United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film and video games. Animation is related to filmmaking and like filmmaking is labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators; the methods of creating the images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field. Other artists who contribute to animated cartoons, but who are not animators, include layout artists, storyboard artists, background artists. Animated films share some film crew positions with regular live action films, such as director, sound engineer, editor, but differ radically in that for most of the history of animation, they did not need most of the crew positions seen on a physical set. In hand-drawn Japanese animation productions, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's films, the key animator handles both layout and key animation.
Some animators in Japan such as Mitsuo Iso take full responsibility for their scenes, making them become more than just the key animator. Animators specialize. One important distinction is between special effects animators. In large-scale productions by major studios, each animator has one or more assistants, "inbetweeners" and "clean-up artists", who make drawings between the "key poses" drawn by the animator, re-draw any sketches that are too made to be used as such. A young artist seeking to break into animation is hired for the first time in one of these categories, can advance to the rank of full animator; the creation of animation was a long and arduous process. Each frame of a given scene was hand-drawn transposed onto celluloid, where it would be traced and painted; these finished "cels" were placed together in sequence over painted backgrounds and filmed, one frame at a time. Animation methods have become far more varied in recent years. Today's cartoons could be created using any number of methods using computers to make the animation process cheaper and faster.
These more efficient animation procedures have made the animator's job less tedious and more creative. Audiences find animation to be much more interesting with sound. Voice actors and musicians, among other talent, may contribute vocal or music tracks; some early animated films asked the vocal and music talent to synchronize their recordings to already-extant animation. For the majority of animated films today, the soundtrack is recorded first in the language of the film's primary target market and the animators are required to synchronize their work to the soundtrack. Animation is the art of creating moving images; this line of work is all about creating a series of individual ‘frames’, which make images come to life when they are flicked through in rapid succession. Animation was done manually, with animators drawing multiple frames to depict a single action, i.e. the kind of animation that you witnessed during a typical scene from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon and Jerry. Today, computer-generated imagery has replaced manual animation, but a significant amount of artistic talent is still required.
Animators are employed in various segments of the entertainment industry,including film and video games. As a result of the ongoing transition from traditional 2D to 3D computer animation, the animator's traditional task of redrawing and repainting the same character 24 times a second has now been superseded by the modern task of developing dozens of movements of different parts of a character in a virtual scene; because of the transition to computer animation, many additional support positions have become essential, with the result that the animator has become but one component of a long and specialized production pipeline. Nowadays, visual development artists will design a character as a 2D drawing or painting hand it off to modelers who build the character as a collection of digital polygons. Texture artists "paint" the character with colorful or complex textures, technical directors set up rigging so that the character can be moved and posed. For each scene, layout artists set up rough blocking.
When a character's bugs have been worked out and its scenes have been blocked, it is handed off to an animator who can start developing the exact movements of the character's virtual limbs and facial expressions in each specific scene. At that point, the role of the modern computer animator overlaps in some respects with that of his or her predecessors in traditional animation: namely, trying to create scenes storyboarded in rough form by a team of story artists, synchronizing lip or mouth movements to dialogue prepared by a screenwriter and recorded by vocal talent. Despite those constraints, the animator is still capable of exercising significant artistic skill and discretion in developing the character's movements to accomplish the objective of each scene. There is an obvious analogy here between the art of animation and the art of acting
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery was an American animator, director and voice actor, known for producing and directing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Screwy Squirrel and Junior, Chilly Willy. Gary Morris described Avery's innovative approach:Above all, steered the Warner Bros. house style away from Disney-esque sentimentality and made cartoons that appealed to adults, who appreciated Avery's speed and irony, to kids, who liked the nonstop action. Disney's "cute and cuddly" creatures, under Avery's guidance, were transformed into unflappable wits like Bugs Bunny, endearing buffoons like Porky Pig, or dazzling crazies like Daffy Duck; the classic fairy tale, a market that Disney had cornered, was appropriated by Avery, who made innocent heroines like Red Riding Hood into sexy jazz babes, more than a match for any Wolf.
Avery endeared himself to intellectuals by breaking through the artifice of the cartoon, having characters leap out of the end credits, loudly object to the plot of the cartoon they were starring in, or speak directly to the audience. Avery's style of directing encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything." He performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons throwaway bits. Avery was born to George Walton Avery and Mary Augusta "Jessie" in Texas, his father was born in Alabama and his mother was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. His paternal grandparents were Needham Avery and his wife, Lucinda C. Baxly, his maternal grandparents were his wife Minnie Edgar. His paternal great-grandparents were wife Elizabeth Brannon Avery. Avery, nicknamed "Tex", "Fred", "Texas", was born and raised in Taylor, Texas, a small town in the vicinity of Austin.
Avery graduated in 1926 from North Dallas High School. A popular catchphrase at his school was "What's up, doc?", which he would utilize for Bugs Bunny in the 1940s. Interested in becoming a newspaper cartoonist, he took a summer course at the Chicago Art Institute. On January 1, 1928, Avery arrived in Los Angeles, he spent the following months working in menial jobs. According to animation historian Michael Barrier, these jobs included working in a warehouse, working on the docks at night, loading fruits and vegetables, painting cars, he began his animation career. He was only an inker, inking cels for animated short films in the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. Avery moved to a new studio, Universal Studio Cartoons, he was again employed as an inker, but moved up the studio's hierarchy. By 1930, Avery had been promoted to the position of animator. Avery at the start of his animation career continued being employed by the Walter Lantz Studio in the early 1930s, he worked on the majority of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons from 1931 to 1935.
He is shown as'animator' on the original title card credits on the Oswald cartoons. He claimed to have directed two cartoons during this time. During some office horseplay at the Lantz studio, a thumbtack or paper clip flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose his sight in that eye; some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style, but it did not stop his creative career. The incident is described in some detail based in part on old interviews with Avery. Part of the typical crude horseplay at the Universal studio was using a rubber band or a paper spitball to target the back of a colleague's head, they would shout "Bull's eye" after every successful shot. An animator called Charles Hastings decided to take the game one step further, by using a wire paper clip instead. Avery heard one of his colleagues telling him to look out, he reacted by turning around. Instead of the back of his head, the paper clip hit Avery in his left eye.
He lost use of his eye. As an animator, Avery worked under director Bill Nolan. Nolan delegated work to Avery, whenever Avery had to animate a sequence. Nolan's instructions for a scene involving Oswald being chased by bees, were simple, he would describe. The rest of the details were left up to Avery. Avery started handing out work to other animators working under Nolan, he still wanted more control over the creative process, served as a de facto director for a couple of films. Based on Avery's recollections, there is a description of, he was submitting sight gags for use in the short films. Some of them wer
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated horror comedy television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network and the eighth of the Cartoon Cartoons, it was produced by Dilworth's own animation studio, Stretch Films, in association with Cartoon Network Studios. The title character is a pink, anthropomorphic dog who lives with an elderly couple in the middle of Nowhere. In each episode, the trio are thrown into bizarre and disturbing misadventures involving the paranormal or supernatural; the series is known for its surreal humor and atmosphere. Dilworth pitched the series to Hanna-Barbera's animated shorts showcase What a Cartoon! and a pilot titled "The Chicken from Outer Space" aired on Cartoon Network in February 18, 1996. The segment lost to Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave. Cartoon Network greenlit the series from the short, which premiered on November 12, 1999, ended on November 22, 2002, with four seasons of 13 episodes each produced. During its run, the series was nominated for 1 Annie Award.
The series has developed a strong cult following. Merchandise based on the series has been produced, such as home media releases and clothing. Courage the Cowardly Dog follows Courage, a pink and frightened dog, he was abandoned as a puppy after his parents were forcibly sent into outer space by a crazed veterinarian. He lives in a farmhouse with a connected garage near the fictional town of Nowhere, Kansas with Muriel Bagge, a friendly, sweet-natured Scottish woman, her husband Eustace Bagge, a grumpy, greedy farmer who mistreats Courage out of jealousy and refers to him as "stupid dog." Muriel took him in as her own. Courage and Eustace encounter monsters, demons, mad scientists and other such perils from myths and legends; the plot uses conventions common to horror films. Although most of the creatures that the three face are hostile, some turn out to be friendly and are suffering from distress and acting in desperation; the task of protecting his elderly owners Muriel and Eustace from such dangers falls on Courage, who endeavors to thwart or reconcile with the monster of the week and remedy or repair any damages done.
Although Courage is aided with that task, the full extent of his efforts is performed unbeknownst to Muriel and Eustace. Given his name, Courage is a genuine coward but still goes to great lengths to protect his owners. Although episodic in nature, there are a handful of recurring characters in the show's cast, including Courage's sarcastic, sentient computer. Courage the Cowardly Dog was created as a seven-minute animated short, "The Chicken from Outer Space". Dilworth started the animated short with Hanna-Barbera, sponsored by Cartoon Network and introduced Courage. Dilworth graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1985, he became an art director and founded his own animation studio, Stretch Films in 1991, incorporated in 1994. The animated short was shown as one of the episodes of Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons in 1996, a Hanna-Barbera Cartoons innovation by then-president Fred Seibert; the short served as a de facto pilot for the future series.
The original animated short had no dialogue except for one line spoken by Courage, who had a more authoritative voice than in the series. It was uttered by voice actor Howard Hoffman who provided all the other vocal sounds and effects for the short. An alien chicken was the villain in this short, who reappears in the series to seek revenge, his sons attempt to seek revenge too in a episode. The short was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards. In 1999, Cartoon Network gave Dilworth permission to turn the short into an animated series. Hanna-Barbera was responsible for the What a Cartoon! Anthology and intended on developing the series. However, Dilworth insisted on taking the production to his Stretch Films Studios; the stories' plots were written by the show's head writer, David Steven Cohen, in addition to Irv Bauer, Craig Shemin, Lory Lazarus, Bill Marsilii, Allan Neuwirth, Bill Aronson and Michelle Dilworth. When deciding on sound effects, Dilworth tried to avoid pre-made stock sounds.
He contributed a substantial amount of new material to sound designer Michael Geisler and only looked for sounds that made him laugh. The composition of the series' music relied on what was being portrayed: suspense, comedy, or action; the production crew worked together to come up with new music for the series that had not been used. There were a few sections on one particular piece; the production crew was able to expand them into a usable theme. Dilworth further complicated the crew's job by suggesting layering the theme with a variety of funny sounds, a strange tempo and a voice-over of a crazed laugh or person singing to give the music and sound effects their own personality beyond anything else out there. Original music featured in Courage the Cowardly Dog was composed by Andy Ezrin. Classical music can be heard at times, which pays homage to classic Warner Bros. animation and the scores of Carl Stalling. In several episodes, Gray arranged various famous classical pieces, such as Wagner's "Ride of the Valk
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards known as the Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership; the various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more referred to by its nickname "Oscar". The award was sculpted by George Stanley from a design sketch by Cedric Gibbons. AMPAS first presented it in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; the Academy Awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now seen live worldwide, its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, the Grammy Awards for music – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2018, was held on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, California.
The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,072 Oscar statuettes have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 90th ceremony, it was the first ceremony since 1988 without a host. The first Academy Awards presentation was held on 16 May 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people; the post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period; the ceremony ran for 15 minutes. Winners were announced to media three months earlier; that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards; this method was used until an occasion when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began.
The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier. At that time, the winners were recognized for all of their work done in a certain category during the qualifying period. With the fourth ceremony, the system changed, professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on 27 March 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced; until foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies have ended with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Traditionally, the previous year's winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor present the awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, while the previous year's winner for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress present the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
See § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated bronze on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in tall, weighs 8.5 lb, depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Directors and Technicians; the model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design; the statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy, plated in copper, nickel silver, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones; the only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base.
The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C. W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, which contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes. From 1983 to 2015 50 Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R. S. Owens & Company, it would take between four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes. In 2016, the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Walden, New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic molds and polished, they are electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York–based Epner Technology; the time required to produce 50 such statuettes is three months. R. S. Owens i
Gumby: The Movie
Gumby: The Movie is a 1995 British stop-motion surrealist claymation adventure film featuring the character Gumby. The film was released on October 4, 1995, received negative reviews and was a box office bomb, earning only $57,100 at the US box office, although this can be factored to its limited theatrical rollout; when the Blockheads' E-Z Loan company threatens to take away the farms belonging to the small farmers due to being unable to make their loan payments and his band, the Clayboys, decide to have a benefit concert to save the farms. But when the evil Blockheads find out that Gumby's dog, cries pearls when he sees the Clayboys perform, they decide to kidnap Lowbelly and force him to cry pearls; when he doesn't respond, they create robotic clones of them. With the help of Pokey, Goo, fans Tara and Ginger, talent agent Lucky Claybert, Gumby takes on his robot clone and is still in time for his video taping session in agreement with Claybert. At a picnic, Gumby announces that he's opening his own farm loan company that will give reasonable loans for its customers.
The Blockheads are forced to weed Gumby's garden as punishment, the eponymous duo Gumby and Pokey decide that things are looking up for them as they head back to outer space. Dallas McKennon voices several roles: Gumby: A young green boy made of clay Professor Kapp: The silliest scientist with an Ed Wynn-like voice Fatbuckle: A red man with a big belt Lucky Claybert: A Groucho Marx-like Talent agent who makes "Gumbymania": A Lucky Production Nobuckle: A yellow man with a New Jersey accent Art Clokey voices several roles: Pokey: a talking red horse and Gumby's best pet Prickle: a yellow dinosaur with Mel Blanc-like voice Gumbo: Gumby's dad Gloria Clokey voices Goo: a blue flying teenage mermaid Manny La Carruba voices Thinbuckle, A blue teenager with a thin belt. A teenager much like Goo. Patti Morse /Melisa Kary voices Tara: a light blue female and Gumby's love interest Alice Young voices Ginger: Tara's best friend Janet MacDuff voices Gumba: Gumby's mom Bonnie Rudolph voices some roles: Lowbelly: The dog who cries pearls every time he sees Gumby change shapes Farm Lady Ozzie Ahlers voices Radio Announcer Kirby Coleman voices "This Way'N That" Singer Anthony McNulty voices "Burnzy" David Archer Lillian Nicol Rick Warren Stan Freberg Production on Gumby: The Movie was completed in 1992.
Despite this, Premavision was unable to find a distributor for the film until 1995, when they found a small company called Arrow Releasing. This company distributed the film the same year; the musical score was composed by Jerry Gerber, who worked on the television series, Marco D'Ambrosio. Additionally, Ozzie Ahlers wrote and produced the featured songs "Take Me Away", "Ark Park" and "This Way'n That". Ahlers was responsible for hiring frequent collaborator and Starship guitarist Craig Chaquico to play the electric guitar parts. Gumby: The Movie was released on October 4, 1995, by Arrow Releasing, but received only a limited release in 21 theaters; the film grossed $57,100 at the box office. David Kronke of The Los Angeles Times described the screenplay as "tired and listless", criticized the dialogue as unsophisticated and hastily assembled. Common Sense Media rated the movie a 2 out of 5 stars, stating "The animation in this feature film edition might feel old-fashioned and clumsy. It's slow going, not funny, it's repetitive.
Still it has a quirky charm that kids respond to the grown-up "kids" who are long-time fans and enjoy the memories that repeat viewings provide." The film was released on home video on VHS by KidVision and Astral Home Video on December 26, 1995. On November 20, 1997, Warner Home Video released the film on VHS under the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label in Germany, entitled Gumby und seine Freunde. In April 2007, a director's cut version of the movie was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. In this version, the film's run time was cut from 90 minutes to 76 minutes; this version of the film was released on DVD by Genius Products, LLC on April 22, 2008. NCircle Entertainment released the film in its original 90-minute length in a Blu-ray + DVD Combo on July 18, 2017. Gumby: The Movie on IMDb Gumby: The Movie at AllMovie
