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The Golden Age of American Animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928 and continued until the late 1960s when theatrical animated shorts began losing to the new medium of television animation. Many popular characters emerged from this period, including Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Porky Pig, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Droopy, and the first animated adaptation of Superman. Feature length animation also began during this period, most notably with Walt Disney's first films: ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', ''Pinocchio'', ''Fantasia'', ''Dumbo'' and ''Bambi''. ==Walt Disney Productions== Shortly after returning to Kansas City, Missouri from World War I, Walt Disney decided to become a newspaper cartoonist drawing political caricatures and comic strips.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 42-44, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 However nobody would hire Disney, so his older brother Roy, who was working as a banker at the time, got him a job at the ''Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio'' where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 44-45, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Here he met fellow cartoonist Ub Iwerks, the two quickly became friends and in January 1920, when their time at the studio expired they decided to open up their own advertising agency together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 45, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 The business however got off to a rough start and Walt temporarily left for the ''Kansas City Film and Ad Co.'' to raise money for the fleeting company and Iwerks soon followed as he was unable to run the business alone.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 51, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Whilst working here he made commercials for local theaters using crude cut-out animation. Disney became fascinated by the art and decided to become an animator.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 52, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 He then borrowed a camera from work and rented a book from the local library called ''Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development'' by Edwin G. Lutz and decided that cel animation would produce better quality and decided to open up his own animation studio.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 56, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Disney then teamed up with Fred Harman and made their first film, ''The Little Artist'' which was nothing more than an artist (Disney) taking a cigarette break at his work desk. Harman soon dropped out of the venture, but Disney was able to strike a deal with local theater owner Frank L. Newman and animated a cartoon all by himself entitled ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' screened in roughly February 1921.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 57, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 36-37, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 Walt then quit his job at the film and ad company and incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films in May 1922, and hired former advertising colleagues as unpaid "students" of animation including Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman's brother, Hugh Harman.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 37, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 Throughout 1922 the company produced a series of "modernized" adaptations of fairy tales including ''Little Red Riding Hood'', ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'', ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', ''Goldielocks and the Three Bears'', ''Puss in Boots'', ''Cinderella'' and ''Tommy Tucker's Tooth'', the latter being mostly a live-action film about dental hygiene. None of these films turned a profit.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 37-38, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 The last film made by the company was a short called ''Alice's Wonderland''. Loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''; the short featured a live-action five-year-old girl named Alice (Virginia Davis) who had adventures in a fully animated world. The film was never fully complete however as the studio went bankrupt in the summer of 1923.〔〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 68-72, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Upon the closure of Laugh-O-Grams, Walt worked as a freelance filmmaker before selling his camera for a one-way ticket to Los Angeles.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 73, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Once arriving he moved in with his Uncle Robert and his brother Roy, who was recovering at a nearby government hospital from tuberculosis he had suffered during the war.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 38, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 After failing to get a job as a director of live-action films he sent the unfinished ''Alice's Wonderland'' reel to short-subjects distributor Margaret J. Winkler of ''Winkler Pictures'' in New York. Winkler was distributing both the Felix the Cat and ''Out of the Inkwell'' cartoons at the time, but the Fleischer brothers were about to leave to set up their own distribution company, ''Red Seal Films'', and Felix producer Pat Sullivan was constantly fighting with Winkler; therefore Winkler agreed to distribute Disney's ''Alice Comedies'' as sort of an insurance policy.〔 Once Walt received the notice on October 15, he convinced Roy to leave the hospital and help him set-up his business.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 81, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 The next day, on October 16, 1923, Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio opened its doors at a small rented office two blocks away from his uncle's house with Roy managing business and Walt handling creative affairs.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 39, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 He convinced Virginia Davis's parents which caused the first official ''Alice'' short, ''Alice's Day at Sea'', to be released on January 1, 1924; delayed by eleven days.〔 Ub Iwerks was re-hired in February 1925 and the quality of animation on the ''Alice'' series improved; this prompted Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Carman Maxwell to follow Disney west in June 1925.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 39–41, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Pages 85–86, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Around that time, Davis was replaced with Maggie Gay and the cartoons started to focus less on the live-action scenes and more the fully animated scenes, particularly those featuring Alice's pet sidekick Julius, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Felix the Cat.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 41, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 In February 1926, Disney built a larger studio at 2719 Hyperion Avenue and changed the name of the company to Walt Disney Cartoons.〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 43, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 98, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 In November 1923, Winkler married Charles Mintz and handed over the business to him when she fell pregnant a few months later.〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 88–89, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕〔Barrier, Michael, 1999, ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age'', Page 42, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom〕 Mintz was often described as a cold, stern and ruthless chain-smoking tyrant; one employee remembered him as "a grim-faced man, with a pair of cold eyes glittering behind the pince nez" and "never talked to the staff. He looked us over like an admiral surveying a row of stanchions."〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 88-89, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 Whilst Winkler had offered gentle critiques and encouragement, Mintz communicated to Disney in a harsh and cruel tone.〔〔Gabler, Neal, 2006, ''Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination'', Page 89, Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, US〕 In 1927, Mintz ordered Disney to stop producing ''Alice Comedies'' due to the costs of combining live-action and animation. Mintz managed to gain a distribution deal with Universal Studios; however it was Mintz—not Disney—that signed the deal. Disney and lead animator Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who debuted in Trolley Troubles in 1927. The Oswald series was a success and became the first hit for the Disney studio. In the spring of 1928, Disney traveled to New York to ask Mintz for a budget increase. His request was harshly denied by Mintz, who pointed out that in the contract Mintz had signed with Universal, it was Universal—not Disney—that owned the rights to the character. Mintz revealed to Disney that he had hired most of his staff away from the studio (except for Ub Iwerks, Les Clark and Wilfred Jackson who refused to leave) and threatened that unless he took a 20 per cent budget decrease, he would drop Disney and continue the Oswald series by himself. Walt refused, and Winkler Pictures dropped its distribution. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Golden age of American animation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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