An Animated Academy Salute to UPA (New York)
MONDAY NIGHTS WITH OSCAR PRESENTS AN ANIMATED ACADEMY SALUTE TO UPA
United Productions of America (UPA) was one of the most influential Hollywood studios in animation history, one whose impact is still felt in the eclectic styles of today’s animation fare. During its heyday in the 1950s, UPA’s modernist sensibility toward contemporary graphic design and experimental techniques moved cartoon films worldwide away from the Disney studio’s “illusion of life” representational imagery.
On Monday, December 14, the Academy presented eight rarely seen UPA shorts, including Academy Award® winners “Gerald McBoing-Boing” (1950) and “Mister Magoo’s Puddle Jumper” (1956), in a program selected and hosted by Oscar®-winning animator and animation historian/author John Canemaker. The program included newly struck 35mm prints from the Academy Film Archive, screened with permission from Sony Pictures.
