'The Centaurs' - Winsor McCay (1921)

[ThisLittleSnowflake]

Love how that male centaur throws a rock at that bird for no reason.

[emirjennifer]

WINSOr is the papa of anination

[TheRocketNumber9]

I love Centaurs so graceful so much panache

[austin0985]

He just launches a rock at the bird for no apparent reason...lol 0:37

[bobjfs]

Methinks Disney "borrowed" an idea?

[xValis77x]

@bobjfs those robbers

[thedict]

yeah lol this is just disturbing

[MsAly333]

0.0

[mccarrpo]

That centaur is a dick. He didn't have to kill that bird. What an asshole.

[Moonfacedpeople]

@avalanchsuperstar  I think you mean hoofies.

[fancynot]

tremendous.

[DarienKun19]

me da miedo, siento que tiene un uen de msjs subliminales :S

[Fuliginosus]

I like how McCay viewed animation as a medium for art, rather than just jokey stuff for kids.

[MrDeCorey]

Wow this is wonderful I love this film.

Thank you so much for posting.

[lucahjin]

This is amazingly beautiful!!!!!!

[manlyman80345]

Hypnotic, simply hypnotic.

[cajam0710]

beautiful

[tinnato]

first attempt at lip syncing? 2:06?

[tazatriste]

@tinnato I thought the same

[pisswizard]

eh fukd up dat fukin bird lol

[Cooeeoh7]

Don't know what that piece of music is, but I like it (and the clip).

[1919Fan19]

These clips are beautiful, Simply Amazing

[Ratty524]

The movement is definitely slow, I can't blame him for that, but Winsor still fascinates me with his memory of 3-dimensional form and perspective, and he was one of the first to apply that in animation. I especially like Gertie the Dinosaur, since it looks so life-like.

[Filippa99dogs]

lol XD

[GMRDUI]

They were allowed to show centaur boobs, back then? o.o

[TheHappyShow]

You'd be surprized. :-)

It wasn't until about 1930 with the adoption of the Hayes Code by Hollywood that there was any real uniformed censorship in Hollywood films. There are some mainstream silent films with nudity, for instance.

-- Matt

[xValis77x]

@GMRDUI they werent allow to show belly buttons man we cam along way

[HappyPeach568]

0:42 centaurs will never do that, they are harmless and warmhearted

[Rotsuoy]

In Greek mythology, centaurs are a symbol of untamed wild, and are known for their love of wine and women- much like the satyr. Most centaurs are depicted as in a constant state of drunken stupor, usually kidnapping and riding away with human women.

Not to mention, female centaurs weren't even depicted in ancient Greek art and literature until much much later from the time the centaur appeared. Before then, male centaurs were rapist and theives.

Read up on ancient Greek literature. . .

[Rotsuoy]

My comment was to HappyPeach568.

These clips are still beautiful to me.

[HappyPeach568]

Humans are known for their love of mermaids, tell you that!!! :D

[Rotsuoy]

In Mythology, mermaids were feared because they would lure sailors into rocks to kill them so they could take their money. o.O

[HappyPeach568]

I mean ariel

[Rotsuoy]

Ariel. . . from that Disney cartoon?

I loathe Disney and it's distructive habbits on the way we know cartoons. What happened to old, wonderful animations like these?

Why does Disney have to rewrite history, or butcher what little we know about it?

[paintbokx]

Walt Disney was an animation genius. He transformed the art-form in ways nobody had ever thought of and was responsible for film and animation technologies being developed that are commonplace today.

[torpedopants]

@paintbokx This is Winsor McCay, not Walt Disney. Winsor McCay created Little Nemo the comic strip and also personally hand animated many short films himself. He was also a true pioneer before his time.

[MegGriffin45]

How does this all relate?

[joryoreo]

the end frame is scary I'll admitt. Winsor was brilliant.

[joryoreo]

wow amazing rodoscoping. *Bows to McCay*

[TheHappyShow]

What's more amazing is I don't think Winsor McCay used rotoscoping. I know that Max Fleischer invented the technique in 1917, so it's possible, but I never heard that McCay used rotoscoping.

-- Matt

[jurn77]

ha ha wtf that isnt how a baby centaur looks!

[jurn77]

wtf did u see the old lady centaurs saggy boobs?!

[jimmybomb11]

ya disney was actually a big fan of mcay

[jimmybomb11]

i saw this on kpbs arts

[captaincadavor]

what the hell is up with the rock being thrown at the bird? that was awsome. anyone ever play centaur shoes?

[passlion]

"You damn bird, HAA!" "SQUAWK!"

[tsuuki]

what's centaur shoes?

[captaincadavor]

idk. i was just being random. lol i forgot i said that.

[tsuuki]

hahaha awesome

[joryoreo]

like horse shoes, but with centaur shoes, i didnt even type it and i put 2 & 2 together

[uwilldestroy]

A brilliant innovative mind in the world of motion pictures.

[arytheloser]

I didn't know McCay could do live-action backgrounds @_@ This man was way awesome.

[warlord2080]

i love the part where the centaur threw a rock at the bird winsors cartoon rocks..

[InuitkaForeignDisney]

It's absolutely extraordinary...

[buckbros3059]

what the fuck is this?

[skatejones]

Looks like Disney paid homage to this in Fantasia (the originial), am I right?

[goldenagenut]

Amazing. One can only wonder what other treasures from the earliest days of film and animation have been lost. I read a book on the silent era and it had a statistic that made me sick, stating that only approximately 15% of the films made in the silent era survive,the other 85% is gone forever, how truly tragic. Silent films are a true time machine looking back into past,to a different world.

[avalanchesuperstar]

@goldenagenut funny, you know walt disneys oswald cartoons...only about half of them exist. theres also rumours of mickey cartoons from the early 30s to be lost. people should take better careful of these masterpieces.

[goldenagenut]

@avalanchesuperstar - Yes but unfortunately the cost of making copies has always been high and once a film went through it's initial run, that was it,most sat on shelves in cans and deteriorated,more often than not in un-air conditioned environments, there was no reason to transfer it to preserve it. But wouldn't it be amazing to watch the original 9 hour version of 'Greed' by Von Stroheim, or some of the other forgotten gems?We can only appreciate what did survive- lots of McCay fortunately!

[SparkyMK3]

@avalanchesuperstar Disney has not lost any of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. They are all restored and available on DVD.

[avalanchesuperstar]

@SparkyMK3 Read the book "The Disney that Never Was". Or check the message I sent you.

[jelirestri]

@goldenagenut Really sad numbers...

[Tsubahi]

The baby centaur was freaky.

[Ivyandstone]

I thought he was kind of cute -- showing off, "Look what *I* can do!" just like a little kid. :-)

I wonder if the whole movie will ever be rediscovered. I'd love to see it.

[avalanchesuperstar]

@Tsubahi But it did cool wheelies.

[jinxtigr]

McCay was so incredible- he had everything except really believable movement- and it took the whole Disney company decades to really develop that. McCay didn't have timing down, but he had such control of his pictures that he could do convincing figures at any angle or position. If he'd had the flow and followthrough he would have had EVERYTHING... by the standards of any era, including the golden age.

[rosso98]

Yeah, it sometimes feels like his still images have a more dynamic sense of movement. As a still artist he was definitely on of the best ever, and as both a pencil sketcher and an animator well ahead of his time.

[wildblue2]

for spacial and proportional accuracy he was so competent. His movements look over deliberated though, as if he was plotting it out as he went. Disney had to sacrifice a lot of realism to achieve fluid motion, mostly by reducing everything to squashing and stretching spheres.

[KarateCop]

Well, since he invented animation, there was no hindsight in regards to what constitutes for smooth and proper motion in hand-drawn animation by this point in time. Everything he did he had to do from memory and imagination. Animation wasn't the huge money-making industry back then that it's become today. Then again, everything has become perverted by corporate intervention these days.

[bison1899]

lost film

[Chickenpainter111]

too bad this was unfinished.

[Mechatron1101]

it was, it just all detereated to this

[woodears]

McCay was the first genius of animation, the daddy of them all. He inspired all the others, Disney especially, though we still haven't caught up with his beautiful drawing style.

[ListenUpMusic]

Fucking Brilhant!!!

[infrogmation]

Wonderful.

One thing to notice is how they move-- not the rubbery unnatural motions the big studios were still getting away with 15 years after this. McCay was observant on both human and animal motion, and made his centaurs move partly like horses and partly like humans!

[Ivyandstone]

He did a great job with humans and horses, but it looks like he didn't spend a whole lot of time with birds... not that it matters, I bet I've watched this fifty times and it's still not getting old.

[BCraven040]

He probably killed the bird to show that he was a tuff guy or maybe this is based on a story or something, that was familiar to people back then.

[Fuliginosus]

I like the baby! Maybe the centaur killed the bird so he could eat it later. I think it's cool the way McCay was thinking of animation more along the lines of traditional fine art, moreso than Disney ever did.

[MujakiKid]

that was one of the creepiest babies i have ever seen. 0.0;;;; but a neat animation!

[bunearylove1]

why did he kill the bird?

[MadMoll]

Perhaps, if he had been able to finish it, we would have known. though, it looked more like a frustration thing

[Chizpurfle52595]

it was cool until that fucking baby came onscreen

[inuyasha4409]

i agree, what does a fucking baby have to do with centaurs.

[umbungi]

Never seen this. Nobody even got close to this kind of animation until Disney's Fantasia some 20 years later.What an incredible draftsman McKay was.

[imsopoopy]

why did he kill the bird?

[bluecatredcatgreenca]

very creepy

[plutosbitch]

This is great, but scary

[Ivyandstone]

I don't see why he had to kill the poor bird, but I still like this.

[ariestheramone]

excellent choice!

[squiff]

Awesome, does anyone know the title of the piece playing?

[Melegorm]

It's a joy to see the elegance with which the scene was created. Still tops 70 odd years later.

[cfernandogl]

REALLY NICE!

[newt94]

Fantastic! Hard to believe that some people still do not consider animation a true art form.

Whatever.

[misplacedmodifier]

Thank you. This made my night. He was fantastic, wasn't he?

[GlamourKat]

My favourite Winsor McCay cartoon. Breathtaking. I recently bought his complete works on DVD. SO worth it.

[Darkdog]

A true artist !

[Kittylover9393]

Aww! I always loved this one it's so cute.

[Medeatonal]

Walt Disney is no big deal is him? hahaha

I wish we could see more of this kind of animation nowadays.

[Daysavoo]

awww! That was so beautiful! ^.^

[bobair]

This of a higher order of animation than most which would come after.It took more than ten years before this quality would become tha norm in animations.

[magnifique]

This is absolutely beautiful. Winsor McCay was such an incredible artist.

[LoveTHYconan]

wonderful. thank you for posting.