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Therefore, animation is the art of manipulating the invisible interstices between frames.
This list is not intended to be comprehensive.
One hundred is a crushingly compact number of slots with which to encapsulate the totality of a medium.
That isnt to say we didnt try.
Reynauds show,Pantomimes Lumineuses,consisted of sets of shorts that he had drawn.
He worked for the Musee Grevin under a stunningly unfair contract.
Despite the giant success ofPantomimes Lumineuses,he saw little of the profits and eventually went broke.
In despair, he destroyed the Theatre Optique and tossed most of his films into the Seine.
Melies is credited with innovating the first split screen, the first double exposure and the first dissolve effect.
While many of Meliess films have been lost over time, his impact remains keenly felt.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
And it forever changed animation.
Audiences approved, but they didnt truly believe that theyd witnessed McCays drawings move.
That is, until he introduced them toGertie the Dinosaur.
McCay not only gave Gertie life; he gifted her with a personality.
BeforeGertie the Dinosaur, characters were blank slates.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
Even the British royal family isgetting the animated satire treatment (blimey)in HBO Maxs upcomingThe Prince.
But really, it all started with one anthropomorphic black cat hungry for the spotlight.
Consider the seven-minute-long silent-era short filmFelix in Hollywood.
It was the first animated cartoon to caricature celebrities and along with them the contemporary studio system.
The value of Felixs contract may be nebulous, but the films impact is undeniable.
Just a decade later,Looney Tunescelebrity caricatures began to emerge as well.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
At that time, Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation as a self-taught artist particularly skilled in shadow play.
Perhaps even more impressively, the piece was animated frame by frame, which took three years.
Its also an early use of fairy-tale storytelling, another area Disneys films would become known for.
For years, Lotte Reinigers name went largely unsaid in the industry, falling out of the popular canon.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
It was also born out of heartache.
When Walt traveled to New York to renegotiate the terms of the deal, he was blindsided.
Walt quit, and Ub stood by his longtime partner.
But Walt didnt own the character.
Disney had a dynamite new character, an intellectual property he could own.
Walt could just as easily have given up, but instead the recent experience strengthened his resolve.
And rightfully so it is still a hoot, and one you canwatch on Disney+right now.
Mickey is no bland corporate figurehead.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
Fiddlesticks(1930)
Iwerks StudioDirected by Ub Iwerks
Disney magic wasnt made by Walt Disney alone.
Then Iwerks and Disney had a falling out in 1930, and Iwerks opened his own animation studio.
There, he created the bow tie-wearing Flip the Frog.
But it was Iwerks who showed that the burgeoning Technicolor process could be applied to the medium.
Today, Disney recognizes him as a master of animation and technology, a title he richly deserves.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
This one stars two of the Fleischer brothers greatest creations: Betty Boop and Koko the Clown.
Playful and surreal, it remains artistically daring nearly 90 years later.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
A working animator since 1915, OBriens stop-motion work was already heralded as groundbreaking before his contributions toKong.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Chuck Jones commented that the film made him realize something was happening there that hadnt happened before.
He even argued that character animation truly began with the film.
And as a result,Three Little Pigswas hugely influential both inside and outside the studio.
(It was also, not coincidentally, one of the first animated films to be fully storyboarded.)
And that story department would prove crucial in the years ahead as he marched toward a feature-length animated film.
Culturally, though,Three Little Pigshad an even larger impact.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
In the short, Mickey is a conductor trying, desperately, to get through the William Tell Overture.
(you’re free to even hear the overture as you swing.)
Truly a tremendous performance.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
Over 80 years after its premiere, the process is still effective, the illusion not aging a day.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Such is the case with Silly SymphonysThe Old Mill.
Whether or not thats true, the technology was used fabulously inThe Old Mill.
Instead of being jokey caricatures, the animals and their action are rendered in a more realistic manner.
They are simplified for visual clarity but neverpersonifiedlike in other shorts.
It really is that spooky.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
It centers on a princess and her desire for a happy ending.
Its a feeling best described as pure Disney.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
But Walt Disneys wildly ambitious follow-up,Pinocchio, ultimately had much bigger effects on the medium itself.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
In fact, Disney himself saw the film as an ever-evolving, never-complete passion project.
(He wanted the film to have its segments switched in and out every few years.)
It was Walt at his artsiest and most ambitious.
Well, not hell exactly, but close.
This Night on Bald Mountain, incredibly, is just as creepy.
And Disneystillmanaged to one-up it.
you might feel all of that coursing through Night on Bald Mountain.
(Tytla would leave the studio after the animators strike that rocked Disney in 1941.)
Rewatching the Night on Bald Mountain segment, its downright shocking.
It is worth noting that at the time of the films release, this segment ofFantasiafell under particular scrutiny.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
The Mad Scientist,Superman(1941)
Shortly afterAction ComicsNo.
And yet the FleischerSupermanserial ended up as a definitive take on the Man of Steel.
The Mad Scientist was a huge success.
Ultimately, though, it was also the series that ended the Fleischer brothers working relationship.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
Disney producer Don Hahnattributes this trope to Walt Disneys personal life.
(Even Disneys own daughterwasnt thrilled at its inclusion.)
Those impacts aside, its simply a marvelous sequence.
It wont ever look as good as this.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
On the American side, there are a few categories of WWII propaganda cartoons.
There are the ones devoted to demonstrating the evils of the enemy (such asDer Fuehrers Face).
There are instructional films for proper military and/or homefront conduct (thePrivate Snafuseries).
Mainly, it uses an Army Air Force base as an excuse for airplane shenanigans.
A gremlin seeking to sabotage planes puts Bugs through some fantastic physical comedy.
In the final sequence, this paradoxically hits new heights as the plane plummets toward the ground.
Bugs is made of putty, contorting in mortal agony.
And it all caps off with one of the greatest punch lines in WB history.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Hanna aspired to be a director and possessed a keen sense of timing.
The Cat Concertois one of both duos zeniths of situation, timing, and gag-based comedy.
2.What unfolds is a battle of wits built around Bradleys dynamite explosion of a score.
LikeLooney Tunes, Tom and Jerry shorts solidified a punch in of animated violence that feels distinctly American.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
UPA introduced the concept of limited animation, which brought a modernist design to the medium.
The shorts best transition comes after the titular Gerald gets home after being bullied at school.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
But Ofujis own fable is wholly idiosyncratic in its presentation.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
The short went on to win an Academy Award and a Canadian Film Award.
They lived there together until McLarens death in 1987.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Whoevers in charge here: Wheres the scenery?
Daffy asks through a ruptured fourth wall after his background has turned into a blank white space.
From there, the backdrops keep changing and Daffy keeps trying to adjust.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Kill the Wabbit!,Whats Opera, Doc?
(1957)
More than almost any other short film in this list, this one needs no introduction.
Animation legend Chuck Jones at the height of his creative powers?
The final appearance of Elmer Fudd in a Jones-directed cartoon?
Bugs Bunny in his best drag performance?
Theres no wonder this became the first cartoon selected for the National Film Registry.
The added time and effort show onscreen.
Then theres the real star of the show, Bugss lapine femme fatale, the pigtailed Brunhilde.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Until Toei released Japans first full-color animated feature, proving Japan could play the game too.
The effect was monumental.
Recruiting aspiring animators was easy.
Many left, including Miyazaki and Takahata, who became Toeis competitors.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
the first wide release to utilize the prestige format only emphasized the films glittering assemblage of artistic achievements.
There is the expansive, richly painted background work of artist Eyvind Earle.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
Two of its animators in particular contributed enormously to the medium: Karel Zeman and Jiri Trnka.
A Midsummer Nights Dreamis a highly unusual film in technical terms.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
The Flintstones, like most of Hanna-Barberas productions, made use of looping limited animation.
The animators kept characters hands at their sides.
They looped animation of Freds feet as he served as the motor of his own car.
Characters passed across the same backgrounds over and over again.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
It showcases the limited animation associated withAstro Boys creator, manga artist/anime boss/cultural giant Osamu Tezuka.
But while they developed into stylistic conventions now part of animes visual language, these techniques werent Tezukas.
Or unique to Japan.
At the time,Astro Boydidnt look too out of place next to Hanna-Barbera productions likeThe Flintstones.
Tezuka soldAstro Boyspilot in the anime TV industrys formative years.
Unfamiliar with the costs involved, buyers made low offers based on known quantities such as animation imports.
By accepting an amount he knew fell far short, Tezuka set a harmful precedent that became industry standard.
Thats a complicated legacy.
It set the precedent for treating imported anime as raw materials.
(Click here to watch on Funimation.)
His genius wasnt just seen in his skill when it came to designing and manipulating miniatures.
In the end, the fight was a landmark special effect.
Those stop-motion skeletons shared the screen with the stars, but more importantly, they interacted with them.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
you’re free to tell that Disney wanted to push things forward, and push things he did.
Legend has it that notoriously contentiousMary Poppinsauthor P.L.
Travers hated the animated sequence and after the world premiere even urged Disney to cut it.
That ship has sailed.)
(Somewhat tellingly, the animation on the sequel wasnt handled by Disney.)
(Click to watch on Disney+.)
(Click to watch on Amazon.)
Godzillas scaled foot comes crashing down on our protagonist.
The shorts magic is all in the timing.
But the film lives on, getting a makeover in aframe-for-frame HD re-creation in 2013.
He said, Just play it!
Its a mystery group.
The guy played it, and the phones lit up.
But if the Archies started the trend,Josie and the Pussycatsperfected it with their mega-groovy intro sequence.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
attitude that presages the naughtiness and cynicism ofSouth Parkdecades later.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
(The Jackson 5iveandThe Harlem Globetrotters, which preceded it, were based on existing people.)
The nicknames of these characters werent always positive Dumb Donald, not the best!
but seeing all these Black kids on TV, depicted in a positive light, was significant.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Three Is a Magic Number,Schoolhouse Rock!
The animation was just as elegant in its simplicity.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
To see images from it are to have them forever seared on the brain.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
(Click here to watch on Kanopy.)
LikeStar Treks USSEnterprise, theYamatowas named for a real ship.
This flashback from the episode The Opening Gun!
Space Battleship Yamato Starts!
A voice-over says theYamatos origin as a warship, born to fight, is a tragedy.
He fought to change the music, insisting, Young people will not go along with this!
and If the broadcast station hears this, the program is over.
War was still a delicate subject in Japan, where anti-military protests had filled the previous decade.
However, this sequence didnt make it into the U.S. adaptation in any form.
But neither did more overtly antiwar sequences.
The U.S. subject of Japans anti-military protests had its own delicate balance to maintain.
But the girls would sometimes admit they preferredYamatos rival:Heidi, Girl of the Alps.
It also made the case for prestige TV animation.
These were dubbed and aired around the world, popularizing this anime style.
He chose to make movies instead.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
Neither will anyone who watches this astonishing film.
WithHedgehog in the Fog, he stumped his colleagues around the world with extraordinary environmental effects.
How do the animals actually fade into and out of the fog?
How did he replicate the fuzziness of fog so effectively with glass and celluloid?
(Click here to watch on Vimeo.)
For her paint-on-glass work, she used pigments with retardants mixed in so they wouldnt dry.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
(Click here to watch on Vimeo.)
DCs Justice League was enshrined by the studio on television for more than a decade as theSuper Friends.
The introduction of Black Vulcan, the first Black superhero on television, is one of them.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Pitts animation used a combination of cut-outs, stop motion, and traditional hand-drawn and painted animation cels.
Pitt animates her film with a gliding, dreamy quality of shape-shifting and effervescent movement.
No subject was off limits or too personal, Zammarchi said.
She was always generous during these meandering interviews as long as we both kept drawing and painting.
(Click here to watch on The Criterion Channel.)
And boy, were those intentions bizarre.
And then the giant robot appears.
(Click here to watch on The Criterion Channel.)
Because he was told it was dangerous.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
The great Czech stop-motion surrealist turnedAlices Adventures in Wonderlandinto a half live-action, half-animated childs-eye-view nightmare.
He transformed a folktale into dark comedy about a tree stump baby with a taste for human flesh.
He depicted two cutlets of meat having a grand and fully consummated romance before getting fried up for dinner.
(Click here to watch on YouTube.)
This is whyThe Secret of NIMH, Bluths first feature, could be accurately described as showing off.
The Secret of NIMHwasnt a financial success, but its arrival altered the course of American animation.
Bluths studio would become the primary competition but mostly in spirit.
Its a win for Bluth in a way: He thought quality animation would win the day.
Audiences didnt choose his, but they did choose the better animated world he pushed for.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Macrossco-creator Shoji Kawamori was one of the teenage fans who visitedSpace Battleship Yamatos Studio Nue.
These visits became regular, and he was working there part time before even starting his mechanical engineering degree.
These would becomeTransformers, opening up the most profitable new mecha toy possibilities sinceGetter Robofirst combined robots in 1974.
But the idol content was just as groundbreaking.
A Japanese idols success relies on their ability to enable parasocial relationships.
This framework was never applied to fictional characters until Minmay.
The soundtrack sold music.Miss DJsold Minmay.
7 on Japans Oricon music charts.
The U.S. adaptationRobotechrepresented the height of butchering localization practices, combiningMacrosswith two unrelated shows to make one Frankenseries.
Nevertheless, it built a dedicated fan following and shaped the animation landscape asStar Blazershad before it.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
It was the No.
(Click here to watch on Starz.)
Enter Jeff Ayeroff, thencreative director of Warner Bros. Records.
1 on theBillboardcharts in America and embedding itself firmly in the pop-culture subconscious.
The short ends on a relatively high note, despite these dark undertones.
Maybe the true takeaway from Condies cartoon is that love really is all we need.
(Click here to watch on iTunes.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Its emotional realism established inanimate objects as having lifelike qualities that could inspire both comedy and drama.
At that time, most traditional artists were afraid of the computer.
They did not realize that the computer was merely a different tool in the artists kit.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
Soon they encounter another commuter, the local bear/cat/rabbit spirit Totoro, to whom Satsuki lends their spare umbrella.
(Or rather, a cat shaped like a bus?)
It is an extremely simple scene and also one of the most beat-by-beat delightful movie moments ever.
Every action has an equal and opposite non-action, a moment of consideration and reflection.
Its the simple feeling of passing the time, refracted through a lens that makes it indelible.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Nowhere else is a still drawing of a human so agonizing as in this scene.
Like Miyazakis bus stop inTotoro, the sequence has its own rhythm.
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
The director yells Cut,Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
It also reminded critics just what animation could do.
Yes, this motion picture was halflive action.
But it was 100 percent a love letter to the humor and magic of animation.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
The opening 13 minutes ofAkiraare a master class in cinematic precision.
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
The shows unsettling essence is encapsulated by its most famous moment, Happy Happy Joy Joy.
But, like so many things, the shows inventiveness is now overshadowed byits creators indefensible behavior.
Kricfalusi admitted to the claims and said it was motivated by undiagnosed bipolar disorder and ADHD.
Despite Kricfalusis behavior,Ren & Stimpys influence is undeniable.
It inspired dozens of imitators and fellow envelope-pushers in American adult animation in the late 90s and early aughts.
(Click here to watch on CBS All Access.)
Both of these series presented superheroics as an act of transformation.
In Japan, the magical-girl anime was nothing new in the 1990s, but it was for American audiences.
This made the sequence all the more relatable to the preteen girls who were obsessed with the series.
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
This Is Halloween was scary Everybody scream!
shouts a creepy talking tree in the Danny Elfmanpenned song and seductively dark.
Aardmans 2000 filmChicken Runremains the top-grossing stop-motion film of all time.
(Click here to watch on Disney+.)
Dexters Laboratory, a.k.a.
Changes,What a Cartoon!
But the biggest to come out of the early days of the show wasDexters Laboratory.
(The Powerpuff Girls, created by Tartakovsky contemporary Craig McCracken, premiered a week earlierin February 1995.)
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
But it took until 1995 and the arrival ofRugratsbefore we saw a Jewish-holiday special in an animated show.
It also proved influential within the data pipe, withHey Arnold!later including a Bar Mitzvah episode.
Real Monsters,The Wild Thornberrys, andAs Told by Ginger.
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
Eight writers are credited with either screenplay by or story by credits on the film.
A huge cast of comedic actors led by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen do the voices.
And its themes of changing friendship, jealousy, doubt and fear resonated with adults and children alike.
The seams never showed, though.
The proud parent was the computer-graphics program thats now called Autodesk 3ds Max.
Yet the decision to end the show in a cathartic work of avant-garde art is completely breathtaking.
(Click here to watch on Netflix.)
But there was no media panic.
If anything, the incident (whichThe SimpsonsandSouth Parkparodied a couple of years later) boostedPokemons brand awareness.
Pokemonwas the turning point for animes shift to the mainstream.
The internet was new, but anime fandom was already online.
Newbies began to learn that what thePokemonanime called jelly donuts were actually onigiri, a Japanese rice snack.
When they saw characters bowing, or wearing yukata, they could look up the significance.
Pokemonflattened the learning curve to appreciate anime and opened a gateway to Japanese culture.
(Click here to watch on fuboTV.)
A flight through the city streets ensues, in which Mima is pursued by … herself.
Through heart-skipping editing, this chase fragments both Mima and Rumi.
Its deliberately absurd but loses none of its horror for it.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
All in all, a supremely silly delight and a testament to the shows bizarre imagination and long-lasting charm.
RIP, Macho Man.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
The fight itself encapsulates everything that madeDragon Ball Zspecial and unlike anything audiences had ever seen.
It also weaves emotional character development and the deaths of beloved characters together with moments of epic action.
Finally,Dragon Ball Zserved as a major turning point for anime localization in the U.S. And it paid off.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
The construction-paper aesthetic looks even more cut-out and glued together than it does on Stan or Cartman.
Every adult in the theater walks out during the number What garbage, says one woman.
Well, what do you expect?
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
The only way to transcend those boundaries is through literal transformation.
So, obviously, she becomes a badass pink hot rod, blazing down the open road.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
And love it or hate it, we started off the new millennium with the animated landmark that wasShrek.
(Anyone familiar withthe A-team/B-team storyof thePocahontasandThe Lion Kinganimators at Disney knows how this story turns out.)
With its opening sequence,Shrekannounced that the old ways were dead.
The years reallydostart coming and, alas, they dont stop coming.
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
A first-time filmmaker, Sakaguchis Hollywood-bankrolled pursuit of realism resulted in a technical marvel.
But cost overreaches outweighed box-office returns, and it was deemed a failure.
Photorealism is expensive and tends to yield diminishing returns.
You cannot cross the uncanny valley, at least not yet.
Improving CG animation requires a continuous cycle of artistic innovation and technological advancement.
AfterSpirits Within, Japanese producers largely rejected CG, using it only sparingly and functionally for the next decade.
Since CG became cheaper and foreign money increased budgets in the 2010s, Japan has been playing catch-up.
But getting here took time and talent cultivation that could have begun in 2001.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
The greatest moment of calm inSpirited Awayis a sequence about two-thirds of the way through the film.
But where her arrival in the spirit world was almost instantaneous, this journey is more decompressed.
It feels just as miraculous now.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Serkis would wear a special suit and computers would translate visual data into a totally new creature.
(The technology would also be used for orcs, though many of them were created using prosthetics.)
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Still, what a workIts Such a Beautiful Dayis.
That is, until the end.
(Click here to watch on Vimeo.)
You could say the same about everyone who worked onAdventure Time, exceptAdventure Timewasextremelypopular when it aired.
Pendleton Wards seminal series about Jake the Dog and Finn the Humans adventures in the Land of Ooo.
Is Finn the only human?
Are the shows villains bad or broken?
And why does this world of magic and whimsy just feel like its missing something?
(Click here to watch on Hulu.)
Taki falls through time,Your Name.
This comparison, however, on its surface, feels reductionist.
In short, it is the quintessence of all that Makoto Shinkai has to offer as a director.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Anime fans are a good investment, clustered across platforms, demographics, and geographies.
Word of mouth incites FOMO, working fast and spreading far.
All Netflix needs is the right content to draw these fans in.
(Its done this with new shows as well as old, likeNeon Genesis Evangelion.)
The algorithm just has to identify them.
(Click here to watch on Netflix.)
TheSpider-Verseanimators alternated between animating on ones and twos depending on the scene.
Its now the job of tomorrows animators to push the medium forward again.
(Click here to watch on Amazon.)
Its animators had the chops, and made a full-blown movie musical later in the same year.
What they chose to represent in Change Your Mind instead was internal and rooted in self-love.
They found what Norman McLaren would call the invisible.
(Click here to watch on HBO Max.)
Correction: An earlier version of this list mistakingly referred to Floyd Norman as Norman Floyd.
Vulture regrets the error.
Eric Vilas-Boas is the entertainment editor atObserver.
John Maher is the news editor atPublishers Weekly.
Together they ran the animation journalism publicationThe Dot and Line.
