Abby Epplett, Historian

The history of animation is a common enough topic that multiple excellent articles and books already exist. My introduction focuses specifically on themes that will arise during the creation of the hypothetical animated musical, including the art of the ancient world and medieval period, parallels between world religions, the influence of animation on other media, the erasure of non-white and working-class figures from history, censorship, and the evolution of animation from hand-drawn to computer animated. Using a moving image to tell a story came long before the advent of animation. Pottery in Ancient Greece and later Ancient Rome depicted gods, heroes, and everyday life, often with multiple scenes from the same story. Medieval churches told stories to a population with a low literacy rate through the use of icons, stained glass, and illumination on manuscripts. This visual storytelling was not limited to Christianity, as practitioners of Hinduism and Buddhism created art