Origins of Animation Animation Unit

The Thaumatrope  A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times. A disk or card with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image due to the phi phenomenon and persistence of vision.  The inventor of the thaumatrope is John Ayrton Paris.  Paris used one to demonstrate persistence of vision to the Royal College of Physicians in London in  edia/commons/9/9f/Taumatropio _fiori_e_vaso%2C_1825.gif edia/commons/9/9f/Taumatropio _fiori_e_vaso%2C_1825.gif

The Zoetrope  The earliest known zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the inventor Ting Huan.  The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833 by British mathematician William George Horner. He called it the “daedalum”, most likely as a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus, though it was popularly referred to as “the wheel of the devil”.  The daedalum failed to become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by both English and American makers, including Milton Bradley. The American developer William F. Lincoln named his toy the zoetrope, meaning “wheel of life ”.  v=-3yarT_h2ws v=-3yarT_h2ws

The Praxinoscope  Charles-Émile Reynaud was a French science teacher, responsible for the first animated films.  He was an inventor, artist and showman, who devised the important Praxinoscope optical toy, and was the first to show cartoon ‘films’ on a public screen.  In 1876 he decided to make an optical toy to amuse a young child. Improving on the Phenakistiscope and Zoetrope, Reynaud devised the Praxinoscope (patented December 1877).

The Praxinoscope  In 1892, Emile Reynaud opened his popular Theatre Optique in Paris, where he projected films that had been drawn directly on transparent celluloid, a technique that would not be used again until the 1930s.  Before his death in January 1918, in a fit of depression, he smashed the Théatre Optique mechanism and threw all but two of his picture bands into the River Seine. Reproductions of the two bands Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d’une Cabine – are today still being shown, and represent the only surviving examples of his public screen motion picture work.

Fleischer Studios  In its prime, Fleischer Studios was Walt Disney Productions’s first significant competitor and is notable for bringing to the screen cartoons featuring Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor, and Superman. Unlike other studios, whose most famous characters were animals with human traits and features, the Fleischers’ most popular characters were humans.  Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an animation studio in New York, founded 1921, by brothers Max & Dave Fleischer.

The Rotoscope  The company had its start when Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope in  The rotoscope enabled animators to copy the movement of live action by tracing over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films.  Recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator.

Rotoscope  Betty Boop rotoscope (“You ain’t seen nothing yet!”):   Betty Boop “Red Hot Mamma”  EyTA EyTA  Fleischer Rotoscope example, Koko the Clown:   Modern example of rotoscoping: 

Disney Studios  - In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice’s Wonderland, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Film, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother Roy O. Disney.  - Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of Alice Comedies purchased for $1,500 per reel with Disney as a production partner. Walt and his brother Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year.  - In 1928, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney’s initial design of Mickey Mouse.

Steamboat Willie  - Disney’s first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,  - It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho.  - Disney’s Steamboat Willie is a landmark in the history of animation.  - It was the first Mickey Mouse film released and the first cartoon with synchronized sound. It threw silent animation into obsolescence, and launched an empire.

Steamboat Willie  Previously, there had been little to distinguish Disney’s cartoons from those of his competitors. He was facing bankruptcy when Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer, with long sequences of song and dialogue, took America by storm in  Sensing that sound movies meant big business, Disney decided to stake all on his talking mouse. Disney spent $4,986 to create Steamboat Willie. The movie opened at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928, a date that would become known as Mickey’s birthday.

Steamboat Willie  So strong was the audience demand for Steamboat Willie that two weeks after its premiere Disney re-released it at the largest theater in the world, the Roxy in New York City. Critics came to see in Mickey Mouse a blend of Charlie Chaplin in his championing of the underdog, Douglas Fairbanks in his rascally adventurous spirit, and Fred Astaire in his grace and freedom from gravity’s laws.  It also marked the first public debut of Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minnie, two of the most recognized cartoon characters worldwide.  Ub Iwerks, a Disney animator, first brought Mickey to life, and we have been living with him ever since — although, as you will see, his personality has softened over time.  Steamboat Willie was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey’s appeal as a character but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound.

Steamboat Willie 

Disney  - Deciding to push the boundaries of animation even further, Disney began production of his first feature-length animated film in Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in Dec and became highest-grossing film of that time by  - In 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first American feature- length animated film, received a Special Academy Award for significant screen innovation.

Disney  - Using the profits from Snow White, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939  - More than half a century later, the Walt Disney Company was still breaking new ground: 1991’s Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture alongside four live-action films, a feat that was repeated in 2009, when the Disney Pixar animated film Up was one of ten Best Picture nominees.  - In 1995, Disney released the Pixar production Toy Story, the first feature- length computer-animated film, which the Academy honored with a special award to its creator John Lasseter.