Rubber hose animation

Rubber hose animation was the first animation style that became standardized in the American animation field. The defining feature is a curving motion that most animated objects possess, resembling the motion and physical properties of a rubber hose. While the style fell out of fashion by the mid-1930s, it has seen a renewed interest since the 2010s.

History

Beginnings and rise

In the early days of hand drawn animation in the 1920s, the studios' main areas were not in Hollywood, but New York City. Animation was a new phenomenon and there were no experienced animators; yet there were skilled artists working on newspapers, creating comic strips in a time when even the comic strips themselves were relatively new. Many of them became fascinated with the introduction of moving drawings, and saw them as new possibilities and challenges to use their skills on something they found more exciting than the newspaper strips.

For this reason, many of the first cartoons had similarities with moving comic strips. The artists experimented with what worked and what did not, and what they could and could not do. In the strips, they had no need to think of their work in three dimensions or how they moved, but at the same time this extra aspect gave them the opportunity to introduce gags and elements not possible in comic stills. Moreover, because the drawings had to be mass-produced to create the illusion of movement, they had to come up with a compromise where characters were less detailed and time-consuming, but at the same time alive and complex enough. As animators gained experience through trial, error and collaborations, cartoons became more professional and dominated by specific rules of how to make them.

The studios had to be sensitive to any new business trend to survive the competition. A consequence of this was that the style and design of the most successful and popular cartoons had a great impact on the rest of the animation business. One of the earliest examples was Felix the Cat, who quickly spawned imitators at different studios. Combined with the natural evolution of animation, this resulted in a dominating design that would be known as the ''rubber hose style'', despite individual differences between the studios. Bill Nolan is credited with the introduction of this animation style.

Decline and fall

Rubber hose animation gradually faded away as cartoons were made more sophisticated, especially by Walt Disney. Disney wanted to make his cartoons more realistic and have them follow much of the same rules as live action, a direction that would later be named ''full animation''. Disney saw animation as a potential surrogate for live action, where he could do what was impossible in live action once it achieved his demands of realism. This direction did not allow the fluid bodies seen in the rubber hose style and, due to Disney's success, this trend was spread to the remaining producers of cartoons through demands from their Hollywood distributors.

Rubber-hose trademarks appeared in some later cartoons, including those of Tex Avery for MGM, The Warner Siblings for WB Animation, or '' Ren and Stimpy'', but the original style and its influence became a part of animation history by the start of the 1930s, and went out of favor by the mid-1930s. Fleischer Studios held to it the longest, finally conforming to the more contemporary West Coast animation style by 1940. The style's influence, however, still continues into the present, with shows like '' Adventure Time'' incorporating some of rubber hose animation's elements, and the video game '' Cuphead'' paying full homage.

Influence in modern media

While there are not many uses of rubber hose animation today, there are some media that pay homage to the animation style.

Theatrical animated shorts

In 2013, Walt Disney Animation Studios produced a 3D animated slapstick comedy short film using the style. ''Get a Horse!'' combines black-and-white hand-drawn animation and color CGI animation; the short features the characters of the late 1920s Mickey Mouse cartoons and features archival recordings of Walt Disney in a posthumous role as Mickey Mouse. It is the first original Mickey Mouse theatrical animated short since '' Runaway Brain'' (1995) and the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a Disney animated production in 85 years.

Video games

*Some video games use rubber hose animation, including '' Epic Mickey'', '' Cuphead'', '' Bendy and the Ink Machine'', '' Enchanted Portals'' and '' Mouse: P.I. for Hire''.
*'' Skullgirls'' includes the playable character "Peacock", whose visual design and attacks draw from 1920s animation tropes characters are based on 1920s rubber hose animation, having the appearance of old black and white cartoons.
*'' Smite'' has two gods with skins that take inspiration from the rubber hose animation with Baron Samedi as Funny Bones and Cthulhu as Toon Mania.
*The animation for each of the numerous characters and creatures in '' Cuphead'' relies heavily on techniques pioneered by the animation style; its creators wanted players to feel as though they were watching a 1930s cartoon.
*''Sonic the Hedgehog'' also had rubber hose limbs, especially in the games in the 90s. An example of his rubber hose limbs is evident in his trademark pose with one hand on his hip, a waving finger, and crossed legs, seen on the box art of his original game. He also uses some exaggerated running poses.
*Several characters within '' Fortnite'' received "Toon" outfits that resemble the style, including Meowscles, Fishstick, Peely, and Bushranger.
*The 2023 video game '' Pizza Tower'' shows the characters animated in a similar, cartoonish art style with smooth animated frames.
* In the game '' Honkai: Star Rail'', a character of a popular cartoon series in Penacony, Clockie, takes inspiration from the rubber hose animation style.

Card games

*The Japanese trading-card game Yu-Gi-Oh! and the franchise it is based around features a line of cards called 'Toons', based on 1920s American animation styles (to contrast with the Japanese animation style of most cards).

Film and television

*The '' Futurama'' episode " Reincarnation", in its segment " Colorama", uses rubber hose animation. In this portion of the episode, the characters are rather bouncy and have an air of playfulness about them.
*Another prominent use of rubber hose animation is Disney Television's ''Mickey Mouse''. The series has the slapstick feel of the original Mickey Mouse shorts, while providing a modern update with the extensive use of Toon Boom and Flash animation, and "presents Mickey in a broad range of humorous situations that showcase his pluck and rascality, along with his long-beloved charm and good-heartedness.
*The claymation TV series, '' Pingu'' has techniques incorporated in its animation, such as having characters have their upper body stretch to reach up or roll up in a ball.
*The animated series '' Tom And Jerry'' uses rubberhose techniques in its characters.
*The mascot of Planters, Mr. Peanut, who is an anthropomorphic peanut who wears 1930s style Gentleman clothing, in his advertisements he does rubberhose techniques, and his son Peanut Jr. who does the same things as him
*The mascot of both Hasbro and Monopoly, Mr. Monopoly, has 1930s Gentleman clothing. In his advertisements, he does rubberhose gags and techniques to the players.
*'' The Peanuts Movie'' and the ''Peanuts'' specials and shows use rubberhose elements as well as the '' Peanuts'' comics they are based on.
*'' Clarence'' also used the rubber hose animation style in episode "Goldfish Follies".
*In ''Ice Age'', Scrat uses rubberhose elements, by extending his body and bouncing around while trying to get his acorn.
*In the episode " Truth or Square" from the television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', Patchy the Pirate presents a film of how the cartoon would have been like if it was made in the 1930s. In the film, the animation is done in rubber hose animation and the song used is called Rubber Hose Rag.
*In the episode "It's A Wonderful Half-Life" from '' CatDog'', the dream sequence for the entire episode is done in the style of the 1920s–1930s cartoons, and the characters all have pie eyes.
*In the episode "Tame That Toon" from '' Pucca'', the entire episode is centered around this, complete with a Betty Boop lookalike shown.
*In '' Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'', many characters use rubber hose elements including Sonic and Tails.
* Mondo Media's '' Happy Tree Friends'' is done in rubber hose style using Flash animation and most of the characters have 'pie eyes', which are in the shape of Pac-Man's body and that resemble eyes from rubber hose characters from the golden period of this animation style, the 1920s and 1930s.
*In '' Steven Universe: The Movie'', the main antagonist

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases