History of animation

The history of animation started long

before the development of
cinematography. Humans have probably
attempted to depict motion as far back as
the paleolithic period. Shadow play and
the magic lantern offered popular shows
with projected images on a screen, moving
as the result of manipulation by hand
and/or some minor mechanics. In 1833
the phenakistiscope introduced the
stroboscopic principle of modern
animation, and would also provide the
basis for cinematography.

Early approaches to motion

in art
There are several examples of early
sequential images that may seem similar
to series of animation drawings. Most of
these examples would only allow an
extremely low frame rate when they are
animated, resulting in short and crude
animations that are not very lifelike.
However, it's very unlikely that these
images were intended to be somehow
viewed as an animation. It is possible to
imagine technology that could have been
used in the periods of their creation, but no
conclusive evidence in artifacts or
descriptions have been found. It is
sometimes argued that these early
sequential images are too easily
interpreted as "pre-cinema" by minds
accustomed to film, comic books and
other modern sequential images, while it is
uncertain that the creators of these
images envisioned anything like it.[1]
Fluent animation needs a proper
breakdown of a motion into the separate
images of very short instances, which
could hardly be imagined before modern
times.[2] Measuring instances shorter than
a second first became possible with
instruments developed in the 1850s.[3]

Early examples of attempts to capture the

phenomenon of motion into a still drawing
can be found in paleolithic cave paintings,
where animals are often depicted with
multiple legs in superimposed positions.[4]
It has been claimed that these
superimposed figures were intended for a
form of animation with the flickering light
of the flames of a fire or a passing torch
illuminating different parts of the painted
rock wall, revealing different parts of the
motion.[5][6]
Archaeological finds of small paleolithic
discs with a hole in the middle and
drawings on both sides have been claimed
to be a kind of prehistoric thaumatropes
that show motion when spun on a
string.[5][7]

Sequence of images that minimally differ from each

other - from the site of the Burnt City in Iran, late half
of 3rd millennium B.C.

A 5,200-year old pottery bowl discovered

in Shahr-e Sukhteh, Iran has five sequential
images painted around it that seem to
show phases of a goat leaping up to nip at
a tree.[8][9]

An Egyptian burial chamber mural, approximately

4000 years old, showing wrestlers in action.

An Egyptian mural approximately 4000

years old, found in the tomb of
Khnumhotep at the Beni Hassan cemetery,
features a very long series of images that
apparently depict the sequence of events
in a wrestling match.[10]

The Roman poet and philosopher

Lucretius (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC) wrote in his
poem De rerum natura a few lines that
come close to the basic principles of
animation: "...when the first image
perishes and a second is then produced in
another position, the former seems to
have altered its pose. Of course this must
be supposed to take place very swiftly: so
great is their velocity, so great the store of
particles in any single moment of
sensation, to enable the supply to come
up." It must be noted that this was in the
context of dream images, rather than
images produced by an actual or imagined
technology.[11][12]

The medieval codex Sigenot (circa 1470)

has sequential illuminations with relatively
short intervals between different phases
of action. Each page has a picture inside a
frame above the text, with great
consistency in size and position
throughout the book (with a consistent
difference in size for the recto and verso
sides of each page).[13]

A page of drawings[14] by Leonardo da

Vinci (1452-1519) show anatomical
studies with four different angles of the
muscles of shoulder, arm and neck of a
man. The four drawings can be read as a
rotating movement.

Ancient Chinese records contain several

mentions of devices, including one made
by the inventor Ding Huan, that were said
to "give an impression of movement" to a
series of human or animal figures on
them,[15] but these accounts are unclear
and may only refer to the actual movement
of the figures through space.[16]

Since before 1000 CE the Chinese had a

rotating lantern which had silhouettes
projected on its thin paper sides that
appeared to chase each other. This was
called the "trotting horse lamp" [走馬燈] as
it would typically depict horses and horse-
riders. The cut-out silhouettes were
attached inside the lantern to a shaft with
a paper vane impeller on top, rotated by
heated air rising from a lamp. Some
versions added extra motion with jointed
heads, feet or hands of figures triggered by
a transversely connected iron wire.[17]

Volvelles have moving parts, but these and

other paper materials that can be
manipulated into motion are usually not
regarded as animation.
Shadow play

Shadow play figures, circa 1780.

Shadow play has much in common with

animation: people watching moving
figures on a screen as a very popular form
of entertainment, usually a story with
dialogue, sounds and music. The figures
could be very detailed and very articulated.
The earliest projection of images was
most likely done in primitive
shadowgraphy dating back to prehistory. It
evolved into more refined forms of shadow
puppetry, mostly with flat jointed cut-out
figures which are held between a source of
light and a translucent screen. The shapes
of the puppets sometimes include
translucent color or other types of
detailing. The history of shadow puppetry
is uncertain, but seems to have originated
in Asia, possibly in the 1st millennium BCE.
Clearer records seem to go back to around
900 CE. It later spread to the Ottoman
empire and seems not to have reached
Europe before the 17th century. It became
very popular in France at the end of the
18th century. François Dominique
Séraphin started his elaborate shadow
shows in 1771 and performed them until
his death in 1800. His heirs continued until
their theatre closed in 1870. Séraphin
developed the use of clockwork
mechanisms to automate the show.

Around the time cinematography was

developed, several theaters in Montmartre
showed elaborate "Ombres Chinoises"
shows that were very successful. The
famous Le Chat Noir produced 45 different
shows between 1885 and 1896.
The Magic Lantern

Christiaan Huygens' 1659 sketches for a projection of

Death taking off his head

Slide with a fantoccini trapeze artist and a

chromatrope border design (circa 1880)
Moving images were possibly projected
with the magic lantern since its invention
by Christiaan Huygens in 1659. His
sketches for magic lantern slides have
been dated to that year and are the oldest
known document concerning the magic
lantern.[18] One encircled sketch depicts
Death raising his arm from his toes to his
head, another shows him moving his right
arm up and down from his elbow and yet
another taking his skull off his neck and
placing it back. Dotted lines indicate the
intended movements.

Techniques to add motion to painted glass

slides for the magic lantern were
described since circa 1700. These usually
involved parts (for instance limbs) painted
on one or more extra pieces of glass
moved by hand or small mechanisms
across a stationary slide which showed
the rest of the picture.[19] Popular subjects
for mechanical slides included the sails of
a windmill turning, a procession of figures,
a drinking man lowering and raising his
glass to his mouth, a head with moving
eyes, a nose growing very long, rats
jumping in the mouth of a sleeping man. A
more complex 19th century rackwork slide
showed the then known eight planets and
their satellites orbiting around the sun.[20]
Two layers of painted waves on glass
could create a convincing illusion of a
calm sea turning into a very stormy sea
tossing some boats about by increasing
the speed of the manipulation of the
different parts.

In 1770 Edmé-Gilles Guyot detailed how to

project a magic lantern image on smoke to
create a transparent, shimmering image of
a hovering ghost. This technique was used
in the phantasmagoria shows that became
very popular in several parts of Europe
between 1790 and the 1830s. Other
techniques were developed to produce
convincing ghost experiences. The lantern
was handheld to move the projection
across the screen (which was usually an
almost invisible transparent screen behind
which the lanternist operated hidden in the
dark). A ghost could seem to approach the
audience or grow larger by moving the
lantern away from the screen, sometimes
with the lantern on a trolley on rails.
Multiple lanterns made ghosts move
independently and were occasionally used
for superimposition in the composition of
complicated scenes.[21]

Dissolving views became a popular magic

lantern show, especially in England in the
1830s and 1840s.[21] These typically had a
landscape changing from a winter version
to a spring or summer variation by slowly
diminishing the light from one version
while introducing the aligned projection of
the other slide.[22] Another use showed the
gradual change of for instance groves into
cathedrals.[23]

Between the 1840s and 1870s several

abstract magic lantern effects were
developed. This included the chromatrope
which projected dazzling colorful
geometrical patterns by rotating two
painted glass discs in opposite
directions.[24]
Occasionally small shadow puppets had
been used in phantasmagoria shows.[21]
Magic lantern slides with jointed figures
set in motion by levers, thin rods, or cams
and worm wheels were also produced
commercially and patented in 1891. A
popular version of these "Fantoccini
slides" had a somersaulting monkey with
arms attached to mechanism that made it
tumble with dangling feet. Fantoccini
slides are named after the Italian word for
puppets like marionettes or jumping
jacks.[25]

Animation before film

Numerous devices that successfully
displayed animated images were
introduced well before the advent of the
motion picture. These devices were used
to entertain, amaze, and sometimes even
frighten people. The majority of these
devices didn't project their images, and
could only be viewed by a one or a few
persons at a time. They were considered
optical toys rather than devices for a large
scale entertainment industry like later
animation. Many of these devices are still
built by and for film students learning the
basic principles of animation.
Prelude

An article in the Quarterly Journal of

Science, Literature, and The Arts (1821)[26]
raised some interest in optical illusions of
curved spokes in rotating wheels seen
through vertical apertures. In 1824 Peter
Mark Roget provided mathematical details
about the appearing curvatures and added
the observation that the spokes appeared
motionless. Roget claimed that the illusion
is due to the fact “that an impression
made by a pencil of rays on the retina, if
sufficiently vivid, will remain for a certain
time after the cause has ceased.” [27] This
was later seen as the basis for the theory
of "persistence of vision" as the principle
of how we see film as motion rather than
the successive stream of still images
actually presented to the eye. This theory
has been discarded as the (sole) principle
of the effect since 1912, but remains in
many film history explanations. However,
Roget's experiments and explanation did
inspire some further research by Michael
Faraday and also by Joseph Plateau that
would eventually bring about the invention
of animation.

Thaumatrope (1825)
In April 1825 the first thaumatrope was
published by W. Phillips (in anonymous
association with John Ayrton Paris) and
became a very popular toy.[28] The pictures
on either side of a small cardboard disc
seem to blend into one combined image
when it is twirled quickly by the attached
strings. This is often used as an
illustration of what has often been called
"persistence of vision", presumably
referring to the effect in which the
impression of a single image persists
although in reality two different images are
presented with interruptions. It is unclear
how much of the effect relates to positive
afterimages. Although a thaumatrope can
also be used for two-phase animation, no
examples are known to have been
produced with this effect until long after
the phénakisticope had established the
principle of animation.

Phénakisticope (1833)

Nr. 10 in the reworked second series of Stampfer's

stroboscopic discs published by Trentsensky &
Vieweg in 1833.
The phénakisticope (better known by the
misspelling phenakistiscope or
phenakistoscope) was the first animation
device using rapid successive substitution
of sequential pictures. The pictures are
evenly spaced radially around a disc, with
small rectangular apertures at the rim of
the disc. The animation could be viewed
through the slits of the spinning disc in
front of a mirror. It was invented in
November or December 1832 by the
Belgian Joseph Plateau and almost
simultaneously by the Austrian Simon von
Stampfer. Plateau first published about his
invention in January 1833. The publication
included an illustration plate of a
fantascope with 16 frames depicting a
pirouetting dancer.

The phénakisticope was very successful

as a novelty toy and within a year very
many sets of stroboscopic discs were
published across Europe, with almost as
many different names for the device -
including Fantascope (Plateau), The
Stroboscope (Stampfer) and
Phénakisticope (Parisian publisher Giroux
& Cie).

Zoetrope (1833)
In July 1833 Simon Stampfer described
the possibility of using the stroboscope
principle in a cylinder (as well as on looped
strips) in a pamphlet accompanying the
second edition of his version of the
phénakisticope.[29] British mathematician
William George Horner suggested a
cylindrical variation of Plateau's
phénakisticope in January 1834. Horner
planned to publish this Dædaleum with
optician King, Jr in Bristol but it "met with
some impediment probably in the
sketching of the figures".[30]

In 1865 William Ensign Lincoln invented

the definitive zoetrope with easily
replaceable strips of images. It also had
an illustrated paper disc on the base,
which was not always exploited on the
commercially produced versions.[31]
Lincoln licensed his invention to Milton
Bradley and Co. who first advertised it on
December 15, 1866.[32]

Flip book (1868)

An 1886 illustration of the kineograph.

John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip

book in 1868 as the kineograph.[33] A flip
book is a small book with relatively springy
pages, each having one in a series of
animation images located near its
unbound edge. The user bends all of the
pages back, normally with the thumb, then
by a gradual motion of the hand allows
them to spring free one at a time. As with
the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and
praxinoscope, the illusion of motion is
created by the apparent sudden
replacement of each image by the next in
the series, but unlike those other
inventions no view-interrupting shutter or
assembly of mirrors is required and no
viewing device other than the user's hand
is absolutely necessary. Early film
animators cited flip books as their
inspiration more often than the earlier
devices, which did not reach as wide an
audience.[34]

The older devices by their nature severely

limit the number of images that can be
included in a sequence without making the
device very large or the images
impractically small. The book format still
imposes a physical limit, but many dozens
of images of ample size can easily be
accommodated. Inventors stretched even
that limit with the mutoscope, patented in
1894 and sometimes still found in
amusement arcades. It consists of a large
circularly-bound flip book in a housing,
with a viewing lens and a crank handle that
drives a mechanism that slowly rotates
the assembly of images past a catch,
sized to match the running time of an
entire reel of film.

Praxinoscope (1877)

French inventor Charles-Émile Reynaud

developed the praxinoscope in 1876 and
patented it in 1877.[35] It is similar to the
zoetrope but instead of the slits in the
cylinder it has twelve rectangular mirrors
placed evenly around the center of the
cylinder. Each mirror reflects another
image of the picture strip placed opposite
on the inner wall of the cylinder. When
rotating the praxinoscope shows the
sequential images one by one, resulting in
a fluent animation. The praxinoscope
allowed a much clearer view of the moving
image compared to the zoetrope, since the
zoetrope's images were actually mostly
obscured by the spaces in between its
slits. In 1879 Reynaude registered a
modification to the praxinoscope patent to
include the Praxinoscope Théâtre, which
utilized the Pepper's ghost effect to
present the animated figures in an
exchangeable background. Later
improvements included the "Praxinoscope
à projection" (marketed since 1882) which
used a double magic lantern to project the
animated figures over a till projection of a
background.[36]

Zoopraxiscope (1879)

Eadweard Muybridge had circa 70 of his

famous chronophotographic sequences
painted on glass discs for the
zoopraxiscope projector that he used in
his popular lectures between 1880 and
1895. In the 1880s the images were
painted onto the glass in dark contours.
Later discs made between 1892 and 1894
had outlines drawn by Erwin F. Faber that
were photographically printed on the disc
and then coloured by hand, but these were
probably never used in the lectures. The
painted figures were largely transposed
from the photographs, but many fanciful
combinations were made and sometimes
imaginary elements were added.[37][38]

1888-1908: Earliest
animations on film
Théâtre Optique
Play media
Part of the restored Pauvre Pierrot film

Charles-Émile Reynaud further developed

his projection praxinoscope into the
Théâtre Optique with transparent hand-
painted colorful pictures in a long
perforated strip wound between two
spools, patented in December 1888. From
28 October 1892 to March 1900 Reynaud
gave over 12,800 shows to a total of over
500.000 visitors at the Musée Grévin in
Paris. His Pantomimes Lumineuses series
of animated films each contained 300 to
700 frames that were manipulated back
and forth to last 10 to 15 minutes per film.
A background scene was projected
separately. Piano music, song and some
dialogue were performed live, while some
sound effects were synchronized with an
electromagnet. The first program included
three cartoons: Pauvre Pierrot (created in
1891), Un bon bock (created in 1888, now
lost), and Le Clown et ses chiens (created
in 1890, now lost). Later on the titles
Autour d'une cabine (created in 1893) and
A rêve au coin du feu would be part of the
performances.
Standard picture film

Despite the success of Reynaud's films it

took some time before animation was
adapted in the film industry that came
about after the introduction of Lumiere's
Cinematograph in 1895. Georges Méliès'
early fantasy and trick films (released
between 1896 and 1913) occasionally
came close to including animation with
substitution splice effects, painted props
or painted creatures that were moved in
front of painted backgrounds (mostly
using wires), and film colorization by hand.
Méliès also popularized the stop trick, with
a single change made to the scene in
between shots, that had already been used
in Edison's The Execution of Mary Stuart in
1895 and probably led to the development
of stop-motion animation some years
later.[39] It seems to have lasted until 1906
before proper animated films started to
appear in cinemas. The dating of earlier
films with animation is contested, while
other films that may have used stop
motion or other animation techniques are
lost and can't be checked.

Printed animation film

In 1897 German toy manufacturer

Gebrüder Bing had a first prototype of their
kinematograph.[40] In November 1898 they
presented this toy film projector, possibly
the first of its kind, at a toy festival in
Leipzig. Soon other toy manufacturers,
including Ernst Plank and Georges Carette,
sold similar devices. Around the same
time the French company Lapierre
marketed a similar projector. The toy
cinematographs were basically magic
lanterns with one or two small spools that
used standard "Edison perforation" 35mm
film. These projectors were intended for
the same type of "home entertainment" toy
market that most of these manufacturers
already provided with praxinoscopes and
toy magic lanterns. Apart from relatively
expensive live-action films, the
manufacturers produced many cheaper
films by printing lithographed drawings.
These animations were probably made in
black-and-white from around 1898 or
1899, but at the latest by 1902 they were
made in color. The pictures were often
traced from live-action films (much like the
later rotoscoping technique). These very
short films depicted a simple repetitive
action and were created to be projected as
a loop - playing endlessly with the film
ends put together. The lithograph process
and the loop format follow the tradition
that was set by the zoetrope and
praxinoscope.[41][42]
Play media

Katsudō Shashin

Katsudō Shashin, from an unknown

creator, was discovered in 2005 and is
speculated to be the oldest work of
animation in Japan, with Natsuki
Matsumoto,[Note 1][43] an expert in
iconography at the Osaka University of
Arts[44] and animation historian Nobuyuki
Tsugata[Note 2] determining the film was
most likely made between 1907 and
1911.[45] The film consists of a series of
cartoon images on fifty frames of a
celluloid strip and lasts three seconds at
sixteen frames per second.[46] It depicts a
young boy in a sailor suit who writes the
kanji characters "活動写真" (katsudō
shashin, or "moving picture"), then turns
towards the viewer, removes his hat, and
offers a salute.[46] Evidence suggests it
was mass-produced to be sold to wealthy
owners of home projectors.[47] To
Matsumoto, the relatively poor quality and
low-tech printing technique indicate it was
likely from a smaller film company.[48]

J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton was a British-American
filmmaker, co-founder of the Vitagraph
Studios and one of the first to use
animation in his films.The Enchanted
Drawing (1900) is considered to be the
first film recorded on standard picture film
that included some sequences that are
sometimes regarded as animation. It
shows Blackton doing some "lightning
sketches" of a face, cigars, a bottle of wine
and a glass. The face changes expression
when Blackton pours some wine into the
face's mouth and when Blackton takes his
cigar. The technique used in this film was
basically the substitution splice: the single
change to the scenes was the replacement
of a drawing by a similar drawing with a
different facial expression. In some
scenes a drawn bottle and glass were
replaced by real objects. Blackton had
possibly used the same technique in a lost
1896 lightning sketch film.[39] The effect
can hardly be considered animation.

Play media

The 1906 cartoon Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

by J. Stuart Blackton, considered the first animated
film
Blackton's 1906 film Humorous Phases of
Funny Faces is often regarded as the
oldest known drawn animation on
standard film. It features a sequence made
with blackboard drawings that are
changed between frames to show two
faces changing expressions and some
billowing cigar smoke, as well as two
sequences that feature cutout animation.

Blackton's The Haunted Hotel (1907)

featured a combination of live-action with
practical special effects and stop-motion
animation of objects, a puppet and a
model of the haunted hotel. It was the first
stop-motion film to receive wide scale
appreciation. Especially a large close-up
view of a table being set by itself baffled
viewers; there were no visible wires or
other noticeable well-known tricks. [49]
This inspired other filmmakers, including
French animator Émile Cohl[39] and
Segundo de Chomón, to work with the new
technique. De Chomón would release the
similar The House of Ghosts and El hotel
eléctrico in 1908.

Edwin S. Porter

In 1905 American film pioneer Edwin S.

Porter used animated letters and a very
simple cutout animation of two hands in
the intertitles in How Jones lost his roll.[50]
He experimented with a small bit of crude
stop-motion animation in his trick film
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906). His 1907
film The "Teddy" Bears mainly shows
people in bear costumes, but also features
a short stop-motion segment with small
teddy bears.[51]

Segundo de Chomón

Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón

made many trick films and has often been
compared to Georges Méliès. De Chomón
frequently used stop-motion in his films,
even before the release of J. Stuart
Blackton's groundbreaking The Haunted
Hotel. Le théâtre de Bob (1906) features
over three minutes of stop-motion
animation with dolls and some objects. El
hotel eléctrico (1908) features much stop
motion with objects, a bit of pixilation and
one effect done with drawn animation (a
few lines probably drawn on the negative
that represent electric sparks).

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

Arthur Melbourne-Cooper was a British

filmmaker who did much pioneering work
in stop motion animation. He produced
over 300 films between 1896 and 1915, of
which an estimated 36 were all or in part
animated.

Based on later reports by Cooper and by

his daughter Audrey Wadowska, some
believe that Cooper's Matches: an Appeal
was produced in 1899 and therefore the
very first stop-motion animation. The
black-and-white film shows a matchstick
figure writing an appeal to donate a Guinea
for which Bryant and May would supply
soldiers with sufficient matches. No
archival records are known that could
proof that the film was indeed created in
1899 during the beginning of the Second
Boer War. Others place it at 1914, during
the beginning of World War I.[52][53] Cooper
created more Animated Matches scenes
in the same setting. These are believed to
also have been produced in 1899[54][55],
while a release date of 1908 has also been
given.[56] There is also an Animated
Matches film by Émile Cohl that was
released by Gaumont in 1908,[57][58] which
may have caused more confusion about
the release dates of Cooper's matchstick
animations.

The lost films Dolly's Toys (1901) and The

Enchanted Toymaker (1904) may have
included stop-motion animation.[39]
Dreams of Toyland (1908) features a
scene with many animated toys that lasts
circa three and a half minutes.

Traditional animation
The silent era

The first animated film created by using what came

to be known as traditional (hand-drawn) animation—
the 1908 Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl
Play media
Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie

The French artist Émile Cohl created the

first animated film using what came to be
known as traditional animation methods:
the 1908 Fantasmagorie.[59] The film
largely consisted of a stick figure moving
about and encountering all manner of
morphing objects, such as a wine bottle
that transforms into a flower. There were
also sections of live action where the
animator’s hands would enter the scene.
The film was created by drawing each
frame on paper and then shooting each
frame onto negative film, which gave the
picture a blackboard look. Cohl later went
to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York
City in 1912, where he worked for French
studio Éclair and spread its animation
technique to the US.

Influenced by Émile Cohl, the author of the

first puppet-animated film (i.e., The
Beautiful Lukanida (1912)), Russian-born
(ethnically Polish) director Wladyslaw
Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich,
started to create stop motion films using
dead insects with wire limbs and later, in
France, with complex and really expressive
puppets. In 1912, he created The
Cameraman's Revenge, a complex tale of
treason and violence between several
different insects. It is a pioneer work of
puppet animation, and the oldest animated
film of such dramatic complexity, with
characters filled with motivation, desire
and feelings.

Play media
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)

More detailed hand-drawn animations with

detailed backgrounds and characters,
were those directed by Winsor McCay, a
successful newspaper cartoonist,
including the 1911 Little Nemo, the 1914
Gertie the Dinosaur, and the 1918 The
Sinking of the Lusitania.[60][61] Gertie the
Dinosaur featured an early example of
character development in drawn
animation.[62] The film was made for
McCay's vaudeville act and as it played
McCay would speak to Gertie who would
respond with a series of gestures. There
was a scene at the end of the film where
McCay walked behind the projection
screen and a view of him appears on the
screen showing him getting on the cartoon
dinosaur's back and riding out of frame.
This scene made Gertie the Dinosaur the
first film to combine live-action footage
with hand-drawn animation. McCay hand-
drew almost every one of the 10,000
drawings he used for the film.[63]

Also in 1914, John Bray opened John Bray

Studios, which revolutionized the way
animation was created.[64] Earl Hurd, one
of Bray's employees patented the cel
technique.[65] This involved animating
moving objects on transparent celluloid
sheets.[66] Animators photographed the
sheets over a stationary background
image to generate the sequence of
images. This, as well as Bray's innovative
use of the assembly line method, allowed
John Bray Studios to create Colonel Heeza
Liar, the first animated series.[67][68]

During the 1910s, the production of

animated short films, typically referred to
as "cartoons", became an industry of its
own and cartoon shorts were produced for
showing in movie theaters. The most
successful producer at the time was John
Randolph Bray, who, along with animator
Earl Hurd, patented the cel animation
process that dominated the animation
industry for the rest of the decade.[69]

In 1915, Max and Dave Fleischer invented

rotoscoping, the process of using film as a
reference point for animation and their
studios went on to later release such
animated classics as Ko-Ko the Clown,
Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man, and
Superman. In 1918 McCay released The
Sinking of the Lusitania, a wartime
propaganda film. McCay did use some of
the newer animation techniques, such as
cels over paintings—but because he did all
of his animation by himself, the project
wasn't actually released until just shortly
before the end of the war.[68] At this point
the larger scale animation studios were
becoming the industrial norm and artists
such as McCay faded from the public
eye.[63]

Play media
The 1919 Feline Follies by Pat Sullivan

The first known animated feature film was

El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino
Cristiani from Argentina.[70] He also
directed two other animated feature films,
including 1931's Peludópolis, the first
feature length animation to use
synchronized sound. None of these,
however, survived.[71][72][73]

In 1919, Otto Messmer of Pat Sullivan

Studios created Felix the Cat. Pat Sullivan,
the studio head took all of the credit for
Felix, a common practice in the early days
of studio animation.[74] Felix the Cat was
distributed by Paramount Studios, and it
attracted a large audience.[75] Felix was
the first cartoon to be merchandised. He
soon became a household name.
In Germany, during the 1920s the abstract
animation was invented by Walter
Ruttman, Hans Richter, and Oskar
Fischinger, however, the Nazis censorship
against so-called "degenerate art"
prevented the abstract animation from
developing after 1933.

The earliest surviving animated feature

film is the 1926 silhouette-animated
Adventures of Prince Achmed, which used
colour-tinted film.[76] It was directed by
German Lotte Reiniger and
French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch.[77]

Walt Disney & Warner Bros.

In 1923, a studio called Laugh-O-Grams
went bankrupt and its owner, Walt Disney,
opened a new studio in Los Angeles.
Disney's first project was the Alice
Comedies series, which featured a live
action girl interacting with numerous
cartoon characters.[78] Disney's first
notable breakthrough was 1928's
Steamboat Willie, the third of the Mickey
Mouse series.[79] The short film showed an
anthropomorphic mouse named Mickey
neglecting his work on a steamboat to
instead make music using the animals
aboard the boat.[80] Even though many
wrongly believe Steamboat Willie was the
first cartoon with synchronized sound,
since May 1924 and continuing through
September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's
Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound
cartoons, part of the Song Car-Tunes
series, using the Phonofilm "sound-on-film"
process.[81]

In 1933, Warner Brothers Cartoons was

founded. While Disney's studio was known
for its releases being strictly controlled by
Walt Disney himself, Warner brothers
allowed its animators more freedom,
which allowed for their animators to
develop more recognizable personal
styles.[63]
The first animation to use the full, three-
color Technicolor method was Flowers
and Trees, made in 1932 by Disney
Studios, which won an Academy Award for
the work.[82] Color animation soon became
the industry standard, and in 1934, Warner
Brothers released Honeymoon Hotel of the
Merrie Melodies series, their first color
films.[83] Meanwhile, Disney had realized
that the success of animated films
depended upon telling emotionally
gripping stories; he developed an
innovation called a "story department"
where storyboard artists separate from the
animators would focus on story
development alone, which proved its worth
when the Disney studio released in 1933
the first-ever animated short to feature
well-developed characters, Three Little
Pigs.[84][85][86] In 1935, Tex Avery released
his first film with Warner Brothers.[83]
Avery's style was notably fast-paced,
violent, and satirical, with a slapstick
sensibility.[87]

Snow White and the Seven

Dwarfs

Many consider Walt Disney's 1937 Snow

White and the Seven Dwarfs the first
animated feature film, though at least
seven films were released earlier.[88]
However, Disney's film was the first one
completely made using hand-drawn
animation. The previous seven films, of
which only four survive, were made using
cutout, silhouette or stop motion, except
for one—also made by Disney seven
months prior to Snow White's release—
Academy Award Review of Walt Disney
Cartoons. This was an anthology film to
promote the upcoming release of Snow
White. However, many do not consider this
a genuine feature film because it is a
package film. In addition, at approximately
41 minutes, the film does not seem to
fulfill today's expectations for a feature
film. However, the official BFI, AMPAS and
AFI definitions of a feature film require that
it be over 40 minutes long, which, in theory,
should make it the first animated feature
film using traditional animation.

But as Snow White was also the first one

to become successful and well-known
within the English-speaking world, people
tend to disregard the seven films.
Following Snow White's release, Disney
began to focus much of its productive
force on feature-length films. Though
Disney did continue to produce shorts
throughout the century, Warner Brothers
continued to focus on features.
The television era

Competition from television drew

audiences away from movie theaters in
the late 1950s. The theatrical animated
short began its decline, while cartoons
became quite popular on television,
especially after color television was
introduced (to the US Market in 1954).

The scheduling constraints of the 1950s

American TV animation process, notably
issues of resource management, led to the
development of various techniques known
now as limited animation. Full-frame
animation ("on ones") became rare in the
United States outside its use for theatrical
productions.Chuck Jones coined the term
"illustrated radio" to refer to the shoddy
style of most television cartoons that
depended more on their soundtracks than
visuals.[89] The limited animation style was
highlighted by the work of Jay Ward on
Crusader Rabbit(1950).[90]Other notable
1950s programs include UPA's Gerald
McBoing Boing,[91], Terrytoons's Tom
Terrific (1958), Hanna-Barbera's
Huckleberry Hound (1958) (the first half-
hour television program to feature only
animation) and Quick Draw McGraw,[90]
and rebroadcast of many classic theatrical
cartoons from Universal's Walter Lantz,
Warner Bros., MGM, and Disney.
The Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The
Flintstones, was the first successful
primetime animated series in the United
States, running from 1960 to 1966 (and in
reruns since).[92] While many networks
followed the show's success by
scheduling other cartoons in the early
1960s, including Scooby-Doo, Where Are
You!, The Jetsons, Top Cat, and The Alvin
Show, few of these programs survived
more than a year (save Scooby-Doo, which,
despite not being a primetime cartoon, has
managed to stay afloat for over four
decades). However, networks found
success by running these shows as
Saturday morning cartoons, reaching
smaller audiences with more demographic
unity among children. Television animation
for children flourished on Saturday
morning, on cable channels like
Nickelodeon, Disney Channel/Disney XD
and Cartoon Network, PBS Kids, and in
syndicated afternoon timeslots.

Primetime cartoons for mature audiences

were virtually non-existent in the
mainstream of the United States until the
1990s hit, when The Simpsons ushered in
a new era of adult animation. Now, "adult
animation" programs, such as, Beavis and
Butt-head, South Park, King of the Hill,
Family Guy, American Dad! and Futurama
have increased the number of animated
sitcoms on prime-time and evening
American television. In addition, animated
works from other countries (notably
Japan) have had varying levels of airplay in
the United States since the 1960s.

Animated commercials

Animation has been very popular in

television commercials, both due to its
graphic appeal, and the humour it can
provide. Some animated characters in
commercials have survived for decades,
such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in
advertisements for Kellogg's cereals.
The legendary animation director Tex
Avery was the producer of the first Raid
"Kills Bugs Dead" commercials in 1966,
which were very successful for the
company. The concept has been used in
many countries since.

Animation techniques
Innumerable approaches to creating
animation have arisen throughout the
years. Here is a brief account of some of
the non traditional techniques commonly
incorporated.

Stop motion
This process is used for many
productions, for example, the most
common types of puppets are clay
puppets, as used in The California Raisins,
Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep
by Aardman, and figures made of various
rubbers, cloths and plastic resins, such as
The Nightmare Before Christmas and
James and the Giant Peach. Sometimes
even objects are used, such as with the
films of Jan Švankmajer.

Stop motion animation was also

commonly used for special effects work in
many live-action films, such as the 1914
Italian cult epic film Cabiria, the 1933
version of King Kong and The 7th Voyage
of Sinbad.

CGI animation

The first fully computer-animated feature

film was Pixar's Toy Story (1995).[93] The
process of CGI animation is still very
tedious and similar in that sense to
traditional animation, and it still adheres to
many of the same principles.

A principal difference of CGI animation

compared to traditional animation is that
drawing is replaced by 3D modeling,
almost like a virtual version of stop-
motion. A form of animation that
combines the two and uses 2D computer
drawing can be considered computer
aided animation.

Most CGI created films are based on

animal characters, monsters, machines, or
cartoon-like humans. Animation studios
are now trying to develop ways to create
realistic-looking humans. Films that have
attempted this include Final Fantasy: The
Spirits Within in 2001, Final Fantasy:
Advent Children in 2005, The Polar
Express in 2004, Beowulf in 2007 and
Resident Evil: Degeneration in 2009.
However, due to the complexity of human
body functions, emotions and interactions,
this method of animation is rarely used.
The more realistic a CG character
becomes, the more difficult it is to create
the nuances and details of a living person,
and the greater the likelihood of the
character falling into the uncanny valley.
The creation of hair and clothing that
move convincingly with the animated
human character is another area of
difficulty. The Incredibles and Up both have
humans as protagonists, while films like
Avatar combine animation with live action
to create humanoid creatures.
Cel-shading is a type of non-photorealistic
rendering intended to make computer
graphics appear hand-drawn. It is often
used to mimic the style of a comic book or
cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition
to computer graphics, most commonly
turning up in console video games.
Though the end result of cel-shading has a
very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn
animation, the process is complex. The
name comes from the clear sheets of
acetate (originally, celluloid), called cels,
that are painted on for use in traditional 2D
animation. It may be considered a "2.5D"
form of animation. True real-time cel-
shading was first introduced in 2000 by
Sega's Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast
console. Besides video games, a number
of anime have also used this style of
animation, such as Freedom Project in
2006.

Machinima is the use of real-time 3D

computer graphics rendering engines to
create a cinematic production. Most often,
video games are used to generate the
computer animation. Machinima-based
artists, sometimes called machinimists or
machinimators, are often fan laborers, by
virtue of their re-use of copyrighted
materials.
Firsts in animation
This section possibly contains original research.
Learn more
Year Milestone Film Notes

Created with cutout animation; now

1917 El Apóstol
considered lost

The
Feature film
Adventures of Oldest surviving animated feature film,
1926
Prince cutout silhouette animation
Achmed

The Clown's
1919 Filmed in Rotoscope Shortfilm
Pup

Short film; used Lee DeForest's

1924 Synchronized sound on film Oh Mabel Phonofilm sound on film process, though
none of the characters "speak" on screen

Short film; used Lee DeForest's

My Old
Synchronized sound on film Phonofilm sound on film process; a dog
1926 Kentucky
with animated dialogue character mouths the words, "Follow the
Home[94]
ball, and join in, everybody!"

Premiering in April 1930, a three-minute

Filmed in Two-color King of cartoon sequence produced by Walter
1930
Technicolor Jazz[95] Lantz appears in this full-length, live-
action Technicolor feature film.

Released in August 1930, this Ub Iwerks-

Two-color Technicolor in a
1930 Fiddlesticks produced short is the first standalone
stand-alone cartoon
color cartoon.

Feature length puppet The Tale of

1930
animated (stop-motion) film the Fox

1931 Feature-length sound film Peludópolis

Filmed in three-strip Flowers and

1932 Short film
Technicolor Trees

Poor
1934 Filmed in Stereoptical Process Short film
Cinderella

1936 Two-reel short filmed in three- Popeye the

strip Technicolor Sailor Meets
 Sindbad the
Sailor

Snow White
Feature filmed in three-strip
1937 and the Seven
Technicolor
Dwarfs

1940 Stereophonic sound Fantasia

The Dover
1942 limited animation Shortfilm
Boys

Crusader
1949 Television series
Rabbit

The
Adventures of
1950 Short lived TV show
Paddy the
Pelican

Filmed in stereoscopic 3D Melody Short film

Toot, Whistle,
1953
Presented in widescreen Plunk and Short film
Boom

Feature filmed in widescreen Lady and the

format Tramp

Animated TV series to aired A Rubovian

1955
outside of USA Legend

The Gumby
Stop-motion television series
Show[96]

CBS Cartoon
1956 Primetime television series Compilation television series
Theatre

Television series to be
1957 Colonel Bleep Television series
broadcast in color

The
1958 Half-hour television series Huckleberry
Hound Show

1959 Animated series to have its Rocky and His Television series
production outsourced to an Friends/The
 overseas company Bullwinkle
Show

Syncro-Vox Clutch Cargo Television series

Xerography process (replacing

Goliath II Short film
hand inking)
1960
The
Primetime animated sitcom Television series
Flintstones

One Hundred
Feature film using xerography
and One
1961 process
Dalmatians

Long-running TV show Minna no Uta

Feature film based on a Hey There, It's

1964
television show Yogi Bear!

A Thousand
Adult anime film and One Lost film
1969 Nights

A Boy Named
G-rated cartoon film
Charlie Brown

Sabrina and
Primetime animated sitcom
1970 the Groovie Television series
created for syndication
Goolies

Adult cartoon film Fritz the Cat

Wait Till Your

1972
Adult cartoon TV series Father Gets
Home

The Nine Lives

1974 R-rated cartoon film
of Fritz the Cat

PG-rated cartoon animated

1977 Wizards
film

Animated feature to be Watership

1978
presented in Dolby sound Down

1983 3D feature film - stereoscopic Abra Cadabra

 technique

Animated feature containing

Rock and Rule
computer-generated imagery

Animated TV series to be Inspector

recorded in Stereo sound Gadget

The
Adventures of
1984 Fully CGI-animated film Short film
André and
Wally B.

The
Feature length clay-animated
1985 Adventures of
film
Mark Twain

First feature film to have live-action and

Who Framed
1988 Cinematography milestone cartoon animation share the screen for
Roger Rabbit
the entire film

Hanna-
Barbera's
TV cartoon to be broadcast in
1989 50th: A Yabba
Dolby Surround sound.
Dabba Doo
Celebration

Produced without camera

First feature film completely produced
The Rescuers
1990 with Disney's Computer Animation
Feature film using digital ink Down Under
Production System
and paint

First animated film nominated

Beauty and As of 2017 no animated film has won the
1991 for the Academy Award for
the Beast Best Picture award.
Best Picture

Direct-to-video CGI-animated
VeggieTales
1993 series
CGI-animated TV series Insektors

Half-hour computer-animated
1994 ReBoot
TV series

1995 Fully computer-animated Toy Story

 feature film

G-rated CGI feature film

Animated television series to

Pinky and the
be broadcast in Dolby
Brain
Surround

Animated series produced for

The Goddamn
the Internet
1997 George Liquor
Program
Flash-animated series

1998 PG-rated CGI animated film Antz

1999 IMAX Disney animated film Fantasia 2000

2000 First Aardman Rated-G Film Chicken Run

Motion-capture animation Final Fantasy:

The Spirits
2001 PG-13-rated CGI animated film Within
First Academy Award for Best Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy
Won by Shrek
Animated Feature Genius were also nominated.

Flash-animated television
2002 ¡Mucha Lucha!
series

Wizards and
2003 First Flash-animated film
Giants

Appleseed
2004 Cel-shaded animation
Steamboy

Feature shot with digital still

2005 Corpse Bride
cameras

2006 Blu-ray release Dinosaur

Feature digitally animated by

Flatland
one person

Ultimate
2007
Presented in 7.1 surround Avengers
Blu-ray release
sound Ultimate
Avengers 2
2008 Feature film designed, created Fly Me to the
and released exclusively in 3D Moon

Adult CGI animated film Free Jimmy

Stop-motion character
animated using rapid Coraline
prototyping
2009 First animated feature film to
be produced in 3D, instead of Monsters vs.
being converted into 3D in a Aliens
post-production process

Animated feature film to earn

more than $1,000,000,000
worldwide
2010 Toy Story 3
Feature film released
theatrically in 7.1 surround
sound

Stop-motion film to use 3D

2012 ParaNorman
printing technology for models

First R-rated CGI feature

2016 Sausage Party
film[97]

Americas
History of Argentine animation

The world's first two feature-length

animated films and the first film with
sound were developed in Argentina by
Quirino Cristiani;[71][73]

1917: El Apóstol
1918: Sin dejar rastros

History of Brazilian animation

1917: Álvaro Marins produces Kaiser,

Brazil's first animated short film.
1953: Anélio Lattini Filho produces
Amazon Symphony, Brazil's first
animated feature-length film.
1996: NDR Filmes produces Cassiopéia,
considered for some as the first CG
movie in the world.

History of Canadian animation

1914: Raoul Barré of Barré Studio
produces animated segments for
Animated Grouch Chaser.
1916: Raoul Barré produces Mutt and
Jeff.
1919: Jack (J.A.) Norling produces The
Man Who Woke Up, the oldest surviving
animation made in Canada[98].
1926: Raoul Barré works as guest
animator for Felix the Cat.
1941: The National Film Board of
Canada's animation department is
founded with the addition of Norman
McLaren to the organization..
History of Cuban animation

1970: Juan Padrón creates the

character of Elpidio Valdés, star of a
long-running series of shorts and two
motion pictures.
1985: Juan Padrón's ¡Vampiros en la
Habana!
1992: An animation category is added to
the Festival Internacional del Nuevo
Cine Latinoamericano.

History of Mexican animation

1935: Alfonso Vergara produces Paco

Perico en premier, an animated short
film.
 1974: Fernando Ruiz produces Los tres
reyes magos, Mexico's first animated
feature-length film.
1977: Anuar Badin creates the film Los
supersabios, based on the comic.
1983: Roy del espacio

History of United States

animation

Beginning of industrial production of

animated cartoon.

The history of Hollywood animation as an

art form has undergone many changes in
its hundred-year history, the following lists
four separate chapters in the development
of its animation:

Animation in the United States during

the silent era (1906 through 1929)
1906: Vitagraph produces the first
animated short film recorded in
conventional film Humorous Phases
of Funny Faces.
The beginnings of theatrical, the
earliest animated cartoons in the era
of silent film, ranging from the works
of Winsor McCay through Koko the
Clown and Felix the Cat.
The Bray Studios was the first and
foremost cartoon studio, housed in
New York City. Many aspiring
cartoonists started their careers at
Bray, including Paul Terry of Heckle
and Jeckle fame, Max Fleischer of
Betty Boop fame, as well as Walter
Lantz of Woody Woodpecker fame.
The cartoon studio operated from c.
1915 until 1928. Some of the first
cartoon stars from the Bray studios
were Farmer Alfalfa (by Paul Terry)
and Bobby Bumps (by Earl Hurd).
Disney and Alice Comedies (1923-
1927).
Max and Dave Fleischer formed their
own studio Fleischer Studios, and
 created the Koko the Clown, Out of
the Inkwell, and Sound Car-Tunes
series.
Disney creates the first cartoons of
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey
Mouse.
Golden age of American animation
(1928 through mid-60s)
Appearance of the first sound
synchronized cartoons in 1928 and
the appearance of technicolor in the
1930s.
The dominance of Walt Disney
throughout the 1930s, through
revolutionary cartoons Silly
Symphonies, Mickey Mouse, and
Donald Duck.
Theatrical cartoons of Van Beuren
Studios with RKO Radio Pictures
(1928-1937).
Theatrical cartoons of Terrytoons with
20th Century Fox (1929-1959).
Theatrical cartoons of Walter Lantz
Productions with Universal Studios
(1929-1963).
Theatrical cartoons of Charles
Mintz/Screen Gems with Columbia
Pictures (1929-1946).
The rise of theatrical cartoons of
Warner Bros. (1929-1964) and Ub
Iwerks/MGM (1930-1957).
The Fleischer Studios creation of
Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons
(1929-1942).
Theatrical cartoons of Famous
Studios with Paramount Pictures
(1942-1959).
Disney's Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs marks the start of the "Golden
Age" at Disney's films (1937-1965).
The departure from realism, and UPA
(1943-1962).
Theatrical cartoons of Republic
Pictures (1946-1949).
 1938: Chad Grothkopf's eight-minute
experimental Willie the Worm, cited as
the first animated film created for TV,
was shown on NBC.[99][100]
The first TV animated series from Jay
Ward Productions (1948-1959):
Crusader Rabbit.
The emergence of TV animated series
from Hanna-Barbera (1957-1961) and
theatrical cartoons with Columbia
Pictures (1959-1965).
Theatrical cartoons of DFE with
United Artists (1964-1965).
Animation in the United States in the
television era (early 60s through mid-
80s)
The competition begins in television
animation with the animated series of
Cambria Studios (1959-1966),
Filmation (1963-1989) and Total
Television (1960-1969).
Japanese animation, known as anime,
arrives to America in the 1960s.
The rise of Saturday-morning
cartoons in the mid-1960s.
The decline of theatrical cartoons and
feature films.
The start of the "Dark Age" of Disney's
films (1966-1985).
The attempts at reviving animated
features in the late 1960s.
The rise of adult animation in the early
1970s with Ralph Bakshi.
Disney with The Rescuers (1977),
animated film that predicted a new
"Golden Age" for Disney according to
his criticism. [1]
The onslaught of commercial
cartoons in the 1980s.
The rise of anime series in America in
the 1980s.
The Secret of NIMH (1982), animated
film by Don Bluth that restored the
 interest in animated feature films
according to his criticism. [2]
Disney creates his first animated
television series in 1985: The
Wuzzles.
Modern animation in the United States
(1986 through present)
Renaissance age of American
animation (1986 through late 90s)
Don Bluth's films: An American Tail
(1986), The Land Before Time (1988)
and Anastasia (1997), appear on the
scene, creating potential competition
for Disney.
Disney with The Great Mouse
Detective (1986), The Brave Little
Toaster (1987) and Oliver & Company
(1988). [3]
Pixar Animation Studios with Luxo Jr.
(1986) and Toy Story (1995).
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and
the "Disney Renaissance" (1989-
1999).
Success of Disney animated series:
The Disney Afternoon (1985-1997).
Steven Spielberg's collaborations with
Warner Bros. Animation (1990-1999).
The Simpsons (1989) marks the
resurgence of adult-oriented
 animation.
The decline of Saturday-morning
cartoons in the 1990s.
A flood of newer, bolder film
animation studios.
Millennium age of American animation
(late 90s through present)
The rise of computer animation, for
both 2D and 3D (CGI) animation.
The decline of traditional animation.
South Park mimicks cut-out animation
by using computer animation.
Cartoon Network's late-night
animation block Adult Swim becomes
 immensely popular and leads to a
resurgence in short, adult animation.
"Disney Post-Renaissance" films
(2000-2008) and "Disney Revival"
films (2009-2018).

Europe
History of British animation

1899: Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's

"Matches Appeal"
1954: Animal Farm
1978: Watership Down
1982: Plague Dogs
1982: SuperTed
1981: Danger Mouse and Postman Pat
1986: Pingu
1987: Fireman Sam
1989: Wallace and Gromit
1990: The Dreamstone
1993: The Thief and the Cobbler
1999: Watership Down
2000: Chicken Run
2005: Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of
the Were-Rabbit
2007: Shaun the Sheep
2008: Thomas & Friends switches to CGI
2015: Shaun the Sheep Movie
 2016: Thomas & Friends: The Great
Race
2017: Thomas & Friends: Journey
Beyond Sodor
2018: Early Man

History of Czech animation

The roots of Czech puppet animation

began in the mid-1940s when puppet
theater operators, Eduard Hofman and Jiří
Trnka founded the Poetic animation
school, Bratři v triku. Since that time
animation has expanded and
flourished.[101][102]
 1945: Dědek zasadil řepu ("My
grandfather planted a beet")
1946: Zvířátka to petrovstí ("Animals and
bandits")
1946: Pérak SS ("The jumper and the
men of the SS")
1946: Dárek ("The Gift")
1947: Špalíček ("The Czech Year")
1949: Román s basou ("Story of a bass")
1949: Čertuv mlýn ("The Devil's Mill")
1949: Arie prerie ("Song of the Prairie")
1949: Císařův Slavík ("The Emperor's
Nightingale")

History of Estonian animation

Estonian animation began in the 1930s
and has carried on into the modern
day.[103]

1931 - The Adventures of Juku the Dog,

first Estonian animated short film
1950s - founding of puppet animation
division of Tallinnfilm by Elbert Tuganov
1970s - founding of drawn animation
division, Joonisfilm, by Rein Raamat

History of French animation

1908-1925, The work of animation

pioneer Émile Cohl produces a number
of firsts in animation and animation
techniques.
 1908: The first animated cartoon
1909: First use of morphing
1910: First use of puppet animation
and first color-animated cartoon
1911: First use of pixilation
1916: La journée de Flambeau
becomes the first animated series.
(also known as Flambeau, chien
perdu)

History of Hungarian animation

1914: István Kató Kiszly first becomes

involved in cut-out promotional
animations for use during newsreels.
1932: Gyula Macskássy and János
Halász establish Hungary's first
animation studio, Coloriton.
1930-1940: Hungarian animators such
as Jean Image, George Pal, and John
Halas emigrate from Hungary due to
political instability and settle abroad.
1948: All film-making is nationalized by
the Hungarian Communist Party under
Magyar Szinkronfilmgyártó Vállalat
(later rechristened as Pannónia Film
Stúdió).
1951: Gyula Macskássy and Edit Fekete
create Hungary's first color animation, A
kiskakas gyémánt félkrajcárja.
1962: Gyula Macskássy and György
Várnai create Hungary's first animated
serial, the Peti series.
1973: Marcell Jankovics creates the first
feature-length Hungarian film, János
Vitéz.
1981: Ferenc Rofusz wins the 1981
Academy Award for Best Animated
Short Film with A Légy.
1981: János Kass' Dilemma becomes
the first fully digital animated film[104]
1985 - Hungary holds its first Hungarian
Animated Cartoon Festival in
Kecskemét.
 1990 - Communism ends, and with it
state support for Pannónia Film Stúdió.
Independent studios like Varga Studio
and Digic Pictures emerge.

History of Italian animation

1914: First use of stop-motion

animation as special effects in Cabiria
1949: The first two Italian animated
movies are released: La Rosa di Bagdad
directed by Anton Gino Domeneghini
and The Dynamite Brothers directed by
Nino Pagot
1970: The Italian animated cartoon art
and industry (La Linea, Mio Mao,
Calimero...) is born.
1977: The animated Italian classic,
Allegro non troppo, is both a parody of
and homage to Disney's Fantasia; this is
director Bruno Bozzetto's most
ambitious work and his third feature-
length animation, after West and Soda,
an animated spaghetti western, and VIP
my Brother Superman, a parody of
superheroes, although he also directed
several notable shorter works including
Mr. Rossi and the Oscar-nominated
Grasshoppers (Cavallette).[105]
2004: Winx Club, produced by Rainbow
S.r.l.
2016: Regal Academy
History of Russian animation

1910-1913: Ladislas Starevich creates

puppet animations
1935: First animated feature film in the
USSR, The New Gulliver
1935: Soyuzmultfilm Studio is created.
late 1930s to 1950s: Socialist Realism in
cartoons:
1947: The Humpbacked Horse
1952: The Scarlet Flower
1955: The Enchanted Boy
1956: The Twelve Months
1957: The Snow Queen
1967-1971: Adventures of Mowgli series
1969: Gena the Crocodile, the first
Cheburashka short is made.
1969: Winnie-the-Pooh.
1969: The Bremen Town Musicians.
1969-1986: Nu, Pogodi! original series.
1973: The Nutcracker
1975: Hedgehog in the Fog
1978: Three from Prostokvashino
1979: Tale of Tales
1981: The Mystery of the Third Planet
1982: Once Upon a Dog
1987: The Adventures of Lolo the
Penguin
 1990s: Government subsidies shrink
dramatically, while the number of
studios grow.
1999: The Old Man and the Sea
since 2001: Internet era in the Russian
independent animation: Masyanya, Mr.
Freeman and others
2004-2012: Kikoriki (Smeshariki) series
since 2009: Masha and the Bear series
2011: Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf
2012: The Snow Queen

History of animation in Croatia

(in former Yugoslavia)
 1953: Zagreb Film inaugurates the
Zagreb school of animation.
1975: Škola Animiranog Filma Čakovec
(ŠAF) inaugurates the Čakovec school
of animation.

Asia
History of Chinese animation

1922: first animation in a commercial

Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter
1926: first animation to showcase
technology Uproar in the Studio and
acknowledge Wan Laiming and Wan
Guchan as pioneers.
 1935: The Camel's Dance - first chinese
animation with sound.
1941: Princess Iron Fan
1980: Three Monks

History of Indian animation

1974: Ek Anek Aur Ekta

1978: The Hunt
1986: Ghayab Aaya
1992: Ramayana: The Legend of Prince
Rama
2005: Hanuman
2012: Chhota Bheem and the Curse of
Damyaan
2012: Arjun: The Warrior Prince
 2013: Chhota Bheem and the Throne of
Bali
2014: Mighty Raju Rio calling
2016: Chhota Bheem Himalayan
Adventure
2016: Motu Patlu: King Of Kings

History of Iranian animation

Iran's animation owes largely to the

animator Noureddin Zarrinkelk. Zarrinkelk
was instrumental in founding the Institute
for Intellectual Development of Children
and Young Adults (IIDCYA) in Tehran in
collaboration with the late father of Iranian
graphics Morteza Momayez and other
fellow artists like Farshid Mesghali, Ali
Akbar Sadeghi, and Arapik
Baghdasarian.[106]

1970: Duty, First

1971: A Playground for Baboush
1971: Philipo and a Train from Hong
Kong
1971: Seven Cities
1972: Shower of Flowers
1973: Association Of Ideas
1973: I Am He Who…
1974: Atal-Matal
1974: The Castle
1975: The Mad, Mad, Mad World
 1975: The Sun King

History of Japanese animation

(anime)

Circa 1915: Discovered in Kyoto in 2005,

the earliest known Japanese animated
film is Katsudō Shashin (Moving
Picture), which depicts a boy wearing a
sailor uniform performing a salute. The
undated film is considered among the
earliest examples of Japanese
animation. The discoverer speculates
that it is from as early as 1907. It is
composed of 50 frames assembled on
35mm Celluloid with paste.[107]
1917: Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no
Maki
1917: Namakura Gatana
1918: Urashima Tarō
1921: Kiatsu to Mizuage Ponpu
1922: Shokubutsu Seiri: Seishoku no
Maki
1924: Usagi to Kame
1945: Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors
1958: The Tale of the White Serpent
1963: Astro Boy
1968: Hols: Prince of the Sun
1970: Ashita no Joe
1974: Space Battleship Yamato
1979: Mobile Suit Gundam
1979: The Castle of Cagliostro
1984: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
1984: Lensman: Secret of The Lens
1986: Dragon Ball
1986: Castle in the Sky
1987: Wicked City
1988: The Adventures of Lolo the
Penguin
1988: My Neighbor Totoro
1988: Grave of the Fireflies
1988: Akira
1989: Dragon Ball Z
1989: Kiki's Delivery Service
1989: Little Nemo: Adventures in
Slumberland
1992: Porco Rosso
1992: Yu Yu Hakusho
1993: Ninja Scroll
1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion
1995: Ghost in the Shell
1996: Dragon Ball GT
1997: Pokémon
1997: Princess Mononoke
1998: Hunter x Hunter
1999: One Piece
2000: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
2000: Yu-Gi-Oh!
2001: Spirited Away
2001: Millennium Actress
2002: Naruto
2004: Howl's Moving Castle
2004: Bleach
2006: Paprika
2008: Ponyo
2009: Fairy Tail
2011: Hunter x Hunter
2013: Attack on Titan
2013: The Wind Rises
2014: Noragami
2014: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
2015: Dragon Ball Super
 2015: One-Punch Man
2016: My Hero Academia
2016: Yuri on Ice

History of Malaysian Animation

Animation in Malaysia began in 1946 with

the establishment of the Malayan Film Unit
(now known as National Film). The first
short animated film was the Hikayat Sang
Kancil (Anandam Xavier, 1978) and aired
in 1983. Short films that appeared
between 1985 and 1987 were: The Mouse
& Monkey, The Mouse & Crocodile, The
Crow Rage, the Rabbit Arrogant and the
Lion of Haloba made by Hassan Abdul
Muthalib.[108]
1972: Selamat Hari Natal
1979: Hapuskan Nyamuk Aedes
1978: Hikayat Sang Kancil
1985: Sang Kancil & Monyet
1985: Sang Kancil & Buaya
1986: Gagak Yang Bijak
1986: Arnab Yang Sombong
1987: Singa Yang Haloba
1993: Usop Sontorian
1996: Keluang Man
1999: Kampong Boy
1999: Anak- Anak Sidek
1999: Sang Wira
2006: Bola Kampung
 2007: Upin & Ipin
2011: Boboiboy
2014: The Amazing Awang Khenit
2016: Ejen Ali

Oceania
History of Australian animation

See: Animal Logic, Yoram Gross, Flying

Bark Productions

1977: Dot and the Kangaroo

1979: The Little Convict
1982: The Seventh Match (also known
as Sarah)
 1984: The Camel Boy
1984: Epic: Days of the Dinosaurs (also
known as EPIC)
1991: The Magic Riddle
1992: Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala
1992: FernGully: The Last Rainforest
2000: The Magic Pudding (2000)
2006: Happy Feet

History of New Zealand

animation

See: Weta Digital

1986: Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale

2015: 25 April
Media
 Play media

The 1906 cartoon Humorous Phases of

Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton,
considered the first animated film

Play media

A 1921 sequel to Winsor McCay's "Gertie

 the Dinosaur", 1914, the first cartoon with
personality animation

Notes
1. 松本 夏樹, b. 1952
2. 津堅 信之, b. 1968

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External links
Chronology of animation
European animation films
Animation before film

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