There’s something about cartoons that set them apart from other forms of media. Even though both live-action and animation are make-believe, animation allows us to connect with the story in a way that live-action doesn't. Cartoons have their own universe with its own rules where anything can happen. Cartoons have always been interesting, seeing my favorite characters doing things and going places that nobody else could ever do in the real world. Animation has been around for over a hundred years. That makes it older than film yet animation is still current and even more popular today than it has ever been.
Animation first made its debut in 1908 with the French animated film, Fantasmagorie, made by artist Émile Cohl. Fantasmagorie was about a simple stick figure seeing things morphing into other objects, for example, a wine bottle turning into a flower. In 1912 Émile moved to New Jersey where he spread animation to the US. In 1914, a man named Winsor Mccay then made a short film that transformed the animation industry forever, Gertie The Dinosaur. Gertie was the first famous cartoon character, as Gertie was the first character to have fluid movement and personality. It may look like a simple old dinosaur cartoon, but nothing else at the time moved like or had the personality of Gertie.
The 1920s were the official beginning of cartoons, starting with the most famous silent feline Felix. Felix was made by Paramount and was first introduced in Feline Follies. Felix became the most famous and marketable character of the 1920s. In 1927 Walt Disney made his debut in the animation industry with Oswald the lucky rabbit. After a year of making Oswald, Disney left Universal studios to start his own company. Leaving Universal meant losing the rights to Oswald, so Disney had to come up with a new character and in 1928 Walt Disney's most famous character, Mickey Mouse, made his debut in the short Steamboat Willie.
1930 to 1950 was known as the Golden Age of American Animation due to the rising of Warner Brothers, MGM, Walt Disney, and The Fleischer Brothers. Max Fleischer and Mccay Fleischer, helped change animation by inventing/developing what many animators still use today the Rotoscope. The Rotoscope changed the animation industry by making cartoons look, feel, and move like real living beings. Some examples of his work with the use of the Rotoscope are Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman. Warner Brothers made their animation debut with Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Made by Chuck Jones, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were originally made to compete with Disney's cartoons, Silly Symphonies starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Looney Tunes first started in 1930 staring Porky Pig, but it wasn’t until 1938 where we got our two-favorite Looney Tunes characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Walt Disney made his debut to the big screen in 1937 with the first animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In 1940 MGM debut Hanna Barbara's Tom and Jerry a simple Cartoon about a cat named Tom chasing a mouse named Jerry but Hanna Barbara didn’t become popular until the 1950s.
The 1950s to the 1980s were known as the television era of animation because of the rise of Hanna Barbara and Children cartoons. Hanna Barbara made many famous Tv shows like Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Jetsons, Smurfs, and Flintstones. By the early 1980s however, a dark time for cartoons began. At the time, more people saw cartoons as kids’ entertainment. Many studios lowered the budget for cartoons leaving them looking lifeless and instead of spending time on the story, they spent more time on the visuals to sell toys. In the late 80s and 90s, they started to push the boundaries on cartoons by teaching lessons that no other kids programming had before.
Looking back, cartoons have come a long way from the stick figures in 1908. Animation is better than it has ever been teaching lessons about love, forgiveness, loss, mental health, and social issues that last a lifetime. While many adults see cartoons nowadays as brainwashing, I see it as raising a new open-minded generation that loves and forgives one another. I felt more for an animated character than I ever have with a character from a live-action TV show. “In order to enjoy yourself, you have to allow yourself to be tricked by it. There’s this vulnerability to it that makes people feel intensely about animation or feel nothing people who do not want to feel about animation”- Rebecca Sugar.
Bibliography
1. “AMC Filmsite.” Animated Films, www.filmsite.org/animatedfilms.html.
2. “Animation in Europe.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/animation/Animation-in-Europe.
3. URLhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Hanna-and-Barber
4.https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9wYWxlZ3Jvb3ZlLmNvbS9mZWVkL2RyYXduLXRoZS1zdG9yeS1vZi1hbmltYXRpb24ueG1s&episode=NGQ2M2Q4ZWMwMGUzNWEwYTY3YWE5ZGM2NWQ0NTljN2MubXAz&hl=en
5. https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/quick-history-animation/
6.https://history-of-animation.webflow.io/
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