Early animated films in the U.S. often adapted comics because both relied on visual storytelling and simple, recognizable characters. Comics provided pre-established characters, making them popular and marketable. Their humor and episodic formats also suited short films. In addition, the simplified art styles of comics were also easier to animate. Both comics and animation embraced a playful and exaggerated approach to storytelling, making comics ideal for early animated adaptations.
Daily Archives: September 17, 2024
4 posts
Today I watched two of the earliest animated films, Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) by Winsor McCay and Fantasmagorie (1908) by Émile Cohl. These animations are fascinating not only because they represent the infancy of the medium but also because of how different their artistic approaches and storytelling techniques are. Below, I reflect on their similarities, differences, and the ways they shaped early animation.
Prompt 2
I believe that early animation in the U.S were based on print comics because they might have been easier to produce because they were already drawn. All they had to do was fill in the in between frames. Another reason I believe early animation in the U.S was based on print comics is because they probably already had a fan base that would be willing to watch them on the big screen.
In Winsor McCay’s “Gertie the Dinosaur” and Emile Cohl’s “Fantasmagorie” these two styles of animation had difference and similarities.A Similarity were it was silence animation ,there were no noise.There were many differences in their approach one was the type of drawings that were made when doing these animation.In Emile Cohl’s he drew his drawings on a lightbox, photographed it in two then traced the drawing with adjustment,were Winsor McCay he learned techniques such as using registration marks and identifying key position.The lines are used different because Colh was actually drawing the imagines one by one then adjusted.McCay he used cel animation.”Gertie the Dinosaur” had more complex background and “Fantasmagorie” didnt it was less complex.
