Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541699
24 KEYFRAME 1933 • THE 5 TH AWARDS Before any feature presentation, it was customary to screen a short cartoon, along with newsreels, serials, and coming attractions. ie cartoons ere art of the motion picture package, they were generay iee as a searate entity. Steamboat Willie as at isneys first cartoon to receie a roer teatrica istriution. ore significanty, Steamboat Willie was Walt Disney's first sort to utiie syncronie soun While Steamboat Willie was a technical and cultural phenomenon, the Oscars had noere to onor it. at a cange at te t caemy ars. e caemy knew that Walt sort of started a big change in animated shorts with Steamboat Willie," sai animator an istorian ar auser. ey int ae te sort aar in . o, y tey a correcte tat oersigt an asicay estaise te short cartoon award, I think, in order to onor at. e aar as arguay ess aout recogniing animation an more aout recogniing isney secificay... Disney found himself double-nominated for Flowers and Trees an Mickey's Orphans . e ony oter nominee was It's Got Me Again! , a errie eoies sort istriute y arner ros. In addition to being the inaugural recipient of Best Cartoon, Flowers and Trees was the first coor fim to in in any category. 24 KEYFRAME Given that two of Nick Spake's greatest passions are animation and awards ceremonies, it makes sense that he's the author of the three-volume series Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows. He says the concept started in 2018 when he thought Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would be nominated for an Oscar for Best Feature Film. Instead, it won Best Animated Feature, and Spake began to wonder why it and so many other worthy animated contenders were continually locked out of the main feature category. "I thought that would be an interesting subject to cover, maybe going all the way back to Beauty and the Beast," he says. But as he began working, he decided to dive even deeper into Oscar history, looking at animated shorts and how they shaped animation's role at the Oscars. "I went back to the very beginning when they first introduced the best animated short category... From there, it just kind of snowballed." Here, we share excerpts from Spake's book highlighting the artistry honored during the first 20 years of the Oscars. IN THE IN THE IN THE BEGINNING BEGINNING BEGINNING Walt Disney with his record win of four Oscars in a single ceremony in 1954. F E AT U R E