Cartoons

Animated films have been popular since the early days of cinema. Many show animals behaving like people, like the characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

📖 In short

Cartoons are films where we see drawings and characters move and talk as if they were alive! But how do drawings move? The secret is drawing a huge number of pictures, each a little different from the one before.

🤩 Did you know?

The first feature-length animated film was shown in 1937.
“Steamboat Willie” in 1928 was one of the first cartoons with sound.
A short film needs thousands of drawings.
The American artist Winsor McCay showed his first animated films in 1911.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Tricking the eye

When lots of pictures are shown one after another very fast, about 24 a second, our eyes can't tell them apart, so we see smooth movement.

🔍 Try it yourself

Draw a little man in the corner of each page of a small notebook, changing his position a bit from page to page, then flick through the pages fast with your finger, and you'll see him move!

💡 Different methods

In the past artists drew every picture by hand and colored it in. Some photograph clay figures, moving them a little before each picture. Today most cartoons are made on computers.

🎯 A big team

A big team works on an animated film: the story writer, the artists, the colorists, the actors who give the characters their voices, and the musicians.

📸 More pictures

Clay animation uses clay figures instead of drawings. The picture (right) shows a TV advertisement for food products made with this technique.

Computer animation uses shapes drawn by computer. The picture (above) shows a scene from a film about the son of two desk lamps. The computer was used to create realistic-looking elements in the film.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Why do we see the drawings move?

2 How are most cartoons made today?

3 When lots of pictures are shown one after another very fast, about ?? a second, our eyes can't tell them apart, so we see smooth movement.

4 Which picture shows “Cartoons”?