Mickey was first drawn in 1928. Tom and Jerry started in 1940, as did Bugs. Until the 40s, animation was largely a crude curiosity; by the early 40s, there was a sufficient body of technique and skilled artists to start making some nice stuff. Color and sound helped a lot.<p>(And I say that it was a crude curiosity despite being someone who absolutely loves the 30s output of the Fleischer studios.)<p>However, Disney was cranking out cartoons all through the 40s and 50s, competing with the stuff from MGM and WB. Including Mickey shorts.<p>Realistically, I feel like if you&#x27;re going to assign a &#x27;golden age&#x27; of animation it would be the 40s and 50s; there were three major studios cranking out shorts, Disney was starting to do features, everything was awesome. In the 60s the market started to change to cheap TV cartoons (a change lead in no small part by Bill Hannah and Joe Barbera, who directed a ton of lavish Tom &amp; Jerry shorts at MGM, then completely changed the industry when they started cranking out TV stuff at their own studio). The 70 and 80s were generally a wasteland of low-budget TV stuff with a growing wave of quickly-dubbed Japanese stuff; the 90s saw a renaissance at the high end when Disney  started having a string of feature hits, leading to multiple other movie studios opening feature animation studios. Most of which died horribly over the next decade, though this era also saw the beginning of the rise of 3D animation from a curiosity to a serious medium that eventually pretty much took over the feature scene.<p>(I grew up devouring animation history and went into the industry around the time the 90s boom was hitting its peak; I am now quite far away from that scene.)