Winsor McCay

An American cartoonist and animator, Winsor McCay was a revolutionary cartoonist who inspired many famous cartoonists such as Walt Disney.  He was born in 1871 in Spring Lake, Michigan where he started drawing at an early age.  He originally went to business college, but then moved to Chicago in order to study at an art institute, however, he found that he couldn't afford it and went straight into work in printing. He produced wood cuts for circus, theatrical, and World War I propaganda posters.  He then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to produce art for Kohl and Middleton's Dime Museum.  In 1903 he began drawing cartoons the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Many of Winsor's cartoons and animations were based off of poems or dreams. I watched two of his most famous animations Little Nemo, created in 1911, and Gertie the Dinosaur, created in 1914.  In these films he portrays himself first as the cartoonist and then he presents a challenge such as creating a 4000 page animation or controlling the animated dinosaur. It becomes humorous as things start to become chaotic because the challenge is too much for him.  He then regains his composure in the end and conquers his challenge and goes above and beyond what the viewer expected him to do.

Seeing these films gives the illusion of a time machine and really gives you insight into why Walt Disney's first animations were so wacky. I was really interested in the dream like cartoon Winsor created in Little Nemo.  His use of perspective really made the cartoon come alive and I was surprised he was able to portray that so accurately in his cartoon. He portrayed the surreal aspect of a dream also very well because the cartoon gives a sense of slight confusion followed by interest in what might happen next. The way the dream proceeded from a clown like figure on a blank piece of paper to a colorful scene with a couple climbing into a dragons mouth carriage was a very good build up.  I really liked how his characters, although silent, truly had their own wacky personalities that they portrayed through their body language and actions. His characters were fun, energetic, but in a way slightly insane which really brought the whole concept of the dream back together.