Primitive Animation: British Animated Cartoons in the 1920s

Abstract

This chapter begins by examining examples of the problematic stereotyped imagery and primitivism present in the British animation of the 1920s. While undoubtedly offensive to a present-day audience, these cartoons’ inaccuracies reflect that cultural difference is not their ultimate concern. Rather, their consistent interest is in basic visual perception and the diverse primitive appeal of cartooning and animation that Gombrich and Eisenstein theorised. These cartoons embraced altered psychological states, ambiguous dualities of identity, and aesthetic play with our perception of basic line drawings. Thus, the cel animated series of the 1920s point in two directions, indicating the historical development of animated cartoons as a result of Britain’s changing place in the world, while also referring back to the perceptual play that started in the Victorian lightning cartoon act.