"Little Nemo," also known as "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics," is a 1911 silent animated short film created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. This film was McCay's first animation and one of the earliest animated films in the history of world cinema, featuring characters from McCay's comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland." The character animation techniques employed were distinctly different from those of other early animators. Inspired by a flip book his son brought home, McCay recognized the potential of animated films. He claimed to be the originator of animation, though in reality, James Stuart Blackton and Émile Cohl had ventured into the field earlier. This short film utilized 4,000 drawings on rice paper, which were then filmed under Blackton's supervision at the Vitagraph Studios. The animated segment lasts approximately four minutes, a feat McCay wagered on with a group of colleagues. These four minutes feature multiple characters, and some scholars argue that there are significant racial and class distinctions among them. "Little Nemo" began screening in theaters on April 8, 1911. Four days later, McCay started incorporating the film into his vaudeville performances. After receiving positive responses, he hand-colored the originally black-and-white film. The success of the film also encouraged McCay to devote more time to animation, leading to the subsequent releases of "How a Mosquito Operates," "Gertie the Dinosaur," and "The Sinking of the Lusitania."