Film and Media Atlas

How Stories Are Broadcast
Media Forms

Animation

an-ih-MAY-shun
Also Known As Cartoons
Moving Image

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Fanned Flip Frames

Moving images created frame by frame rather than photographed continuously, from hand-drawn cartoons through stop motion to computer-generated imagery. Animation grew alongside live-action film, produced the first fully synthetic feature-length worlds, and now underlies visual effects across every screen medium.

Facts
Origin Year
1906 1
1906 marks J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, commonly cited as the first animated film on standard film stock; Emile Reynaud projected hand-drawn moving pictures with his Theatre Optique from 1892.
Origin
Hand-drawn animation for the cinema is usually dated to 1906, when J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces became the oldest surviving film of its kind. 1
Place of Origin
Brooklyn, New York, United States 1
Primary Format
A filmmaking technique in which pictures are created or manipulated and then played in sequence to create the illusion of moving images. 1
Typical Distribution
Shown as short films, feature films and television series, and increasingly circulated as animated GIFs and other moving-image media. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Media Entries

Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationHistory of animation, Standard picture film section
Quote, History of animation, Standard picture film section
It was not until 1906 that proper animated films appeared in cinemas.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationJ. Stuart Blackton section
Quote, J. Stuart Blackton section
Blackton's 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is often regarded as the oldest known hand-drawn animation on standard film.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationVitagraph Studios, Founding section
Quote, Vitagraph Studios, Founding section
It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationAnimation, lead section
Quote, Animation, lead section
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby pictures are created or manipulated and then played in sequence to create the illusion of moving images.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationAnimation, General overview section
Quote, Animation, General overview section
An animated cartoon, or simply a cartoon, is an animated film.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: Praxinoscope, Lead sectionView the Source
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.