Characteristics of the Academy School of Animation?

The Zagreb School of animation is known for its deep and diverse content. In the past 30 years of the school's animation creation process, the most frequent and most concentrated image of a character is the connotation expressed in the symbol of the "suffering little man". It can be said that this image represents the 30 years in the shadow of the "Cold War", in order to maintain their own independence and integrity, at the expense of the "individual against the whole", walking alone in Yugoslavia people's hard epitome.

In detail, the Zagreb school should be the beginning of the 1850s, brilliant in the 1860s, in the late 1880s faded out of the international animation stage. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union, which represented the socialist ideology, and the United States, which represented the capitalist ideology, formed the two camps of the East and West worlds, and carried out economic and military confrontation for 40 years, which was the famous "Cold War" period. The Zagreb School grew up, matured and entered into splendor in this particular historical period. It can be said that the Zagreb School was a cultural hero born in response to the historical situation of the "Cold War". At that time, Yugoslav filmmakers undoubtedly had more opportunities than their counterparts from other Eastern European countries to present their works on the international stage, as well as more creative freedom. As for the political environment, the artists were more concerned with their respective creative environments, and in this respect Yugoslavia had its own unique artistic character.

Croatia is probably the most developed state federation in the former Yugoslavia, where, despite the development of the film industry as in other states, other forms of cinema are overshadowed by the brilliant artistic and historical status of animated films.

A large part of the success of the Zagreb school can be attributed to the unique environment of animation production in Zagreb at that time. It's not a bad idea to take a look back. In the Zagreb animation production industry, the nature of the careers of animators, tracers, colorists, and other support staff was fixed. They were all attached to one of the movie studios. In contrast, directors, cartoonists, original drawings, art directors, and other creative people have no fixed affiliation. They are freelance artists who can sign up with any new movie as they wish, and they can also be involved in art forms other than animation, such as comic strips, caricatures, illustrations, posters, and other different art forms. What is more interesting is that from one animated film to another, they also change their professional roles from time to time. Depending on the specific situation, they may be the scriptwriter, the director, the original drawings, or the art director, etc. In this kind of creative environment, a team of animators may be able to work on any new animated film as they wish. In such a creative environment, a stable team of technical support staff effectively ensures the high level of basic technology required for animation production, while the free flow of animation creators provides the possibility of realizing their creative passion.

In the process of constantly changing professional roles, animators need to frequently change their way of thinking and working, and this experience makes them proficient in all aspects of animation production and various techniques; and in the cooperation with different artists, it helps creators to establish close relationships and influence each other. The opportunity to work in a variety of media forms other than animation has also enabled the animators to gain a broad understanding of the latest trends in other art forms, which they can quickly apply to the art of animation.

Combining all these reasons, Zagreb's animation stood out at a time when animation across Europe was dominated by the Disney style. Zagreb is remembered for setting a new aesthetic standard for the art of animation.