Winsor McCay, cartoonist and animator died in 1934 but he set the standard in animated movie making that others, including Walt Disney, were duty bound to follow.
He was also well known for his newspaper comic strips, Gertie the Dinosaur and Little Nemo in Slumberland. However, his socio-political cartoons have been somewhat overlooked, perhaps because of the success of his strips and animations.
Here is a selection of those cartoons from the years 1929 and 1930 – in some ways very similar to our own. 80 years may separate the days the cartoons were drawn but has so much really changed? Image Credit Flickr User Anna Jumped
The debate still rages today (both at home and abroad) about US interventionist policies in other countries. At the end of the 20s isolationism - almost the opposite - took a significant hold on both the people and the politicians. The crash of '29 made the country more inward looking and determined to fix its own problems rather than interfere with those overseas. For McKay, who spent the last eight years of his life at The American newspaper creating editorial cartoons for Arthur Brisbane, his flair for cartoons put him in the right place at the right time. His job was to engage the reader’s eye and so persuade them to read the editorial. As such he was to tackle many of the social issues of the day, including the economy, prohibition and human nature in general.
Friday 8 May 2015 was the anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day), marking 70 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. If you have been visiting another planet over the last few days and want to know what all the fuss is about then here it all is – VE Day 70 in 70 seconds. It was created by Raw Productions for the Royal British Legion.
Filminute an International one-minute film festival launches in to its 7th edition this week. There are some very exciting finalists this year. Altogether there are 25 one-minute short films and animations competing for the title with 15 countries represented.
The shortlisted films are subject to both a public vote and a review by an international jury - luminaries from the film, arts, literature, and advertising fields. Here at Kuriositas, we can’t help but join in – so here are our 5 favorites from this year’s line-up. You can follow the link on each title to vote for the one you like best. You can also go to the website to see the others, all of which are outstanding 60 second short films.
If you are already a Facebook user (if not a fan) then you will totally get this (he said, sounding like a Valley Girl circa 2002). This shows, in a few minutes, the rest of the life of a Facebook member from the first day he joins to (possibly) his death as a very old man. In this time a lot happens, including - well, you had better find out by watching the video. All of it is done using the user interface of the social media network through status updates, pictures, likes and so on...
This is a very clever piece of animation by maxluere and conceptually it is very simple. How much work it must have actually taken, however, is something that I have been scratching my head about and the answer is a long time. It is only a few minutes long but the real life activities see our erstwhile hero, Alex Droner go through many different trials and tribulations - often it has to be said self inflicted - before he (seemingly) settles down.
This is one of the better (if not the best) animations I have seen on the subject of Facebook. It is very cleverly done without being judgemental about the social networking site or its users but leaves you to make your own mind up whether our everyman figure is a complete rotter or a guy just trying to get on (and laid) in this world. Very, very cool.
I am sure that Leonardo da Vinci would never have envisaged his art being used in this manner but I would like to think (finger crossed) that he would have approved.
This is a hypnotic piece of animation by the enigmatic Alicia7777777 (seven sevens!) and features a number of the women painted by the master during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All in all we get to see seven of his works in a different light than usual.
Here is the running list if you need reminding which work is which.
00:03 – Mona Lisa or La Gioconda
00:16 – Ginevra Benci
00:29 – La belle ferronnière
00:43 – Lady with an Ermine
00:57 – Madonna Litta
01:11 – Madonna mit der Nelke (Madonne à l'enfant)
01:28 – Benois Madonna
If you like this then you may very well want to visit Alicia7777777's Vimeo page where she has a series of equally entrancing animations. There she take son the likes of Salvador Dali, Vermeer and El Greco among a number of others. Strange, fascinating and delightful work.
Here are the animations that we enjoyed the most on Kuriositas in 2010. They are varied to say the least - fun and funny to dark and a little frightening. One thing connects them all though - the love and attention with which they were made. Click on the name or the image to see the whole animation. Enjoy!
