The secret of Walt Disney cartoon characters that few people know

Quickly rediscover the old Disney tapes and discs, are Mickey and Minnie mice, the Goofy family, the Clementine cow . or other characters wearing white gloves in each frame?

There is a scene from the "An extremely Goofy Movie" Disney classic movie , in which Max's best friend Bobby Zimmeruski asks "Why do we always wear gloves?"

Picture 1 of The secret of Walt Disney cartoon characters that few people know
. wearing gloves?

To answer this question, we need the help of John Canemaker - an animation historian and professor at New York University.

John said: " Few people notice and ask this, but when asked, there are many ways to answer . " Let's take a look at some of the reasons that classic cartoon characters always wear white gloves.

1. Save drawing time

Imagine an average of 24 frames per second of film, which means you need to draw a total of 14,400 frames for a short 10-minute movie!

And all must be hand-painted in the moment without any computer or software support. So the filmmakers of that time came up with a way to draw the long body shape of the character, with flexible movements such as rubber and the edges turned all into a circle.

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Drawing round blocks is less time-consuming.

By that method, artists will spend less time drawing details such as elbows and knees.

And the effect of the gloves in this is for filmmakers to speed up (because the circle is drawing faster than the edge) and . from drawing fingers, fingernails or hand joints.

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This way of drawing helps painters spend less time drawing details such as elbows and knees.

2. Avoid mixing the colors of your hands with your body

At the beginning, animation only appeared in black and white, so for the animal-shaped characters, the black hand color will be mixed with the body color.

This makes it difficult for the audience to see the movement of the hand . And it was the white gloves that solved this .

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Black like this, how can we distinguish the hand and the body?

3. Turn your character into "person"

Walt Disney was probably the first person to bring his character with gloves when creating a movie about Mickey Mouse "The Opry House" in 1929.

Although a rat, the gloves made Mickey's piano movements become more lively and "human" .

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This is the first episode Mickey mouse is wearing gloves.

Also, it is interesting that Disney shows the characters "not yet - must - be" who wear gloves. Look at the little Pinocchio, when the green fairy turns her into a real boy, the gloves are gone!

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The gloves are gone!

4. True historical description

Nicholas Sammond wrote in his book "Birth of an Industry," that filmmakers at that time performed in the theater where the artist darkened his face and thereby brought the experience gained. into the movie itself.

Mickey Mouse accurately depicts the image of the troubadour at the time, with a black face, heavy makeup and white gloves.

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The image of a troubadour troupe at that time.

Sammond writes in his book : "Mickey is not like a troubadour , but Mickey is a true troubadour !"

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The gloves made Mickey's piano moves lively.

How many reasons above might be enough to answer Bobby Zimmeruski's question?