Which Was Walt Disney's First Animation?

In 1919 Walt Disney returned home to Kansas City, having served in the war in France. At this time he knew that he wanted to be an artist. His first job as such was drawing pictures for a farm equipment catalogue.

He then did some work for the Kansas City Slide Company, working on animated commercials to be shown in movie theatres.

At this time animated cartoons were in their infancy - they were in black and white, and they were very jerky. Walt was determined to try and improve upon this.

Walt's next project was a series of what was known as Newman Laugh-O-Grams, which were short animations which were shown in the Newman cinemas throughout Kansas.

Walt then worked on an animated version of Little Red Riding Hood, while at the same time developing his Laugh-O-Grams into more complex animation.

So it could be said that the Laugh-O-Grams were really Walt Disney's first animations, with Little Red Riding Hood being his first proper story done as an animation.

Animated cartoons had already become a regular entry on movie theater programs by the time Walt Disney first started experimenting. Following the excitement inspired by the works of Winsor McCay, The first commercial studios were opened by Barre', Bray, and Hearst in the period of 1914 to 1916. Disney's earliest works seemed to have been in imitation of the
Bray and Terry cartoons of the period 1916 to 1920. It was not Disney's motivation to
improve on the "jerkyness," as this was accomplished by Max Fleischer with his invention of the "Rotoscope" process in 1915, and adapted to regular series animation after 1918. In fact, Disney's first efforts were indeed jerky, and contained photographic flaws such as a flicker due to an uneven exposure caused by an apparent single bladed camera shutter. While his concept of offering a series of "modernized fairly tales" seemed novel, the addition of toned backgrounds for added production value did not compensate for the poor animation. This was the main reason for his failure to land a major distributor since he was not yet in a position to compete with the New York producers as he naively sssumed.

The major cartoon series of the early 1920s were FELIX THE CAT, OUT OF THE INKWELL, and MUTT AND JEFF. These series excelled at the time by having superior animation and personalities that connected with audiences. These were two areas where Disney had to improve in order to attain his goal.

The distinction as to which was Disney's first animation work goes to the "Lightning
Sketch" cartoon blackout reels, called "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams." These were done entirely by Walt Disney in his spare time while he continued working at The Kansas City Film Ad Service. Disney's first actual animated cartoon would have been LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, which was really the training exercise that prepared him for the LAUGH-O-GRTAMS fairy tales that followed. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD was not publically shown, but the second project, THE FOUR MUSICIANS OF BREMEN was more advanced, using cels and watercolor wash backgrounds, becoming the model for the series that followed.

But the Laugh-O-Grams were a learning experience, and stand as a facinating look at the basic instinct that was there, with indications of bigger and better things that were yet to come. "The Legendary Laugh-O-Grams Fairy Tales" are now available through inkwellimagesink.com.

Steam Boat Willie - Mickey Mouse.

Felix the cat

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit

Walt Disney's first name is "Walter."

The very first was mickey and minnie mouse cartoon

The first animated short to feature Mickey, Plane Crazy was a silent film

Many people would think it's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but there were some before that. Snow White was the first Disney film to be made in Technicolour. Three of Disney's first films are Steamboat Willie, The Skeleton Dance, and The Three Little Pigs.

Walt Disney was a man who used to make characters such as mickey mouse,Donald duck and so on. But the first animation movie he made was snow white.