4 ms·

The First Animated Feature Film: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

30 points by benbreen 11y ago

wslh 11y ago
The first animated film is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Apóstol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Apóstol , from 1917.
- kristopolous 11y ago
  Nope. The first for mass public display was a technology called Théâtre Optique by Charles-Émile Reynaud in 1892. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_Optique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_Optique ... if you replace the word "film" with "moving picture" - which is what most non-technicians are thinking. ("film" refers to a specific family of technologies - a subset of the methods of creating moving pictures) The feature film (which is something else again) in the article is magnificent, but it's not the first "animated moving picture of a length most would consider to be a 'story' (say >2 minutes) for viewing in a theater" by 35 years. Here's one of the 3 original animated works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426mqlB-kAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426mqlB-kAY and yes, it was in color Might as well drop my favorite from the era, McCay's Flying House (1921) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnRKhgRFXA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnRKhgRFXA which is done in a novel speech bubble system ... similar to comics. I love studying technologies before "standard practice" is ingrained. There's a time window of rapid innovation ... ideas that might have worked but weren't pushed far enough. It's facinating to see what people end up falling on as the standard fanfare. I've called this time window, "The period of play"
- jeffwass 11y ago
  Doesn't the first hand-drawn flip book effectively precede this?
  - egypturnash 11y ago
    Sure, you could argue that zoeotropes with half-second loops are the First Commercialized Animation, too. But if you're talking "film" as in "something you could put in a movie projector" neither of them counts, and they sure wouldn't count as a feature either.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
jacobolus 11y ago
Whether or not it’s the “first”, I highly recommend Prince Achmed, it’s really an amazing film. The paper silhouette method has aged remarkably well.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

30 points by benbreen 11y ago

wslh 11y ago

The first animated film is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Apóstol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Apóstol , from 1917.

kristopolous 11y ago
Nope. The first for mass public display was a technology called Théâtre Optique by Charles-Émile Reynaud in 1892. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_Optique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9%C3%A2tre_Optique ... if you replace the word "film" with "moving picture" - which is what most non-technicians are thinking. ("film" refers to a specific family of technologies - a subset of the methods of creating moving pictures) The feature film (which is something else again) in the article is magnificent, but it's not the first "animated moving picture of a length most would consider to be a 'story' (say >2 minutes) for viewing in a theater" by 35 years. Here's one of the 3 original animated works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426mqlB-kAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=426mqlB-kAY and yes, it was in color Might as well drop my favorite from the era, McCay's Flying House (1921) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnRKhgRFXA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnRKhgRFXA which is done in a novel speech bubble system ... similar to comics. I love studying technologies before "standard practice" is ingrained. There's a time window of rapid innovation ... ideas that might have worked but weren't pushed far enough. It's facinating to see what people end up falling on as the standard fanfare. I've called this time window, "The period of play"
jeffwass 11y ago
Doesn't the first hand-drawn flip book effectively precede this?
- egypturnash 11y ago
  Sure, you could argue that zoeotropes with half-second loops are the First Commercialized Animation, too. But if you're talking "film" as in "something you could put in a movie projector" neither of them counts, and they sure wouldn't count as a feature either.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

jacobolus 11y ago

Whether or not it’s the “first”, I highly recommend Prince Achmed, it’s really an amazing film. The paper silhouette method has aged remarkably well.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]