The father of animation

I love Nemo in Slumberland, that amazingly surreal comic of early twentieth century. Its creator, Winsor McCay, also dabbled in movies, so much so that, for all practical purposes, he deserves that title of the father of animation. He started by animating Nemo. 'Audiences didn’t know what to make of “Little Nemo:” No one had ever seen anything like it. The films of Blackton and Emile Cohl showed simple line or stick figures performing elementary motions. McCay’s fully rendered characters moved smoothly and realistically. More than 20 years would elapse before Walt Disney’s artists began creating more believable animation. To McCay’s chagrin, viewers assumed he had made the film using some sort of trick photography of live actors. That skepticism may have led McCay to choose a character for his third film that couldn’t be faked: “Gertie the Dinosaur” in 1914.' More...