Mike's Arthouse: 2023-03-19

More often than not, a majority of people I've talked to will always have little to no familiarity with UPA (United Productions of America) outside of, of course, Mr. Magoo, (voiced by Jim Backus of Gilligan's Island fame).

Jim Backus, original voice of Mr. Magoo

Okay, now for a short intro:

*UPA was an animation studio founded in 1941 (as Industrial Film and Poster Service) by John Hubley, former Disney animator who left during the 1941 Disney Strike.

John Hubley and his wife, Faith Hubley

Mr. Hubley has expressed his frustration over the ultra-realistic style of Disney animated productions, feeling that animation didn't have to be an overt imitation of real-life. Part of what also inspired the UPA style was Chuck Jones's The Dover Boys, which was considered to be one of the first cartoons to break away from the "Disney look" (over what was then known as the "modern cartoon" look by The Dover Boys according to animation historian Michael Barrier), proving to Hubley and everyone else that animation could experiment and simply didn't have to follow one way of doing cartoons. And the rest is history.

The Dover Boys at Pimento University; or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942) - Chuck Jones

"In 1943, Hubley saw the Warner Brothers cartoon The Dover Boys. It's linear drawings and stylized images, so different from anything else done at the time, helped prove to him that his thoughts on animation were correct. Hubley would often speak fondly of the way Jones used new animation techniques on a story of comedy on a human level, as opposed to the typical cartoon of comedy for comedy's sake."

Noell K. Wolfgram Evans (Animators of Film and Television, pg. 18)

Chuck Jones had already shown his interest in breaking away from the traditional Disney style he had done in his short prior to The Dover Boys and The Draft Horse to create a revolutionary style that predated UPA, equal courtesy to background artists' John McGrew and Gene Fleury.

Case of the Missing Hare (1942)

Odor-Able Kitty (1945)

The Unbearable Bear (1943)

He also moonlighted over at UPA to direct a World War II-themed short film sponsored by United Auto Workers, called Hell-Bent for Election (1944), written by Robert Lee. The film gave Jones a bigger opportunity to experiment more freely with flat, stylized graphic designs, something he was almost fired for doing when he did The Dover Boys.

What one needs to remember is that, before Hanna-Barbera and their infamous limited animation (not riffing, I love their works), there was UPA, and before UPA, was The Dover Boys, which helped showcase a different approach to animation and it's capability to unique storytelling, humor, visuals and character design that's possible ONLY in the world of animation, and UPA showcased this even more. UPA's films had a quite an audiences in mind, whereas Disney was often geared towards a more family-friendly audience, Warner Bros. and MGM were fixed to making the cartoons for themselves but still entertained young and old alike, while UPA can either have their films made for children (Madeline, Gerald McBoing Boing), adults (Fudget's Budget, Rooty Toot Toot and the groundbreaking The Tell-Tale Heart, the first animated film to receive an X-certificate in the UK from the British Board of Film Censors) or both in many cases.

Madeline (1952) - Bobe Cannon

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) - Bobe Cannon

Rooty Toot Toot (1951) - John Hubley

The Tell-Tale Heart (1952) - Ted Parmelee

Because the popularity of Disney, Warner Bros. and MGM, UPA somehow became lesser-known, even among a good amount of animation buffs, despite playing an important role in the history of animation and introducing a stylized minimalistic sophisticated style, influenced by mid-century art, that became the standard of 50s and 60s animation as a way to cut cost in the increasingly expensive medium. Their style would also serve as an influence for animators of the Renaissance of Animation, Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken, which was the "trendy" animation style from the late 90s, all throughout the 2000s, mixed with both UPA, Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward (Rocky & Bullwinkle), a unique mixture of both styles for these dialogue-heavy, visually innovative shows (Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, ect.)

The Jaywalker (1956) - Bobe Cannon

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) - Bobe Cannon

The Unicorn in the Garden (1953) - William Hurtz

UPA stands out for their unique influential art style, experimental animation and visually narrative short films, truly sophisticated works of art. Another thing that set UPA apart was the lack of the funny animal, slapstick comedy genre of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, something Hubley voically wanted to go against to have animation be seen as an art. As someone who deeply admires UPA, I will say that even slapstick comedy (and comedy in general) is still an art, regardless what the Oscars and critics say, there's definitely a reason why the Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons are still fondly looked at today, because of their great writing, sense of timing and irreverent sensibility, something that does take a lot of work to make a cartoon a true classic. Many critics have pointed out how Chuck Jones's later works, such as Now Hear This and High Note were some of the more UPA-equse works at WB, showing how much Jones embraced this style, as opposed to the other directors at Termite Terrace, speculated because UPA won more Oscars and more critical acclaim than WB themselves. Another UPA type cartoon from WB is Robert McKimson's Bartholomew Versus the Wheel (1964) and Alex Lovy's Norman Normal (1968).

Now Hear This (1962) - Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble

Norman Normal (1968) - Alex Lovy

Bartholomew Versus the Wheel (1964) - Robert McKimson

Other studios were following suit to this art style too, other than Warner Bros., MGM, Walter Lantz, Disney and DePatie-Freleng Enterprise (Pink Panther) did this as well.

The Pink Phink (1964) - Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt

Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) - Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols

I didn't watch any of UPA's works until a few years back, which was when I immediately fell in love with them and made even more of an impact on me as an artist and animator. When first looking at their cartoons, it made me see that there can be more than one way animation can be done, not just the "funny animal, slapstick comedy" routine I mentioned earlier. It's proof that you can do ANYTHING in animation, if you put your mind to it. Look at Japanese anime, there are tones of genres anime has dealt with that showcase the amount of variety in animation, so American cartoons can do the same damn thing, something I would encourage to anyone. Cartoons and animation can be done gracefully if not only you put your mind to it, but if you have the right people doing it, one who understands and knows their history of animation, knows the advantages of animation, and chance to show the public animation can be for EVERYONE!!!!!

My most favorite UPA shorts were Rooty Toot Toot, Fudget's Budget, Christopher Crumpet and The Miner's Daughter.

Rooty Toot Toot (1951) - John Hubley

Fudget's Budget (1954) - Bobe Cannon

Christopher Crumpet (1952) - Bobe Cannon

The Miner's Daughter (1950) - Bobe Cannon

When regarding Questo's World (my original webcomic), there are people who say the art style reminds them/looks like 90s Nickelodeon or Craig McCracken, which does feel more like a compliment than anything else to me. But the choice of these stylized and abstract backgrounds and character designs was a design style I knew I wanted to use in Questo's World, as it easily fit the subject matter dealt within the comic, as a person obsessed with symbolic, metaphorical and allegorical elements in media. But, I still like to think of the style I use in my comics as "Warner Bros meets UPA" kind of style.

In short, UPA shouldn't be this overlooked of an animation studio and proof that American cartoons have some kind of variety in their work. If you haven't seen any of them yourself, the first one I would recommend watching is Rooty Toot Toot.