Chapter 1, The Silent Era Summary and Analysis

Chapter One, The Silent Era, begins in the early 20th century has animation began to take a stronghold in the film industry. Maltin refers to Winsor McCay, a legendary animator and entrepreneur. During a testimonial dinner, McCay commented that "Animation should be an art, that is how I conceived it. But...what you fellows have done with it is make it into a trade...not an art, a trade... bad luck."

Maltin argues that while animation had in fact become a trade. It did not mean the loss of the artistic side. The silent era and black-and-white was very limiting to animation, and the art had little choice but to wait for film advancements to catch up to it.

Maltin refers to the first several black-and-white cartoons, including what is considered to be the first...