The Cat Came Back

Cordell Barker’s 1988 animation, “The Cat Came Back” is his own visual rendition of the Henry Miller’s original 1893 folk song, according to a blog by D Wheezy. In its transformation to a visual story, Barker uses multiple animation techniques that make his animations rich with style and entertainment. Looking at his animations as a basis, there are many elements that can be drawn from his style to be aware of to enhance the two-dimensional medium of animation.

When “The Cat Came Back” was made, the animation industry was doing frame animation with paper and pencil similar to flipbooks. The same math applies twenty-four hand-drawn frames to complete one second of the film. The terms we use today like key frame and tween come from this method of animation.  Key frames were the frames that had the major movements of the animation drawn on them. For example, when Old Man Johnson answers the door at the first key frame, he is standing up looking down at the basket then proceeds closer to get a better look at the cat. The key frames would be the start frame of him looking down and then the close up of him cooing at the kitten. It was the job of the in-between artist to take these key frames or main frames to make the frame in between each key frame. That is where the term tween comes from, claims George Maestri of Lynda.com’s 2D Character animation tutorial series. When we tween an element within flash, such as the bouncing ball, we only define the key frame positions we want the object to go. Flash is our in-between animator that takes the task of creating those in-between frames for us. Though, it is covenant to click a button to have this option, it is hard to control the final result. For example, the scene where Old Man Johnson is zooming across the sea, the computer generated tween would be great for that scene, but when it gets to the point where the boat is twisting and sinking into the sea. Retracing and movement with the frame-by-frame method is the only way to achieve this type of look.  Comparing the computer generated tween to the traditional hand drawn frame-by-frame method I see the loss of personality. As the animator, he has a stronger connection to each scene because he constructed each element by hand giving the cat a custom sway and Old Man Johnson a frustrated scowl.

The story, as a whole, was enjoyable; reflecting on his style of animation, there are recognizable elements that followed the “swash and stretch” rule. According to the Lynda.com tutorial series, 2D Character Animation by George Maestri, the swash and stretch rule can be tied to Newton’s Law of Motion in that for every force, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This applies to animation specifically because it is not a realistic medium. However, to become believable, as well as entertaining, animators need to become aware of movement in the realistic term to Newton’s Law of Motion to be able to portray their character's movement in an exaggerated form; this is what makes cartoons funny. In the beginning scene, Old Man Johnson is struggling to blow on the trombone; the swash and stretch of his cheeks were exaggerated but a true action in real life. Another instance was when Old Man Johnson being whipped around by the air balloon he released; the action of being pulled and whipped around utilized Newton’s Law of Motion but exaggerated it in a way that it was comical.

When it comes to character and background design, I appreciated the simplicity of the outdoor scenes compared to the detailed interior of Mr. Johnson’s home because a lot more events were happening within his home compared to outdoors. Inside, the cat was destroying everything the couch, blinds, rug, while outside he was just being dropped of or abandoned somewhere. Using both the home and other outside places gave the animation more variety in that the audience is not just stuck staring at the same surroundings but excited by the new destination to which they might be brought. Another trick that he used in his backgrounds that should be noted was his use of hills and trees to give the flat surface of the stage more dimensions. Also, the camera movement of panning helped him create more distance and rapid movement in his external scenes like chasing the cat out in the forest to the end scene of him being launched into the air after the explosion.     

Being introduced to Cordell Barker’s work and looking at it with a more perspective eye as a developing animator was inspiring. Animators need to go beyond the “just observing but recognizing” movement in a different form. There are methods that two-dimensional animators can follow to convey their story and appeal to the audience in an effective and comical way.   

Works Cited 

Barker, Cordell, Dir. The Cat Came Back. Dir. Cordell Barker." National Film Board of Canada: 1988, Film. <http://nfb.ca/film/the-cat-came-back>.

Falcone, Michael. "Canadian Animated Films - The Cat Came Back: Oscar-nominated Animator Cordell Barker Revisits Classic Feline Tale." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 25 Sept. 2010. <http://www.suite101.com/content/canadian-animated-filmsthe-cat-came-back-1988-a152242>.

Maestri, George. Lynda.com. Lynda.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=734 >.

Wheezy, D. "Why Not: The Cat Came Back- Cordell Baker." Blogger.com. Blogger, 22 May 2008. Web. 25 Sep 2010. <http://dwheezy.blogspot.com/2008/05/cat-came-back-cordell-barker.html>.