Walt Disney's Legacy | Is Animation for Children? 

The Silver age was meant to end in 1969 not 1959. You had a typo.

_"Animation is different from other parts. Its language is the language of caricature."_ *~ Walt Disney*

I think the problem we face now has a lot to do with our struggle to define "adult." You can't really draw a defined box around it, at least not accurately. To Kill a Mockingbird is read in elementary schools across America, but it's hard to call it a "kid" book, Walt certainly saw that. The core of stories that push the medium forward is humanity. Don't tell adult stories, don't tell kid stories. Tell human stories, because those will resonate with everyone. That's why The Muppets, To Kill a Mockingbird, Calvin and Hobbes, Ratatouille, Totoro and those other rare universally moving, not just appealing, but truly moving stories work.

I am convinced that the current Disney has FORGOTTEN what their mission statement was. Uncle Walt's legacy is lost to the almighty dollar.

I think we need people who are willing to make animation for adult audiences that are not necessarily satirical comedies or superhero stories. It would require a lot of reimagining & dropping our biases & preconceived notions.

In a post-Simpsons, post-Pixar, post-Toonami era, it's kinda shocking the bias is still as strong as it is. Honestly, what's it going to take to break this "made for kids" preconception? Will a groundbreaking PG-13 masterpiece put us over the edge? Or do we all just have to wait another 20 years for America to catch up? I dunno.

_It's a special type of art form that's for everyone to experience and enjoy. That's what Walt Disney wanted to convey._

Great video! As an animator and animation history buff myself, I always think about how differently the history of the medium would have been if certain experiments had been financially successful. For as beloved and iconic as the Disney Golden Age films are today, only Snow White and Dumbo were financially successful. If Fantasia had been an initial success, *that* would have been interesting. Walt was in deep debt most of his lifetime until Disneyland opened. Disney got its start as Depression-era comfort entertainment. Throughout the company’s history, and in the films themselves up through to today, one can *feel* the tension between the need and the desire for the Disney films to be more free and less constrained in story, character, and theme, AND the demand that Disney films be a “product”, and the filmmakers will not be permitted to create outside of certain parameters. Even within the confines of “family” entertainment, Disney animated films from the Silver Age onward rarely approach the emotional depth of the Golden Age ones. As much as I love the medium of Animation, in the United States, I’m highly skeptical that until very recently (The last 15 years), there was sufficient audience for “adult” animation. As in, enough of a paying adult audience for animated feature films and TV not meant for families to turn a profit, and sustain an industry. My personal theory is that, similar to Japan and even Europe, if the American comics industry had been allowed to fully mature and diversify as it was starting to from WWII onwards, that animated adaptations of those works would have been made, and many would have been successful. The stunted growth of the animation industry and the stunted growth of the comics industry in the US seem linked to me, and US culturally conservative backlash against both mediums feel intertwined. The industry is much different today and it’s shameful that Disney is not on the cutting edge of any of it right now. Great video!!

I only discovered your channel today after watching a few videos from BaM Animation (I can't exactly recall if that was the name of channel but it was something along those lines) and all I can say is, well, wow. I'm incredibly new to the world of animation and visual storytelling--I've been consuming it for years now and I've been an off and on hobbyist for just about 5 years but I've recently been incredibly demotivated by the prospects of mainstream film and features after finding them lacking both thematically and visually. Your channel not only provides incredibly succinct yet remarkably detailled synopses and explorations of various facets of animation and, indeed, visual storytelling as a whole, but it also highlights so many different types of animated features while providing impeccable references in easy to read notation which, I think, is so important in these sorts of videos. I haven't been this excited about getting back into drawing and painting and storytelling in a while and I'm ecstatic at the idea of sitting down to watch a few Tomm Moore films after seeing your video on backgrounds. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the excellent, competent and ultimately passionate work and you're such an invaluable resource that I can't help but question why your absolute treasure trove of a channel doesn't get more traffic. You've earned yourself a new subscriber and I'm excited to eat my way through your podcasts and continue supporting your channel.

This is such a wonderful exploration on the history of Disney (and Saturday morning cartoons). Great insights, especially about Disney's role in pushing animation towards realism and physics over abstraction. When I've taught the 12 Principles, it's always my mindset that "this is how to make animation look good," but I never really saw it as a creative choice until now. Yes, I'd tell people they can always choose not to follow the rules, but I still thought of them as ubiquitous "rules." Rather than a method developed by one man/studio that was adopted by everyone, but which could have gone another way entirely if people had instead fallen in love with the floaty Winsor McKay style or the rubber hose style, or just total abstraction. Really cool stuff! Love this channel!

God I’ve missed this channel.

I want to add that while Japan does have a lot more examples of adult animation than most of the rest of the world they still have their own stigmas against the medium. There the default age for animation is older - lots of shows are aimed at middle and high schoolers (also Japan's standards for what's appropriate to show children are different than they are in America too), but you get past high school and the amount of animation that's produced for normal adult audiences and not hyper dedicated fans goes down significantly - its still a ghetto, just a much larger one - films like Miss Hokusai or The Wind Rises are the exception not the norm (and while that's way better than much of the west its still an issue). Weirdly comic books are considered completely mainstream there - IMO its an issue I'd attribute to Osamu Tezuka failing to do as well in animation as he did in comic books (he himself has a Disney like curse on that industry). While the biggest sellers are still aimed at middle / high schoolers primarily (with a large crossover audience of older bored commuters who need something light to read on the train), there are a lot more very popular works aimed at genuinely adult audiences - and most of said works when adapted aren't adapted to animation, but instead are made into live action TV shows are movies - very rarely are they made into animation (making the industry still be a bit of a ghetto).

So glad youre still uploading! I love what you do!

IMO Disney peaked with Fantasia artistically. Sadly the medium of animation in America has been frozen in amber in that state ever since then. Its even sadder when you realize that film was made 80 years ago :/. New Wave cinema never really hit American animation on a big scale, making feel like some weird throwback to golden age Hollywood just with more postmodern humor thrown in for affect.

This was a lovely video. Thank you for making this! I don't see much unbiased forms of work on Disney. He's always painted as either a devil or a saint, but you really did well expressing both sides and his story. I really enjoy your videos, thank you for making them!

Damn, this is so well put together. This is an amazing analysis of Walt and his career and legacy, I can tell you put a lot of time and effort into the script writing, audio recording, and editing. GG 100% this video deserves so much more attention. THIS is how you make a good video, folks: good, truthful title and thumbnail that makes you want to click (without being clickbait), great sounding audio, nice visuals that go well with what’s being said, and amazing script. Keep this up, man! Hope you go places!

Brilliant as always. Thought provoking and inspiring while still being succinct!

Is this the positive side of quarantine?

dude, no joke, this video made me cry. it was so good.

Can I just say that I enjoy listening to your voice? It's very soothing and I am so relaxed when I watch your videos! Thank you by the way for this video, I'm so glad I came across it and your channel, very insightful and I have recently learned that I love animation. I never really explicitly shared it so I never knew until recently. Glad this channel helped me learn more about that.

Why the hell I'm I just discovering this channel? I love the Cinderella background music. The nostalgia was real!

When you uploaded the animators breakfast episode the other day I was so happy to see an upload on your channel and now we get another upload not to long after and I'm just glad to see activity on your channel because I genuinely Love your videos:))

Your videos are STELLAR! I'm ecstatic for everyone one of these videos whilst doing my uni work! Thanks!

You’re one of the best in the youtube space, sir. This is professional quality work.

Quality content,really enjoyed the presentation and editing,and as always was informative great job,

I love how the grammar was correct on the page he was quoting, so he incorrected it.

You made my day so wholesome! Thank you so much for this!

I always hated it when animation was treated badly like calling it childish as it was made for kids and its quite provoking. it needs to be worshiped as a god of art and I will not quit animation or grow too old for it I swear.

Great video been a animation fan since Prophet was young and find it's history interesting.

So here's the video I've been looking for!

After watching this and your Miyazaki video, I believe you have earned a new subscriber! :3

This is such a fantastic video! Amazing work!

I think the movie I'd point to if I ever was to discuss this question again is Loving Vincent. Not the best animated movie in questions of the art of animation itself. Yet certainly a piece of art, definitely animation, and not at all just for kids.

The video is great as always, but 20:25 I'm just happy to see Emara get some recognition

Yeah, I completely agree.. like there’s SOOOO MUCH that can be explored. While watching this, I had to pause, draw something in a storyboard then continue watching, and yeah. I really want to be a part of a movement that pushes animation to it’s fullest potential. :)

WELCOME BACK DUDE LOVE THIS CHANNEL

Yay! I enjoy your animators breakfast but I was worried you wouldn't do another analysis of an animator video again. Really enjoyable 😊

Wonderful content here. Good job!

Short answer: Not all It be like asking are comic books for kids?

your videos are GREAT! thank you!

This video should have a million views

Honestly, people need to stop being prejudiced towards kids' media as a whole. The best Disney movies are for everyone. Kids can enjoy them, and adults too. Same thing for lots of animated shows I love, such as Avatar - The Last Airbender, Batman - The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited and so on. And I love the Chronicles Of Narnia

this channel is such a gift

Fantastic Video!!

Thank you for this perspective

It surely changing, with people who grew up under this stigma now doing their own work, also globalisation, asian and european animation entering the US

Awesome video! Could you do a video on Tex Avery, Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones?

I could cry. Thank you for this.

Honestly, I don't remember subbing to you, but Ima stay 😁👍

please cover Don Hertzfeldt

How did I miss this one????

we out here

this is better than the phillip glass thing

I love your videos

Channel name : Art Journal of Riyaz Content : Art challenges, speed arts, tutorials

A great companion piece to this video would be Kyle Kalgren's latest work on Sergei Eisenstein's musings on Disney ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TNJb7xV_tEo.html It's definitely bleaker than this was, and is much more of a socio-political essay than one centred on animation, but they marry well together. I love and hate how your videos stop me from doing anything else while watching them. I'm used to doing some flashcards while watching a video essay, but these are so seamlessly edited with such beautiful sequences worked in stop my eyes from wandering.

It isn't entirely Walt Disney's fault, but he is indirectly responsible for creating the "animation is for kids" stigma that plagues the medium to this day as a result of creating too many films targeted for children, despite being meant to be enjoyed by adults as well. What is going on still is a vicious cycle: western audiences are incapable of accepting animation as something much more because the industry keeps pumping out kiddie movies, the industry is afraid to take chances because of the public's stubbornness and inability to change their views because animation "is not real", that it cannot be taken seriously "because it's a drawing, therefore just for kids"; and when a studio does take the chance to create mature animation the ignorant masses backlash against it because "it wasn't for children", so the industry goes back to whoring out kiddie crap, further enabling the stigma - rinse and repeat. There is no profit to be made on a medium western audiences will simply refuse to support over a dumb and idiotic logic that should have been proven wrong long ago. Genndy Tartakovsky's PRIMAL is a recent example I can think of that proves animation isn't "just for kids" but as a way to tell more mature stories, a better way of filmmaking, a true diamond in the rough. But even a masterpiece like that isn't enough to change the stigma, unfortunately, as the rest of western "mature" animation are cheaply animated Family Guy / South Park / Rick & Morty clones. Inconsequentially, the very foundation of filmmaking in general always has been live-action, and since America practically created filmmaking, live-action has been seen as more integral and more serious to the medium than a "silly drawing", so that may also have something to do with the stigma.

Secon

Good thing the land of the rising sun gave up the notion of animation being only for children 50 years ago😂

First