UPA Studios
History, Style, and Influence
The early 1950s was an interesting time for world history and animation. Many studios started to come out of the rise and one of great importance was UPA. UPA is short for United Productions of America. UPA is a studio that has an interesting history and whose influence can still be seen in work today.
History and Creation
The founding of UPA is quite an entertaining story. In 1940 after the release and success of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney used the profits to create a new building. The purpose of this building was to segregate the tight-knit team onto different floors depending on their job hierarchy. Disney's working conditions were terrible and borderline tyrannical resulting in many employees of the animation unit going on strike. The strike, which had started in 1941 came to an end when over two hundred strikers were fired leaving them ripe for a growing animation market. These battered and talented ex-employees sought refuge at other more appreciative places of work. Many went to work for Colombia Pictures in the newly purchased and renamed Screen gems including the well known Frank Tashlin. Others who left due to the strike or condistions surrounding it inlcude John Hubley, John Mcleish, and Zack Schwartz. Other than the short lived Screen gems many also found strange liberation in the U.S. Army. Lacking care for artisitic style so long as the message was distributed the army provided a place for artist to experiment try new methods of animation. It was those animators who decided to create their idealized studio that they wished for, Stephen Busustow, Zach Schwartz and Davis Hilberman worked after hours from the army studio to create UPA, and the rest is history.
The three founders of UPA actually collaborated on projects before UPA, originally forming a company called Industrial Film and Poster Service. It was after they formed UPA that they gained more commissioned work mailny from the United Auto Workers union (UAW). These works include Hell-Bent for Election(1944) and The Brotherhood of Man(1946). On these films they worked with other big names such as Chuck Jones and Bobe Cannon. It is in the latter film that you can see some of the tell tale signs of UPA's style, this includes lines that done match up with backgrounds, focus on human figures and more.
Style
Overall UPA had no designated studio style, each artist putting their own stye and experimentation into works, sometimes more than one artists style on a single work. The studio aimed to remain departed form the strict structure and expectations that were had of them at disney. UPA employed the use of "Limited Animation." The type of animation focuses more on expressive intention rather than on movement and backgrounds. This style allowed for less drawings and thus saved time and money, UPA however, proved that it could be used more than for cutting budgets. "It was only after Bobe Cannon’s (an UPA artist) animation “Gerald McBoing Boing” that Limited Animation was accepted in major Hollywood cartoon studios. Gerald McBoing Boing was shown in 1951 and it won an Oscar for that year" (D'source, 3).
Jollie Frolics
The impact of the cold war
The unique style of UPA
The lasting influence of upa and impact on others.
Refrences
Representing animation artists, writers and technicians since 1952. Animation Guild. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://animationguild.org/about-the-guild/disney-strike-1941/
YouTube. (2012). The Brotherhood of Man. YouTube. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnrxbkajy9M.
Prof. Phani Tetali and Phidi Pulu. (2017, October 6). Downloads. D'Source. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://dsource.in/course/limited-animation/downloads
