Lecture 05: THE CHOICES I MADE FOR "ENDANGERED SPECIES"

Now briefly the reasons I chose the films to feature in "Endangered Species"...

There have been so many great animated film moments to choose from over the past 100 years or so - just in Hollywood alone. So any selection from the entire history of animation will be but a drop in the ocean of what could be chosen. Inevitably therefore so much of what exists did not make its way into my final selection. This is not because I rejected or disliked any of them. Far from it! The reality was that I could easily have created an entire full length movie featuring the best moments in animation's rich history - many, many times over! Unfortunately though, I had neither the time, the energy nor the resources to do any more than I did. 

Ultimately I chose a very limited amount of material - most of which is somewhat defined by my own personal journey through animation knowledge and achievement. The selections I have made therefore may not be everyone's idea of what the significant moments in animation’s history were. But the ones I did choose showed they meant something to me - and not always for reasons I can rationalize. I think a great deal of it was due to techniques or actions I admired - or simply a need within myself to analyze and learn just how they were done. What I also wanted to do was share my discoveries with others, especially in terms of principles of movement or timing that were applied.

Whatever it was that led to the scenes and sequences I selected for the film, I really grew from discovering the processes that were needed to create them, in addition to my attempts to reproduce them using my own characters. I had to use my own characters for copyright reasons, as I didn't want to do all that work and then find I would be sued by the rights owners for violating their I.P. Yet in doing what I did I do still believe that students of animation will gain a much clearer understanding of what was gleaned by my approaching it in this way - as well as hinting what can still be achieved with the infinitely more versatile and available technology of the present day.

Complete and Continue