But this isn't about the Disney Oswalds. Let's take a look at the Oswald cartoons made by Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan. I had no interest at all in seeing the Walter Lantz Oswalds... until I found out that they featured the amazing work of one of the greatest animation pioneers ever: Bill Nolan.
Bill Nolan is one of the hugest unsung heroes and animation -- is often credited with creating the rubber hose style of cartoons.
It was Bill Nolan that helped Otto Mesmer refined Felix the Cat into the bouncy, round, cartoony character that he became in the mid-20s.
Bill Nolan basically helped Otto Mesmer create the classic old-school animation style. You can find more on Bill Nolan here:http://the-animatorium.blogspot.com/2013/06/spaghetti-limbs-bouncy-movement-age-of.html
and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/BillNolan and http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-draw-cartoons-old-school-way-by.html
very good blog of cartoons.
ReplyDeletereally good...
i like the cartoons
Those Oswald cartoons are cute and have some nice transformation gags (I particularly like the wave slapping the boat's behind) but comparing it to the contemporary Disney product I can see why Mickey was on the ascent and Oswald was on the descent.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't say that the Mickey cartoons of 1929 really had "story" going yet but they do seem a bit less random and surrealistic than these Oswalds.