How has Animation Changed Since its Beginnings?When people hear the word ‘Animation’ the first thing that may come to mind would be cartoon. Although this is partially the correct answer, what many people don’t realize is that without animation’s history many things we take for granted today would not exist. A lot of the inventions and innovations in the industry of animation would have prevented the film, gaming and even the computer industry to almost being non-existent. The story of animation is far from their famous kid-friendly fairy tales and colorful worlds. From Mainstream to Avant-Garde, the story is filled with hundreds of companies across the world rising and falling from fame, animators and film directors working years on films then destroying them in their downfall. It may be a bit surprising to find out that this massive story started over 29 years before Disney was even born.
The Idea: Animation’s BirthLate 1800’s – early 1900’sDespite common belief and to many people’s surprise the story of animation does not start with the famous Walt Disney(1901-1966). It may also come to many people’s surprise that his films were not the first of anything. Steamboat Willie(1928) was not the first sound cartoon, there were over three before it, Flowers and Trees(1932) was not the first color cartoon, the first was made over 12 years before it, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1939) was not the first full length animated feature, there were over nine features out dating it. Animation started in 1872 with Eadweard Muybridge’s Sequential Photographs, the most famous being the horse gallop. The horse gallop was a 12 frame animation created not to capture the imagination of an audience, but to prove a …
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…ay for copies of Melies’s films which resulted in the small financial revenue of his films. By the start of World War I interest in Melies films began to die down and eventual his studio closed. As his success died down Melies personally destroyed many of his films and he himself disappeared. In the 1920s however a French revival movement tracked him down and he received recognition as a pioneer in cinema. Of the 500+ films that Melies made, only about 300 survive today and almost all are in or will be in the public domain.
Works CitedCavalier, Stephen. The World History of Animation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011. Print.
Solomon, Charles. Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation. New York: Knopf, 1989. Print.
Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. Print.
