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Anime-------Latest Form Of Cartoon

2013-09-14T08:51:00.004-07:00

Anime

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"Animé" redirects here. For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin).

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Anime (Japanese: アニメ, Hepburn: Anime^?, [a.ni.me] ( listen); English ⁱ/ˈænɨmeɪ/ or /ˈɑːnɨmeɪ/ or /ˈænɨmə/; ANƏ-may or ANI-may) are Japanese animated productions featuring hand-drawn or computer animation. The word is the abbreviated pronunciation of "animation" in Japanese. The term, "anime", itself did not emerge until the mid-1980s,^[1] and its intended meaning of the term sometimes varies depending on the context.^[2] Among Japanese, the term references all animation.^[3] In English, the term is defined as a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastic themes.^[4]^[5] Arguably, the stylization approach to the meaning may open up the possibility of anime produced in countries, other than Japan.^[6]^[7]^[8] Yet, for simplicity, many Westerners strictly view anime as an animation product from Japan.^[5]
The earliest commercial Japanese animation dates to 1917 and developed steadily. The characteristic anime art style developed in the 1960s with the works of Osamu Tezuka. Anime would spread internationally in the coming decades, developing a large domestic and international audience. Anime is distributed theatrically, by television broadcasts, directly to home media, and over the internet. Anime can be classified by demographic and a range of genres or multiple genres.
Anime is a diverse art form that has its own methods and techniques for production that have adapted to the times and moving into the digital age. The production of anime differs from Disney animation, focusing on limited animation techniques and the use camera effects, including panning, zooming and angle shots. No single art style exists and character proportions and features can be quite varied, including characteristically large emotive or realistically sized eyes.
The anime industry consists of over 430 production studios including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax and Toei Animation. Despite having a fraction of the domestic film market, anime achieves a majority of DVD sales and has been an international success after the rise of televised English dubs. The international popularly has resulted in non-Japanese productions using the anime art style, but these works have been defined as anime-influenced animation by both fans and the industry.

[hide]

1 Definition and usage
2 History
3 Distribution
4 Genres
5 Attributes
- 5.1 Animation technique
- 5.2 Characters
6 Industry
- 6.1 Awards
7 Influence on world culture
- 7.1 Fan response
- 7.2 Anime style
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Definition and usage

Anime is an art form, specifically animation, that includes all genres found in cinema, but it can be mistakenly classified as a genre.^[9]^:7 In Japan, the term anime refers to all forms of animation from around the world.^[3]^[10] English-language dictionaries define anime as "a Japanese style of motion-picture animation" or as "a style of animation developed in Japan".^[4]^[11]
The etymology of the word is disputed with the primary origin being the English term "animation" is written in Japanese katakana as アニメーション (animēshon, pronounced [animeːɕoɴ]).^[12] The short form is アニメ (anime).^[12] Some sources claim that anime derives from the French phrase dessin animé,^[1]^[13] but others believe this to be a myth based on the French popularity of the medium in the late 1970s and 1980s.^[12] In English, anime, when used as a common noun, normally functions as a mass noun (for example: "Do you watch anime?", "How much anime have you collected?").^[14] Prior to the widespread use of "anime", the term "Japanimation" was prevalent throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid-1980s, the term "anime" began to supplant Japanimation.^[1]^[15] In general, the term now only appears in period works where the term is used to distinguish and identify Japanese animation.^[15]

History

Main article: History of anime

A cel from the earliest surviving Japanese animated short from 1917.

Anime first arose at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia.^[13] A claim for the earliest Japanese animation is Katsudō Shashin, an undated and private work by an unknown creator.^[16] In 1917, the first professional and publicly displayed works began to appear. Ōten Shimokawa, Seitarou Kitayama and Junichi Kouchi produced numerous works, however, the oldest surviving film is Kouchi's Namakura Gatana, a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat.^[17]^[18]^[19] The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake resulted in widespread destruction to Japan's infrastructure and the destruction of Shimokawa's warehouse in which destroyed most of the early works.
By the 1930s animation became an alternative format of storytelling to the live-action industry in Japan. But it suffered competition from foreign producers and many animators, such as Noburō Ōfuji and Yasuji Murata still worked in cheaper cutout not cel animation, although with masterful results.^[20] Other creators, such as Kenzō Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, nonetheless made great strides in animation technique, especially with increasing help from a government using animation in education and propaganda.^[21] The first talkie anime was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, produced by Masaoka in 1933.^[22]^[23] By 1940, numerous anime artists' organizations had risen, including the Shin Mangaha Shudan and Shin Nippon Mangaka. During this time period, anime was extensively used as a channel for government propaganda.^[24] The first feature length animated film was Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors directed by Seo in 1945 with sponsorship by the Imperial Japanese Navy.^[25]

Screenshot from Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (1944), the first feature-length anime film

The success of The Walt Disney Company's 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs profoundly influenced many Japanese animators.^[26] In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions. He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation staff.^[27]
The 1970s saw a surge of growth in the popularity of manga – many of them later animated. The work of Osamu Tezuka drew particular attention: he has been called a "legend"^[28] and the "god of manga".^[29]^[30] His work – and that of other pioneers in the field – inspired characteristics and genres that remain fundamental elements of anime today. The giant robot genre (known as "Mecha" outside Japan), for instance, took shape under Tezuka, developed into the Super Robot genre under Go Nagai and others, and was revolutionized at the end of the decade by Yoshiyuki Tomino who developed the Real Robot genre. Robot anime like the Gundam and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series became instant classics in the 1980s, and the robot genre of anime is still one of the most common in Japan and worldwide today. In the 1980s, anime became more accepted in the mainstream in Japan (although less than manga), and experienced a boom in production. Following a few successful adaptations of anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, anime gained increased acceptance in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century.

Distribution

Theatrical viewing of anime has been an enduring method of distribution since the first commercial anime were produced in 1917.^[19] Theatrical distribution was the sole method of viewing until the July 14, 1958, when Nippon Television aired Mole's Adventure, the first televised and first color animation.^[31] Theatrical anime continue to be produced and are subsequently re-released on different home video formats.^[9]^:13 Television is a major medium for the distribution of anime, the first anime series began appearing in the 1960s.^[9]^:13 Direct to video releases, are called "Original Video Animation" (OVA) or "Original Animation Video" (OAV), these works are not released theatrically or are televised prior to home media release.^[9]^:14^[32] For releases occurring on the internet, website like the Anime News Network have adopted the term "Original Net Anime" (ONA).^[33]
Home release media are sold through a number of different mediums. Until 2000, VHS video cassettes were a popular medium for anime, with both Japan and the United States using the NTSC video format.^[9]^:14 The Laser Disc format was a long term and popular format in Japan until the rise of the DVD format.^[9]^:14 Around 2000, the Video CD (VCD), was a popular format in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but was only a minor format in the United States; it is closely associated with bootleg copies. From 2000, the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) quickly became the major medium for anime releases, its superiority as a format was a result of its ability to contain multiple audio and subtitling tracks on one disc.^[9]^:15 Poitras described the region coding is a major limitation of the format that was adopted by the industry to solve licensing, piracy and export problems.^[9]^:15

Genres

Anime can be labeled by demographic, including Kodomo (children's), Shoujo (Girls'), Shounen (Boys') and adult shows. Shoujo and shounen shows will sometimes contain a crossover, with elements popular for both groups. Adult shows are a diverse group and not pornographic, examples include Maison Ikkoku and the psychodrama thriller Perfect Blue, which can be paced to slow or contain a very complex plot that would not appeal to younger audiences.^:44-48 In Japan, pornographic works are labeled "R18", but internationally the term "hentai" has been used to the describe content. "Ecchi", a subgenre containing sexual themes or undertones lacks sexual intercourse, is found mixed in with other genres and demographics, notable in the comedic or harem genres.^[34]^[35]^:89
Anime's genre classification is different from other types of animation and does not lend itself to simple identity.^[9]^:34 Poitras compares the labeling the complex narrative surrounding war in Gundam 0080 to the "giant robot" genre akin to labeling Tolstoy's War and Peace as just a "war novel".^[9]^:34 Science fiction genre is a major of genre of anime and includes important historical works like Tezuka's Astro Boy and Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go. Within science fiction a major sub-genre known as Mecha exists, with Gundam metaseries being iconic.^[9]^:35 The fantasy genre consists of a diverse group of focuses including works based on Asian and Western traditions and folklore; two examples are the Japanese feudal fairytale of Inuyasha and Scandinavian goddesses who move to Japan to maintain a computer, Yggdrasil, in Oh My Goddess.^[9]^:37-40 Genre crossing in anime is also prevalent, with comedy genre containing the fantastical Dragon Half, and crime genre containing examples of slapstick humor in Castle of Cagliostro.^[9]^:41-43 A single genre does not define an anime appropriately, a detailed example can be made for the romance genre, which can have both science fiction and fantasy settings, or be apart of other sub-genres like Gundam 0083.^[9]^:43 Other subgenres found in anime include magical girl, harem, sports, martial arts, literary adaptations and war.^[9]^:45-49
Anime contains two unique genres depicting stories that explore homosexual romances. While originally pornographic in terminology, yaoi (male homosexuality) and yuri (female homosexuality) are broad terms used internationally to describe any focus on the themes or development of romantic homosexual relationships. Prior to 2000, homosexual characters were typically used for comedic effect, but some works portrayed these characters seriously or sympathetically.^[9]^:50

Attributes

Anime is a diverse art form that is targeted and produced for the domestic Japanese audience and market. Anime differs greatly from other forms of animation by its diverse art styles, methods of animation, its production and its process. Visually, anime is a diverse art form that contains a wide variety of styles that share few similarities to one another.

Animation technique

Anime follows the typical production of animation, including storyboarding, voice acting, character design, and cel production. With improvements in computer technology, computer animation increased the efficiency of the production process. The earliest animation works were experimental and consisted of images drawn on a blackboard, cut out animation and silhouette animation, including notable artists like Noburō Ōfuji.^[36]^[37] Cel animation grew in popularly until it became to define the medium with the iconic look of the anime art style being cel productions dominating the medium. Other mediums are mostly limited to independently made short films,^[38] including the stop motion puppet animation of Tadahito Mochinaga, Kihachirō Kawamoto, and Tomoyasu Murata.^[39]^[40] In the 1990s, computers became a part of the animation process. Some works such as Ghost in the Shell and Princess Mononoke mixed cel animation with computer-generated images.^[9]^:29 Fuji Film, a major cel production company, announced it would stop cel production which resulted in an industry panic for cel imports and switching to digital processes.^[9]^:29
Prior to digital adoption anime was produced with the methods of traditional animation and used a pose to pose approach and checked of drawings before they are shot.^[36] In 2004, Sara Pocock, an animator and contributor to Anime News Network, described the majority of "mainstream" anime as being animated using the pose to pose style, but using fewer expressive key frames and more in-between animation.^[41]
Japanese animation studios were pioneers of many limited animation techniques. Ke Jiang, an animator for Disney, told Anime News Network that like everyone in animation, Japanese animators study the techniques of Disney in school, however Japanese anime has its own set of rules to be followed that have developed over time. Unlike Disney animation where the emphasis is on the movement, Anime emphasizes the art quality as limited animation techniques could make up for the lack of time spent on movement. Such techniques were often used not only to meet deadlines but also as artistic devices.^[42] Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views and backgrounds are instrumental in creating the atmosphere of the work.^[13] The backgrounds are not just made up, but can be based on real life locations from Howl's Moving Castle to Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.^[43]^[44] Oppliger stated that anime is one of the rare mediums were putting together an all-star cast usually comes out looking "tremendously impressive."^[45]
The cinematic effects of anime differentiatesitself from the stage plays found in American animation. Anime is cinematically shot as if by camera, including panning, zooming, distance and angle shots to more complex dynamic shots that would be difficult to produce in reality.^[9]^:58^[46]^[47] In anime, the animation is produced before the voice acting, contrary to American animation which does the voice acting first; this can cause lip sync errors in the Japanese version.^[9]^:59

Characters

Anime artists use many distinct visual styles.

Body proportions emulated in anime come from proportions of the human body. The height of the head is considered by the artist as the base unit of proportion. Head heights can vary, but most anime characters are about seven to eight heads tall.^[48] Variations to proportion can be modified by the artist and include Super-deformed characters, that feature a non-proportionally small body compared to the head. There is wide variety in the style, with varying proportions and simplicity; many super deformed characters are two to four heads tall. Some anime works like Crayon Shin-chan completely disregard these proportions, such that they resemble Western cartoons.
One major distinction in character designs is the large eyes, which has its roots in the early animations of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons which made a large impact on Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is a central figure in anime and manga history, whose iconic art style and character designs allowed for the entire range of human emotions to be depicted solely through the eyes.^[9]^:60 Coloring is added to give eyes, particularly to the cornea, some depth. The depth is accomplished by applying variable color shading. Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used.^[49]^[50] Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.^[51] However, not all anime have large eyes. For example, the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Toshiro Kawamoto are known for having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters.^[52]
Hair in anime is often unnaturally lively, colorful or of a unique hairstyle. The movement of hair in anime is exaggerated and "hair action" is used to emphasize the action and emotions of characters for added visual effect.^[9]^:62 Poitras traces hairstyle color to cover illustrations on manga, where eye-catching artwork and colorful tones are attractive for children's manga.^[9]^:61 Despite the domestic focus, characters in anime are not always of a defined race or nationality; this is intentional as in works like Pokémon.^[53]
Anime characters may employ a variety of predetermined facial expressions to denote moods and thoughts.^[54] These techniques are often different in form than their counterparts in Western animation, and they include a fixed iconography that is used as shorthand for certain emotions and moods.^[55] Tied to manga iconography, these exaggerated expression are typically comedic in nature. An example is male characters having a bloody nose when aroused, stemming from an old wives' tale.^[55] A variety of visual symbols are employed including sweatdrops to depict nervousness, visible blushing for embarrassment, or glowing eyes for an intense glare.^[56]^:52

Industry

The animation industry consists of more than 430 production companies with some of the major studios including Toei Animation, Gainax, Madhouse, Gonzo, Sunrise, Bones and Studio Ghibli.^[56]^:17 Studios will often work together to produce more complex and costly projects as done with Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away.^[56]^:17 In 2001, animation accounted for 7% of the Japanese film market, above the 4.6% market share for live-action works.^[56]^:17 The popularity and success of anime is seen through the profitability of the DVD market, reaching nearly 70% of total sales.^[56]^:17 As the Internet gained more widespread use, Internet advertising revenues grew from 1.6 billion yen to over 180 billion yen between 1995 and 2005.^[57]
The anime market for the United States alone is "worth approximately $4.35 billion, according to the Japan External Trade Organization".^[58] Dubbed animation began airing in the United States in 2000, on networks like The WB and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.^[56]^:18 In 2005, this resulted in five of the top ten anime titles having previously aired on Cartoon Network.^[56]^:18 As a part of localization, some editing of cultural references may occur to better follow the references of the non-Japanese culture.^[59] English localization is not without its costs and averages US$10,000 per episode.^[60]
The industry has been both subject to praise and condemnation for the fansubs, unlicensed and unauthorized translations of anime media that provides translated subtitles to the original media.^[56]^:206 Originally distributed by VHS in the 1980s, fansubbing distribution has shifted to online distribution.^[56]^:206 Fansubbers have a moral code to destroy or not distribute works when they become licensed, but adept file sharers can still distribute the work.^[56]^:207

Awards

The anime industry has several awards which give honor to the best works produced in a year. Major awards given annually include the Ōfuji Noburō Award, the Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film, the Animation Kobe Awards, the Japan Media Arts Festival animation awards, the Tokyo Anime Award and the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in Japan, and the Academy Awards and ICv2.com Anime Awards in the United States.^[56]^:257-258 The American Anime Awards, were given only once in 2006, it is an award with titles nominated by the industry.^[56]^:258

Influence on world culture

Anime has become commercially profitable in Western countries, as demonstrated by early commercially successful Western adaptations of anime, such as Astro Boy. Since the 19th century, many Westerners have expressed a particular interest towards Japan and anime has dramatically exposed more Westerners to the culture of Japan.

Fan response

Anime clubs gave rise to anime conventions in the 1990s with the "anime boom".^[9]^:73 These conventions are dedicated to anime and manga and involve events important to the industry and include events like cosplay contests and industry talk panels.^[56]^:211 Japanese culture and words have entered English usage through the popularity of the medium; many terms within the fandom have adopted including "otaku", a word with varied meanings that English usage has defined as a fan of anime and manga.^[56]^:195 Anime produce fan fiction and fan art, including computer wallpapers, avatars, anime music video.^[56]^:201-205 Cosplay, costume play, is not unique to anime and has become popular in contests and masquerades at anime conventions.^[56]^:214-215

Anime style

As a popular movement and unique art style, anime styling has been the subject of both satire and serious creative productions. Examples of satire found in American animation include South Park's "Chinpokomon" and "Good Times with Weapons" episodes. Adult swim's Perfect Hair Forever and Nickelodeon's Kappa Mikey are focused on the satire of Japanese culture and anime. Some works blur the lines until the origin and classification of the media sparks debate, as in the case of Avatar: The Last Airbender.^[61] These anime stylized works have become defined as Anime-influenced animation, in an attempt to classify all anime styled works of non-Japanese origin.^[62] Some creators of these works cite anime as a source of inspiration and like the French production team for Ōban Star-Racers moved to Tokyo to collaborate with a Japanese production team.^[63]^[64]^[65] When anime is defined as a "style" rather than as a national product it leaves open the possibility of anime being produced in other countries.^[4]^[7] A series dubbed as the "Middle East's First Anime Show" is currently in production.^[8] The web-based series RWBY is produced using an anime art style and has been declared to be anime.^[6]^[66] Defining anime as style has been contentious amongst fans, with John Oppliger stating, "The insistence on referring to original American art as Japanese "anime" or "manga" robs the work of its cultural identity

2012-09-16T07:14:00.001-07:00

LIST OF CARTOON CHARACTERS

The following list of cartoon characters can give you more insight to some cartoons you may have wondered about. It contains the most known cartoon characters that you can think of. After all, you won't find a page, long enough, to make a list of all the cartoon characters known to man.

However, the list below will spring some nice memories to mind of your childhood characters.

Find the one's you like, use the images you want.

Enjoy this list of cartoon characters!

Alvin Chipmunk

This little guy reaches my list of cartoon characters because of his adorable little chipmunk attitude that never stinks.

He is the lead singer of the the group, Alvin and the Chipmunks. He is joined by two other chipmunks in this group.

Angelica Pickles

You always need a villain in the story, and Angelica doesn't mind fulfilling this role.

She is one of the characters in "RugRats", and later created cartoon called "All Grown Up". She will always be the "big sister" and with this comes some responsibilities she might just not always want to accept and some other times she will abuse them.

Arthur

Arthur is one of those aardvark kids who can teach you quite a bit, since he has his own children books series.

I've added him to this list of cartoon characters since he is the only aardvark I know of that has some IQ to talk about.

Atom Ant

Atom Ant was added to the list of cartoon characters because of his special reputation as a superhero-ant.

He operated out of an anthill in the countryside, where he had interesting things like a mainframe computer and exercise
equipment. He has the powers of flying, super-speed, incredible strength, and invulnerability.

He has this adorable catch phrase "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant!"

He was often contacted by the police, who sent him out on assignments.

This little guy fights various villains including ones that appear more than often, like Ferocious Flea and mad scientist Professor Von Gimmick.

Barney Rubble

This ancient guy is the bestest-best friend of Fred Flintstone.

Barney and his wife, Betty, with their little boy, Bam-Bam has a lot of fun with the Flintstone family in the cartoon called The Flintstones.

Bart Simpson

Another character which can't be left out of this list of cartoon characters. Yep, this naughty one that gets away with a lot of wrong-doings also made the list. He is part of The Simpsons cast.

Bart has been described as a 10 year old, who does and says what he wants. He unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) gets into trouble with everything he does. Can you blame him? With a father like his, where Bart is majorly smarter that dad. He usually wears a lucky red hat, carrying a slingshot in his back pocket and rides his skateboard.

He's known for pulling pranks, especially prank phone calls to Moe's Tavern. Bart also has many catch phrases, for example, "Ay caramba!", "Get bent", "Eat my shorts", "Don't have a cow, man" and the very famous "D'oh!". In fact, Bart's first words were, "Ay caramba!"

Batman

A handsome man with the man-made powers and the costume of a bat.

A list of cartoon characters just won't be complete without Batman.

Beavis & Butt-Head

This wacky duo gets you laughing in your seat with no sweat at all. They are just silly.

These two are socially useless, rock-loving teenage boys. They live in the town of Highland, Texas. They attend high school where their teachers are often at a loss as to how to deal with them although in many episodes the two skip school. They occasionally work part-time at Burger World and sometimes other side-jobs when people mistake their odd behavior as outgoing and assertive.

One thing is their lack of conventional values. They are highly obnoxious, degrading and rude to almost every other character in the show, including each other. However, they do not realize this and seem to function on an instinct level.

They survive their often hazardous misadventures without serious consequences though others around them do not fare as well. In each episode are segments in which Beavis and Butt-Head watch music videos and provide humorous and bizarre commentary.

Betty Boop

This sexy girl will have you drooling at a distance.

Betty Boop was a star in the 1930s, when films with sound overtook the silent films. Even though she were in black and white, she still had sex appeal, a cutesy voice and ditzy charm that made her a hit.

Today, her image is iconic, and it appears on all kinds of merchandise which people buy without ever really seeing even one of her cartoons. She still makes a few debuts in some of today's cartoons.

Blossom

Part of the Powerpuff Girls trio, Blossom is always the one that pulls her weight as the leader of the pack.

She has the voice of reason and usually makes sure that everything on a mission goes right.

This list of cartoon characters has to include her, but not only her, the complete trio is here.

Boo-Boo

There's a lot more to this little bear than meets the eye. He is most of the time more aware of the situation than Yogi.

As part of the Yogi Bear Show, Boo-Boo keeps Yogi, or at least tries to, out of trouble.

Brutus

This mean, baddy is always on Popeye's case. He always wants the girl, but never gets her.

Brutus has always been part of the Popeye shows to keep the tension going.

Bugs Bunny

"What's up doc?" That everlasting phrase, you just won't forget. This is the unmistakable catch phrase of this crazy, yet very famous, Bugs Bunny.

He is, perhaps, the most recognizable and famous cartoon character. Looney Tunes were first created as lead-ins to feature films. It was only later that the cartoons became a standard TV cartoon. Generations later, Bugs Bunny is still at the top of any A-list.

Buttercup

The fighter of the team. She doesn't really have patients for anything at all, but her sisters sure do adore her.

Her morals are sometimes a bit more in question than the other two. She has the weirdest ideas sometimes. For example, she realized that she can get money for her teeth, so she went and hit out all the teeth of the bad guys just to get whole bag of money under her pillow.

Unfortunately, The Professor found out, so did the baddies, and she ended up at the dentist paying for her own broken teeth with the "profit".

Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman is a character on the American animated television series South Park. One of the four main characters along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick

Voiced by Trey Parker, Cartman is an overweight, spoiled, foul-mouthed, mean-spirited, selfish, and ill-tempered fourth-grader living with his mother in South Park, Colorado, where he commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town life.

Cartman is one of the most popular characters on the show, and has remained one of the most recognizable television characters ever since South Park became a hit during its first season.

CatWoman

She was brought back to life by Sacred Cats, now she is CatWoman. She has to be included in this list of cartoon characters as one woman with some gggrrreat cat skills.

As any other superhero, she does her duty and saves her part of humans.

Charlie Brown

This little man is simply the most passive one I know, but still he makes the list of cartoon characters.

The kid who never kicks the football, whose dog is more popular than he is and who has a crush on the red-headed girl, still stays popular with everyone. "It's Christmas, Charlie Brown" is based on the famous comic strip "Peanuts" created by Charles M. Schulz.

Sadsack and unlucky Charlie Brown leads the group, that includes his dog Snoopy, his sister Sally, his best friend Linus, and Linus's bossy sister, Lucy.

Daffy Duck

Simply "dis-spicable". He certainly is a bit daffy when it comes to what he usually says.

Regardless his tantrums and schemes, he still makes for one of the greatest cartoon characters. This duck might be envious or jealous of Bugs Bunny, but he is still needed to make the Bugs Bunny cartoons work. Even though his actions are "despicable"!

Donald Duck

An angry little duck, with the temper of a time bomb. An when he gets angry... well, luckily no one knows what he is saying.

As Mickey Mouse's cynical sidekick - Donald Duck still stays a favorite cartoon character. He has the temper of a lion with a thorn stuck in his foot, he speaks an almost unrecognizable language of his own, but his eye-rolling attitude and exasperation with most of the world is what makes him Donald.

Eeyore

This is no ordinary donkey. He has a tail that you can play pin-the-tail with. But, he doesn't mind - actually - he doesn't mind anything.

Eliza Thornberry

This middle child of the Wild Thornberry parents, has been given a gift by a Shaman. This gift wasn't an ordinary gift, but the gift to talk to animals.

She seems to be doing an excellent job with this gift of hers, where she saves the lives of countless animals. There's only one catch to her gift - she can't tell anybody about it, otherwise she would lose this unique gift.

In the movie "The Wild Thornberrys", she is forced to tell her secret, whereupon she lost her gift. This was quite unnerving for Eliza, even more for her pet baboon, Darwin. But luckily the Shaman gave her gift back, since the tattle-tale wasn't hers to control.

Elmer Fudd

The poor, senseless, unknowing hunter of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. He just "happens to be there"! His role is probably necessary for the third party of satire.

But he is still loved by millions today as one of the not-so-intelligent cartoon characters.

Fat Albert

Fat Albert primarily spoke to African-American youth in low-income families, a segment of the population previously ignored by Saturday morning programming.

However, the show had an impact on children across the United States, regardless of race.

The show always had an educational lesson emphasized by Cosby's live-action cameos, and the gang always gathered in their North Philadelphia junkyard to play a rock song on their cobbled-together instruments.

Cosby's Kids had an upbeat attitude and were eager to learn, in spite of their apparent poverty.

Felix the Cat

Not just another cat, but a black cat with attitude.

Felix, a black and white cat, was created during the silent film era of the early 20th Century. His simple form and face made him easily recognizable. He was also the first cartoon character that gained so much popularity that he was awarded a feature film. Surely a cartoon for this list of cartoon characters.

George of the Jungle

He makes the list of cartoon characters, although he came originally from a movie for kids. Okay, he's definitely not Tarzan, but he still does some good in the jungle.

Gerald McBoing-Boing

This little guy is a bit older than the rest, but he still makes the list of cartoon characters.

Gerald McBoing-Boing is the story of a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words.

The story is about Gerald McCloy, who at the age of 2 years begins "talking" in the form of sound effects. His first word being the titular "boing boing." His panicked father calls the doctor, who informs him that there's nothing he can do about it.

As Gerald grows up, he picks up more sounds and is able to make communicative gestures, but is still incapable of uttering a single word English. Despite this, he is admitted to a general public school, where he is harassed by his peers and given the name "Gerald McBoing-Boing."

After startling and angering his father, he decides to run away and hop a train to an unknown location. However, just before he catches the train, a talent scout from the NBC Radio Network discovers him. He is then hired as NBC's Foley artist, performing shows for a division of the company labeled "XYZ" on the microphones, and becomes very famous, with the last scene showing him riding with his parents in a very expensive automobile among a crowd of fans.

Goofey

Jip, his name says it all. This chap is always very jolly and he can (and usually does) goof up anything and everything.

He is also one of Mickey Mouse's sidekicks. As a Walt Disney cartoon character, he sure helps for more silly laughter in his cartoons.

Heckle & Jeckle

These characters are a pair of identical magpies who calmly outwitted their foes in the manner of Bugs Bunny, while maintaining a mischievous streak reminiscent of Woody Woodpecker.

They might be a of the bit-older cartoons, but they aren't forgotten in this list of cartoon characters.

However, in a number of their cartoons, well maybe most of them, their foes win in the end. Their names were inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson who is the famous writer of "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

Homer Simpson

Right, he drinks too much and gives stupid a bad name. What else do you want to know? Oh yeah, he's part of The Simpsons cast.

Tom & Jerry

Tom and Jerry, on the other hand, chase each other, torment each other and generally try to defeat the other, with the most horrible things, and then they don't even have a scratch on them after a bomb explosion! Though Tom has the upper hand more than, say, Sylvester, he still has yet to make a meal of Jerry.

This is not a cartoon that I would let my small children watch. It gives the idea that one can hurt each other and nothing comes of it. So, if your children are trying kill each other, stop wondering why.

Tom and Jerry is a cartoon created for older children who understand the difference between reality and imagination.

But, they still needed to be added to this list of cartoon characters, because they still make a great impact on children.

Josie

This little lady is the leader of the musical band called "Josie and the Pussycats".

In between gigs they also solve a little mystery here and there.

She is the leader of the "Josie and the Pussycats" band, but since she is the most famous of them all, I added just her to the list of cartoon characters, for now.

Lisa Simpson

Musical, intelligent, not-so-pretty, but still the sensible one of the Simpson bunch.

The whole Simpsons family is in this list of cartoon characters, so you will find Homer, Marge, Bart and Maggie as well.

Lucy

She is ever so in love with Charlie Brown, but, alas, he has no meaning of falling into her trap.

Lucy is part of the Peanuts cartoon series. She also started with Charlie Brown and Snoopy in the first series.

Maggie Simpson

The baby of The Simpsons family. All she can do is suck her dummy and crawl around, but don't be fooled, she is up to more than you can think of.

Yep, from baby to bad-guy, this list of cartoon characters has (almost) them all.

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson

The famous Simpsons mother of a whole disturbing family.

She is a well-meaning and extremely patient mother to all three of her children.

She still makes sure they seem "normal", although, nothing in Springfield is "normal".

Mickey Mouse

The beloved mouse with a character to cuddle to bits. He will always be someone in our minds.

Mighty Mouse

Brave, strong, super... what? He's a mouse? Jip, some super mighty mouse that saves the day.

Minnie Mouse

Mickey's girlfriend and companion in most of his cartoon shows. Sweet, gentle and most cuddlesome.

Olive-Oil

She sometimes wavers to choose Popeye when Brutus enters the scene, but every time (after a bit of spinach) Popeye prevails as the winner, and obviously Olive falls into his hands.

All of them makes the list of cartoon characters, even Olive does.

Pebbles Flintstone

Fred and Wilma Flintstone's only daughter, their pride and joy.

Her best friend is Bam-Bam who is the son of Barney Rubble. Barney is, of course, the best friend of Fred Flintstone.

Pebbles and Bam-Bam has come a long way together, I even saw them together as more-than-friends in a later Flintstones series.

However, she still has been added to the list of cartoon characters.

Piglet

Piglet is one of my favorite cartoon characters. With his little stuttering and fear of, well, everything he deserves a little spot in everyone's heart.

He is one of Winnie the Pooh's best friends.

Pikachu

This yellow little friend also deserves a spot on the list of cartoon characters.

Pikachu has gotten his spotlight from the Animé cartoon, Pokémon.

Pink Panther

Pink Panther is a character who inspires a tune in your head as soon as you see him. The Pink Panther is a series of animated shorts, designed to appear at the opening and closing credits of live-action films starring Inspector Clouseau. He was so popular that he became his own show.

With a nose for clues, an eye for intrigue and a mind like a steel trap that's jammed shut, The Inspector sets out to solve Paris' most puzzling crime mysteries.

The Pink Panther, even if he is a thief, still stays a favorite in any audience's heart. Even the Pink Panther tune will stick in your head in many ways.

Pluto

You will never understand what he says, but as Mickey Mouse's dog he is still a catch.

He has been in many Walt Disney cartoons as well as in Mickey Mouse Club House, and House of Mouse.

It seems that this dog can't be left out of anything, not even the list of cartoon characters.

Popeye

"I'm Popeye the sailor man... toot-toot..." This is a good example of the effects of spinach on a person.

If only our kids would believe in this "spinach" myth. But this would be better than the pipe in his mouth, which makes me think why so many children smoke today.

But, nonetheless, Popeye still makes an entrance into a child's heart. With his bulging forearms, squinty eyes and staccato chuckle he is still recognized by many generations.

This sure is one crazy Sailorman that's been added to the list of cartoon characters

Road Runner

"meep-meep". Jip, he doesn't talk much (actually never), which makes me wonder where his intelligence comes from to dodge the Coyote all the time.

He doesn't even have anything up his sleeve to out-dodge Wile E. Coyote, but still he outwits him and his traps.

Robin

He is the sidekick of Batman, but don't tell him that, he just might get cocky about it.

He has learned from the great master (that is Batman) on how to be a hero of the town. Still, he seems to be a sidekick of Batman, and never goes out on his own.

Actually, that's what Batman was hoping for, but Robin takes chance on his own whenever he sees an opportunity.

It's his sure independency that gave him a spot in the list of cartoon characters.

Scooby-Doo

Wow, I've never seen a more intelligent dog than Scooby-Doo, and he even talks too!

"Scooby-Doo, where are you?", then you know exactly what we're talking about. Their humor can be seen on two levels. The first, as seen through the eyes of a child, they're just silly cowards who somehow always save the day and remain best friends.

But watch Scooby-Doo as an adult, and you'll wonder if the van driving, spacey talk and continual snacking are lifestyle symptoms of the same folks who inspired this animation.

Nevertheless, Scooby-Doo is still loved by millions, and re-runs of the first editions is still shown on the TV Network.

Shaggy

This is Scooby's best friend, they do everything together, even get scared together and then run away together. Mmmm... makes you wonder.

Shaggy is part of the Scooby-Doo gang who solves some interesting mysteries, something scary which turns out to be a guy in a suit.

He is added to the list of cartoon characters because he might just as well be as famous as Scooby-Doo.

Simon Chipmunk

This is another brother from Alvin and the Chipmunks, but Simon is the intelligent one.

He understands greater things than the other two.

Together with Alvin and Theo they create the greatest music ever heard. Those voices are the thing that gave them the name. If you ever hear someone say "You sound just like a chipmunk" and you haven't got a clue what they are talking about, well, they mean you sound like these guys. And no, I don't think they do it with Helium.

Snoopy

Now this is a dog close to my heart.

He's been around for ages. Got to love him and never leave him out of a list of cartoon characters.

Snoopy is Charlie Brown's faithful dog, but he always has a story of his own. One might think that he always lives on top of his doghouse. "It's Christmas, Charlie Brown" has been enjoyed for generations, and will be for years to come.

Spiderman

A legend of his own, Spiderman is man with spider abilities. Intriguing every time, he has many foes to overcome with every episode.

Spiderman falls into the class of Batman and Superman, they all made the list of cartoon characters.

SpongeBob SquarePants

A squared-shaped sponge who lives under the sea. I had to include him in the list of cartoon characters with no fear.

This cartoon premiered in 1999. Since then, the SpongeBob SquarePants characters has become an American icon.

He is absorbent, yellow and porous, as the theme song indicates. This little guy is naive and excited all the time. He lives in a pineapple next to Squidward and Patrick.

SpongeBob works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab. He wakes every morning to the sound of a fog horn alarm clock. His favorite past time is jelly fishing. He lives a few fathoms beneath the tropical isle of Bikini Atoll in the sub-surface city of Bikini Bottom.

Instead of being logical about everyday challenges, SpongeBob approaches life in a wayward and unconventional way.

Whether searching for the ultimate spatula to perfect his burger flipping technique at the Krusty Krab, or just hanging out with his best friend Patrick, SpongeBob's good intentions and overzealous approach to life usually create chaos in his underwater world.

Superman

This guy needs no introduction. Neither could I ever dream of not including him in the list of cartoon characters.

He's been around before everyone's time and probably will be after everyone has gone.

I think he will always remain a superhero in my heart.

The Joker

Sounds like a funny one but he sure is a madman of kind. Just another one of Batman's nemeses.

Ooh, creepie. I guess the purple outfit should say something about his mood.

Theodore "Theo" Chipmunk

Bestest friend of Alvin and together they make the most beautiful music as the group called Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Theo is the fat one so I assume his the one who's been eating all the cookies.

Yet, as plump as he is, he still stays cute.

Tigger

He's not really the brightest bulb in the string, but he sure can glow when he wants to. This tiger jumps on his tail like a spring and keeps the funnies going around.

He is one of Winnie the Pooh's best friends, and together they sure have fun.

Tommy Pickles

As part of the RugRats troop, Tommy are always the innocent one learning a lot of things with his buddies.

He doesn't stand a chance against Angelica, but he always seems to come out on top after a grave incident involving her.

He had to be added to the list of cartoon characters.

Top Cat

The leader of a gang of alley cats, he, known as TC. He'll never admit that they live on the street, but still he gives Office Dibble the long story.

Top Cat is cool, but his morals are a tad looser than his gang's, leading to occasional mutiny. Nevertheless, T.C. always remains the leader of the gang.

Top Cat was released in 1960 by Hanna-Barbera animation studios.

Tweety & Sylvester

Sylvester is always on the prowl to get Tweety, where this little bird simply replies "I taught I thaw a putty-tat"

Another duo of cartoon characters created by Chuck Jones, that I've included in the list of cartoon characters.

Tweety Bird and Sylvester keeps each other on their toes, with Sylvester losing out on a yummy bird meal every time. It seems he just can't get that yellow, juicy, little bird for lunch. Both their characters keeps the audience watching as Sylvester just might catch Tweety this time.

One reason why I prefer to watch Sylvester and Tweety is because the are not like the Tom and Jerry cartoons, where they nearly kill each other, and the next moment they are fine, without a scratch. (This is kind of hard to explain to kids)

Wile E. Coyote

He has set all the traps you can think of and even can't think of for the Road Runner, but alas, he has failed again.

Wile E. Coyote is included in the list of cartoon characters, not because he has any special main character status (and I say that in the nicest way possible, because Roadrunner usually takes the shine), but because without him the Roadrunner would have any fun.

Wilma Flintstone

She is the wife of Fred Flintstone, and most of the time she can talk some sense into him.

She is part of the cast of The Flintstones and with her best friend and neighbor, Betty Rubble, they also have a lot of fun, just like the boys.

I just had to include her into the list of cartoon characters.

Winnie the Pooh

A cuddly bear that's included in the list of cartoon characters, has also been around since the dawn of the dinosaurs.

Winnie-the-Pooh, originally a children's book, was published in 1926 with the character of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore. The second collection of Winnie-the-Pooh stories, "The House at Pooh Corner", was published two years later and introduced the character Tigger. Since then, the books have been published in over twenty languages, worldwide.

The author, A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander Milne), was inspired for these stories by his son and his son's stuffed animals.

The little boy who talks to the animals was named Christopher Robin, after the name of A. A. Milne's real-life son. The name "Winnie" came from another real black bear, which Christopher Robin adored, in the London Zoo. "Winnie" was short for "Winnipeg". The "Pooh" part of the name came from the name of a swan.

Thus, the name of the famous lazy bear in the stories became Winnie the Pooh even though traditionally "Winnie" is a girl's name and Winnie the Pooh is definitely a boy bear.

Shepard's drawings of the fictional Winnie-the-Pooh world and characters were how most children envisioned them until Walt Disney bought the film rights to Winnie-the-Pooh in 1961.

Woody Woodpecker

One cartoon character that makes the list of cartoon characters is one that's got this very contagious laugh, that's why I don't even dare to write it down.

Woody Woodpecker, unlike most of the cartoon characters, lives to cause trouble. He has the ability to irritate any and everyone in his cartoon series. But he has, as his famous trademark, his cackling, stuttering laugh, which makes him OK for millions to watch and enjoy.

Yogi Bear

This bear is a resident of the Yellowstone National Park. But, he thinks he owns the place, stealing lunches and so on.

He sure is included in the list of cartoon characters because of his status as a famous cartoon.

Another Hanna-Barbera cartoon series creation was the team of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo. Like other classic Hanna-Barbera characters, Yogi continually found himself in trouble with the game ranger and Boo Boo usually figured a way out. The duo live in Jellystone National Park, where no visitors' picnic basket is safe. Yet Yogi still stays a lovable character in all the viewers eyes.

2012-09-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

HISTORY OF CAROONISTS

SCOTT ADAMS

Early life

Scott Adams was born in Windham, New York in 1957. He grew up a big fan of the Peanuts comics, and started drawing his own comics at the age of six.^[1] He also became a fan of Mad magazine, and began spending long hours practicing his drawing talent, winning a competition at the age of eleven.^[1] In 1968, he was rejected for an arts school and instead focused on a career in law. Adams graduated valedictorian at Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School in 1975, with a class size of 39. He remained in the area and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Hartwick College in 1979.^[2] In his senior year, a vehicle breakdown almost forced him to spend a night in the snow, causing him to vow never to see a snowflake again. He took a one way trip to California a few months after his graduation.^[1]

[edit]Career

Office worker

[edit]

Adams worked closely with telecommunications engineers at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco between 1979 and 1986. Upon joining the organization, he entered a management training program after being held at gunpoint twice in four months as a teller.^[1] Over the years his positions included: management trainee, computer programmer, budget analyst, commercial lender, product manager, and supervisor. During presentations to upper management he often turned to his comic creations to add humor.^[1] He earned an MBA in economics and management from theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1986.

Adams created Dilbert the character during this period--the name came from ex-boss Mike Goodwin.^[1] Dogbert, originally named Dildog, was loosely based on his family's deceased pet beagle, Lucy.^[1] Periodic attempts to win publication with Dilbert and non-Dilbert comic panels alike failed, including with The New Yorker and Playboy (not necessarily with the same comics).^[1] However an inspirational letter from a fan persuaded Adams to keep trying.^[1]

He worked at Pacific Bell between 1986 and June 1995, and the personalities he encountered became the inspiration for many of his Dilbert characters. Adams first published Dilbert with United Media in 1989, while still employed at Pacific Bell. He had to draw his cartoons at 4am in order to work a full day at the company. His first paycheck for Dilbert was a monthly royalty check of $368.62.^[1] Gradually Dilbert became more popular, and was published by 100 newspapers in 1991 and 400 by 1994. Adams attributes his success to his idea of including his e-mail address in the panels, thus facilitating feedback from readers.^[1]

[edit]Full-time cartoonist

As he became a full-time cartoonist, with Dilbert in 800 newspapers, Adams' success grew. In 1996 The Dilbert Principle was released, his first business book.^[1]

In 1997, at the invitation of Logitech CEO Pierluigi Zappacosta, Adams, wearing a wig and false mustache, successfully impersonated a management consultant and tricked Logitech managers into adopting a mission statement that Adams described as "so impossibly complicated that it has no real content whatsoever."^[3] That year he won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year and Best Newspaper Comic Strip of 1997, the most prestigious awards in the field.^[1]

In 1998 Dilbert began as a TV series, but was cancelled in 2000. By 2000 the comic was in 2000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages.^[1]

Finally, I got the call. "You're number one." I still haven't popped the champagne. I just raise the bar for what would be the right moment, and tell myself how tasty it will be if I ever accomplish something special in my work. Apparently the thing inside me that makes me work so hard is the same thing that keeps me unsatisfied.^[4]

— Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog

An avid fan of the science fiction TV series Babylon 5, he appeared in the season 4 episode "Moments of Transition" as a character named "Mr. Adams," who hires former head of securityMichael Garibaldi to locate his megalomaniacal dog and cat.^[5] He also had a cameo in "Review", a third-season episode of the TV series NewsRadio, in which the character Matthew Brock (Andy Dick) becomes an obsessed Dilbert fan. Adams is credited as "Guy in line behind Dave and Joe in first scene".^[6] Later in the episode, the character Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) hires an actor to play Scott Adams in a trick to bring Matthew back to work at the station.

Adams is the CEO of Scott Adams Foods, Inc., makers of the Dilberito and Protein Chef, and a co-owner of Stacey's Café in Pleasanton, California. Much of his interest in the food business comes from the fact that he is a vegetarian.

On November 16, 2011, Adams announced his candidacy for President of the United States on his blog, running as an independent. ^[7]

[edit]Personal life

He is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Adams is a former member of Mensa.^[8]

In recent years, Adams has had two notable health problems. Since late 2004, he has suffered from a reemergence of his focal dystonia which has affected his ability to draw for lengthy periods on paper,^[9] though it causes no real problem now that he draws the comic on a graphics tablet. He also suffered from spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave in an abnormal manner. He recovered from this condition temporarily but in July 2008 underwent surgery to rewire the nerve connections to his vocal cord. The operation was successful, and Adams' voice is now completely functional.

Adams is a vegetarian and trained as a hypnotist.^[10] He credits his own success to affirmations, including Dilbert's success and achieving a ninety-fourth percentile on a difficult qualification exam for business school, among other unlikely events. He states that the affirmations give him focus.^[11]

Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine, credits Adams for launching his career as a cartoonist.

Adams married Shelly Miles in 2006 and currently resides in Pleasanton, California.

Adams has often commented on political matters. In 2007 he suggested that Michael Bloomberg would make a good presidential candidate.^[12] Before the 2008 presidential election he said, "On social issues, I lean Libertarian, minus the crazy stuff,"^[13] but said in December 2011 that if he were president he would do whatever Bill Clinton advised him to do because that "would lead to policies that are a sensible middle ground."^[14]

[edit]Controversy

In March 2011, Adams wrote a blog post on the topic of men's rights after men's rights advocates responded in large numbers to his request for readers of his blog to choose his next topic.^[15] In the post Adams says that men treat women differently for the same reason that men treat children or the mentally handicapped differently—because it is an effective strategy. The post generated a significant backlash and accusations of misogyny. Adams deleted the post from his blog. Several weeks later the post continued to generate controversy.^[16]^[17] Adams responded to the continuing controversy by reposting the original text preceded by an explanation.^[15] Adams argued that as in virtually all other posts to his blog, he had made extensive use of satire and sarcasm but that it seemed to have been lost on some readers.^[15] He wrote that the furor that erupted on both sides of the issue only served to illustrate the point he was making: "You can't expect to have a rational discussion on any topic that has an emotional charge."^[15]

In April 2011, Adams mentioned that he had used a fake identity to post on link-sharing sites Reddit and MetaFilter

Biography

[edit]Early years

Tex Avery was born to George Walton Avery (b. June 8, 1867 - d. January 14, 1935) and the former Mary Augusta "Jessie" Bean (1886–1931) in Taylor, Texas. His father was born in Alabama. His mother was born in Buena Vista, Chickasaw County, Mississippi. His paternal grandparents were Needham Avery (Civil War veteran) (October 8, 1838 - February 20, 1913, buried at Wehadkee Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Randolph County, AL) and his wife Lucinda C. Baxly (May 11, 1844 - March 10, 1892). His maternal grandparents were Frederick Mumford Bean (1852 - October 23, 1886) and his wife Minnie Edgar (July 25, 1854 - May 7, 1940). His paternal Great-grandparents were John Walton Avery (December 16, 1805 - January 13, 1878, buried at Rock Springs Cemetery, Randolph County, AL ) and wife Elizabeth Brannon Tomme Avery (October 17, 1809 - October 15, 1895, buried at Mount Pisgah Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, Stroud, AL). Avery was said to be a descendant of Judge Roy Bean. However his maternal great-grandparents were actually Mumford Bean from Tennessee (August 22, 1805 - October 10, 1892) and his wife Lutica from Alabama. Mumford was son of William Bean and his wife Nancy Blevins from Virginia. Their relation to Roy is uncertain though his paternal grandparents were also from Virginia. Avery's family tradition also claimed descent from Daniel Boone.

Avery was raised in his native Taylor, and graduated in 1926 from North Dallas High School.^[3] A popular catchphrase at his school was "What's up, doc?",^[4] which he would later popularize with Bugs Bunny in the 1940s.

Avery first began his animation career at the Walter Lantz studio in the early 1930s, working on the majority of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons from 1931-35. He is shown as 'animator' on the original title card credits on the Oswald cartoons. He later claimed to have directed two cartoons during this time.^[2] During some office horseplay, a paperclip flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose use of that eye. Some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style.^[2]

[edit]"Termite Terrace"

Avery migrated to the Leon Schlesinger studio in late 1935 and convinced the fast-talking Schlesinger to let him head his own production unit of animators and create cartoons the way he wanted them to be made. Schlesinger responded by assigning the Avery unit, including animators Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones, to a five-room bungalow at the Warner Bros. Sunset Blvd. backlot. Schlesinger placed the Avery unit there so as not to tip off Avery's predecessor Tom Palmer that he was about to be fired.^[5] The Avery unit, assigned to work primarily on the black-and-white Looney Tunes instead of the Technicolor Merrie Melodies, soon dubbed their quarters "Termite Terrace", due to its significant termite population.

"Termite Terrace" later became the nickname for the entire Schlesinger/Warners studio, primarily because Avery and his unit were the ones who defined what became known as "the Warner Bros. cartoon". Their first short, Gold Diggers of '49, is recognized as the first cartoon to make Porky Pig a star, and Avery’s experimentation with the medium continued from there.

[edit]Creation of Looney Tunes stars

Avery, with the assistance of Clampett, Jones, and new associate director Frank Tashlin, laid the foundation for a style of animation that dethroned The Walt Disney Studio as the kings of animated short films, and created a legion of cartoon stars whose names still shine around the world today. Avery in particular was deeply involved; a perfectionist, Avery constantly crafted gags for the shorts, periodically provided voices for them (including his trademark belly laugh), and held such control over the timing of the shorts that he would add or cut frames out of the final negative if he felt a gag's timing was not quite right.

[edit]Daffy Duck

Porky's Duck Hunt introduced the character of Daffy Duck, who possessed a new form of "lunacy" and zaniness that had not been seen before in animated cartoons. Daffy was an almost completely out-of-control "darn fool duck" who frequently bounced around the film frame in double-speed, screaming "Hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo" in a high-pitched, sped-up voice provided by veteran Warners voice artist Mel Blanc, who, with this cartoon, also took over providing the voice of Porky Pig.

[edit]Bugs Bunny

Ben Hardaway, Cal Dalton and Chuck Jones directed a series of shorts which featured a Daffy Duck-like rabbit, created by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. As is the case with most directors, each puts his own personal stamp on the characters, stories and overall feel of a short. So each of these cartoons treated the rabbit differently. The next to try out the rabbit, known around Termite Terrace as "Bugs' Bunny" (named after Hardaway), was Avery. Since the recycling of storylines among the directors was commonplace, "A Wild Hare" was a double throwback. Avery had directed the '37 short, "Porky's Duck Hunt" featuring Porky Pig which introduced "Daffy Duck". Hardaway remade this as "Porky's Hare Hunt" introducing the rabbit. So Avery went back to the "hunter and prey" framework, and incorporating Jones' "Elmer's Candid Camera", gag for gag, and altering the design of Elmer Fudd. Polishing the timing, and expanding the Groucho Marx smart-aleck attitude already present in "Porky's Hare Hunt", making Bugs' a kind of Brooklyn-esque super-cool rabbit who was always in control of the situation and who ran rings around his opponents. Avery has stated that it was very common to refer to folks in Texas as "doc", much like "pal", "dude" or "bud". In A Wild Hare, Bugs adopts this colloquialism when he casually walks up to Elmer, who is "hunting wabbits" and while carefully inspecting a rabbit hole, shotgun in hand, the first words out of Bugs' mouth is a coolly calm, "What's up, doc?". Audiences reacted riotously to the juxtaposition of Bugs' nonchalance and the potentially dangerous situation, and "What's up, doc?" instantly became the rabbit's catchphrase.

Avery ended up directing only four Bugs Bunny cartoons: A Wild Hare, Tortoise Beats Hare, All This and Rabbit Stew, and The Heckling Hare. During this period, he also directed a number of one-shot shorts, including travelogue parodies (The Isle of Pingo Pongo), fractured fairy-tales (The Bear's Tale), Hollywood caricature films (Hollywood Steps Out), and cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny clones (The Crack-Pot Quail).

Avery's tenure at the Schlesinger studio ended in late 1941, when he and the producer quarreled over the ending to The Heckling Hare. In Avery's original version, Bugs and hunting dog were to fall off of a cliffthree times, milking the gag to its comic extreme. According to a DVD commentary for the cartoon, historian and animator Greg Ford explained that the problem Schlesinger had with the ending was that, just prior to falling off the third time, Bugs and the dog were to turn to the screen, with Bugs saying "Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!" It's thought that this was the punchline to a well-known risqué joke of the day. Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner himself, although it's doubtful Warner would be screening cartoons unless alerted to this particular content), and edited the film so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abruptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?"). An enraged Avery promptly quit the studio, leaving three cartoons he started on but did not complete. They were Crazy Cruise, The Cagey Canary and Aloha Hooey. Bob Clampett picked up where Avery left off and completed the three cartoons.

[edit]Speaking of Animals

While at Schlesinger, Avery created a concept of animating lip movement to live action footage of animals. Schlesinger was not interested in Avery's idea, so Avery approached Jerry Fairbanks, a friend of his who produced the Unusual Occupations series of short subjects for Paramount Pictures. Fairbanks liked the idea and the Speaking of Animals series of shorts was launched. When Avery left Warner, he went straight to Paramount to work on the first three shorts in the series before joining MGM.

[edit]Avery at MGM

Jerky Turkey (1945)

By 1942, Avery was in the employ of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, working in their cartoon division under the supervision of Fred Quimby. Avery felt that Schlesinger had stifled him. At MGM, Avery's creativity reached its peak. His cartoons became known for their sheer lunacy, breakneck pace, and a penchant for playing with the medium of animation and film in general that few other directors dared to approach. MGM also offered him larger budgets and a higher quality production level than the Warners studio. Plus, his unit was filled with ex-Disney artists such as Preston Blair and Ed Love. These changes were evident in Avery's first short released by MGM, The Blitz Wolf, an Adolf Hitler parody which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) in 1942.

Avery's most famous MGM character debuted in 1943's Dumb-Hounded. Droopy (originally "Happy Hound") was a calm, little, slow-moving and slow-talking dog who still won out in the end. He also created a series of risqué cartoons, beginning with 1943's Red Hot Riding Hood, featuring a sexy female star who never had a set name but has been unofficially referred to as "Red" by fans, whose visual design and voice varied somewhat between shorts. Other Avery characters at MGM included Screwy Squirrel and the Of Mice and Men-inspired duo of George and Junior.

Other notable MGM cartoons directed by Avery include Bad Luck Blackie, Cellbound, Magical Maestro, Lucky Ducky, Ventriloquist Cat and King-Size Canary. Avery began his stint at MGM working with lush colors and realistic backgrounds, but he slowly abandoned this style for a more frenetic, less realistic approach. The newer, more stylized look reflected the influence of the up-and-coming UPA studio, the need to cut costs as budgets grew higher, and Avery's own desire to leave reality behind and make cartoons that were not tied to the real world of live action. During this period, he made a notable series of films which explored the technology of the future: The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow, The Farm of Tomorrow and TV of Tomorrow (spoofing common live-action promotional shorts of the time). He also introduced a slow-talking wolf character, who was the prototype for MGM associates Hanna-Barbera's Huckleberry Hound character, right down to the voice byDaws Butler.

Avery took a year's sabbatical from MGM beginning in 1950 (to recover from overwork), during which time Dick Lundy, recently arrived from the Walter Lantz studio, took over his unit and made one Droopy cartoon, as well as a string of shorts with an old character, Barney Bear. Avery returned to MGM in October 1951 and began working again. Avery's last two original cartoons for MGM were Deputy Droopy and Cellbound, completed in 1953 and released in 1955. They were co-directed by Avery unit animator Michael Lah. Lah began directing a handful of CinemaScope Droopy shorts on his own. A burnt-out Avery left MGM in 1953 to return to the Walter Lantz studio.

[edit]After MGM

Avery's return to the Lantz studio did not last long. He directed four cartoons in 1954-1955: the one-shots Crazy Mixed-Up Pup and Shh-h-h-h-h, and I'm Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point, in which he defined the character of Chilly Willy the penguin. Although The Legend of Rockabye Point and Crazy Mixed-Up Pup were nominated for Academy Awards, Avery left Lantz over a salary dispute, effectively ending his career in theatrical animation.

He turned to animated television commercials, most notably the Raid commercials of the 1960s and 1970s (in which cartoon insects, confronted by the bug killer, screamed "RAID!" and died flamboyantly) andFrito-Lay's controversial mascot, the Frito Bandito. Avery also produced ads for Kool-Aid fruit drinks starring the Warner Bros. characters he had once helped create during his Termite Terrace days.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Avery became increasingly reserved and depressed, although he continued to draw respect from his peers. His final employer was Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he wrote gags for Saturday morning cartoons such as the Droopy-esque Kwicky Koala.

On Tuesday, August 26, 1980, Avery died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California at age 72. He died of liver cancer. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

[edit]Legacy

Although Tex Avery did not live to experience the late-1980s renaissance of animation, his work was rediscovered and he began to receive widespread attention and praise by the modern animation and film communities. His influence is strongly reflected in modern cartoons such as "Roger Rabbit", Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Genie character in Disney's Aladdin. In fact, an Averyesque cowboy character bore his name in the otherwise unrelated series The Wacky World of Tex Avery. His work has been honored on shows such as The Tex Avery Show and Cartoon Alley. His characters (particularly Bugs Bunny and the risqué antics of Red Hot Riding Hood) were referenced in the Jim Carrey film The Mask. In the mid 1990s, Dark Horse Comics released a trio of three-issue miniseries that were openly labelled tributes to Avery's MGM cartoons, Wolf & Red, Droopy, and Screwy Squirrel. It should also be noted that Tex Avery, unlike most Warner Brothers directors, kept many original title frames of his cartoons, several otherwise lost due to Blue Ribbon Reissues. Rare prints and art containing original titles and unedited animation from Avery's MGM and Warner Bros. cartoons are now usually sold on eBay or in the collections of animators and cartoon enthusiasts. In 2008 France issued three stamps honoring Tex Avery for his 100th birthday, depicting Droopy, the redheaded showgirl, and the wolf.

Today, the copyrights to all classic color cartoons directed by Avery at Warners and MGM are owned by Turner Entertainment, with Warner Bros. handling distribution. (WB owns the black-and-white cartoons directly.) Turner and WB are both units of Time Warner. The cartoons he directed at the Lantz studio are owned by their original distributors, Universal Studios. A few of Avery's WB shorts are in the public domain, but WB and Turner hold the original film elements.

All of his MGM shorts were released uncensored in a North American MGM/UA laserdisc set, called The Compleat Tex Avery, including the "politically incorrect" Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy(although these were removed from the Region 2 DVD release, now out of print). Several of his cartoons were released on VHS, in four volumes of Tex Avery's Screwball Classics, two Droopy collections, and various inclusions on MGM animation collection releases, with many gags edited out for television showings left in. Avery's Droopy cartoons are available on the DVD set Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection.^[6] The seven Droopy cartoons produced in CinemaScope were included here in their original widescreen versions (albeit letter-boxed), instead of the pan and scan versions regularly broadcast on television. Also, some of his works could be found on home video releases (from VHS to Blu-Ray) of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts, and the same is true of his few Lantz Studio cartoons.

Although his complete collection of MGM cartoons were released by fans on DVD as bootlegs^[7]^[8], Warner Home Video and Turner currently have no plans to officially re-release the cartoons themselves on DVD or Blu-Ray. Although a selection of Tex's films will appear, un-restored, on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 release.

2012-09-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

CARTOONS

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works. An artist who creates cartoons is called a cartoonist.^[1]

The term originated in the Middle Ages and first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, fresco, tapestry, or stained glass window. In the 19th century, it came to refer to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers, and in the early 20th century and onward it referred to comic strips and animated films

Fine art

Main article: Modello

A cartoon (from the Italian "cartone" and Dutch word "karton", meaning strong, heavy paper or pasteboard) is a full-size drawing made on sturdy paper as a study or modello for a painting, stained glass or tapestry. Cartoons were typically used in the production of frescoes, to accurately link the component parts of the composition when painted on damp plaster over a series of days (giornate).

Such cartoons often have pinpricks along the outlines of the design; a bag of soot was then patted or "pounced" over the cartoon, held against the wall to leave black dots on the plaster ("pouncing"). Cartoons by painters, such as the Raphael Cartoons in London and examples by Leonardo da Vinci, are highly prized in their own right. Tapestry cartoons, usually coloured, were followed by eye by the weavers on the loom.^[2]

Print media

John Leech's "Cartoon no.1: Substance and Shadow" (1843) satirized preparatory cartoons for frescoes in the Palace of Westminster, creating the modern meaning of "cartoon".

In modern print media, a cartoon is a piece of art, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843 when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages,^[3] particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster. The original title for these drawings was Mr Punch's face is the letter Q and the new title "cartoon" was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians.

Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines, generally consist of a single drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath or (much less often) a speech balloon. Newspaper syndicates have also distributed single-panel gag cartoons by Mel Calman, Bill Holman, Gary Larson, George Lichty, Fred Neher and others. Many consider New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno the father of the modern gag cartoon (as did Arno himself). The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti and Chon Day.

Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus and Virgil Partch began as a magazine gag cartoonists and moved on to do syndicated comic strips. Noteworthy in the area of newspaper cartoon illustration is Richard Thompson, who illustrated numerous feature articles in The Washington Post before creating his Cul de Sac comic strip. Sports sections of newspapers usually featured cartoons, sometimes including syndicated features such as Chester "Chet" Brown's All in Sport.

Editorial cartoons are found almost exclusively in news publications and news websites. Although they also employ humor, they are more serious in tone, commonly using irony or satire. The art usually acts as a visual metaphor to illustrate a point of view on current social and/or political topics. Editorial cartoons often include speech balloons and, sometimes, multiple panels. Editorial cartoonists of note include Herblock, David Low, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters and Gerald Scarfe.^[2]

Comic strips, also known as "cartoon strips" in the United Kingdom, are found daily in newspapers worldwide, and are usually a short series of cartoon illustrations in sequence. In the United States they are not as commonly called "cartoons" themselves, but rather "comics" or "funnies". Nonetheless, the creators of comic strips—as well as comic books and graphic novels—are usually referred to as "cartoonists". Although humor is the most prevalent subject matter, adventure and drama are also represented in this medium. Noteworthy cartoonists of humor strips include Scott Adams, Steve Bell, Charles Schulz, E. C. Segar, Mort Walker and Bill Watterson.^[2]

Books

Books with cartoons are usually reprints of newspaper cartoons. On some occasions, new gag cartoons have been created for book publication, as was the case with Think Small, a 1967 promotional book distributed as a giveaway by Volkswagen dealers. Bill Hoest and other cartoonists of that decade drew cartoons showing Volkswagens, and these were published along with humorous automotive essays by such humorists as H. Allen Smith, Roger Price and Jean Shepherd. The book's design juxtaposed each cartoon alongside a photograph of the cartoon's creator.

Animation

An animated cartoon horse, drawn by rotoscoping from Eadweard Muybridge's 19th-century photos.

Main article: Animated cartoon

Because of the stylistic similarities between comic strips and early animated movies, "cartoon" came to refer to animation, and the word "cartoon" is currently used to refer to both animated cartoons and gag cartoons. While "animation" designates any style of illustrated images seen in rapid succession to give the impression of movement, the word "cartoon" is most often used in reference to TV programs and short films for children featuring anthropomorphized animals, superheroes, the adventures of child protagonists and related genres.

At the end of the 1980s, the word "cartoon" was shortened, and the word "toon" came into usage with the live action/animated feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), followed two years later by the TV series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990).

FINDING NEMO

BEST CARTOONS OF ALL TIMES

1.TOM AND JERRY

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence (despite this they sometimes become allies to defeat a 'greater enemy' such as Spike the dog). Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote, produced and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood between 1940 and 1957, when the animation unit was closed. The original series is notable for having won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film seven times, tying it with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience that consists of children, teenagers and adults, and has also been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. In 2000, TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Beginning in 1960, in addition to the original 114 Hanna-Barbera cartoons, MGM had new shorts produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Gene Deitch in Eastern Europe. Production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones's Sib-Tower 12 Productions in 1963; this series lasted until 1967, making it a total of 161 shorts. The cat and mouse stars later resurfaced in television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Filmation Studios during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; a feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, in 1992 (released domestically in 1993); and in 2001, their first made-for TV short, Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat for Boomerang. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short The Karate Guard (2005), was written and co-directed by Barbera.
Today, Time Warner (via its Turner Entertainment division) owns the rights to Tom and Jerry (with Warner Bros. handling distribution). Since the merger, Turner has produced the series Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW's Saturday morning "The CW4Kids" lineup, and a string of Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films — all in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation.
The series features comedic fights between an iconic set of enemies, a house cat and mouse. The plots of each short usually center on Tom's numerous attempts to capture Jerry and the mayhem and destruction that ensues. Tom rarely succeeds in catching Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cleverness, cunning abilities, and luck. Despite this, there are also several instances within the cartoons where they display genuine friendship and concern for each other's well-being. Other times, the pair set aside their rivalry in order to pursue a common goal, such as when a baby escaped the watch of a negligent teen babysitter, causing Tom and Jerry to pursue the baby and keep it away from danger.
The cartoons are infamous for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation, such as Jerry slicing Tom in half, shutting his head in a window or a door, Tom using everything from axes, firearms, explosives, traps and poison to try to murder Jerry, Jerry stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron and a mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, plugging his tail into an electric socket, pounding him with a mace, club or mallet, causing a tree or an electric pole to drive him into the ground, sticking matches into his feet and lighting them, tying him to a firework and setting it off, and so on.^[1] Because of this, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent.^[2]^:42^[3]^:134
Music plays a very important part in the shorts, emphasizing the action, filling in for traditional sound effects, and lending emotion to the scenes. Musical director Scott Bradley created complex scores that combined elements of jazz, classical, and pop music; Bradley often reprised contemporary pop songs, as well as songs from MGM films, including The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me In St. Louis. Generally, there is little dialogue as Tom and Jerry almost never speak; however, minor characters are not similarly limited, and the two lead characters are able to speak English on rare occasions and are thus not mute. For example, the character Mammy Two Shoes has lines in nearly every cartoon in which she appears. Most of the vocal effects used for Tom and Jerry are their high-pitched laughs and gasping screams.
Before 1954, all Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced in the standard Academy ratio and format; in 1954 and 1955, some of the output was dually produced in dual versions: one Academy-ratio negative composed for a flat widescreen (1.75:1) format and one shot in the CinemaScope process. From 1955 until the close of the MGM cartoon studio a year later, all Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced in CinemaScope, some even had their soundtracks recorded in Perspecta directional audio. All of the Hanna and Barbera cartoons were shot as successive color exposure negatives and printed by Technicolor; the 1960s entries were done in Metrocolor.

2.MICKEY MOUSE

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio.^[3] Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves. He is one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world and is the mascot of The Walt Disney Company, the world's largest media conglomerate in terms of annual revenue.
Mickey debuted in November 1928 in the animated cartoon Steamboat Willie after initially appearing in a test screening earlier that year. He went on to appear in over 130 films including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also in a few feature-length films. Nine of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Beginning 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character. His self-titled newspaper strip, drawn primarily by Floyd Gottfredson, ran for 45 years. Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996) and others. He also appears in other media such as video games as well as merchandising, and is a meetable character at the Disney parks.
Mickey typically appears alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Horace Horsecollar, Donald Duck, and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete among others (see Mickey Mouse universe). Originally characterized as a mischievous antihero, Mickey's increasing popularity led to his being rebranded as an everyman, usually seen as an ever cheerful, yet shy role model. In 2009, Disney announced that they will begin to rebrand the character again by putting less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality most evident in his earlier films of the 1920s and 1930s; the repositioning of Mickey started with the video game Epic Mickey.^[4]

Origin

Concept art of Mickey from early 1928; the sketches are the earliest known drawings of the character. From the collection of The Walt Disney Family Museum

"I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse."

—Walt Disney, Disneyland; October 27, 1954

Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier cartoon character created by the Disney studio for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios.^[5] In the spring of 1928, with the series going strong, Disney asked Mintz for an increase in the budget. But Mintz instead demanded that Walt take a 20 percent budget cut, and as leverage, he reminded Disney that Universal owned the character, and revealed that he had already signed most of Disney's current employees to his new contract. Mintz owned Oswald and thought he had Disney over a barrel. Angrily, Disney refused the deal and returned to produce the final Oswald cartoons he contractually owed Mintz. Disney was dismayed at the betrayal by his staff, but determined to restart from scratch. The new Disney Studio initially consisted of animator Ub Iwerks and a loyal apprentice artist, Les Clark, who together with Wilfred Jackson were among the few who remained loyal to Walt. One lesson Disney learned from the experience was to thereafter always make sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company.
In the spring of 1928, Disney asked Ub Iwerks to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of various animals, such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were also rejected. They would later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. (A male frog, also rejected, would later show up in Iwerks' own Flip the Frog series.)^[3] Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from his old pet mouse he used to have on his farm. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney.^[3] "Mortimer Mouse" had been Disney's original name for the character before his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be.^[6]^[7] Actor Mickey Rooney has claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him.^[8]

Design

Ub Iwerks designed Mickey's body out of circles in order to make the character simple to animate. Disney employees John Hench and Marc Davis believed that this design was part of Mickey's success – it made him more dynamic and appealing to audiences. Mickey's circular design is most noticeable in his ears, which in traditional animation, always appear circular no matter which way Mickey faces. This made Mickey easily recognizable to audiences and made his ears an unofficial personal trademark. Even today, the symbol "" is often used by the Disney Company to represent Mickey (see Hidden Mickey). This later created a dilemma for toy creators who had to recreate a three dimensional Mickey. In animation in the 1940s Mickey's ears were animated in perspective.
Animator Fred Moore would later redesign Mickey's body away from its circular design to a pear-shape design. Colleague Ward Kimball praised Moore for being the first animator to break from Mickey's "rubber hose, round circle" design. Although Moore himself was nervous at first about changing Mickey, Walt Disney liked the new design and told Moore "that's the way I want Mickey to be drawn from now on."
Each of Mickey's hands has only three fingers and a thumb. Disney said that this was both an artistic and financial decision, explaining "Artistically five digits are too many for a mouse. His hand would look like a bunch of bananas. Financially, not having an extra finger in each of 45,000 drawings that make up a six and one half minute short has saved the Studio millions." In the film The Opry House (1929), Mickey was given his white gloves which were a simple way of contrasting his naturally black hands against his black body.
Mickey's eyes, as drawn in Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, were large and white and defined by black outlines. In Steamboat Willie the black outlines were removed, although the upper edges still contrasted with his head. Mickey's eyes were later re-imagined as only consisting of the small black dots which were his pupils, while what were the upper edges of his eyes became a hairline. This is evident only when Mickey blinks. Fred Moore later redesigned the eyes to be small white eyes with pupils and gave his face a Caucasian skin tone instead of plain white. This new Mickey first appeared in 1938 on the cover of a party program, and in animation the following year with the release of The Pointer.^[9] Mickey is sometimes given eyebrows as seen in The Simple Things (1953) and in the comic strip, although he does not have eyebrows in his most recent appearances.
Besides Mickey's gloves and shoes, he typically wears only a pair of shorts with two large buttons in the front. Although the animated Mickey was seen only in black and white for over seven years,^[10] print images confirmed that the shorts were red. When Mickey is not wearing his red shorts, he is often still wearing red clothing. This includes a red bandmaster coat (The Band Concert, The Mickey Mouse Club), red overalls (Clock Cleaners, Boat Builders), a red cloak (Fantasia, Fun and Fancy Free), a red coat (Squatter's Rights, Mickey's Christmas Carol), and a red shirt (Mickey Down Under, The Simple Things).

3.THE FLINTSTONES

The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that was broadcast from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966 on ABC. The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The Flintstones was about a working-class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend.
The show's continuing popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting.^[

Overview

The show is set in the Stone Age town of Bedrock. (In some of the earlier episodes, it was also referred to as "Rockville".) In this fantasy version of the past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long-extinct animals co-exist with cavemen. Like their mid-20th century peers, these cavemen listen to records, live in split-level homes, and eat out at restaurants, yet their technology is made entirely from pre-industrial materials and largely powered through the use of various animals. For example, the cars are made out of stone, wood, and animal skins, and powered by the passengers' feet (as in the theme song, "Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet").
The original pilot episode clip was called the "Flagstones" (which first appeared in 1959 as a 90-second promotion to draw advertisers to the show) and was later reincorporated into the show's first episode (third episode in original air date order). The show's name was changed to "The Flintstones" shortly thereafter.

Technology

Often the "prehistoric" analogue to a modern machine uses an animal.^[5] For example, when a character takes photographs with an instant camera, inside of the camera box, a bird carves the picture on a stone tablet with its beak. In a running gag, the animal powering such technology would frequently break the fourth wall, look directly into the camera at the audience and offer a mild complaint about his job. Other commonly seen gadgets in the series include a baby woolly mammoth used as a vacuum cleaner; an adult woolly mammoth acting as a shower by spraying water with its trunk; elevators raised and lowered by ropes around brontosauruses' necks; "automatic" windows powered by monkeys on the outside; birds acting as "car horns," sounded by the driver pulling on their tails or squeezing their bodies; an "electric" razor made from a clam shell, vibrating from a honey-bee inside; a pelican as a washing machine, shown with a beakful of soapy water; and a woodpecker whose beak is used to play a gramophone record. In most cases, "The Man of a Thousand Voices," Mel Blanc, contributed the animals' gag lines, often lowering his voice one to two full octaves, far below the range he used to voice the character of Barney Rubble. In the case of the Flintstones' cuckoo clocks, which varied from mechanical toys to live birds announcing the time, when the hour approached 12:00, the bird inside the clock "cuckooing" usually just ran out of steam and gave up vocally, physically, or both.

"Stone-age" names

The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and word plays involving rocks and minerals. For example, San Antonio becomes "Sand-and-Stony-o"; the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called "Mexirock" (Mexico). Travel to "Hollyrock," a parody of Hollywood, usually involves an "airplane" flight — the "plane," in this case, is often shown as a giant pterosaur, with the fuselage strapped to its back. The last names "Flintstone" and "Rubble", as well as other common Bedrock surnames such as "Shale" and "Quartz", are in line with these puns, as are the names of Bedrock's celebrities: "Gary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonry/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Mick Jadestone and The Rolling Boulders" (Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels). Once, while visiting one of Bedrock's houses of "Haute Couture" with Wilma, Betty even commented on the new "Jackie Kennerock (Jackie Kennedy) look". In some cases, the celebrity featured also provided the voice: "Samantha" and "Darrin" from Bewitched were voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York. Examples from the above list include Ann-Margret, Curtis, Darren, and the Beau Brummels. Other celebrities, such as "Ed Sulleystone" and "Alvin Brickrock," were rendered by impersonators. Some of Bedrock's sports heroes include: football player "Red Granite" (Red Grange), wrestler "Bronto Crushrock" (Bronko Nagurski), golfer "Arnold Palmrock" (Arnold Palmer), boxers "Floyd Patterstone" (Floyd Patterson) and "Sonny Listone" (Sonny Liston), and baseball players "Sandy Stoneaxe" (Sandy Koufax), "Lindy McShale" (Lindy McDaniel), "Roger Marble" (Roger Maris) and "Mickey Marble" or "Mickey Mantlepiece" (Mickey Mantle). Ace reporter "Daisy Kilgranite" (Dorothy Kilgallen) was a friend of Wilma. Monster names include "Count Rockula" (Count Dracula) and "The Frankenstone Monster" (Frankenstein's monster

4.POPEYE

Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar,^[1] who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929. Popeye also became the strip's title in later years.
Although Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut in 1929, the sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. Thimble Theatre was continued after Segar's death in 1938 by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip, now titled Popeye, continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.
In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and the Fleischers—and later Paramount's own Famous Studios—continued production through 1957. The cartoons are now owned by Turner Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, and distributed by sister company Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements and peripheral products, and a 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman starring comedian Robin Williams as Popeye.

5.ALLADIN

Aladdin (Arabic: علاء الدين‎, ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, IPA: [ʕalaːʔ adˈdiːn]; meaning, "glory of religion"^[1]^[2]) is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland (see sources and setting).
Aladdin is an impoverished young ne'er-do-well in a Chinese town, who is recruited by a sorcerer from the Maghreb, who passes himself off as the brother of Aladdin's late father Qaseem, convincing Aladdin and his mother of his goodwill by apparently making arrangements to set up the lad as a wealthy merchant. The sorcerer's real motive is to persuade young Aladdin to retrieve a wonderful oil lamp from a booby-trapped magic cave of wonder. After the sorcerer attempts to double-cross him, Aladdin finds himself trapped in the cave. Fortunately, Aladdin retains a magic ring lent to him by the sorcerer. When he rubs his hands in despair, he inadvertently rubs the ring, and a jinni, or "genie", appears, who takes him home to his mother. Aladdin is still carrying the lamp, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, far more powerful genie appears, who is bound to do the bidding of the person holding the lamp. With the aid of the genie of the lamp, Aladdin becomes rich and powerful and marries Princess Badroulbadour, the Emperor's daughter. The genie builds Aladdin a wonderful palace – far more magnificent than that of the Emperor himself.
The sorcerer returns and is able to get his hands on the lamp by tricking Aladdin's wife, who is unaware of the lamp's importance, by offering to exchange "new lamps for old". He orders the genie of the lamp to take the palace to his home in the Maghreb. Fortunately, Aladdin retains the magic ring and is able to summon the lesser genie. Although the genie of the ring cannot directly undo any of the magic of the genie of the lamp, he is able to transport Aladdin to Maghreb, and help him recover his wife and the lamp and defeat the sorcerer.
The sorcerer's more powerful and evil brother tries to destroy Aladdin for killing his brother by disguising himself as an old woman known for her healing powers. Badroulbadour falls for his disguise, and commands the "woman" to stay in her palace in case of any illnesses. Aladdin is warned of this danger by the genie of the lamp and slays the imposter. Everyone lives happily ever after, Aladdin eventually succeeding to his father-in-law's throne.

RECENT CARTOONS FAMOUS AMONG KIDS

1.DRAGONBALL Z

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru^?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. The series follows the adventures of the protagonist Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which can summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls for their own desires. It contains themes of friendship, rivalry, personal loss and victory.
The 42 tankōbon have been adapted into two anime series produced by Toei Animation: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996. Additionally, Toei has developed seventeen animated feature films and three television specials, as well as an anime sequel titled Dragon Ball GT, which takes place after the events of the manga. From 2009 to 2011, Toei broadcast a revised, faster-paced version of Dragon Ball Z under the title Dragon Ball Kai, in which most of the original version's footage not featured in the manga was removed. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising based on the series leading to a large media franchise that includes films, both animated and live-action, collectible trading card games, numerous action figures, along with several collections of soundtracks and a large number of video games.
The manga series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi and Malay-language release in Malaysia by Comics House. The entire anime series was licensed by Funimation Entertainment for an English-language release in the United States, although the series has not always been dubbed by the same studio. There have been many films of the franchise including the first live-action film adaptation being produced in 1989 in China. In 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to produce an American-made live-action film titled Dragonball Evolution that received a negative reception from critics and fans; the movie was released on April 10, 2009 in the United States.
Since its release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time. The manga's 42 volumes have sold over 152 million copies in Japan and more than 200 million copies worldwide. Reviewers have praised the art, characterization, and humor of the story. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest manga series ever made, with many manga artists such as Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Makoto Raiku (Zatch Bell), Yoshio Sawai (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo), and Hiro Mashima (Rave Master, Fairy Tail) citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now popular works. The anime, particularly Dragon Ball Z, is also highly popular in various countries and was arguably one of the most influential in greatly boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture.
The series begins with a young monkey-tailed boy named Goku befriending a teenage girl named Bulma. Together they go on a quest to find the seven Dragon Balls, which grant the user any wish they desire. Goku later undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial artist Master Roshi in order to fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament, a competition that attracts the most powerful fighters in the world. During his training with Roshi, he meets a Shaolin monk named Krillin, who starts out as Goku's rival classmate; however, they soon become best friends. Outside the tournaments, Goku faces diverse villains such as Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, and King Piccolo. Several of the enemies and rivals Goku encounters eventually become his allies, including the desert bandit Yamcha, the assassin Tien Shinhan, the samurai Yajirobe, and King Piccolo's offspring/reincarnation Piccolo Jr.
As a young adult, Goku meets his older brother Raditz, who reveals to him that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the Saiyans. The Saiyans had sent Goku (originally named "Kakarot") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a severe head injury soon after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission, as well as his blood-thirsty Saiyan nature. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission, and is soon killed along with Raditz in battle; however, he is revived a year later by the Dragon Balls. He then begins to encounter other enemies from space, most notably the Saiyan prince Vegeta, who becomes his rival and eventually another ally. Goku also encounters Frieza, the galactic tyrant responsible for the destruction of almost the entire Saiyan race, whose actions cause Goku to transform into a legendary Super Saiyan. After a protracted battle on the planet Namek, Goku defeats Frieza, avenging the lives of billions across the galaxy.
Some time later, a group of androids from the former Red Ribbon Army appear, seeking revenge against Goku. During this time, an evil life form called Cell emerges and, after absorbing two of the androids to achieve his "perfect form," holds his own fighting tournament to decide the fate of the Earth entitled the Cell Games. However, Cell is eventually defeated by Goku's son Gohan in a desperate Kamehameha wave struggle. Seven years later, Goku and his allies are drawn into yet another battle for the universe against a magical being named Majin Buu. After numerous battles, Goku destroys Buu with his ultimate attack; the Spirit Bomb. Ten years later, at another World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku meets Buu's human reincarnation, Uub. Leaving the match between the two of them unfinished, Goku takes Uub away on a journey to train him.

2.POKEMON

Pokémon (ポケモン Pokemon^?, pronunciation: /ˈpoʊkeɪmɒn/ POH-kay-mon^[1]^[2]) is a media franchise published and owned by Japanese video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own Mario franchise.^[3] Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006,^[4] and as of 28 May 2010, cumulative sales of the video games (including home console versions, such as the "Pikachu" Nintendo 64) have reached more than 200 million copies.^[5] In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc. (now The Pokémon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.^[6]
The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター Poketto Monsutā^?),^[7] as such contractions are quite common in Japan. The term Pokémon, in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 649 fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media as of the release of the fifth generation titles Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. "Pokémon" is identical in both the singular and plural, as is each individual species name; it is grammatically correct to say "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon", as well as "one Pikachu" and "many Pikachu".
The concept of the Pokémon universe, in both the video games and the general fictional world of Pokémon, stems from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular pastime which Pokémon executive director Satoshi Tajiri enjoyed as a child.^[8] Players of the games are designated as Pokémon Trainers, and the two general goals (in most Pokémon games) for such Trainers are: to complete the Pokédex by collecting all of the available Pokémon species found in the fictional region where that game takes place; and to train a team of powerful Pokémon from those they have caught to compete against teams owned by other Trainers, and eventually become the strongest Trainer: the Pokémon Master. These themes of collecting, training, and battling are present in almost every version of the Pokémon franchise, including the video games, the anime and manga series, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
In most incarnations of the fictional Pokémon universe, a Trainer that encounters a wild Pokémon is able to capture that Pokémon by throwing a specially designed, mass-producible spherical tool called a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is unable to escape the confines of the Poké Ball, it is officially considered to be under the ownership of that Trainer. Afterwards, it will obey whatever its new master commands, unless the Trainer demonstrates such a lack of experience that the Pokémon would rather act on its own accord. Trainers can send out any of their Pokémon to wage non-lethal battles against other Pokémon; if the opposing Pokémon is wild, the Trainer can capture that Pokémon with a Poké Ball, increasing his or her collection of creatures. Pokémon already owned by other Trainers cannot be captured, except under special circumstances in certain games. If a Pokémon fully defeats an opponent in battle so that the opponent is knocked out (i.e., "faints"), the winning Pokémon gains experience and may level up. When leveling up, the Pokémon's statistics ("stats") of battling aptitude increase, such as Attack and Speed. From time to time the Pokémon may also learn new moves, which are techniques used in battle. In addition, many species of Pokémon possess the ability to undergo a form of metamorphosis and transform into a similar but stronger species of Pokémon, a process called evolution.
In the main series, each game's single-player mode requires the Trainer to raise a team of Pokémon to defeat many non-player character (NPC) Trainers and their Pokémon. Each game lays out a somewhat linear path through a specific region of the Pokémon world for the Trainer to journey through, completing events and battling opponents along the way. Each game features eight especially powerful Trainers, referred to as Gym Leaders, that the Trainer must defeat in order to progress. As a reward, the Trainer receives a Gym Badge, and once all eight badges are collected, that Trainer is eligible to challenge the region's Pokémon League, where four immensely talented trainers (referred to collectively as the "Elite Four") challenge the Trainer to four Pokémon battles in succession. If the trainer can overcome this gauntlet, he or she must then challenge the Regional Champion, the master Trainer who had previously defeated the Elite Four. Any Trainer who wins this last battle becomes the new champion and gains the title of Pokémon M
aster
3.NARUTO

Naruto (NARUTO—ナルト— NARUTO^?) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and dreams to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot comic by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.
The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Currently, the manga is still being serialized; fifty-nine tankōbon volumes have been released so far. The manga was later adapted into an anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes, while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed eight movies for the series and several original video animations (OVAs). Other types of merchandise include light novels, video games and trading cards developed by several companies.
Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz has been publishing the series in their Shonen Jump magazine, and as well as the individual volumes. The anime series began airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the first film premiering in cinemas. The first DVD volume of Naruto: Shippuden was released by Viz in North America on September 29, 2009, and it started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year. Viz Media will begin streaming both series on their upcoming streaming service Neon Alley this fall.
Naruto is one of the best selling manga of all time having sold more than 113 million copies in Japan. Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become one of the company's best-selling manga series. The English adaptation of the series has also appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 7 won the Quil Award in 2006. Reviewers from the series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen plot elements.
12 years before the start of the series, a powerful creature known as the nine-tailed fox demon attacked the ninja village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the leader of Konoha– the 4th hokage– sacrificed his life to seal the demon inside his son. Konoha, however, regarded Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the current Kage, the Third Hokage, forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone else. This included Naruto, who was not aware of the demon inside of him. Years later, Naruto is tricked by the renegade ninja Mizuki into stealing a forbidden scroll that would teach him a secret ninja technique, but he is stopped by his teacher, Iruka Umino. When Iruka almost dies while protecting Naruto from Mizuki, who also reveals that he is the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto uses the Jutsu he learned from the scroll that creates multiple clones of himself, Shadow Clone Technique, to defeat Mizuki.
Naruto is assigned alongside Sasuke Uchiha, whom he often competes against, and Sakura Haruno to form a four person team named Team 7 under an experienced and severe sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 is charged with completing missions requested by villagers, such as doing chores or being bodyguards. After several missions, Kakashi allows Team 7 to participate in a ninja exam in which they can advance to a higher rank, and thus, take part in more difficult missions. During the exams, Orochimaru, a criminal at the top of Konoha's most wanted list, attacks Konoha and kills the Third Hokage in an act of revenge. This forces one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya to search for his former teammate Tsunade, who has been nominated to become the Fifth Hokage. During the search, it is revealed that Orochimaru desires to acquire Sasuke due to his powerful genetic heritage, the Sharingan. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed his clan, Sasuke joins him. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including Naruto to make Sasuke return to Konoha, but Naruto is unable to defeat him and bring him back to the village. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, however, and he leaves Konoha to train for two-and-a-half years under Jiraiya's tutelage in order to prepare himself for the next time he encounters Sasuke.
After the training period, a criminal organization called Akatsuki attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts that are sealed within people—including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke. Although they manage to save Gaara, the host of the One-Tailed beast, Akatsuki is successful in capturing seven of the creatures. In the meantime, Sasuke betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. After Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke is told by the Akatsuki founder and leader Tobi that Itachi was ordered by Konoha's leadership to destroy his clan. Saddened with this revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to kill Konoha's superior who orchestrated the Uchihas' elimination.
Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by the Konoha ninjas, their figurehead leader Pain, invades the village to capture Naruto. However, Naruto defeats him and convinces him to abandon the Akatsuki. With Pain's eventual death, Tobi—disguised as one of Konoha's founding fathers Madara Uchiha—announces that he wants to obtain all nine of the tailed beasts in order to perform an illusion powerful enough to control all of humanity. The leaders of the five ninja villages refuse to aid him, and instead, join forces to confront him and his allies. This results into a fourth ninja world war between the unified armies of the Five Great Countries collectively known as the "Ninja Alliance Army" and Akatsuki's forces. At the climax of the war, Naruto and Killer Bee, the host of the Eight-Tailed beast, reveal Tobi to be the presumed dead ninja and Kakashi's former comrade, Obito Uchiha.

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