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The past 150 years has seen tremendous strides in technological and scientific research and invention. Who would have ever imagined that men would walk on the moon or that open heart surgery could be performed with robotic assistance? Still, with all of these advances man has consistently failed in one field of research: the creation of life from inanimate material.

This desire, coupled with an inborn need to find creative expression, has lead to some interesting discoveries. Man has developed the illusion of creating life from nothing. Spectators of this illusion are at times amazed and often carried away from reality, even if just for a few hours.

We are talking about the art of cartoon animation. Using various methods an artist has the ability to make his drawings move and speak. With modern computer technology, the artist?s drawings may even appear to interact with with the observer. Walt Disney, a monumental figure in the history of animated film once said, "Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive."

What is the history of this art form? What advances has it made in recent years?

A Brief History of Theatrical Animation

On December 28, 1895, the world of art and entertainment took a drastic turn. Upon invitation Georges Méliès, a well known Paris magician, attended the first public showing of the Cinématographe. Méliès never forgot that evening.

"The other guests and I found ourselves in front of a small screen...after a few minutes, a stationary photograph showing the Place Bellecour in Lyon was projected. A little surprised, I scarcely had time to say to my neighbor: 'Is it just to have us see projections that he has brought us here? I've been doing them for ten years.'

"No sooner had I stopped speaking when a horse pulling a cart started to walk toward us, followed by other vehicles, then passerby - in short, the whole vitality of a street. We were open-mouthed, dumfounded, astonished beyond words in the face of this spectacle."

How exciting it must have been for early pioneers of motion picture to learn and develop their art! Within a very short period of time, these individuals began experimenting with different forms of expression through this new and mysterious medium.

In 1896 J. Stuart Blackton, a native Englishman who emigrated to the United States, walked into a studio that would change his life and launch a new industry in the motion picture field. Blackton was a journalist and illustrator for the New York Evening World. He was sent to interview the inventor of the Vitascope, Thomas Edison.

Blackton immediately fell in love with the cinema. That same year he founded a production house called Vitagraph. Within a very short period, he discovered that by exposing film frame by frame and manipulating a scene between exposures, the illusion of motion could be produced with inanimate objects. At the time, a standard movie camera would expose eight frames per turn of a crank. Camera operators learned how to alter the camera to expose only one frame per crank, and the technique of animation became known as "one turn, one picture."

In time, Blackton realized that he could bring drawings to life using this method. In 1906, Vitagraph released a short film entitled "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces." Blackton?s hand draws a man and a woman on a blackboard. When his hand leaves the frame, the faces roll their eyes. The hand appears again and erases the emboldened animated characters.

In 1905, Winsor McCay, a cartoon illustrator for the New York Herald, created a strip called "Little Nemo in Slumberland." This cartoon became so popular that it was developed into a Broadway musical. In 1911, McCay left the paper and began working for the New York American. During this time, he began experimenting with the idea of using animated pictures as part of a vaudeville act. His first project was a film adaptation of "Little Nemo." With no story line, "Little Nemo" was a beautiful study in movement.

McCay?s second film was entitled "The Story of a Mosquito." The film, a story of a mosquito?s encounter with a drunken man, was a hit. Some theatergoers felt that McCay was performing a trick with wires, not understanding the the nature of drawn animation.

To prove that his drawings were actually moving McCay responded by producing the film "Gertie the Dinosaur." Ten thousand drawings inked on rice paper were used in creating this masterpiece. Gertie debuted February 1914 in Chicago as part of a vaudeville act. As the film was projected on screen McCay stood nearby and interacted with the animated dinosaur. Gertie laughed and cried. Audiences loved it. The film had a storyline and a star - the first of its kind in animation history.

As time passed, other artists became involved in the animation industry. In 1923, Walt and Roy Disney formed the Disney Brothers Studio and signed a contract with Margaret J. Winkler, a New York film distributor, to produce six short films based on the Lewis Carroll book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." These films featured a mix of live action and drawn animation. The fifty-sixth and last Alice Comedy film was released on July 15, 1927.

In 1928, the Walt Disney Studio released "Steamboat Willie," the first cartoon built around a soundtrack. This film featured Disney?s latest character, Mickey Mouse. It was a sensation.

In the years following "Steamboat Willie" Disney?s studio developed the novelty of animated film into an art form that could express emotion and personality. In December 1937, the studio released "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full length animation feature. Skeptics called this project "Disney's Folly," stating that the public would not sit through a lengthy animated feature. They were wrong. Snow White was a smash hit and maintains an audience today.

Over a sixty-three year period, the Walt Disney Studio has produced 38 animated features and countless animated shorts. Other companies such as Warner Brothers, MGM and DreamWorks have also produced notable animated theatrical works.