Fantasmagorie

Anime 1933: The Three Fearless Frogs

蛙三勇士 (Kaeru sanyushi)

Anime 1936: Toy Box Series 3 オモチャ箱シリーズ第3話 絵本

The infamous evil mickey propaganda animation. Amazing that the Disney character appeared as friend and foe in two cartoons in the same year.

Maciste all'inferno / Maciste in Hell (1925) 

[imdb | letterboxd]

Director: Guido Brignone

Cinematographers: Ubaldo Arata, Massimo Terzano, & Segundo de Chomón

Emile Cohl was born in 1857, his father was a rubber salesman. In 1863, when he was 6 years old, he was sent to the boarding school Institute Vaudron. This is where it was discovered he had a talent for illustration and was encouraged for it, however due to the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 his father had to shutdown his rubber factory. This led Cohl to be sent to a less expensive boarding school, Ecole Turgot, where he would attend marionette theaters and work as a poltical caricaturist. In 1878, he became an assisstant under Andre Gill, a famous french caricaturist, who would become Cohl's mentor and close friend. Cohl would become instantly famous when he would make cartoons insinuating that the then French President Patrice MacMahon was the reason the french lost the Battke of Sedan agasint Prussian forces. This led him to be fined and imprisoned for 10 days, on the 11th of October 1879. This skyrocketed Cohl's popularity.

In 1907, Cohl changed careers at the age of 50, becoming a scriptwriter for the film company Gaumont. He was inspired by John Stuart Blackton, who had already made several animated comedies, and studied his work in order to make his own animated films. Cohl deviated from Blackton's methods, while Blackton would draw with a chalkboard and chalk, Cohl drew each frame individually on hundreds of pieces of paper. This would make Cohl's method far closer to modern animation methods compared to Blackton's. In 1908, Cohl made his first animated movie "Fantasmasgorie" and it is considered the first genuine animated movie. It's success paved Cohl's way into making an abundance of animated films for various studios,even travelling to America for work.

"Steamboat Bill, Jr." by Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) dir. Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton

Project A Part II (1987) dir. Jackie Chan

Arrested Development 2.02 “The One Where They Build A House” (2005)