Shrek the Third: Historical Texts (part 1/5)- 'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1914)

About the Text:

In 1914, Windsor McCay created a short animated film titled ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’. The dinosaur character was based on the best known sauropods dinosaur, Diplodocus. The film was created before cels were introduced. To create ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’, Windsor McCay hand drew thousands of frames on 6.5 x 8.5 pieces of rice paper. This was a painstaking and tedious task. Whilst in production, McCay invented many techniques such as ‘animation loops’ (E.g. A dog walking- a frame by frame of a dog walking is drawn out once, as this motion of the dog is repetitive, the same drawings of the dog walking can be used again and again to illustrate the dog walking continuously. This prevents the animator from re-drawing the dog walking motion again), which are now standard in the industry.

Significance in the development of the genre/ achievements for the genre:

· Windsor McCay’s ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ inspired many generations of animators to bring their cartoons to life.

Society at the time (in general):

1914

· World War 1 began
· Paramount Pictures is formed
· The last ever ‘Passenger Pigeon’ died in the Cincinnati zoo on September 1st. The passenger Pigeon is now extinct
· Gertie the Dinosaur, released 15th September 1914

From the events and looking at others, it seems that ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ did not reflect society at the time. However the only link that I can make, although not a strong link is that Windsor McCay may have chose to make the character a dinosaur as they were known to be extinct and it was around this time the Passenger Pigeon was near the threat of extinct, which eventually they were, so the character was made as a dinosaur.
Also, animation was an area not explored until Windsor McCay illustrated its potential. By animation starting to blossom, it reflects how the film industry was developing at the time.