Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz

A 1920 1st Edition of Animated Cartoons, complete with a rare dust jacket

Author’s Collection

Sometime in December of 1914 or early 1915, a young 13 year-old Walt Disney sat in Kansas City’s Wonderland Theatre and watched a film animated by Winsor McCay, called Gertie the Dinosaur.  This innovative film was part of a vaudeville act performed by Mr. McCay, in which he stood on stage and interacted with Gertie as she lumbered onto the scene and began to consume trees and rocks, responded to questions, and drank an entire lake.  This film had such an influence upon Walt deciding to become an animator that Mr. McCay is acknowledged today by The Walt Disney Company with a couple of tributes secretly hidden in plain sight by the Imagineers within Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort. 

While cartooning, in the form of comics and editorial newspaper cartoons, was wildly popular at the time, with Mr. McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend being widely read in newspapers across the country, the art of animation was still in its infancy.  As a result, there was little which Walt could use as a reference or teaching tool at the time to learn the craft, as well as the skills necessary to pursue his dreams.

In 1920, Walt partnered with his friend, Ub Iwwerks, to form a commercial art firm called Iwwerks-Disney, in which they produced ads for local businesses.  This endeavor was short lived, however, and in 1921 Walt began creating animated films, which he called Newman Laugh-O-grams.  During this period, Walt relied upon two early resources to learn and develop his animation skills; the Motion Studies volumes by Eadweard Muybridge, a pioneer filmmaker who studied and photographed the motion of humans and animals, and a new book, first published in 1920, titled Animated Cartoons – How They Are Made – Their Origin And Development, by E.G. Lutz. 

Animated Cartoons was the first book to provide readers with extensive knowledge about the art and science of animation.  Its pages provided Walt with lessons on how to capture the nuances of anatomy and movement, as well as the effects of motion upon a subject.  In addition, it explained in detail the science of animation and the equipment used to create a moving motion picture from thousands of still images.  It is often said that “It all started with a mouse.”, but before that mouse, Walt’s early skills as an animator started with this very book, which he relied upon to create the many characters that would launch his career and bring him worldwide success and prestige.

Learn more about the early life of Walt Disney in the book, Disney History - Rare & Unknown.