This groundbreaking effort is not only a curiosity; it is also a clever, imaginative film. Probably the best known piece of early animation, it involves a minor bet among a group of animators who find themselves at the Museum of Natural History in New York. When they see a dinosaur (they call a dinosaurus--a brontosaurus--although that name is now passé), one of them bets he can bring the dinosaur to life, using animation. The bet for a dinner is accepted and off goes the animator, doing thousands of drawing and creating a truly memorable dinosaur, full of personality and fun. Of course, the main characters are only line drawings on a sketchy setting, it works marvelously. Gertie proves to be petulant and uncooperative at times but, ultimately performs her tricks. I had never seen this film before and am quite impressed with the accomplishment.

I will always remember Winsor McCay as the creator of Little Nemo in Slumberland, one of the most beautiful comic strips ever made. McCay was an amazing artist who loved playing with technique; his 'Nemo' strip displayed his boundless imagination in terms of perspective, panel layout, colors, architectural detail, movement and size. He was arguably the greatest comics artist that ever lived, even better than Will Eisner and Jack Kirby.Gertie the Dinossaur is renowned for being one of the earliest animated movies. But I don't think it comes close to reaching the beauty of one 'Nemo' strip. The movie is about a host interacting with a dinosaur, prompting it to perform tricks to amuse the audience. The drawings aren't spectacular and the tricks aren't imaginative; what Gertie does could mostly be done by a pet dog. Historically it may have a lot of value, but it did nothing for me in terms of entertainment.

Dinosaurs, or to use the term used here, dinosauruses.This is a remarkable little film. Oh, its important because it was very early animation, and advanced for the era, but its interesting otherwise.Spoilers here, if such a thing can be said of something like this.The film is in three "real" scenes. The first is a group of artists, all cartoonists, I think. They are on a "joy ride" and conveniently have a flat tire in front of the New Yor natural History Museum, where they view a brontosaurus fossil. One of the artists makes a bet that he can make the dinosauruses "come alive."Second scene: the artist at work, with a comic interlude of a clerk spilling thousands of pages.Third scene: the artists at dinner, where our hero first draws a dinosaurus, then "shows" his cartoon. The cartoon is remarkable to some and has some historical interest. But what's more interesting to me is the relationship between cartoon reality and photographed reality. We see the dinosaurus in a sense at the beginning. Later we see the artist draw it and then we miraculously enter the cartoon. At the end of the cartoon, the artist (a lifelike representation) enters the cartoon where formerly the cartoon has entered the dining room. This may all seem trivially folded today. In its day, it was remarkably imaginative.But this sort of adventure is gone now, extinct.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This short and rather old cartoon about a dinosaur is quite enjoyable. It was one of the earlier cartoons, and one of the first dinosaur movies. It may also have introduced cartoon violence to the world; Gertie chucks a mammoth named Jumbo into the ocean. I have found that it is more fun to watch the original silent version than the one with sound, although others may disagree.