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Posts Tagged ‘History’

That is the question I told myself while watching “Toy Story 3”. Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful movie, visually stunning and also a tear jerker. But with movies like “Toy Story 3” and “Up”, I think about what’s transpired in the past 15 years and I thought what has happened with animation?

What has been a multibillion dollar revenue in America has flat lined the very style of hand drawn animated films. It all started back when the first “Toy Story” was released, a revolutionary film that was completely done by C.G.I. (computer generated imagery) a critically acclaimed feature which spawned many movies to come.

The last time I even saw an actual animated  cell film was probably “Spirited Away” by Hayao Miyazaki. In fact the front runners now a days for animated films are mostly from Japan. There was a time when American animation was in that position, and so it seems hand drawn films are a dying breed in America.

What has happened to animators, illustrators, and cartoonist? Art colleges and institutions across the country now plaster commercials all over TV about learning how to become an animator. A 3D animator! What happened to kids wanting to become a animator when they grow up? Yes animation exists but only on syndicated TV shows.

Would Walter Disney have approved this? He had a vision when he painstakingly created “The Walt Disney Company”, characters like “Mickey Mouse” and “Dumbo” was the staple of every day Americana, It spawned companies like “Amblimation” and “Fox Animation Studios” that had the same ambitions to create wonderful animated features like “An American Tail” and “The Land before Time”.

But when I think of companies like these, I think of how corporate juggernauts have ruined the fabric of hand drawn animation. Corporate douche bags like “Apple” co founder Steve Jobs have taken their mega conglomerates to change everything that people like “Walt Disney” achieved. The computer era has out sourced what real animation was.

For instance, Steve Jobs acquired “Pixar”, which was a graphics group/computer division of “Lucasfilm” back in 1986, they created movies like “Toy Story” and “A Bug’s Life” in 1995 and 1998 and made millions thus resulting in “Disney’s” acquisition in 2006 and solidifying hand drawn films to vanish.

In fact since were on the subject of Steve Jobs and “Pixar”, I bet you don’t realize that because of the acquisition of “Pixar”, Steve Jobs is the majority stock holder of “Disney” which now owns “Marvel Entertainment, LLC” aka “Marvel” comics, where do you think illustration will go? I bet the “iPad” and digital comics can answer that question… But that is an entirely different subject.

Yes you may think this article was a huge rant or you may agree with what I’ve said. But in 20 years when you’re in a museum and you see your favorite hand drawn animated film as a main exhibit or feature, don’t ask yourself what happened.

Article by Jasper Gonzales

What isn’t there to say about New York City, it’s one of the most famous cities in the world, renowned for many things; it is one of most influential cities for its arts, history, diversity and many cultural backgrounds, NYC has so many sections within its 5 boroughs that each holds many different museums and establishments of arts.

It hard to say that when you’re in New York City that you are going to visit the museum because there isn’t one specific museum, there are dozens and dozens in the city, unlike other cities that have one or two museums. Within the borough of Manhattan you have the lower part and the upper part, they both have multiple museums within in blocks from each other.

In the lower half you have the village, which houses majority of NYU (‘New York University’) students and allot of independent artists, the vibe there is bursting with creativity, it also home to the ‘Guggenheim Museum Soho’, which has a permanent collection of Andy Warhol paintings. In the upper half, you have areas like Harlem one of the oldest areas in Manhattan that has had its fair share in creative history it is also where the ‘Hispanic Society of America’ is located. Whether it is arts or music, Harlem is synonymous for its culture.

Right down the middle of Manhattan is Central Park and the ‘American Museum of Natural History’, one of the largest museums in New York, it houses thousands of art pieces and spans blocks across Fifth Avenue,  the museums carries art from the dawn of earth to present day. Just further down is the ‘New York Museum of Modern Art‘, which showcases one of the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in the world.

In the borough of Queens you have the ‘Queens Museum of Art’ where the famous model Panorama of the City of New York is. The model is 9335 sq. ft. with 800,000 buildings representing the 320 square miles of New York City. In the borough of Brooklyn is the ‘Brooklyn Museum’, what’s unique about the ‘Brooklyn Museum’ is that it has one of the best collections of Egyptian Art in the world.

The home of the ‘Yankees’, the Bronx borough is also the home of the ‘Bronx Museum of the Arts’, The Museum’s collection consists of over 800 twentieth-century and contemporary works of art in all media.  And the borough of Staten Island has a collection of historical and contemporary art that reflect the history, people and culture of Staten Island.

But that’s not all, with all the city’s famous landmarks like the ‘Empire State Building’, ‘Chrysler Building’ and ‘Statue of Liberty’ there is one landmark that is its own museum. ‘Ellis Island’, known around the world as the “gate way to the new world” is one of the only museums that chronicle the history of immigrants and their struggles and travels to come to the land of the free. When you come to the ‘Ellis Island’ museum, you relish how many people have stepped through those doors and how they shaped America to what it is today. It’s truly astonishing.

But with all the museums I mentioned just now, that is only a fraction of museums that reside in New York City, you wouldn’t be able to visit all of them in one trip. This is even better because now you have a reason to visit again…

For more information on New York City’s museums please visit: http://www.nycgo.com/

Article by Jasper Gonzales