Fantasmagorie

Fantasmagorie, made in 1908 by Émile Cohl, is considered one of the first examples of hand-drawn animation.  The animation contains different scenes, sequences of stills taken on negative film, of a stick-figure man interacting with his morphing environment.  At certain points, for example at the start of the film, there are moments of live-action when the artist puts his hand into the scene.  The main character interacts with a character of a woman with a large hat and a clown who pops out of that hat.  There is also transforming objects, such as a wine bottle to a flower and then to an elephant.

Cohl was part of the Incoherent movement, started in the late nineteenth century by French author and publisher Jules Levy.  The movement was founded on a tone of sattire,  a sort of radical, rebellious redefining of art.  For example, for their first exhibition Levy intended to make an exhibition for “an exhibition of drawings made by people who can not draw.”