The Centaurs (Unfinished 1918-1921 Winsor McCay Animated Film)

Winsor McCay was animations first true innovator. His shorts, How a Mosquito Operates and Gertie The Dinosaur helped innovate many animation techniques. His hihgly detailed style combined with his heart and passion wa passed down to future animation legends such as Tex Avery, Walt Disney, and Otto Messmer.

In the late 1970s, a mysterious film was uncovered, thought to have been the inspiration for the centaur segment of Fantasia. It was a 90-second fragment of animated centaurs wandering through a live-action-filmed forest. The fragment's animation was gorgeous, but made little sense in terms of story. For decades, histories were baffled as to who created it. Then, in the mid-2000s, many of their suspicions were proven correct when a small set of production notes of an unfinished Winsor McCay film titled The Cenaturs surfaced. Given the animation style, the fragment has since been attributed to that production.

It is unclear as to why exactly the film was never completed. It was probably due to cost or its minor nudity (which was a big deal to audiences at the time). The production notes say the finished footage amounted to over 3 minutes, of which only 90 seconds survive. The film continues to intrigue audiences worldwide, keeping them wondering what the film could have been.