-
Funny Faces, the first animated cartoon
Funny Faces is known by film historians to be the first cartoon of all time. Made by Jack Blackton, the cartoon's animation style was stopmotion. The cartoon has no plot when it's just the animator showing off his skills by creating different characters with no connection. -
Gertie the Dinosaur
Gertie the Dinosaur is a cartoon made by Winsor McCay. The cartoon is the first to use keyframes, looping animation, and tracing paper. Also, the cartoon is different from other animations at the time because the character was defined with personality traits and having some sort of a plot. -
Felix the Cat, the very first popular cartoon star
Felix the Cat was created by Pat Sullivan in 1919, but his name was at the time was Master Tom. He rose to popularity in the 1920s because he became a recurring mascot for his cartoons which wasn't common for a character to appear in more cartoons. -
"It all started with a Mouse" - Walt Disney
Even though Walt has had his start in cartoons by working for Universal pictures with his Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, he later lost the rights to work on his cartoons so he decided to be independent and start off his own studio. To replace Oswald, Walt came up with a similar character who is a mouse and like Walt said "It all started with a Mouse". -
The Golden Age of Animation
Animation began to attain a huge audience throughout the 1930s-1950s with cartoon characters being main stars and bringing laughs to everybody. Characters that were thriving in popularity besides Mickey Mouse for example were Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies(Bugs Bunny being the most popular by fans), Popeye by E.C. Segar, Woody Woodpecker by Walter Lantz, and Tom and Jerry by Hanna-Barbera -
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated movie
With being popular with his Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse Cartoons, Walt decided to make his first movie. Snow White cost him 1.8 million dollars in the making and the film was being doubted by the public because "no one is going to sit and watch an 80 minute cartoon". When the movie premiered on December 21, 1937, it was a huge hit critically and financially(becoming the highest grossing film of 1937) -
Animation in Television/Hanna Barbara Renaissance(1960-1980)
With television being introduced and getting popular, animation has stopped being theatrical shorts and started to air on TV. Even though Mickey Mouse Club and the Bugs Bunny Show aired back in the 50s, they were just compilations of their shorts decades ago. However, Hanna Barbara started producing original cartoons that would be syndicated as a television show that will have seasons with popular shows like Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo! Where are You?! -
The Disney Renaissance(1989-1999)
This period of animation was a huge stepping up for Disney. They made movies that were getting really popular again and being lovable due to having movies that were at best decent. The renaissance inspired future animators to work at Disney. Most of these movies were really colorful and so memorable and now are remember as being some of the best films in cinema history -
Modern Animated Television (1987-)
Animation sitcoms were started to get really popular in the late 80's and early 90's plus that they started to get really mainstream. What makes this era interesting is that shows like Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, Ren and Stimpy, and Family Guy were more adult than the cartoons of the 60s. Iconic characters started to come out of this era like Spongebob. -
Toy Story, the first computer animated feature
Working with Disney on a few computer shorts, Pixar decided to make their first film, Toy Story. When it came out, it made history as being the first computer animated film and being heavily praised back when it came out in 1995. Toy Story would put Pixar in the mindset of making movies with A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc. following it -
Shrek, first animated feature to get an Academy Award
Shrek was released in 2001 by Dreamworks and became a huge hit with a lot of people. In that same year, Shrek was nominated alongside with Pixar's Monsters Inc and Jimmy Neutron to get the first ever "Best Animated Feature" award back in 2001 which Shrek won the title of -
Toy Story 3, the first animated feature to get over a billion dollars
Even though animated movies before this one were the highest grossing animated films(Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Shrek 2), Toy Story 3 was a massive hit by fans and critics. However, it made history as becoming the first animated film to received a billion dollars at the box office, taking Shrek 2 out of the #1 spot on the highest grossing animated films at the time
