Movie cartoons coming of age

By the time Fantasia first hit cinema screens in 1940, Mickey Mouse was already a seriously hormonal adolescent. He had made his debut performance in 1928 in Steamboat Willie, one of Walt Disney's early experiments with "personality animation", whereby the personality of cartoon characters is expressed in their movements and mannerisms, as well as their design.

By 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney had created such rounded characters, grown adults were (and still are) reduced to sobbing heaps as an animated princess died.

Although some of the most successful recent cartoons (A Bug's Life, Antz) are celebrations of new technology, theme and characterisation are still critically important. While Antz and A Bug's Life in particular were praised for technique, for many critics the plots and characters left a bit to be desired.

Released earlier this month, Toy Story 2 is an example of how quickly computer-generated animation is moving, but the story and characters are the essential ingredient in the film's acclaimed ability to captivate both children and adults alike. John Lasseter is the director of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, products of Pixar Animation Studios. Disney has a hand too, co-financing the films, marketing and distributing them, and splitting the profits with Pixar.

Toy Story 2, like its predecessor, revolves around that simple truth which every child knows so well - toys come to life when humans are not around (a theme also visited in a segment of Fantasia/2000). Woody is kidnapped - only to discovers he is a highly collectable toy. According to Lasseter, the idea came from his own treatment of "collectable toys", which he banned his children from playing with.

"What I love doing is animating inanimate objects, giving them personality by really studying their particular purpose," he says.

Meanwhile, The Iron Giant (Warner Bros) is less about technology and more about subject, deriving its visual style from 1950's comic books. Director Brad Bird was, nonetheless, mentored by Milt Kahl - one of Walt Disney's band of animators.

"I don't think Disney films are the only way to make them, and a lot of bad animated films have been made trying to chase Disney's tail."