History of Canadian animation

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The History of Canadian Animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and the formidable competition from Hollywood.

Prior to 1939, animation production was a very low scale with small production that were often discouraged by theatre chains like Famous Players who did not want Canadian competition to their parent companies' product.

1939 saw the establishment of the National Film Board of Canada which provided a strong government supported organization for the creation of distinctively Canadian work. Animation was essentially an afterthought, but an initial and short-lived period of co-production with the Walt Disney Company in the making of animated propaganda films helped establish a core of animators who continued production after Disney withdrew.

Initially, the artistic focus of the crew was to explore types of animation apart from regular cel animation since it was decided competing with the American companies in this field was counterproductive. With that approach, luminaries like Norman McLaren made their mark with innovative work in forms like drawn on film animation. In addition, the agency eventually gained the confidence to produce cell animation as well.

Apart from the National Film Board, Canadian production in the commercial sphere was largely as limited as before. The biggest contribution in the 1960s and much of the 1970s was in the field of voice acting with many major television productions like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Spider-Man sporting Canadian voice actors like Paul Soles and Paul Kligman. Some of the animation for these features were sub-contracted by such Canadian studios as Crawley Films in Ottawa and Krantz Animation in Toronto, which further propelled the career of a swaggering young animator named Ralph Bakshi.

The situation began to change in the late 1960's and early 1970's, as independent companies were formed to produce low budget children's programming. Some examples are The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo, and Rocket Robin Hood, both of which were fostered by the Guest Group, a group of creative companies owned and run by Al Guest.

Longer term successes began with the founding of Nelvana Animation in 1971. Nelvana took advantage of the new Canadian content broadcast rules to produce a successful series of acclaimed TV specials. They also had some success in the United States, working on productions like the animated segment of The Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. However, the confidence arising from this success led to the company into an ill advised and troubled production of a feature film, Rock and Rule which proved a crippling box office failure (though it later became a cult classic). The company turned to television animation work which proved successful with series like Inspector Gadget and Care Bears. The company eventually became a prime supplier of animation work into the American network TV market. Two new players suddenly appeared in Ottawa, with Atkinson Film Arts producing a series of TV specials based on the Lynn Johnston comic strip For Better Or For Worse, as well as The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin and Dennis The Menace. Meanwhile, Hinton Animation Studios toiled on another successful Canadian TV production, The Raccoons.

In the 1980s the animation department of the French division of the CBC in Montreal took centre stage by winning two Oscars for its animation shorts: Crac in 1981 and The Man Who Planted Trees in 1987. Both were produced by Frederic Back. In about the same period private and public colleges started offering complete animation programs. In 1984 Sheridan College of Toronto won an Oscar for Charade, by one of its graduating students, Jon Minnis.

With the renaissance of animation in the 1990s, Canadian animation further prospered with conventional fare from companies like Nelvana and Cinar while innovative work from Mainframe Entertainment such the first computer animated series, ReBoot drew considerable success on its own. The demand for animators during this time ( and also during the slow period of the 80's) caused a global search for excellent and skilled animators causing many talented Canadians to wander the globe to fill the demand. Many Canadians can be found worldwide in prominent positions in animation companies throughout the world. From Richard Williams directing animation on ‘’Who Framed Roger Rabbit’’ in the late 80's in England to others directing creating and supervising animation in television and commercial studios around the world including many prominent video games such as "Halo 2", "Ray Man" and "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic".

In 1997, Teletoon was established as Canada's first dedicated animation television channel whose broadcast license agreement stipulated at least one original animated television series a season.

Canadians have also contributed greatly to the technology and practices used to create Animated television shows, movies and special effects. Starting in 1912, Canadian cartoonist and painter, Raoul Barre introduced standard perforations in the drawing paper and "peg bars" to hold them in place which eliminated jerkiness when going from one image to the next. He also introduced the slash system, a method of drawing the background only once (instead of with each frame as had been done previously) on a separate sheet, leaving blank spaces for character movement. In 1913 Barre organized a systematic method of producing animated cartoons in an assembly line fashion. The assembly line method is essentially how all commercial animations (television, film etc) are created to this day.

Companies such as Montreal's Softimage and Toronto's Alias/Wavefront have not only helped to define international technical standards, but have assumed a leadership role within the computer software industry. Alias/Wavefront's "Maya" is a leading animation software package used in many animated features and special effects. From shows as simple as South Park to special effects as fantastic and complex as those seen in the Harry Potter films and more.

Further experimentation and exploration in the art of animation which began with the National Film Board of Canada and the works have Norman Mclaren has continued through the decades through the techniques and films of other NFB animators such as Jacques Drouin, Chris Hinton, Wendy Tibly and Amanda Forbis, Cordel Barker and many others. A few Independent organizations such as the Toronto Animated Image Society in Toronto and especially the Quickdraw Animation Society in Calgary have also formed and continue to contribute, explore the art of animation and produce new works by emerging and established Canadian animators and artists. This exploration and blending of assorted and unusual techniques can be seen in the many boutique animation companies and independent animators that have sprung up through out Canada and has continued to propel Canada's reputation of interesting and innovative animation techniques.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival which takes place every fall in Ottawa Ontario is one of the largest and most respected animation festivals for drawing professional, commercial, independent and amateur animators and animation enthusiasts alike from all over the world. It is sponsored by the Association internationale du film d'animation, better known as ASIFA with chapters throughout the world.