If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it myself. The cynics were proven dead wrong. I’m speaking, of course, of the independent creator. This year more than any other we have seen a plethora of little guys and gals who have pushed forward and bypassed the big-name-studio system.

We’re also at a point in which many tools that were previously unavailable are now out there in the open. There are the DVDs, the written word, and pearls of wisdom from the people who breathe animation – not to mention shorts that have transcended the medium yet again. Tomorrow’s independent animators are getting a kick-start today. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

* * *

At the San Diego Comic Con this past summer, Ralph Bakshi blew the crowd away with his response to a very simple question. Someone inquired how Bakshi was able to cope with the end of the studio system of the 50s. Bakshi said, “You guys are sitting today with the world in your hands! Entire studios are in one box. Four guys could get together and make their own movie in a year.”

In effect, today Bakshi is not alone. Past years may have produced a single independent animated feature, or occasionally two. This year we have four, in 'Sita Sings the Blues' by Nina Paley, 'Idiots and Angels' by Bill Plympton, 'Waltz with Bashir' by Ari Folman and '$9.99' by Tatia Rosenthal. Interestingly, of the four, Paley, Plympton and Rosenthal are all seasoned alumni of the New York City animation scene.

“This is a trend, one that we’ve been waiting to see for decades,” says animation historian and CartoonBrew co-founder Jerry Beck. “It’s great to see independent animators actually doing their own thing, channeling important messages, and using the medium to tell different kinds of stories. 'Waltz with Bashir' is extremely important because it’s telling a true story and using the medium to tell the story in the most effective way possible. 'Waltz with Bashir' and '$9.99' weren’t about animation. The animation isn’t the point; the animation is there to serve the story.”

As with 'Idiots and Angels' and Sita, which was my favorite of the four,” adds Beck, “these are adult animated films with adult stories. This is something Hollywood is ignoring, but this trend is going to get bigger as time goes on.”

Paley’s 'Sita Sings the Blues' has been one of the stars this year, winning several international awards, including Best Feature at Annecy and Best Script at the Athens International Film Festival, not to mention a project this writer is honored to have animated on.

“It was three years of work spread over five years of time,” says Paley. “I just sat down and did it. I made it really cheaply, mostly employing myself, and taking time off to freelance. I also got a Guggenheim fellowship in 2006, and people donated online.” Unlike the other indie-animated filmmakers, Paley didn’t even have her own studio, just her home computer and the help of a handful of friends and contacts. “There were many years I was working on it when I wasn’t sure what it would be. It started with a short, and it was just going to be that short. Then I thought I might pitch it as a TV series, and so I went to all this trouble making a pitch kit and realized I didn’t want that. But maybe this could be a feature film.”

Paley is not averse to continuing on the feature film path. “I think the world is ready for independent animated films,” she says. “I think Hollywood is not ready for it, and the distribution world isn’t ready for it, and the business isn’t ready for it. But the audiences certainly are.”

Independent creators are not of feature films alone. On the short film front, there are nearly 40 contenders for the grand prix. Some brand films, like Surviving Sid by Galen Tan Chu and Karen Disher, and Secrets of the Furious Five by Ramen Hui, merely entertain. For the first time, Disney takes monumental creative strides with the release of Glago’s Guest. Then there are films like La Maison En Petits Cubes by Japan’s Kunio Kato.

“That film has won quite a number of international awards, and it’s proved to be quite a popular short film,” says Ron Diamond of Petits Cubes. “It’s artistic and uses a lot of familiar devices to pull the audience in. The design is very appealing and the characters are very sympathetic; subsequently it meets a lot of criteria that filmmakers and audiences look for to enjoy a film.”

Diamond is the co-founder, co-publisher and president of Animation World Network, executive producer of Acme Filmworks, and the curator of the annual Animation Show of Shows touring program. “I saw a film that was out of Poland called Chick (by Michael Socha) that was very striking,” he adds. “On an artistic level it was very well achieved and I admire the filmmaker. Also Jeremy Clapin’s Skhizein is a great film achieved on all levels. It hasn’t won many awards, but it’s had a very positive audience response. The payoff at the end when you realize the character is schizophrenic is very satisfying.”

On television, this year saw the network debut of Nickelodeon’s “Making Fiends,” a quirky and offbeat concept from Flash animator Amy Winfrey. The project had started as a series of personal short cartoons, but Winfrey circumvented the whole pitching process when Nickelodeon contacted her and bought her series as is.

In the world of DVD, this is the first year entire collections of previously unreleased cartoons have been available to the public. This includes Popeye Vols. 2 &3, Woody Woodpecker Vol. 2, Disney Treasures: Donald Duck Vol. 4, and Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 6.

In this final Looney Tunes set, we get to see such rarities as World War II-themed cartoons, shorts starring the original Warner’s cartoon stars Bosko and Buddy, and the memorable assorted one-shots that defy categorization and were used as storytelling experimentation -- not to mention a thorough documentary of the legendary Mel Blanc.

A perennial of Disney DVD, Eric Goldberg makes an appearance on the Donald Duck collection, the last of the Disney Treasures set. “I pitch a Donald storyboard from 1947 of a cartoon that was never made,” says Goldberg, who demonstrates skillfully the art of pitching a 7-minute cartoon, and impersonates the Duck’s squawks impeccably as he does so.

Goldberg’s new book, Character Animation Crash Course, is the cherry of the 2008 animation cake. A student’s guide to animation, the book takes a loonier side to injecting personality into your moving figures. “The biggest compliment I get,” says Goldberg, “is that everyone says it’s very clear. There are an awful lot of animation books on the market that are good but a bit scattershot, and I’m pleased to hear that people feel this is put together in a very concise way.”

Phew! All these pieces of wonderful inspiration just sitting out in the open! This is not only a great time to be an animator; this is an exciting time to be a student of animation. Never before have so many people said “Yes, you can do this,” whether by example or by throwing resources on the table. If this keeps up through 2009, Hollywood might as well be no further than our own desk.