Traditional animation (or classical animation , cel animation , or hand-drawn animation ) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shift to computer animation in the industry, such as digital ink and paint and 3D computer animation .
149-442: An American Tail is a 1986 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film directed by Don Bluth and written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss from a story by David Kirschner , Freudberg and Geiss. The film stars the voices of Phillip Glasser , John Finnegan , Amy Green, Nehemiah Persoff , Dom DeLuise , and Christopher Plummer . It is the story of Fievel Mousekewitz and his family as they emigrate from Russia to
298-531: A franchise (made without the involvement of Bluth) that included a sequel, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991); a CBS television series based on the film, Fievel's American Tails , premiered in 1992; and two additional direct-to-video sequels set between the first two films, An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998) and An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999). In 1885 Shostka , Russian Empire (a city that
447-407: A storyboard is derived. A storyboard has an appearance somewhat similar to comic book panels, and is a shot by shot breakdown of the staging, acting and any camera moves that will be present in the film. The images allow the animation team to plan the flow of the plot and the composition of the imagery. Storyboard artists will have regular meetings with the director and may redraw or "re-board"
596-410: A 1957 recording, Walt Disney explained why motion tracking was an issue for animators, as well as what multiplane animation could do to solve it. Using a two-dimensional still of an animated farmhouse at night, Disney demonstrated that zooming in on the scene, using traditional animation techniques of the time, increased the size of the moon. In real-life experience, the moon would not increase in size as
745-497: A 2-pack box set with both videos having clamshell cases. A DVD version was first made available on January 20, 2004, by Universal Studios , which was presented in fullscreen aspect ratio only, and contained a number of changes from earlier versions, including re-dubbing certain character's voices in the Orphan Alley scene, the addition of new voices where there was previously no dialog, and new "humorous" sound effects. This version
894-573: A November 22, 1986, episode of their television program At the Movies , calling it "the most downbeat children's movie since Return to Oz ", and that it was "way too depressing for young audiences". Both reviewers also criticized how it gave little mention that the main characters were Jewish, or that the attack on their home at the beginning was an antisemitic one. They called it "a Jewish parable that doesn't want to declare itself" and felt that it "chickened out on its ethnic heritage". In his own review for
1043-423: A battle between Bluth and the union that continued through most of the production. It was mostly this struggle that later compelled Bluth to relocate to Ireland, which he felt offered a more supportive atmosphere. "There is no way you could put a score like this in any other kind of film. It would only work in animation or if I wrote a ballet. I loved doing it". — James Horner Spielberg's original vision for
1192-457: A big world". Harlburt later summarized: "Laced with action scenes and peppered with amusing dialogue, the film moves along briskly. Little ones won't be bored. Original songs – including "Never Say Never", "Somewhere Out There" and "We're a Duo" – are also entertaining. You'll marvel over the quality of Plummer's singing voice and be convulsed by DeLuise's feline antics". American Film Institute recognition: In September 1987, An American Tail
1341-464: A cascade of soap bubbles". Roger Harlburt, reviewing for the Sun-Sentinel , also praised the character of Fievel: "You'll discover in gentle Fievel a endearing character that manages to be lovable without undue sentiment. His eyes may tear up once in a while and his lower lip quiver, but mostly he's ready to face the situation. Still, the superb animation makes you believe Fievel is a small boy lost in
1490-420: A cel with detailed black lines was laid directly over it, each line is drawn to add more information to the underlying shape or figure and give the background the complexity it needed. In this way, the visual style of the background will match that of the xeroxed character cels. As the xerographic process evolved, line overlay was left behind. In very early cartoons made before the use of the cel, such as Gertie
1639-440: A character or object looks in three-dimensions along with standardized special poses and expressions so that the artists have a guide to refer to. Small statues known as maquettes may be produced so that an animator can see what a character looks like in three dimensions. Background stylists will do similar work for any settings and locations present in the storyboard, and the art directors and color stylists will determine
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#17328591722601788-471: A character, including props, vehicles, machinery and phenomena such as fire , rain , and explosions . Sometimes, instead of drawings, a number of special processes are used to produce special effects in animated films; rain, for example, has been created in Disney animated films since the late 1930s by filming slow-motion footage of water in front of a black background, with the resulting film superimposed over
1937-474: A collaboration between Spielberg, Bluth, and Universal, based on a concept by David Kirschner. Originally, the idea was conceived as a television special, but Spielberg felt it had potential as a feature film. Spielberg had asked Bluth to "make me something pretty like you did in NIMH ...make it beautiful". In a 1985 interview, he described his role in the production as "first in the area of story, inventing incidents for
2086-477: A computer animation system for digital ink-and-paint usage. Following a commitment to the technology in 1979, computer scientist Marc Levoy led the Hanna-Barbera Animation Laboratory from 1980 to 1983, developing an ink-and-paint system that was used in roughly a third of Hanna-Barbera's domestic production, starting in 1984 and continuing until replaced with third-party software in 1996. It
2235-535: A computer program on many transparent "layers" much the same way as they are with cels, and made into a sequence of images which may then be transferred onto film or converted to a digital video format. It is now also possible for animators to draw directly into a computer using a graphics tablet such as a Cintiq or a similar device, where the outline drawings are done in a similar manner as they would be on paper. The Goofy short How To Hook Up Your Home Theater (2007) represented Disney's first project based on
2384-480: A fairy sequence where stippled cels are used, creating a soft pastel look. The methods mentioned above describe the techniques of an animation process that originally depended on cels in its final stages, but painted cels are rare today as the computer moves into the animation studio, and the outline drawings are usually scanned into the computer and filled with digital paint instead of being transferred to cels and then colored by hand. The drawings are composited in
2533-453: A figment of Remy's imagination; this scene is also considered an example of cel-shading in an animated feature. More recently, animated shorts such as Paperman , Feast , and The Dam Keeper have used a more distinctive style of cel-shaded 3D animation, capturing a look and feel similar to a 'moving painting'. Chelsea Piers Chelsea Piers is a series of piers in Chelsea , on
2682-437: A foreground when laid on top of a ready frame. This creates the illusion of depth, but not as much as a multiplane camera would. A special version of cel overlay is called line overlay , made to complete the background instead of making the foreground, and was invented to deal with the sketchy appearance of xeroxed drawings. The background was first painted as shapes and figures in flat colors, containing rather few details. Next,
2831-574: A hodgepodge of run-down waterfront structures with a row of grand buildings embellished with pink granite facades and formed the docking points for the rival Cunard and White Star Lines. Most of the major trans-Atlantic liners of the day docked at the piers and they played pivotal roles in the Titanic and Lusitania disasters. The two most memorable moments for the pier were with Lusitania and Titanic . Lusitania left her Cunard Pier 54 in 1915 before being torpedoed by German submarine U-20. Titanic
2980-538: A jet of water from a fire hose while hiding in a broken barrel. Papa and Tanya overhear Bridget and Tony calling Fievel. Papa is sure there is another "Fievel" somewhere, until Mama finds his hat. Meanwhile, Fievel ends up in Orphan's Alley, and is convinced by a trio of bullies that his family should be looking for him, not the other way around, and the reason why they haven't found him is because they don't care. Saddened by this, Fievel loses hope. Joined by Gussie, Tiger allows
3129-399: A major marketing push on the main character). He decided to make a stylistic shift from the more angular "modern style" of animation of the time to a style similar to Disney animation from the 1940s, where the characters have a softer and cuddlier feel. This proved successful, and at release many critics praised the "old fashioned style" of the film's look and feel. This was during a period when
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#17328591722603278-439: A production will combine both live-action and animated footage. The live-action parts of these productions are usually filmed first, the actors pretending that they are interacting with the animated characters, props, or scenery; animation will then be added into the footage later to make it appear as if it has always been there. Like rotoscoping, this method is rarely used, but when it is, it can be done to terrific effect, immersing
3427-523: A promotional music video from Cartoon Network 's Groovies featuring the Soul Coughing song "Circles" poked fun at animation loops as they are often seen in The Flintstones , in which Fred and Barney (along with various Hanna-Barbera characters that aired on Cartoon Network), supposedly walking in a house, wonder why they keep passing the same table and vase over and over again. The multiplane process
3576-561: A rally to decide what to do about the cats. Warren is extorting them all for protection that he never provides. No one knows what to do about it until Fievel whispers a plan to Gussie. Although his family also attends, they stand well in the back of the audience, and they are unable to recognize Fievel onstage with her. The mice take over an abandoned museum on the Chelsea Piers and begin constructing their plan. On launch day, Fievel gets lost and stumbles upon Warren's lair. He discovers Warren
3725-481: A scene in which a person is sitting in a chair and talking, the chair and the body of the person may be the same in every frame; only their head is redrawn, or perhaps even their head stays the same while only their mouth moves. This is known as limited animation . The process was popularized in theatrical cartoons by United Productions of America and used in most television animation, especially that of Hanna-Barbera . The end result does not look very lifelike, but
3874-604: A sequence many times before it meets final approval. Before animation begins, a preliminary soundtrack or scratch track is recorded so that the animation may be more precisely synchronized to the soundtrack. Given the slow manner in which traditional animation is produced, it is almost always easier to synchronize animation to a preexisting soundtrack than it is to synchronize a soundtrack to pre-existing animation. A completed cartoon soundtrack will feature music , sound effects , and dialogue performed by voice actors . The scratch track used during animation typically contains only
4023-413: A technique also used in many Disney films. During production, Amblin and Universal expected to view the dailies and approve all major work on the film, and various outside parties also requested changes here and there. The production buckled under the excessive oversight, and Bluth felt that he was losing freedom of control over the production process. As the release deadline approached, pressure grew among
4172-595: A thunderstorm on their journey, Fievel finds himself separated from his family and washed overboard. Thinking that he has died, they proceed to the city as planned, though they become depressed at his loss. However, Fievel floats to New York in a bottle and, after a pep talk from Henri, a French pigeon, decides to look for his family. He encounters conman Warren T. Rat, who sells him to a sweatshop . Fievel escapes with street-smart Italian mouse Tony Toponi and they join Bridget, an Irish mouse trying to rouse her fellow mice to fight
4321-400: A time when Disney was spending around $ 12 million per film. He knew it would be difficult, but felt it was worth the sacrifice to work with Spielberg on a major project. With the agreement of his employees, salaries were frozen for a year and half. Unlike the former Bluth studios, the new Sullivan Bluth studios were non-union, and when many workers attempted to withdraw from the union, it sparked
4470-473: A variety of run-down waterfront structures with a row of grand buildings embellished with pink granite facades. The piers are currently used by the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex . The Complex is a 28-acre waterfront sports village located between 17th and 23rd Streets along Manhattan's Hudson River. This privately financed project opened in 1995. Situated on Piers 59, 60 and 61 and in
4619-409: A viewer approached a farmhouse. Multiplane animation solved this problem by separating the moon, farmhouse, and farmland into separate planes, with the moon being farthest away from the camera. To create the zoom effect, the first two planes were moved closer to the camera during filming, while the plane with the moon remained at its original distance. This provided a depth and fullness to the scene that
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4768-415: A window to look into a classroom filled with American "school mice" is based on a story Spielberg remembered about his grandfather, who told him that Jews were only able to listen to lessons through open windows while sitting outside in the snow. Spielberg eventually won out, though something of a compromise was reached by having Tony refer to Fievel as "Filly". Spielberg also had some material cut that he felt
4917-469: Is "traced" over actual film footage of actors and scenery. Traditionally, the live-action will be printed out frame by frame and registered. Another piece of paper is then placed over the live-action printouts and the action is traced frame by frame using a lightbox. The end result still looks hand-drawn but the motion will be remarkably lifelike. The films Waking Life and American Pop are full-length rotoscoped films. Rotoscoped animation also appears in
5066-528: Is a choral interpretation of a portion of Emma Lazarus 's sonnet " The New Colossus ". Initially, Bluth and his team were disappointed with the first score recording, but once edited, they found the music worked quite well. The final score became one of the film's strongest points. The initial songs were written by Tom Bahler , who had worked as a music supervisor and composer. Bahler left the project, in which Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann were later brought on to compose new songs, collaborating with Horner. After
5215-551: Is a labor-saving technique for animating repetitive motions, such as a character walking or a breeze blowing through the trees. In the case of walking, the character is animated taking a step with its right foot, then a step with its left foot. The loop is created so that, when the sequence repeats, the motion is seamless. In general, they are used only sparingly by productions with moderate or high budgets. Ryan Larkin 's 1969 Academy Award -nominated National Film Board of Canada short Walking makes creative use of loops. In addition,
5364-421: Is a technique primarily used to give a sense of depth or parallax to two-dimensional animated films. To use this technique in traditional animation, the artwork is painted or placed onto separate layers called planes. These planes, typically constructed of planes of transparent glass or plexiglass, are then aligned and placed with specific distances between each plane. The order in which the planes are placed, and
5513-483: Is actually a cat in disguise and the leader of the Maulers. They capture and imprison Fievel, but his guard Tiger (a vegetarian tabby and a reluctant member of the gang) becomes friends with Fievel and frees him. Fievel races back to the pier with the cats chasing him, and exposes Warren as a cat when Gussie orders the mice to release the secret weapon. A huge mechanical mouse, inspired by the bedtime tales Papa told Fievel of
5662-549: Is also common in anime , where fluidity is sacrificed in lieu of a shift towards complexity in the designs and shading (in contrast with the more functional and optimized designs in the Western tradition); even high-budget theatrical features such as Studio Ghibli 's employ the full range: from smooth animation "on ones" in selected shots (usually quick action accents) to common animation "on threes" for regular dialogue and slow-paced shots. Creating animation loops or animation cycles
5811-428: Is based more strongly in music, a bar sheet may be prepared in addition to or instead of an X-sheet. Bar sheets show the relationship between the on-screen action, the dialogue, and the actual musical notation used in the score. Layout begins after the designs are completed and approved by the director. It is here that the background layout artists determine the camera angles, camera paths, lighting, and shading of
5960-602: Is behind the sanitation facility, now a parking lot for sanitation trucks. That section is now called the Gansevoort Peninsula . The new piers were designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore , which also designed Grand Central Terminal . Under contracts let by the New York City Department of Dock and Ferries, the Chelsea Section Improvement , as it was officially called, replaced
6109-399: Is being done, the background artists will paint the sets over which the action of each animated sequence will take place. These backgrounds are generally done in gouache or acrylic paint , although some animated productions have used backgrounds done in watercolor or oil paint . Background artists follow very closely the work of the background layout artists and color stylists (which
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6258-402: Is inexpensive to produce, and therefore allows cartoons to be made on small television budgets. Moving characters are often shot "on twos". One drawing is shown for every two frames of film (which usually runs at 24 frames per second), meaning there are only 12 drawings per second. Even though the image update rate is low, the fluidity is satisfactory for most subjects. However, when a character
6407-462: Is laid on top of each other, with the background at the bottom of the stack. A piece of glass is lowered onto the artwork in order to flatten any irregularities, and the composite image is then photographed in stop motion by a special animation camera , also called rostrum camera . The cels are removed, and the process repeats for the next frame until each frame in the sequence has been photographed. Each cel has registration holes, small holes along
6556-442: Is required to perform a quick movement, it is usually necessary to revert to animating "on ones", as "twos" are too slow to convey the motion adequately. A blend of the two techniques keeps the eye fooled without unnecessary production costs. Academy Award –nominated animator Bill Plympton is noted for his style of animation that uses very few in-betweens and sequences that are done "on threes" or "on fours", holding each drawing on
6705-455: Is the same for both character animation and special effects animation , which on most high-budget productions are done in separate departments. Often, each major character will have an animator or group of animators solely dedicated to drawing that character. The group will be made up of one supervising animator, a small group of key animators, and a larger group of assistant animators. Effects animators animate anything that moves and are not
6854-603: Is today located in Ukraine ), the Mousekewitzes are a Russian-Jewish family of mice who live with a human family named Moskowitz. While celebrating Hanukkah , Papa gives his hat to his son, Fievel, and tells him about the United States, a country in which he believes there are no cats. The celebration is interrupted when a battery of Cossacks ride through the village square in an anti-Semitic arson attack and their cats attack
7003-414: Is typically integrated with cel animation in Disney films and in many television shows, such as Fox 's Futurama , Family Guy , and American Dad! and both Nickelodeon animated series Invader Zim and The Fairly OddParents . In one scene of the 2007 Pixar movie Ratatouille , an illustration of Gusteau (in his cookbook), speaks to Remy (who, in that scene, was lost in the sewers of Paris) as
7152-422: Is usually compiled into a workbook for their use) so that the resulting backgrounds are harmonious in tone with the character designs. Usually, an animatic or story reel is created after the soundtrack is recorded and before full animation begins. The term "animatic" was originally coined by Walt Disney Animation Studios . An animatic typically consists of pictures of the storyboard timed and cut together with
7301-609: The Chicago Sun-Times , Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, giving credit to the animation, calling it "full and detailed, enhanced by computers and an improvement on so much recent animation that cuts corners", but that the story was too "dark and gloomy". The film's writing garnered a mixed response. Halliwell's Film Guide claimed it didn't have "much in the way of narrative interest or indeed humor". Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "witless if well-meaning", adding that its high points were scenes involving
7450-482: The Philippines ). As the cost of both inking and painting new cels for animated films and TV programs and the repeated usage of older cels for newer animated TV programs and films went up and the cost of doing the same thing digitally went down , eventually, the digital ink-and-paint process became the standard for future animated movies and TV programs. Hanna-Barbera was the first American animation studio to implement
7599-623: The West Side of Manhattan in New York City . Located to the west of the West Side Highway ( Eleventh Avenue ) and Hudson River Park and to the east of the Hudson River , they were originally a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by RMS Lusitania and was the destination of RMS Carpathia after rescuing the survivors of RMS Titanic . The piers replaced
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#17328591722607748-448: The "Giant Mouse of Minsk ", chases Warren and his gang down the pier and into the water. A tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong picks them up on its anchor and carries them away. However, a pile of leaking kerosene cans has caused a torch lying on the ground to ignite the pier, and the mice are forced to flee when the fire department arrives to extinguish it. During the fire, Fievel is again separated from his family after being blasted by
7897-476: The 1930s, which allowed for the presence of the "muttered ad-libs" present in many Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop cartoons. When storyboards are sent to the design departments, character designers prepare model sheets for any characters and props that appear in the film; and these are used to help standardize appearance, poses, and gestures. The model sheets will often include "turnarounds" which show how
8046-620: The 1930s. After New York moved its luxury liner piers to the New York Cruise Terminal between West 46th and West 54th Street in 1935 to accommodate bigger ships such as the RMS ; Queen Mary and the SS ; Normandie , the Chelsea piers became a cargo terminal. In World War II the piers were used to deploy troops. The piers had catastrophic fires in 1932 and 1947 that destroyed some of
8195-508: The 1950s. An official soundtrack containing 14 tracks from the film was first released on November 21, 1986, by MCA Records , and was made available on audio cassette , vinyl record , and CD. It was later released digitally by Geffen Records on February 5, 2013. Original songs & scores performed in the film include: All songs are composed by James Horner and Barry Mann with lyrics written by Cynthia Weil ; all scores are composed by Horner The film has grossed up to $ 47 million in
8344-586: The APT process. This technique was used in Disney films such as Oliver and Company (1988) and The Little Mermaid (1989). This process has more or less been superseded by the use of cel-shading. Related to rotoscoping are the methods of vectorizing live-action footage, in order to achieve a very graphical look, like in Richard Linklater 's film A Scanner Darkly . Similar to the computer animation and traditional animation hybrids described above, occasionally
8493-480: The Dinosaur (1914), the entire frame, including the background and all characters and items, were drawn on a single sheet of paper, then photographed. Everything had to be redrawn for each frame containing movements. This led to a "jittery" appearance; imagine seeing a sequence of drawings of a mountain, each one slightly different from the one preceding it. The pre-cel animation was later improved by using techniques like
8642-642: The Disney artists to make use of colored ink-line techniques mostly lost during the xerography era, as well as multiplane effects, blended shading, and easier integration with 3D CGI backgrounds (as in the ballroom sequence in the 1991 film Beauty and the Beast ), props, and characters. Rival studios in the 1990s also adapted to digipaint processes, using softwares like Animo , USAnimation , Toonz , and Pixibox . Over time, many studios switched over to digital ink and paint, though many television projects took longer. Many filmmakers and studios did not want to shift to
8791-657: The Hudson River in the Meatpacking District / Greenwich Village neighborhood. The pier was also used for troop ships during World War II . After the war it was used as part of the W. R. Grace and Company and United States Lines freight operations. In 1998 the piers became part of the Hudson River Park . Since then, they have been used for concerts and other events. In 2005, it was the site of The Nomadic Museum 's art exhibit housed in shipping containers. Pier 54
8940-515: The Mousekewitzes' journey across Europe, a scene in which they first meet Tiger, and he gets stuck up in a tree, an upbeat song that Fievel was planned to sing while imprisoned in the sweatshop, and a scene that gave greater explanation of the changing of names at Ellis Island . Cuts are also responsible for baby Yasha's apparent disappearance after the boat trip. The film was also plagued by union difficulties. Bluth had agreed to accept $ 6.5 million to get it produced (which later grew to $ 9 million), at
9089-583: The Night Monster in 1999. The Mousekewitz family would also be parodied, somewhat, as a family of Italian American fleas in a few episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures , also produced by Steven Spielberg. A video game based on this film was released for PlayStation 2 only in Europe in 2007 by Data Design Interactive. Fievel would also serve as the mascot for Spielberg's Amblimation animation production company in London, England, appearing in its production logo until
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#17328591722609238-454: The Seven Seas . Many video games such as Viewtiful Joe , The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker , Ico , Ōkami , Mirror's Edge , and others use " cel-shading " animation filters or lighting systems to make their full 3D animation appear as though it were drawn in a traditional cel-style. This technique was also used in the animated movie Appleseed , and cel-shaded 3D animation
9387-507: The Shell , Neon Genesis Evangelion , and Cowboy Bebop , have applied both animation techniques. DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg coined the term "tradigital animation" to describe animated films produced by his studio which incorporated elements of traditional and computer animation equally, such as The Road to El Dorado , Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron , and Sinbad: Legend of
9536-513: The Studios film and television production facilities; and the Maritime Center marina for mooring private boats. Historically, the term Chelsea Piers referred to the ocean liner berths on Manhattan's west side from 1910 to the 1930s. With ocean liners such as Lusitania becoming larger in size, New York City was looking for a new passenger ship dock in the early 1900s. The Army, which controls
9685-497: The United States and Canada, and $ 84 million worldwide. At the time of its domestic release, it became the highest-grossing animated feature for an initial release and the highest-grossing non-Disney produced animated feature. It was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney one, beating out The Great Mouse Detective (another traditionally animated film involving mice that was released in 1986 but four months earlier) by over US$ 22 million, but The Great Mouse Detective
9834-841: The United States for freedom, but Fievel gets lost and must find a way to reunite with them. The film was released in the United States on November 21, 1986, by Universal Pictures , four months after Disney's The Great Mouse Detective was released. It received positive reviews and was a box office hit, making it the highest-grossing non- Disney animated film at the time; the film is currently Don Bluth's third highest-grossing animated film, only behind The Land Before Time (1988) and Anastasia (1997). Its success, along with that of fellow Bluth film The Land Before Time and Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (both 1988), and Bluth's departure from their partnership, prompted executive producer Steven Spielberg to establish his own animation studio, Amblimation , in London, England. The film spawned
9983-441: The animatic or leica reel, taking the place of the pencil animation. Once every sequence in the production has been photographed, the final film is sent for development and processing, while the final music and sound effects are added to the soundtrack. The current process, termed "digital ink and paint", is the same as traditional ink and paint until after the animation drawings are completed; instead of being transferred to cels,
10132-511: The animation, in general, a distinct visual appearance. Today special effects are mostly done with computers, but earlier they had to be done by hand. To produce these effects, the animators used different techniques, such as drybrush , airbrush , charcoal, grease pencil , backlit animation, diffusing screens, filters , or gels . For instance, the Nutcracker Suite segment in Fantasia has
10281-407: The animation. Once the clean-ups and in-between drawings for a sequence are completed, they are prepared for a process known as ink and paint. Each drawing is transferred from paper to a thin, clear sheet of plastic called a cel , a contraction of the material name celluloid . (The original flammable cellulose nitrate was later replaced with the more stable cellulose acetate .) The outline of
10430-407: The animators' drawings are either scanned into a computer or drawn directly onto a computer monitor via graphics tablets , where they are colored and processed using one or more of a variety of software packages. The resulting drawings are composited in the computer over their respective backgrounds, which have also been scanned into the computer (if not digitally painted), and the computer outputs
10579-404: The art style and color schemes to be used. A timing director (who in many cases will be the main director) will take the animatic and analyze exactly what poses, drawings, and lip movements will be needed on what frames. An exposure sheet (or X-sheet ) is created; this is a printed table that breaks down the action, dialogue, and sound frame-by-frame as a guide for the animators. If a film
10728-1084: The audience in a fantasy world where humans and cartoons co-exist. Early examples include the silent Out of the Inkwell (begun in 1919) cartoons by Max Fleischer and Walt Disney 's Alice Comedies (begun in 1923). Live-action and animation were later combined in features such as Song of the South (1946), The Incredible Mr. Limpet , Mary Poppins (both in 1964), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Cool World (1992), Space Jam (1996), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), and Enchanted (2007), among many others. The technique has also seen significant use in television commercials, especially for breakfast cereals marketed to children to interest them and boost sales. Besides traditionally animated characters, objects, and backgrounds, many other techniques are used to create special elements such as smoke, lightning and "magic", and to give
10877-585: The boards right there...adding more drawings, or trimming some back". A large crew of animators was pulled together from around the world, utilizing cel painters in Ireland. Discussion arose about moving the entire production to Ireland, but Spielberg balked at the idea of a story called An American Tail being produced overseas. At this time, Bluth and his crew discovered that using a video printer greatly increased their productivity. They could videotape an action, then print out small black and white thermal images from
11026-468: The cats. When a gang called the Mott Street Maulers attacks a mouse marketplace, the immigrant mice learn that the tales of a cat-free country are false. Bridget takes Fievel and Tony to see Honest John, a politician who knows the city's voting mice. However, he is unable to help Fievel search for his family, as they have not yet registered to vote. Led by the rich Gussie Mausheimer, the mice hold
11175-430: The cels or backgrounds 1 step at a time over a succession of frames (the camera does not pan; it only zooms in and out). Dope sheets are created by the animators and used by the camera operator to transfer each animation drawing into the number of film frames specified by the animators, typically 1 (1s, ones) or 2 (2s, twos) and sometimes 3 (3s, threes). As the scenes come out of final photography, they are spliced into
11324-403: The cels. Disney experienced a setback to its ink-and-paint department due to World War II . When peacetime resumed, much of the original equipment went to waste as more economic solutions were sought, leading to the xerography process pioneered by Ub Iwerks . When an entire sequence has been transferred to cels, the photography process begins. Each cel involved in a frame of a sequence
11473-492: The characters Gussie Mausheimer and Tiger. In his review for the Chicago Reader , Pat Graham panned its "flimsy characterizations" but said that "the overall quality of the animation—baroquely executed if rather conventionally conceived—makes it worth a look". Common Sense Media gave it largely positive reviews, commenting that "this is a heartwarming animated tale about the experience of immigrants coming to America. Told from
11622-438: The characters' outlines are gray. White and blue toners were used for special effects, such as snow and water. Invented by Dave Spencer for the 1985 Disney film The Black Cauldron , the APT (Animation Photo Transfer) process was a technique for transferring the animators' art onto cels. Basically, the process was a modification of a repro-photographic process; the artists' work was photographed on high-contrast "litho" film, and
11771-575: The city government took over the infilled land and converted most of it into piers. The controversial decision included condemning many businesses. The city was unable to condemn the West Washington Street Market, which remained infilled. The market ultimately closed and the dock was converted to a sanitation facility that was used to load garbage barges headed for the Fresh Kills Landfill . The only section of 13th Avenue that remains
11920-790: The collapse of the World Trade Center due to the September 11 attacks , EMS triage centers were quickly relocated and consolidated at the Chelsea Piers and the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal . The EMS triage center was shut down and disassembled on September 12, 2001, due to a lack of need. An ad hoc volunteer disaster recovery site was run from Chelsea Piers through September 16, 2001. Volunteers assisted with resources for ground zero recovery volunteers: sleeping area, food, and cell phones. Chelsea Piers Connecticut ,
12069-436: The crew and numerous problems arose, ranging from slower-than-expected cel painting in Ireland to low footage output by some animators. Also, the songwriters had written the score much later than originally desired. Suddenly scenes had to be dropped to save time and money and new, shorter scenes had to be created to help pick up the story points lost in the process, sometimes making the story line look jumbled. Notable cuts include
12218-525: The deliverance of lines and it captures the focus of the character, it allows the animators to get a true fix on the action": Will Ryan (Digit), Neil Ross (Honest John), Cathianne Blore (Bridget), and Hal Smith (Moe) are all voice actors well known in the animation industry. In designing the look of the film and its characters, Bluth worked with Amblin Entertainment and the Sears marketing department (Sears had
12367-492: The digital ink-and-paint process because they felt that the digitally colored animation would look too synthetic and would lose the aesthetic appeal of the non-computerized cel for their projects. Many animated television series were still animated in other countries by using the traditionally inked-and-painted cel process as late as 2004, though most of them switched over to the digital process at some point during their run. The last major feature film to use traditional ink and paint
12516-418: The director and have their scene sweatboxed . Once the key animation is approved, the lead animator forwards the scene on to the clean-up department , made up of the clean-up animators and the inbetweeners . The clean-up animators take the lead and assistant animators' drawings and trace them onto a new sheet of paper, making sure to include all of the details present on the original model sheets, so that
12665-435: The distance between them, is determined by what element of the scene is on the plane as well as the entire scene's intended depth. A camera, mounted above or in front of the planes, moves its focus toward or away from the planes during the capture of the individual animation frames. In some devices, the individual planes can be moved toward or away from the camera. This gives the viewer the impression that they are moving through
12814-426: The drawing is inked or photocopied onto the cel, and gouache , acrylic or a similar type of paint is used on the reverse sides of the cels to add colors in the appropriate shades. The transparent quality of the cel allows for each character or object in a frame to be animated on different cels, as the cel of one character can be seen underneath the cel of another; and the opaque background will be seen beneath all of
12963-473: The drawings in place. A key animator or lead animator will draw the key frames or key drawings in a scene, using the character layouts as a guide. The key animator draws enough of the frames to get across the major poses within a character performance. While working on a scene, a key animator will usually prepare a pencil test of the scene. A pencil test is a much rougher version of the final animated scene (often devoid of many character details and color);
13112-403: The early days of animation, washed clean and reused for the next film. In some cases, some of the cels were put into the "archive" to be used again and again for future purposes in order to save money. Some studios saved a portion of the cels and either sold them in studio stores or presented them as gifts to visitors. A cel overlay is a cel with inanimate objects used to give the impression of
13261-426: The extra layer of cel added between the image and the camera; in this example, the still plate would be painted slightly brighter to compensate for being moved one layer down. In TV and other low-budget productions, cels were often "cycled" (i.e., a sequence of cels was repeated several times), and even archived and reused in other episodes. After the film was completed, the cels were either thrown out or, especially in
13410-556: The family to ride him, which allows them to find Fievel. Papa returns Fievel's hat, commenting that it now fits him, and he has grown into a mouse. Henri ends the journey by taking everyone to see his newly completed project—the Statue of Liberty , which appears to smile and wink at Fievel and Tanya, and the Mouskewitzes' new life in the United States begins. Production began in December 1984 as
13559-496: The film into a stage musical, which made its world premiere on April 25, 2023. An American Tail the Musical features book and lyrics by playwright Itamar Moses , music and lyrics by Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler, and directed by Taibi Magar. The show is choreographed by Katie Spelman. Art Spiegelman accused Spielberg of plagiarism due to the fact that the Jews are depicted as mice in
13708-404: The film maintains a cohesiveness and consistency in art style. The inbetweeners will draw in whatever frames are still missing in-between the other animators' drawings. This procedure is called tweening . The resulting drawings are again pencil-tested and sweatboxed until they meet approval. At each stage during pencil animation, approved artwork is spliced into the leica reel. This process
13857-465: The film was as a musical. It is said he wanted a " Heigh-Ho " of his own (referring to the popular song from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ). Jerry Goldsmith , who had worked on The Secret of NIMH with Bluth was initially supposed to work on the score but had to drop out of the film due to a busy schedule. After he completed Aliens , James Horner composed the score for the film, which
14006-487: The film, just as in Spiegelman's earlier Maus , a metaphor he had adopted from Nazi propaganda. Instead of pursuing copyright litigation, he opted to beat its release date by convincing his publishers to split Maus into two volumes and publish the first before he even finished the second. Traditional animation Animation production usually begins after a story is converted into an animation film script, from which
14155-407: The film. Creating scenes that will eventually be edited out of the completed cartoon is avoided. In the traditional animation process, animators will begin by drawing sequences of animation on sheets of transparent paper perforated to fit the peg bars in their desks, often using colored pencils , one picture or "frame" at a time. A peg bar is an animation tool used in traditional animation to keep
14304-498: The final film by either exporting a digital video file, using a video cassette recorder or printing to film using a high-resolution output device. Use of computers allows for easier exchange of artwork between departments, studios, and even countries and continents (in most low-budget American animated productions, the bulk of the animation is actually done by animators working in other countries , including South Korea , Taiwan , Japan , China , Singapore , Mexico , India , and
14453-640: The first expansion project of Chelsea Piers, was built in Stamford, Connecticut. The facility opened in July 2012. Pier 54 at 40°44′29″N 74°0′36″W / 40.74139°N 74.01000°W / 40.74139; -74.01000 , part of the historic Chelsea Piers, is associated with the 1912 Titanic and 1915 Lusitania maritime disasters, when it was used by the Cunard Line . It is now part of Hudson River Park . The piers themselves are at Little West 12th Street and
14602-435: The first multiplane animation structures, a device called a Tricktisch . Its top-down, vertical design allowed for overhead adjusting of individual, stationary planes. The Tricktisch was used in the filming of The Adventures of Prince Achmed , one of Reiniger's most well-known works. Future multiplane animation devices would generally use the same vertical design as Reiniger's device. One notable exception to this trend
14751-456: The first round of songs were written, it was decided a special song would be written for Linda Ronstadt to sing over the end credits with James Ingram . Titled " Somewhere Out There ", it later went on to win two Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television . It would become one of the most popular songs from an animated feature since
14900-514: The fullscreen DVD version with new cover artwork followed on February 3, 2015. All four American Tail films were re-released on a combination pack DVD released on June 13, 2017. That release marked the first widescreen debut of the first two films on a Region 1 DVD. The film gave rise to a number of follow-up media, of which Don Bluth had no direct involvement. The theatrical sequel Fievel Goes West , directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells and produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Watts ,
15049-595: The head house that connects them, the complex features the Golf Club, a multi-story driving range ; the Field House, which contains numerous sports and training facilities; Sky Rink, which has two full-sized ice rinks ; the Chelsea Piers Fitness health club ; Bowlero at Chelsea Piers, a bowling alley ; and Sunset Terrace, a venue that hosts weddings and other events. The complex also includes several event centers;
15198-539: The highway to run over demolished piers. The superstructure of Pier 54 was demolished in 1991 except for the archway entrance (along with the White Star and Cunard signage). The plan (dubbed the Westway ) was abandoned after court cases said the new highway would jeopardize striped bass . Following the demise of Westway, development of the West Side Highway evolved into two parts: a public/private partnership that evolved into
15347-475: The image on the resulting negative was then transferred to a cel covered with a layer of light-sensitive dye. The cel was exposed through the negative. Chemicals were then used to remove the unexposed portion. Small and delicate details were still inked by hand if needed. Spencer received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for developing this process. Rotoscoping is a method of traditional animation invented by Max Fleischer in 1915, in which animation
15496-474: The latter did beat out former at the domestic box office by $ 5,000,000. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has a 77% approval rating based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The consensus is: "Exquisitely animated, An American Tail is a sweet, melancholy immigrants story". On Metacritic , it has a score of 38% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave it "two thumbs down" on
15645-591: The location and size of piers, refused to let any piers extend beyond the existing pierhead line of the North River (the navigation name for the Hudson River south of 30th Street). Ship lines were reluctant to build north of 23rd Street because infrastructure was already in place, including the New York Central railway line and a ferry station near the river at 23rd Street . Part of the waterfront had been infilled in 1837, extending Manhattan to 13th Avenue , but
15794-685: The market for nostalgia was particularly strong among baby boomers, who at this time were seeking products for their young children, and only three years before the beginning of the Disney Renaissance for the studio Bluth once worked for. Bluth preferred to storyboard an entire picture, but it soon proved to be an enormous task. Larry Leker was brought in to assist, turning Bluth's rough sketches into final storyboard panels. Bluth commented that he would then "send them over to [Spielberg]. Often I brought them over myself, so that I could explain them. Steven would get very excited by what he saw, and we'd edit
15943-407: The mice village. The Moskowitz home, along with that of the Mousekewitzes, is destroyed, while Fievel narrowly escapes from the cats. They flee the village in search of a better life. In Hamburg , Germany , the Mousekewitzes board a tramp steamer , setting sail for New York City . All the mice aboard are ecstatic at the prospect of going to America, believing that there are "no cats" there. During
16092-474: The multiplane camera used for the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs utilized artwork painted on up to seven separate, movable planes, as well as a vertical, top-down camera. Predecessors of this technique and the equipment used to implement it began appearing in the late 19th century. Painted glass panes were often used in matte shots and glass shots, as seen in the work of Norman Dawn . In 1923, Lotte Reiniger and her animation team constructed one of
16241-492: The music videos for A-ha 's song " Take On Me " and Kanye West 's " Heartless ". In most cases, rotoscoping is mainly used to aid the animation of realistically rendered human beings, as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Peter Pan , and Sleeping Beauty . A method related to conventional rotoscoping was later invented for the animation of solid inanimate objects, such as cars, boats, or doors. A small live-action model of
16390-503: The object not present in the live-action photography of the model, it was xeroxed onto cels. A notable example is Cruella de Vil's car in Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians . The process of transferring 3D objects to cels was greatly improved in the 1980s when computer graphics advanced enough to allow the creation of 3D computer-generated objects that could be manipulated in any way the animators wanted, and then printed as outlines on paper before being copied onto cels using Xerography or
16539-789: The paperless technology available today. Some of the advantages are the possibility and potential of controlling the size of the drawings while working on them, drawing directly on a multiplane background and eliminating the need for photographing line tests and scanning. Though traditional animation is now commonly done with computers, it is distinct from 3D computer animation , such as Toy Story , Shrek , Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius , and Ice Age . Traditional animation and 3D computer animation can be used together, as in Don Bluth 's Titan A.E. and Disney 's Hercules , Tarzan , Atlantis: The Lost Empire , and Treasure Planet . Some recent anime and western animated series, such as Ghost in
16688-406: The pencil drawings are quickly photographed or scanned and synced with the necessary soundtracks. This allows the animation to be reviewed and improved upon before passing the work on to their assistant animators , who will add details and some of the missing frames in the scene. The work of the assistant animators is reviewed, pencil-tested, and corrected until the lead animator is ready to meet with
16837-405: The perspective of an adorable young mouse, An American Tail should engage kids in an important part of U.S. history". Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called it "a bright-eyed tale of Jewish triumphs that will find a place in many young hearts", adding that "it reiterates the happiness of homogeneity, prepares the pups for both brotherhood and the free enterprise system. And it's as pretty as
16986-420: The plate. In this example, after the person puts the plate down, the plate can then be drawn on a separate cel from them. Further frames feature new cels of the person, but the plate does not have to be redrawn as it is not moving; the same cel of the plate can be used in each remaining frame that it is still upon the table. The cel paints were actually manufactured in shaded versions of each color to compensate for
17135-414: The required object was built and painted white, while the edges of the model were painted with thin black lines. The object was then filmed as required for the animated scene by moving the model, the camera, or a combination of both, in real-time or using stop-motion animation. The film frames were then printed on paper, showing a model made up of the painted black lines. After the artists had added details to
17284-410: The scene. Character layout artists will determine the major poses for the characters in the scene and will make a drawing to indicate each pose. For short films, character layouts are often the responsibility of the director. The layout drawings and storyboards are then spliced, along with the audio and an animatic is formed (not to be confused with its predecessor, the leica reel ). While the animation
17433-454: The screen from 1 ⁄ 8 to 1 ⁄ 6 of a second. While Plympton uses near-constant three-frame holds, sometimes animation that simply averages eight drawings per second is also termed "on threes" and is usually done to meet budget constraints, along with other cost-cutting measures, like holding the same drawing of a character for a prolonged time or panning over a still image, techniques often used in low-budget TV productions. It
17582-557: The script, and now consists of looking, every three weeks to a month, at the storyboards that Bluth sends me and making my comments". Bluth later commented that "Steven has not dominated the creative growth of Tail at all. There is an equal share of both of us in the picture". Nevertheless, this was Spielberg's first animated feature, and it took some time for him to learn that adding a two-minute scene would take dozens of people months of work. In 1985, he stated: "At this point, I'm enlightened, but I still can't believe it's so complicated". It
17731-429: The script. When the initial script was complete, it was extremely long and was heavily edited before its final release. Bluth felt uncomfortable with the main character's name, thinking "Fievel" was too foreign-sounding, and he felt audiences wouldn't remember it. Spielberg disagreed. The character was named after his maternal grandfather, Philip Posner, whose Yiddish name was Fievel. The scene in which he presses up against
17880-564: The separate layers of art as though in a three-dimensional space. The most famous device used for multiplane animation was the multiplane camera . This device, originally designed by former Walt Disney Studios animator / director Ub Iwerks , is a vertical, top-down camera crane that shot scenes painted on multiple, individually adjustable glass planes. The movable planes allowed for changeable depth within individual animated scenes. In later years Disney Studios would adopt this technology for their own uses. Designed in 1937 by William Garity ,
18029-480: The size of the xeroxed objects and characters. At first, it resulted in a more sketchy look, but the technique was improved upon over time. Disney animator and engineer Bill Justice had patented a forerunner of the Xerox process in 1944, where drawings made with a special pencil would be transferred to a cel by pressure, and then fixing it. It is not known if the process was ever used in animation. The xerographic method
18178-403: The slash and tear system invented by Raoul Barré ; the background and the animated objects were drawn on separate papers. A frame was made by removing all the blank parts of the papers where the objects were drawn before being placed on top of the backgrounds and finally photographed. In lower-budget productions, shortcuts available through the cel technique are used extensively. For example, in
18327-413: The soundtrack. This allows the animators and directors to work out any script and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard meets the users' requirements. Editing the film at the animatic stage prevents the animation of scenes that would be edited out of
18476-839: The south piers New construction resulted in new cargo piers used by the United States Lines and Grace line . In July 1936, Jesse Owens and the United States Olympic team depart on the SS Manhattan from Pier 60 for the Summer Games in Berlin , Germany . In the 1980s, plans circulated to replace the West Side Elevated Highway with an at grade highway going along the West Side south of 42nd Street. The plan called for
18625-440: The speaking character. For a more complex example, consider a sequence in which a person sets a plate upon a table. The table stays still for the entire sequence, so it can be drawn as part of the background. The plate can be drawn along with the character as the character places it on the table. However, after the plate is on the table, the plate no longer moves, although the person continues to move as they draw their arm away from
18774-513: The studio's replacement by DreamWorks Animation in 1997. In March 2000, Fievel became the official children's spokesman for UNICEF , with the organization's director of communications Craig Kornblau remarking that "Fievel Mousekewitz is a popular endearing character for children everywhere" and "his immigration experiences reflect the adventures and triumphs of all cultures and their children". Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis has adapted
18923-402: The tape for reference for both human and animal characters, a shorthand method similar to the rotoscoping technique (called in fact xerography ) used since the earliest days of animation, in which sequences are shot in live action and traced onto animation cels. They also utilized the process of building models and photographing them, particularly the ship at sea, and the "Giant Mouse of Minsk",
19072-439: The top or bottom edge of the cel, which allow the cel to be placed on corresponding peg bars before the camera to ensure that each cel aligns with the one before it; if the cels are not aligned in such a manner, the animation, when played at full speed, will appear "jittery." Sometimes, frames may need to be photographed more than once, in order to implement superimpositions and other camera effects. Pans are created by either moving
19221-557: The upper piers being used for recreational purposes. The southern piers are now part of the Hudson River Park while the northern piers make up the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex. Construction of the complex began on July 12, 1994 in ceremonies attended by New York Governor Mario Cuomo , New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani , and Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger . The complex opened in August 1995. After
19370-486: The use of traditional cels for the main content of each episode. Minor productions, such as Hair High (2004) by Bill Plympton , have used traditional cels long after the introduction of digital techniques. Most studios today use one of a number of other high-end software packages, such as Toon Boom Harmony , Toonz (OpenToonz), Animo, and RETAS , or even consumer-level applications such as Adobe Flash , Toon Boom Technologies and TV Paint . The cel animation process
19519-529: The voices, any songs to which characters must sing-along, and temporary musical score tracks; the final score and sound effects are added during post-production . In the case of Japanese animation and most pre-1930 sound animated cartoons, the sound was post-synched ; the soundtrack was recorded after the film elements were finished by watching the film and performing the dialogue, music, and sound effects required. Some studios, most notably Fleischer Studios , continued to post-synch their cartoons through most of
19668-466: The west, and PBS Kids ' Dragon Tales , all of which switched to digital paint between 2000 and 2004, while the last major animated production overall to abandon cel animation was the television adaptation of Sazae-san , which remained stalwart with the technique until September 29, 2013, when it switched to fully digital animation on October 6, 2013. Prior to this, the series adopted digital animation solely for its opening credits in 2009, but retained
19817-462: Was Satoshi Kon 's Millennium Actress (2001); the last major animation productions in the west to use the traditional process were Nickelodeon 's SpongeBob SquarePants , both Fox 's The Simpsons and King of the Hill , both Cartoon Network 's The Powerpuff Girls , Dexter's Laboratory and Ed, Edd n Eddy , the latter of which is also the last cartoon to switch to Digital Ink and Paint in
19966-659: Was Universal Pictures' first animated feature film since Pinocchio in Outer Space in 1965 and the first animated film that they co-produced. Originally, the concept consisted of an all-animal world, like Disney's Robin Hood , but Bluth suggested featuring an animal world existing as a hidden society from the human world, like his own NIMH and Disney's The Rescuers . After viewing The Rescuers , Spielberg agreed. Emmy Award-winning writers Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss (known for their work on Sesame Street ) were brought in to expand
20115-529: Was closer in resemblance to real life, which was a prominent goal for many animation studios at the time. Applied to animation by Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney studio during the late 1950s, the electrostatic copying technique called xerography allowed the drawings to be copied directly onto the cels, eliminating much of the "inking" portion of the ink-and-paint process. This saved time and money, and it also made it possible to put in more details and to control
20264-485: Was destined for the White Star pier 59 when she sank. Survivors were rescued on Cunard's RMS Carpathia . Carpathia disembarked Titanic 's lifeboats at Pier 59 before going back south to Pier 54, where she unloaded the passengers and survivors. Thousands of people assembled at the dock to greet the ship. In the summer of 1920, a dramatic rally was organized on July 31 at the White Star Line docks. This
20413-532: Was finally shut down in 2011 after it started to collapse. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, a park called Little Island was built on the site of piers 54 and 55. Plans for the park, originally known as Pier 55, were announced in November 2014. The plans were scrapped in 2017 due to legal trouble and cost overruns. In October 2017, the park plan was revived, and construction of the structure began in April 2018. It
20562-476: Was first released on VHS and became one of MCA Home Video 's biggest sellers with sales of 1.4 million. It was later released on LaserDisc in both regular and CAV play editions in November 1991 by MCA Universal Home Video in North America, and CIC Video internationally. On August 11, 1998, both the film and its sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West were digitally restored and re-released onto VHS in
20711-617: Was first tested by Disney in a few scenes of Sleeping Beauty and was first fully used in the short film Goliath II , while the first feature entirely using this process was One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). The graphic style of this film was strongly influenced by the process. Some hand inking was still used together with xerography in this and subsequent films when distinct colored lines were needed. Later, colored toners became available, and several distinct line colors could be used, even simultaneously. For instance, in The Rescuers
20860-728: Was first tested in the Pac-Man episodes "Nighty Nightmares" and "The Pac-Mummy". In addition to a cost savings compared to traditional cel painting of 5 to 1, the Hanna-Barbera system also allowed for multiplane camera effects evident in H-B productions such as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988). The computer files for these projects were not archived and the shows themselves were printed to videotape, making remastering difficult due to their lack of high resolution. Digital ink and paint has been in use at Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1989, where it
21009-503: Was invented by Earl Hurd and John Bray in 1915. The cel is an important innovation to traditional animation, as it allows some parts of each frame to be repeated from frame to frame, thus saving labor. A simple example would be a scene with two characters on screen, one of which is talking and the other standing silently. Since the latter character is not moving, it can be displayed in this scene using only one drawing, on one cel, while multiple drawings on multiple cels are used to animate
21158-533: Was more successful with critics, most notably Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert . The inexpensive success of The Great Mouse Detective played a large role in the Disney Renaissance ; due to the fact that it was both a critical and financial success, which saved Walt Disney Animation Studios from going bankrupt after The Black Cauldron had flopped at the box office a year earlier. It would later be outgrossed by Bluth's next film, 1988's The Land Before Time , which marginally outperformed Oliver & Company although
21307-620: Was recorded in England and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of King's College . Two excerpts of period music also appear in the film: The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa and Poor Wand'ring One from the 1880 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan . There is also a musical reference to the 1947 song Galway Bay popularized by Bing Crosby , and "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor"
21456-513: Was released in 1991 and follows the adventures of Fievel and his family as they move from New York to the Wild West . A 13-episode TV series based on it called Fievel's American Tails aired on the CBS network between September and December 1992. Two direct-to-video films were also later produced by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment : The Treasure of Manhattan Island in 1998, and The Mystery of
21605-447: Was reprinted along with other Universal films such as its sequel , The Land Before Time , and Balto . It was released in widescreen on Blu-ray for the first time on March 4, 2014, which included a digital HD and UltraViolet copy. It had the same changes as the DVD, although part of the film's end credits music score was 9% sped-up this time (due to time constrictions). A re-release of
21754-647: Was the Setback Camera, developed and used by Fleischer Studios . This device used miniature three-dimensional models of sets, with animated cels placed at various positions within the set. This placement gave the appearance of objects moving in front of and behind the animated characters, and was often referred to as the Tabletop Method. The spread and development of multiplane animation helped animators tackle problems with motion tracking and scene depth, and reduced production times and costs for animated works. In
21903-601: Was to send off Daniel Mannix , the Irish born Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia who had been outspoken on the English rule in Ireland , and successfully led anti conscription campaigns during WW1. A reported 15,000 New Yorkers turned up at Pier 60 at the foot of West 20th street to make sure Lloyd George would allow Mannix passage to Ireland. A luxury liner row was built between West 44th and West 52nd Street to handle larger liners in
22052-420: Was too intense for children, including a scene Bluth was developing revolving around wave monsters while the family was at sea. Bluth described the process of voice casting as "sometimes you can select a 'name' voice [i.e., a well-known actor] because it fits the essence of the character so well. Other times, you need to seek an obscure voice, close your eyes, and just listen to it. If it has the highs and lows in
22201-493: Was used for the final rainbow shot in The Little Mermaid . All subsequent traditional Disney animated features were digitally inked-and-painted (starting with The Rescuers Down Under , which was also the first major feature film to entirely use digital ink and paint), using Disney's proprietary CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) technology, developed primarily by Pixar Animation Studios . The CAPS system allowed
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