It was a warm and pleasant day. Binky, the cat and Ivan, the mouse woke up lazily. They were the best of friends. Though they loved to tease each other, they could never dream of hurting each other.

It was midday and they felt hungry. Ivan, the naughtier of the two, ran off  to arrange for their meal at a house near their dug-out. But soon he came running back.

"Why are you panting, Ivan?" asked Binky.

"You will never believe what I saw at the house,” Ivan sounded scared. "Those wretched humans have captured a cat, like you and a mouse, like me in a box. I saw the poor cat and mouse running round and round inside it. Instead of getting them out, those unkind boys were looking on and laughing away."

Binky, the wiser of the two, could not help giggling.

"What's wrong, Binky? Don't you believe me? Come on! We must take our friends out of that idiot box", urged Ivan.

"You are right on spot, Ivan. The box is indeed the idiot box or television. And what you have seen on it is what the humans call 'animation'", explained Binky.

"Animation?" Ivan wanted to know more.

Binky continued with his explanation. “Animation is a technique in which a number of drawings or images, that are slightly different from each other, are put in a sequence. These are then displayed so quickly that they give the effect of movement. What you saw was an animated cartoon.”

Ivan looked lost. So Binky said, “Let’s see one.” They sneaked into the house.

"Be careful,” warned Binky.

Luckily, the boys were still watching the antics of Tom and Jerry.

"These are just drawings not real characters. So relax and enjoy."

When the cartoon ended the boys switched off the TV.  Ivan and Binky rushed out before they were noticed.

"This was amazing; a story on us!", commented Ivan. "But how do the humans do it?"

"Humans who are specially trained in this technique are called animators. A scriptwriter writes a story. Then an animator draws the pictures. Voice artists record dialogues spoken by the characters in the story. Finally animators put together the pictures and the dialogues in such a way that it seems that the pictures move and talk."

"Normally, the sound is recorded first. Then the animators can match the pictures with the voices and dialogues. For every second of animation, about twenty four pictures have to be put together. "

"That’s hard work?" Ivan remarked.

"Yes. Humans have these awesome machines called computers that make it possible,” Binky replied.

"The whole idea is wonderful! But Binky, right now I am starving. To digest so much information, I need to have a well-fed brain,” chuckled Ivan.

The friends laughed as they scampered  into the  forest to look for food.