I’m a big fan of UPA & indeed it’s European cousin, Zagreb Studios, but for me it’s not so much about “limited” animation as it is about economy.
“Limited” is a somewhat pejorative term in animation circles where there is a fear that you’re not working hard enough when in fact the forced economies imposed by TV budgets & schedules or simply a lack of money resulted in a very pared down and economic style of narrative that emphasised strong design and an inventive approach.
Definitely agreed that there's a pejorative way to take the word "limited." Some of the UPA artists really, really hated the term and preferred to call it "stylized animation" or things like that. Jules Engel said in that interview we quoted, "They always downgrade it, which I think is very stupid because there's no such a thing as limited animation -- there's such a thing as limited talent, but not limited animation."
Even though it was co-opted later by companies like Hanna-Barbera to cut costs, it really was an artistic movement intended to break away from Disney's style of drawing and find new expressive possibilities. Zagreb Film's work was the same way. It's not really clear why we got stuck with the name "limited animation" around the world -- even Japanese and Russian animators, who adopted the style in the '60s for rebellious artistic reasons, used that term. We should probably write more about this problem in the future. Thanks for the comment!
This is just an outstanding analysis – thank you!
Ah, thanks for the very kind words! Glad you enjoyed it.
I’m a big fan of UPA & indeed it’s European cousin, Zagreb Studios, but for me it’s not so much about “limited” animation as it is about economy.
“Limited” is a somewhat pejorative term in animation circles where there is a fear that you’re not working hard enough when in fact the forced economies imposed by TV budgets & schedules or simply a lack of money resulted in a very pared down and economic style of narrative that emphasised strong design and an inventive approach.
Definitely agreed that there's a pejorative way to take the word "limited." Some of the UPA artists really, really hated the term and preferred to call it "stylized animation" or things like that. Jules Engel said in that interview we quoted, "They always downgrade it, which I think is very stupid because there's no such a thing as limited animation -- there's such a thing as limited talent, but not limited animation."
Even though it was co-opted later by companies like Hanna-Barbera to cut costs, it really was an artistic movement intended to break away from Disney's style of drawing and find new expressive possibilities. Zagreb Film's work was the same way. It's not really clear why we got stuck with the name "limited animation" around the world -- even Japanese and Russian animators, who adopted the style in the '60s for rebellious artistic reasons, used that term. We should probably write more about this problem in the future. Thanks for the comment!