Animated Cartoons
Animated, or moving, cartoons have been entertaining audiences since the early 20th century, but they have changed a lot in that time.
Silent Cartoons
The first animated cartoons came out over 100 years ago. There were no televisions, so people watched cartoon in movie theaters. Those cartoons were black and white, and they had no sound. However, they weren’t totally silent: a piano player in the movie theater played live music. Early cartoons were very simple, but audiences loved them. They enjoyed seeing popular characters come to life.
The Rise of Television and Modern Animation
In the 1950s and 1960s, many people got televisions, so cartoons moved to TV. Many cartoons were broadcast on Saturday mornings because children were usually home at that time. Now we can watch cartoons on the Internet any time, and we don’t even need TV.
The way we make animation also changed a lot. Many animators now use computer-generated imagery, or CGI. This makes characters look realistic and 3D.