INTRODUCTION
Animated cartoons, whether created for the theater, commercials, classroom or television, are part of a multi-billion dollar mass communications industry that had begun shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.
For more than four decades, until the late 1960s, animated cartoons, usually five to seven minutes long, appeared with every double feature. The programs of many theaters might include the previews, one or two cartoons, a feature, one or two more cartoons, then the second feature. For only a dime in the 1920s, a quarter in the 1940s or a dollar in the 1950s, it was possible to spend an entire afternoon or evening watching twenty-four frames a second appear in continuous motion. For many, both children and adults, deciding which theater to go to was as simple as deciding what cartoons were being shown. And those theaters that advertised a Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny cartoon were often the ones that drew the large crowds. It is even reliably reported that King George V refused to watch a feature film unless it was accompanied by a Mickey Mouse cartoon.
But things changed, and for myriad reasons, most of them financial, double features were no longer part of the price of admission. And neither were cartoons. By the late 1950s, the major studios began closing their animation units. By the mid1960s, only a few cartoons were shown in theaters; by the mid 1970s, a cartoon was a rare treat.
Television, which many have blamed for the decline of attendance at movies, was developed before World War II, but became a dominant force in mass entertainment during the 1950s. The novelty of television soon turned into the power of television. Now, instead of paying to see movies and cartoons, many people could make their own popcorn, relax in a comfortable chair, prop their feet upon a footstool, and watch half-hour shows-everything from Westerns to variety shows-for as long as they wished. All they had to do was buy the TV set; large businesses would pay for everything else.
And so to television came re-runs of theatrical cartoons. As television became even more powerful during the 1960s, studios were created solely to produce cartoons for television. Using shortcuts, such as limited animation (fewer drawings per second), the TV cartoons could be produced cheaper than theatrical cartoons. And now networks, not studios, could provide developmental money for cartoon series-the half-hour format worked quite well in television. The networks, their income dependent upon advertisers who read demographic charts and ratings analyses, could create what the advertisers wanted, who believed they knew what the public wanted. Saturday mornings became the domain of limited animation; children became the targets.
Some of the great cartoon directors went to television; most went into producing training films, or cartoons for classroom use, or television commercials; for their own product, advertisers wanted only the best, and directors were again given the opportunities to use full animation.
To more fully understand the animated cartoon in America, it's important to understand the historical development of the naming of animated characters. By understanding the historical trends, processes, and reasons for naming patterns, it's possible to gain a valuable insight not only into the history and nature of animated cartoons, but also into human personality as well.
Cartoon Monickers focuses only upon American animation, and only upon characters who either appeared in several cartoon shorts, or in major features. Nor are all characters who ever appeared on screen mentioned; rather, the study concentrates on the understanding of the nature and process of animation naming, and the establishment of a classification system- Certainly, with the proliferation of television cartoon characters in the 1970s and 1980s-many of the characters uninspired clones of comic book heroes-a full list of all characters would be impossible.
The development of character naming is not a case of spontaneous generation, with names popping in and out at the whim of their creators. It is an evolutionary process with clearly defined historical classifications. The majority of names for each historical period falls within the classification for that period. Although many names reflect earlier eras, and belong to other classifications, seldom are names reflective of classifications of future eras. The great writers and directors may not know why they named a particular character, and may even believe that the name "popped out of the air at a story conference,"but numerous historical and subconscious patterns had already set the parameters for what the creators could say "felt good"in a name.
In the beginning years of animation, human names were combined with generic names. Mickey Mouse became the best known member of this group, but during the two decades of 1910-1930, there were hundreds of human first name/generic last name combinations, most which had a three syllable, alliterative pattern. Human descriptive names were tried for about a decade, but were soon abandoned, for the Industry was developing another class of names. During the 1930s, descriptive-generic names began to dominate the screen. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck were two of the more famous characters.
Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in December 1937, was not only one of the most important developments in American animation, it also brought about the development of descriptive naming. The naming of the dwarfs-Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc, and Dopey-led other studios to try descriptive naming.
Names already well known to the public were adapted for animated characters, beginning in the 1930s, but did not become dominant until the 1940s. The name of the Roman god of the Underworld, which was also the name for one of the planets, became the name of Mickey Mouse's dog-companion, Pluto. The sexy Betty Boop was probably based upon a characterization of vaudevillian Helen Kane who had sued Paramount, but lost when it was proven that she had based her own characterization upon another vaudevillian, Baby Esther. Others sued when they thought the characterization or name was too close to theirs, but most playfully took the similarity in stride. But the best-known name-upon-a~name was that of Bugs Bunny who became one of animation's all-time superstars.
Although pun-names existed since 1916, when Farmer Al Falfa was named, they didn't become prolific until after World War II. Among the better puns have been Donkey Oatie (created by Mike Maltese) and Bob Clampett's Tearalong, the Dotted Lion.
Some animators found success in not naming their characters, letting them become "everyman"type performers. Tex Avery's wolf, and Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese's roadrunner and coyote, were the better known no-names.
Industry-wide codes led to the absence of many possible names. But a few choice names, or phrases crept in, such as Bob Clampett having Cecil the Sea Sick Sea Serpent about to sing Ragmop asking for "Music, my-ass-tro, please."
During the television decades of the 1960s and 1970s, WASP names tended to dominate the television screen. The animators put the blame on the networks-"That's what the networks want. Something down the midde."The networks put the blame on the advertisers-"The advertisers don't want to upset anyone."The advertisers put the blame on the public-"Well, the viewing public, which included every race, color, and creed, didn't protest the WASP names."
As for the past and future? In names, at least, most of the characters depicted as being in the primitive past or distant future have g or k sounds in one-syllable names. Why? Probably, because, as one executive says, "It feels like it should be."
As for the cartoons themselves? The past led to a golden age in animation-full animation, expertly drawn and conceived characters, excellent scripts that kept laughter a prime ingredient. The present? Cartoon factories are churning out miles of limited animation (four frames per second instead of sixteen or twenty-four per second), designed for elementary minds on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Some series, produced by the factories, and some individual cartoons produced by the independents, are very good, perhaps even better than those from the "golden age."But, many are the equivalent of pulp fiction. The future? Why spoil it by telling you.
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