| Gertie the Dinosaur | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Gertie, the Wonderful Trained Dinosaurus |
|
First Appearance |
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) |
|
Original Publisher |
Box Office Attractions Company |
|
Created by |
Winsor McCay |
Origin[]
Gertie the Dinosaur is a dinosaur animated by a fictionalised version of real-world cartoonist Winsor McCay in response to a bet, where he would recieve a dinner for bringing a dinosaur back to life through cartoons. Gertie is a dinosaur who is trained like a circus animal, and can perform actions such as bowing and dancing on command - though she is easily distracted, has a ravenous appetite to the point of eating entire trees and drinking entire rivers, and can occasionally be disobedient or even violent, such as when she threw Jumbo the Woolly Mammoth into the river.
Public Domain Appearances[]
Public Domain Film Appearances[]
- Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
- Diplodocus (A.K.A. "Fake Gertie the Dinosaur") (Unauthorised, 1915)
- Gertie on Tour (1921) (unfinished)
Notes[]
Fake Gertie from Diplodocus
- Gertie the Dinosaur is often regarded as the first ever animated cartoon, which is not true, being predated by fellow Winsor McCay films, Little Nemo and How a Mosquito Operates.
- There is an ice cream shop shaped in Gertie's likeness at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios.
- A bootleg version of Gertie the Dinosaur, titled Diplodocus, was made in 1915 by John Randolph Bray, who also unsuccessfully attempted to patent McCay's techniques. It has inferior, albeit more detailed, animation and no live action sements. This forgery was (most likely partially unwittingly) passed off as the real Gertie for many years, with the preserved print coming from 1970 and opening with a "historical" paragraph claiming it to be the real film and released in 1909 instead of 1914.