Garbancito de la mancha (1945)
Balet and Blay
Technique
"Garbancito de la mancha" (Also known as "The Knight Garbancito" and "The enchanted sword") is a Spanish animated feature film produced by Arturo Moreno and Jose Maria Blay and released in theatres in November 23, 1945. The film is based in the tale with the same name by Julian Permantin.
The film is claimed as the first colour full length animated film in Europe, and the one that would strengthen the animation industry in Spain. Given to this, there were notorious limitations at the moment in materials, and the personnel needed was searched in art schools, which was the nearest to have an animator back then in the country.
There was the need to order materials and jobs such as celluloid paper and photo reveal from other countries, given that Spain did not produce them. Given that the production was being during the climax of World War II, there was a high risk of losing all of that by the destruction with bombings, which fortunately, the damage did not step back the project.
The production was almost similar to any professional animation pipeline of the time: ink and paper, which would have perforations to hold the drawing and keep consistency, multi-plane camera to have a better organization for the film and also to bring a feeling of depth, and painted cels. However, with material limitations that led the team to be more creative to solve problems and preserve the intended quality.
Jacinto Guerrero would be the composer of the film, who would have the task to fit the music with the scenes, which would come first in most scenes. There were challenges with the soundtrack, such as making sure it lets the dialogues be the main focus and give the right mood to each scene.
The film was highly inspired by the biggest productions in United States, especially Walt Disney, being in the story, the designs, music and animation. Even though, it resembles accidentally a Fleischer style in said aspect. As a side note, there are times the character speak but their mouths were not moving, being a classical element inside the studio behind Betty Boop and Popeye.
Representation
This film tells the story of Garbancito, a good hearted, honest, working boy who does not fall easily by fear, who has to go in a quest to rescue his friends, who were kidnapped by Caramanca, a tyrant giant that likes to terrorize the people alongside the witch Tia Paloncha. The premise is simple, but still brings various complications and moments to challenge the protagonist in a way that makes it engaging for its audience.
The film does a clear reference to Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes;
where the analogy is going besides the camp of windmills shown at one
part of Garbancito's journey; it is going also going about how he wants
to become a great hero. However, the difference is that Don Quixote is a
story about a man that fails to do heroic things because of his high
expectations of how a hero would be; Garbancito, on the other hand,
understands the reality and implications to become a hero, and decides
to learn from it.
Besides, the film was released some months after World War II had ended, so the production could have a notorious influence in the plot to develop the characters and the plot itself. But it was not the main influence of it. 1940s, Spain was in the middle of a dictatorship result of its civil war in the previous decade. Francisco Franco became the governor of the country after the conflict.
There is mention that the film would be part of the constant propaganda campaign to empower the image of Franco, this could be in some way true, but following this statement, in comparison to other animated productions of the time, this one is less aggressive and more subtle.
There is not so much certainty of this statement, but it can be said that there are some points that could connect the political agenda of back then with the message of the film. The most possible thing is that the film was done only to entertain, and then the government would use it as part of its campaign.
