History

• Zoetrope Animation
  
  Animation did not come to life until the invention of the magic lantern in 1671. Still used today by some novelty shows, the lantern makes oil paintings appear much larger, and puppeteers can move them to create images that entertain audiences.
  The zoetrope is a spinning disc featuring different frames of movement that display a complete animation cycle when spun fast. Once films were invented, early animators worked hard to translate the concept behind the zoetrope to the big screen.
  
  

Significance

• "Steamboat Willy"
  
  The Disney Company, throughout their long history, have created animation classics in film and TV. Walt Disney used Mickey Mouse to introduce one of the first animations with sound ("Steamboat Willy," 1928).
  The first fully animated Disney movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Afterward, dozens of other Disney animated classics have been released, such as "Cinderella," "Peter Pan," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King." Disney eventually made the change to computer-generated films and teamed up with Pixar to create "Toy Story," "Monsters Inc." and "Wall-E," among other films.
  
  

Function

• Young Animators at Work
  
  Traditionally, animation was hand-drawn using a frame-by-frame process. Animators would collaborate to create different elements of a scene and then individually tape each scene as a frame of film. Typically, animation would be composed of 30 frames for a second of film, so it would take 30 drawings to create 1 second of action on the screen. That means a typical 90-minute movie would require 162,000 drawings.
  Computer-generated movies have helped take some of the drawing process out of animating. All of the animations are created on computers and rely on sophisticated programs to process everything that is included in an animated scene.
  
  

Potential

• "Madagascar"
  
  The rise of CG movies has brought on a new genre into the animation world. It has produced classics like "Finding Nemo," "Shrek," "Cars" and "Madagascar." CG animation has allowed animators to use cartoonish-looking characters, but also present more life-like animation like fur, water and other elements that could not even be considered in a traditionally animated movie.
  
  

Considerations

• "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"
  
  Stop motion animation is another animation category. Stop motion uses a mix of clay figures and other props. It is shot frame-by-frame, however. Popular stop motion movies include "King Kong," "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Nightmare Before Christmas." Stop motion has been almost entirely phased out today, but independent productions still use this method, making custom Lego movies and titles like "March of the Munchkins" being spread through youtube.com.