Animation Pioneer and Legion: Winsor McCay

The Centaurs

Winsor McCay, sometimes called "America's Greatest Cartoonest", was a pioneer in animation in first part of the 20th century. Back when Movies were still new, McCay was doing true "Motion Pictures." He was most famous for one of the first animations seen by the public Gertie the Dinosaur and for the cartoon strip Little Nemo in Sumberland.

The Centaurs is fragments from the animated film that most likely was never seen in public. It was made around 1918-21 which is 20 years before Fantasia (1940), the most famous Centaur animation sequence.

This is only fragments of the original because most of the footage is lost forever due to nitrate deterioration in a Long Island gararge. Upon opening the cans of 35mm film, most of what was found was powder. What little survived is still a wonder.

The Centaurs was originally a was full motion animationed 35mm film, displayed at 18-20 fps. What you see below is at a far lower frame rate and lower quality image. The compression "Cinepaq" made the cleanest, highest compressed image and may need a new version of Quicktime to be viewed. (I'm using Quicktime 2.5).
-IdahoBob

Quicktime Moov's

A 3.4Mb File	A 3.0Mb File
	A 14.1Mb File

Here are some frame grabs from the film.

Full Frames

A Centaur Filly walking though the woods	A Centaur throws a Rock at a Bird.
A Centaur Couple meet in a Glen.	The Centaur family, All Together.