The first cartoons appeared in newspapers. They told stories using pictures. The first cartoon film appeared in 1906. It was about humorous faces. In the film, an artist drew pictures of two faces on a blackboard. The faces came to life. They smiled and a small dog jumped through a ring. There were a lot of animals in early cartoons. One famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat.
Walt Disney started to make films in the 1920s. Some of his earliest films were about a famous story, Alice in Wonderland, but in Disney's films it was called Alice in Cartoon Land. Walt Disney's most famous cartoon character was Mickey Mouse, first in a black-and-white film without sound, then very soon after that in a talking film and later in colour. A Mickey Mouse film was the first cartoon film with sound to become really popular.
Today, the popularity of cartoons has risen around the world. People of all ages still show great interest in cartoons.
