I would hope that, by this point, readers are well aware of my passion for the medium of animation. While I do cover the topic of anime quite extensively, I’ve also spoken about my admiration for Western animation and my frustration at how many people look down on animation as being inferior to live-action. However, this viewpoint that animation is inferior to live-action did not simply come out of a void. Instead, this damage to the legitimacy of animation as a storytelling medium developed over the course of the Dark Age of Animation whose devastating impact continues to be felt today.
Prior to the advent of the Dark Age of Animation, animation was in a golden age with numerous popular theatrical shorts such as Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, Disney, Betty Boop etc. earning critical praise and delighting audiences of all ages. Additionally, Disney were developing theatrical feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Peter Pan and more that proved to be financially and critically successful. However, the rise of television presented a new threat to the film industry and the box office failure of Sleeping Beauty, which was released in 1959, along with the death of the theatrical animated short heralded the Dark Age of Animation.
With the rise of television, there was a demand for the production of animated series but the budgets for these series were miniscule compared to animation produced for the cinema. In order to reduce risk and increase profitability, companies such as Hanna-Barbera developed a new form of limited animation which involved halving the frame rate from 24 frames a second to 12 frames a second, reducing the level of detail with more abstract backgrounds and simpler character designs and breaking the parts of the characters into several layers so that individual parts could be animated without having to draw the rest of the character. What this resulted in was incredibly simplistic animation which was generally unappealing to adults but that children were receptive to. Other studios such as Filmation and Jay Ward Productions adopted this technique and television was soon flooded with animated series that were simplistically animated and aimed at children.
After the box office failure of Sleeping Beauty, Disney also began to simplify their animation in order to remain profitable. While nowhere near the level of limited animation, a new technique involving xerography was developed that would cut costs. While it did help to slash budgets and keep Disney animated movies profitable, it also resulted in a visual style that was much rougher with scratchier lines and characters that stand out much more from the background compared to previous films. If you take a look at shots from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood or any other Disney animated film from this time, you’ll notice this visual change in comparison to other Disney movies.
That’s not to say that everything was bad in the world of animation during this time period. Animated movies occasionally saw mainstream success such as Yellow Submarine and passionate animators such as Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth directed their own films which proved to be quite successful. However, the damage had already been done and animation was generally seen as being subpar entertainment compared to live-action, fit only for children.
It’s important to note that this term, the Dark Age of Animation, relates predominantly to American animation although its impact would be felt elsewhere. During this time period, from the 60s to the 80s, anime television series began to thrive, not only on Japanese television but in many foreign markets such as Europe, the Middle East, South America etc. However, the Dark Age of Animation still managed to impact the development of anime with Osamu Tezuka having to slash costs and sell his animation at a loss to TV networks in order to compete with American animated TV series that were sold cheaply outside of America. These techniques as well as selling cheaply to TV networks continues to apply to many anime series in the modern day.
The Dark Age of Animation ended in the 1980s and the animation industry is thriving with numerous incredible films, shorts, TV series etc. produced. Nonetheless, the devastating impact of the Dark Age of Animation continues to be felt today as many people continue to look down on animation as a medium suitable only for children and subpar compared to live-action. As you might imagine, this infuriates me and I think it’s important that we work to dispel the damage caused by the Dark Age of Animation. Let me know your thoughts on the devastating impact of the Dark Age of Animation, how it continues to be felt today, notable films and TV series from the time period and any additional information you might have on the topic.
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