Animation Timeline

We know animation today as the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Spongebob Squarepants, but if we look back to the past we can see the pioneers of animation, and how different it was back in the past then to present day. If it wasn’t for these pioneers of animation, the future of animation might have been a completely different.

Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern was the first instrument in animation to, it worked just like a projector and it was ‘the first projector’, developed in the 17^th century. The magic lantern works by having a concave mirror in the front and there is a light source behind it (Would have been a candle), and this mirror gathers light and projects it through a slide with and image printed onto it. The light rays cross an aperture and then hits the lens. The lens projects an enlarged picture of the little original one on the slide, on to a large screen.

Thaumatrope(1824)

A Thaumatrope started off as toy in Victorian times, because of its simplicity and ease of making/constructing. The Thaumatrope uses persistence of vision to work, this is because it’s 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 marry into a single image.

Phenakistoscope (1832)

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (1801-1883) is physicist from Belgium. He is a pioneer of animation because he invented the Phenakistoscope. He was the first person in history to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. He done this by using two counter rotating disks with repeating drawn images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other.

Zoetrope (1833)

William Horner (1786-1837) was a British Mathematician, who was also a Headmaster of a school, but most importantly he was the inventor of the Zoetrope. A Zoetrope is a device that creates the illusion of motion from a fast succession of static images. The Zoetrope was made up of a cylinder with vertical slits cut into the sides. The internal part of the Zoetrope

The Flip Book (1868)

The Flip Book or Flick Book uses persistence of vision through its rapid motion, a flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change.

Praxinoscope (1877)

Emile Reynaud invented the Praxinoscope, the Praxinoscope is the successor of the zoetrope. Just like the zoetrope, using a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder. The praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow observatory slits with an inner circle of mirrors, placed so the reflections appeared more or less stationary as the wheel turned. Someone looking in the mirrors would therefore see a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

Kinetoscope (1888)

The Kinetoscope was a break through early motion picture device. Only one person at a time could view the action of the Kinetoscope because it only had one ‘peephole’ to observe from. The Kinetoscope creates the illusion of motion from a strip of film displaying sequential images over a light source with a high speed shutter.

35mm Filmstrip 1894-1895

The Edison production of butterfly dance with the 35mm filmstrip, this invention set the path of a modern-day format for still motion picture photography around the globe.

Cinematograph 1892

A Cinematograph is a device that’s a film camera but also a film projector as well. There is confusion about who invented it but, Léon Bouly was the inventor and unfortunately he couldn’t afford the patent for this device in the second year and then the Lumière brothers bought the license for the Cinematograph.

Gertie the Dinosaur 1914

Gertie the Dinosaur is an American animated short film created by Windsor McCay.

The film was the first ever film to be created using key frame animation, although not the first ever animated film, as sometimes it is thought to be, however it was the first ever cartoon to feature a character which showcased an interesting and appealing personality. Having a true main character distinguished it from earlier animated films referred to as, “trick films”.

El Apóstol 1917

The world first animated feature film, which used a cutout style of animation. This film was well received by critics and went on for commercial success. El Apóstol was directed by Quirino Cristiani, the running time of the film is 70 minutes and interestingly there were 14 frames per second, so overall there was 58,000 frames throughout the 70 minutes.

Walt Disney's Alice Comedies 1925 

Walt Disney is a pioneer of modern-day animation and this was his first attempt at animation. The 'Alice Comedies' are a series of animated cartoons created in the 1920's by Walt Disney, a live action little girl (played by Virginia Davis) named Alice and an animated cat called Julius have long quests and adventures in an animated environment/landscape.

Walt Disney's 1928 Steamboat Willie

Steamboat Willie is consider to be the debut of Mickey Mouse, and his girlfriend Minnie, which are icons still running today, Steamboat Willie was the third of Mickey's films to be produced, however this was the first to be distributed. This film is a hit a new stage in the development of animation as it was one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, it was still produced in black and white, created in The Walt Disney Studio.   

Warner Bros 1930 Loony Tunes

Warner Bros released, 'Sinkin in the bathtub', which was the first series on Loony Tunes, it was a theatrical cartoon short, made in 1930 was produced and directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. It was the debut of Bosko the 'Talk-ink kid', Bosko was Warner Bros first star character, which was later taken by Porky Pig and Daffy Duck.

Walt Disney's 1932 Silly Symphonies, 'Flowers and Trees'

Walt Disney commercially released this film in 1932, it is the first animation to be produced in the full-colour three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-colour Technicolor films (black and white).

Walt Disney's 1937 Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

This is the first cel animated feature to be full-length in motion picture history, and the first one in colour, it is in Walt Disney's Animated Classic series.

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the German fairy tale by the Brother Grimm.

Yellow Submarine 1968 The Beatles

Directed by George Dunning,  and produced by United Artists (UA) and King Features Syndicate. The Beatles' animated personas were based on their appearance in the promotional film for the song "Strawberry Fields Forever". This animation stands out in its industry because in 1968 it competed against Disney Animations productions which have always been the leaders in the industry, and the Yellow Submarine was very well received by the public and critics.

James and the Giant Peach 1996

This British-American fantasy animation, directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel by Roald Dahl. Produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi the film features a mixture of live action and stop-motion animation. This film was recieved positivley by a wide range of critics,  for example; the New York Times, Janet Maslin said the film is, "a technological marvel, arch and innovative with a daringly offbeat visual conception" and "a strenuously artful film with a macabre edge."

Chicken Run (2000)

Chicken run is a British animation film, made by the Aardman Animations studios and directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. It was filmed in a stop-motion style, so all the characters were hand made moulded pieces of clay, It was the first feature-length film by Aardman. Aardman Studios are known globally as masters in claymation stop-motion, crafting productions like; Wallace & Gromit and Pingu.