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The Phenakistiscope
Created by Joseph Plateau, it was the first widespread form of animation device. It created the illusion of movement as the pictures on the wheel spun to make them look like they were moving. The scope was the also one of the first forms of moving media entertainment. -
Stop Motion Animation
Stop motion is a form of animation that takes multiple pictures if an object being manipulated in small increments in each photo to show the illusion of movement. The first film using stop motion made was "The Humpty Dumpty Circus" by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1998 -
The Silent Age of Animation
The Silent Age was the era where people began to pay attention to animation. Films had no sound or sound effects and had screens with text that conveyed them, instead. The eariliest form of silent animation known is Phantasmagorie by Emile Cohl, a Frenchman, in 1908. This age was where Winsor McCay, the creator of Gertie the Dinosaur, thrived, along with Patt Sullivan and Otto Messmer, who both created the iconic Felix the Cat. -
The Enchanted Drawing
Created by J. Stuart Blackton in 1900, his film "The Enchanted Drawing" was the first to be animated with sequences on standard picture film. It shows a man going through facial changes on a sheet of paper seemingly reacting to Blackton as he drinks and smokes a cigar, sharing it with his creation. Because of this he is considered the "Father of American Animation." -
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Adapted from a comic strip by Winsor McCay (created 10/15/05) it became a movie in Japan first in 1989 and then brought into America 8/21/92. It had previously been a short film by McCay in 1911 called "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the New York Herald and his Moving Comics" or just "Little Nemo." Winsor's comic, Little Nemo, had been considered a masterpiece for his experimentation of form of the comic pages. -
Cel Animation
Also called "celluloid," it's a transparent sheet where objects are drawn or painted on for traditional hand-drawn animation. To animate using cel, it was done in an assembly line fashion with different animators splitting the process between themselves. Cel was invented by Earl Hurd in 1914 and was popular in the golden age and silent age but dropped off in 1990 as computer animations began. -
Gertie the Dinosaur
Gertie the Dinosaur was created by Winsor McCay in 1914. Gertie was the first character with distinct personality traits, she pioneered the use of animation as we know it today with it's varied flamboyant characters. -
The Sinking of the Lusitania
This is a silent animation film about the sinking of the actual ship, the RMS Lusitania in World War Two on May 7th, 1915. Created by Winsoe McCay, he was outraged by its sinking and spent his own money to make this short film in two years! At the time, the film being 9 and a half minutes, it was the longest animation film at its time. -
Walt Disney
Walt Disney first began to animate in 1923 in Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. He and his brother, Roy Disney, created the short animated films named "ALICE COMEDIES" and in 1925 began the construction of his own studio. -
Alice Comedies
Alice Comedies was a series in the silent age that was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It featured Alice, a live action girl who could interact with those of the animation world after an acciddnet that causes her to fall asleep after a knock to the head. -
The Bouncing Ball
This technique was formed by Max Fleischer in 1924. The ball was an animated ball that (usually) bounced along the bottom of the screen on text that appeared during songs. It highlights the words/syllables or leaves dotted lines behind. changing colors depending on who was using it, usually white to yellow or red. -
Cut-out Animation
No one knows who first true began this art form, but the latest we know of so far is of a German film director named of Charlotte "Lotte" Reinger who made over 40 of these types of films in her career using the silhouette technique and pioneering it. Cut-out animation is the earliest and oldest form of animation, it uses silhouettes in older forms, can be stop motion, done by hand (like puppeteering), or computer animated in a flash software. -
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie was created by Walt Disney. His animation kicked off what was known as "The Golden Age of Animation" and brought about "The Silent Age of Animation" to an end. Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon to completely post-produce soundtrack of music , dialogue, and sound effects. -
The Golden Age of Animation
The Golden Age began 11/18/28 with the end of the silent films and the advent of sound cartoons. From this age came many iconic characters from many famous creators such as Max Fleischer and Walt Disney, like: Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Koko the Clown, Bimbo, Tom and Jerry, and Donald Duck. -
Warner Brothers
The company began to animate in 1930 and was originally known as Warner Bros. Animation Group and was a successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, having been restarted 1976 after closing in 1969 because of rising costs and declining returns of short subject production. This caused outside companies to produce Looney Toon related cartoons. -
Looney Toons
Looney Toons was created by the Warner Bros. and was inspired by Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies cartoon. Toons was iconic for it's characters such as: Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, Daffy Duck, The Tasmanian Devil (Taz), and Road Runner. -
Sinkin' in the Bathtub
Sinkin' in the Bathtub was Warner Bros.'s first produced animated cartoon. The main character, Bosko, taking a bath while whistling before going on a perilous and gag filled journey with the old rubber hose style. -
Merrie Melodies
Created by Warner Bros., Merrie Melodies was a series of comedic animated short films that often even featured characters from Looney Toons, like Bugs Bunny, and featured music from Warner's soundtracks and those of the modern music of the time. -
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
This animated film was Walt Disney's first full length animated feature film. Based off a Grimm's fairy tale story, it tells of a young princess who runs from her evil step mother, the Queen, who wants her to be dead due to her beauty, only to run to the company of seven dwarves who go under her care and vice versa. -
Pinocchio
A fantasy-drama created by Disney based off of Grimm's fairy tales, it's about a little wooden puppet boy created by a lonely toy maker's wish of wanting a family of his own. He tries to strike it on his own and find out what it truly means to be a real boy. -
Fantasia
Fantasia was considered to be one of Walt Disney's boldest moves. The entire film is of several animations compiled together, all in relation to and created around famous orchestral compositions to give the viewer a visual of it to through the animator's eye and ideas and all done with a live orchestra recording. -
Dumbo
A cel animated feature film by Walt Disney, Dumbo was about the life and struggle of a little elephant with too big ears and his life in a cruel circus. It shows him struggling to be accepted for his abnormalities and the friendships he gains as he tries to his mother who he was taken from. -
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph is an old and well known stop motion Christmas film. It's about a little reindeer who has a nose that lights like a light bulb and how he and a band of misfits adventure to be and find acceptance for their differences. -
Star Trek: The Animated Series
This Star Trek was created in the dark age and was an animated series on television that followed the events of the original live action series of Star Trek: The Original Series from the 60s. It depicts the crew of the Enterprise and their adventures as they travel throughout space in the name of science and peace. -
The Dark Age of Animation
The successor to the Golden Age, it started with the fall of the studio system in Hollywood. Theatrical shorts died off and were moved to the television, and so began the age of cartoons's targeting audience primarily being children. Animation began to be about how to save time and money as they rushed to meet time slots on-air and started the low budgeting of cartoons. In this age came shows like: Pink Panther, the first impact of Anime in America, and The Transformers. -
The Transformers
Created in 1984, during the dark age, The Transformers is considered a classic cartoon form the 80s. A series loosely based off of the events of the Cold War, it's about autonomous robotic organisms form the planet Cybertron and two warring factions, the Autobots and the Decepticons. They crash on to Earth where they continue the millennial war for the victor and meet many new individuals and encounter many obstacles along the way. the series continues to be remade even till today. -
The Iron Giant
A popular cel animated movie by Warner Bros., The Iron Giant is an adaption of a Cold War fable. It tells of a young boy, Hogarth Hughes, who finds a sentient robot form outer space and tells of the struggle to not be something that everyone expects you to be and to follow your own heart and the struggle to be understood and accepted by others. -
Spirited Away
A popular Japanese cel animation, it was created by Studio Ghibli and directed by the famous Hayao Miyazaki. It fallows the journey of Chihiro as she and her parents accidentally travel into the spirit world, where no human should go, and her struggle to remember herself and to save her parents's literal bacon. -
Coraline
Coraline is a stop motion film from Laika studios. based on a Neil Gaiman novel, it was adapted for the screen and is about a neglected young girl who finds a strange doorway in her new home leading to another dimension similar to her, except they all have button eyes and she is the center of everyone's attention. -
Disney vs Warner: Differences
Disney animations are more geared towards the feeling of nostalgia of family and friendship, they make you feel sympathetic and relatable more to what you're watching. Warner Bros. animations are more geared towards action, and though they can have lighthearted and heavy moments, depending, they are more dark with their humor in some aspects. -
Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs is a soon to be released stop motion film. It's about a boy who's dog is taken to be quarantined on an island of dogs because of a "canine flu". The boy, Atari Kobayashi, travels there to find him with the help of the other trapped dogs.
