Golden Age of American Animation

The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928 and continued until around 1969 when theatrical animated shorts began losing to the new medium of television animation.

Many popular characters emerged from this period, including Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Goofy, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Porky Pig, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Droopy, and the first animated adaptation of Superman. Feature length animation also began during this period, most notably with Walt Disney's first films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

Shortly after returning to Kansas City, Missouri from World War I, Walt Disney decided to become a newspaper cartoonist drawing political caricatures and comic strips. However nobody would hire Disney, so his older brother Roy, who was working as a banker at the time, got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. Here he met fellow cartoonist Ub Iwerks, the two quickly became friends and in January 1920, when their time at the studio expired they decided to open up their own advertising agency together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The business however got off to a rough start and Walt temporarily left for the Kansas City Film and Ad Co. to raise money for the fleeting company and Iwerks soon followed as he was unable to run the business alone.

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