The Golden Age of Spanish Animation (1939–1951)

During the 1940s, the Spanish animation industry based in Barcelona reached a high technical level. Despite the Franco dictatorship and austerity following the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan animation industry produced feature-length films that bore comparison with those made elsewhere in Europe. This article looks at the reasons for and the nature of Barcelona’s Golden Age of Animation, and follows the steps on the industry’s path to technical mastery. The author revisits the history of the Spanish Golden Age of Animation (which lasted from 1939 to 1951) in the context of the international animation scene at the time.