The golden age of American animation was a period that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928, and gradually ended throughout the 1960s when theatrical animated cartoon film shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age, especially on television, were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited techniques between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s.

Multiple highly-popular animated cartoon characters emerged from this period, including:

Over the course of these four decades, the quality of the media released throughout the golden age has often been debated. The peak of this era is usually cited as during the 1930s and 1940s, attributed to the theatrical run of studios including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoons, Paramount Cartoon Studios, Walter Lantz Productions, Terrytoons, and Fleischer Studios. In later decades, namely between the 1950s and 1960s, the era is sometimes divided into a "silver age" due to the emergence of studios such as UPA, DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, and Jay Ward Productions; these companies' presence in the industry grew significantly with the rise of television following the golden age's conclusion. Furthermore, the history of animation became very important artistically in the United States.

Feature-length animation began during this period, most notably with Disney's "Walt-era" films, spanning from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and 1940's Pinocchio to 1967's The Jungle Book and 1970's The Aristocats (last animated films produced before his death in 1966). During this period, several live-action films that included animation were made, such as Saludos Amigos (1942), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Song of the South (1946), Dangerous When Wet (1953), Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), the last one being the last theatrical film to receive an Academy Award for their animated special effects. In addition, stop motion and special effects were also developed, with films such as King Kong (1933), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The War of the Worlds (1953), Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy (1954), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Forbidden Planet (1956), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Animation also began on television during this period with Crusader Rabbit (the first animated series broadcast in 1948) and early versions of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959), both from Jay Ward Productions. The rise of television animation is often considered to be a factor that hastened the golden age's end. However, various authors include Hanna-Barbera's earliest animated series through 1962 as part of the golden age, with shows like Ruff and Reddy (1957), Huckleberry Hound (1958), Quick Draw McGraw (1959), The Flintstones (1960), Yogi Bear (1961), Top Cat (1961), Wally Gator (1962) and The Jetsons (1962), including the theatrical animations with Columbia Pictures such as Loopy De Loop (1959) and the feature films released between 1964 and 1966. Several of these animated series were the first to win Emmy Awards for their contribution to American television.

Walt Disney had decided to become a newspaper cartoonist drawing political caricatures and comic strips. However, nobody would hire Disney, so his older brother Roy, who was working as a banker at the time, got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. Here he met fellow cartoonist Ub Iwerks, the two quickly became friends and in January 1920, when their time at the studio expired they decided to open up their own advertising agency together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The business however got off to a rough start and Disney temporarily left for the Kansas City Film and Ad Co. to raise money for the fleeting company and Iwerks soon followed as he was unable to run the business alone.

While working there he made commercials for local theaters using crude cut-out animation. Disney became fascinated by the art and decided to become an animator. He then borrowed a camera from work and rented a book from the local library called Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development by Edwin G. Lutz and decided that cel animation would produce better quality and decided to open up his own animation studio. Disney then teamed up with Fred Harman and made their first film, The Little Artist which was nothing more than an artist (Disney) taking a cigarette break at his work desk. Harman soon dropped out of the venture, but Disney was able to strike a deal with local theater owner Frank L. Newman and animated a cartoon by himself entitled Newman Laugh-O-Grams screened in roughly February 1921. Disney then quit his job at the film and ad company and incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films in May 1922, and hired former advertising colleagues as unpaid "students" of animation including Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman's brother, Hugh Harman.

Throughout 1922, the Disney company produced a series of "modernized" adaptations of fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, The Four Musicians of Bremen, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant Killer, Goldielocks and the Three Bears, Puss in Boots, Cinderella and Tommy Tucker's Tooth, the latter being mostly a live-action film about dental hygiene. None of these films turned a profit. The last film made by the Disney company was a short called Alice's Wonderland. Loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the short featured a live-action five-year-old girl named Alice (Virginia Davis) who had adventures in a fully animated world. The film was never fully completed, however, as the studio went bankrupt in the summer of 1923.