A Wild Hare' (1940)

LoL
Much better then the Pig, don't you agree ??
Due to the nature of Bug's and his dim witted nemesis, the cartoons can go in any direction with a wide scope of imaginative play when the characters interact with one another.
Much better from Warner Brothers in my opinion.

I haven't got a Hat'. (1935)

Frits Frelang crated Warner Brothers First star Porky Pig in this animation.
I feel the animation is lacking compared to the Disney cartoons as he is not tacking full advantage of the imagination cartoons can show.
Even the class mates of the students in the animation where getting board and got up to mischievous things which in them selves, wasn't all that original or entertaining.
Although Porky Pig was Warner Brothers first star i don't like him, and i think Bug's Bunny is much more of a likable character and is now more strongly associated to Warner Brothers. I feel there is little you can do with a stuttering pig where as a cool carrot eating wise guy Bunny, well, thers a good pot of ingridience write there for a commical character.

The Band Concert 1935

This animation starts with an amazing cycle. So much is happening and as far as cycles go i feel in a scene like the opening one in this animation it is perfect as the viewer can take in many actions and divert there view to another area of the cartoon. Again you see mickey fairly aggressive but for a comically valid reason but visually he is getting much closer to the modern day Mickey.
Although i repeat myself, i do feel the need to comment again on the imagination of the story and commend on the occurrences that led up to the funnily of the animation. I really liked the small touches such as Mickeys broken stick (not sure of the correct name, stick will do). The phrase " The Show Must Go On" springs to mind.

Little Wise Hen' (1934)

Little Wise Hen was the first cartoon with Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash). Donald was introduced so that Disney could still have a good but cheeky character in his animation rather than using his flagship character Micky.
This is the only example iv posted that i didn't enjoy from Disney as its repetitive.
The animation though again is faultless and the use of colour is even better then his Flowers and Trees.

Flowers and Trees 1932

Here is the first Disney animation using colour.
I'm sure its no coincidence Disney doesn't use his earlier characters and instead uses flowers and trees, most probably to show a colour full display throughout his animation.
I do feel it is a little of a dark story but the imagination of some of the things Disney makes his characters do still amazes me. I feel with all of these early examples of Disney's work really have a little bit of magic in the way there animated and how enchanting the characters are. I really liked the villain in this cartoon, a dead tree is fitting for the story plot.

The Opry House(1929)

Here is another great cartoon. The imagination used in the dance moves by the characters was very funny and translated well in the animation.
You can also see the development on Micky taking place half way through the animation. At the beginning Micky had no gloves, then a little latter he is wearing the gloves which to this day, is still part of the Micky mouse character. I feel the gloves where added mainly because of the piano scene as it is clearer to see the movements of the individual fingers as they each have there own outline rather then all being filled in black like the rest of Micky's skin.

Steam Boat Willy 1928

Soon after Crazy Planet, Steam Boat Willy, a very famous animation was created. This animation really show cased Disney and the synchronisation of sound within his animation.
Even today, popular cartoons refer to this animation as part of a gag (Itchy and Scratchy From The Simpson's, cant find example). This animation, i feel will stand the test of time as it is humerus, very well animated and already well known.
Even as a child born in 1987 i have seen this animation aired on terrestrial television.
You can also see the behaviour of Micky differing to what we may be yous to  seeing in a more recent Micky cartoon. He has no remorse for the actions he takes on other animals showing a cheeky side to him.

Planet Crazy 1928

Here is Walt Disney's first showing of Micky mouse.
In comparison to the Felix The Cat animation you can tell the difference in Disney's animation, in my opinion it far surpasses that of Felix and you can see why it became so popular.
The animation also featured synced sounds which was the first animation to do so.
It was created 5 years later then the Felix animation but the same tools and methods would have been used (apart from synchronised sounds perhaps) in both but Walt Disney, i feel, understood the method of good story telling and, in my opinion far surpasses Pat Sullivan's skills in animating.

Felix The Cat In Hollywood 1923

Pat Sullivan was the creator of Felix The Cat. The animation is very simplistic and the story isn't in my opinion any thing extraordinary. I really didn't like having to rely on text to explain the animation. I believe a good animator can explain a simple story such as this using very little text and the text shown being in the cartoon itself rather than speech bubbles.
considering earlier examples of how visually entertaining animation can be by either using a great deal of imagination or referring to real life movements and situations i found this animation lacking. The animation though is a good building block and introduction to Felix The Cat as a character and a brand name, which of course he latter becomes.

Out of the inkwell 1919

This piece was created by Max Fleischer using his patented technique in rotoscoping. Rotoscoping was i device that captured live film and made it possible to use as references to his drawing making the movements almost life like.
I think this is a very impressive animation and it really does move convincingly.

Sinking Of The Lusitania

Here is another animation by Winsor McCay "Sinking Of The Lusitania" sunk in WW1. This used animation in a very different way in which it was previously used. It depicted recorded events on a passenger ship being sunk by a German sea vessel. It is very graphic and personal showing individual renowned American civilians that where aboard the Lusitania generating disgust among its viewers.
The piece is animated amazingly and the use of different angles being used, closeups long shots etc whilst the ship is sinking shows what events where accruing in detail. For example if it stayed on the long shot of the ship sinking then showed all the overboard civilians it would not have the same impact as cutting in between the two shots. It brought you close to the atrocity of immanent death by showing a small number of individuals abandoning ship and then shows thee whole of the ship where thew individual is to small to be seen giving you an visual idea on the amount of damned souls aboard the Lusitania. When i viewed it i was saddened by the animations as it was a real event and i thought of the fear and loss of life aboard the vessel. This i feel as well as generating hate for the Germans was the objective of the animation.

(example) Billy's Balloon

Here is an example i wanted to include in how repetitiveness can be funny. example

Gertie the Dinosaur 1914

Here is Winser McCay and his animation called "Gertie the Dinosaur". He created a dinosaur to show hes skills as a animator so that he has no real references on how a creature should look.
Again McCoy plays on the relationship he has with his animation like the previous examples but the quality of drawing is at a higher standard and something a little more closer to what we are used to seeing today.
I feel although it is a great animation, allot of cycles are used and i found it a little repetitive. Repetitiveness however works well in cartoons when going for a comic affect, for example popular animations today like "Family guy" has lots of gags in which it tests the patience of the viewer and is funny through the cheek of the animator playing with his audience. I don't feel it works for this animation as no comic affect is trying to be achieved from its cycles but instead, is used to simply prolong the ending of the animation.
All this being said, its a very early animation and wasn't set out to be a overly comic piece but a statement to Winser McCay's audience on how well he can animate which i think he has achieved successfully.

Emil cohl fantasmagorie 1908

In this animation by Emil cohl you can really see there is no limitations to what animation can provide. It is a visual feast of imagination and still he manages to through a little bit of creator and the created relation ship in by putting his seemingly broken animation back together again. I feel although the animation is basic, its run time and the amount of activities and actions taking place make it very interesting and fun to watch.

J.Stuart Blackton Funny faces 1906

Here is another animation by J.Stuart Blackton created six years after the enchanted drawing.
I feel in this animation he is making it very clear to the audience on how the animation is created rather then portraying it as some kind of magic trick. This is shown in the example below especially when he shows himself rub out half the animation then animates the other half. There is also the part of the animation which is shown in revers which will also educate the viewer on how the animation may have been created. As a very novice animator myself i would have guessed that the clown animation scene would have been done using cut outs due to the rigidness of its movements if Mr Blackton did not show himself physically rubbing out the limbs and hoop.

The Enchanted Drawing 1900

This allowed animation to flourish and show people things that seemed impossible.
Here is the first filmed animation by James Stuart Blackton born on who started off his career as a reporter and a artist for the new york evening world newspaper. He was sent to interview Thomas Edison and his creation of the vitoscope.
He then went on to animate The enchanted drawing.
I feel the idea of using trickery along with animation would have been something wondrous to behold when first viewed. The public would have most probably been uneducated on how the principles of animation worked and there for would behold the cinematic as a type of magic trick.
The skills in which J.S.Blackton sinked his movements along with the change of expression of his animated character are acceptably convincing today, so back in the early 1900ds viewers would have been amazed. I feel this is a great achievement and stepping stone for the possibilities of animation.

The Lumière Brothers

Here are the brothers that invented film "The Lumière Brothers
Les frères Lumière"  they where photographers but secured the development of film by patenting some key elements most noticeable being the dry plate process.
I feel that the development of still photos being translated into moving images changed the face of animation.

Praxinoscope

Two years later however, a projection version of the Praxiniscope was invented. This new Praxinoscope had a longer feed of pictures and a wide audience could watch the animation rather than a single person.

The first zoetrope was invented by Ting Huan from china and was named
"The Pipe That Makes Dreams Come True"
Later adaptations of the zoetrope came around. The Praxinoscope was invented by
Charles- Emil Reynaud in France 1877.
It worked using the same principle's as a zoetrope but used mirrors in the centre reflecting the outer wall images.
I feel although it was an improvement over the zoetrop, its still not great animation and is very limited to what can be animated as there is suck a small work space. It also does not need your vision channelled or directed as the mirror takes on this roll showing you only a segment of the outer wall.

Here is a perfect example of why your vision must be channelled.

Here is an example of a early zoetrope. The zoetrope works by tunnelling your vision whilst spinning at speed showing you only a section of the pictures opposite.

Here is a more modern zoetrpe but this time animated by using models rather then images.I feel it is easier to see how it works with this example and the fluidity of the animation far surpasses the one above.

Here is a Disney zoetrope. The method of it portraying animation is the same as the ones above but works in a different way. Rather than your vision being obscured by the actual zoetrope and your vision being directed, a strobe light is activated timed correctly to the rotation of the zoetrpe allowing you to see only segments of its rotation.

We are all familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs and that they where some form of communication but animation sequences such as this combat/wrestling diagram where also created by the Egyptians.
This piece is approximately four thousand years old.

Although its depicted fairly clearly i feel that the sequences in which the actions are occurring may not make much sense if they where shown as animation like the jug example. This is due to the white and black characters switching places which occurs in some parts of the pictures.

 Here is another remarkably early piece displaying the method of animation.
The image was found on a bowl in Iran dated at being five thousand and two hundred years old.













The jug has five different pictures of the same animal in slightly different positions and when spun makes the animation to the left.
I feel although the animation is simple and does not move correctly following the laws of physics, the idea and method practised in which to create the animation, for the time it was created is amazing.
Although none of the modern equipment was available to the Creator of this work you can see he still has guide lines for his animation. For example, the lines on the top and bottom, as well as the trees on either side gave the artist a guide line on where the animals next position could be.

Early attempts of animation

 Here are some cave paintings found in southern France at a predicted thirty seven thousand years ago, it can be argued that these are some of the verry first attempts in portraying movement. The way in which images overlay one another can be compared to the way 2D animator's create there work today.

I find it amazing that at such a early stage of man the principles and even desire to animate or replicate events and animals accoured.

I do feel that these pictures succesfuly depict movement and life.