History
"What we were in on, really, was the invention of animation."
-Marc Davis, American artist and animator
-Marc Davis, American artist and animator
Early Animation
The art of animation dates back to prehistoric times. To give the perception of running, drawings in caves depicted animals with their legs overlapping. Forms of non-moving animation can also be seen in ancient Egyptian funeral paintings, Asian puppet shows, medieval stained glass, and modern comic strips. Throughout history, animation was predominantly an old idea that simply took many forms (Siegel).
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It was not until the late 1800s and early 1900s animation and film truly began evolving. Although no single person can be considered the creator of film animation, Georges Méliès was a father of special effects film. His introduction to animated drawings were highly successful but made a decline in popularity just as quickly. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, by J. Stuart Blackton of the New York Evening World, the first animated cartoon, was released in the United States in 1906. Other cartoonists who brought their characters to the big screen included, Mac Fleischer (Betty Boop and Popeye), and George McManus (Maggie and Jiggs) (Kimberly, McGrath, Travers). But despite the advancements made, animation was generally unpopular and there was little improvement.
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) (clip)
The Silent Era
The time period from 1923 through 1928 was known as the silent era, hence the production of silent films. Walter Elias Disney, a long time Kansas City resident, took art lessons during his youth, and often visited his local library for drawing books (Disney, Walt). After the initial failure of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Films, Disney moved out to Hollywood to pursue another film career with his brother Roy. They formed a studio together named Disney Brother Cartoon Studio. It was later changed to Walt Disney Studio.
Around five years later, along with Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney co-developed a cartoon series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. They had intentions of selling the cartoon series to Universal Studios; however things didn’t go as planned (Stewart 23). After making twenty six Oswald cartoons, Disney discovered that his distributor had gone behind his back and signed up many of his animators, hoping to make the Oswald cartoons for less money without Walt Disney. “On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald-the distributor did. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then on he saw to it that he owned everything that he made” (D23 Archives).
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