The Truth Is Not Out There
“This is the first part of a film I made as a final project for a class about the history of animation” read the label on the 3 part YouTube short. I have been teaching animation history for a very long time so I thought I would give a watch and listen. I looked on with horror and disbelief as one mistake after another was put forth as gospel fact.
WARNING: real animation historians have found that the disinformation in these pathetic videos will do lasting damage to the true history of animation. Only watch these videos if you are already informed about the history of animation and then only for the sad pathetic humor of the mispronunciations and misinformation pontificated with an all-knowing announcer`s voice.
Beware the lies told by the fool that thinks he is speaking truth.
One of the things I really hate about Animation Studies is that so few people outside the field take our history seriously enough to do the damn research.
When I first started to teach animation history I was forced to use the book Serious Business: The Art And Commerce Of Animation In America From Betty Boop To Toy Story by Stefan Kanfer, a book that is so deeply flawed that I got to the point that I would have students mark corrections in the text the first day of class. (The author dismisses Emile Cohl in one sentence and claims that Snow White came out in 1939 not Dec. 21st 1937 among a raft of other miss information too large to detail. Thank the gods for the Jerry Beck book, now if he would only update it.)
speaking of screwed up non-facts, I have a booklet that came with the Max Fleischer educational cartoon The Einstein Theory of Relativity that claims Relativity would have been the first ever animation rather than Steamboat Willie if not for the use of live action in the Fleischer film. And scientists (sic) put out this crap booklet.
I also have a VHS that claims that Gertie the Dinosaur was the first ever animation. Gods protect us from fools teaching what they do not know with the faith that they do really know what they don`t.
When it comes to misinformation these 3 YouTube videos take the royal cake. They are filled to the brim with mispronunciations of the names of the greats of animation (it is EYE-Works not E-Works, EYE-sing not IS-ing and what he did to the names Schlesinger and Bosustow is not within my power to render phonetically but I think I am going to send a link to Tee Bosustow for his entertainment and outrage) Also Walter Lantz did not work for Walt Disney and the Fleischer Bros. did not leave the J. R. Bray studio because it was closing down. Bray was taking all their profits. And then there was the fight over the ownership of KoKo the Clown and the name Out of the Inkwell and gods the list goes on and on.
In the 50s our parents set us in front of the TV to watch old theatrical cartoons and cartoons have been fighting against the unimportant kids fare stigma ever since. Maybe this is why these fools don`t care enough to research before they blow off their mouths. The damage these I-don`t-care-enough-about-my-fucking-subject-to-do-the-research lies will do down the ages is impossible to calculate. These videos really, really need a warning label attached to them.
WARNING: real animation historians have found that the disinformation in these pathetic videos will do lasting damage to the true history of animation. Only watch these videos if you are already informed about the history of animation and then only for the sad pathetic humor of the mispronunciations and misinformation pontificated with an all-knowing announcer`s voice.
Beware the lies told by the fool that thinks he is speaking truth.
One of the things I really hate about Animation Studies is that so few people outside the field take our history seriously enough to do the damn research.
When I first started to teach animation history I was forced to use the book Serious Business: The Art And Commerce Of Animation In America From Betty Boop To Toy Story by Stefan Kanfer, a book that is so deeply flawed that I got to the point that I would have students mark corrections in the text the first day of class. (The author dismisses Emile Cohl in one sentence and claims that Snow White came out in 1939 not Dec. 21st 1937 among a raft of other miss information too large to detail. Thank the gods for the Jerry Beck book, now if he would only update it.)
speaking of screwed up non-facts, I have a booklet that came with the Max Fleischer educational cartoon The Einstein Theory of Relativity that claims Relativity would have been the first ever animation rather than Steamboat Willie if not for the use of live action in the Fleischer film. And scientists (sic) put out this crap booklet.
I also have a VHS that claims that Gertie the Dinosaur was the first ever animation. Gods protect us from fools teaching what they do not know with the faith that they do really know what they don`t.
When it comes to misinformation these 3 YouTube videos take the royal cake. They are filled to the brim with mispronunciations of the names of the greats of animation (it is EYE-Works not E-Works, EYE-sing not IS-ing and what he did to the names Schlesinger and Bosustow is not within my power to render phonetically but I think I am going to send a link to Tee Bosustow for his entertainment and outrage) Also Walter Lantz did not work for Walt Disney and the Fleischer Bros. did not leave the J. R. Bray studio because it was closing down. Bray was taking all their profits. And then there was the fight over the ownership of KoKo the Clown and the name Out of the Inkwell and gods the list goes on and on.
In the 50s our parents set us in front of the TV to watch old theatrical cartoons and cartoons have been fighting against the unimportant kids fare stigma ever since. Maybe this is why these fools don`t care enough to research before they blow off their mouths. The damage these I-don`t-care-enough-about-my-fucking-subject-to-do-the-research lies will do down the ages is impossible to calculate. These videos really, really need a warning label attached to them.
posted by Larry Loc @ 7:44 AM
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