What was the first movie, animated or live, to star an animal?

What was the FIRST movie that starred an animal? Doesn't matter if it was animated or a real animal starring... But what movie had the first animal star ever?What was the first movie, animated or live, to star an animal?Depends on what you mean by "movie." People were filming themselves, animals, and city sidewalks, as well as fiction in the 1890's. I saw a short film from around that time, maybe 1910 or so, with a dog-to-the-rescue sequence, starring Jean (aka The Vitagraph Dog).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitagraph_D鈥?/a>



Would Muybridges' horse photography experiments count? They are hugely famous to animator's. (1870's)



Some "early-as-in-1920-1950" famous animals are, Mickey Mouse, Mr. Ed, Toto, Asta (from The Thin Man series, Ace the wonder dog, Lassie, Baby (from Bringing up Baby)



Here's another list, but not everything is on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Li鈥?/a>What was the first movie, animated or live, to star an animal?My guess is that it would be Teddy the Great Dane in "Stella Maris" (1918).



From IMDb:

"Keystone Teddy" the Wonder Dog, arguably the first canine superstar of the American cinema, was a fawn or lightly marked brindle Great Dane featured in numerous shorts at Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Co. The popularity of Teddy was such that he became one of Sennett's highest paid "actors," commanding the sterling salary of $350 a week. He performed with some of the top stars at the studio, including Baby Peggy, Chester Conklin, Charles Murray, Ford Sterling, and Slim Summerville. Teddy also provided stalwart support to "America's Sweetheart", Canadian-born Mary Pickford, in her sentimental potboiler "Stella Maris", wherein America's Best Friend was billed rather pompously as "The Sennett Dog." Aside from such august company, Teddy's most frequent co-stars were ophthalmologically challenged Ben Turpin and Pepper the Cat.



The star of at least 18 movies, his most famous picture was the short "Teddy at the Throttle" (1917), a classic of the canine genre that was highly evocative of the Keystone product. The film combined absurd chase scenes, including a race against time to save the heroine (Sennett bathing beauty Gloria Swanson) from being run over by a train, slapstick comedy, satire and animal comedy. The film also co-stars future Best Actor Academy Award-winner Wallace Beery as the heavy. In the movie, Teddy the Wonder Dog -- who was then relatively underpaid at $35 per week -- sang with Gloria, danced with her maid, and saved her by stopping a train, thus enabling her to be reunited with her true love.



Teddy appeared with fellow Sennett superstar Mabel Normand in "The Extra Girl" aka "Millie of the Movies" (1923), one of his last flicks. He retired from the Hollywood "dog-eat-dog" rat-race in 1923.