Little Nemo (1911 film)

Little Nemo
Little Nemo and the Princess ride away in the mouth of a dragon.
Directed by	Winsor McCay
Release date	April 8, 1911 (1911-04-08)
Running time	11:33
Country	United States
Language	Silent with English intertitles

Little Nemo, also known as Winsor McCay: The Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics, is a 1911 silent animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. One of the earliest animated films, it was McCay's first, and featured characters from McCay's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. Its expressive character animation distinguished the film from the experiments of earlier animators.

Inspired by flip books his son brought home, McCay came to see the potential of the animated film medium. He claimed to be the first to make such films, though James Stuart Blackton and Émile Cohl were among those who preceded him. The short's four thousand drawings on rice paper were shot at Vitagraph Studios under Blackton's supervision. Most of the film's running time is made up of a live-action sequence in which McCay bets his colleagues that he can make drawings that move. He wins the bet with four minutes of animation in which the Little Nemo characters perform, interact, and metamorphose to McCay's whim.

Little Nemo debuted in movie theaters on April 8, 1911, and four days later McCay began using it as part of his vaudeville act. Its good reception motivated him to hand-color each of the animated frames of the originally black-and-white film. The film's success led McCay to devote more time to animation. He followed up Little Nemo with How a Mosquito Operates in 1912 and his best-known film, Gertie the Dinosaur, in 1914.

Winsor McCay (c. 1867–71 – 1934) had worked prolifically as a commercial artist and cartoonist by the time he started making newspaper comic strips such as Dream of the Rarebit Fiend (1904–11) and his signature strip Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905–14). In 1906, McCay began performing on the vaudeville circuit, doing chalk talk performances in which he drew before live audiences.