The World of UPA (Part 1 of 3) 

I think it can't be understated how much the Depression played in UPA's creation. Reading interviews with several animators from that era, you get the picture a large number of people got into animation not because they really wanted to, but because Disney was one of the only places for a young artist to get hired to actually do art. And once they came out the other side, they had all these sharp animation skills and more opportunities to be the artists they always wanted to be.

So cool! My Great Uncle who just passed away at 102 was an animator for UPA: Willy Pyle (he is in the credits at min 10:28) I just sent this video to my family! Thank you for this!

The Jazz of Animation

“ he wanted his animation to do what live-action couldn’t “ This

One other big influence on the UPA style of animation was the 1942 Warner Bros. cartoon The Dover Boys at Pimento University, created by Chuck Jones. It had some of the earliest use of minimalist design to create expressive human characters. It's really sort've the prototype for what would become UPA style.

It's worth mentioning that they won several Oscars, including 1956 when they had every nomination. Their style affected every other studio, including Disney. And they would not have survived if not for Hubley's creation of Mr Magoo.

I am so happy this video is here now. I saw animation of UPA during my entire childhood without knowing at the time the rich history behind it.

My great grandfather was the voice for the jaywalker, thank you for sharing

I always loved UPA artistically, but never knew the business side. This is great.

The graphic is tight!

The modern artists (animators) that I actually like and would talk about vs the ones I hear about over and OVER again in my art classes.

Excellent! I'm so glad you made this! UPA can be criminally under valued, despite their huge change to the world of western animation. Really looking forward to the next 2 parts!

"Invaded by diet Looney Tunes" needs to become a widespread expression

You've got to do a video series on Fleischer Studios in the future. Especially since they played a big role during the early days of animation. At one point, they we're big rivals with Disney before the Looney Tunes existed.

Finally got around to watching the UPA trilogy and I have to say it has been one of my absolute favorite docu-series I've watched in recent times.

2:09 This might be the most creative demonstration sign I've ever seen

It’s so rare to hear about UPA especially this in-depth. I’m excited for this series.

Woah a metal upa! Those are rare!

Never heard of this company before, but this video is great. So cool to learn about something new ♥️

Thanks for this! There's a lot of discussion and reverence in the animation community for the "UPA style" [which is a whole other discussion as to what people think that is!] but definitely not enough discussion about the efforts of unionization and the attempt to create a studio that encapsulated the ethics and cooperation the union members wanted to bring about! So much to learn from today by looking at the history of the formation of UPA. There has been a resurgence of discussion of this history lately and I love it!!! Thank you!

Love that you're covering UPA! I teach Animation History, and it's one of my favorite classes- to show the students how we take for granted how animation looks these days and how UPA was so different and revolutionary at the time. Hoping you fold in the modern art influences of picasso, mondrian, & kandinsky as well as throw Mr Magoo some love in the coming videos!

How was absolutely none of this in my history of animation class?! I have never heard of any of these names! I'm in love with this particular art style; Blue Rhapsody remains my favorite Fantasia film to date. Thank you so so much for creating this video!

I never heard of this company, but I'm amaized! It looks like jazz sounds, and that's fresh even after 60 years of it's inception.

Wonderful history and tribute to a relatively unknown, but important studio! Also influential: After a few years, Disney itself, of all creators, thanks partly to the intelligence and talent of Ward Kimball, began adopting the UPA style in its own cartoons! Thank you for making this series of videos!

Walt Disney made revolutionary art. The imagery in fantasia and Bambi has since not been rivalled. He had his own style and direction. That did not mean he was inferior to the UPA. Also, Walt famously hated using piled gags, and instead tried to tell complex stories. He was not the only storyteller in the studio, and hated how stale mainsteam animation was. That's why he wanted to change everything through the making of Snow White. Also, in White, they needed to attempt realism so that they could transcend it in their later golden Age films. These films used cinematography and movement impossible in live action. Moreover, Fantasia has a lot of abstract imagery in its opening suite, Night on bald mountain suite, and Nutcracker suite, which pushed colouring, cinematography, film, emotion, art and broke the rules of perspective effortlessly. Mickey mouse was a tiny part of Disney, which allowed them to increase in popularity so that he could make his films. The silly symphonies were a training ground so that the animators could be prepared for making films. The reason snow White used so much realistic movement was because everyone were telling Disney that an audience can't emotionally connect to drawings. The Huntsman scene took months to get right and for the audience to really feel for Snow White. It's revolutionary what they did. Furthermore, they improved in their later films. Can you do the stories, imagery and direction of Phinocchio, Fantasia or Bambi in live action or CGI? I doubt it. You cannot say Disney was all rabbits and talking mice. You're using specific examples to represent the visionary who was responsible for fantasia, Bambi, phinocchio, and the first blockbuster. He pushed the boundaries of storytelling, cinematography and film. His creativity is mind bending. Alfred Hitchcock and Citizen Kane were inspired by Disney. The amount of nuance and philosophy in Bambi is almost unmatched. Going by your logic, I can say that the UPA was nothing but cute taking cats, crows and foxes, as well as gags based on newspapers and bears. I am glad this group of artists could reach their potential in the UPA. The Disney films had over 100 people working on them. It's actually scary how much talent is wasted in animation. In films like Spirited Away, you only see Miyazaki's vision - a tiny fraction of the people who worked on the film. Anyway, I always thought the UPA were Soviet animators. They had a similar style to a lot of Soviet animation and I only saw their dialogue-less cartoons. I can't wait to learn more about them! There's a lot of underrated animation visionaries in the world, such as Uri Norstein(regarded by many professors as the greatest animation Director of all time), the Fleisher brothers, Windsor McCay, etc. I'm glad that more people will learn about UPA through such a great RU-vid channel.

This is fantastic! I grew up loving “Gerald McBoing-Boing” and “Tom Terrific” (and His wonder-dog Mighty Manfred) but had no idea where they came from and why they were so charming in their quirky way! Can’t wait for the next two episodes and a way to view and share them all once again!

UPA cartoons were all over the tv in my childhood in the 1970’s and early 80’s. Thanks for bringing their history to life. Great work.

I'm five years late, but just want to applaud this work. I am currently making an animation for a college project and was trying to put my finger on what I thought were just general mid century animation tendencies, both because it looks cool and I know will let me do more quickly (I have a week lol). To find out that A. the abstract end of that tendency (what I want) was codified by a specific studio and B. this resource spells out just what they were going for, helps me out immensely. For an extra dose of mild irony, I'm doing all this in Zagreb, with it's even more radically abstract animation tradition.

Finally, someone called Columbia "Diet Looney Tunes"! Glad I'm not the only one who of them that way. It doesn't help that Columbia was pumped by the same guy who got Oswald in Universal.

The editing on this is gorgeous

In love with that style, I'm now studying to be an artist, the biggest influence being that era art and the Renaissance art

Everytime you show that old photo of the Roosevelt, I get a little shiver as I'm currently typing this from the third/top floor of the building on edge of frame left. Thank you so much for telling the UPA's tale!

This is dope! Thanks for all your hard work, research, and editing on this terrific piece of art!

This was an awesome tribute! Thank you!

I imagine what would be Brotherhood of Man be like (or any UPA film) if it was newly introduced back then as if I saw it for the first time? It would be fascinating. Without the UPA influence, there wouldnt be any animated series like Samurai Jack or Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends to name two. I hope someone could restore these films in high quality.

OMG the production quality was absolutely of the charts on this one man!! Incredible video such a joy to watch!

im so glad you're doing a multi part piece on UPA, their work has been such an inspiration on my work

I love the editing on this channel! Looking forward to the complete story of UPA!

I love your style and focus man!!!! Always excited to see you've posted a new video

What an amazing job, congratulations on a wonderful documentary!

Educational yet entertaining. I especially liked the description of how the new animators wanted to do more abstract work because, I assume, it allowed them the creative latitude they wanted and needed as artists. Excellent!

Love learning about the creators of so much content I loved as I was growing up.

I love the history of animation. Loved the video, looking forward to part 2!

This was a fascinating documentary. I can’t wait for the next part!

I love underated animation, and I must say, this documentary if off to a promising start

Great video my guy! Great use of clips, and editing as always. And of course so informative and well written. Keep it up man

Dude what a great production!

I absolutely love this, so informative and so well executed!

Man, so much detail went into this, I love it, especially as an aspiring animator.

That was great, can't wait to delve into their art in the next installment, I'm currently teaching myself animation

This Documentary about UPA is Awesome! Can’t wait for more.

Beautifully crafted video!

Wonderful video, looking forward to part 2.

Felicidades! Un grandisimo trabajo...

I’m pumped.

amazing video. informative and impeccably edited. well done.

Brilliant stuff!

Wonderful video! My favorite UPA film is Rooty Toot Toot! I learned of Rooty Toot Toot in Leonard Maltin's book Of Mice and Magic. I can't wait for part two! 🤗🤗🤗😃😃😃👏👏👏👏🎨🎭🎞📽🎥🎬📺📹

Finally UPA is being talked about thank u!!!

the layout of this marvelous

Wonderful video essay!

I cannot express how brilliant this video is!!!!!

Great film! Thanks a lot!

This is great. Thanks for this!

I can’t believe I just found this channel It’s amazing

Amazing video!

Great video. A tour de force, actually. So glad I found this channel!

When i was really young i wanted to know how people make animations, i was like "no way they draw every frame"

You've done it again, good man. Always a pleasure when I get your notification !

This is a great video! So much info and entertaning. I remember watching these as a kid but never knew who made them.

This stuff helped to insure that I would grow up loving animated film.

“Glorious wartime experiments.” That’s a new one

This 3 part series about UPA is some of my favorite videos on youtube

how does this only have 151k views it’s amazingly put together

This guys are great editors.

R.I.P. defense limited.You were a challenging train!

You should have won an award for this series.

God, yes... I audibly gasped when I realised I had to wait for part 2.

Fantastic video.

this is so good

So "unique" and popping out to learn more about our revolutionary artists/animators. And well-done analysis of how UPA broke out of the Disney and Warner Brothers trademarks🎯✏🖌🟦🟩🎥🌅 Stay safe and keep it up!

I've never heard of UPA, but I can instantly see their influence. Thanks for spreading the word!

More UPA! You just got a patron! Could you talk about Hi-Q library music, or Bill Lava, Billy May, etc?

Diggin this.

I am not familiar on UPA, this one really got me interested. Looking forward for Part 2.

this video was a masterpiece of graphic design

UPA animation has traditionally underrated artstyle and very simplistic tone. It's sad that nowadays animation is nothing compared to UPA's.

better then many netflix documentaries

Cool vid, though I wish you expand on UPA legacy, such as the art of Genndy Taratavosky, Craig McCracken and even Brad Bird

This is gold! I wish I had this video as kid when we use to watch vhs when there was a substitute teacher lol

Love your documentaries! Would love to see something about Terrytoons! :D They've gotten very "design-y" in the 60s as well. Not much material is around about the studio which is famous for being the most low-budget one of them all so i think there's a market gap there haha :D

Good job. Only thing I'd need to point out is that your photo of The Roosevelt Hotel was from the 1950s. The Cinemascope painted wall billboard gives this away.

Now I see where the defunct United Paramount Network (UP... N; merged with the WB network to form the CW) might have got their inspiration for their 1st logo. Same color scheme, basically the same font, only two of the shapes, a square and a triangle, were noticeably different. I came here after binging on KaiserBeamz's "Merrie History of Looney Tunes" and learning of Chuck Jones' admiration of, and eventual involvement, with UPA. Truly a memorable, influential studio and art style.

The jazz was a nice touch.

Please cover the works by Don Hertzfeldt since you love great non Disney animation

Great vid! I'm a big fan of UPA

Easy watchin’

Pushing the boundaries, almost always proves beneficial. UPA did great work

Why do i feel that Disney creates their rival

where was this video when I had a research paper about UPA and Disney??? :'