Stuart Blackton' (qv)'s hand keeps getting in the camera's way.
And here I am. Still reviewing some key examples of early animation on celluloid.
Working on and off for two years on this groundbreaking stop-motion movie, England's J. Stuart Blackton produced what historians acknowledge is the first animated film ever produced.
This film is made by James Stuart Blackton in U.S.
Using chalk on a blackboard gives rise to yet another form of animation. Using stop action shots the characters come to life.
I was amazed by 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces', a short film that combines animation with live-action, although the live action part is only a visible hand drawing the animations. The hand belongs to J.
This film is highly reminiscent of some of the films by Georges Méliès because of the film's extensive use of trick cinematography--an art perfected by Méliès before the director of this film got his start. In fact, the Méliès short THE UNTAMABLE WHISKERS (1904) is an awful lot like this film except instead of just having cartoons come to life due to stop-motion, this earlier film features Georges Méliès himself interacting with the drawings.
This is an historically little classic from early movie-maker J. Stuart Blackton.
If you're a lover of really old movies, this is a real charmer. This is an animated version of a 'chalk talk' or 'lightning drawing' vaudeville act.
From the vantage point of 96 years later, this is, comparatively speaking, rather simplistic and quite limited in contrast to work done today. But, also comparatively speaking, so would a certain single engine airplane seen at Kitty Hawk 99 years ago in contrast to a Lear Jet.
