It is fascinating to know how cartoons and animations have always been a source of entertainment, regardless of what age one belongs to. Unrestricted by culture or language, history has produced some brilliant pieces of animations from all around the globe. However, Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” holds the title for being the world’s first animated feature film released in 1937 in the United States. Though seven other films had been released earlier, this was the first one to be made entirely by using hand drawn and to gain such immense critical and commercial success, that the other seven films were disregarded by the audiences. At its initial release, the film earned $8 million which made it the highest grossing “sound film” at the time. Its popularity led it to being re-released many times theatrically with the home video being released in the 1990s. It has also set the record of being one of the top performers at the North American Box Office. The film was nominated for the Best Musical Score, a year after its release and then at the 11th Academy Awards held the next year, Walt Disney was bestowed with an honorary Oscar. At present, the film has its popular theme park ride at Disneyland Parks in the world. Apart from being used as a purpose for entertainment, animated films can encourage a great deal of learning in children if moral lessons are depicted in a story form. Pakistani film industry also produced its first computer-animated feature-length film, “3 Bahadur” in 2015.It became the highest grossing Pakistani animatedfilm. This has been a huge accomplishment for the industry which is struggling with limited resources and dealing with political uncertainties. Surely, it is a stepping stone to future success.
“Our most important aim is to develop definite personalities in our cartoon characters. We don’t want them to be just shadows, for merely as moving figures they provoke no emotional response from the public. We invest them with life, a caricature of life.”
–Walt Disney – 1938