Spatial Presence and Disney's Oswald Comedies
2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 39; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01956051.2011.554920
ISSN1930-6458
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoAbstract Abstract Even prior to Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney was exploring new stylistic patterns in animation. His Oswald comedies, for example, demonstrate a new attitude towards filmic space emerging in this period—what Anthony Vidler terms spatial presence. This article examines how space assumes a "presence" that shapes the Oswald comedies' narratives. Keywords: animationcartoonDisneyOswaldspace Notes 1. See the discussion of Mickey Mouse and that character's place within an evolving concern with dimensionality at Disney in my Animating Space 61–78. 2. The precise origin of Mickey Mouse remains a subject of debate. In fact, the character has, at times, been attributed to Ub Iwerks, Disney's top animator and the key talent who refused to desert Disney when Mintz took control of the Oswald production. For a summary of the various accounts of Mickey's creation, see Gabler 112–14. 3. In 2006 the Walt Disney Company, under new head Bob Iger, reacquired the rights to the Disney-produced Oswald films of 1927–28. Because of the unavailability of prints of an appropriate quality, Disney subsequently released only thirteen of the cartoons on DVD in 2007. 4. For background on the changing critical response to Disney in this period, see Waller. Waller especially notes the disagreement in the 1930s over the level of realism in the films, which some saw as "one of Disney's greatest virtues," and which others derided as an effort at competing with live-action cinema (57). 5. We might infer that this gag originated with Disney's top animator of the period, Iwerks, for it shows up much later in the Flip the Frog cartoon Movie Mad (1931), one of Iwerks's early efforts after leaving Disney and starting his own short-lived animation studio. 6. For the canonical description of this aesthetic and its development, see the book by two of Disney's famed "nine old men" animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life. 7. Although identified as "Pegleg Pete aka Putrid Pete" on a wanted poster, the character in the film clearly has two good legs, as the bear chase well demonstrates. 8. For discussion of the impact of these various technological developments on Disney animation, see Telotte, The Mouse Machine.
Referência(s)