History of Re-Animation

Abandoned Little Cat Tora released in 1947 by Kenzo Masaoka is a wonderfully cute animation that foreshadows and potentially inspired Hello Kitty. I've never quite understood the Japanese fascination with cats, but I've always liked it. I'm sure there is a reason for it, I'm just not aware of what it is. This animation is very much like the chibi (small body) style and very much kawaii (cute). Although there are parts that are a little disturbing like when the mother cat person pulls the canteen off the child almost breaking it's need until the canteen come free and the cat child drops to the ground. The singing is some what operatic in quality and the animation as whole has a stylistic component very much like the musical movies of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The version was not in English but the story is easy enough to follow through the actions of the various cats, an abandoned cat is found by a mother cat with three kittens, taking home, where one of the ...

The Rabbit of Seville released in 1950 by Warner Brothers is an excellent example of the cartoon brilliance of Chuck Jones. Since the dawn of animation there have been two distinct "genetic lineages" of animation the artistic (most often abstract) side exemplified by Oskar Fischinger and Lye and the comic slap stick for the masses side represented by Bray Studios, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney. In the Rabbit of Seville Chuck Jones is able to bring the two together in an almost seamless merging to created a brilliant example of both and bring artistic musical representation to the general masses. Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd perform their typical antics but in an symphony of cartoony silliness that both satisfied the antic craving child in you and the intellectual side at the same time. While retaining the symphonic artisticness Chuck Jones can still deliver comic punches with the barest of character expressions and movements showing how he has truly mastered the medium....