Winsor McCay (September 26, 1869 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. A prolific artist, McCay’s pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades. James Stuart Blackton and Winsor McCay directed a ten-minute short film based on the comic strip, of which two minutes were animated. The film was first released on April 8, 1911. The first animated effort of McCay, it later achieved the status of an early animated classic. The on screen title is Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics, but it is usually referred to as Little Nemo. Here see the original “Little Nemo”. This version was named to the National Film Registry in December 2009. The two animated minutes told a story, had known characters, and while it is not the first piece of animated film, Little Nemo can be considered the first real cartoon.