Winsor McCay

Gertie the Dinosaur is the earliest animated film to feature a character with a distinct personality. Winsor McCay drew thousands of frames by hand, creating a friendly brontosaurus that eats, drinks, dances, and responds to his commands like a trained pet. Originally performed as a live stage act where McCay "interacted" with the projected dinosaur, the surviving print frames the animation with a live-action prologue. Gertie is a foundational work of character animation. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short

Winsor McCay's first animated film, based on his own popular newspaper comic Little Nemo in Slumberland. The short opens with live-action footage of McCay making a bet that he can bring his drawings to life, then cuts to the animation: Nemo and his friends stretch, flip, and grow in surreal ways that were impossible in live action. McCay hand-drew every frame himself, a level of labor that set the standard for character animation. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short

Winsor McCay's animated depiction of the 1915 torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat, an event that helped pull the United States into the First World War. McCay made the film as a piece of wartime propaganda, animating the liner, the attack, and the drowning of passengers in a somber, documentary-like tone unlike his comic Gertie work. It is one of the earliest serious animated films and a rare example of animation used for journalism. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short · War

Gertie the Dinosaur is the earliest animated film to feature a character with a distinct personality. Winsor McCay drew thousands of frames by hand, creating a friendly brontosaurus that eats, drinks, dances, and responds to his commands like a trained pet. Originally performed as a live stage act where McCay "interacted" with the projected dinosaur, the surviving print frames the animation with a live-action prologue. Gertie is a foundational work of character animation. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short

Winsor McCay's first animated film, based on his own popular newspaper comic Little Nemo in Slumberland. The short opens with live-action footage of McCay making a bet that he can bring his drawings to life, then cuts to the animation: Nemo and his friends stretch, flip, and grow in surreal ways that were impossible in live action. McCay hand-drew every frame himself, a level of labor that set the standard for character animation. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short

Winsor McCay's animated depiction of the 1915 torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat, an event that helped pull the United States into the First World War. McCay made the film as a piece of wartime propaganda, animating the liner, the attack, and the drowning of passengers in a somber, documentary-like tone unlike his comic Gertie work. It is one of the earliest serious animated films and a rare example of animation used for journalism. The film is in the public domain in the United States as a pre-1930 work.

Animation · Silent · Short · War