The history of animated films: from Disney to Pixar

Animation may be the most universal film genre: beloved by children and adults alike, capable of conveying the most complex emotions through drawn or digital characters that never existed. From the first experiments in the early twentieth century to the CGI spectacles of today — the evolution of animated film is a story of technological innovation, artistic courage, and commercial ingenuity.

The early pioneers: 1900–1930

The very first animated films date from the beginning of the twentieth century. Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908) is often regarded as the first true animated film. This French two-minute short depicted a stick figure moving through a series of surreal transformations — primitive by modern standards, but revolutionary for its time.

In the United States, Winsor McCay was one of the earliest master animators. His Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) was a landmark: the character had a recognisable personality and moved with a fluidity that astonished his contemporaries. McCay drew every frame by hand — a technique since largely replaced, but at the time the only method available.

The introduction of cel animation — whereby characters are drawn on transparent celluloid sheets layered over a background — made producing longer animated films more efficient. The animated shorts of Felix the Cat (early 1920s) and later Mickey Mouse benefited from this technology.

Walt Disney and the golden age: 1928–1960

The introduction of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928) — the first animated film with synchronised sound — marked the beginning of Disney's dominance. Walt Disney understood better than anyone how animation could be harnessed for narrative power. Disney Studios invested heavily in innovation: the multiplane camera (which created depth and dimension in two-dimensional animation), improved sound synchronisation, and ever more refined character animation.

The first feature-length animated film ever was Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Hollywood had dubbed the production "Disney's Folly" — the assumption being that no one would sit through an hour-long cartoon. It became a phenomenal success and set the standard for decades of animated films. The following decades brought Disney classic after classic: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan.

The challengers: Looney Tunes, Fleischer, and international animation

Disney was not the only player in the animation landscape. Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes — featuring characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and Sylvester — developed an entirely different style: faster, funnier, more absurdist, and without Disney's sentimentality. The slapstick animation of Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, and their colleagues was visually inventive in ways that remain influential to this day.

Fleischer Studios, responsible for Betty Boop and the early Popeye series, had their own darker aesthetic, heavily influenced by jazz and New York's urban culture. And in Europe, animators like Norman McLaren (Canada/Scotland) and Jiří Trnka (Czechoslovakia) were developing an entirely different, more artistic animation tradition.

Studio Ghibli and the Japanese animation tradition

No overview of animated film is complete without Japanese animation. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, which has produced an impressive body of masterworks: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and many more.

Spirited Away (2001) won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and remains the only Japanese film ever to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Miyazaki's work is distinguished by its devotion to hand-drawn animation, its ecological themes, and its refusal to impose clear moral conclusions — children and adults are treated as equals.

Pixar and the digital revolution

The greatest technological break in animation history was the arrival of computer-generated imagery (CGI). Pixar Animation Studios, founded in 1986 as a division of George Lucas' Lucasfilm and later purchased by Steve Jobs, pioneered CGI feature films. Toy Story (1995) was the first fully CGI-animated feature film — a milestone that changed the industry forever.

Pixar's contribution goes beyond technology. Films like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up, and Inside Out proved that animated films could tell mature, emotionally complex stories that resonated with adult audiences just as much as with children. Pixar redefined what animated film could be.

The renaissance of traditional animation and hybrid styles

Interestingly, the CGI revolution has not led to the disappearance of hand-drawn animation. Studio Ghibli continues to use traditional animation techniques. Productions like The Breadwinner (2017), Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers (2020), and Peau d'Âne (2021) prove that there is a vibrant audience for handmade animation that preserves the warmth and imperfection of the human gesture.

Modern animated films are also experimenting increasingly with hybrid styles: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) combined CGI with comic-book aesthetics in a revolutionary way, introducing an entirely new visual language for animation. The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and inspired a wave of imitators and experiments.

Conclusion: animated film as a fully-fledged art form

From the first hasty pen strokes of Winsor McCay to the hyperdetailed CGI worlds of Pixar and Disney — animated film has undergone a breathtaking evolution in little more than a hundred years. The genre has matured without losing its playfulness, become technologically revolutionary without losing its humanity. Animated film is not just for children, not just for entertainment — it is one of the richest art forms of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.