Animatin' in Adawe
The hottest animation area in Canada is not Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, but Ottawa. Over the past 5-6 years, a flurry of activity has taken place including the appearance of original and service production studios (notably, Funbag Animation and Dynomight Cartoons), a developing independent scene, two major animation festivals (the Ottawa International Animation Festival and SAFO), schools (Algonquin College), a gaming studio, an already well-known hi-tech industry (Corel, Nortel etc.), and perhaps the biggest news (from a media standpoint) was the recent return of Ottawa native, John Kricfalusi, who is producing his series, The Ripping Friends in the Eastern suburbs of town.
Ottawa, you ask? Where? What? How?
Where?
What?
The word, 'Ottawa,' came from the Algonquin Indian word, Adawe, meaning: 'trader' or 'to buy and sell.'
Ottawa is located in Eastern Ontario between Montreal (2 hour drive) and Toronto (4 hour drive).
The capital city of Canada is Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. That's right. Not Ottawa, Kansas; Ottawa, Illinois; or even Ontario, California; and definitely NOT Toronto. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
How?
In the 1700s, after the Brits defeated the French, a lot of Brits and Americans started settling in the area. After the War of 1812 between Canada and the U.S., the Rideau Canal was built to protect the St. Laurence River, a major shipping route, from any more American attacks. The bloke in charge of this was an engineer named, Colonel John By. In 1827, the area, not a major lumber town, became known as Bytown (after Col. By), although to be fair there were about four or five self-contained communities (and naturally they were all greedy buggers who were never able to agree on anything). Then, as now, the area was a land of division: French/English (Hull, Quebec is connected by a short bridge to Ottawa), Catholic/Protestant, working class/upper class.
In 1857, ol' fatty Queen Victoria, pissed a few people off when she choose Ottawa as the capital of what was then called Upper and Lower Canada. When Canada became a country in 1867, Ottawa was kept as the capital and that civil servant 'joie de vivre' has been in Ottawa ever since.
The first known people to occupy the area were the Algonquin Indians. According to early French visitors, the Algonquins were a particularly cruel and barbaric tribe (although this was later debated by subsequent visitors). Of course, whatever the truth, we know the French and English genocide cut the Indians stay short in North America.
The First Animators: NFB and Crawley
Norman McLaren headed up a group of talented animators for the NFB. The award-winning Neighbours typified the artistic excellence coming from the early days of animation in Ottawa. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Given Canada's history, let alone Ottawa's, animation seems to be the last thing a bunch of rail men, farmers, lumbermen and bureaucrats would embrace. And not surprisingly, aside from a few sputters by Bryant Fryer near Toronto and Charles Thorson in Winnipeg, it took a foreigner (a strange term given the roots of the country where everyone was a damn foreigner!) to kick start animation. The first major animation producer in Ottawa (and Canada) was, naturally, the government created National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The first director of the NFB was an angry Scotsman named John Grierson. He hired another Scotsman, not as angry, but certainly troubled, named Norman McLaren, to join him. McLaren was put in charge of the animation division in 1943 and he hired bright young student artists from around the country: Rene Jodoin, Jean-Pierre Ladouceur, George Dunning, Grant Munro, Jim McKay and Eve Lambart (who was already in the photo department of the NFB). For the next two decades, the group made a number of inspiring and award-winning films (e.g. Neighbours) on Victoria Island in Ottawa. When the NFB relocated to Montreal in 1955 (to appease French-Canadians), animation in Ottawa effectively died.
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment