GuardiansWorlds.com

The first examples of trying to capture motion into a drawing can already be found in paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting depicting a sense of motion.

The history of film animation begins with the earliest days of silent films and continues through the present day.

The first animated film was created by frenchman Émile Reynaud, inventor of the praxinoscope, an animation system using loops of 12 pictures. On October 28, 1892 at Musée Grévin in Paris, France he exhibited animations consisting of loops of about 500 frames, using his théatre optique system - similar in principle to a modern film projector.

The first animation on standard picture film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces by J. Stuart Blackton in the year 1906. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces coming to life.

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Courtet (also called Émile Cohl), is also noteworthy; it was projected for the first time on August 17, 1908 at 'Théâtre du Gymnase', in Paris. Émile Courtet later went to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York City in 1912, where he worked for French studio Éclair and spread its technique in the US.

The first puppet-animated film was The Beautiful Lukanida (1910) by the Russian-born ethnically-Polish Director Wladyslaw Starewicz (Ladislas Starevich).

Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (produced in Technicolor) is sometimes incorrectly considered to be the first animated feature, even though at least five feature-length animationed films had been produced previously: the very first was El Apóstol (1917) by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina, who also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludopolis, the first animated feature film with sound. Another notable early feature was the silhouette-animated The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) from German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch which used colour-tinted scenes. The New Gulliver (1935) from the USSR also predates Snow White.

Europe

Animation before film in 20th century.

History of French animation

1908-1925, Work of Émile Courtet:

The first animated cartoon (1908), and most animation techniques: morphing (1909), puppet animation and color animated cartoon (1910), pixilation (1911), first animated series (Le chien Flambeau, 1917).

History of Italian animation

The 1970 Italian animated cartoon art and industry (La Linea (cartoon), Caliméro...)

History of Russian animation

1910-1913 Ladislas Starevich creates puppet animations
1935 First animated feature film in USSR, The New Gulliver
1935 Soyuzmultfilm Studio is created, will go on to fund many thousands of short animated films, mostly for kids
late 1930s to 1950s - enforced Socialist Realism in cartoons (with a few exceptions).
1953 Puppet animation division re-founded at Soyuzmultfilm (it was closed shortly after The New Gulliver was released)
1962 Fyodor Khitruk's short film History of a Crime introduces new aesthetic to Soviet animation
1969 First episode of popular series Nu, Pogodi!
1972 First Cheburashka short is made
1979 Yuriy Norshteyn releases Tale of Tales, since then voted twice by a large panel of international critics as the best animated film ever made.
1989 Studio Pilot, the first private animation studio in the USSR, is founded
1990s government subsidies shrink dramatically, while the number of studios grows. Soyuzmultfilm is beset by corruption and banditism, slowly loses its dominant place among Russian studios.

History of animation in the former Yugoslavia

The Zagreb school, cf. Zagreb Film
The Čakovec school, cf. Škola Animiranog Filma Čakovec

North and South America

History of Argentinian animation

World's first two feature-length animated films and first film with sound by Quirino Cristiani[1];Quirio Cristiani's page (Spanish)

History of Canadian animation

Early Work
Contributions of the National Film Board of Canada's animation department
Early commercial productions
- Contributions of Canadian voice actor recordings
The 1980s- rise of the major indigenous industry

History of Cuban animation

¡Vampiros en la Habana!
Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano

History of United States Animation

Beginning of industrial production of animated cartoon.

Because the history of Hollywood animation as an art form has undergone many changes in its hundred-year history, Wikipedia presents four separate chapters in the development of its animation:

Animation in the United States during the silent era (1900s through 1920s)

The beginnings of theatrical, the earliest animated cartoons in the era of silent film, ranging from the works of Winsor McCay through Koko the Clown and Felix the Cat
The Bray Studios was the first and foremost cartoon studio, housed in New York City. Many aspiring cartoonists started their careers at Bray, including Paul Terry of "Mighty Mouse" fame, Max Fleischer of "Betty Boop" fame, as well as Walter Lantz of "Woody Woodpecker" fame. The cartoon studio operated from circa 1915 until 1928. Some of the first cartoon stars from the Bray studios were Farmer Alfalfa (by Paul Terry) and Bobby Bumps (by Earl Hurd).

The Golden Age of Hollywood animation (1930s and 1940s)

The dominance of Walt Disney throughout the 1930s
The rise of Warner Bros. and MGM
The departure from realism, and UPA

Animation in the United States in the television era (1950s through 1980s)

The emergence of TV animated series from Hanna-Barbera Productions
The decline of theatrical cartoons and feature films
Saturday morning cartoons
The attempts at reviving animated features through the 1960s
The rise of adult animation in the early 1970s
The onslaught of commercial cartoons in the 1980s

Modern animation of the United States (1980s through present)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the return of Disney
Steven Spielberg's collaborations with Warner Bros.
A flood of newer, bolder animation studios
The mainstream popularization of anime
The rise of computer animation
The decline of Saturday morning cartoons, the rise of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network
In 2005, Disney closes all facilities for hand-drawn traditional animation, concentrating on computer animation for their feature films

Asia

Shadow animation around Asia (VIe century)

History of Chinese Animation

Wan brothers since 1926 and the first Asian feature animated cartoon film, Princess Iron Fan (1941) inspired from Journey to the West, made during the Japanese occupation.

History of Japanese animation

The first Japanese Animation

Found recently in Kyoto, the film depicts a boy wearing a sailor uniform performing a salute. The film dates back to around the year 1900 and is on 35mm Celluloid, comprised of 50 frames put together with paste

Source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20050820p2a00m0et007000c.html

Pre-Tezuka Experiments
- Momotaro's Sea Eagles
  Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors
Mushi Productions and Toei Animation
- Osamu Tezuka's Astroboy (1963)
  Isao Takahata's Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968), helped by Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe.
The 1970s
- Rise of the Giant Robot fall of Japanese film industry
The Golden Age of Anime
- Space Opera
  Rise of Otaku subculture
  Start of Studio Ghibli
  Ambitious productions ending with Akira (1988)
The 1990s and 2000s
- Decline of domestic industry combined with international growth
  The impact of Neon Genesis Evangelion series and the Post-Evangelion trend.
  Critical Acclaim in the west and the Rise of Moé series domestically.

External links

Chronology of animation

Categories: Film | Animation

Movies

History of animation

Contents