ABSTRACT
Gene Kelly danced twice with animated characters, in a brief sequence of Anchors Aweigh (1945) and in a main sequence of the episodic film Invitation to the Dance (1956). Ray Patterson was one of the MGM animators working on Anchors Aweigh under cartoon directors William Hanna (who had a special feeling for music) and Joseph Barbera making Kelly dance with Jerry Mouse. Kelly and Kasday enter the over-dimensional story-book pages of the Arabian Nights and encounter people and animals that are complete 2D animation. Nobody would touch animation and dancing again until Walt Disney himself took a chance. Dancing itself also became a topic in animation: In Ballerina (2016), a French-Canadian 3D fantasy directed by Eric Summer and Eric Warin, an orphan girl named Felicie has the dream of becoming a dance student at the Paris Opera. She flees her orphanage in rural Brittany to follow this passion and succeeds against all odds.
