Most people are familiar with animated cartoons and movies, but did you know that long before the first Disney film was created, animation was used with toys? One of the first toys to use animation was the phenakistoscope, a small spinning disk with pictures
painted on it. When the disc was spun in a mirror, it looked as though the pictures were moving. Another popular toy was the
zoetrope, or wheel of life. This toy worked by placing a strip of paper, covered in drawings, in a viewing tube. The user peered
through slots, twirled the tube, and watched the drawings move.
After the invention of these popular nineteenth-century toys, many people experimented with ways of making objects appear to
move. In 1906, J. Stuart Blackton created a series of short animated films. Later that year, Blackton made a film that used an
experimental method called stop-motion. In this method, objects such as clay figures are placed, photographed, moved slightly,
and photographed again until an action is completed.
A turning point in animation came in 1914 with Winsor McCay, an illustrator-turned-animator. With great skill, McCay created
characters with such real personalities that they seemed to have lives
Then, in the 1920s, Walt Disney became an important name in the business of animation, Disney was the first to create animated
cartoons with synchronized sound-sound that corresponded to the actions of the characters. When Disney created his third film
with character Mickey Mouse, he used synchronized sound. Disney eventually developed full-length animated films, including
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
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