With the advent of sound technology, animation was becoming less of a dying novelty, and the industry becoming far more prominent in Hollywood.
The Golden Age of Animation lasted from 1920’s up till the 1950’s/1960’s when theatrical animation began to be overshadowed by the new medium of television animation. During this era, many memorable characters emerged, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Popeye the Sailor, Betty Boop, and Tom and Jerry.
In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was released to commercial and critical acclaim. Though the idea of a feature-length animated film wasn’t new to foreign countries, or to the Fleischer Brothers who made a 20-minute Popeye the Sailor film in 1936, Snow White was the first to have sound, colour, and high-quality animation that holds up even to this day.
The Golden Era of Animation lasted up till the late 50’s/early 60’s, due to the growing pressure that television had on the Hollywood film industry as a whole. This resulted in less theatrical shorts being made, cartoons began to move to television with a much more limited budget. This began the era known as The Dark Age of Animation, and has left a lasting impression on American culture, especially concerning the preconception of cartoon’s target audience being children.
“Candle Cove was the best kids show”
During this era, video games began their own “Golden Age” lasting from 1978 – 1983. Video games incorporate their own animation, though in the early developments the animations were very limited. This started to change as the video game industry grew after the Great Video Game Crash of 1983, and certain video games started to experiment with high quality animation.
The Animation Journal 