Winsor McCay (1871-1934)

Introduction
American Winsor McCay is considered the first great film animator. He developed animation as an art form and delighted the public with his beautiful, elaborately drawn characters. A self-taught artist and cartoonist, he first began working for New York newspapers. He achieved his earliest success in animation through the creation of interesting characters such as Little Nemo. Later, McCay drew Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), the first animation to possess true personality! Gertie was a sensation and McCay himself performed live with her. McCay was widely admired by animators but he did not fit in the animation industry and gave up on making animation in 1921. At a dinner in his honor in 1927, he told animators,

Materials
Animation Legend: Winsor McCay
This DVD contains a selection of 10 works by Winsor McCay.
Winsor McCay online		  

 

Gertie the Dinosaur


Critical Viewing for Winsor McCay
Ask students:

  • Why is Winsor McCay considered one of the first true animators?
  • After viewing several McCay shorts, what was your favorite McCay animation? Why?
  • What are some core elements that became principals of animation because of McCay’s animations?
  • Do you think that knowing how to draw makes someone a better animator?
  • How has animation changed from pre-computer to present time? Has it gotten better or worse?
  • What do you think about McCay’s statement that animation should be an art not a trade? What do you think he meant then? Does that hold true now?
  • What do you think McCay would think about the uses of animation in contemporary media?

Little Nemo in Slumberland (1911)
Little Nemo originally appeared as a cartoon strip in the pages of the New York Herald in 1907. In 1911, McCay made his first film, incorporating these characters into his stage performance. For Little Nemo, he drew over 4000 individual drawings, which were later filmed in a studio. Little Nemo causes his friends to stretch and squash, draws a Princess who comes to life, and then a rose that grows, just in time to be plucked by Nemo to present to the Princess. The couple end up being transported away, seated on a throne in the mouth of a dragon. The film made a considerable impact, both on audiences and other artists because it plays between the naturalistic appearance of the characters and the fantastic transformations and distortions that occur.

How a Mosquito Operates (1912)
McCay’s next film How a Mosquito Operates was also based on a comic strip from his Dream of the Rarebit Fiend series. As another experiment this bizarre short film features a sleeping fat man and a greedy mosquito which grows enormous from the blood that it sucks from the man, until it finally explodes.

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Winsor McCay’s best-known film is Gertie the Dinosaur. With live action introducing scenes featuring the artist taking on the project as a bet, this too is another stage act. McCay projected the film on his white sketchpad and in a carefully choreographed sequence appeared as a ringmaster to direct the actions of the remarkably tame but slightly naughty dinosaur on the screen beside him. He actually joins her on screen for the finale. While making the film, McCay also devised the system, since used by every animator, of establishing the key poses or frames in each action, then working out the ‘in-between’ frames. In February of 1914, Gertie debuted to stunning reviews. Her character was so vivid that the audience could actually relate with this enormous, but loveable animated cartoon.

The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918)
McCay’s last major film is probably his most remarkable. The Sinking of The Lusitania was his version of the First World War incident in which a German submarine sank the British liner with the loss of 1200 lives. It took McCay two years to make and involved 25,000 drawings. The film shows the tragedy in a sophisticated way, with frequently changing points of view both above and below water, and dramatic editing. Animation of such complexity and subtlety would not be seen again until the early Disney features. This piece also shows his courage in attempting to depict a historical document of such a monumental and tragic event, which happened in minutes without any visual record whatsoever.
 
 
 
 

© 2008 Karin Gunn. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: February 2008