History of animation

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Contents 1 The Earliest Form of Animation 2 Film animation 3 Europe 3.1 History of Czech animation 3.2 History of Estonian animation 3.3 History of French animation 3.4 History of Italian animation 3.5 History of Russian animation 3.6 History of animation in Croatia (in former Yugoslavia) 4 North and South America 4.1 History of Argentinian animation 4.2 History of Canadian animation 4.3 History of Cuban animation 4.4 History of United States animation 5 Asia 5.1 History of Chinese animation 5.2 History of Japanese animation (Anime) 6 See also 7 Media 8 External links

[edit] The Earliest Form of Animation

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 to depict a sense of motion.

Shadow Puppetry was also an animation ancestor, e.g. the Indonesian animated shadow puppet called Wayang around 900 a.d.

In the 17th to 19th centuries, simple animation devices were invented long before film projectors: the Thaumatrope, Phenakistoscope, Praxinoscope, Zoetrope, Stroboscope, Magic Lantern and Mutoscope. These were more complex versions of the flip book, often using drawings, paintings, photos, or slides on rotating card/s or cylinder. These "optical toys" tricked the eye into believing that the images were moving. The light source was often an oil lamp, light bulb, or none (natural light).

[edit] Film animation

The history of film animation began in the 1890s with the earliest days of silent films and continues through the present day. The first animated film was created by Charles-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 apaprently coming to life.

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Cohl (also called Émile Courtet), 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).

The first animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludopolis, the first to use synchronized sound. None of them, however, survive to the present day; the earliest-surviving animated feature, which used colour-tinted scenes, is the silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) from German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, often considered to be the first animated feature when in fact at least eight were previously released, was the nevertheless first to use Technicolor and the first to become successful within the English-speaking world.

[edit] Europe

• Animation before film in 20th century.

[edit] History of Czech animation

• Puppet animation, Jiří Trnka, the Poetic animation school
• Catalogue of Czech animation
• Czech animation homepage

[edit] History of Estonian animation

• 1931 - The Adventures of Juku The Dog, first Estonian animated short film
• 1950s - founding of puppet animation division of Tallinnfilm by Elbert Tuganov
• 1970s - founding of drawn animation division, Joonisfilm, by ''''''Rein Raamat''''''
• Article summarizing the history

[edit] History of French animation

• 1908-1925, Work of Émile Cohl:

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, 1916).

[edit] History of Italian animation

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

[edit] 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.
• 2000s some high-profile animated features are made. Government diverts some funds to animation again. Nevertheless, many studios experience budget shortfalls and have difficulties finishing their ambitious projects.

[edit] History of animation in Croatia (in former Yugoslavia)

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

[edit] North and South America

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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

[edit] History of Cuban animation

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

[edit] History of United States animation

History of animation in the United States
The Silent Era
The Golden Age
The TV Era
The Renaissance
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• 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).

• Max and Dave Fleischer formed their own studio Fleischer Studios, and created the Koko the Clown, Out of the Inkwell, and Sound Car-Tunes series.

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 Fleischer Studios creation of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons
• 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 Simpsons marks the resurgence of adult-oriented animation.
• The mainstream popularization of anime
• The rise of computer animation
• The decline of Saturday morning cartoons, the rise of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network
• Cartoon Network's late-night animation block Adult Swim becomes immensely popular and leads to a resurgence in short, adult animation.
• In 2005, Disney closes all facilities for hand-drawn traditional animation, concentrating on computer animation for their feature films

[edit] Asia

[edit] History of Chinese animation

• 1922 first animation in a commercial Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter
• 1926 first animation to showcase technology Uproar in the Studio and acknowledge Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan as pioneers.
• 1935 The Camel’s Dance first chinese animation with sound.
• 1941 Princess Iron Fan first Asian animation of notable length produced in China.
• 1956 Why is the Crow Black-Coated first Chinese animation in color.
• 1958 Pigsy Eats Watermelon first papercut technique animation.
• 1961, 1964 Havoc in Heaven created at the height of the industry with all 4 Wan brothers.
• 1966-1976 the Cultural Revolution would bring the entire industry to a halt.
• 1995 Cyber Weapon Z possibly first 3D animation in Hong Kong.
• 2006 Thru the Moebius Strip first 3D animation film rendered in mainland China to be shown in United States.

[edit] History of Japanese animation (Anime)

• 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

• 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.
• 1970s
  • Tomorrow's Joe and the beginning of sports and martial arts anime
  • Rise of the Mecha and Super Robot genres and fall of Japanese film industry
  • Impact of Gundam and the beginning of the Real Robot genre
• 1980s
  • Space Opera
  • Rise of Otaku subculture
  • Beginning of Studio Ghibli
  • Rise of fantasy adventures with the Hayao Miyazaki films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky
  • Dragon Ball and the rise of martial arts anime
  • Ambitious productions such as Akira (1988) and the beginning of postmodern anime
• 1990s
  • Decline of domestic industry combined with international growth
  • Rise of Harem anime
  • The impact of Neon Genesis Evangelion series and the post-Evangelion trend
  • Critical acclaim in the West and the rise of Moe series domestically
• 2000s
  • Rise of digital fansubs outside of Japan, particularly among anime fans in the West
  • Revival of sports anime with titles such as Hajime no Ippo and Hikaru no Go
  • Rise of psychological horrors and psychological thrillers with titles such as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Death Note
  • Rise of 3D computer graphics in anime, including anime titles by Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo
  • Rise of cel-shading in anime such as Freedom Project

[edit] See also

• List of animated feature films

[edit] Media

[edit] External links

• Chronology of animation
• European animation films