In 1906, Vitagraph released the first animated film in the United States, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, by cartoonist James Stuart Blackton. It featured a series of faces, letters, and words being drawn. This rudimentary foundation encouraged other cartoon pioneers, including Emil Cohl and Winsor McCay. Cohl produced Drame Chez Les Fantoches (A Drama in Fantoche's House) (1908), a film more like modern classics, both funny and with a well-developed plot. McCay's Little Nemo (1911), the first fully animated film, was based on his Newspaper comic strip. His Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) was the first to use frame-by-frame animation, which produced fluid motion. Gertie also initiated fascination with a central character.
In the 1910s, animated cartoons were also being produced as series. John Randolph Bray had success with a number of them. Bray and other innovators developed ways of speeding up the drawing process using translucent paper, which enabled quicker drawing. The decade also witnessed the rise of the cell animation process and other important advances.
Like early motion pictures, the cartoons were silent. Various methods of portraying speech were used, from balloons to dialogue on the screen, sometimes confusing the audience. In addition, the cartoonists lacked the resources to focus on story continuity. Often the cartoonist did all the work individually or with a small staff. Cartoons might have disappeared without sound.
Disney and Warner Brothers
The first sound cartoon, Song Car-Tunes, produced by Max and Dave Fleischer, appeared in 1924, three years before the first talking motion picture, Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer. Walt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse in 1928 in Steamboat Willie. In the 1930s, sound production fueled the growth of cartoons. In this period, Warner Brothers introduced the Looney Tunes series.
After the success of Steamboat Willie, Disney created the first full-color cartoon, Flowers and Trees (1932). Five years later, he scored with the first animated feature movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It earned $8 million in its initial release, a success enabling Disney to build his empire. Disney established the idea that unique cartoon personalities would draw audiences. His company led the industry in cartoon development and Disney's success was widely copied. Disney also pushed merchandising, created the Disney theme parks in California in 1955 and Florida in 1971, and introduced a television show. He followed Snow White with a series of animated films that remain favorites, including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), Cinderella (1950), and Peter Pan (1953). Drawing on universal themes, like good versus evil and family, the films featured songs, humor, slapstick, and emotion, all with intricate scenery, detailed drawing, and wonderful musical scores. Disney films were so triumphant that other animators essentially abandoned the field for twenty years.
Warner Brothers rivaled Disney in the early years of animated films. Cartoonist Chuck Jones popularized the wisecracking Bugs Bunny, who first appeared in the 1940 short, A Wild Hare. While at Warner from 1936 to 1962, Jones also created Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. Jones's favorite, however, was Daffy Duck, the daft everyman who first appeared in 1937. Jones is acknowledged as the inspiration of everything from the smart alecky Rugrats to the blockbuster movie The Lion King (1994). Except for Disney, no one had a more lasting influence on the development of cartoons.
The Television Age
In the 1950s, the rise of television and a decision by theater owners to stop paying extra for cartoon shorts reduced the importance of animated films. Studios began syndicating films for television. By the mid-1950s, more than four hundred TV stations ran cartoons, usually in the afternoons.
The first made-for-television series was Crusader Rabbit, which debuted in 1950. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera introduced the cat and mouse team Tom and Jerry and later Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. To maximize profits, Hanna and Barbera used limited animation, eliminated preliminary sketches, and recorded sound quickly.
The late 1950s and 1960s witnessed a plethora of all-cartoon series entering the market, from Rocky and His Friends (1959) to Magilla Gorilla (1964) and Speed Racer (1967). Cartoons began branching out into new areas, with some based on successful noncartoon shows. The Flintstones (1960), for example, was based on the sitcom The Honeymooners. Some animated series were based on comic books and strips like Dick Tracy and Superman.
In the 1960s, ABC put cartoons at the heart of its prime-time lineup, airing The Flintstones in 1960, followed by The Bugs Bunny Show (1960). In 1962, ABC added the space-age family The Jetsons and later The Adventures of Johnny Quest (1964). The first animated made-for-television special was NBC's 1962 Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Dickens's famous story. The second holiday show was A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. It attracted over half of the viewing audience. Theodore Geisel's Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas appeared in 1966 on CBS.
Beginning in the 1963–1964 season, the networks ran cartoons on Saturday mornings. Large corporations like Kellogg's sponsored these cartoons and forced the networks to expand their selections. CBS executive Fred Silverman, who was responsible for the Saturday lineup, realized that both adults and children would watch. The cartoons solidified the network's first-place standing in that time slot. ABC and NBC followed, and in 1970 the three networks made nearly $67 million in advertising revenue from their Saturday morning programming.
After the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, a public outcry against TV violence rocked the cartoon industry. Network censors cracked down. Comedy shows replaced action adventures, which drove away adult viewers. Cartoons were now seen as educational tools, not just entertainment.
The Rebirth of Animated Films
In the theaters, animated films for adults emerged. The Beatles' animated Yellow Submarine (1968) and the X-rated Fritz the Cat (1971), by Ralph Bakshi, proved that adults would view a less Disneyesque cartoon. Their success and that of later ones gave Disney its first serious competition in decades. The revival of animated films also included children's films such as Charlotte's Web (1972) and Watership Down (1978).
The demand for family-oriented films continued in the 1980s. Again, Disney led the industry, producing Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Based on new characters, the film broke the magical $100 million mark in revenues.
In the 1990s, almost every animated movie became a hit and studios jumped in to battle Disney. In 1994 Disney released The Lion King, which became the highest grossing animated film of all time. The following year, Disney and Pixar released Toy Story, a technological masterpiece produced completely with computer animation. A string of computer-animated films followed. The Pixar film, Monsters, Inc. (2001), gave Disney another huge hit, the second all-time money earner for animated films.
The revival of animated films made it fashionable for actors to voice the characters. Major stars such as Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams have lent their voices to animated films. The growth of VHS and DVD sales has doubled the revenue of some animated films.
Television benefited from the rebirth of films, particularly in the adult market. In 1990, Fox introduced Matt Groening's The Simpsons in primetime, turning its characters into popular culture icons. MTV countered with Beavis and Butt-Head in 1993. The growth of cable television pushed cartoons in new directions. In 1990, Disney introduced a block of afternoon programming for the Fox Kids Network. The cable mogul Ted Turner created the twenty-four-hour Cartoon Network in the early 1990s. Opposition to animated violence, however, under-mined the business. The Children's Television Act of 1990 required educational programs for children. Essentially, the act ended the traditional Saturday morning cartoon programming.
Cartoons continue to play an important role in popular culture and have a magnificent future. Using computer animation, Hollywood churns out hit film after hit film, while television audiences continue to grow. Video sales and rentals get subsequent generations of youngsters interested in traditional cartoons and characters while also promoting new films. As long as audiences want new animated films, television shows, and cartoons, the industry will respond.
Bibliography
Grant, John. Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.
Jones, Chuck. Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989.
Lenburg, Jeff. The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. 2d ed. New York: Facts on File, 1999.
Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.
Peary, Danny, and Gerald Peary, eds. The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology. New York: Dutton, 1980.
—Bob Batchelor
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