The animation itself only lasts about four minutes, and is largely a demonstration of stretching and squashing two of the characters at the behest of Nemo. Little Nemo is still worth watching, from the quaint ridicule that meets with McCay’s announcement that he can make pictures move to the somewhat silly behind the scenes creation of the cartoon. When the black and white release proved successful, McCay then hand-tinted the frames to further reproduce the look of the original Little Nemo comic. He mounted the rice paper on cardboard to facilitate shooting, then used a rotary machine to flip the cards so he could check the animation (another innovation, which can be seen in the short). McCay proceeded to use four thousand pieces of rice paper for his original cartoon, inventing the idea of numbering each drawing to maintain the sequencing. McCay realized the same principle could be used on separate film frames. The original idea came from his son playing with flipbooks, in which a child rifles the pages of a book rapidly with his finger, thus causing the individual drawings to appear to be in motion. McCay had already made a cartoon version of his famous Little Nemo in 1911, releasing it to both movie theaters and then using it in his vaudeville act. McCay was a very popular entertainer, but every vaudeville act needed a new gimmick now and then to keep things fresh.Īnd that’s where Gertie the Dinosaur lumbers into the picture in 1914. McCay would recite the famous lines “All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players” while he drew the faces of a man and a woman – and then aged the pictures until he reached the final lines. One of his favorite routines was based on Shakespeare’s monologue about “The Seven Ages of Man” from As You Like It. McCay was also famous on the vaudeville circuit, where he supplemented his income as a cartoonist by doing what are still called “chalk talks.” With a large easel and a crayon, McCay would draw caricatures of audience members, or transform one picture into another while he kept up a comic patter. To this day, his Little Nemo in Slumberland has to be seen to be believed in all its baroque majesty. But animation historian Michael Barrier, the author of the indispensible Hollywood Cartoons, calls McCay “the first American animator of consequence” because he “made films that people wanted to see.” McCay had already been instrumental in helping to originate the comic strip in newspapers. Granted, McCay is not the first animator, American or otherwise (James Stuart Blackton and Émile Cohl tried the form sooner). As important as Walt Disney and Chuck Jones are in the history of animation as the ultimate masters of the form, McCay was the man who brought together many of the technical innovations that animators still use today, as well as being the first to create characters with whom audiences fell in love. McCay was one of those enormously important innovators who create whole new art forms. Other series on Cartoonito include “Batwheels” and “Bugs Bunny Builders” along with new series and specials from Sesame Workshop such as “Sesame Street Mecha Builders” and “Sesame Street: The Nutcracker.But the father of them all, and a man who deserves to be known as the father of American animation, is Winsor McCay, whose creation Gertie the Dinosaur was the very first dinosaur to be on the big screen. The show will join the lineup of Cartoonito, the preschool programming block on Cartoon Network and HBO Max ( relaunching as Max on May 23 in the U.S.). “Barney’s World” will be executive produced by Soulie and Christopher Keenan for Mattel Television and by Colin Bohm, Doug Murphy and Pam Westman for Nelvana. Discovery to reimagine this famed brand and bring a fresh and modern version of Barney to a global audience of families.” We are proud to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang.įred Soulie, SVP and GM of Mattel Television, added: “Having grown up watching the original series, many of today’s parents have fond memories of laughing, singing and learning with Barney and his friends. It strikes the right nostalgia chord for today’s parents and introduces this iconic dinosaur to a new generation of preschoolers,” said Warner Bros. “Barney’s World” perfectly exemplifies our ‘best in animation’ approach. “Throughout silly and imaginative adventures together, Barney helps kids explore big preschool emotions and shows them how to love themselves and others,” the companies said in announcing the series pickup. Set in a local playground, Barney is joined by dinos Billy and Baby Bop and their three kid best friends. “Barney’s World” is “modernized with dynamic characters and music-filled storylines that highlight themes of love, community and encouragement,” WBD and Mattel TV said.
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