Gertie The Dinosaur

Director: Winsor McCay
Release Date: 1914
Stars: Gertie the Dinosaur
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:

‘Gertie the Dinosaur’ was Winsor McCay’s third animation film, and it certainly is his most famous one, still capable of entertaining new audiences.

The cartoon follows a same story idea similar to that of ‘Little Nemo‘: during a visit to a natural history museum Winsor McCay bets the famous comic strip artist George McManus that he can make a dinosaur move. After these long nine minutes of slow live action introduction, we finally see McCay’s creation: Gertie the dinosaur.

McCay’s dinosaur appears to be a girl dinosaur. She behaves like a trained animal: she listens to what McCay is telling her, she eats a whole tree, she bows to the camera, she lifts her feet, she’s being startled by a small mammoth, which she throws into te lake, she dances, and she lifts McCay himself on to her back.

The captions inbetween replace dialogue, which must have been part of a vaudeville act with Winsor McCay talking to Gertie and she listening to him. This vaudeville show, with which McCay toured, has been recreated in the Disneyland special ‘The Story of Animated Drawing’, which aired on November 30, 1955, and which is available on the DVD set ‘Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio’. The reenactment makes the experience of the original film much more vivid, and watching this version is highly recommended.

The short is  impressive because of its fine animation and command of perspective, but what it really makes a milestone of animation is that Gertie the Dinosaur is the first animated cartoon character with personality. She’s not just any dinosaur, she’s a female dinosaur, behaving half like a trained animal, half like a small spoiled child. Watching the interaction between her and (the offscreen) McCay is impressive, but it’s also delightful and fun. This makes this film is an all time classic, enjoyable to this very day.

‘Gertie The Dinosaur’ was followed by the unfinished and much less succesful film ‘Gertie on Tour’, of which McCay completed only two scenes.

Watch ‘Gertie The Dinosaur’ yourself and tell me what you think: