Phenakistoscope, have you heard about it? If not, let me take you to history. A guy named Joseph Plateau in 1834 created this device which basically creates a fluent illusion of motion. The word ‘animation’ resembles what most people around the world understand as something that is made for children. The use of colour, the tone of the story and the cartoonish-looking characters are indeed something that mostly gives a sense of playfulness and a way that most kids would find it funny and amusing. The start of focus on animation mainly started from the year 1908 where a French cartoonist named Emilie Cohl came up with a film styled “Fantasmagorie”. This hand-drawn animation using traditional techniques shows the early sample of how animation films looked in the early ages. Over the years with the advancement of technology, the form of delivering animation has changed and new ways of telling stories have developed with the demand of time.

The rise of Walt Disney changed the space and made animation hold a far broader appeal. Children started to fall in love with some classic characters from the films like Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and many more. These well-known characters became household names and really created an impact on the world not just as a medium for children, but for world cinema as well. The medium shifted from being just a medium meant for children to something that people of all ages can enjoy. The phenomenal animated musical fantasy movie that changed the landscape of animation film is ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ which was released in the year 1937. This fully hand-made animated feature film made a huge success in the box office and created a positive boost in the animation industry.

Now, we come to a point where most animations are computer-generated imagery (CGI). Hand-drawn animation still exists, but animation using 3D (three dimension) graphics has become more popular. Due to its realism, the characters look livelier and animated. The cinematic storytelling in the medium has also evolved as a result. Looking at the animation world of Bangladesh, we have produced very little animated movies for children and have not made a much broader appeal to the audience. The United Nations children’s aid agency UNICEF produced the Bangla cartoon series ‘Meena’ which was aired on Bangladesh Television (BTV) in 1993 and it is the only popular TV animated series that created a mass appeal to date.

Animation is fast evolving and the kind of animated cinema that is produced today is breaking the age barrier and changing the tone of how stories are being told. The type of stories that children consume today from the animation movies are very different from what it used to be in the early days. Animation was and still is a strong visual medium to tell wonderful stories in a much more vibrant and colourful way that creates a strong emotional journey through the minds of little ones.

Since the beginning of this illusory technique, animation has been an important element of all cultures and civilisations for antiquities. With the rapid march of technology, the cartoon and animation business has also advanced and succeeded in combining images and text to create modern animations. This change is reconstructing this particular entertainment sector. As time passed, numerous animations arose and were further classified into five broad categories that included man’s political and socio-economic existence. They are, nonetheless, expressive and funny, with a variety of outstanding qualities. Regardless of the very fact that animations typically target all age groups, they mostly influence youngsters. Furthermore, they instantly capture their interest.