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102-592: Springfield is the primary fictional setting of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons and related media . It is an average-sized, fictional city within an unknown state in the United States . The fictional city's geography, surroundings, and layout are flexible, often changing to accommodate the plot of any given episode. Springfield was inspired by a number of real-life locations, including creator Matt Groening 's hometown of Portland, Oregon and

204-411: A stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts , puppets , or clay figures . A cartoon in the animation sense is an animated film, usually short, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips , often featuring anthropomorphic animals , superheroes , or the adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form

306-466: A Mapple Store (a parody of the Apple Store ), numerous knockoff Starbucks coffee shops, and several Krusty Burgers. Springfield Elementary School is a fictional local school attended by Bart Simpson , Lisa Simpson , and most other Springfield children. It teaches children from kindergarten through to sixth grade. Springfield Elementary is depicted as a grossly underfunded school that suffers from

408-484: A Speed-E-Mart, Joe's Tavern, and a school. Per " Last Exit to Springfield ", Shelbyville was at least briefly called "Morganville" during Abe Simpson's youth. According to The Simpsons Movie , Shelbyville is west of Springfield. It is the home of the button fly. Shelbyville was ranked 10th in "The 10 Best Dystopias " in the December 2005 issue of Wired . Capital City (often spelled Capitol City in early episodes)

510-490: A consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before

612-422: A dedicated Disneyana Fan Club (since 1984). Disneyland opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts . Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies. As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in

714-536: A gambling junket to refurbish and redecorate the home and has the dining hall renamed in Bea's honor. The fictional City Hall of Springfield serves as the workplace of Mayor Quimby and the City Government. It is often the site of town meetings , where the citizens hold a vote to approve proposals in an attempt to fix an issue facing the city. These proposals generally cause havoc and create even more problems for

816-455: A gun in a second state, the bullet will travel through the third, hitting you in the fourth, so you fall dead in the fifth. No single act is against any law, but their sum total is the greatest murder..." The fictional city of Shelbyville is Springfield's rival. It was founded in 1796 by Shelbyville Manhattan, who advocated cousin marriage among his followers, causing a split between himself and Jebediah Springfield. An intense rivalry between

918-550: A left-handed specialty store which had failed. The Springfield Mall is a fictional shopping mall that features comical fictional stores and pastiches, such as the Happy Market, Cost-Mo, Girdles N' Such, Eye Caramba, The Ear Piercery, Happy Sailor Tattoo Parlor, Love Your Computer, Gum4Less, Popular Books, the Leftorium , Nick's Bowling Shop, Stoner's Pot Palace, Bookacchino's, Moe's Express (a mini version of Moe's Tavern ),

1020-475: A mall cart, the "Leftorium Express", which he splits with a cosmetic saleswoman. In the season 29 episode " Left Behind ", the Leftorium closes for good, leaving Flanders unemployed until he finds a new job as Bart Simpson 's new teacher. The writers had wanted to have Flanders own a failing business and the idea for the store was suggested by George Meyer . He got the idea from a friend whose family had owned

1122-426: A natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. A cartoon can also be a still humorous drawing, often with the same elements as animated cartoons but with still versions. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to

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1224-451: A new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series. Hanna-Barbera Productions was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as The Flintstones (1960–1966) (the first prime time animated series), Scooby-Doo (since 1969) and Belgian co-production The Smurfs (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and

1326-453: A passage in the Bible, left Maryland trying to find "New Sodom ". After he refuses to found a town where men are free to marry their cousins , half of the group leave. The dissenters found the nearby town of Shelbyville , named after fellow pioneer Shelbyville Manhattan, and the two cities have remained rivals ever since. Springfield reached its pinnacle in the mid-20th century when it became

1428-523: A police raid on the store. Barney's Bowl-A-Rama is a fictional bowling alley in Springfield. It is owned by Barney Gumble 's Uncle Al. In the episode " And Maggie Makes Three ", Homer tells the family the story of Maggie 's birth. In this story, Homer explains how he quit his job at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant to work at the Bowl-A-Rama, which was Homer's dream job, before returning to

1530-520: A separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phenakistiscope , zoetrope , flip book , praxinoscope , and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally . For display on computers, technology such as

1632-450: A true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effective limited animation . Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching Saturday-morning cartoons . Many classic cartoons found

1734-531: A very long history in automata . Electronic automata were popularized by Disney as animatronics . The word animation stems from the Latin animātiōn , stem of animātiō , meaning 'bestowing of life'. The earlier meaning of the English word is 'liveliness' and has been in use much longer than the meaning of 'moving image medium'. Long before modern animation began, audiences around the world were captivated by

1836-409: A wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Soviet Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became

1938-516: Is Joe Quimby , a Democrat . In the episode " Sideshow Bob Roberts ", Sideshow Bob ( R ) runs for mayor and defeats Mayor Quimby, but Bob is later discovered to have committed electoral fraud . Krusty the Klown (R) represents Springfield in Congress. Previous representatives include Horace Wilcox, who dies of a heart attack while in office in " Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington ", and Bob Arnold, who

2040-543: Is Springfield's retirement home for the elderly. Some noted residents of the Castle include Abraham "Grampa" J. Simpson , Jasper Beardley , and Old Jewish Man . For Grampa Simpson, the Retirement Castle is a lonely place to be. He often gets mad when his family does not come and visit him. The door features a sign reading 'Thank you for not discussing the outside world'. The most interesting way to pass time at

2142-406: Is a fictional two-unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant in Springfield owned by Charles Montgomery Burns . Among the plant's employees are Homer Simpson , Lenny Leonard , and Carl Carlson , and Burns' assistant Waylon Smithers . The plant is shown to be the key supplier of the city of Springfield's energy, and the carelessness of Mr. Burns and the plant's employees often endangers

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2244-537: Is a large college which Homer attended in " Homer Goes to College ". It teaches several different courses, including nuclear physics, arts management, and the meaning of cartoons. Springfield University also has a fierce rivalry with Springfield A&M University. In the episode " Faith Off ", the nickname of the Springfield University football team is revealed to be the Nittany Tide—a reference to

2346-775: Is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of Alice Comedies (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, 1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US, 1988), Volere volare (Italy 1991), Space Jam (US, 1996) and Osmosis Jones (US, 2001). Area code 939 Telephone numbers in Puerto Rico are assigned under

2448-623: Is forced to resign after Lisa exposes his corruption in " Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington ". Mary Bailey is the fictional governor of Springfield's state. The town is home to a number of fictional sporting teams, including the Springfield Isotopes, a minor league baseball team which plays its home games at Duff Stadium; the Springfield Atoms football team at Springfield Stadium; the NBA 's Springfield Excitement (formerly

2550-610: Is generic and that "the Springfield Nuclear Power plant was not based on the Trojan Plant or any other power plant in the country." The Android's Dungeon is a fictional comic book store owned by Comic Book Guy . The comic book store and its owner first appeared in the episode " Three Men and a Comic Book " when Bart sees a copy of the first issue of the Radioactive Man comic on sale for $ 100. In

2652-485: Is in any state but yours" — Chalkboard gag , " Beware My Cheating Bart " Because of the many contradictory statements made regarding Springfield in the show, the town cannot exist in a specific state. In The Simpsons Movie , Ned Flanders tells Bart that the state where Springfield is located is bordered by the states of Ohio , Nevada , Maine , and Kentucky – only Ohio and Kentucky are neighboring states in reality, and Nevada and Maine are at opposite sides of

2754-413: Is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards , then handing the film over to

2856-565: Is shown as unusually polluted. Overflowing garbage forces the whole town – population and structures — to move five miles (8km) away from the massive dump that the old town of Springfield had become. Springfield is also home to the state's largest self-sustaining tire fire , which has been burning continuously for many decades. Lake Springfield's pollution almost leads to the town's destruction by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bomb in The Simpsons Movie , and pollution from

2958-552: Is shown to be comically varied and includes forests , meadows , mountain ranges , a desert , a glacier , beaches , badlands , canyons , swamps , a harbor , waterholes , and waterways . Major named geographical features include the Springfield Gorge, Springfield National Forest, the volcanic Mt. Springfield, the West Springfield Desert, which is claimed to be "three times the size of Texas ",

3060-402: Is taught by Elizabeth Hoover . Notable students in this class include Lisa's best friend, Janie Powell, and Ralph Wiggum . The school's principal is Seymour Skinner . Other staff members include janitor Groundskeeper Willie , music teacher Dewey Largo , bus driver Otto Mann , and cafeteria chef Lunchlady Doris . The school district is overseen by Superintendent Gary Chalmers . In 1994,

3162-449: Is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It

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3264-404: Is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their Mickey Mouse mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products , as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name , but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called Disneyana has many avid collectors, and even

3366-413: Is the fictional capital and largest city in the state in which the show is set. It is represented as a major urban center, hosting major sports events, conventions, and United Nations conferences. Its nickname is The Windy Apple (a joke by the show's writers, combining the nicknames of New York City's "The Big Apple" and Chicago 's "The Windy City"). Landmarks include a Duff brewery, possibly mimicking

3468-529: Is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio ( The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , The Lion King ) to the more 'cartoon' styles of

3570-432: Is the process that was used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels , which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on

3672-763: The Internet ( web cartoons ). Rotoscoping is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other examples are Fire and Ice (US, 1983), Heavy Metal (1981), and Aku no Hana (Japan, 2013). Live-action/animation

3774-469: The Leftorium closes, leaving Flanders unemployed, and he returns to Springfield Elementary School, where he becomes Bart's new teacher, filling the void left by Krabappel's death. He holds that role until season 33, when Rayshelle Peyton (voiced by Kerry Washington ) takes the job. Other students in this class include Milhouse van Houten , Nelson Muntz , Martin Prince , and Sherri and Terri . Lisa's class

3876-532: The North American Numbering Plan (NANP). Their area codes are 787 and 939 . Prior to March 1, 1996, Puerto Rico was one of many Caribbean islands served by area code 809 . On that date Puerto Rico was assigned the new area code 787. Permissive dialing of 809 ended January 31, 1997. Within only four years, 787 was already on the brink of exhaustion due to the proliferation of cell phones and dial-up Internet connections. To solve

3978-502: The Penn State Nittany Lions and Alabama Crimson Tide . Springfield Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University is a rival institution of Springfield University. Carl Carlson is an A&M alumnus. Springfield A&M's mascot is a pig named Sir Oinks-A-Lot, who was kidnapped by Homer and his three student tutors as a prank in " Homer Goes to College ". Springfield Heights Institute of Technology focuses on

4080-525: The Warner Bros. animation studio . Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, The Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film. Limited animation involves

4182-556: The animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. In addition to short films , feature films , television series , animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, animation is also prevalent in video games , motion graphics , user interfaces , and visual effects . The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance, moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has

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4284-408: The entertainment industry . Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation , in particular claymation , has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation is contrasted with live-action film , although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of

4386-462: The flip book (1868), the praxinoscope (1877) and film . When cinematography eventually broke through in the 1890s, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. It took years before animation found its way to the cinemas. The successful short The Haunted Hotel (1907) by J. Stuart Blackton popularized stop motion and reportedly inspired Émile Cohl to create Fantasmagorie (1908), regarded as

4488-407: The nuclear power plant has mutated the fish in the river, causing some to grow an extra eye. Its atmosphere is so polluted that, in one 1995 episode, it reduces a comet to a rock the size of a chihuahua 's head. Springfield is shown to feature a large numbered grid plan , ranging from streets at least as low as 3rd Street and at least as high as 257th Street. The fictional mayor of Springfield

4590-439: The persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and beta movement , but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect . While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over

4692-538: The 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as Barbapapa (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking) (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), Maya the Honey Bee (Japan/Germany 1975) and The Jungle Book (Italy/Japan 1989). Computer animation

4794-1007: The Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, the Cross-town suspension bridge resembling San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge , the Capital City Stadium, the Capital City Amphitheatre (featuring Krusty the Clown ), and the intersection of 4th Street and Avenue D. The Simpsons Movie places Capital City just to the north of Springfield. Animation Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images . In traditional animation , images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets ( cels ) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within

4896-596: The Austin Celtics); and the Springfield Ice-O-Topes hockey team. Kwik-E-Mart is a fictional convenience store run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon . The Kwik-E-Mart first appeared in the first-season episode " The Telltale Head " (although mentioned in " Bart the General " as the "Quick-e-Mart"). In " Stark Raving Dad ", a street sign reading "Highland" is seen outside one of the front windows, in

4998-522: The Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture , in 1991. Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten. The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking , with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference

5100-712: The Friendly Ghost (1945), Warner Bros. Cartoon Studios ' Looney Tunes ' Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937), Elmer Fudd (1937–1940), Bugs Bunny (1938–1940), Tweety (1942), Sylvester the Cat (1945), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949), MGM cartoon studio 's Tom and Jerry (1940) and Droopy , Universal Cartoon Studios ' Woody Woodpecker (1940), Terrytoons / 20th Century Fox 's Mighty Mouse (1942), and United Artists ' Pink Panther (1963). In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made

5202-642: The Kwik-E-Mart and shows him travelling to the Himalayas , where the Kwik-E-Mart head office is located, to ask for his job back after being fired. However, Apu mentions at a bachelor auction that he runs his own business in " The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons ". In July 2007, convenience store chain 7-Eleven converted 11 of its stores in the United States and one in Canada into Kwik-E-Marts to promote

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5304-586: The Springfield Badlands, the gigantic Murderhorn Mountain, Springfield Glacier, Mt. Useful National Park, Springfield Mesa, Springfield Monument Park, and Springfield National Park. The town's climate is usually depicted as dry and sunny, with a bright blue sky. However, in various episodes, it has been subject to many natural disasters, including heatwaves, blizzards, avalanches, earthquakes, acid rain , floods, hurricanes, lightning strikes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. Springfield's environment

5406-685: The Springfields in America, [ The Simpsons ] is most popular in Springfields in Virginia , Minnesota and New Jersey , and least popular in Springfields in Louisiana , Arkansas and Georgia ". The episode " Lisa the Iconoclast " revealed that Springfield was founded by a group led by Jebediah Springfield (a cover identity for notorious pirate Hans Sprungfeld) who, after misinterpreting

5508-594: The Tramp (1955) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with An American Tail in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in

5610-421: The U.S. called Springfield competed to hold the premiere . The promotion was, whichever state sent in the most votes would be the winner and would officially be which state The Simpsons takes place in. Despite the smaller size of Vermont compared to other states, the town of Springfield, Vermont was chosen. In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "of all

5712-548: The US. The fictional city's unknown geography is a recurring joke in the series; the Dayton Daily News called it the "riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Springfield's location." Episodes frequently make fun of the fact that Springfield's state is unidentifiable, by adding further conflicting descriptions, obscuring onscreen map representations, and interrupting conversational references. David Silverman , who directed

5814-476: The US. Successful producer John Randolph Bray and animator Earl Hurd , patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century. Felix the Cat , who debuted in 1919, became the first fully realized anthropomorphic animal character in the history of American animation. In 1928, Steamboat Willie , featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse , popularized film-with-synchronized-sound and put Walt Disney 's studio at

5916-522: The US; the location is a spoof of Four Corners . While on their road trip to Itchy & Scratchy Land , the Simpsons visit Five Corners, where they each "stand in five different states while holding hands". The location is visited again in " The Bob Next Door ", where Sideshow Bob plots to kill Bart at the marker where the location's unique property would result in a lack of extraterritorial jurisdiction , explaining it as: "I can stand in one state, fire

6018-469: The animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond

6120-521: The animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in

6222-494: The business in several episodes. In the season 10 episode " Thirty Minutes over Tokyo ", Ned mentions the competitor business "Leftopolis" next door. In the episode " Home Away from Homer ", in a parody of Wal-Mart , Ned mentions the new megastore "Left-Mart" is threatening his business. The season 25 episode " White Christmas Blues " reveals that competition from the Southpaw Superstore forced Flanders to downsize to

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6324-714: The demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker limited animation methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series, the first cartoon of The Simpsons (1987), which later developed into its own show (in 1989) and SpongeBob SquarePants (since 1999) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring stop motion and puppetry over cel animation. Japanese anime TV series became very successful internationally since

6426-422: The drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video . The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators ' work has remained essentially the same over the past 90 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on

6528-428: The engineering sciences. Professor Frink is a college professor at the university, and it is from where Apu Nahasapeemapetilon earned his doctorate. Spinster City Apartments, sometimes referred to as Spinster Arms Apartments, is a fictional apartment building. Patty and Selma Bouvier , along with Selma's daughter Ling and their pet iguana Jub-Jub , live at number 1599. The fictional Springfield Retirement Castle

6630-410: The episode " Worst Episode Ever ", Bart and Milhouse are given the job of running the comic book store after Comic Book Guy suffers from a stress-induced heart attack and is instructed to try and gain a social life. During their brief tenure at the store, Bart and Milhouse discover a secret room filled with bootleg videotapes of extremely rare or illegal subjects. These tapes are later confiscated during

6732-566: The fictitious Springfield featured in the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best . Groening did not intend to place the fictional Springfield in Oregon, contrary to a 2012 interview with him in Smithsonian magazine ; he instead adopted the name for the setting of The Simpsons in the hope that "everyone will think it's their Springfield." Al Jean explained that the magazine "misinterpreted something I've heard him say for at least 10 or 20 years. He

6834-868: The field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include ASIFA-Hollywood 's Annie Awards , the Emile Awards in Europe and the Anima Mundi awards in Brazil. Apart from Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for Best Original Song and Best Original Score . Beauty and

6936-458: The first feature-length film El Apóstol (now lost ), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's Sin dejar rastros in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in 1926,

7038-406: The forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output, has always been very small; the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the golden age of American animation that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated

7140-530: The home is to "stake yourself out a good spot at the starin' window", which overlooks nothing but a barren tree, and bingo (the prize being a banana ). The staff of the home has little to no respect for the residents, doing things like vacuuming their hair during "nap time", or switching their IV bags with their catheter bags when the former is empty, and the latter is full. In the episode " Old Money ", Grampa inherits $ 106,000 from his girlfriend Beatrice "Bea" Simmons. He uses both this money and his winnings from

7242-426: The home of the world's first Aquacar factory; one-half of the U.S. was said to wear Springfield galoshes, and the city's streets were literally paved with gold. However, the town's prosperity was short-lived. In a 1992 episode, a fictional Time cover story on Springfield is titled "America's Worst City", and in a 1996 episode, Newsweek called the town "America's Crud Bucket". Springfield's fictional geography

7344-611: The humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals. Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid " Kills Bugs Dead " commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to comic books . While many comic book characters found their way to

7446-401: The incompetence and apathy of its administration, teachers, staff, and students. It is portrayed within the show as a satire of publicly funded schools and education in the United States, an illustrative example and parody of the lengths undertaken by some schools to overcome the burden of underfunding. Bart's class was taught by Edna Krabappel until her death in season 25. In " Left Behind ",

7548-435: The late 1980s, in a style similar to traditional cel animation. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, became the dominant technique following the success of Pixar's Toy Story (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer-animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only

7650-421: The magic of moving characters. For centuries, master artists and craftsmen have brought puppets, automatons , shadow puppets , and fantastical lanterns to life, inspiring the imagination through physically manipulated wonders. In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phenakistiscope ) introduced the principle of modern animation, which would also be applied in the zoetrope (introduced in 1866),

7752-563: The majority of other North American 7-Elevens, sold products found in The Simpsons , such as " Buzz Cola ", " Krusty-O's ", " Squishees ", pink frosted "Sprinklicious doughnuts", and other Simpsons -themed merchandise. The Squishes were Slurpees that are sold in special collector cups, and the Krusty-O's were made by Malt-O-Meal . The promotion resulted in a 30% increase in profits for the changed 7-Eleven stores. This can be seen during

7854-482: The movie and various episodes of the series, joked that Springfield is located in the fictional state of "North Takoma". This is substantiated by the state abbreviations NT and TA used within the show. As of A Tale of Two Springfields (season 12, episode 2), the telephone area codes for Springfield are 636 ( St. Charles County and Western St. Louis County, Missouri ) and 939 ( Puerto Rico ). To promote The Simpsons Movie , various actual towns and cities across

7956-538: The naming of a new, real-life elementary school in Greenwood, South Carolina , was left up to the students, and the name Springfield Elementary was chosen. The school board was unaware of the connection to The Simpsons until a protest by one group of parents, who argued that the character of Bart Simpson was a poor role model. The name stood, and the school opened in August 1994. The fictional Springfield University

8058-402: The nearby town of Springfield, Oregon . However, in order to emphasize it as an example of " Anytown, USA ", the location of the fictional Springfield remains a mystery. "Clues" regarding Springfield's climate, geology, history, distance from real cities, or political alignment, which are found in numerous episodes of the series, are intentionally contradictory. The fictional city of Springfield

8160-824: The oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020 . The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with Gulliver's Travels with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features Pinocchio , Fantasia (both 1940), Fleischer Studios' second animated feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941–1942) and Disney's feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and

8262-510: The oldest known example of a complete traditional (hand-drawn) animation on standard cinematographic film. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by Winsor McCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as Little Nemo (1911) and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated " cartoons " became an industry in

8364-613: The opening of The Simpsons Movie . Moe's Tavern, or often simply referred to as "Moe's", is a fictional bar operated and named after the owner, Moe Szyslak . Moe's Tavern first appeared in the first episode of the series " Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire ". Homer Simpson , Lenny Leonard , and Carl Carlson often visit the bar after a day of work at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Other frequent patrons of Moe's Tavern are Barney Gumble , Sam , and Larry Dalrymple . The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

8466-462: The outside security booth often going unmanned. The design of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is often rumored to be based on the troubled Trojan Nuclear Power Plant (closed in 1993 due to defects) near Matt Groening 's hometown of Portland, Oregon , or the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington . However, Antonia Coffman, Groening's publicist, has said that the Springfield plant's design

8568-599: The plant when Maggie was born so that he could afford to care for her. The Leftorium is a fictional store in the Springfield Mall specializing in products for left-handed people. The store is owned by Ned Flanders , who first started the Leftorium in the episode " When Flanders Failed ". Although business at the store initially went very poorly, it became significantly more successful when Homer recommended it to many of his left-handed friends. The Leftorium had challenges in subsequent years, with Flanders discussing

8670-459: The release of The Simpsons Movie . The locations of the renovated Kwik-E-Marts were: Bladensburg, Maryland /Washington, D.C.; Burbank, California ; Chicago ; Dallas ; Denver ; Henderson / Las Vegas ; Los Angeles ; Mountain View / San Francisco ; New York City; Orlando / Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; Seattle ; and Vancouver / Coquitlam, British Columbia , Canada. These 12 locations, as well as

8772-472: The residents and natural environment of Springfield. Mutated fish with more than two eyes are often shown in the lake behind the power plant, which has a large pipe pumping nuclear waste into it. There is a crow or raven shown living near the Power Plant, which caws whenever an establishing shot of the Power Plant is on screen. A running gag in earlier seasons was the poor security of the plant, with

8874-464: The same blue color as is used for signs for Highland Avenue in Los Angeles . Likewise, three buildings are visible that are similar to some of those that might be seen on that street: two low buildings with bars over the windows, and a third, also with barred windows, which has a mission-style roof and a sign reading "Smog Center". The episode " Homer and Apu " suggests that Apu is an employee of

8976-768: The screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many manga are adapted into anime ), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for video games (an interactive form of animation that became its own medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media, The Walt Disney Company

9078-458: The side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. In modern traditionally animated films, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color

9180-425: The synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s. Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation)

9282-458: The town to later deal with. The building is based on the Chelmsford, Massachusetts public library due to longtime The Simpsons background designer Lance Wilder, being a former Chelmsford resident. Five Corners is a fictional location, imagined as "the only geographic location in the US where five states meet". A boundary marker indicates the exact spot. In reality, no such place exists in

9384-462: The two . As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery , filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation , while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings . Other common animation methods apply

9486-411: The two cities continues today, especially in the sixth-season episode " Lemon of Troy ", in which Shelbyville residents steal a prized lemon tree from Springfield. In several episodes, "Lemon of Troy" in particular, it is suggested that Shelbyville is to an extent a parallel version of Springfield. Shelbyville is also the city where Luann van Houten grew up. It also has at least one McDonald's restaurant,

9588-791: The use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America , limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing-Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation , and other TV animation studios ) and later

9690-565: The value had increased to an estimated US$ 370 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s. The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation

9792-401: The very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects. In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$ 80 billion. By 2021,

9894-683: The words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), Lucky and Zorba (Italy, 1998), and The Illusionist (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994), Anastasia (US, 1997), The Prince of Egypt (US, 1998), Akira (Japan, 1988), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001), The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003), and The Secret of Kells (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009). Full animation

9996-482: The world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including Walt Disney Productions ' Goofy (1932) and Donald Duck (1934), Fleischer Studios / Paramount Cartoon Studios ' Out of the Inkwell ' Koko the Clown (1918), Bimbo and Betty Boop (1930), Popeye (1933) and Casper

10098-543: Was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller Futureworld (1976). The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by Pixar in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company in

10200-569: Was inspired by growing up in Portland , but it's really an every town". Groening liked Second City Television 's setting of Melonville, a town with a large cast of recurring characters, and used it as inspiration for The Simpsons . He said, "I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the show's success, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do". "The true location of Springfield

10302-418: Was intended to represent "Anytown, USA", and not be derived from any specific real-life location. However, the producers acknowledge deriving inspiration from numerous locations, including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon , and Mike Scully 's hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts . Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon, which, as a child, Groening had believed to be

10404-482: Was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios , including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and

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