Animation production in Australia has a very extensive, but little known, history. Regrettably, much of this history has remained undocumentedâin some cases, has become virtually lost. To date, there has been published no comprehensive text which documents this history. The few journal articles, and even fewer book chapters, that have been published on the topic of Australian animation have been incomplete and some containing factual errors and important omissions. This text aims to correct some of these inaccuracies and to reduce the substantial void that currently exists in this area of animation studies. And while it presents a colourful and vibrant historical survey, it is also much more than merely a detailed timeline of animated productions: it looks critically at these productions and seeks to contextualise them in a wider historical context.
The history of Australian animation , although remarkable in its own domestic context (it has produced a great quantity of innovative and compelling animations), is equally fascinating when considered within the larger global history of animation. Despite Australiaâs geographic isolation , its animation production has been surprisingly interconnected within the wider global animation context. Even from the earliest days, Australian animation benefitted from an international outlook. As pioneering animator Harry Julius declared soon after he returned from a brief time working in the animation industry in New York :
Before Australia can make pictures to seriously compete in the worldâs market, she must learn what other countries can teach. [âŚ] One grows rather weary of hearing panegyrics on Australiaâs fine scenery, sunlight and girls, and indignant denunciations of people who suggest that something more than these may still be needed. Every good Australian is proud of his land, but everyone who stops for a momentâs thought must realize that the technical side of a film has to be attended to in order to bring out the natural advantages. 1
This was at the time that Julius had begun to build what would become one of the most extensive international animation empires of its time.
The first major studio in Australia, Cartoon Filmads (founded in 1918), also became one of the worldâs first international animation empires. Throughout the 1920s, it had studio branches in over a dozen countries and was producing animated cinema advertisements for specific markets all over Asia and into Europe . Cartoon Filmads became one of the first studios in the world to utilise highly detailed storyboards as part of its pre-production process (many years before these became used by Disney ).
Throughout the decades, countless Australian animators have travelled back and forth to America, England , Europe and Asia to work in these animation industries and the very nature of animationâs often segmented production process began to facilitate a great deal of transnational partnerships. With the advent of television, much of the work produced by the Australian studios involved some form of international collaboration. Perhaps because of animationâs rather exceptional production practices (its wholly constructed imagery and its highly segmented production tasks), it is a medium that ostensibly encourages these long-distance collaborations. Marco Polo Junior (Porter 1972), for example, is regarded as Australiaâs first animated feature film. While it was entirely directed and animated in Australia, it was primarily written and principally designed in America. Contrastingly, the feature animated film, The Magic Pudding (2000), was written, designed, storyboarded and financed in Australia, but almost entirely animated overseas. Such associations have undoubtedly further widened the definition of Australian animation .
Historically, Australiaâs population has been small; thus, there has never been a large enough domestic audience to support large-scale productions. Most domestic productions have therefore sought to create a product designed to appeal both to the Australian and to an international audienceâoften with America being the prized objective. In making their animated films palatable to the American market, there has been a shifting range of approaches that either promote an âAustralianâ theme or remove it altogether.
Many Australian animated films have resorted to the featuring of native animals (koalas, kangaroos and wombats) as a means of projecting their Australian-ness. In fact, many have found it very difficult to represent Australia or Australian culture in cartoon form without resorting to bush animals. Harry Julius in addressing this issue in 1938 noted that âThis problem has always rankled with Australian cartoonists. It has never been solved. [âŚ] When you are dealing in animals it is easy. The dressed-up kangaroo is recognisable at once â and he is exclusive.â 2 An Australian accent and vernacular can also provide an easily identifiable sense of national origin; some have used thisâalthough until more recently, it has been a dialect that has tended not to âplay wellâ in America. Some Australian studios such as Air Programs International (API) opted to use a âmid-Atlanticâ voice (one that sits somewhere between an American and a British accent) , or else utilise a very exaggerated character voiceâone devoid of any recognisable dialect.
An important component of Australian animation history (and an equally important aspect of that of America) comprises the several decades during which both Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera had large animation production studios in Sydney . These studios, using local Australian talent, produced a colossal amount of animation for the global markets, covering television , direct to video markets, and for theatrical release. The advent and growth of these American studios also had a direct effect on the continued growth and success of Australian studios and animation production.
In recent decades, there has been substantial growth in the quantity of Australian productions as well as the creation of a number of animated feature films; these have frequently been either co-productions with overseas studios or the output by Australian studios of sequences/components for American productions. The detailing of the numerous transnational flows of animation will demonstrate how Australia has not only simultaneously produced many remarkable animation films, but also played a significant and integral part in the much larger global history of animationâan important role that has been omitted from many historical studies.
Chapter 2, âFrom Sketch to Empire,â details the significant beginnings of Australian animation , including the formation of a large international animation empire.
Chapter 3, âPat Sullivan and Felix the Cat,â seeks to provide a balanced assessment of the Australian animator, Pat Sullivan , and his work in the animation industry in New York. Significantly, this chapter highlights some later associations that ensued between Australia and Felix the Cat.
Chapter 4, âEarly Australian Animators: Isolation and International Influences,â looks at the few, but none the less significant, Australian animators and studios that were working from about 1930 to 1956 (when television was first introduced).
Chapter 5, âTelevision and the Rise of International Collaborations,â considers the impact of the introduction of television and how this radically changed the animation landscape of Australia.
Chapter 6, âMarco Polo Junior: A Crisis of Animated Identity,â provides an in-depth discussion of the production of the feature animated film, Marco Polo Jr vs. The Red Dragon (Porter, 1972) , which is regarded as the first animated feature to be produced in Australia.
Chapter 7, âYoram Gross: Bringing Australian Animation to the World, One Dot at a Time,â focuses on the work of Yoram Gross , a very prolific producer of animation, and creator of some exceptionally Australian-themed animated films.
Chapter 8, âAlex Stitt: Animation by Design,â concentrates on the uniquely designed animations by Alexander Stitt, who contributed to the field of Australian animation for over half a century.
Chapter 9, âHanna-Barbera Australia,â focuses on the arrival of Hanna-Barbera to Australia and details the colourful narrative of this previously unpublished segment of both Australian animation history and that of the Hanna-Barbera Studio.
Chapter 10, âAn Industry Mature,â continues to look at a wide number of animation studios in Australia (including Walt Disney Studio, Australia) a...