History of Re-Animation

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....

Oskar Fischinger Optical Poem is an early abstract animation set to Franz Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody using  paper cutouts and stop motion. While the animation might not seem ground breaking to an audience today, it was all made before the creation of computers and software. The concept and techniques used by Fischinger in his abstract musical animations would look right at home with modern digital animations of music players such as iPods, mobile phones, tablets, and visual players like Zune only they were made over sixty years prior to that technology's existence. Introduction screen explaining to the audience what was to follow. However even with modern technology Optical Poem's animations and shapes are far better and tightly synced to the music, notes, and emphasis of the various instruments than modern software appears to be able to simulate making Optical Poem a beautiful abstract visual illustration of music in motion. Fischinger's use of...