130 Fun Facts About Animation

Which French artist made Fantasmagorie (1908), considered the first animated cartoon?

Émile Cohl drew Fantasmagorie as black lines on white paper, then printed it in negative so the stick figure appears chalk-white on black.

Which American game company introduced the definitive zoetrope, with replaceable picture strips, as a toy in 1866?

Milton Bradley sold the zoetrope from 1866; its inventor, William Ensign Lincoln, devised it as a Brown University sophomore of about 18.

Reynaud's 1877 praxinoscope improved on the zoetrope by replacing its narrow viewing slits with what?

An inner ring of mirrors reflected the picture strip; the reflections stayed nearly stationary as the drum turned, giving a brighter, less distorted image than the zoetrope's slits.

Which physicist invented the phenakistiscope around December 1832, simultaneously with Simon Stampfer?

Joseph Plateau never settled on one name for his spinning disc, using both phénakisticope and his preferred fantascope.

Émile Reynaud's Pantomimes Lumineuses, the first projected animated films, opened in 1892 at which Paris venue?

Reynaud's Théâtre Optique ran at the Musée Grévin wax museum from October 1892, more than three years before the Lumière brothers' first paid film screening.

Blackton's 1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, an early hand-drawn animation, was drawn on what surface?

Blackton drew the faces in chalk on a blackboard, filming each change frame by frame; he had co-founded Vitagraph Studios and performed 'lightning sketch' acts on film.

Winsor McCay first showed Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) not in cinemas but as an interactive part of what?

McCay performed Gertie in his vaudeville act, giving her spoken commands on stage; a live-action prologue was added after William Randolph Hearst curtailed his touring.

Winsor McCay's most ambitious film (1918) recreated which 1915 event?

The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) took McCay about 25,000 drawings over 22 months, yet it was a commercial disappointment and his later films drew little attention.

El Apóstol (1917), considered the first feature-length animated film, was made in which country?

Quirino Cristiani made El Apóstol in Argentina, satirising President Hipólito Yrigoyen; the only copies burned in a 1926 fire at Federico Valle's studio.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the oldest surviving animated feature, used what technique?

Lotte Reiniger's silhouette cutouts, cardboard figures weighted with lead, drew on Wayang shadow puppets; the original prints were colour-tinted.

Which pre-digital animation device is Lotte Reiniger, maker of Prince Achmed, credited with first devising in 1923-26?

The multiplane camera is credited to Reiniger: layering flat planes at different depths gave her shadow films a parallax that Disney later industrialised with its own 1937 rig.

What did industry insiders derisively call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs during production?

'Disney's Folly' was the insiders' nickname; Walt mortgaged his house to finish the film, which then became the highest-grossing release of 1938.

Which technique, tracing over live-action footage frame by frame, did Max Fleischer invent in 1915?

Rotoscoping let Fleischer trace filmed movement for the Out of the Inkwell series; rival studios could use it freely only after his 1917 patent expired in 1934.

Betty Boop began life in Fleischer cartoons as an anthropomorphised what?

Dog was her first species: Betty debuted in Dizzy Dishes (1930) as a French poodle with floppy ears, evolving into a fully human flapper by 1932.

'Termite Terrace' was the affectionate nickname for the classic animation department of which studio?

Warner Bros. released the unit's Looney Tunes; Termite Terrace was a ramshackle building on the Sunset lot where Tex Avery's crew worked for about a year from 1935.

At which studio did Tex Avery create Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and Red Hot Riding Hood after 1941?

MGM hired Avery in 1941 after he left the Looney Tunes unit; his humour there was aimed squarely at adults, the opposite of Disney's approach.

Which Chuck Jones short topped Jerry Beck's 1994 book The 50 Greatest Cartoons?

What's Opera, Doc? (1957), Jones's six-minute Wagner parody, took the top spot; in 1992 it became the first short cartoon added to the National Film Registry.

Hanna-Barbera's five-minute Ruff and Reddy episodes had to cost no more than how much apiece?

Their seven-minute Tom and Jerry shorts had cost around $35,000 each.

Which 1960 series was the first animated show to air in prime time?

The Flintstones premiered on ABC on 30 September 1960 and ran six seasons, a prime-time animation record that stood until The Simpsons passed it in 1997.

Before becoming a half-hour series in 1989, The Simpsons began as shorts on which variety programme?

The Simpsons began as 48 shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show from April 1987 before its half-hour debut in December 1989.

Ray Harryhausen's celebrated fight between three actors and seven living skeletons is in which 1963 film?

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) expanded the single-skeleton duel Harryhausen had animated for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad five years earlier; the sequence took him over four months.

What did stop-motion pioneer Ladislas Starevich use as protagonists around 1910?

Dead insects were his cast: live stag beetles kept dying under the studio lights, so Starevich wired their legs and animated the corpses, as in The Cameraman's Revenge (1912).

Which 2000 film, co-produced with DreamWorks, was Aardman's first feature?

Chicken Run, Aardman's first feature, is set on a Yorkshire egg farm and grossed more than $220 million worldwide, a stop-motion record at the time.

Nick Park's Creature Comforts (1989) matched animated zoo animals with recordings of real people discussing what?

Their homes and living conditions were the subject, voiced by zoo animals; the short was Park's entry in Channel 4's Lip Synch series and won his first Academy Award.

Wallace, the cheese-loving inventor of Wallace & Gromit, is especially fond of which cheese?

Wensleydale is Wallace's favourite, and the films' mentions gave the Yorkshire cheese a sales boost; his accent comes from the Holme Valley of West Yorkshire.

Stop-motion studio Laika (Coraline, Kubo) is owned by the co-founder of which company?

Nike co-founder Phil Knight bought into Will Vinton Studios in 1998, took control and renamed it Laika in 2005; his son Travis Knight became its president and CEO.

In which city were Rankin/Bass 'Animagic' specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer actually produced?

Tokyo's MOM Production, led by Japanese animator Tadahito Mochinaga, built and animated the puppets for Rankin/Bass throughout the 1960s.

Toy Story (1995), the first entirely computer-animated feature film, was directed by whom?

John Lasseter directed it at Pixar; the film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles and earned him a Special Achievement Academy Award.

The inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, presented in 2002, went to which film?

Shrek beat Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius to the first Best Animated Feature Oscar at the March 2002 ceremony.

Which film was the first hand-drawn, non-English winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar?

Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film, took the award at the March 2003 ceremony, the year after the category's debut.

Which 2023 film, made after Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature?

The Boy and the Heron won at the 96th Academy Awards, Miyazaki's second win in the category, 21 years after his first.

Flow (2024), the first independent film to win Best Animated Feature, was animated with which open-source software?

Director Gints Zilbalodis used no storyboards, and the film has no dialogue at all.

Flow, the 2024 film about a cat surviving a flood, was the first Oscar winner from which country?

Latvia's first Oscar came at the March 2025 ceremony, where Flow beat Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot; the statuette was later displayed at the Latvian National Museum of Art.

Ghibli, an Italian word for a hot desert wind, was also the nickname of what?

A scouting plane, the Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli flown by Italy in North Africa, carried the name; Miyazaki, an aircraft obsessive, wanted to 'blow a new wind through the anime industry'.

Which artist directed Akira (1988), the Neo-Tokyo cyberpunk landmark, adapting his own manga?

Katsuhiro Otomo directed the film while his manga was unfinished; the comic ran in Young Magazine from 1982 to 1990, two years past the film.

In Into the Spider-Verse, why was Miles animated 'on twos' while Peter was on ones?

His inexperience as a new Spider-Man is why Miles was animated on twos while the seasoned Peter moved on ones; the film won at the 91st Academy Awards.

Persepolis (2007) follows a girl growing up during the 1979 revolution in which country?

Iran is Marjane Satrapi's homeland; her black-and-white film shared the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize with Silent Light.

Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz with Bashir traces his lost memories as a soldier in which conflict?

The 1982 Lebanon War, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, are what Folman tries to recall; the film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and was banned in Lebanon.

Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist (2010) was based on an unproduced 1956 script by which French filmmaker?

Jacques Tati wrote the script in 1956 and never filmed it; Chomet's version moves the story to Edinburgh, with the magician drawn to resemble Tati himself.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, founded in 1960, is in which country?

France hosts it: Annecy lies in the Haute-Savoie department beside Lake Annecy, and the festival's top prize is the Cristal d'Annecy.

Which legendary voice actress first conceived the Annie Awards, presented since 1972?

June Foray, the voice of Rocky the flying squirrel, proposed the awards to ASIFA-Hollywood; the first honourees in 1972 were Max and Dave Fleischer.

Frank Thomas and which fellow animator wrote The Illusion of Life (1981), setting out Disney's twelve principles?

Ollie Johnston, like Thomas one of Disney's Nine Old Men, co-wrote it; Animation World Network readers voted it the best animation book of all time in 1999.

In realistic squash and stretch, what property of the object must not change?

Its volume must stay constant: stretch a ball vertically and it has to get narrower to compensate, the first of Disney's twelve principles.

The 'cel' in cel animation is a contraction of the name of which material?

Celluloid, the flammable cellulose nitrate sheet, was the original material; studios later switched to more stable cellulose acetate.

Between 1927 and 1930, what frame rate became the standard for 35 mm sound film?

24 frames per second was adopted with sound film as a compromise within the 22 to 26 fps range at which theatres had been projecting silents.

Animating 'on twos' holds each drawing for two frames; how many drawings per second is that at sound-film speed?

12 drawings per second is the result of holding each drawing for two frames at sound speed; animators revert to ones for fast movement, which twos are too slow to convey.

Which animator of Steamboat Willie left Disney in 1930 and launched Flip the Frog?

Ub Iwerks drew most of Steamboat Willie himself; he later returned to Disney, doing effects work on Mary Poppins and Hitchcock's The Birds.

What was the first feature film from the studio Don Bluth founded after quitting Disney in 1979?

The Secret of NIMH (1982), adapted from Robert C. O'Brien's novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, was Don Bluth Productions' debut feature.

What was DreamWorks Animation's first feature film, released in October 1998?

Antz opened on 2 October 1998, beating Pixar's A Bug's Life to cinemas by nearly two months; The Prince of Egypt followed in December.

Which Richard Williams feature, begun in 1964, was finally released in 1995 as Arabian Knight?

The Thief and the Cobbler, Williams's decades-long passion project, was taken over by its completion bond company in 1992 and released in a re-edited form as Arabian Knight in 1995.

Which 1937 film was the first cel-animated feature ever made?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in December 1937; Walt received an honorary Oscar for it as one full-size statuette and seven miniature ones, presented by Shirley Temple.

Which 1991 Disney film was the first animated feature nominated for Best Picture?

Beauty and the Beast lost Best Picture to The Silence of the Lambs, but its title song and Alan Menken's score both won Oscars.

Which Pixar film was the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival, in 2009?

Up opened Cannes on 13 May 2009 and was Pixar's first 3D release; Ed Asner voiced 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, and the film went on to a Best Picture nomination.

In Spirited Away, what becomes of Chihiro's parents after gorging on food in the abandoned town?

Turned into pigs for their greed, they can only be freed by Chihiro working in the bathhouse for spirits run by the witch Yubaba.

Who actually directed The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), which Tim Burton conceived and produced?

Burton was busy on Batman Returns. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and sang for Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, while Chris Sarandon spoke his lines.

Which comedian voiced the Genie in Aladdin (1992), improvising hours of unused tape?

Robin Williams took scale pay on condition that Disney not use his voice heavily in marketing; when it did, he fell out with the studio and skipped the first sequel.

Coraline (2009) is based on a novella by which author?

Neil Gaiman said he wrote the 2002 book for his daughters, who wanted something scary; the film was the first feature from the Oregon studio Laika.

What is the name of the 11-year-old girl whose mind hosts Inside Out (2015)?

Riley Andersen's mind is run by five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger, with Amy Poehler voicing Joy; the film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

In Pixar's WALL-E, what does the first word of the robot's acronym name stand for?

Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-class. Sound designer Ben Burtt, who also voiced him, recorded about 2,500 sounds, and most characters in the film's first act never speak a word.

In How to Train Your Dragon (2010), what does Hiccup name the Night Fury he befriends?

Toothless is so named for his retractable teeth; the film is based on Cressida Cowell's 2003 novel and set on the Viking island of Berk.

Under what title was Disney's 2016 film about rabbit cop Judy Hopps released in the UK and much of Europe?

Zootropolis was the UK and European title; Disney said it wanted a name that resonated with more audiences, and Germany got a third variant, Zoomania.

Brad Bird's The Iron Giant (1999) is loosely based on a 1968 children's novel by which British poet?

Vin Diesel voiced the Giant. Warner Bros. barely marketed the film and it flopped, but Bird went on to direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille at Pixar.

Which two rival studio mascots first shared a scene, as skydivers, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)?

Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny fall together with Eddie Valiant; Warner insisted its star get exactly as much screen time and dialogue as Disney's, and Bob Hoskins acted opposite characters painted in later.

Which conductor, seen in silhouette shaking hands with Mickey Mouse, led the performances in Fantasia (1940)?

Leopold Stokowski conducted, with the Philadelphia Orchestra playing seven of the eight pieces; the film introduced Fantasound, the first stereophonic system used in a commercial film.

Which song from The Prince of Egypt (1998) won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

'When You Believe', written by Stephen Schwartz, took the Oscar; its pop version was the first recording by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey together.

Which 2016 Makoto Shinkai body-swap romance became, for a time, the highest-grossing anime film worldwide?

Your Name, in which country girl Mitsuha and city boy Taki swap bodies without having met, grossed more than $350 million worldwide.

Frozen (2013) was loosely inspired by which 1844 fairy tale?

The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 tale, went through several Disney treatments before the studio commissioned Frozen in 2011; Elsa began as a villain.

Which film overtook Frozen as the highest-grossing animated film in August 2019?

The Lion King remake passed Frozen's $1.28 billion worldwide in August 2019 and finished above $1.6 billion, though whether photoreal CGI counts as animation was disputed.

Shrek (2001) was loosely based on a 1990 picture book by which author-illustrator?

William Steig published the picture book in 1990; Steven Spielberg bought the film rights in 1991, and the project moved to DreamWorks after the studio's 1994 founding.

Which comedian originally recorded most of Shrek's dialogue before dying in 1997?

Chris Farley had recorded most of the ogre's lines when he died in December 1997; Mike Myers took over, alongside Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz.

Which Pixar film became the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold by 2006?

Finding Nemo, directed by Andrew Stanton, won the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2004 and was the highest-grossing G-rated film at the time of its release.

The Lion King's plot draws notably on which Shakespeare play?

Hamlet supplies the template: Simba's uncle Scar murders his father and seizes the throne, and the father's ghost urges the exiled prince to return.

How was the pilot episode of South Park made, before the show moved to computers?

Paper cutouts of construction paper, shot in stop motion, made the pilot; the series debuted on Comedy Central on 13 August 1997 and later mimicked the look in software.

Which 1940 Disney film was the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award?

Pinocchio won two Oscars at the 1941 ceremony, Best Original Score and Best Original Song for 'When You Wish Upon a Star'.

Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for which earlier Disney character owned by Universal?

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was lost in 1928 when distributor Charles Mintz, working for Universal, took the character and hired away most of Disney's animators.

In which year did Steamboat Willie enter the US public domain?

2024 brought the 1928 short into the public domain on 1 January, 95 years after release; Disney had been inspired by The Jazz Singer to make a synchronised-sound cartoon.

Which producer ran the Looney Tunes studio from 1933 until selling it to Warner Bros. in 1944?

Leon Schlesinger took over production in 1933 after Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, makers of the first Bosko shorts, left; he produced the series for eleven years before the 1944 sale.

Which of Matt Groening's comic strips caught James L. Brooks's eye and led to The Simpsons?

Life in Hell was what Brooks asked Groening to adapt; fearing he would lose the strip's rights, Groening sketched the Simpson family in the lobby instead.

Miyazaki's 2001 bathhouse film shared the top prize at which European film festival in 2002?

Berlin's Golden Bear went jointly to Miyazaki's film and Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday in February 2002, a first for an animated feature.

Which 2020 anime film broke Spirited Away's 19-year Japanese box-office record?

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train passed the previous record in December 2020 on its way to more than ¥40 billion in Japan, the first film to reach that figure there.

What did SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg teach before he became an animator?

Marine biology was Hillenburg's first career, and the teaching comic he drew about tide-pool animals had a co-host called Bob the Sponge.

In Monsters, Inc., what do the monsters harvest from children to power the city of Monstropolis?

Their screams run Monstropolis until Sulley finds that a child's laughter is ten times more powerful and retools the whole factory to collect giggles instead.

In the first Despicable Me film, what does the supervillain Gru plan to steal with a shrink ray?

The Moon is the prize in Gru's bid to become the greatest criminal of the century, and he adopts three orphan girls purely to help him win the shrink ray back.

Which Disney musical follows the Madrigals, a Colombian family whose children receive magical gifts?

Encanto gives each Madrigal child a gift at the age of five, all but its heroine Mirabel, and its songs were written by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Which band's cartoon versions star in Yellow Submarine (1968), though actors spoke their lines?

The Beatles wrote and performed the songs but left the speaking to voice actors, turning up in person only for a brief live-action cameo in the final scene.

Which fictional company makes the gadgets that backfire on Wile E. Coyote in Road Runner cartoons?

Acme Corporation sells the anvils, rocket skates and giant rubber bands that fail at the worst possible moment, a running gag across the Road Runner shorts.

Which cartoon duo created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera won seven Oscars for short films?

Tom and Jerry first chased each other in 1940, and their haul tied Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies for the most wins in the animated short category.

Which spilled substance gave the Powerpuff Girls their superpowers in Professor Utonium's lab?

Chemical X also made the girls' arch-enemy: Mojo Jojo was the professor's chimpanzee assistant, caught in the very same accident that created them.

Which country makes Bluey, the cartoon about a Blue Heeler puppy that the BBC helped commission?

Australia's Ludo Studio makes Bluey in Queensland, and Brisbane, the state capital, inspired its setting.

In Disney's Tangled, which kitchen item does Rapunzel use to knock out the outlaw Flynn Rider?

A frying pan hits Flynn several times before the pair hold their first conversation, moments after he climbs into her tower to hide from his pursuers.

In Pixar's Ratatouille, what is the name of the rat who dreams of becoming a chef in Paris?

Remy steers the restaurant's garbage boy like a marionette, tugging on his hair while hidden beneath a chef's toque.

Pixar's hopping mascot Luxo Jr., who first appeared in a two-minute 1986 short, is what kind of object?

A desk lamp took Pixar to the Academy Awards for the first time: the short, in which little Luxo Jr. plays with a ball until it deflates, was nominated for Best Animated Short.

In Pixar's Cars, in which faded Route 66 town does racer Lightning McQueen end up stranded?

Radiator Springs was a bustling stop for drivers until a new interstate highway bypassed the town and drained its business traffic.

In Disney's The Little Mermaid, which sea witch offers to make Ariel human for three days?

Ursula owes her look to the American drag performer Divine and her voice to the actress Pat Carroll.

In The Incredibles, which fashion designer refuses to add capes to the superhero suits she creates?

Edna Mode bans capes because they have got several superheroes killed, and the tiny designer is voiced by the film's own director, Brad Bird.

What is the name of the brightly painted van driven by the teenage ghost hunters in Scooby-Doo?

The Mystery Machine is painted in psychedelic colours, and it has carried four teenagers and their talking Great Dane from one haunting to the next since 1969.

Which Pixar film about Merida, a Scottish princess with a bow, was the studio's first with a female lead?

Brave gave Pixar its first female protagonist, and the studio built a new in-house animation system, called Presto, to make the film.

In the Ice Age films, what is the sabre-toothed squirrel Scrat forever trying to collect and bury?

An acorn is all Scrat wants, and his wordless squeaks were performed by Chris Wedge, who also directed the first film.

Phil Collins wrote and performed the songs for which 1999 Disney film, winning an Oscar for one of them?

Tarzan earned Collins the Academy Award for Best Original Song for its lullaby, You'll Be in My Heart.

Which Japanese film features the Catbus, a giant bus-shaped cat that carries a girl to her lost sister?

My Neighbor Totoro made its round forest spirit so popular that the creature became the mascot and official logo of Studio Ghibli.

Which two-time Best Actor Oscar winner was cast as the voice of Sheriff Woody for the first Toy Story?

Tom Hanks suggested that Pixar hire his brother Jim to perform the cowboy's voice for video games, toys and theme-park attractions.

Which actor voices and sings the demigod Maui, owner of a magical shape-shifting fish hook, in Disney's Moana?

Dwayne Johnson, the former wrestler known as The Rock, sings You're Welcome, a number written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and at first meant for Moana herself.

Which comedian voiced Mushu, the small dragon demoted from guarding the heroine's family in Disney's Mulan?

Eddie Murphy recorded Mushu's lines in his own private studio because of scheduling conflicts, and the dragon was kept small so he would not overwhelm Mulan on screen.

Which actor voices Po, the noodle-serving giant panda at the centre of the Kung Fu Panda films?

Jack Black voices Po in the feature films, while Mick Wingert took over the panda for two television series and several video games before Black returned for The Dragon Knight.

Which actor voiced both Emmet in The Lego Movie and Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie?

Chris Pratt later voiced the title cat in The Garfield Movie, his only screen role in the year it came out.

Which voice actor, known as the Man of a Thousand Voices, performed Tweety, Sylvester and Yosemite Sam?

Mel Blanc won an on-screen credit at a time when voice actors rarely got one, asking for it after his studio boss refused him a pay rise.

Which actress, who arrived intending to audition for Lisa, was cast as the voice of Bart Simpson in 1987?

Nancy Cartwright found the sister's part thinly described, asked to read for the bratty brother instead, and was offered the role on the spot.

Which Star Wars actor first voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, which began in 1992?

Mark Hamill, cinema's Luke Skywalker, went on to play Batman's arch-enemy across films and video games, earning Annie Award nominations and a BAFTA Game Award.

Which Broadway star provided the singing voices of both Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Mulan?

Lea Salonga, the first Asian actress to win a Tony Award, sang for both heroines while other actresses spoke their lines.

Which Hollywood legend, a title-winning racing driver himself, voiced the retired racer Doc Hudson in Pixar's Cars?

Paul Newman won several national championships in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and he retired from acting the year after Cars reached cinemas.

Which Walt Disney short was the first cartoon in full three-strip Technicolor and the first to win an Oscar?

Flowers and Trees was already being made in monochrome when Walt Disney agreed to try the new process and ordered the cartoon redone in colour.

Which artist, honoured in Japan as the God of Manga, created the 1963 television series Astro Boy?

Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy so impressed Stanley Kubrick that the director invited him to be art director on 2001: A Space Odyssey, an offer the busy artist had to turn down.

Which 1990 Disney adventure was the first feature film created entirely digitally, using the CAPS ink-and-paint system?

The Rescuers Down Under had its drawings inked, painted and composited inside computers, a process that made the hand-painting of cels obsolete at Disney.

Which Pixar short about a tiny one-man band escaping a baby was the first computer-animated film to win an Oscar?

Tin Toy caught Disney's attention and led to the agreement to make Toy Story, which borrowed several of the short's ideas.

Which tech entrepreneur funded the 1986 spin-off of Lucasfilm's computer graphics group as the company Pixar?

Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder, kept raising his stake until a total investment of $50 million gave him control of the entire company.

Which Disney character starred in Der Fuehrer's Face, the 1943 anti-Nazi short that won an Academy Award?

Donald Duck dreams he is a factory worker in Nazi Germany, then wakes relieved to find himself in the United States; the short was made to sell war bonds.

Which director made Fritz the Cat (1972), the first American animated film to be given an X rating?

Ralph Bakshi made his directing debut with the film, adapting Robert Crumb's comic strip about a glib, womanising cat in 1960s New York.

Where in Missouri did Walt Disney run Laugh-O-Gram, an early cartoon studio that went bankrupt in 1923?

Kansas City's Laugh-O-Gram collapsed after a distributor failed to pay, so Disney sold his filming equipment to buy a one-way ticket to Hollywood.

What joking nickname did Walt Disney give the core group of animators who shaped his studio's classic features?

The Nine Old Men was a joke: the phrase was a 1930s label for the Supreme Court's elderly justices, and Disney gave it to animators who were nowhere near retirement.

Which 1967 film was the final animated feature produced by Walt Disney, who died while it was being made?

The Jungle Book began as a dark, sinister take on Kipling's Mowgli stories until Disney, wanting a family film, replaced its writer and songwriter.

Which optical toy is a disc with a bird on one side and a cage on the other, twirled on strings?

The thaumatrope, introduced in 1825 and usually credited to John Ayrton Paris, blends its two pictures into one when spun, so the bird seems to sit inside the cage.

Which early projector, developed in the 17th century, threw pictures painted on glass slides onto a wall or screen?

The magic lantern could suggest motion by projecting two glass slides together, one fixed and one moved by hand, and showmen rolled it on rails for ghostly phantasmagoria shows.

John Barnes Linnett's 1868 patent for the Kineograph is the oldest known record of which simple animation toy?

The flip book was the first form of animation to use a straight sequence of pictures rather than a circle, and in 1894 it was mechanised as the Mutoscope.

Which photographer's 1878 picture series The Horse in Motion showed a running horse with all four hooves in the air?

Eadweard Muybridge went on to project his motion studies from painted glass discs with a device he called the zoopraxiscope, before flexible film strips existed.

Which theory was long claimed to explain why the pictures in a zoetrope or on a cinema screen appear to move?

Persistence of vision holds that an image lingers in the eye for an instant after it has gone, and the theory was being disputed long before cinema arrived in 1895.

Which physician, best known for a famous reference book, wrote an 1824 study of an optical illusion in wheel spokes?

Peter Roget presented his work in December 1824, almost three decades before he published his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852.

Which silent cartoon star, as a doll on a turntable, served as the test image in RCA's 1928 television experiments?

Felix the Cat was created in 1919 at Pat Sullivan's studio, where Otto Messmer animated him, and made his debut under the name Master Tom.

Which character was the star of Out of the Inkwell, the Fleischer brothers' major cartoon series of the silent era?

Koko the Clown began with film of Dave Fleischer in a clown costume, and he was only given his name in 1924, six years after his first appearance.

Which 1920s Walt Disney series placed a live-action girl and a cartoon cat called Julius in an animated world?

The Alice Comedies began with Alice's Wonderland, a 1923 short that Disney made while his previous studio was failing, with Virginia Davis as the girl.

Which sing-along aid, moving across the lyrics on screen, did Max Fleischer's Song Car-Tunes pioneer in the 1920s?

A bouncing ball led cinema audiences through the words, and some of the three-minute films used the Phonofilm sound-on-film process before the talkies took over.