Blog 10

I think my favorite thing that I learned about animation was learning how illustrators were taught to create characters to look as though they are thinking. I think this aspect is one of the most amazing innovations of animation. I think that when an illustrator is drawing a character and changing his or her facial expressions to convey a certain feeling or mood to the audience really says something about the imagination and sheer talent of an illustrator. I thought it was interesting how from the 20's to the 30's, Disney's priorities completely changed from creating cartoons with the common goal of having a funny plot line to then creating animated films with the intent of them becoming major motion pictures and having serious story lines along with being as realistic as possible. It's as if Disney envisioned himself as a traditional film director and he wanted his animated characters to be real like actors and wanted these characters to not only act as if they were real but act as though they were the best actors in the world. Walt Disney was essentially asking these illustrators to play animator/actor at the same time. He continued to push his illustrator's to do what constantly was thought of as impossible. Disney asked a lot from his illustrators and his ability to get the most out of who he hired is what I think made him one of the greatest minds to ever walk this earth.