Animated Cartoons

INTRODUCTION
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or made with computers to look similar to something hand-drawn) film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot (even if it is a very short one). This is distinct from the term "animation" or "animated film". Although cartoons can use many different types of animation, they all fall under the traditional animation category.

At first, animated cartoons were black-and-white and silent. The first cartoon with synchronized sound is often identified as Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse in 1928, but Max Fleischer's 1926 My Old Kentucky Home is less popularly but more correctly credited with this innovation. Fleischer also patented rotoscoping, whereby animation could be traced from a live action film. With the advent of sound film, musical themes were often used. Animated characters usually performed the action in "loops", i.e., drawings were repeated over and over, synchronized with the music. The music used is often original, but musical quotation is often employed. Today, animation is commonly produced with computers, giving the animator new tools not available in hand-drawn traditional animation. You can also see Computer animation for further information of the specific technologies. However, many types of animation cannot be called "cartoons", which implies something that resembles drawings.