The Amazing Multiplane Camera

[Jack]

Does anyone have a list of cartoons/features that used the multiplane camera? When was it last used? Does it ever get used anymore? Where is it? Where there more than two?

I recently saw those two little clips about this amazing device on the Snow White DVD. I found it interesting that Disney felt the backgrounds were too flat, and didn't match the three dimentional characters, while almost everything else I've read says 3-D backgrounds clash with the flat characters. I sort of agree with Disney more on this one, when the characters move, they don't seem flat at all...




Jack :D

[Cartman]

I know that the Disney short THE OLD MILL used the multiplane camera. It appears that a lot of those Betty Boop cartoons used it.

[J Lee]

The Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons used a completely different system. Where Walt had a multiple layer camera created so different images could be laid on top of each other, Max Fleischer's system actually created scale model backgrounds on a rotating table, which were then photgraphed with the images placed in-between two plates of glass mounted in front of the tabletop.

In some ways, the result is even more imprssive than the Disney system, though as has been pointed out, considering how short a time some of the table-top 3-D images appeared on the screen, it's hard to see how Max could make a profit while building live-action sets for animated cartoons (today, with the advent of computer technology, it could probably be done and be cost-effective, but unfortunately, no one is making Hollywood cartoons anymore to see if Popeye and Bluto in front of a computer-generated backgroud would work out).

Also, Ub Iwerks created his own multiplane camera out of parts from the back end of an old Chevy, according to Shamus Culhane. I think you can see its effects in the opening scene of Porky's car going down the road in Iwkers' "Porky and Gabby" which is one of only two of Ub's cartoons anyone ever gets to see anymore...