Animation in Politics and Propaganda

This lecture was about how Animation had been affected by politics and how it was used as propaganda in history. We were shown various animations relating to this subject. The first one we were shown was one of the first animated pieces. It was a commercial for matches, called Matches: An Appeal. Its a stop motion animation of a stick figure made out of matchsticks writing on a chalkboard to advertise matches. I found it interesting that animation was originally a gimmick for an advertisement, and how it's evolved into the art form we see today. The next animation we were shown was a visual representation of the sinking of the Lusitania. Since there wasn't actually any footage of this event someone hired a group of animators to make some that gave a description of how it happened. The film itself lasted about 8 minutes, which i thought drew it out a bit too long, seeing as how a lot of the footage is repeated throughout the film. After this he showed us various Disney animations that were made during wartime to fuel the war effort, in both the eastern and western theaters. This Lecture was really interesting to me, moreso than any other that I've been to. Hopefully more of my lectures will be this engaging in the future.