An animated journey to the past By: Eirini Zoupai
car∙toon \kä-'tün\ noun : a drawing in a newspaper or magazine intended as a humorous comment on something
: a series of drawings that tell a story
: a film or television show made by photographing a series of drawings: an animated film or television show
Based on Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Who has never found a cartoon or animation film playing on the TV and just got stuck there, amused just like a little child?! Television is everywhere these days, not just in our living rooms. We have access to TV virtually anywhere. Adults are not the only ones who are ‘affected’, but also children today are exposed to screens more than ever before. It is somehow strange how the whole cartoon entertainment industry has evolved. A few years ago, everything was so different from the reality which we now live in. Specifically, not too long ago, children used to wake up with the sunrise in order to see the “must-watch” cartoons, such as Tom&Jerry. While now, they can just search for it online and they are unconscious of the obsession that they can get out of it.
The history of animation films started with a man called Emile Cohl. In 1908 this French animator created the first animated cartoon ever. “Fantasmagorie” (phantasmagoria in English) has no real story or structure. It took 5 months of work and about 700 drawings for 1 minute and 20 seconds of joy. The world then had a taste of what the magic of animation could give. With the passing of time, Walt Disney, a well-known animator, created the character of Mickey Mouse. Subsequently, a wide variety of films would enter the children’s world.
According to studies, films and especially animation, have shown a huge increase on number in the last 20 years. Even though the classic cartoons will never get out of fashion, the new ones are addictive. If we have a quick look at the charts from 1995-2015, films like “How the Grich stole...