Alright, alright, hold your horses!
Of course we could start arguing whether or not Fantasmagorie by Emile Cohl really is the very first animation ever. What about J. Stuart Blackton with his Humorous Phases of Funny Faces from 1906, I hear you say. Earlier attempts like the 1892 Théatre Optique of Charles-Emile Reynaud could still be discarded because they were not on standard picture film, but…
Blah blah blah.
I’m not going to list arguments for or against Cohl or Blackton or anybody else. Frankly, I don’t really care. What I do care about is that Fantasmagorie, in my humble opinion, is the very first nice animated film ever. I mean, have you seen Humorous Phases of Funny Faces? The title is actually the only thing remotely funny about it!
Emile Cohl's film only runs for a bit longer than a minute, but it’s jam-packed with fast moving images and scenes which together form a stream of consciousness styled story. It’s silent, it doesn’t even have music, but it’s a charming little film
Take a look and see what you think…
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