Rubber hose animation

Rubber hose animation was the first animation style that became standardized in the American animation industry field. The defining feature of the style is "rubber hose limbs" — arms, and sometimes legs, that are typically drawn as flowing curves, without articulation (no hinged wrists or elbows).^[1] this style is a curving motion that most animated objects possess, resembling the motion and physical properties of a rubber hose.^[2] While the style fell out of fashion by the mid-1930s, it has seen a renewed interest since the 2010s.

The Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short Snow Use (1929) is an example of the rubber hose style of animation.

History

Beginnings and rise

In the early days of hand drawn animation in the 1920s, the studios' main areas were not in Hollywood, but New York City. Back then, animation was a new phenomenon and there were no experienced animators around; yet there were skilled artists working on newspapers, creating comic strips in a time when even the comic strips themselves were relatively new where the earliest animated cartoons were originally drawn by comic strip artists.^[3] Many of them became fascinated with the introduction of moving drawings, and saw them as new possibilities and challenges to use their skills on something they found more exciting than the newspaper strips.

For this reason, many of the first cartoons had similarities with moving comic strips,^[3] they didn't have color, lines of action, construction, everyone tended to move the same, not much characterization.^[4] The artists experimented with what worked and what did not, and what they could and could not do. In the strips, they had no need to think of their work in three dimensions or how they moved, but at the same time this extra aspect gave them the opportunity to introduce gags and elements not possible in comic stills. Moreover, because the drawings had to be mass-produced to create the illusion of movement, they had to come up with a compromise where characters were less detailed and time-consuming, but at the same time alive and complex enough because many animators have strong individual styles and encouraged to showcase them can add a lot of fun and entertainment to the cartoons.^[4] As animators gained experience through trial, error and collaborations, cartoons became more professional and dominated by specific rules of how to make them.

The studios had to be sensitive to any new business trend to survive the competition. A consequence of this was that the style and design of the most successful and popular cartoons had a great impact on the rest of the animation business. One of the earliest examples was Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat, who quickly spawned imitators at different studios. Combined with the natural evolution of animation, this resulted in a dominating design that would be now known as the rubber hose style, despite individual differences between the studios. Bill Nolan is credited with the introduction of this animation style.^[5]

Decline and fall

Rubber hose animation gradually faded away as cartoons were made even much more sophisticated and lifelike, especially in the work of Walt Disney. Walt Disney wanted to make his own cartoons even much more realistic and grounded, and have them follow much of the same movement and rules as live action, a direction that would later be named "full animation". Walt Disney saw animation as a potential surrogate substitute for live action, which he is quoted as saying that in animation "you can do everything that are impossible in live action", this suggests that, to some extent, where he could do what was impossible in live action once it achieved his demands of realism. This direction did not allow the fluid bodies seen in the rubber hose style and, due to Walt Disney's success, this trend was spread to the remaining producers of cartoons through demands from their Hollywood distributors.

Rubber-hose trademarks appeared in some later cartoons, such as The Warner Siblings from Animaniacs by Warner Bros. Animation, but the original style and its influence became a part of animation history by the start of the 1930s, and went out of favor by the mid-1930s. Fleischer Studios held to it the longest lifespan, finally conforming to the more contemporary West Coast animation style by 1940, until Fleischer Studios leaving this animated style with their own new theatrical cartoons. The rubber-hose style's influence, however, still continues into the present, with the video game Cuphead paying full homage and tribute.^[6]

Influence in the modern media

While there are not many uses of rubber hose animation today, there are some media that pay homage to the animation style.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor

Theatrical animated shorts

Main article: Get a Horse!

In 2013, Walt Disney Animation Studios produced a 3D animated slapstick comedy short film using the style.^[7] Get a Horse! combines black-and-white hand-drawn animation and color^[8] CGI animation; the short features the characters of the late 1920s Mickey Mouse cartoons and features archival recordings of Walt Disney in a posthumous role as Mickey Mouse.^[9][10] It is the first original Mickey Mouse theatrical animated short since Runaway Brain (1995) and the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a Disney animated production in 85 years.

Video games

• Various video games use rubber hose animation, including Epic Mickey, Epic Mickey 2, Cuphead, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Enchanted Portals, and Mouse: P.I. for Hire.
• Skullgirls includes the playable character "Peacock", whose visual design and attacks draw from 1920s animation tropes (such as cartoon gloves and pie-cut eyes) characters are based on 1920s rubber hose animation, having the appearance of old black and white cartoons.
• Smite has two gods with skins that take inspiration from the rubber hose animation with Baron Samedi as Funny Bones and Cthulhu as Toon Mania.
• The animation for each of the numerous characters and creatures in Cuphead relies heavily on techniques pioneered by the animation style; its creators wanted players to feel as though they were watching a 1930s cartoon.
• Sonic the Hedgehog also had rubber hose limbs, especially in the games in the 90s. An example of his rubber hose limbs is evident in his trademark pose with one hand on his hip, a waving finger, and crossed legs, seen on the box art of his original game. He also uses some exaggerated running poses.
• Several characters within Fortnite received "Toon" outfits that resemble the style, including Meowscles, Fishstick, Peely, and Bushranger.
• The 2023 video game Pizza Tower shows the characters animated in a similar, cartoonish art style with smooth animated fluid movement frames.
• In the game Honkai: Star Rail, a character of a popular cartoon series in Penacony, Clockie, takes inspiration from the rubber hose animation style.

Card games

• The Japanese trading-card game Yu-Gi-Oh! and the franchise it is based around features a line of cards called 'Toons', based on 1920s American animation styles (to contrast with the Japanese animation style of most cards).

Film and television

• The Futurama episode "Reincarnation", in its segment "Colorama", uses rubber hose animation, with the characters being animated in a playful manner.
• Another prominent use of rubber hose animation is Disney Television's Mickey Mouse. The series has the slapstick feel of the original Mickey Mouse shorts, while providing a modern update with the extensive use of Toon Boom and Flash animation, and "presents Mickey in a broad range of humorous situations that showcase his pluck and rascality, along with his long-beloved charm and good-heartedness.^[11][12]
• The Swiss claymation children's television show series Pingu has techniques incorporated in its animation, such as having characters have their upper body stretch to reach up or roll up in a ball.
• The animated series Tom And Jerry uses rubberhose techniques in its characters.
• The mascot of Planters, Mr. Peanut, who is an anthropomorphic peanut who wears 1930s style Gentleman clothing, in his advertisements he does rubberhose techniques, and his son Peanut Jr. who does the same things as him
• The mascot of both Hasbro and Monopoly, Mr. Monopoly, has 1930s Gentleman clothing. In his advertisements, he does rubberhose gags and techniques to the players.
• The Peanuts Movie and the Peanuts specials and shows use rubberhose elements as well as the Peanuts comics they are based on.
• Clarence also used the rubber hose animation style in episode "Goldfish Follies".
• In Ice Age, Scrat uses rubberhose elements, by extending his body and bouncing around while trying to get his acorn.
• The 2011 Cartoon Network show The Amazing World of Gumball features various characters animated in a rubber-hose style, especially in the episode "The Lie" in which a character is depicted in a black-and-white 1920s cartoon style.
• In the episode "Truth or Square" from the Nickelodeon's animated television cartoon show series SpongeBob SquarePants, Patchy the Pirate presents a film of how the cartoon would have been like if it was made in the 1930s. In the film, the animation is done in rubber hose animation and the song used is called Rubber Hose Rag.^[13]
• In the episode "It's A Wonderful Half-Life" from CatDog, a dream sequence is animated in the style of the 1920s–1930s cartoons, and the characters all have pie eyes.
• In the episode "Tame That Toon" from South Korean cartoon series Pucca, the entire episode is centered around this, complete with a Betty Boop lookalike shown.
• In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, many characters use rubber hose elements including Sonic and Tails.
• Mondo Media's Happy Tree Friends is done in rubber hose style using Flash animation and most of the characters have 'pie eyes', which are in the shape of Pac-Man's body and that resemble eyes from rubber hose characters from the golden period of this animation style, the 1920s and 1930s.
• In Steven Universe: The Movie, the main antagonist Spinel is animated in this style but other characters remain animated in a more contemporary style. Spinel uses this unarticulated movement to her advantage, stretching and morphing her limbs in battle. Her main song and most of her music themes are electroswing, a modern twist on music from the 1920s.
• In Bojack Horseman season 6, a Whitewhale corporate video includes several historical animation techniques, including a segment in classic rubber hose animation.
• Lauren MacMullan cited rubber hose animation as an influence for her style, including for her character designs in Mission Hill.
• The Yu-Gi-Oh! series, like the card game itself, features 'Toon' cards based on 1920s American animation.
• In the episode "Hill Billy" from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Billy is briefly depicted in this art style while he inflates his nose in a rubber hose fashion, and it explodes shortly after, and other characters are turned into this art style as well.
• DJ Catnip and his cousin, DJ Comet, from Gabby's Dollhouse can stretch their limbs in a similar fashion to rubber hose animation.
• Mr. Tickle from The Mr. Men Show can stretch his arms in this fashion.
• One episode of Teen Titans Go! features the Titans depicted in this art style.
• Velvet and Veneer, the antagonists of Trolls Band Together, and their race, the Mount Rageons, are rendered to resemble this art style, complete with pie eyes.
• Bartholomew the Bat from the Beetlejuice TV series resembles a rubber hose character.
• Blossom from IF is designed to resemble this art style.
• The South Park character Mr. Hankey is designed to look like a rubber hose character, in particular the original version of Mickey Mouse as he appeared in Steamboat Willie. Fittingly, his musical numbers in the show are usually in the style of 1930s-era Dixieland swing and big band music.
• In the film adaptation of the video game Deemo, the titular character, besides bearing a vague resemblance to 1920s cartoon characters, also uses elements of rubber hose animation, stretching his limbs in a similar fashion.
• Some animated TV programs on BabyFirst have characters that use elements similar to rubber hose animation. Albert and Junior features a talking tablet named Junior who bends and stretches his limbs in a similar fashion.
• The Doctor Who episode "Lux" features Mr. Ring-a-Ding, an animated character rendered in this art style.
• The Aardman animated series Wallace and Gromit and its spin-offs Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time use elements of rubber-hose animation in the characters who bend and stretch their limbs in the same fashion.
• The cartoon character Michigan J. Frog, who was mascot for the WB in the 1990s, uses similar techniques when singing and dancing.
• The Spanish animated interactive preschool children’s cartoon Pocoyo uses elements of rubber-hose animation in the characters, specifically Pato the duck and Fred the octopus.

Music videos

• The video for Dua Lipa's single "Hallucinate" depicts Lipa and a series of fantastical characters in rubber hose animation.
• Ghostemane released a music video for his song "AI" that portrays the artist in a combination of rubber hose animation and stop motion animation.
• The video for Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J." uses a rubber hose animation style.
• The video for the Evelyn Evelyn song "Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn" features characters animated in the rubber hose style composited over a glass window.
• The electro swing music video/concept album series Clover uses the rubber hose animation style.
• Satanic doo-wop group Twin Temple's video for "Let's Have a Satanic Orgy" utilizes a rubber hose-like style.

Comic books

• The stretching sequences of The Mask appear to be influenced by rubber hose stretching techniques.