Film is a mass media, very significant and inevitable nowadays. It is based on the fact that individuals send their messages to other people. The film genre covers documentary, feature film, animated, experimental, educational and commercial film. Animated film is a common name for cartoon, puppet films, collage and computer types of film. Cartoon film is the most widespread type of cinematographic animation in which an illusion of movement is created by arranging pictures in a row, each of them different from another. Square by square, that is, sketch by sketch is being shot, and each sketch represents a phase of a future complete movement. Animation is a film and vice versa because each film is made by shooting picture by picture, the only difference in animated film being that it is not done automatically, but separately thanks to a stop-camera. The movement that will be created will depend on different types of animation. Furthermore, this work is going to tell more about the development of a cartoon through history and some crucial happenings significant for the development of animation. Also, some prominent cartoon movie authors, like Walt Disney who made cartoon movies popular with his work and became the most powerful figure of world's animated film, will be mentioned. It is important to point out Japanese anime movies which gained world fame because of their specific qualities. Equally important is ‘Zagrebačka škola crtanog filma’ that with its activities achieved on of the greatest achievements in modern history of Croatian culture