Rubber hose animation was the firstanimation style that became standardized in theAmerican animation industry field. The defining feature of the style is "rubber hose limbs"—arms, and sometimes legs, that are typically drawn as flowing curves, withoutarticulation (no hinged wrists or elbows).[1] This style makes most moving animated objects exhibit a curving motion, resembling the physical properties of a rubberhose.[2] The most famous examples of this style areMickey Mouse,Popeye,Betty Boop,[3] andFelix the Cat. While the rubber hose art style fell out of fashion by the late 1930s, it has experienced a renewed interest since the early 2010s.
In the early days of hand drawn animation in the 1920s, studios in theUnited States of America were not located inHollywood but inNew York City. Back then, animation was a new phenomenon and there were no experiencedanimators around; yet there were skilled artists employed at newspapers creatingcomic strips, another relatively new medium.[4] Many of them became fascinated with the introduction of moving drawings, and put their skills into this new exciting format.
As animated cartoons became popular, the industry's small workforce of animators struggled to keep up.[5] Their design choices were a mix of intention and necessity.[5]
Studios had to be sensitive to any new business trend to survive the competition. A consequence of this was that the designs of the most successful and popular cartoons had a great impact on the rest of the animation business. One such example wasOtto Messmer'sFelix the Cat, who quickly spawned imitators from different studios.[6]Bill Nolan is credited with the introduction of the rubber hose style while animating Felix the Cat shorts in the 1920s.[7] Nolan altered the design of the title character, giving Felix a rounder, smoother look. This new design, besides being faster to draft, also gave characters the "rubbery" limbs, with no knees or elbow joints, which they could stretch to far distances or be neatly tied in knots.[5][8] Using such fluid, flexible movements made the animation process easier and faster, and the surreal quality of the resulting pictures captivated the audiences.[4]
Rubber hose animation gradually faded away as cartoons were made more sophisticated. The fad ofrealism in animation, with the appearance of lifelikeanatomy and natural movement, added to more advanced film techniques likeTechnicolor, led to the decline of the rubber hose style.
Walt Disney's massive success with his first full-length animated feature filmSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, was key in changing the trend.[9][10] In Hollywood, most cartoon studios of the early 30s (many of them founded by former Disney animators) copied this new realistic trend. In New York, Disney's influence took longer to grab hold.Fleischer Studios held to rubber hose style the longest, finally conforming to the more contemporary West Coast animation style by 1940.
Rubber-hose trademarks eventually appeared in some later cartoons, such asThe Warner Siblings fromAnimaniacs byWarner Bros. Animation. It was a major influence in the video gameCuphead and its associatedcartoon show.[11][12][13]
In 2013,Walt Disney Animation Studios producedGet a Horse!, a 3D animated slapstick comedy short film using the style.[14] It combines black-and-white hand-drawn animation with color CGI.[15] The short features characters from late 1920s Disney cartoons and archival recordings of Walt Disney in a posthumous role as Mickey Mouse.[16][17] It is the first original Mickey Mouse theatrical animated short sinceRunaway Brain (1995) and the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a Disney animated production in 85 years.
Disney Television'sMickey Mouse uses rubber hose animation. The series has the zany comedy slapstick feel of the original Mickey Mouse shorts, while providing a modern update with the extensive use ofToon Boom andFlash animation.[18]
In the episode "Truth or Square" fromNickelodeon's cartoon showSpongeBob SquarePants, Patchy the Pirate introduces how the show would have looked like if it had been made in the 1930s. The animation is done in rubber hose style.[19]
While "rubber hose" characters can be amusing, it is difficult to create a subtle acting performance in this style of animation. Rubber-hose animation handles squash, stretch, elastic, and other distortions in a technique that calls attention to itself.
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