, a three-month trip to Europe that summer restored his confidence. At this point, Disney and his writers focused on the scenes in which Snow White and the dwarfs are introduced to the audience and each other. He laid out the likely assignments for everyone working on
31208-752: Was born in September 24, 1957 in Kalispell , Montana, the youngest of four children to Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in the propane business, and his grandfather, Francis Wesley "Frank" Bird, who was born in County Sligo, Ireland , was a president and chief executive of the Montana Power Company . Bird's fascination with filmmaking began at an early age. He started drawing at age three, with his first cartoons clear attempts at sequential storytelling . He
31396-412: Was called in for forty-four days of recording sessions within two years, receiving $ 20 for each day (in total, Caselotti was paid $ 970). Thelma Hubbard provided Snow White's screams in the forest flight scene and later voiced the character in the film's 1938 Spanish dub and Lux Radio Theatre adaptation. The studio auditioned over a dozen actresses for the role of the Queen before Lucille La Verne
31584-460: Was carried out entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the Cineon system (10 bits each of red, green and blue—30 in total) to digitally remove dirt and scratches. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has had a lifetime gross of $ 418 million across its original release and several reissues. Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of
31772-516: Was chosen, although several members of Disney's staff contended that she sounded a "little old" for the part. Having portrayed similar characters in Orphans of the Storm (1921) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935), La Verne also tried out for the role of the Witch, and the animators initially felt that her voice was "too smooth and not rough enough" until she removed her false teeth. Snow White and
31960-419: Was given a try without success. It was suggested to make him mute instead. For the rest of 1934, Disney further developed the story by himself, finding a dilemma in the characterization of the Queen, who he felt could no longer be "fat" and "batty", but a "stately beautiful type", a possibility already brought up in previous story meetings. Disney did not focus on the project again until the autumn of 1935. It
32148-484: Was given female characters to animate almost exclusively. Attempts to animate Persephone, the female lead of The Goddess of Spring , had proved largely unsuccessful; Natwick's animation of the heroine in Cookie Carnival showed greater promise, and the animator was eventually given the task of animating Snow White herself. Though live action footage of Snow White, the Prince and the Queen was shot as reference for
32336-505: Was going to use a lot of songs. So he kept bringing these people in ... So one day he came in with a voice. I listened to it. I said "That's perfect." I said "She sounds to me like a 14-year-old girl." And he said "Well, she's 18. You know?" But that was it. It was a little girl called Adriana Caselotti and she came from an opera family ... She could do all this beautiful birdlike stuff. So I signed her. —Walt Disney, on casting Adriana Caselotti as Snow White Adriana Caselotti
32524-543: Was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller Futureworld (1976). The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by Pixar in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company in
32712-466: Was hired by the studio as casting director and dialogue coach in 1936). Story meeting notes from October 9, 1934, indicate that Eddie Holden and Billy Bletcher were initially considered for the role of Doc until Atwell was cast in early 1936. Radio actor John Gibson initially auditioned for the part of Sleepy and recorded some dialogue at a prerecording session in February 1936. After reading about
32900-451: Was momentarily signed to direct a live-action comedy, Brothers in Crime , at New Line Cinema , but it did not pan out. In addition, his growing family gave rise to other concerns. "I had anxiety about devoting my energy to work that was meaningful and spending time with my family, which was also meaningful to me. If I did one, would I fail at the other?" he worried. He poured these themes into
33088-421: Was nearly hired to provide the speaking voice of Snow White (as well as the live-action reference for the character), but eventually dropped out due to finding the contact unacceptable, although some of Davis' miscellaneous vocal tracks were used in the final film. Caselotti was cast as Snow White in September 1935, exactly one year after her first audition, and recorded her first tracks on January 20, 1936. She
33276-476: Was no teacher, Babbitt had recruited a model to pose for him and his fellow animators as they drew. These "classes" were held weekly; each week, more animators would come. After three weeks, Walt Disney called Babbit to his office and offered to provide the supplies, working space and models required if the sessions were moved to the studio. Babbitt ran the sessions for a month until animator Hardie Gramatky suggested that they recruit Don Graham , an art teacher from
33464-497: Was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and 91st Academy Awards , but lost both awards to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse . Bird has expressed interest in developing an animated Western or horror film . However, Bird returned to revive his long-dormant project Ray Gunn at Warner Bros. Feature Animation before he was approached by John Lasseter to produce it for Skydance . In 2022, it
33652-473: Was not ready. Bird was hired on in July 2005 to assess the mistakes and turn the project around in a short time. He disliked having to take over Pinkva's passion project: "It was a rough position to be in because I always come down on the side of the creator," he later said. However, he was also in position with Pixar as a member of their "brain trust"—a group of individuals who critique and help each other—so he felt
33840-448: Was particularly enamored with animation after a screening of The Jungle Book (1967), and a family friend who had taken animation classes explained how the medium worked. Bird's father found a used camera that could shoot one frame at a time, and helped him setup the device for making films. He began animating his first short subject at age 11; that same year, his family connection introduced him to composer George Bruns , who set him up
34028-403: Was powerful enough to clear space that allowed us creative freedom," he later remarked. Family Dog was later spun-off into its own half-hour sitcom , against Bird's urging and without his involvement, as he felt the idea would not work. He was also perturbed to see Burton's role in designing the characters overshadow his deeper contributions to the concept. He was later brought on to co-write
34216-529: Was standing behind the studio's original principles. This volatile attitude prompted his firing by animation administrator Edward Hansen. He left Disney after only two years; he received credits on The Small One (1978) and The Fox and the Hound (1981), and went uncredited on Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Black Cauldron (1985). Bird was dispirited with the state of the American animation industry , and he considered his departure from Disney as
34404-433: Was the design for the Queen 's Witch form. Don Graham really knew what he was teaching, and he "showed" you how to do something – he didn't just talk. He taught us things that were very important for animation. How to simplify our drawings – how to cut out all the unnecessary hen scratching amateurs have a habit of using. He showed us how to make a drawing look solid. He taught us about tension points – like
34592-538: Was the first to be tested for the role of Snow White in September 1934. She was invited to audition after Disney's casting director Roy Scott telephoned her father (who was a vocal coach in Los Angeles ) in search for voice talents, and Caselotti, overhearing their conversation, recommended herself for the part. Although Walt Disney was impressed with her voice, he auditioned about 150 other actresses and singers; these included Deanna Durbin , whom Disney rejected because he thought she sounded too mature. Virginia Davis
34780-404: Was titled "Family Dog". He used it for the license plate number on a van. The first Disney movie he used it in was The Brave Little Toaster (1987), for which he was an animator. Within two years, Bird accepted a job as an animator at Walt Disney Productions. Bird arrived at the studio in the midst of a transition: much of the studio's original creative staff were retiring, leaving the studio to
34968-402: Was too busy on Ratatouille which came out the same year. Animation had a commercial and creative renaissance in the U.S. during the 1990s, with Hollywood studios eager to capitalize on the success of Disney's The Lion King (1994). Bird continued to shop around film ideas to studios throughout the decade, but grew frustrated with his lack of progress in his dream of directing a feature. He
35156-481: Was used as a color stylist and to determine the staging and atmosphere of many of the scenes in the film, as his style borrowed from the likes of Arthur Rackham and John Bauer and thus possessed the European illustration quality that Walt Disney sought. He also designed the posters for the film and illustrated the press book. Other artists to work on the film included Joe Grant , whose most significant contribution
35344-482: Was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios , including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and
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