100 Years of Animation

[Mac]

I haven't seen anything about it any where else, but pixarplanet.com mentioned that today is the 100th birthday of animation. This got me thinking about how old do people here think animation is? Pixar Planet says it's 100 because it's the 100th anniversary of Émile Cohl's 'Fantasmagorie':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbETWEYxAhY

However, there are famous trick films that predate this (e.g Humorous Phases of Funny Faces). Also check out the beginning of this documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnrP_t3MBBQ

The opening clip is of "the oldest surviving animated film in the world" made in 1899. It's stop motion and I would call it 'true' animation in the way we generally seem to understand it here.

Others would argue that the earliest zoetropes offer the earliest examples of animation. This is something I'm inclined to agree with since it creates the illusion of moving drawings. Some even point to cave paintings which attempt to convey movement and see the roots of animation there.

So how old do YOU think animation is?

[Tom Stathes]

I'd bank on 1906. Some of us tried drumming up interest in "that" centennial with Ray Pointer probably being the most outspoken but there were no notable events or exhibitions out there that celebrated this milestone.

[Ray Pointer]

The Animation Timeline begins in 1906 with HUMOUROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES. While it was a "trick film," it is the ealiest known film to use the basic frame-by-frame photographic technique that became animation. But it was Emil Cohl's FANTASMAGORIE (1908) that signifies the first true animated cartoon as we know them since is utilized the princples of producing progessive drawings that are photographed individually to produce movement.

In 2006, my revised release of BEFORE WALT was tailored for the Centennial of American Animation, which was shown at the AFI-Los Angeles in June, 2006. For further information, you may wish to seek out my article, THE CENTENNIAL OF AMERICAN ANIMATION found on the Internet and also on my web site, www.inkwellimagesink.com (http://www.inkwellimagesink.com) .
Click on the CARTOONS button, then click the Walt Disney tab at the top margin and look for BEFORE WALT. You will see a link to the article.

[Ray Pointer]

I haven't seen anything about it any where else, but pixarplanet.com mentioned that today is the 100th birthday of animation. This got me thinking about how old do people here think animation is? Pixar Planet says it's 100 because it's the 100th anniversary of Émile Cohl's 'Fantasmagorie':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbETWEYxAhY

However, there are famous trick films that predate this (e.g Humorous Phases of Funny Faces). Also check out the beginning of this documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbETWEYxAhY

The opening clip is of "the oldest surviving animated film in the world" made in 1899. It's stop motion and I would call it 'true' animation in the way we generally seem to understand it here.

Others would argue that the earliest zoetropes offer the earliest examples of animation. This is something I'm inclined to agree with since it creates the illusion of moving drawings. Some even point to cave paintings which attempt to convey movement and see the roots of animation there.
So how old do YOU think animation is?

Animated drawings are the earliest form of motion pictures since they predate photography. This is explored in depth in BEFORE WALT.

[The G Man]

Mac, I hate to break it to you, but both the links in that first post are the same.

[Mac]

Darn! Thanks for pointing that out, G Man! I've gone back and put the correct link in there! Silly me!

[Mac]

The Animation Timeline begins in 1906 with HUMOUROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES. While it was a "trick film," it is the ealiest known film to use the basic frame-by-frame photographic technique that became animation. But it was Emil Cohl's FANTASMAGORIE (1908) that signifies the first true animated cartoon as we know them since is utilized the princples of producing progessive drawings that are photographed individually to produce movement.

In 2006, my revised release of BEFORE WALT was tailored for the Centennial of American Animation, which was shown at the AFI-Los Angeles in June, 2006. For further information, you may wish to seek out my article, THE CENTENNIAL OF AMERICAN ANIMATION found on the Internet and also on my web site, www.inkwellimagesink.com (http://www.inkwellimagesink.com) .
Click on the CARTOONS button, then click the Walt Disney tab at the top margin and look for BEFORE WALT. You will see a link to the article.

I read your article. I agree with you that Humourous Phases is an example of animation that predates Fantasmagorie. In this film characters and lines really do appear move (unlike previous trick films such as "The Enchanted Drawing"). However, check out the beginning of that documentary I mentioned (now that I have corrected the link). This British animation from 1899 has been created frame by frame and depicts men made from matchsticks that really do appear to be walking about and doing things.

[Tom Stathes]

Intriguing. If anything, it proves that stop motion animation is perhaps the oldest form of animation and that this could in fact be the earliest surviving example of animation in a general sense. As it stands, drawn animation would still be estimated at 1906.

[Ray Pointer]

I read your article. I agree with you that Humourous Phases is an example of animation that predates Fantasmagorie. In this film characters and lines really do appear move (unlike previous trick films such as "The Enchanted Drawing"). However, check out the beginning of that documentary I mentioned (now that I have corrected the link). This British animation from 1899 has been created frame by frame and depicts men made from matchsticks that really do appear to be walking about and doing things.

Within the specifc area of animated cartoons, we are looking at animating drawn images that are photographed to make a motion picture. In this respect HUMOROUS PHASES and FANTASMAGORIE are the predescesors, with FANTASMAGORIE being the great-grandfather of all animated cartoons as we know them.

[Steve Stanch]

I think this is accurate, or at least as accurate of an actual date as we're likely to have. History is often in the hands of those who wrote about it or in what has survived; of course, it's hard to say what didn't survive in thes very early years....

Welcome back, Ray. ;)

S

[Ray Pointer]

I think this is accurate, or at least as accurate of an actual date as we're likely to have. History is often in the hands of those who wrote about it or in what has survived; of course, it's hard to say what didn't survive in thes very early years....
S

The first animation history book was Nat Falk's ANIMATED CARTOONS: THEIR HISTORY AND TECHNIQUE, published in 1941. Also in the same period was LES DESIGN ANIME' by Lo Duca. Both of the books were written within 40 years of the beginnings of animated cartoons, with many of the pioneers still alive or active in the business. Both books cite HUMOROUS PHASES and FANTASMAGORIE as the roots of animated cartoons. This, of course is based on the evidence at that time, which seems to be as accurate as we can find.

[Mac]

Within the specifc area of animated cartoons, we are looking at animating drawn images that are photographed to make a motion picture. In this respect HUMOROUS PHASES and FANTASMAGORIE are the predescesors, with FANTASMAGORIE being the great-grandfather of all animated cartoons as we know them.

It's true that "Humorous Phases" and "Fantasmagorie" offer the earliest surviving glimpses of drawn animation. "Funny Faces" seems to use both this technique and stop motion cutouts so I understand your point of "Fanta" being the first true animated cartoon film. However, the matches film has everything in it that, for me, make a true animated film - those little match people really do seem to come alive and it's been done frame by frame not with puppetry. So I would say that animated films predate "Funny Faces" and indeed the 20th century.

I find that "Matches" and "Fantasmagorie" both have a 'magic' (for want of a better word) that "Funny Faces" does not (although it is an important and interesting example of a very early animated film).

[Ray Pointer]

It's true that "Humorous Phases" and "Fantasmagorie" offer the earliest surviving glimpses of drawn animation. "Funny Faces" seems to use both this technique and stop motion cutouts so I understand your point of "Fanta" being the first true animated cartoon film. However, the matches film has everything in it that, for me, make a true animated film - those little match people really do seem to come alive and it's been done frame by frame not with puppetry. So I would say that animated films predate "Funny Faces" and indeed the 20th century.

I find that "Matches" and "Fantasmagorie" both have a 'magic' (for want of a better word) that "Funny Faces" does not (although it is an important and interesting example of a very early animated film).

We are making the distinction between animated cartoons, meaning the production of successive drawings to produce a motion picture. While stop motion involves the same process of photographing a stationary object one frame at a time, the photography of matches moved in increments is not an animated cartoon. While stop motion is related to the area of "animation," it is a separate form from animation that is made from drawings.

[Mac]

I understand your point Ray and it is important to make the distinction between animated drawings and other forms of animation (especially on a site called Golden Age CARTOONS!). However, when I started this thread I was talking about all forms of animation.