Other Studios: M: Winsor McCay Productions: Little Nemo

• Winsor McCay

• Featuring:

   Little Nemo.

• Originally Released in April of 1911 (Estimate).

• Originally Released Theatrically.

• Running Time:

   5 minutes.

• Black & White, Tinted Color

• U.S.A.

Silent cartoon.

The live action portion is in black and white, but the animated portion is in color, as it was actually hand-tinted by McCay.

Generally considered to be the first fully realized animated cartoon, it was based on characters from Winsor McCay's comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland."

This was the first appearance of comic strip characters in an animated film. McCay was inspired by his son's flipbooks to bring his characters to life.

McCay labored for at least two years on this film, creating 4,000 drawings on rice paper. Each had its own serial number and register marks in the upper corners, and each was mounted on larger, thicker paper to facilitate filming. Live-action segments shot at the Vitagraph Studio depicted a fictional bet between McCay, other cartoonists and comedian John Bunny about whether or not he could make his drawings move.

Besides being released to theaters, the film was featured in McCay's vaudeville act.