Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
1914 · Animation · 12 min · dir. Winsor McCay
The greatest animal act in the world!!!
- Animation
Synopsis
Although not the first feature-length animated film, as is sometimes thought, it was the first cartoon to feature a character with an appealing personality. The appearance of a true character distinguished it from earlier animated "trick films", such as those of Blackton and Cohl, and makes it the predecessor to later popular cartoons such as those by Walt Disney. The film was also the first to be created using keyframe animation.
Synopsis from OMDb
Details
- Director
- Winsor McCay
- Writer
- Winsor McCay
- Studio
- Vitagraph Company of America
- Released
- 1914-02-08
- Running time
- 12 minutes
- Internet Archive item
- Gertie
Cast & crew
Winsor McCay Director- Winsor McCay
- George McManus
Roy L. McCardell- Thomas A. 'Tad' Dorgan
Tom Powers- Robert McCay
John Bunny
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · A National Treasure · howefitz · 2015-03-26
I feel compelled to add a great review to push down the one that refers to this film as "trash"... This animated gem was made at the turn of the twentieth century. It features the first animated character with a very real personality. Watch this and imagine your only experiences with cartoons are in the newspaper. Then you see this film, and the cartoon moves! It had to be awe inspiring. Gertie, Nemo, and the other works of Windsor McCay have inspired countless artists, cartoonists, and film makers. We are so fortunate that we live in a time when films such as these are archived and…
★★★★★ · Gertie · RipJarvis · 2011-04-20
I fear one of our reviewers lost sight of the reasons that the film came into being. As someone said it was part of McKay's Vaudeville Chalk Talks. These were done to make money, yes, but they also brought the new field of animation to people who would have never gone to the Nickelodeon to view them. It was also a time when much of the country had no access to museums of any account, and dinosaurs were something that they might have heard of, but that was about all. It was also a time when P.T. Barnum had just brought the gigantic elephant "Jumbo" to America and he was a super star of the…
★★★★ · Darn good! · JHG095 · 2022-04-24
Sure, it's not so paleontologically accurate and I'm not sure what specific dinosaur Gertie is but it's really funny to watch!
★ · What a waste... · MorpheusOne · 2011-01-15
Besides being scientifically and historically inaccurate on so many levels, and besides the fact that it could be said that what is depicted in the cartoon in this video is just a depiction, this whole video was obviously meant to be a comedy piece, not something that anyone should take as a work of science or history. Unfortunately however, this was boring and NOT funny!! It should be saved for posterity and it has been but, posterity is the only reason to save this boring and inaccurate piece of trash...
