An
animated
feature film released in 1917. Yes, that's 20 years before
Disney's "
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which usually gets the
credit for being the first animated feature. It was released in
Argentina by an
Italian animator named
Quirino Cristiani. The 70-minute
cartoon satirized the
presidency of
Hipolito Irigoyen and depicted the
president visiting
Mount Olympus, being given
thunderbolts by
Jupiter, and using the thunderbolts to burn out
corruption from
Buenos Aires.
"El Apóstol" ("The
Apostle") featured animated
cut-up figures for the
story and consisted of about 58,000
drawings. It was, of course, a
black and white,
silent film, but it was wildly
popular in Buenos Aires. It was never released
internationally and was
unknown outside of Argentina for many years.
All known copies of the
movie were
destroyed in a
fire in 1926. In fact, all of Cristiani's animated features have been
lost.
Source: http://www.filmthreat.com/Features.asp?File=FeaturesOne.inc&Id=439