Animation history really starts with the production of Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie in France in 1908. The animation timeline then starts to progress with several films being produced during the next twenty years;

Gertie the Dinosaur, produced by Winsor McCay and distributed to commercial movie theaters in 1914 being a land mark during this period.

In the 1920s and 1930s Warners, MGM and Disney studios developed cartoon techniques, producing more and more sophisticated cartoons using traditional animation techniques of producing complex backgrounds and then imposing moving figures on them with celluloid, a transparent film

Disney was especially innovative, adding sound in 1928 and producing the first full length animated film in 1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Computer animation started to change animation techniques and animation history during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1982, the Star Trek Film "the Wrath of Khan used computer animation techniques to generate the Genesis Effect scene.

The 1990s saw the beginning of the impact of computer animation, with different techniques being developed from Toy Story, the first computer animated feature, Babe, a combination of live and computer animated effects and the formation of Dream Works. This animation timeline continues in the new millennium with Shrek and Shrek2, The Lord of the Rings, and many more to follow.