Animated Women
July 14, 2014 12:00 PM   Subscribe

The infamous letter denying women creative work at Disney Animation in the 1930s (previously) has an interesting addendum in a 1941 announcement by Walt Disney that the studio would be starting to admit women into the animation training program. Disney ends with a shoutout to "little Rhetta Scott, of whom you will hear more when you see Bambi."Rhetta Scott was to be the first credited female animator at Disney and drew the complex sequence of attacking hounds.Women's progress in the industry since has been slow but is recently accelerating quickly, so here is a random roundup of dazzling hand-drawn animated shorts by women:

The (Not Very) Old Guard

Joanna Quinn, famous for virtuoso draftsmanship, swirling camera, and raunchy comedy
Dreams and Desires, latest in a series starring everywoman Beryl.
Britannia is another good showcase of her style.

Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby hand paint each frame of their Academy Award-nominated films about connection and alienation
When the Day Breaks
Wild Life

The Up And Comer

Rebecca Sugar, now famous as creator of Steven Universe, made a surreal student film:
Singles


Speaking of student films, a generation of talent is erupting out of animation schools, which have seen a huge increase in female students.

Get Off My Lawn Whippersnappers Student Film Division

Ami Thompson
Basilisk, dazzling display of kinetic action.

Léa Justum, Chloé Nicolay, Laura Pannetier, Taylor Price, (and okay, one guy) Xavier Saillol
Annie, cute and bouncy love story, with pug.

Alice Bissonette, Aloyse DeSoubries Binet, Sandrine Han Jin Kuang, Juliette Laurent, Sophie Markatatos
In Between, a woman plagued with an alligator.

De Charlotte CAMBON DE LA VALETTE, Stéphanie MERCIER, Soizic MOUTON, Marion ROUSSEL
Stewpot Rhapsody, beautifully drawn ode to the maker of dinner.
posted by Erasmouse (10 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
You know what makes Monday funday? Cool cartoons! Thanks.
posted by Slap*Happy at 12:14 PM on July 14, 2014


This is so great. Thanks for this compendium of great animation!
posted by Lynsey at 12:20 PM on July 14, 2014


This is neat.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 1:48 PM on July 14, 2014


Working my way through these, lots of great work to see. One of my favorites so far is Joanna Quinn's Britannia.
posted by dawg-proud at 3:10 PM on July 14, 2014


I'm glad I'm on vacation so I can watch these at leisure.
posted by happyroach at 3:37 PM on July 14, 2014


Sally Cruikshank has been mentioned here before but she still deserves a shout out in this context.
posted by cleroy at 4:45 PM on July 14, 2014


Don't forget Lotte Reiniger. She was doing animated paper cut-out films in the 1920s before there were even the first Mickey Mouse cartoons.
posted by jonp72 at 7:00 PM on July 14, 2014


Disney almost certainly reversed course in the interest of meeting deadlines after the animators strike, which concluded shortly before this announcement, and almost halved the workforce. It's nice that he talked the talk regarding women's advancement, but given his bellicose stance toward workers generally, I'm dubious that he walked the walk. I'd also be curious to hear what the union's policy was at that time - many were gender-biased, but many weren't.
posted by wobdev at 8:04 PM on July 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


This suggests many women were in the union in the 50s.
posted by wobdev at 8:10 PM on July 14, 2014


De Charlotte CAMBON DE LA VALETTE, Stéphanie MERCIER, Soizic MOUTON, Marion ROUSSEL: Stewpot Rhapsody has a few delightful borrowings from Ronald Searle, methinks, but is none the worse for that. Great fun!
posted by On the Corner at 12:34 AM on July 16, 2014


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