Cartoon magic comes to life
Even with hundreds of movies loaded with high-tech animation and special effects available today, old-fashioned cartoons can still entertain children of all ages.
Twenty-seven children from around Butler County gathered Friday at the Penn Theater on Main Street for the third of four sessions in a children's program about the history of animation.
At each weekly two-hour session of City Kids Cinema, children from about 5 to 12 years old watched cartoons before making crafts designed to demonstrate how animation was created before the age of computers.
"The cartoons are really simple by today's standards, but the kids were still amazed and laughed," said Mayor Maggie Stock, who organized the program along with Sewickley Academy teacher Wendy Berns.
The program, funded by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, was designed to walk children through several decades of animation starting with "Felix the Cat" created in 1919, Stock said.
The children, popcorn in hand, have also watched several other public-domain cartoons such as "Popeye" from the 1930s before creating projects paralleling each film's history.
"They love doing all the art stuff," Stock said. "We did storyboards the first Friday and transparency projects the second week."
This past Friday the children created thaumatropes, which are toys created by glueing two different pictures back to back and mounting them on a straw, string or rubber band. Once assembled, the device is then twirled back and forth quickly to create the illusion of a single image.
"The image stays in your head," Stock said, explaining to the children how the two images, one of a bird and the other of a cage, appeared to overlap, placing the bird inside the cage.
She also added that she and Berns not only wanted the kids to have fun making the projects, but they also wanted them learn how cartoons were created from thousands of individual drawings, many of which originated from comic strips.
"The crafts are really fun," said Michael Crawford, 6, who attended the program with his older sister, Julia.
Julia Crawford, who will be in fourth grade in the fall, also said she enjoys the crafts, which she said she doesn't get to do as much in school anymore.Although Sam Dreher, 6, said he likes pretty much all cartoons, he said this week's pirate-themed cartoons were his favorite.In addition to the children attending the event, many parents have stayed for the program, making the sessions a family event."It's just a relaxing summer activity," said Sue Geyer, who has attended each session with her 6-year-old son, Zachary, who loves cartoons, especially "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Scooby Doo.""It's a nice mom and son activity that we have done every Friday," Geyer said.The last session of City Kids Cinema will be from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Friday and will focus on the progression to modern cartoons.Stock and Berns said that because Butler County Children's Center is bringing children for the final session, they expect at least 50 participants.The women also added that they have applied for another PPA grant in partnership with the Butler Arts Council in an effort to continue the cartoon program next summer.
