History of Re-Animation

Koko's Earth Control was released in 1928 by Max Fleischer who had invented the Rotoscope, a device that by tracing motion picture footage of human movement allowed for animation to be more lifelike. This led to Koko's animations be far ahead of their time in fluidity an realism. Koko's Earth Control also experimented with lighting effects quickly switching between an image of lightning and it's negative to simulate the cartoon apocalypse Koko's dog Fitz triggered by pulling the lever to destroy the world. Many of the elements of the story are common tropes today but were rather innovative and novel at their time. The animation also used live action shots showing the real world's reaction to the apocalypse. Koko and his dog Fitz were highly polished character at this point and were proving quite popular with audiences.  This animation used a lot of key frames and repeated movements back and forth in a sort of simulated "double take" much like  Wins...

Farmer Alfalfa Sees New York released in 1916 by Bray Studios was one of several early animation series this one being done by Paul Terry who worked at Bray Studios somewhat under duress. The film is an excellent example of early cel animation, the use of clear celluloid film with the character only which is then used over a separate (and often more detailed) background image. Bray studios would make stock series of actions for their characters to speed up the process of making animations to increase production and reduce the costs. The characters in Farmer Alfalfa are very stereotypical, the scam artist looking for out of towners to swindle, the girl who gets Alfalfa Farmer drunk to take his money, the goon who takes him to a rigged poker game, even the poker players. This wasn't just an easy way to make a character, it allowed those character and their already drawn animations to be used in many different films and series. Stereotypical based characters also make for an easier to...

The Old Mill a Walt Disney Studios animation by Wilfred Jackson that was released in 1937 is an excellent example of just how far Walt Disney had progressed since Steamboat Willy. It's use of water color backgrounds and cel animation is an excellent example of the pioneering techniques that would be the standard of Walt Disney feature animated movies that would fuel the "golden age" of animation. Virtually every element that defined the signature Walt Disney product is in the animation, the storytelling and application of human emotion to animals such as fear, contentment, without over humanizing them would be used in all of their animated movies and is a common trope about Disney princesses. Gone on the over the top noodling of the actions of the characters and the unrealistic qualities of the initial animations just ten years prior. This is a studio that is coming of age and is confident about its techniques with the animation almost challenging others to try equ...

Winsor McCay in a still from his first animated movie, Little Nemo. One of the first and most successful early animated movies, Gertie the Dinosaur is distinctly different from other animations of the period. One of the most likely reasons is that Winsor McCay was already a professional and well established artist and quite talented being best known for his popular comic strip Little Nemo. Prior animations were less fluid and did not display the knowledge and appreciation for movement, muscle and bone structure that make Gertie the Dinosaur so much more believable than the other animations.  Many of the others were not as detailed most likely due to the medium and method that was used in their production whereas with Gertie, Winsor McCay hand drew each frame (although his assistant traced many of the backgrounds). It may have been the first animation to use key frames and used many of the same sequences (such as the nodding "yes" and shaking head "no") repeat...