the influence of Japanese anime on Disney movies Options

[michiel]

Hi!

My name is Michiel Schut, a Dutch student, Studying Graphic Design at the University of Lincoln, U.K. I’m writing my essay about the Japanese manga and anime influences on Disney animation.
During my research, I came across this forum and I think many of you know more about this subject. I would like you to fill in this questionnaire, however you don’t have to fill in questions you don’t like or can’t answer. You can reply or send it to: mfschut@hotmail.com

Thanks in advance!
Michiel Schut

THE INFLUENCE OF JAPANESE MANGA AND ANIME ON DISNEY ANIMATED MOVIES


Name:

What is your relationship with Japanese anime/manga or Disney?


1. Can you recall any Disney animated movies that have a Japanese influence?



2. How can you tell an animated movie has Japanese influence? (In which way is the Japanese style different from the western style?)



3. When did you become aware that Disney animated movies were influenced by Japanese artwork? (And which western movies, producers, artists started this?)



4. What is it in Japanese anime that makes it more attractive than the western drawing style?



5. Can you think of any negative aspects of the influence that Japanese anime has on Disney animated movies?



6. Can you also recall any Japanese anime that has western influences? (in drawing style or any other influence)



7. Can you, based on the latest Disney movies like Lilo and Stitch, starting to speak of western anime?



8. Do you think this influence will change in the next 10 years? (Do you think Disney movies will be more, the same or less influenced by Japanese anime?)



9. Is it hard for western people to understand Japanese anime movies, because of the Japanese metaphors, jokes and mythology used in these?

[Guest_JackSpit_*]

Hmmmmm---you may want to reverse engineer this--- Anime is more an evolved cross between Disney and Chuck Jones-- the earliest anime was that of Osama Tezuka-- who was influenced by Disney, Fleischer, and the great French Poster Atrists-- it has come full circle now and both US and Japan animation borrow from each other so much it's difficult to tell what's anime first or americanime originally.

[CaptGeorge]

If you look at early Fleischer animation (Betty Boop, Koko, Bimbo) and Osamu Tezuka's stuff (Astroboy, Kimba, and the posthumously made Metropolis), there's no question his sense of design got influenced by the American artists. A number of other famous Japanese animation directors have also expressed admiration of Disney films (usually the ones produced by Walt Disney himself). Whether he likes it or not, Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away) is often referred to as "Japan's Disney." (Miyazaki is a critic of contemporary Disney animation but loves the classic Disney films.)

There's also the fact that a number of Asian artists HAVE worked on American animated films. They're going to bring aspects of their cultural heritage with them into their work whether it's intentional or subliminal.

Cy Young was Disney's first head of the effects animation department and worked on the early feature films of Disney (Snow White, Fantasia, Pinocchio). Tyrus Wong, another Chinese fellow, also worked at Disney for a number of years through the late 1930s and early 1940s. His inspirational work was a BIG influence on the final look for Disney's Bambi.

Chen Yi-Chang, another Chinese animation artist, also worked on Disney's Mulan and contributed to the look of Batman: The Animated Series, too.

Ruben Aquino, a Japanese animator(? -- name doesn't sound Japanese, but that's what the article I read says he is), worked at Disney for the better part of at least 2 decades and animated on the recent Brother Bear.

Although he hasn't worked in feature animation, Glen Murakami is a Japanese-American artist that contributed to the TV animation series Batman: The Animated Series (storyboards), Superman (character designs), Batman: The New Adventures (character designs) Batman Beyond (character designs, producer, story contributor), Justice League (character designs, producer), and more recently produces Teen Titans (character designs, producer) for Cartoon Network.

[Guest_JackSpit_*]

Comparing Chinese and Japanese artstyles are like comparing Mexican and American artstyles-- yes they come from the same region, but the style, color and influences are radically different-- I did not realize Cy Young was Asian- The photos I've seen he looks caucasian--Aquino is from Filipino heritage.
I also think Shane Glines had some major input on designs for Teen Titans as well as G M.

[CaptGeorge]

The thing is that in Asia there's no question the Koreans and Chinese are aping modern Japanese animation styles and it's caused a bit of a ruckus within official circles in those countries. It's a Catch-22: the young audiences like the Japanese art styles and animated programs, but the Japanese are only lightly tolerated by a lot of the other Asian nations for historical reasons (summed up best as W-W-2). The older folks in those countries hate it that their kids are copying the Japanese and aren't developing a local animation art style as much as they think they should. In the same way that Europeans complain about American entertainment infiltrating and displacing European filmmaking and programs, the other Asian countries complain the same about Japanese animation and its impact on their local animation industries. This old complaint pops up a few times a year in the regional newspapers and makes its way to online sites, too.

Korea in particular has tried to get away from the whole Japanese style-bit but it remains a big outsource for Japanese studios and you can't get away from doing animation in a "Japanese style" if they're your main client (besides the US probably). (A couple of anime were actually produced entirely in Korea. Armitage the Third is an example. Most Japanese TV series that run any considerable length, 36 episodes or more, have had episodes done in Korea.) The Japanese comic/animation art style is fairly pervasive overseas and there was a big market in the rest of Asia for Japanese animation programs and comic art well before it got established in the US after decades of ignoring it for the most part.

To an extent it's galling to many within Korea and other Asian countries that they're doing work for the Japanese -- they have very long memories over there and they HAVEN'T forgotten what the Japanese military did during World War II and these guys HATE the Japanese for it --, but they need the investment dollars.

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I got a correction about Cy Young. His ethnicity wasn't officially identified by Shamus Culhane. Culhane just called him an "Oriental" and talked about his professional and personal relationship with the man in his autobiography, Talking Animals and Other People.

Tyrus Wong was talked about a bit in John Canemaker's book about Disney inspirational artists ("Before the Animation Begins" was the title of the book) and he had some more of his background artwork reprinted in the Bambi Sketchbook of the Disney Sketchbook series published by Apple(wood?) Books.

Ruben Aquino -- I wouldn't be surprised if he were of Filipino descent (the name sure doesn't sound Japanese), but his homeland is listed as Okinawa. I was just going by what was written up about him in an online article. It's possible the article got some facts wrong, but I know I didn't read it wrong.

I've known a number of Filipinos and I can tell you that they run the gamut from looking Caucasian to Hispanic to Chinese. I've known guys that are part Spanish to fellows that have Chinese ancestry. Basically, Filipinos look the way they do and have the variety of features because like practically every other place on the planet their country's been invaded or occupied by a major power over the last 200-plus years and every invader/occupier has married its way into the culture or forced its way into the gene pool. The Philippines have been held by the Spanish, United States, and the Japanese over the past 200 years before it finally became an independent nation in 1948 or 1949. I kinda doubt this is stuff they like to talk about much, but it's pretty much the history the way I understand it happened.

[michiel]

Hi!

First of all, thanx for all your reply's!! I did knew of the influence that Disney had on Osamu Tezuka, but I was still trying to find more information about Disneys animators. The information you gave me about the asian disney animators is therefore very usefull so thanx again! I'm going to seach for John Canemaker's book. If you still know more about this subject or if you know where I could find more information about this let me know!

Michiel

[CaptGeorge]

You got all I know Michiel.

I'm tapped out on knowledge about the Asian Disney animation artists.

Your best bet for information on them is to check out all the books I referenced:

Shamus Culhane, "Talking Animals and Other People" -- He talks a bit about Cy Young and his relationship with him.

There's more information about Cy Young in "Paper Dreams" by John Canemaker. I just reread the pages on him and that's where I got the reference that he was thought to be Chinese but was born in Hawaii. Both "Paper Dreams" and Culhane's book paint Young as something of a perfectionist taskmaster but a very competent department head and great talent. Young made a number of enemies at Disney Studios including another effects animator who he sabotaged and had fired during the production of "Fantasia." Young also participated in the 1941 Disney strike and was let go later that year probably as reprisal for being in the strike. The rest of what I read in the book says that he spent most of the last 20 years of his life working as a clerk (after a brief stint working for another studio during World War II) and committed suicide in 1964. Big shame because he was a fine effects animator and you can see samples of his work in both "The Illusion of Life" and "Paper Dreams."

Bambi Sketchbook: Disney Sketchbook Series OR
"Walt Disney's Bambi: The Story and the Film" by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston -- Sketchbook mentions Tyrus Wong, but I haven't read the other book (even though I've owned it for like 4-5 years now!).

"The Art of Mulan" by Jeff Kurtti -- Should be something about Chen Yi-Chang in here, but I haven't really read the text. Lots of nice pictures and I'm sure some of the art samples were by Chen Yi-Chang.

John Canemaker, "Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney's Inspirational Artists" -- There's a whole chapter in here about Tyrus Wong. Wong stayed loyal to Walt Disney during the 1941 strike (if I remember reading correctly) but was later the victim of other employees who HAD striked and the engineered his dismissal from the studio later that decade. Like many ex-Disney employees, I think Wong DID have success as an independent painter and in that way got revenge on the people who wronged him.


You might want to ask around on the Animation Nation forum (www.animationnation.com) General Messages board to see if any of the artists that frequent that board actually worked with Ruben Aquino or Chen Yi-Chang. Chances are one of them did and they might be able to tell you a lot more than what I've heard or read. Ask around about Cy Young or Tyrus Wong and I'm sure they'll be able to give you more information if any of them knows something or has a story to relate.

(Heads up, though. You HAVE to join Animation Nation to POST on their boards, but I think general non-advertising membership on that website is free now. Of course, if you don't join, you can still read the messages but won't be able to post.)

I know somebody who worked on Mulan, but I don't know how much personal contact he had with Chen Yi-Chang who was a BIG artistic influence on that film. The guy's name is Eddie Pittman and he can be reached at EddiePittman@aol.com and he also posts on the Animation Nation boards once in a while.


P.S. -- I'd avoid mentioning the racial politics stuff about anime in the paper you do. It's not something people like to talk about it, but it's there.

Right now, given how popular Disney and anime are worldwide, there's no question there's cross-pollination of ideas and that they borrow from one another.

I guess the most infamous example of this is "The Lion King" and allegations about how the basic plot and characters were lifted from Osamu Tezuka's "Kimba" (aka "Leo the Lion King," "Jungle Emperor") without acknowledging Tezuka's work, but I think your point was more about design.

I'd say the very fact that the likes of John Lasseter (director of "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Toy Story 2") talking about his relationship with Miyazaki and the fact that Lasseter did special introductions for the recent home video releases in North America of THREE Miyazaki films ("Kiki's Delivery Service," "Spirited Away," "Laputa: Castle in the Sky") speaks to the influences and cross-cultural exchanges happening.

Sure, Pixar is NOT Disney, but the association is there.