Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie was released on August 17, 1908. Considered the first fully animated film ever made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was double-exposed, leading to a running ... [more]

Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie was released on August 17, 1908. Considered the first fully animated film ever made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was double-exposed, leading to a running time of almost two minutes. Despite the short running time, the piece was packed with material devised in a "stream of consciousness" style. It borrowed from Blackton in using a "chalk-line effect" (filming black lines on white paper, then reversing the negative to make it look like white chalk on a black chalkboard), having the main character drawn by the artist's hand on camera, and the main characters of a clown and a gentleman (this taken from Blackton's "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces"). The film, in all of its wild transformations, is a direct tribute to the by-then forgotten Incoherent movement. The title is a reference to the "fantasmograph", a mid-Nineteenth Century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images that floated across the walls.

Styles: Cel, Experimental, 2D, Hand Drawn

Categories: Cool, Drama, Totally Wacky, Kid Safe, Experimental, Educational

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