A History of Animation: Pocket Version

I signed up for ACP: Animation next semester, and I've just been curious about animation as a whole ever since. I know that I have quite a few cartoons that I've consumed under my belt, but that doesn't mean I know the first thing about animation or it's complex histories. How long is the "history" of animation anyway?

Turns out, the first animation came out fourteen years after the first film (Fred Ott's Sneeze, 1894). Straight out of France, Fantasmagorie is known as the first animated short film by Emile Cohl. (1908)

Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed in class next semester and want nothing more than to throw in the towel, I am going to remind myself that when Walt Disney was my age (20) he had begun his first animation company. He called it "Laugh-O-Grams" and it crashed and burned very shortly after taking off. Four years later good ol' Walt made Steamboat Willie which featured the famous Mickey Mouse for the first time. It may come as no surprise that Walts newest creation took off big time. I know it may be cheesy to see Walt Disney as an inspiration, but we all know how easy it is to give up when things don't work out. And personally, I'm pleased as punch I have a plethora of animated princesses that pranced their way through my childhood. I'm going to try and let the fact that he didn't let Laugh-O-Grams discourage him, to get me through learning new and complicated software.

Speaking of Disney, did you know that The Looney Tunes was originally a spin-off of Silly Symphonies; an animation produced by Disney? However, it just so happened to grow into it's own giant franchise and life of it's own like wildfire.

I also had no idea that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first official feature length animated film to be released. That's less than 80 years ago!

The biggest game changer to the animated world was easily when Apple computers created 3-D films. In 1995 Toy Story was released as "Babies First 3-D Film" and it's done so well a fourth one is rumored to be released. The animated world has never been the same since. It's debatable as to which reigns supreme (3-D or 2-D?). What's undoubtable is how incredibly far animation has evolved in less than a century. 

Reliving Childhood

So i was hanging out with a few friends this afternoon, and we decided to watch some old nick shows. The first show we watched was Rugrats. Re-watching them i realized that each episodes theme revolves around some aspect of society, such as the criminal justice system, the hidden identity of celebrities/icons, and even potent historical facts. Rugrats was not the only show that we ended up watching though. Afterwords we also watched a few episodes of Rocco's Modern Life. Until now, I never realized what actually slid into the show that young children would never understand, such as Cougar-ism, cheating on one's spouse, and so on. I suggest going back and watching some of the old cartoons that we watched as kids to see what they are actually saying. A few shows are on netfix instant watch. The title links to the cite.

Old School Cartoons

They are indeed the best, like Kyle says. Here is an example from the granddaddy of them all, Winsor McKay the author among many other things of Little Nemo

Interesting Title

Hi everyone. My name is Kyle Riether. I'm a sophmore TV/R major. I hail from Langhorne, Pa, it's a philly suburb. Langhorne is home to Sesame Place, a big Sesame Street themed water park. That's about our only claim to fame. I'm a huge sports fan, especially baseball, and I play tennis here at Ithaca. I'm also the president of our ping-pong club on campus. My favorite tv show is How I met your mother. I'm hoping to go out to LA in the fall. I want our new athletic center to be done so we can have indoor tennis courts. Old school cartoons are the best. Period. Well, I realized this is just a random list of things but I guess it will help to get to know me. See you guys bright and early.