Posts Tagged ‘betty boop’

The Long Road to Miyazaki

The Japan Society of New York City is currently presenting a film program entitled, The Dawn of Japanese Animation, a look back at Japanese animation from the late 20′s and 30′s. As a Nipponophile and a member of the Japan Society, I’ve got to say, I was pretty excited by this program. Here was an opportunity to see the very roots of what would grow into films like Tonari no Totoro and Spirited Away or film makers like Miyazaki.

However, what was presented were badly drawn, badly animated shorts. Now, I know that animation was just learning to crawl in Japan during this time, but come on. By comparison, in the early 30′s Max Fleischer Studios was releasing Popeye and Betty Boop shorts. A little later, Disney released Snow White in 1937 (the year of the second Sino-Japan War) while in Japan audiences were treated to the 1938 propaganda film Taro Overseas.

So, how did Japan eventually catch up and surpass the rest of the world in quality animation? It began in 1958 with Toei Studios’ Panda and the Magic Serpent[clip below], the first color full-length animated film in Japan. And one of the first to be made in the Disney-style studio system.

More on the history of Japanese animation check out this excellent article from Midnight Eye.