Gertie The Dinosaur Analysis

Register to read the introduction… McCay enlisted the help of a young neighbour, John A. Fitzsimmons to help trace the backgrounds while McCay devoted his efforts to animating Gertie himself, ten thousand drawings in total. Upon release Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914 McCay and his animated creation were a hit. The film was a landmark title not only for having the first animated star, but for being the first with a proper storyline as well (Goldman, 2005). Up until this point animation had been mostly the work of individual artists experimenting and exploring the new craft, earning a living doing so but none were particularly commercially successful. However this was all about to change with the rise of business minded men such as John Randolph Bray.John R. Bray initially became aware of the commercial possibilities of animation after seeing McCay’s Little Nemo; specifically Bray focused his aim at the thriving movie theatre business. From this realisation Bray went on to make his first animated short called The Artist’s Dream (1913) which garnered moderate success for him and his distributor, and Bray was hired to create more animations. Bray’s Colonel Heeza Liar’s in Africa (1913), considered to be the first commercial-cartoon release; as it was not a vaudeville act, nor a singular release (Maltin, 1980). Although the silent era of animation was in full swing by this point, animating on a commercial scale was still a challenge. However Bray …show more content…
As sound began to enter the animation a fledgling studio would take a gamble and jump ahead of the competition to create the first sound synced animation, the studio was headed by Walt Disney and over the next 20 years the Disney animations would create the foundation of the Golden Age of animation.With Steamboat Willie (1928) Disney had the first significant animation with synchronised sound and soon after Flowers and Trees (1932) was the first to use the three-colour Technicolour system. Butler explains that “Disney was so protective of these new technologies that he negotiated an exclusive deal with technicolour; for three years, no other animators could use it.” (N.D). Combining this successful strategy of adopting cutting edge technology and techniques, Disney then went on to investigate new distribution methods, which led to the first American animated feature. Snow White (1937) was a massive undertaking, a sound synched musical animated feature in full Technicolour, at a cost of over $1 million it was a huge gamble however it was also an instant hit for Disney (Aldred, N.D). Around the 1940s only a couple of years after Snow White’s debut, a new technology called Televison, which brought films, and animation into people’s homes was gaining momentum. The rise of TV meant the shrinking of budgets for studios across America, as