1. 1914: A Prehistoric Dinosaur Leads the Wave of the Future

In the early 20th century, theaters were already showing animated films on the big screen, but the characters were usually no more than spokesdrawings for various advertisers. That is, until Winsor McCay drew his way onto the scene in 1914. The legendary cartoonist, who’d earlier become famous with his classic comic strip, “Little Nemo,” believed that animated characters could hold an audience’s attention without the help of a sales pitch. With that in mind, McCay created the groundbreaking film Gertie the Dinosaur.

The most innovative part about the movie’s animation was the way McCay interacted with it. Gertie actually started out as part of McCay’s “chalk talk” vaudeville act, and rather than having Gertie attempt talking via speech balloons, McCay spoke for both of them. Standing on stage next to a projected image of the dinosaur and holding a whip, he would bark out commands like, “Dance, Gertie!” Then, suddenly, the image would change and she would obey. In another sequence, McCay would toss an apple behind the screen and the impish dinosaur would appear to catch it in her mouth.

Eventually, McCay was ready to let Gertie loose on the big screen by herself. Using cell animation and drawing thousands of illustrations of his beloved dinosaur, he turned Gertie into one of the first successful character-based animated cartoons. With such ingenuity and style, it’s clear why McCay was often called “The Father of American Cartoons.”

2. 1920s: Charles Lindbergh and the Queen Fall for the Same Cat

Because live-action films were such a big hit with moviegoers, early cartoon characters were often modeled on popular actors of the day. One such cartoon character was Master Tom—a black feline with enormous eyes and an inviting ear-to-ear grin. His creator, legendary animator Otto Messmer, based the cat’s personality on silent-film star Charlie Chaplin. Fitting because, within a year, a slightly boxier version of the cat, now named Felix, started appearing regularly in animated shorts before Chaplin’s feature films.

The fact that cartoon characters were still speaking in speech balloons hardly affected Felix’s popularity. By 1923, the cat’s star power at the box office rivaled not only Chaplin’s, but Buster Keaton’s and Fatty Arbuckle’s, as well. From Germany to China, people were fascinated by the technology that enabled Felix to take his tail off and turn it into a pencil or a question mark or a shovel, and they couldn’t wait to see what gags Messmer would dream up next. In fact, the wily feline became such a celebrity in Great Britain that Queen Mary named her own cat after him. Back in America, Felix’s popularity continued to soar, literally, as a picture of him accompanied Charles Lindbergh on his historic flight across the Atlantic. The character’s adventures didn’t stop there, though; Felix was also the first image ever successfully transmitted by RCA during its early TV experiments.

3. 1920s: Doing It for the Kids

Although Walt Disney’s impact on the world of animation can’t be downplayed, much of the credit for the studio’s trademark style belongs to animator Ub Iwerks. A boyhood pal of Walt’s, Iwerks served as Disney’s righthand man. And where Disney had the business sense, Iwerks had the technical know-how to create characters that moved with fresh elasticity. Mickey Mouse’s predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was Iwerks’ creation. Oswald had big floppy ears that appeared almost rubbery when he walked. So while characters like Felix the Cat might have squeezed themselves through telephone lines, Disney characters had a softer profile. Ultimately, it upped the hugability factor, and that paid off with a whole new audience—children.

4. 1928: When the Mouse Speaks, People Listen

While Disney’s animation house floated by for a while, it wasn’t until Walt made his first “talkie” that America truly started buzzing about him. 1928’s Steamboat Willie signaled the end of the silent-film era. Disney had followed engineers’ experiments with sound and film throughout the 1920s, and he was convinced talkies were the future. Even though Mortimer Mouse (who Disney’s wife wisely re-christened Mickey) never actually speaks a complete sentence during Steamboat Willie, he more than makes up for it with his whistling—not to mention his energetic xylophone performance on the teeth of an open-mouthed bovine.

The combination of dazzling, synchronized music and pictures of a kid-friendly, large-eared mouse made Mickey and Walt Disney household names. In fact, the success of Steamboat Willie spawned a stream of new films, including 1929’s The Opry House—the movie in which Mickey dons his trademark white gloves for the first time.

5. 1930s: Marketing Kills the Animation Star

Although cartoons continued to be made for adults first, children second, one thing in the industry did change. From about 1930 onwards, many of Disney’s merchandising efforts were geared toward kids. In addition to Mickey Mouse dolls, there were combs, watches, pencils, T-shirts, coins, and even bedsheets—all of them exported the world over. It wasn’t long before Mickey became one of the most recognizable symbols of America. In 1935, The League of Nations proclaimed Mickey Mouse a “symbol of universal goodwill.”

All that attention came with plenty of responsibility, though. The economic pressure of the marketing strategy forced Disney to erase Mickey’s mischievous side and turn him into an all-around Mr. Nice Guy. And while the move succeeded in boosting merchandising sales, it did the opposite for Mickey’s on-screen popularity. The mouse’s star power was soon usurped by the naughtier, hot-tempered Donald Duck, who made it cool to be bad. Disney attempted a comeback for the mouse by giving Mickey a more bad-boy role in 1940’s Fantasia, but the film was a box office flop. It wasn’t until The Mickey Mouse Club premiered in 1955 that Mickey began to regain his star status.