On this day in 1908, the first animated film was released: Émile Cohl's "Fantasmagorie"
On this day in 1908, the first animated film was released: Émile Cohl's "Fantasmagorie"
An animated film by French caricaturist, cartoonist and animator Émile Cohl. It is one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn animation, and considered by many film historians to be the very first animated cartoon. Despite appearances the animation is not created on a blackboard but rather on paper, the blackboard effect achieved by shooting each of the 700 drawings onto negative film. The title is a reference to the “fantasmograph”, a mid-19th century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images on to surrounding walls.
In case you just want to see the actual film:
I linked the video on Wikimedia in OP. Here's the link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/La_Fantasmagorie_(1908).webm
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/o1d28X0lkJ4
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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First thing I did was try to turn up the volume on my phone. Then I realized it was pre audio. Then I started to rewatch it and caught myself thinking "why am I watching this dank-meme video without audio?". That this is nearly as trippy, maybe more trippy, than some of the dank videos I've seen on the Internet these days, it's amazing how far we haven't come, or how perverse we've always been.
Then I realized it was pre audio
Probably it was screened with largely improvised live music (piano), so this isn't quite the original experience. There's a version with some music on archive.org linked in this thread. Watching the silents without any audio feels weird, "empty", and the original audiences must've felt the same.
And yeah, early films were a bit similar to circus attractions, so the comparison is pretty good. They wanted to show something visually striking, so e.g. they filmed many variants of "serpentine dances", or fights between a chimney sweeper covered in coal and miller covered in flour.
That fight film has such an early internet vibe. Just some dudes filming bullshit they think is entertaining.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=YostqK_hFkE
https://piped.video/watch?v=ag1qu38qKfg
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
VERY well-made, for the first animated film!
But seriously, very impressive to see the creativity in this. I thought the first animated film would be more crude.
Wow I'm surprised this isn't more common knowledge. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
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