What was the defining moment in cartoon history

A.� The first 'real' cartoon character was Gertie The Dinosaur in 1914. It presented cartoons as viable cinematic heroes, and pre-emted Jurassic Park by about 80 years. Steamboat Willie in 1928 was the first sound cartoon from Disney, and it created the company's first great franchise character. Mickey Mouse derived his squeaky voice from this cartoon. The first full-length full-colour animated film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. This film, above all others, set a pattern for years to come: songs, comedy, emotion and merchandise.

By 1988, the cartoon animation industry had changed so much it produced the first believable interaction between 'toons and humans with Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And in 1995, the world's first all-computer animated feature film� came about in the shape of Woody and Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story.

Traditionally, to make an animated film, artists draw each stage of every movement on clear plastic pages called cels. The background is painted on a separate cel, and shows through the clear cel. Photographing the cels in the correct sequence makes the figures move. Artists may produce more than a million drawings for one feature-length film.

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Q.� How has the industry changed

A. The film animation industry has been embraced by the compuer game industry and the result was released earlier this year. A multi-million pound project resulted in the first computer-generated photo-realistic human actors and, in theory, could change the shape of cinema forever. Techniques have gradually become so sophisticated� that the whole medium of film has been extended.

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Q.� Which films rely heavily on animation

A.� Animation is a huge part of the post-rpoduction film-making process. Disney outsells nearly all animation films across the world, and has dominated the market since Walt Disney started making films nearly 100 years ago.

Hironobu Sakaguchi created Final Fantasy, a series of wildly imaginative, interactive computer games, in 1987, and has moved the animation industry on in a quantum leap with Final Fantasy V11. He has just released the film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which introduced the first computer-generated 'real' human actors. The animation industry is getting stronger, but at �20 billion a year, computer gaming is bigger than movies or music. Upon its American release, Final Fantasy V11 sold more units than any music or movie title.

The project is likely to attract interest from Titanic's James Cameron, Star Wars' George Lucas, the Wachowskis and Luc Besson, directors who have fully embraced new technology in the industry.

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By Katharine MacColl