Welcome to the Bray Animation Project!
"A Bray a day, 'Movie Fans' pray"... was one of several clever slogans used in a 1921 pamphlet promoting the exhibition of Bray Studios animated cartoons. A leading figure in early twentieth-century comics, J.R. Bray opened the first successful commercially-oriented animated cartoon studio in 1913. (Early animator Raoul Barre preceded Bray by a few months, but his attempts to maintain an actual studio were very short-lived.)
If you're an animation history enthusiast, you've probably read about the Bray Studios in a few of the books published on the subject of cartoon evolution. If you're more of a general early film and silent film enthusiast, chances are fewer that you've come across many references to this studio. Those who have touched upon the studio in their texts tend to praise the innovations utilized by the studio, or to laud (or criticize) J.R. Bray's business tactics. However, few of the studio's cartoons have been readily available for viewing, and general consensus on the films' artistic merit varies considerably.
True: the Bray cartoons are sometimes awkwardly timed and stiff, rather than fluid, in their animation. The Bray Animation Project will not attempt to judge the cartoons on such criteria. Instead, in light of the cartoons' enduring historical significance, the Project seeks to collect and study all materials possible pertaining to the films, including the films themselves--an undertaking that few scholars have previously approached with enthusiasm. As project coordinator Thomas J. Stathes (yours truly!) would say: "If art historians can study early cave paintings with so much interest and documentation, why can't the same be done for early silent animation?" Such is the mentality behind the Bray Animation Project, where artistic criticism is null and void and preserving film history is paramount.
Left: 1950s advertisement for the Bray Studios.
If you're an animation history enthusiast, you've probably read about the Bray Studios in a few of the books published on the subject of cartoon evolution. If you're more of a general early film and silent film enthusiast, chances are fewer that you've come across many references to this studio. Those who have touched upon the studio in their texts tend to praise the innovations utilized by the studio, or to laud (or criticize) J.R. Bray's business tactics. However, few of the studio's cartoons have been readily available for viewing, and general consensus on the films' artistic merit varies considerably.
True: the Bray cartoons are sometimes awkwardly timed and stiff, rather than fluid, in their animation. The Bray Animation Project will not attempt to judge the cartoons on such criteria. Instead, in light of the cartoons' enduring historical significance, the Project seeks to collect and study all materials possible pertaining to the films, including the films themselves--an undertaking that few scholars have previously approached with enthusiasm. As project coordinator Thomas J. Stathes (yours truly!) would say: "If art historians can study early cave paintings with so much interest and documentation, why can't the same be done for early silent animation?" Such is the mentality behind the Bray Animation Project, where artistic criticism is null and void and preserving film history is paramount.
Left: 1950s advertisement for the Bray Studios.
The Bray Animation Project website was first published June 1st, 2011.
Site contents ©2011 by Thomas J. Stathes and individual contributors as noted.
Please request permission for use of images or texts elsewhere.
Site contents ©2011 by Thomas J. Stathes and individual contributors as noted.
Please request permission for use of images or texts elsewhere.
