Since 1908 Cartoons have been a top form of entertainment, evolving, influencing society, and over the years have undergone many changes such as sound, dialogue, and visual arts. Early cartoons relied on simple visual storytelling and black and white graphics; this would later change with new technological advancements. The first cartoons were hand-drawn, which was time-consuming and expensive. To save costs and effort, animators often drew characters with gloves and four fingers instead of five. Making the iconic gloves that people know that characters like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny wear. Most of these early films were silent, animators would rely on their characters’ exaggerated expressions to inflict emotion on the audience. Another way animators would tell stories was through characters’ physical comedy. One early pioneer was Emhile Cohl, “Émile Cohl created Fantasmagorie — the first animated film using hand-drawn animation, and film historians consider it to be the first animated cartoon. To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate, then traced the next drawing with variations on top until he had around 700 drawings.” (Quick History: Early Animation). An early example of animation techniques was Praxinoscope. It was a drum loaded with film so when turned it would show each individual image one by one. Stop Motion techniques are also an early example of animation. Being the first form of animation it would require the filmer to take a photo, or sketch of every move they would want their character to make. Next, they would combine all these images together and it would make the character seem as if it was moving. While animation was a major part of early storyboarding it revealed some challenges. As animators began making each scene it was made clear that the process wasn’t as easy as everyone had thought. Technical limitations made animation more difficult since animators lacked the technology people have today; all animations had to be made manually. As a result this caused inconsistencies in each scene of the first cartoons. This was a challenge to most companies, since they lacked the funds to find a fix. Also some types of animation techniques were restricted for certain audiences. One advancement that helped animators overcome some of these hardships was the introduction of sound, for example, “[t]he first portion of the program will have live jazz accompaniment, and the show will culminate with screenings of the first sound-on-film cartoon to be produced in New York, Paul Terry’s Dinner Time (1928), and finally, Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928), the Hollywood production commonly considered to be the first fully synchronized sound cartoon.” (THE HISTORY OF SILENT AND EARLY SOUND NEW YORK ANIMATION) The creation of sound allowed creators to express their thoughts more clearly or set tones for their films. The first sound-made films were shot in multiple different languages allowing for international viewing. One company that was a pioneer during this time was the Walt Disney Corporation as they shaped the way we view cartoons today.
The Disney Corporation didn’t just create sound in cartoons but new animation techniques. For example “During the 1930s, Walt Disney Cartoon Studios developed technicolor, a film process that allowed movies to be produced in vibrant, lifelike colors. This innovation in films allowed artists to create worlds that jumped off the screen in a way audiences had never seen before. For Disney, technicolor was a game-changer. In 1937, the studio used this new technology to release “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which became the first full-length, color, and animated feature. It was a significant achievement in animation and cemented Disney’s reputation as a pioneer.” (Disney and Technology: A History of Standard-Setting Innovation) This achievement allowed cinemas to hook audiences capturing them with the fantasy that technicolor had brought. The Disney corporation also created Rotoscoping, which solved huge challenges. For example, creating realistic motion for characters while at the same time keeping each frame of motion consistent to the last. The Corporation also states “This technique involved tracing images over live-action
footage to match movements frame by frame for a lifelike effect. “In ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ animators used rotoscoping to construct Snow White’s movements. This technology played a crucial role in elevating the realism and emotional depth of Disney’s characters, setting new standards for animated storytelling.” (Disney and Technology: A History of Standard-Setting Innovation) This addition allowed characters to make specific human-like movements. But, costs for creating these animations were not cheap, so to cut down on costs while maintaining the same quality of their cartoons, Disney decided to introduce Xerography, “[h]and-drawn animation cels may have been feasible for cartoon shorts, but full-length films required something a bit more inventive. Xerography allowed Disney animators to photocopy hand-drawn images into cells using photocopying technology. This innovation significantly cut labor costs by eliminating time-consuming steps like manual inking. Adopting this new approach not only led to a more streamlined animation process but opened the door for more Disney animated classics like “The Jungle Book” and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.”(Disney and Technology: A History of Standard-Setting Innovation) Also, most early cartoons had 2D backgrounds that were super simple. After the creation of the multiplane camera, it added a 3D effect and realism to backgrounds. Making simple backgrounds look like an entire unexplored world behind the character.
This new style of animation gave birth to some of the most iconic cartoon characters people know today. For example, Mickey Mouse being the face of the Disney Corporation. The majority of Disney’s work revolved around the adventures and problem solving of Mickey and his friends. “Mickey Mouse, the most popular character of Walt Disney’s animated cartoons and arguably the most popular cartoon star in the world. Walt Disney began his first series of fully animated films in 1927, featuring the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When his distributor appropriated the rights to the character, Disney altered Oswald’s appearance and created a new character that he named Mortimer Mouse; at the urging of his wife, Disney rechristened him Mickey Mouse. Two silent Mickey Mouse cartoons—Plane Crazy (1928) and Gallopin’ Gaucho (1928)—were produced before Disney employed the novelty of sound for the third Mickey Mouse production, Steamboat Willie (1928), though Mickey did not utter his first words (“Hot dogs!”) until The Karnival Kid (1929). Steamboat Willie was an immediate sensation and led to the studio’s dominance in the animated market for many years. (Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 27th Jan. 2025) This was a huge success during its time as it used the new introduction of sound, but it used synchronized sound, something other cartoons really had not used yet. Next, Bugs Bunny, the most well known of the Looney Tunes and has been featured in multiple cartoon shorts similar to Mickey Bugs, was the face of the Warner Brothers Corporation. Bugs made an appearance with Basketball phenoms Michael Jordan and Lebron James in the both
of the Space Jam movies “Bugs Bunny, cartoon rabbit created by Warner Brothers as part of its Looney Tunes Animated short film series. Emerging as one of the biggest stars of the so-called golden age of American animation (1928–c. 1960), Bugs Bunny has endured as one of the world’s most popular cartoon characters.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 29 Jan. 2025) Another Iconic Duo is Tom and Jerry. It consists of a cat named Tom, and a mouse named Jerry. Through the years the main idea of the show was Tom trying to catch Jerry like any cat would. This theme would continue over the entire series and even landed them a spot in their own modern Movie using CGI “with Tom (the scheming cat) and Jerry (the spunky mouse) [were] nonetheless… a hit with audiences. Animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera produced more than 100 episodes for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Several of these—including Yankee Doodle Mouse(1943), The Cat Concerto (1946), and Johann Mouse (1952)—won Academy Awards for best animated short subject. In most episodes Jerry foiled Tom’s efforts to catch him and lived to annoy him another day—though occasionally Tom got the upper hand, or the two would join forces against a common enemy. The series was driven entirely by action and visual humour; the characters almost never spoke.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 26 Jan. 2025) Also, another iconic character is Popeye the Sailor, known for his love of spinach and iconic laugh. “Popeye, a pugnacious, wisecracking cartoon sailor who possesses superhuman strength after ingesting an always-handy can of spinach. Popeye was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who in 1929 introduced the character into his existing newspaper cartoon strip, Thimble Theatre. Popeye is a scrappy little seaman with bulging forearms, a squinty eye, and a screwed-up face, punctuated with an ever-present pipe in his mouth. He is always ready for a fight instead of a reasonable discussion, has a gravelly voice, and is constantly mumbling under his breath. His credo is “I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam.” His girlfriend is the gangly, uncoordinated Olive Oyl, for whose attention Popeye vies constantly with Bluto, his bearded, hulking rival. Other recurring characters include J. Wellington Wimpy, a hamburger-loving coward; Swee’pea, Popeye’s adopted baby (whom he calls his “infink”); and Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye’s anarchic father.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 26th Jan. 2025) Popeye’s main goal was to always win over Olive Oil. One thing all these cartoon favorites have in common is origin. They all started out as silent film characters evolving to color and becoming the characters audiences know them as today.
The iconic cartoons of the past are different in a lot of ways from those today since key forms of technology have emerged to improve cartoons. “CGI, or Computer-Generated Imagery, refers to the use of computer graphics to create images or animations in both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) spaces. In animation, CGI enables the creation of dynamic characters, detailed environments, and intricate effects that would be impossible or extremely costly to achieve with traditional methods. Unlike hand-drawn animation, CGI utilizes complex algorithms to generate images that are then animated, giving life to otherwise static models.” This would make cartoons even more special making some things people wouldn’t expect to look real! Some examples of movies that use CGI are the Avengers, Star Wars, Avatar etc. Another change in today’s cartoons is specific audience targeting. In early cartoons and short films the direct audience was for people of all ages, but cartoons now focus on more specific audiences. For example Rick and Morty would be considered a show targeted more towards mature audiences opposed to having shows like Spongebob. Additionally Cartoon Distribution has been changed now that people use more streaming services than using cable TV. This change causes more demand for new shows, and once they are produced may have different messages or themes that are targeted back then. Also, the use of streaming services have caused a decline of commercials. Before, shows were created around commercials, showing one every couple of minutes having shows left on a cliff hanger to keep audiences engaged.
As Cartoon animation continues to evolve, the cartoons of today are more advanced in technology compared to the black and white silent films from the past. Cartoons will only become better. Today, streaming services and audience-specific content affect what audiences are entertained by. As technology continues to advance, it ensures that Cartoons will continue to be a huge form of entertainment for the years to come.