History of Animation
1900’s to 1950’s
Enchanted drawing (1900)
J. Staurt Blackton
o Some consider him the father of American Animation
Fantasmagorie (1908)
Emilie Cohl draw this animated short in France, but started a second studio in Fort Lee, NJ in
1912 after the huge success the short had in France.
Started to spread his knowledge and style throughout America.
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Comedian Winsor McCay even got to interact with Gertie as the bit became a part of his act
Did several stand-up comedy animations
Felix the Cat (1919)
1st animated movie star to be merchandised
His animated shorts were called “Feline Follies”
Alice’s Wonderland (1923)
Laugh-O-Gram studios in Chicago made this live action film that combine animation and a live
action film.
Studio closed down later that year due to bankruptcy, and the owner of the studio moved to
California and opened another studio, Walt Disney Studios
Steamboat Willie (1st release- July 29th, 1928 & 2nd release-Nov. 18, 1928)
Disney’s second animated short with Mickey but is 83rd overall
1st well known animated short with synchronized sound
o Sound was added for the second release, with the first release being silent
Finding his Voice (1929)
Fleischer Brother’s production, out of New York City, a group that went on to create characters
such as Ko-Ko the Clown, Betty Boop, Pop-eye and Superman, to name a few.
1st Animated short with vocal words matching the mouth
Fleischer Brothers were also the first to do 3D landscape (multiple cels to give the appears of
depth)
One of the companies downfalls were that they were very edgy of the 1920’s and 30’s, with
overcrowding, sexually suggestive content and frequently nightmarish scenes
History of Animation
1900’s to 1950’s
Flower & Tree (1932)
1st Technicolor animated short
1st animated short to win an academy award
Animated shorts became popular after the introduction of sound, that “talkies” were being produced at
an alarming rate by several different places. The biggest fight for popularity came from the Fleischer
Brothers, Disney Brothers and the Warner Brothers.
Warner Brothers
Wanted the spotlight so bad that they would steal animators from Disney to increase the
production of the shorts.
The Warner’s would call their shorts either Merry Melodies, which would be primarily music
based, or Looney Tunes (sometimes misspelled to say Toons)
o Characters included Bosko the monkey (1930), Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937) and
Bugs Bunny (1940)
Bugs was originally introduced in 1938 as “Bugs” the Bunny cause he kept
bugging Porky on his rabbit hunt, but Warner brothers deny that that is the first
appearance of bugs.
Also is believed to be the nickname of the first created of the rabbit
The Warner brothers were also big in helping keep spirit high when the US was involved in the
war, by helping to sell bond and to make fun of the enemy in World War II.
Snow White (1937)
Starts production in the Spring of 1934, though his company is still producing shorts
Cost $1.5 Million to produce, mortgaging his house and company to finance the movie(the
period called Disney’s folly during this period)
o Because of the money that was put into the film, Roy Disney wanted out of the
company.
58 Animators worked on the movie with most working 16 hours days
Opened on December 21st, 1937 and grossed for the next 52 weeks $8.5 million, which would be
about $130 million now
Fantasia (1940)
Disney’s 3rd feature length film (Pinocchio was released 8 months earlier)
Cost $2 million to make, which at the time was 4 times the cost of a full length live action movie
To this day, is Mickey’s only appearance in a full length feature movie
1st Movie to be release in a multichannel stereo sound
o Because of this feature, called Fantasound, the movie was only shown in 14 theaters
nationwide on the opening weekend
History of Animation
1900’s to 1950’s
To this day, is one of only two animated movies on AFI’s Top 100 movies of all time, Fantasia is #
58 and Snow White is # 49.
The Forming of the SCG & STRIKE
1933 the Screen Actors Guild is formed
o 1938 the Screen Cartoonist Guild is formed
Mainly to protest the unfair hours and pay of animator’s
The SCG started to push and gain contracts for all production companies
o Most accepted the push, however some did fight for a while
1939 - The Fleischer Brother’s fought the SCG.
Cartoonist that sided with the SCG were fired, those who didn’t stayed
with the company and eventually moved the studio to Miami because of
tax breaks. This moved cause the company to lose a lot of money
forcing the production company close up and retired (1942)
1941 - Warner Brothers attempted to “Lockout” their animators, but gave in
about 5 days later.
Some of the Warner Brothers animated left anyway, creating new
production companies
o MGM Studios formed (1941)
Created Droopy
The two head animators were William Hanna and
Joseph Barbera
Who created Tom & Jerry (1940)
o Walter Lantz Studio
Woody Woodpecker is created (1940)
1941 - Disney was the last to be hit up by the SCG, because they were the
highest paid of all cartoonists
Some issues came up from the production of Snow White, when it was
common practice to work 16 hours a day for 6 days.
Disney instead of cooperating with the SCG, started firing
animators…primarily those animators that were members of the SCG,
including his head animator.
This caused the animator’s at Disney to stop work on the 3rd feature
length film (Dumbo) and go on strike.
During the 5th week of the strike, Walt Disney was told to take a trip to
Costa Rica and to leave his best friend in charge of the company. Which
Walt Disney did and two days later, the temporary president of Disney
Productions, President FDR ended the strike.
History of Animation
1900’s to 1950’s
After the STRIKE
Disney went back to making feature lengthy movies with little interruption
o From 1940 to 1949, Disney produced 11 full length movies
Movies such as Dumbo and Bambi
Disney went back to his roots, but producing two live action animations,
including The three caballeros and Song of the South,
had issues in 1946, with the release of the Song of the South, over the
stereotypical representation of blacks in the south and slavery
