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About

Western animation (often simply called “cartoons”) is a general term used to describe animated media that comes from the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Though it’s called Western animation, in the present, most of the actual animation is outsourced to Korea, but the rest of the process is done in the West. ^[1] Though its main demographic is young children, there have been plenty of shows and films targeted towards adults and/or teenagers.

History

WIP

Early forms of moving images

Though there were earlier forms of entertainment that had a lot in common with animation that have existed since before the 19th century, like “Shadow Play stories”, which were made with cut-out figures that were held between a source of light and a translucent screen and “Magic Lantern shows” that were created with puppets that were moved around on the equivalent of an overhead projector against a translucent painting as background^[2]; traditional animation, as we know it today, didn’t start until the very early 1900s.

The Silent Era

The first animated film that’s known was created in 1908 by French Artist, Émile Cohl, called Fantasmagorie, the film consisted of a stick figure encountering various morphing objects, as well as sections were a live-action hand entered the scene. ^[3] During the 1910s, the industry started being commercialized by the showing of animated shorts like this one in Movie theatres.

The first cartoon character that was successfully marketed was Felix the Cat, created by Otto Messmer in 1920 (though most of the credit was taken by Pat Sullivan, the head of the studio), Other earlier silent cartoon characters include Gertie the Dinosaur, by Winsor McCay, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, by Walt Disney. ^{[4] [5]}

The first animated feature film to be entirely made of hand-drawn animation was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made in 1937 by Walt Disney ^[6]. While the first animated television show was released by Hanna-Barbera in 1958, The Huckleberry Hound Show.^[7]

Important Companies and Channels (WIP)

Notable Icons (WIP)

Many western animated shows and characters have gained large notoriety all throughout the world, garnering large amounts of fans and universal recognition. They've become an integral part of western culture, some important examples include:

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse ^[8] is an anthropomorphic cartoon mouse created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Studios in 1928. He currently serves as the current mascot of The Walt Disney Company and is one considered one of the most recognizable characters of all time.

Looney Tunes

The Looney Tunes is an American animated series of shorts films produced from 1930 to 1969 by Warner Bros, which introduced numerous popular cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and many others. Over time, the Looney Tunes have become Warner Bros' main franchise, creating tons of television shows, theatrical films, video games, music, and amusement parks, among other things. Bugs in Bunny, in particular, is regarded as a cultural icon has even received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Simpsons

Ed, Edd, and Eddy

Spongebob Squarepants

Steven Universe

Rick and Morty

Online Relevance

Cartoons have a pretty long history online, with a relatively big fanbase among different internet forums, sites, and wikis. Cartoon oriented sites, both official and fanmade, have been made over the years, like The Cartoon Network/Boomerang Cartoon Forum ^[9], a site dedicated to news and discussions relating to any animated programming of those channels. Many YouTubers also have channels that are mainly oriented towards cartoons, some notable examples include Rebel Taxi, Saberspark, TheMysteriousMrEnter, and Mars Reviews. Other websites like 4chan ^[10] and Reddit ^[11] also have communities dedicated to western animation, /co/, r/cartoons and r/90sCartoons respectively. Multiple animated shows also have their own forums and sites made to house anything relating to them.

External References