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Gertie The Dinosaur
Using cell animation and drawing thousands of illustrations of McCay's beloved dinosaur, he turned Gertie into one of the first successful character-based animated cartoons. With such ingenuity and style, it's clear why McCay was often called "The Father of American Cartoons." -
Steamboat Wiliie
1928's Steamboat Willie signaled the end of the silent-film era. Disney had followed engineers' experiments with sound and film throughout the 1920s, and he was convinced talkies were the future. Even though Mortimer Mouse (who Disney's wife wisely re-christened Mickey) never actually speaks a complete sentence during Steamboat Willie, he more than makes up for it with his whistling—not to mention his energetic xylophone performance on the teeth of an open-mouthed bovine -
Dizzy Dishes
This animated cartoon about an incompetent chef gets a mention because it’s the first cartoon in which Betty Boop appears. Although not as we know her… Back then, she was some kind of terrifying dog-human hybrid. Sorry for the nightmares. -
Looney Tunes
ut it wasn't just their wackiness that made the Looney Tunes the largest collection of animated stars any studio had ever created. It was their animators' inventiveness. Bugs and Daffy were two of the first characters aware of their own cartoon-ness, which meant they were not only characters, but actors, as well. -
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
Not only was it the first feature length animated film, it also had numerous technical achievements, became the highest grossing film up until that point and legitimized animation as a serious form of entertainment and art. -
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is one of if not the most iconic cartoon ever made. The Flintstones also were the very first weekly cartoon show on cable TV ever. -
The Adventures of Mark Twain
This movie with Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Huck Fin, and Becky Thatcher was the first ever feature length stop motion claymation film. It paved the way for studios like Aardman and Laika to take this process and run with it. -
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park mixed animatronics, stop-motion and CGI to create the most photo-realistic animated creatures ever before seen on screen.Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual-effects studio behind these prehistoric creations, took a year to create just 4 minutes of computer generated dinos. -
Toy Story
Just 2 years after Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Pixar came out with the first entirely computer generated feature film. It had full model articulation and motion-control coding to bring Andy’s toys to life, a real breakthrough in 3D animation which secured Pixar’s position as the studio to beat. -
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The second instalment of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the motion capture and CGI work that went into creating Gollum. -
Avatar
Avatar was a huge step for animation as it started the wave in CGI and raised the bar for next animations to come. Avatar won the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine, including Best Picture and Best Director. -
Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse
Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse was a big step for animation as it furthers the quality and production of animations. At the 91st Academy Awards, the film won Best Animated Feature. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film.
