Influence of predecessors
Animated movies are part of ancient traditions in storytelling, visual arts and theatre. Popular techniques with moving images before film include1888–1909: Earliest animations on film
Théâtre Optique
Charles-Émile Reynaud developed his projection praxinoscope into theStandard picture film
Despite the success of Raynaud's films, it took some time before animation was adapted in the film industry that came about after the introduction of Lumiere's Cinematograph in 1895. Georges Méliès' early fantasy andPrinted animation film
By 1897, German toy manufacturer Gebrüder Bing had a first prototype of their toy "kinematograph", which they eventually presented at a toy convention in Leipzig in November 1898. Soon after, other toy manufacturers in Germany and France, including Ernst Plank, Georges Carette, and Lapierre, started selling similar devices. The toy cinematographs were basically traditional toy magic lanterns, adapted with one or two small spools that used standard "Edison perforation" 35mm film, a crank, and a shutter. These projectors were intended for the same type of "home entertainment" toy market that most of the manufacturers already provided with praxinoscopes and magic lanterns. Apart from relatively expensive live-action films, the manufacturers produced many cheaper films by printing lithographed drawings. These animations were probably made in black-and-white from around 1898 or 1899, but at the latest by 1902 they were made in color. The pictures were often traced from live-action films (much like the later rotoscoping technique). These very short films typically depicted a simple repetitive action and most were designed to be projected as a loop - playing endlessly with the film ends put together. The lithograph process and the loop format follow the tradition that was set by the stroboscopic disc,J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton was a British-American filmmaker, co-founder of theAlexander Shiryaev
Segundo de Chomón
Spanish filmmakerÉmile Cohl
In 1907, the French artist1910s: From original artists to "assembly-line" production studios
During the 1910s larger-scale animation studios began to come into being. From then onwards, solo artists faded from the public eye. The first known professional female animator,Winsor McCay
Starting with a short 1911 film of his most popular character '' Little Nemo'', successful newspaper cartoonistCartoon Film Company – Buxton and Dyer
Between 1915 and 1916 Dudley Buxton, and Anson Dyer produced a series of 26 topical cartoons, during WWI, utilising mainly cutout animation, released as the John Brown's animated sketchbook, The episodes included the shelling of Scarborough by German battleships, and The Sinking of the Lusitania, No.4 (June 1915).Barré Studio
Around 1913Bray Productions
In 1914, John Bray opened John Bray Studios, which revolutionized the way animation was created.Hearst's International Film Service
Newspaper tycoonRotoscoping
In 1915,Felix the cat
In 1919,Quirino Cristiani: the first animated features
The first known animated1920s: Absolute film, synchronized sound and the rise of Disney
A number of key events occurred in the 1920s, including the development of the first animations withAbsolute film
In the early 1920s, the absolute film movement with artists such asEarly synchronized sound: ''Song Car-Tunes'' and ''Aesop's Sound Fables''
From May 1924 to September 1926, Dave and Max Fleischer's Inkwell Studios produced 19 sound cartoons, part of the ''Early Disney: Laugh-O-Grams, Alice, Oswald and Mickey
Between 1920 and 1922, cartoonistsBosko
Bosko was created in 1927 by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, specifically with1930s: Color, depth, cartoon superstars and ''Snow White''
While the global economy suffered under the Great Depression through the 1930s, animation continued to flourish. Early color processes came into use, along with the use of theTwo-strip color
The multi-colored lithograph technique of the early European animated film loops for home use seems not to have been applied to theatrically release animated films. While the original prints of ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' featuredDisney's ''Silly Symphonies'' in Technicolor
When the ''Multiplane cameras and the stereopticon process
To create an impression of depth, several techniques were developed. The most common technique was to have characters move between several backgrounds and/or foreground layers that could be moved independently, corresponding to the laws of perspective (e.g. the further away from the camera, the slower the speed). Lotte Reiniger had already designed a type of multiplane camera for ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' and her collaboratorNew colorful cartoon superstars
After the additions of sound and color were a huge success for Disney, other studios followed. By the end of the decade, almost all the theatrical cartoons were produced in full color. Initially, music and songs were the focus of many series, as indicated by series titles such as ''Song Car-Tunes'', ''Silly Symphonies'', ''Merrie Melodies'' and ''Looney Tunes'', but it was the recognizable characters that stuck with audiences. Mickey Mouse had been the first cartoon superstar who surpassed Felix the Cat's popularity, but soon dozens more cartoon superstars followed, many remaining popular for decades. Warner Bros. had a vast music library that could be popularized through cartoons based on the available tunes. While Disney needed to create the music for every cartoon, the readily available sheet music and songs at Warner Bros. inspired many cartoons. Leon Schlesinger sold Warner Bros. a second series called '' Merrie Melodies'', which until 1939 contractually needed to contain at least one refrain from the music catalog. Unlike ''Looney Tunes'' with Bosko, Merrie Melodies featured only a few recurring characters like Foxy, Piggy andHays code and Betty Boop
Hays'''Snow White'' and the breakthrough of the animated feature
At least eight animated feature films were released before Disney's ''Early TV animation
In April 1938, when about 50 television sets were connected,1940s
Wartime propaganda
Several governments had already used animation in public information films, like those by theFeature animation in the 1940s
High ambitions, setbacks, and cutbacks in US feature animation
Disney's next two features (''Non-US animation forces
American cel-animated films dominated the worldwide production and consumption of theatrical animated releases since the 1920s. Especially Disney's work proved to be very popular and influential around the world. Studios from other countries could hardly compete with American productions. Relatively many animation producers outside the US chose to work with other techniques than "traditional" or cel animation, such as puppet animation or cut-out animation. However, several countries (most notably Russia, China, and Japan) developed their own relatively large "traditional" animation industries. Russia'sSuccessful theatrical short cartoons of the 1940s
During the " Golden Age of American animation", new studios competed with the studios that survived the sound and color innovation battles of the previous decades. Cartoon animals were still the norm and music was still a relevant element, but often lost its main stage appeal to Disney's melodramatic storytelling or the wild humor in Looney Tunes and other cartoons. Disney continued their cartoon successes, adding Daisy Duck (1937/1940) andFleischer/Famous Studios
Fleischer launched its spectacular Superman adaptation in 1941. The success came too late to save the studio from its financial problems and in 1942 Paramount Pictures took over the studio from the resigning Fleischer Brothers. The renamed Famous Studios continued the ''Popeye'' and ''Superman'' series, developed popular adaptations ofWalter Lantz Productions
MGM
After distributing Ub Iwerks' ''Flip the Frog'' and ''Willie Whopper'' cartoons and ''UPA
While Disney and most of the other studios sought a sense of depth and realism in animation, UPA animators (including former Disney employeeTV animation in the 1940s
The back catalog of animated cartoons from many studios, originally produced for a short theatrical run, proved very valuable for television broadcasting. ''Movies for Small Fry'' (1947), presented by "big brother" Bob Emery on Tuesday evenings on the New York WABD-TV channel, was one of the first TV series for children and featured many classic Van Beuren Studios cartoons. It was continued on the DuMont Television Network as the daily show '' Small Fry Club'' (1948–1951) with a live audience in a studio setting. Many classical series fromthe 1950s: Shift from classic theatrical cartoons to limited animation in TV series for children
Most theatrical cartoons had been produced for non-specific audiences. Dynamic action and gags with talking animals in clear drawing styles and bright colors were naturally appealing to young children, but the cartoons regularly contained violence and sexual innuendo and were often screened together with newsreels and feature films that were not for children. On US television, cartoons were mainly programmed for children, in convenient time slots on weekend mornings, weekday afternoons, or early evenings. The scheduling constraints of the 1950s American TV animation process, and notable issues of resource management (higher quantity needed to be made in less time for a lower budget compared to theatrical animation), led to the development of various techniques now known asAnimated TV series of the 1950s
Theatrical short cartoons in the 1950s
Warner Bros. introduced new characters Granny,Theatrical feature animation in the 1950s
Disney
After a string of package features and live-action/animation combos, Disney returned to fully animated feature films with ''Non-US
* '' Jeannot l'intrépide (Johnny the Giant Killer)'' (France, 1950 feature) * '' Le Roi et l'Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird)'' (France, 1952 unfinished feature release, 1980 finished release, influential for1960s
US animated TV series and specials in the 1960s
US theatrical animation in the 1960s
For ''Decline of the theatrical short cartoon
The Supreme Court ruling of the Hollywood Anti-trust Case of 1948 prohibited "block bookings" in which hit feature films were exclusively offered to theatre owners in packages together with newsreels and cartoons or live-action short films. Instead of receiving a reasonable percentage of a package deal, short cartoons had to be sold separately for the prices that theatre owners were willing to pay for them. Short cartoons were relatively expensive and could now be dropped from the program without people losing interest in the main feature, which became a sensible way to reduce costs when more and more potential movie-goers seemed to stay at home to watch movies on their television sets. Most cartoons had to be re-released several times to recoup the invested budget. By the end of the 1960s most studios had ceased producing theatrical cartoons. Even Warner Bros. and Disney, with occasional exceptions, stopped making short theatrical cartoons after 1969. Walter Lantz was the last of the classic cartoon producers to give up when he closed his studio in 1973.DePatie–Freleng
Rise of anime
Japan was notably prolific and successful with its style of animation, which became known in the English language initially as Japanimation and eventually asEarly adult-oriented and counterculture animation
Before the end of the 1960s, hardly any adult-oriented animation had been produced. A notable exception was the pornographic short ''Non-US animation in the 1960s
* '' わんぱく王子の大蛇退治 (The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon)'' (Japan, 1963 feature) * '' 大鬧天宮 (Havoc in Heaven)'' (China, 1963 feature) * '' ガリバーの宇宙旅行 (Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon)'' (Japan, 1965 feature) * '' Calimero'' (Italy/Japan 1963–1972, TV series) *1970s
Breakthrough of adult-oriented and counterculture feature animation
Anime in Europe
Anime import offered relatively cheap animated series, but some European broadcasters thought of animation as something for young children and all too easily programmed anime series accordingly. This led to much criticism when some programs were deemed too violent for children. Child-friendly adaptions of European stories ensured much more success in Europe, with popular titles such as ''Heidi, Girl of the Alps, アルプスの少女ハイジ (Heidi, Girl of the Alps)'' (1974) and ''Maya the Honey Bee, みつばちマーヤの冒険 (Maya the Honey Bee)'' (1975). Only a few animation studios were active in Europe and starting a new studio required much time, effort, and money. For European producers interested in animated series, it made sense to collaborate with Japanese studios that could provide affordable animation of relatively high quality. Resulting productions include ''Barbapapa'' (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), ''Vicky the Viking, Wickie und die to starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking)'' (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), ''Once Upon a Time..., Il était une fois... (Once Upon a Time...)'' (France/Japan 1978) and ''Doctor Snuggles'' (The Netherlands/West Germany/Japan/US 1979).Artistic short-animation highlights
Short animated films mostly became a medium for film festivals in which independent animators showcased their talents. With the big studios away from the field, the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and nominations of the 1970s and 1980s were usually for relatively unknown artists. ''La Linea (TV series), La Linea'' (Italy 1971, 1978, 1986) is a popular animation series with the main character that consists of a part of an otherwise straight white line that runs horizontally across the screen. Soviet/Russian animator Yuri Norstein "is considered by many to be not just the best animator of his era, but the best of all time". He released a handful of award-winning short films in the 1970s: * ''The Battle of Kerzhenets'' (, 1971), in collaboration with Ivan Ivanov-Vano * ''The Fox and the Hare'' (, 1973). * ''The Heron and the Crane'' (, 1974). * ''Hedgehog in the Fog'' (, 1975). * ''Tale of Tales (1979 film), Tale of Tales'' (, 1979). Norstein has since 1981 been working on ''The Overcoat (animated film), The Overcoat'' () and participated in .Early animated music videos
Although the combination of music and animation had a long tradition, it took some time before animation became part of music videos after the medium became a proper genre in the mid-1970s. Halas and Batchelor produced an animated video for Roger Glover's ''Love Is All (Roger Glover song), Love Is All'' (1974) that was broadcast internationally over decades, often as an interstitial program. Pink Floyd's 1977 Welcome to the Machine#Music video, '' Welcome to the Machine'' music video, animated by Gerald Scarfe, was initially only used as a backdrop for concert performances. Elvis Costello's ''Accidents Will Happen'' (1979) was made by Annabelle Jackel and Rocky Morton, known for their animated commercials. Despite an initially lukewarm reception, the video has since received acclaim. Roger Mainwood and John Halas created an animated music video for Kraftwerk's ''Autobahn (song), Autobahn'' in 1979. The short wordless documentary ''Making it move...'' showed the production process. A cartoon for Linda McCartney's ''Seaside Woman#Cartoon, Seaside Woman'' was made by Oscar Grillo and won a Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes festival in 1980.1980s
US animation's low point (the early 1980s)
Animation for US TV programming had grown formulaic, often based on characters known from other media, and with much of the actual (limited) animation work outsourced to cheap Asian laborers. Several popular animated TV series for children could be perceived as little more than commercials since they were based on toy lines, including Mattell's ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' (1983–1985) and Hasbro's ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1985 TV series), G.I. Joe'' (1983–1986), ''The Transformers (TV series), The Transformers'' (1984–1987) and ''My Little Pony (TV series), My Little Pony'' (1986–1987). Mostly in retrospect, Disney feature films have been perceived as going through a dark age in the first decades after Walt Disney's death in 1966 (despite a more steady string of box office successes than during the decennia in which Walt was alive). The failure of ''The Black Cauldron (film), The Black Cauldron'' (1985), made on an ambitious budget, was a new low. Tim Burton cited Disney's failure to train new animators during the 1960s and early 1970s as a reason for the decline, with Disney relying instead on an aging group of veterans. Don Bluth, who had left Disney in 1979 together with nine other animators, started to compete with his former employer in cinemas in 1982 with ''The Secret of NIMH''. The film garnered critical acclaim but was only a modest success at the box office.Europe
In comparison to the US animation output around the start of the 1980s, international co-productions seemed more imaginative and more promising. ''The Smurfs (1981 TV series), The Smurfs'' (1981–1989), produced by Belgian Freddy Monnickendam's SEPP International in collaboration with Hanna-Barbera, was highly successful, and followed by ''Snorks'' (1984–1989) and ''Foofur'' (1986–1988). Production for Bzz Films' ''Seabert, Bibifoc (Seabert)'' (1984–1988) was also handled by SEPP. Other notable international co-productions include ''Inspector Gadget (1983 TV series), Inspector Gadget'' (France/U.S.A. 1983) and ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986 TV series), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (Canada/Japan 1986–1987). In the U.K., Cosgrove Hall Films' very successful TV series ''Danger Mouse (1981 TV series), Danger Mouse'' debuted in September 1981 and would continue until 1992, receiving 11 BAFTA nominations between 1983 and 1987. Also broadcast on Nickelodeon, the witty secret agent parody featuring a mouse became popular with young as well as adult American audiences and spawned the ''Count Duckula'' (1988-1993) spin-off.Studio Ghibli and TV anime
Anime, together with printed manga, had built enormous fandom in Japan and became a big part of the country's mainstream culture. Among anime's many genres, mecha (giant-robot science fiction) became particularly iconic. Print manga in particular entered into a Weekly Shōnen Jump#Golden age (1980s–1990s), golden age during the 1980s, buoyed by series such as ''Dragon Ball'' (1984–1995), and these series received long-running successful anime adaptations. The relatively new home video market grew very large and original video animation (OVA) became a much-appreciated medium, often with higher-quality productions than those made for TV (in contrast to the US, where direct-to-video was mainly a medium for releases that were not expected to be popular enough to warrant a theatrical release or TV broadcast and therefore often produced on a much lower budget). Naturally, the OVA medium suited the consumption of erotic and pornographic animation. The first erotic ova release was the ''Lolita Anime, ロリータアニメ (Lolita Anime)'' series from February 1984 to May 1985, soon followed by the ''Cream Lemon'' series (August 1984 – 2005). The genre became internationally known as hentai and is infamous for often containing perverse subject matter, including underage sex, monster sex, and tentacle sex (originally devised as a means to bypass Japanese censorship regulations). New anime series based on European material included ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (TV series), ニルスのふしぎな旅 (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils)'' (1980-1981) and ''Mrs. Pepper Pot (TV series), スプーンおばさん (Mrs. Pepper Pot)'' (1983–1984).Renaissance of US animation
Beginning in the mid-1980s, US animation would see a renaissance. This has been credited to a wave of talent that emerged from the California Institute of the Arts- primarily among the cohort that had studied there in the 1970s under Marc Davis (animator), Marc Davis, a member of the Disney's Nine Old Men, nine old men that had influenced the language of animation in the 1920s and 1930s. At this time, many of the nine were in the process of retiring. As an inside joke, many students in the classroom A113 have inserted the room code into their films, television series, and so forth in the years since. The students of A113 include Jerry Rees, John Lasseter, Tim Burton, Michael Peraza, and Brad Bird. Two other members of the nine old men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (animator), Frank Thomas, published ''The Illusion of Life'' in 1981, an instructional book that has been voted the best animation book of all time and influenced James Baxter (animator), James Baxter among other modern animators. In cinemas, Robert Zemeckis' live-action/animation hit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (1988) also harked back to the quality and zany comedy of the golden age of cartoons, with cameos of many of the superstars of that era, including Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Betty Boop, Droopy, Woody Woodpecker and the Mel Blanc-voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, and Sylvester. The film won several Oscars and helped revive interest in theatrical feature animation and classic cartoons. The fully animated Roger Rabbit short films, Roger Rabbit short film ''Tummy Trouble'' (1989) was then packaged with the live-action family comedy ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' and believed to have helped that movie's quick start at the box-office. In collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, Bluth's ''An American Tail'' (1986) became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film at the time. ''The Land Before Time (film), The Land Before Time'' (1988) was equally successful, but Bluth's next five feature films flopped. ''Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures'' (1987–1989) was one of the first animated TV shows to recapture the earlier quality and originality of American cartoons. It was produced by Ralph Bakshi and the first season was supervised by John Kricfalusi, with much freedom for artists to work in their style. Rather than making a nostalgic rehash of the original Terrytoons series, it tried to recreate the quality and the zany humor of the ''Looney Tunes'' classics. Matt Groening's ''The Simpsons'' started in April 1987 as a short segment in-sketch comedy show ''The Tracey Ullman Show'', and then launched as a separate prime-time half-hour sitcom in December 1989. It became one of the biggest cartoon hits in history and is the List of longest-running scripted U.S. primetime television series, longest-running scripted US primetime television series. While the successes of ''The Great Mouse Detective'' (1986) and ''Oliver and Company'' (1988) had already helped to get the Disney studio back on track, they struck gold with the box office record-breaking hit ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Little Mermaid'' (1989). A shot for the rainbow sequence at the end of ''The Little Mermaid'' was the first piece of feature animation to be created with the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) system that Disney and Pixar had collaboratively assembled. This Traditional animation#Digital ink and paint, digital ink and paint system replaced the expensive method of inking and coloring cells by hand and provided filmmakers with new creative tools. By 1990, the boom of animated hits was heralded as a comeback that might rival the golden age of cartoons.Adult-oriented theatrical animation in the 1980s
Bakshi's rock musical ''American Pop'' (1981) was another success, mostly made with the rotoscope technique in combination with some watercolors, computer graphics, live-action shots, and archival footage. His next film ''Fire and Ice (1983 film), Fire and Ice'' (1983) was a collaboration with artist Frank Frazetta. It was one of many films in the sword and sorcery genre released after the success of ''Conan the Barbarian (1982 film), Conan the Barbarian'' (1982) and ''The Beastmaster'' (1982). Critics appreciated the visuals and action sequences, but not its script and the film flopped at the box office. After failing to get several projects off the ground, Bakshi retired for a few years. The Canadian anthology hit film ''Heavy Metal (film), Heavy Metal'' (1981) was based on comics published in the popular ''Heavy Metal (magazine), '' Heavy Metal'' magazine'' and co-produced by its founder. Mixed reviews thought the film was uneven, juvenile, and sexist. It was eventually followed in 2000 by the poorly received ''Heavy Metal 2000'' and re-imagined as the Netflix series ''Love, Death & Robots'' in 2019. The dark rock opera film ''Pink Floyd – The Wall'' (1982) contained 15 minutes worth of animated segments by British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, who had already designed The Wall#Artwork and packaging, related artwork for the 1979 album and The Wall Tour (1980–81), 1980-81 concert tour. Some of the film's animated material was previously used for the 1979 music video for "Another Brick in the Wall, Another Brick in the Wall: Part 2" and for the tour. Scarfe had also made animations for Pink Floyd's 1977 ''In the Flesh (Pink Floyd tour), In the Flesh'' tour. The successful British nuclear disaster film ''When the Wind Blows (1986 film), When the Wind Blows'' (1986) showed hand-drawn characters against real backgrounds, with stop-motion for objects that moved. The violent Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic cyberpunk anime ''Akira (1988 film), Akira'' (1988) garnered increased popularity of anime outside Japan and is now widely regarded as a classic.MTV and animated videos
MTV launched in 1981 and further popularized the music-video medium, which allowed relatively much artistic expression and creative techniques, since all involved wanted their video to stand out. Many of the most celebrated music videos of the 1980s featured animation, often created with techniques that differed from standard cel animation. For instance, the iconic video for Peter Gabriel's ''Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel song), Sledgehammer'' (1986) featured claymation,Rise of computer animation
Early experiments with computers to generate (abstract) moving images had been conducted since the 1940s but had not garnered much attention until commercial (coin-operated) video games started to get marketed in the early 1970s. Pong (1972) by Atari, Inc., with very simple two-dimensional black-and-white graphics, and Taito's Space Invaders became huge successes that paved the way for a medium that can be regarded as an interactive branch of computer animation. Since 1974 the annual SIGGRAPH conventions have been organized to demonstrate current developments and new research in the field of computer graphics (including computer-generated imagery, CGI), but computer animation had seldom been seen on TV or in movie theaters (with notable exceptions of some demonstrations of 3D computer graphics, 3D wire-frame models as futuristic technologies seen on screens in a few big Hollywood productions as ''Futureworld'' (1976) and ''Star Wars'' (1977)). 3D computer animation started to have a much wider cultural impact during the 1980s, demonstrated for instance in the 1982 movie ''Tron'' and the music video for ''Money for Nothing (song)#Music video, Money for Nothing'' (1985) by the Dire Straits. The concept even spawned a popular faux 3D-animated artificial intelligence, AI character: Max Headroom (character), Max Headroom (introduced in 1985). During the 1980s, computer animation also started to become a relatively common means to create motion graphics for logos and text in TV-commercials and movies title sequences.1990s
Disney Renaissance
The 1990s saw Disney release numerous films that were both critically and commercially successful, returning to heights not seen since their heyday from the Golden age of American animation, 1930s to 1960s. The period from 1989 to 1999 is now referred to as the Disney Renaissance or the Second Golden Age and began with the release of ''The Little Mermaid (1989 film), The Little Mermaid'' (1989). Their success led other major film studios to establish new animation divisions such as Amblimation, Fox Animation Studios or Warner Bros. Feature Animation to replicate Disney's success by turning their animated films into Disney-styled musicals. Disney's ''Beauty and the Beast (1991 film), Beauty and the Beast'' (1991) (the first animated film in history to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture), ''Aladdin (1992 Disney film), Aladdin'' (1992) and ''The Lion King'' (1994) successively broke box-office records. ''Pocahontas (1995 film), Pocahontas'' (1995) opened to mixed reviews but was a financial success and received two Academy Awards. ''Mulan (1998 film), Mulan'' (1998) and ''Tarzan (1999 film), Tarzan'' (1999) didn't surpass ''The Lion King'' as the List of highest-grossing animated films#Traditional animation, highest-grossing (traditionally) animated film of all time but were both successful grossing over $300 million worldwide. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film), '' The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996) was a financial success at the time but contained very dark and adult themes and has since become one of Disney's lesser-known films. Only the sequel ''Television
John Kricfalusi's influential ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' (1991–1996) garnered widespread acclaim. For a while, it was the most popular cable TV show in the United States. Programmed as a children's cartoon, it was notoriously controversial for its dark humor, sexual innuendos, adult jokes, and shock value. ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' premiered on the same day as ''Rugrats'' and ''Doug (TV series), Doug'' and ''Rugrats'' would become the first of the "Big Three" of the Nicktoons along with ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and ''The Fairly OddParents''. The enormous success of ''The Simpsons'' and ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' prompted more original and relatively daring series, including ''South Park'' (since 1997), ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), ''Family Guy'' (since 1999), and ''Futurama'' (1999–2003). The use of animation on MTV increased when the channel started to make more and more shows that did not fit its "music television" moniker. ''Liquid Television'' (1991 to 1995) showcased contributions that were mostly created by independent animators specifically for the show and spawned separate ''Æon Flux'' and ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997) series. Other 1990s cartoon series on MTV included ''The Head (1994 TV series), The Head'' (1994-1996) and ''The Maxx#TV series, The Maxx'' (1995), both under the ''MTV's Oddities'' banner. By 2001, MTV closed its animation department, began to outsource its animated series, and eventually imported shows from associated networks. The 24-hour cable channel Cartoon Network was launched in the United States on 1 October 1992 and was soon followed by its first List of international Cartoon Network channels, international versions. Originally the programming consisted of classic cartoons from the back catalogs of Warner Bros, MGM, Fleischer/Famous, and Hanna-Barbera. From 1996 to 2003, new original series ran as ''Cartoon Cartoons'' and introduced the popular titles ''Dexter's Laboratory'' (1996–2003), ''Johnny Bravo'' (1997–2004), ''Cow and Chicken'' (1997–1999), ''I Am Weasel'' (1997–2000), ''The Powerpuff Girls'' (1998–2005) and ''Ed, Edd n Eddy'' (1999–2009). Television animation for children also continued to flourish in the United States on specialized cable channels like Nickelodeon, Disney Channel/Disney XD, PBS Kids, and in syndicated afternoon time slots. The Disney Renaissance for the Disney Channel, was the flagship of the 1990s cartoons, which in turn are sometimes called the "Renaissance Age of Animation" for cartoons in general, and the Disney Channel's two main rivals were Nickelodeon, owned by Viacom (1952–2006), Viacom and Cartoon Network owned by Warner Bros., Warner Brothers. These three channels are the "Big Three", of children's entertainment, even today, but especially during the 1990s.Breakthrough of computer animation and new media
During the 1990s, 3D animation became more and more mainstream, especially in video games, and eventually had a big breakthrough in 1995 with Pixar's feature film hit ''Toy Story''. More or less photo-realistic 3D animation has been used for special effects in some commercials and films since the 1980s before breakthrough effects were seen in ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991) and ''Jurassic Park (film), Jurassic Park'' (1993). Since then techniques have developed to the stage that the difference between CGI and real-life cinematography is seldom obvious. Filmmakers can blend both types of images seamlessly with virtual cinematography. ''The Matrix'' (1999) and its two sequels are usually regarded as breakthrough films in this field. The creation of virtual worlds allows real-time computing, real-time animation in virtual reality, a medium that has been experimented with since 1962 and started to see commercial entertainment applications in the 1990s. The launch of the World Wide Web increased interest in motion graphics and computer animation, spawning many new applications, techniques, and markets for what became known as new media.2000s–2010s: traditional techniques overshadowed by computer animation
After the success of Pixar's ''Toy Story'' (1995) and DreamWorks Animation's ''Shrek (film), Shrek'' (2001), computer animation grew into the dominant animation technique in the US and many other countries. Even animation that looked traditional was more and more often created fully with computers, helped by for instance cel-shading techniques to replicate the much-appreciated look of traditional animation (true real-time cel-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega's ''Jet Set Radio'' for their Dreamcast console). By 2004, only small productions were still created with traditional techniques. The first decades of the 21st century also saw 3D film turn mainstream in theatres. The production process and visual style of CGI lend themselves perfectly to 3D viewing, much more than traditional animation styles and methods. However, many traditionally animated films can be very effective in 3D. Disney successfully released a 3D version of ''The Lion King'' in 2011, followed by ''Beauty and the Beast'' in 2012. A planned 3D version of ''The Little Mermaid'' was canceled when ''Beauty and the Beast'' and two 2D to 3D conversion, 3D-converted Pixar titles were not successful enough at the box office.Disney-Pixar
Disney started producing their own 3D-style computer-animated features with ''Dinosaur (2000 film), Dinosaur'' and ''Chicken Little (2005 film), Chicken Little'', but continued to make animated features with traditional look: ''The Emperor's New Groove'' (2000), ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire'' (2001), ''Lilo & Stitch'' (2002), ''Treasure Planet'' (2002), ''Brother Bear'' (2003) and ''Home on the Range (2004 film), Home on the Range'' (2004). ''Treasure Planet'' and ''Home on the Range'' were big flops on big budgets and it looked like Disney would only continue with 3D computer animation. Financial analysis in 2006 proved that Disney had lost money on their animation productions of the previous ten years. In the meantime, Pixar's CGI features did extremely well. To turn things around Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, and put creative control over both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios in the hands of Pixar's John Lasseter as part of the deal. The studios would remain separate legal entity, legal entities. Under Lasseter, the Disney studio developed both traditionally styled and 3D-styled animation projects. The theatrical short ''How to Hook Up Your Home Theater'' (2007) tested whether new paperless animation processes could be used for a look similar to cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s, with Goofy returning to his "Goofy#The Everyman years, Everyman" role in his first solo appearance in 42 years. Ron Clements and John Musker's feature ''The Princess and the Frog'' (2009) was a moderate commercial and critical success, but not the comeback hit for traditional features that the studio had hoped it would be. Its perceived failure was mostly blamed on the use of "princess" in the title causing potential movie-goers to think it was only for little girls, and old-fashioned. ''Winnie the Pooh (2011 film), Winnie the Pooh'' (2011) received favorable reviews, but failed at the box office and became Disney's last traditional feature to date. ''Frozen (2013 film), Frozen'' (2013) was originally conceived in the traditional style but switched to 3D CGI to enable the creation of certain required visual elements. It became Disney's biggest hit at the time, surpassing both The Lion King (1994 film), '' The Lion King'' and Pixar's ''Toy Story 3'' as the highest-grossing animated films, highest-grossing animated film of all time, and winning the studio's first Academy Award for a best-animated feature.Anime
Especially outside North America, hand-drawn animation continued to be very popular, most notably in Japan, where traditionally styled anime remained the dominant technique. The popularity of anime continued to rise domestically, with a record-high 340 anime series airing on television in 2015, as well as internationally, with a dedicated Toonami block on Cartoon Network (1997–2008) and Adult Swim (since 2012) and with streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime licensing and producing an increasing amount of anime. Ghibli continued its enormous success with Miyazaki's ''Spirited Away'' (2001), ''Howl's Moving Castle, ハウルの動く城 (Howl's Moving Castle)'' (2004), ''Ponyo, 崖の上のポニョ (Ponyo)'' (2008) and ''The Wind Rises, 風立ちぬ (The Wind Rises)'' (2013) and Hiromasa Yonebayashi''The Secret World of Arrietty, 借りぐらしのアリエッティ(The Secret World of Arrietty)'' (2010), all grossing more than $100 million worldwide and appearing in the top 10 of the List of highest-grossing anime films, highest-grossing anime films of all time (as of 2020). Takahata's ''The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (film), かぐや姫の物語 (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya)'' (2013) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film Academy Award and many other awards. Makoto Shinkai directed ''Your Name, 君の名は。(Your Name)'' (2016, highest-grossing anime film of all time internationally) and ''Weathering with You, 天気の子 (Weathering with You)'' (2019).Stop motion
After the pioneering work by the likes of J. Stuart Blackton,Cutout animation
Cutout techniques were relatively often used in animated films until cel animation became the standard method (at least in the United States). The earliest animated feature films, by Quirino Cristiani and Lotte Reiniger, were cutout animations. Before 1934, Japanese animation mostly used cutout techniques rather than cel animation, because celluloid was too expensive. As cutouts often have been hand-drawn and some productions combine several animation techniques, cutout animation can sometimes look very similar to hand-drawn traditional animation. While sometimes used as a simple and cheap animation method in children's programs (for instance in ''Ivor the Engine''), cutout animation has remained a relatively artistic and experimental medium in the hands of Harry Everett Smith, Terry Gilliam and Jim Blashfield. Today, cutout-style animation is frequently produced using computers, with scanned images or vector graphics taking the place of physically cut materials. ''South Park'' is a notable example of the transition since its Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, pilot episode was made with paper cutouts before switching to Computer animation, computer software. Similar stylistic choices and blends with different techniques in computer animation have made it harder to differentiate between "traditional", cutout, andOther developments per region
Americas
History of Cuban animation
* 1970: Juan Padrón creates the character of Elpidio Valdés, the star of a long-running series of shorts and two motion pictures. * 1985: Juan Padrón's ''¡Vampiros en la Habana!'' * 1992: An animation category is added to the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano.History of Mexican animation
* 1935: Alfonso Vergara produces ''Paco Perico en premier'', an animated short film. * 1974: Fernando Ruiz (animator), Fernando Ruiz produces Los ''tres Reyes Magos'', Mexico's first animated feature-length film. * 1977: Anuar Badin creates the film ''Los supersabios'', based on the comic. * 1983: Roy del espacio * 2003: Ánima Estudios releases Magos y gigantes a full-length Mexican-animated feature after many years of hiatus in the country's industry.Europe
History of Italian animation
*1977: The animated Italian classic, ''Allegro Non-Troppo , Allegro nontroppo'', is both a parody of and homage to Disney's ''Fantasia''; this is directorHistory of animation in Croatia (in former Yugoslavia)
* 1953: Zagreb Film inaugurates the Zagreb school of animation. * 1975: Škola Animiranog Filma, Škola Animiranog Filma Čakovec (ŠAF) inaugurates the Čakovec school of animation.Asia
Animation was part of Chinese cinema as early as the 1920s, as seen in extant films.Oceania
History of Australian animation
''See: Animal Logic, Yoram Gross, Flying Bark Productions'' * 1977: ''Dot and the Kangaroo (film), Dot and the Kangaroo'' * 1979: ''The Little Convict'' * 1982: ''Sarah (film), The Seventh Match'' (also known as ''Sarah'') * 1984: ''The Camel Boy'' * 1984: ''Epic (1984 film), Epic: Days of the Dinosaurs'' (also known as ''EPIC'') * 1991: ''The Magic Riddle'' * 1992: ''Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala'' * 1992: ''FernGully: The Last Rainforest'' * 2000: ''The Magic Pudding'' * 2006: ''Happy Feet'' (co-production with America)History of New Zealand animation
''See: Weta Digital'' * 1986: ''Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale'' * 2015: ''25 April (film), 25 April'' * 2019: ''Mosley (film), Mosley''Media
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