6 Curious Facts about Animation Movies
We can all agree that the animation movies industry is quite fascinating. Every year we get the chance to see numerous captivating and beautifully made productions that keep us stuck on the screen until the very end. Today, I’ve decided to list and elaborate on some of the most curious facts about animation movies I believe will be of interest to all of you.
In the succeeding lines, you’ll be presented with interesting and true information I’ve come across over the years. As most of you know, I like learning new stuff related to cartoons every single day. And what’s a better place to share them than here on Pixelnitrate with the rest of the animation movies lovers.
Walt Disney’s Unsuccessful Attempt
I believe the majority of Pixelnitrate’s readers know who Walt Disney is. But if you’re new to this whole cartoon thing, let me provide some data. Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, movie producer, writer, voice actor, and animator. He and his beloved brother Roy were the creators of the famous Disney Brothers Studio. That is now known as The Walt Disney Company.
Mickey Mouse is one of Disney’s most cherished and popular productions. The truth is, however, that it didn’t enjoy such amusement from the very beginning. On the contrary, Walt faced a real struggle trying to make his idea a reality. A few years before the release of Mickey Mouse, Disney went to the head of Metro Goldwin Mayer to present him his proposition.
Surprisingly, Louis Mayer was not quite fascinated by Walt’s idea. He thought that mice were extremely inappropriate to be part of cartoons. The reason being, he said, is that such movies are mostly seen by kids and women, and they’re both scared of the rodents. Therefore, he refused to pay for that movie, which later turned out to be one of the most prominent Disney’s productions. We can only imagine how regretful Louis Mayor had been afterward.
Tangled’s Production Was As Long As Rapunzel’s Hair
I don’t know about you, but Tangled surely is one of my favorite Disney movies. Everything about it is simply magnificent – the storyline, the characters, the animations, the quotes. And after finding out that the production of the movie took more than six years, I realized why all aspects were impeccable.
The reason for this delay was literally Rapunzel’s glorious hair. Disney’s team spent approximately nine years in attempts to find a suitable program that will make her thick blonde strands of hair so mesmerizing. When they finally managed to do it, they had to invest another six years into the development of the final product. We can all agree that, at the end of the day, the wait was absolutely worth it.
Secret Codes
Back in the days, myriads of people dreamed of working at Walt Disney Company. After all, this was and still is one of the most notable animation movie companies. Animators loved their job, but some of them liked to slack off their work whenever Walt Disney was not at the studio. To save themselves from confrontations with the boss, they came up with a secret code denoting that Walt is back. Whenever someone sees the owner of the company down the hallway, they would say Man is in the forest.
The Four-Fingered Characters
Have you noticed that some cartoon characters have only four fingers instead of five? Well, this is a well-known technique used by animators with the purpose of saving both time and money. Viewers don’t seem to be bothered by the lack of the fifth finger on individuals’ hands. Quite the opposite, some of them have never even noticed this peculiarity.
The truth is the creation of an additional finger costs thousands of dollars. That being said, we can conclude that the companies have managed to save millions. Additionally, the developers have agreed that a hand with more than four fingers would look more disturbing to the audience.
Cartoons and Real Life Actions
Many popular cartoon productions look unbelievably realistic. In most cases, this is due to the perfect work of animators. Nevertheless, there are instances when real people had to recreate the actions portrayed in the animation so that the movement would seem as lifelike as possible. For example, the department dealing with the movie effects of Shrek decided to take mud baths in order to figure out how to portray that scene in the most graphic and realistic way.
Other popular movies that had real live actors to enact particular scenes were:
- The Little Mermaid
- Cinderella
- Pinnochio
- Sleeping Beauty
- The Beauty and the Beast
- Snow White
- Robin Hood
The technology was not so advanced back in the days, so producers thought of alternatives to deliver high-quality productions to the public.
Inside Out In Different Cultures
When it was first released in 2015, Inside Out quickly became one of the most successful animations of the year. That’s not surprising, considering how fun and innovative the cartoon is. Another thing that won people’s hearts all over the world was the fact that some scenes were changed to fit different cultures.
For instance, the scene when Riley was on the table with her parents refusing to eat broccoli was recreated so that it would be fit in Asian countries. Asians don’t struggle to consume the healthy veggie like Americans, so Pixar swapped the broccoli for bell peppers. Also, the company changed hockey to soccer for countries that were not that keen on the ice skating discipline.
Final Thoughts
The six curious facts about animation movies enumerated above are just a very few of the countless engaging stuff I’ve read. I promise to deliver even more information in my upcoming blog posts. And in the meantime, I strongly encourage you to check my article about the things in popular cartoons you probably never noticed. I guarantee you’d be surprised!