Sound after an Era of Silence

Silent animation films became increasingly popular throughout the 1910s as they were shown prior to live action films in theaters worldwide when, concurrently, enthusiasm towards cinema as a whole became a widespread phenomenon. During the ensuing decade, sound became a prevalent part of cinema when sound-on-film technology was first innovated, culminating in the famous release and subsequent popularity of The Jazz Singer in 1927. As expected, this technology was soon adapted to animation, most notably in Paul Terry's Dinner Time and Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, both of which were released in 1928. These, and numerous other animated shorts that incorporated sound, were soon rendered as contemporary classics, but many still believed in and argued for the value and purity of silent animations, for they were often believed to exemplify the true essence of animation and imagination. Regardless, both silent and sound treatments of animated films show a great disparity in motion design and cinematography, aesthetic experience, and film structure and plot.

With animation came imagination, especially during the silent era films. In silent movies since there was no sound involved imagination was one of the main keys of enhancing your watching experience. This is the reason why cartoons have always been steered towards children, due to them having imagination in their younger ages. Silent animation had to display the plot of the story but without sound. This made it so that characters needed to have exaggerated expressions and movement. Body language in these animations helped display what the sound would have displayed. This was especially important for when animators wanted to show emotions in a character. It is possib...

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...he audience. Not to mention the structure of film and timing placed in this era of films. Compared to the sound era of movies with less audience imagination and participation so the viewing experience becomes something totally different. Instead of having to imagine you are able to hear the sounds and voices of the characters and things that are going on. Plus the structure is something different than silent era films. With scenes not needing to have dialogue cards, making it so that less time is spent on having to read the plot and more time is spent on being able to let the sound help you visualize the plot. Making it more of a straight forward experience rather than something you have to think about. Syncopation with the soundtrack also creating a new addition on how animators structured the films. It's safe to say there are differences in both eras of animation.