This week I checked out the UCLA Preserved Silent Animation Library which contains a relatively small number of silent cartoons from the period of the early 1900’s to the mid 1930’s. The collection aims to provide an archive of these nearly-forgotten animated films.
The website functions much like a concise and limited media player. It offers a viewing of each of the 11 films, arranged by date, and offers users the ability to watch the short films in silence, or with arranged music. The player has theater-like aesthetic to it, complete with red curtains, and is well-suited to the material it contains. There is also an option for commentary by the archive’s perservationist.
The films themselves are quite charming, and range from showcasing simple camera/animation trickery such as the wine-hat trick in The Enchanted Drawing, to portraying the subtle struggles of daily life like in Joys And Gloom, to even film trailers such as The Lost World (1925) trailer, which has a surprisingly modern tone to it and really lets viewers understand how old the traditions and tropes of modern movie trailers really are.
Each of the films are provided with, not only commentary, but also historical notes that allows viewers to explore and read about the history of the animated film, a short biography of its animator/creator, how it was preserved. It is a convenient, engaging, and best of all non-intrusive way of providing more historical context and background to those viewers who want it. Too often do historical archives try to shove history down the throats of people who do not necessarily want it. The archive creators seem to have a good understanding that some people would just want to watch the films, while others would want to explore the history of the films. The archive allows users to do both, without sacrificing the enjoyment of either.
The music is all created, commissioned, and played by one man, Michael D. Mortilla, and while each piece of music certainly fits the mood of each of the films, I want to know how the music was chosen. Was it based on the music notes that the original films would have been accompanied by, or are each of the pieces of music originals by Mr. Mortilla? It was not made very clear by the archive.
This brings me to my next question: why are there so few films? I understand the preservation process must be difficult, let alone finding the films themselves, but with such a limited archive it makes me wonder how and why these specific films were chosen for preservation. Were there copyright limitations? If so, would the archivist have included Popeye and Betty Boop and other pre-WW2 animations, or would that not have fit into the schema of the archive?