During my involvement with my major of communications that subsected into broadcasting and film, and my research of the silent film industry, certain aspects of the animation industry enthralled me. The animation industry not only revolutionized film, but also the world and it all started with a black and white, happy-go-lucky mouse.
Walt Disney was an imaginative young man, to say the least. However, curiosity was his middle name. When he first got into animation in the early 1920’s, he was allowed a camera to borrow and experiment with at home. He was in charge of researching cutout animation, but decided to go another route that he thought was more promising with cell animation. Disney and a work friend, Fred Harman, started making their first cartoon called Laugh-O-Grams in this way. Interestingly, Disney used and modeled this cartoon after Aesop’s Fables because he thought that it had more meaning to it. The company that Disney then worked for would soon fall to bankruptcy and fines, but not before popularizing Disney and his animation talents in Kansas City and beyond. His next stop was Hollywood, the movie capital of the world.
"Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse, was the first cartoon to use a click track during the recording session, which produced better synchronicity. Not only was Walt Disney an innovator in the fact that his cartoon was the first to have a matching soundtrack, but he was a marketing genius. For the first episodes of "Steamboat Willie," the main characters did not talk until the ninth episode. This gave Disney time to promote the sound in coming episodes and it kept the national audience on the edge of their seats. When Steamboat Willie says his first words: "Hot dogs!" it was a marking point in the area of film animation for their generation and it set the stage for fully animated movies to come. Disney was also the voice for Steamboat Willie and many of his other characters, which he loved. He felt that it was his job to contribute.
Even though "Steamboat Willie" wasn’t the first animated show, the first to use a soundtrack that was matched up, or even the first to use cell animation instead of cutouts, Disney was the first to modernize these things and perfect the techniques. Many silent movies and shows such as "The Gallopin' Guacho" and "Plane Crazy" were also similar cartoons, but they were soundless. Silent films were big, but silent cartoons lead to more and larger improvements, plus a more diverse audience. Cartoons would eventually lead into fully animated movies and television shows, which revolutionized generations and helped to solve many problems during World War II and beyond. Cartoons may seem like child’s play, but to me it is a much more interesting and intriguing topic. Additionally, the one and only Walt Disney was the leader.
"Steamboat Willie" paved the way for soundtracks infused into cartoons, but he was not the first to bounce around on the big screen and entertain audiences. Felix the Cat and Little Nemo both were making children smile and parents frown before Steamboat made his debut. Winsor McCay, aka America’s Greatest Cartoonist, was widely known as the first majorly successful cartoon film maker with his masterpiece "Gertie the Dinosaur." His "interactive" film intrigued audiences and lead to many new improvements in this industry. John Randolph Bray created the first color cartoon, "The Debut of Thomas the Cat" with the unsuccessful precursor to "Technicolor, Brewster Natural Color Process," using celluloid film. One of the most interesting things is the fact that these characters, other than Mickey Mouse, have made it to modern society. Betty Boop and Popeye are both animated creations who appeared around 1933, that children and adults alike still recognize. For being so old, it's amazing.
Although early cartoons were crude and laggy, they made a lasting impact. 1910's era gave us movement and smiles, the 1920’s gave us characters to get through the depression with hopeful jumping around and joyous actions, the 1930's timeframe introduced early color and sound with earth-shaking techniques, and the 1940's took us to a whole new land: DisneyLand.