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1800s THE SCIENTIFIC AGE

1824

Peter Roget presents his paper, “The persistence of vision with regard to moving objects,” to the British Royal Society.

1824

A thaumatrope is a toy used in the Victorian era. It is a disk or card with different pictures on each side and attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers, the two pictures appear to combine into a single image.

1831

Joseph Antoine Plateau and Simon von Stampfer simultaneously invent the phenakistoscope, which produces an illusion of movement by allowing a viewer to gaze at a rotating disk containing small windows. Behind the windows was another disk containing a sequence of images.

1834

William George Horner invents the modern zoetrope, a cylinder with vertical slits around the sides and a series of pictures on the inside edge of the cylinder opposite of the slits. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits, which produce an illusion of motion.

1868

John Barns Linnet patents the first flip book, which is a set of sequential pictures seen at a high speed to create the illusion of motion.

1877

Charles-Emile Reynaud invents the praxinoscope, a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It uses the same mechanism of a strip of images placed on the inside of a spinning cylinder, but it is viewed through a series of stationary mirrors instead of slits.

1889

Thomas Edison invents the kinetoscope, which projects a 50-foot length of film in 13 seconds.

1889

George Eastman manufactures photographic film strips using a nitro-cellulose base.

1900-29 THE SILENT AGE

1906

J. Stuart Blackton makes the first animated film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. Blackton draws comical faces on a blackboard and films them; he stops the film, erases one face to draw another and then films the newly drawn face.

1908

Emile Cohl produces Phantasmagorie, the first film depicting white figures on a black background. Cohl also makes En Route, the first paper cutout animation, a technique that saves time by repositioning the paper and not redrawing each new cell.

1913

Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan create an American cartoon series called Felix the Cat; J.R. Bray devises Colonel Heeza Liar; and Sidney Smith creates Old Doc Yak.

1914

Bray applies for a patent on numerous animation techniques; among the most revolutionary is the process of printing the backgrounds.

1914

Winsor McCay produces a cartoon, Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur, consisting of 10,000 drawings.

1914

Earl Hurd applies for a patent for the technique of drawing the animated portion on a clear celluloid sheet and then photographing it with a matching background; this became known as cel animation.

1923

Walt and Roy Disney co-found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.

1927

Warner Bros. releases The Jazz Singer, combining sound and images.

1928

Walt Disney creates the first animated cartoon with synchronized sound, Steamboat Willie, marking the official debut of the studio’s iconic character, Mickey Mouse.

1930-49 THE GOLDEN AGE

1930

Universal Studios produces The King of Jazz ; in it is a short animated sequence by Walter Lantz—best known for creating the character of Woody Woodpecker—which uses the two-strip technicolor process for the first time.

1930

Looney Tunes cartoons, a series of shorts created by Warner Bros. to promote its music, makes its debut with Sinkin’ in the Bathtub featuring a recurring character named Bosko; Looney Tunes introduces Porky Pig in 1935, Daffy Duck in 1937 and Bugs Bunny in 1940.

1930

Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes , produced by Max and Dave Fleischer for Paramount Studios.

1933

The Fleischers adapt characters from the King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre —a cast that includes Popeye the Sailor—for Paramount Pictures.

1937

Walt Disney Studios releases its first fully animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , effectively launching what is called “The Golden Age” at Disney; the studio releases 19 animated features through 1967, including classics such as Pinocchio [1940], Fantasia [1940], Dumbo [1941], Bambi [1942], Cinderella [1950], Peter Pan [1953], Sleeping Beauty [1959], 101 Dalmatians [1961] and The Jungle Book [1967].

1940

Hoping to duplicate the success of studio rival Warner Bros., MGM debuts the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry , created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

1945

Harry Smith produces animation by drawing directly onto film.

1950-79 THE TELEVISION AGE

1957

Hanna-Barbera Enterprises is formed after MGM shuts down its animation studio; the animators create cartoon shows such as Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Yogi Bear Show, Jonny Quest and Scooby-Doo.

1960s

Animated television programming that became known colloquially as the Saturday morning cartoons becomes a staple of the major networks.

1964

Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laboratories, develops computer techniques for producing animated movies.

1972

Director Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat becomes the first animated feature film to receive an X rating by the Motion Picture Association of America; it also becomes the first independent animated film to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office.

1980-present THE MODERN AGE

1982

Walt Disney Productions releases Tron, the first movie that extensively uses computer graphics.

1984

Universal Studios releases The Last Starfighter, which becomes the first movie to use computer graphics instead of models.

1988

Walt Disney Productions releases Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which combines live-action scenes with animation sequences; the film receives financial success and critical acclaim, and becomes the forefront for the modern age of animation. Producer Steven Spielberg convinces Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios to “lend” their characters to appear in the film; he is not able to acquire Popeye, Felix the Cat or Tom and Jerry.

1989

The Simpsons, an animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox television network, makes its debut; the series is the longest-running U.S. sitcom and the longest-running U.S. animated program.

1992

Classic animation properties receive new life with the creation of Cartoon Network.

1993

Universal Studios releases Jurassic Park, which uses computer graphics for realistic living creatures.

1995

Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Productions release Toy Story, the first feature-length film generated completely on computers.

2001

Columbia Pictures releases Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within, a box-office bomb that is often cited as the first computer-generated movie to attempt to show realistic-looking humans.