The
Future
The Evolution of Animation
Kenneth Michael
Kenneth@excapethematrix.com
Mickey Mouse, the animated face of Disney has experienced many changes in animation due to technology over the last 80 years. Animation is the art of representing liveliness, motion, and spirit, which is often illustrated through cartoons. The art of animation first started as black and white newspaper comic strips and has now evolved to full-feature 3-D animated films. Dr. Joseph Antoine and Dr. Simon Pittner were two of the first to dabble in animation producing the trick of movement by allowing viewers to gaze at a rotating disk window, which covered another disk of a sequence of images.
Winsor McCay is noted as the father of animation because of he was first to explore new mediums for the art. McCay got his start working for a Chicago company as a billboard and poster artist in the early 1900’s. After leaving Chicago, he traveled to New York City where he worked for numerous magazines and newspaper companies creating comic strips, his most famous comic strip was Little Nemo in Sumberland, which ran from 1905 until 1914. It wasn’t until 1914 that Mccay was looked at as a pioneer in animation when he produced the animated film Gertie the Dinosaur. The film was composed of 10,000 drawings and was different and innovative because it was featured in a new venue which was film. His next big film, The Sinking of the Lusitanian, was four years later and used cel animation. This type of animation was a first in films and eliminated the repeated drawing of figures and movement on paper and instead transparent paper illustrating movement.
With the art of animation gaining popularity in the early 1900’s, animation houses appeared as a way for artist to distribute their work, the first house was Paoul Barre` in 1913. The John Bray Studio was the next to open its doors in 1914 and from that studio came one of the most successful cartoons created at that time, Col. Heeza Liar. With the existence of many of these successful animation studios rising, the artists behind the drawings were left in the dark and most of the studio owners or heads would take the credit. This was the 
case with the famous Felix the Cat series created in 1916 and distributed through the Pat Sullivan Studio. A studio employee by the name of Otto Messner created the cartoon and the weekly storyline and plot only to see studio owner Pat Sullivan steal credit.
In the 1920’s, when cartoon series started to flourish the John Bray Studio through their cartoon series The Debut of Thomas Cat was the first to introduce color into cartoons. The new era of color in animation welcomed one of the most successful and notorious animation studios in history, the Walt Disney Studio in 1921. With the opening of Disney’s Studio, their first feature animation Alice Wonderland appeared in 1923 and combined live human action and cartoon characters in one film. The Disney Studio would receive it biggest competition in 1927 with the opening of the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood. The Warner Studio brought together both synchronized sound and the use of cartoon images in animation with their arrival
Disney would soon regain their rein on top with the cartoon character who has become a staple mascot for the company, Mickey Mouse. The Disney mascot first appeared in 1928 in their first cartoon series Steam Boat Willey.
In the 1930’s, one of animations most feminist cartoon characters arrived on television with the debut of Betty Bop. The character was first introduced in the form of half dog, half human in the Dizzy Dishes series. In 1932, the Max Fleisher Studios released Betty Bops’ Prize Show which ran for nine years.
In 1937, Disney released the first full animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film was compiled with over 477,000 drawings and was its biggest animated film at the time. After Disney’s success with Snow White, the Fleischer Studio attempted to challenge Disney with its’ Gulliver’s Travels, but the studio fell short with the attempt.
The Disney Studio didn’t always achieve success with it’s’ work, in 1940 both films Pinocchio and Fantasia were flops. Also in 1940, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, of HannaBarbera Studios, released the classic cartoon series Tom & Jerry. After the flop of both Disney films in 1940, almost 10 years later they (Disney) released its next animated film Cinderella.
With HannaBarbera’s success of Tom & Jerry, it went on to debut its second cartoon series The Flintstones, which debut in 1960. In 1963, as Disney ruled in animation, the Warner Bros. Studio closed its’ in-house cartoon studio. Although it ruled the business, in 1966 Disney suffered a major blow when it creator and founder Walt Disney died of lung cancer.
During the next 20 years, other studios showed minor success but none like Disney. It wasn’t until the nephew of Walt Disney, Roy Disney, would take over the company in 1986 gaining its previous success. Also in 1986, the longest running animated series in history The Simpson’s was introduced on The Tracy Ullman Show.
In 1991, under the new direction of Roy Disney, the company released the only animated film to ever have been nominated for a best picture Academy Award Beauty and the Beast.
In 1995, Disney would compete with it strong rival when the animation studio Pixar opened its door. Pixar was the first to release a full length 3D CG feature film, the highly successful Toy Story. Over the next 10 years, Pixar would go on to release numerous films using the new CGI technology such as A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo.
The success of Pixar would abruptly end in 2006, when its rival Disney bought out the studio.
Work Cited
Crandol, Michael. (1999). The History of Animation: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Studio System in the Production of an Art Form. Retrieved May 18, 2008. .
http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/animationhistory.html
McCay, Winsor. (2006). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 18, 2008, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online.http://www.britannica.com/eb/article- 9049646/Winsor-McCay
Mosley, Joshua. (1996). Compiled History of Animation. Retrieved May 18, 2008.
http://joshuamosley.com/UPenn/courses/Ani/AnimationHistory.html
Osmond, Andrew. (2006, August). Animation Timeline: From trick effects to CGI. Retrieved May 20, 2008 from EBSCOhost database at Cook Library.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ach&AN=BART
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