What kind of art/animation is this?

July 5, 2007 9:36 PM

Is there a specific name/source for this art style, frequently used in Pixar animation?

During the end credits of Ratatouille, the end credits of The Incredibles, and the beginning of Monsters, Inc is an animation style that is reminiscent of... stuff. That's the problem. I know it's a retro-inspired style, and it's even used in some movies like "Down With Love" and the Cartoon Network show "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends" is kind of similar, but I never know how to describe it to people.

Is there an original source for this kind of art, or a specific name for this style, possibly named for the original creator or work it was in? I just want to be able to describe what I like, but I'm having a really hard time.

If noone here knows what I'm talking about, I'll try to find some pictures, but without knowing what to call it, it's kind of hard to do that. :P I could dig up some DVDs and take screenshots, though, if necessary.

posted by ckolderup to Media & Arts (24 answers total)

I'd call it Kricfalusi-esque.
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:59 PM on July 5, 2007

Derivative?

If it's anything like the credits at the end of the Incredibles, that felt like a kind of homage to 50s space age bachelor kind of stuff to me.
posted by clango at 10:08 PM on July 5, 2007

Response by poster: Kricfalusi-esque

But he's relatively new to the game. I know that style existed long before him.

Derivative?

I'm not looking for a non-unique adjective so much as a defining term. Calling animation "derivative" could refer to just about anything that exists today. What is it derivative OF?
posted by ckolderup at 10:13 PM on July 5, 2007

Well, its retro based on 50s and 60s Hanna-Barbera (think flintstones and jetsons) animation, but I think Kricfalusi is the first, or one of the first, animators to bring that style back in a kitchy way.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:21 PM on July 5, 2007

Cartoon Modern, perhaps, though the term seems to be of recent coinage by the author of a book (and of the blog) with the same title.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:32 PM on July 5, 2007

Data Point: Disney used this style several years before Hanna-Barbera. Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is a seminal example from 1953. Hanna-Barbera didn't start making cartoons until the late fifties.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:39 PM on July 5, 2007

Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is what I thought of, too. Wiki.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:56 PM on July 5, 2007

Cel or toon shading is what I'd call it.
posted by anaelith at 11:32 PM on July 5, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the blog link and the information on TWP&B. I'm disappointed that there does not seem to be a real term for it, but that blog has a lot of cool examples.

anaelith: well, I'm speaking more of the style of the art than the process used to achieve it. I don't know if Pixar does these as CG that looks like 2D animation or if they just do regular animation for these sequences, but either way I'm looking for something like "impressionism", not "oil-based painting".
posted by ckolderup at 11:48 PM on July 5, 2007

Whenever I've seen that style written about in animation literature it has been referred to simply as "stylised".

From what I can see (and that "Cartoon Modern" site seems to be the best example, you are referring to the more adventurous, stylised animation that emerged in the 1950s within the UPA studio and Disney amongst others.

Moving away from the rounded, naturalistic, doe-eyed look, some animators began an almost Cubist, jagged, postmodern way of drawing characters. It was a lot more contemporary and dynamic and bore a lot more relation to the textiles and graphic design of the day. Often the results looked like "cutouts" rather than the flowing, bouncy animation normally associated with Disney; sometimes the backgrounds had a textured effect.

If you like this kind of stuff you might possibly like the work of Eyvind Earle or Mary Blair. Also check out this page about other 50s animators like Rod Scribner and Emery Hawkins.
posted by skylar at 1:52 AM on July 6, 2007

I second "stylized." In general the kind of animation pioneered by UPA is called limited animation, but I don't think that is really specific enough for what you are asking. Perhaps "stylized limited animation" would describe it best.
posted by grouse at 5:16 AM on July 6, 2007

To me, it's reminiscent of the animation used at the beginning credits of older Disney movies (Aristocats is the one that jumps immediately to mind).

I know that doesn't help give you a term, but it was at least around back then....

I think it's cool too!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:33 AM on July 6, 2007

that emerged in the 1950s within the UPA studio and Disney amongst others.

Actually, it seems pretty clear the style first emerged in illustration, and was then imported into animation. Jim Flora was already drawing in the "cartoon modern" style in the late 40s, e.g., before Toot Whistle, etc.
posted by mediareport at 6:45 AM on July 6, 2007

Here's a post that notes the movement of music illustrators like Flora and Gene Deitch into animation studios in the 1950s; they'd already been drawing in this style for years:

Any perception of the UPA design aesthetic as inherently “jazzy” may also be due to the influx of music industry designers who found work in animation during the 50s. Jim Flora’s wildly modernist album artwork for Columbia records in the early forties created a “look” for jazz music in a time where film and television footage of jazz musicians was far and in-between. Flora freelanced as a storyboard artist for UPA’s commercial unit in New York City.

Artist Gene Deitch was also invited to work at UPA based on his jazz-related artwork. The UPA heads saw Deitch’s art in an obscure jazz magazine called The Record Changer. He got a call from the studio, and at age 22 he began an apprenticeship under John Hubley and Bill Hurtz, who had joined UPA as a designer.
posted by mediareport at 7:00 AM on July 6, 2007

So, "jazzy" is one word I'd use to describe the cartoons in question.
posted by mediareport at 7:03 AM on July 6, 2007

Thirding Jim Flora as the genesis of this style. I have never called it anything but "like Flora" but I guess "Cartoon Modern" is catching on. He started off as an album cover illustrator and moved into children's books. My favorite of these is The Day the Cow Sneezed

Or, you know, what everyone else already said.
posted by fair_game at 7:57 AM on July 6, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, guys, there's lots of cool links here that I will have to check out.
posted by ckolderup at 9:40 AM on July 6, 2007

In architecture, it's called googie.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:50 AM on July 6, 2007

Brad Bird at ~1:47:00 on the commentary track for The Incredibles just calls it a retro look meant to honor people like Saul Bass and Maurice Binder, who he thinks made great title sequences for movies in the 1950s and 60s.

The animator commentary track, oddly enough, doesn't discuss the end credits; instead they're talking about Brad Bird arriving and eveyrone not knowing what to make of him and his crew.
posted by Tuwa at 11:04 AM on July 6, 2007

Without seeing it, I can only guess it's Shag style, only because it seems to be EVERYWHERE now. Shag style is quite common in advertising targeted at hip sassy women in their 20s and 30s, and on chick-lit book covers.
posted by elmwood at 11:23 AM on July 6, 2007

That style reminds me of Saul Bass (wiki).
posted by sailormouth at 11:24 AM on July 6, 2007

Following up infinitewindow: googie architecture online.
posted by mediareport at 8:45 PM on July 6, 2007

I second elmwood's suggestion of Shag. Take a look at this previous thread, it's a different question, but the answer is the same.
posted by lioness at 3:53 AM on July 7, 2007

Kricfalusi himself calls it "UPA Style."
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 4:48 PM on July 19, 2007