Dr. Midori Kitagawa
University of Texas at Dallas
Arts and Technology Program
 J. Stuart Blackton (1875-1941)
 Winsor McCay (1867-1934)
 John Bray (1874-1978)
 Max Fleischer (1883-1972)
 Walt Disney (1901-1966)
Father of animation
 In 1896 as a
reporter/artist for the
New York Evening World
newspaper, Blackton
interviewed Thomas
Edison
 Became a "rapid-drawing
cartoonist" for a series of
Edison shorts.
Combined stop motion, puppetry, and live
action
 Enchanted Drawing,
1900
 Humorous Phases of
Fanny Faces, 1906
Father of character animation
 Already well known for
his newspaper cartoons
“Little Nemo”, 1905-1914
Gave believability and personality to his handdrawn characters
 Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914
 Sinking of Lusitania, 1916
Founder of the animation industry
 Reporter for the Detroit
Evening News, 1901 In 1914 Bray’s partner
Earl Hurd patented the
use of clear cels over
background
 Hurd and Bray formed
the Hurd and Bray
Patent Company in 1914
Turned artistic work into an assembly-line
production
 With additional patents
obtained by Bray, the
company monopolized
the animation process
 The patents expired in
1932
 Much of what Bray
claimed to have invented
have been credited to
McCay and others.
 Colonel Heeza Liar’s, 1913
Inventor of the rotoscope
 A cartoonist and
photographer for
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
 Art director for the
magazine Popular
Science
 Worked at Bray’s studio
Rotoscope
 Traces the movement of
live actors, frame by
frame
Produced the first animation with a
synchronized sound track in 1924
 Fleischer studio
 Tantalizing Fly, 1919
produced Betty Boop,
Popeye, and Superman
cartoon series
 Affected by the Hays
Code in 1934
1933
1935
Inventor of the family entertainment
 Film producer, director,
screen writer, voice
actor, animator,
entrepreneur
 Greatly influenced 20th
century American
culture
Father of Mickey Mouse
 Steamboat Willie (1928)
was not the first Mickey
Mouse cartoon produced
or released
 Not the first sound
cartoon either
 The first sound cartoon
that achieved wide
commercial success
 “Disney’s memory belongs to the public; Max’s to
those who remember him by choice.” (Heraldson,
1975)
midori@utdallas.edu