Animation

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Animation means more than cartoons. The term describes a wide range of frame-by-frame, two and three dimensional filmmaking techniques. Animation processes include the manipulation of drawings on clear acetate sheets (cels) or paper, cutouts, puppets, clay and models. Other techniques include pin screen animation, photokinesis, pixilation and computer-generated imagery. Animated films have entertained, educated and sold products, and artists have used the techniques to give motion to purely abstract shapes. In recent years, animation has become the subject of serious critical examination.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive collections contain examples of virtually all types of animation. Among the holdings are over sixty animated films by Dave Fleischer, independent films by Ub Iwerks (one of the inventors of Mickey Mouse), and a large selection of Warner Bros. cartoons, featuring both the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. Other parts of the collection include animated commercials, movie trailers and episodes of "The Simpsons" and "Sesame Street," as well as works by artists such as Fernand Leger and films developed in the UCLA Animation Workshop. A study collection on video, donated by ASIFA-Hollywood (L'Association Internationale du Film d'Animation), provides an overview of the field. The UCLA Film and Television Archive's ongoing preservation program, which works to save film from nitrate deterioration, has restored the early color Betty Boop cartoon "Poor Cinderella," some Hearst Newsreel animation and George Pal Puppetoons.