Animation in the Television Age

The late 20th century brought a close to what many call the ‘Golden age’ of animation with the introduction of home entertainment. Theatre attendance dropped dramatically and block booking became obsolete. As a result, budgetary constraints were tightened at animation studios such as Disney and Warner Bros. Many artists were let go from their jobs and turnaround became much more stringent.  Although there were many negatives to these changes, new opportunities were also made available; there was now a demand for animation for television, advertisements and television series’. However, the quality of animation began to quickly decline as they were needed frequently and in large quantities.   There was less emphasis on detail and quality and more on reproducibility.

The 50s was a turning point for animation. Although the quality had declined, what replaced it was an edgy and modernistic aesthetic that many of us strongly associate to cartoon network. Hanna-Barbera, one of the more prominent production companies of the 50s was at it’s prime with a growing demand for series animation. Hanna-Barbera is responsible for many successful cartoon series such as Yogi Bear and The Jetsons.

"Hanna-Barbera was the first animation studio to successfully produce animated cartoons especially for television; until then, cartoons on television consisted primarily of rebroadcasts of theatrical cartoons.” - aaacaricatures.com Because television did not offer the same kind of budget offered by theatres a few decades before hand during the Golden era, Hanna-Barbera had to consider cutting costs at every opportunity which they accomplished through the clever consideration of limited animation. Everything from the backgrounds to the character movements was reproducible and reused frequently. Characters were even designed in a way that made them the easiest to animate and would take the least amount of drawings to animate. Although Hanna Barbera limited it’s animation for quick production, they maintained a very high standard of animation. "It was like a religious experience to see a show that was fast, noisy, modern and - as it seemed to me - incredibly sophisticated.”   Undeniably, Hanna Barbera thrived successfully in a time when animators and production companies would have been expected to suffer. "And because of what we were doing, the entire business came back to work again.” -  Barbera http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6193603.stm Sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6193603.stm http://www.aaacaricatures.com/hannabarberacartoons.html