Week 1: Winsor McCay, Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914

If I had been alive in 1914. I am sure that I would have absolutely loved Gertie the Dinosaur. My favorite film of all time is Jurassic Park, which was the first film to extensively use CGI to produce realistic, computer animated dinosaurs. I suppose that Gertie was as much of a breakthrough in 1914 as Jurassic Park was in 1994. The animation is simple, but you definitely get a sense of personality from the simply illustrated dino. I wonder how long it took for McCay to master his timing to give the illusion that Gertie was really responding to him. Its incredible that people were so thrilled to have this as a form of special entertainment - I doubt any child now would want to watch something like this when they have so much to choose from on TV/Internet.