The very first Soviet cartoon in the world. The world's first film and cartoon
It's hard to imagine a child who has never watched cartoons. These fun and colorful movies for kids will keep them glued to the screen. Even adults sometimes don’t mind returning to childhood and watching a cartoon. Bright, colorful, musical, kind. However, we are so accustomed to the widespread popularity of cartoons that few people can name the very first cartoon in the world. And when did he come out?
The first cartoon in the world
Experts in the history of cartoons still cannot make up their minds and decide which cartoon awarded the title of the very first in the world. The championship laurels are shared by three films: two works by James Stewart Blackton, released in 1906 and 1907 (“The Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” and “Hotel with Haunted Haunted Persons”) and Emile Cohl’s work “Phantasmagoria,” released in 1908.
Shortly before the start of the 20th century, James Stewart Blackton and Thomas Edison created an animated film. These were moving drawings captured on film. Thus, it turned out that the “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” combined cinema and graphics. The picture was first released to French audiences in 1906. And a year later, Blackton showed the world his second picture - “Hotel with Haunted Haunted Haunted Hotels.” However, both of these cartoons were far from modern understanding cartoon and did not show all the possibilities of the animation technique, which at that time was called the “American Movement”.
Scientists are inclined to believe that Emil Kohl’s “Phantasmagoria,” which was released in 1908, can be considered the first full-fledged cartoon. It was a full-fledged animated film, drawn on white paper and filmed in negative. The picture lasted exactly one and a half minutes. Scientists also note the unusual effect that is achieved by combining light lines on a dark background.
The very first cartoon in Russian animation
The right of the first Russian animator rightfully belongs to the biologist Vladislav Starevich. He was working on studying the life of insects and was going to make a film about how two male stag beetles fight for a female. However, Starevich encountered a problem: as soon as the beetles were exposed to light suitable for filming, they became passive. Then the biologist-animator found a solution to the problem: he attached thin wires to the legs of the pared beetles with wax and filmed the entire scene frame by frame. This is how the first film based on animation appeared in Russia. By the way, until this moment no one in the world had thought of doing this.
A few years later, Vladislav Starevich presented Russia and the world with a short film about beetles, “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of the Longhorned Beetles with the Horned Beetles.” The whole world has long admired how beetles can be trained and an entire film can be created.
The history of cinema is truly interesting, because in our time, modern high-tech special effects work real miracles: films amaze with their believability so much that viewers literally feel themselves during the events of the film! However, this was not always the case, and in order to achieve the results that each of us sees in the cinema now, people in the arts have been striving for this for decades. We invite you to take a look at where it all began!
THE VERY FIRST FILM IN THE WORLD - 1895
The beginning of the era of cinematography was marked by this short documentary film, which was shot by the Lumiere brothers, called " Arrival of the train at La Ciotat station". Since then, Auguste Louis Marie Nicolas and Louis Jean have been considered the founders of cinema. Despite the simple plot, the picture shocked everyone, because before that people could not imagine that sitting in the room in front of them a real carriage train would pass.
French director Georges Méliès.
THE VERY FIRST HORROR FILM IN THE WORLD - 1896
Modern viewer It’s hard to surprise, let alone scare, but because he’s already spoiled. But there is a first time for everything, just like the first “horror” movie on the planet. Of course, now the special effects of the 19th century look funny: people appear and disappear in clouds of smoke, and the bats suddenly flutter out from behind the edge of the scenery, but precisely "Devil's Castle" officially considered the world's number one horror story.
American cartoonist Stuart Blackton.
THE VERY FIRST CARTOON IN THE WORLD No. 1 - 1906
And two contenders are competing for the title of the very first cartoon in the world: Stuart Blackton and Emil Kolya. In general, the very first was precisely " Humorous phases of funny faces", where the characters come to life with the help of the artist’s hand - it was shown to the public already in 1906 in France.
THE VERY FIRST CARTOON IN THE WORLD No. 2 - 1908
Despite the top multimedia film, scientists recognized the painting " Phantasmagoria" the very first full-fledged hand-drawn cartoon in history. During the creation of a 1.5-minute cartoon, 700 drawings were required!
Directed by Alan Crosland. USA.
THE VERY FIRST FILM IN THE WORLD WITH SOUND - 1927
Musical film "The Jazz Singer" became the first feature-length film in history with sound, which means that it was in 1927 that the era of silent films ended. 88 minutes long, its creation required a huge amount of money at that time, 422 thousand dollars.
Director: Dziga Vertov. THE USSR.
THE VERY FIRST CARTOON IN RUSSIA - 1924
First animated film in Russia "Soviet toys", was created as propaganda for the Soviet system. The leading roles are played by an overeating and morally decaying bourgeois, whose belly is full of money, but in the end there is a happy ending for everyone: a Red Army soldier appears, and all the proletarians formed christmas tree, on which the enemies of Soviet society hung in the form of toys...
Armenian director Ruben Mamulyan.
OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED THE VERY FIRST COLOR FILM IN THE WORLD - 1935
Surprisingly, color cinema was invented by the Lumière brothers (they colored each frame by hand), then in 1902 the film “Traveling to the Moon” was released, where green and red tones appeared in several frames; in 1917 and 1922, the first films of Herbert Calamus, the founder of Technicolor company and the founder of color cinematography, 1925 USSR film "Battleship Potemkin" with splashes of red..
But apparently scientists found out about this too late, but because "Becky Sharp" 1935 is officially recognized as the very first color film in the world.
Walt Disney Company.
THE VERY FIRST DISNEY CARTOON - MARCH 1, 1924
The very first cartoon of the legendary and beloved Disney animation studio was the debut "Alice's Day at Sea", based on Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland. By the way, even now the picture is interesting to watch.
There are few adults or children who do not like watching cartoons. Now there are countless of them: from cute and very funny to sad and philosophical, from hand-drawn and “plasticine” to those made using computer or sand animation. But what was the very first cartoon in the world? And who created it?
First puppet film
Most old cartoon featuring puppets, was filmed in 1898 by James Stewart Blackton and Albert Smith. It's called "Circus of Lilliputians". The toys in it were wooden.
The Father of European Animation
The first European cartoon, called Phantasmagoria, was created in France in 1908 by cartoonist Emile Cohl. In 1908, he joined the Gaumont film company as a photographer and screenwriter, but then moved on to making animated films. Kohl made many films (over 250) using drawings, cutouts and dolls.
The very first cartoon in the history of Europe is also the first fully animated film in the history of animation. "Phantasmagoria" is French word, which means “a constantly changing complex sequence of what is seen or depicted.” Kohl worked on this cartoon for about 5 months. He drew each frame on paper, which he then transferred to negative film. For this cartoon, which takes about a minute and 20 seconds, the artist had to make about 700 sketches, which he later photographed.
A characteristic feature of Phantasmagoria is that its characters are drawn with white lines and move against a black background.
Each drawing is only slightly different from the previous one. In the process of creating the cartoon, the author allowed himself some spontaneity with the images - that is why “Phantasmagoria” has a “stream of consciousness” style.
The plot of "Phantasmagoria"
The film has no real story or structures. In the first scene, a hand draws the little clown Fantosh hanging on the horizontal bar.
- He falls and is replaced by a fat Fantosh in a hat, who takes off his hat, loses his wig and takes a seat in the cinema.
– A woman in a large hat sits in front of him, because of which Fantosh does not see what is happening on the screen.
– He takes the feathers off his hat and is frightened by a spider that suddenly appears.
– Now you can see the screen better, but the lady has a huge hairstyle under her hat, and Fantosh has to burn it.
– The lady’s head explodes, and Fantosh appears from it.
“Then he falls into a box on which weights are thrown on top, but Fantosh easily opens it, dropping the weights to the ground.
– Using a fishing rod, he catches a passerby, who turns into some kind of liquid.
– Then a huge musketeer appears, and Fantosh burns him with candles.
– While walking around the city, the clown loses his head, it jumps like a ball and is caught by a passerby.
- He turns into a bottle, and Fantosh ends up inside this bottle.
– After this, the bottle turns into a flower, then into an elephant’s trunk.
– Having noticed the policeman, the elephant becomes a house, into which Fantosh runs, and the policeman locks the door from the outside.
– Fantosh decides to jump out of the window and “breaks.” Then the animator’s hands appear, “fixing” the clown, he puffs up and, mounting a horse, disappears.
First cartoon in the USA
In 1906, James Stewart Blackton, one of the founders of the Vitagraph Company of America, introduced the cartoon Funny Faces to the public. It was a series of simple drawings that depicted funny faces.
The first American cartoon character to appear in a short film was Colonel Heise Lear. He made his debut in 1913 in a cartoon by J.R. Bray called Colonel Haze Liar in Africa. .
The first three-dimensional cartoon
The first animated film in the world, in which the audience could see volume, was created by Russian director and cameraman Vladislav Starevich in 1912. It was called “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of the Barbels with the Horned Horns.”
The cartoon was shot using time-lapse photography, and its main characters were real living insects from Starevich's entomological collection.
The plot of the cartoon told the story of the love of Lyukanida, the mistress of the stag beetles, and Count Heros, a representative of the longhorn beetle tribe.
The film was a wild success among viewers. Knowing well the habits of insects and using the method of time-lapse photography, Starevich achieved natural plasticity of the “actors” in his film.
From this article you will learn what the very first cartoon in the world was, as well as many other interesting facts.
Prerequisites
It all started with the inventor French origin Emile Reynaud in 1877 patented one of his best instruments - the praxinoscope. This device allowed the display of moving pictures. However, the day of the appearance of animation as such is considered to be October 28, 1892, since it was then that E. Reynaud first demonstrated his so-called luminous pictures in public. This happened worldwide famous museum wax figures Grevin in Paris.
His success was phenomenal. In fact, with this invention he discovered new era in human culture.
The very first cartoon in the world
Cinematography and animation developed in parallel with each other, and if everything is clear with the first film, then with the first cartoon in history the question is not so clear.
The fact is that three works are vying for the title of the very first cartoon in the world. First of all, two works by the American Blackton, who was a caricaturist and artist, are vying for the role of the first animated work. So, in 1906, he created his famous “Funny Faces” - a short cartoon consisting of sequentially shown pictures of drawn human grimaces.
Then, less than a year later, in 1907, he released his second creation called The Haunted Hotel. It was a more technically advanced cartoon. Moreover, he gained quite a lot of fame among film lovers of that time. However, it was a puppet film, so most often the palm is given to another cartoon.
The third and most striking contender for the title of the very first cartoon in the world is “Phantasmagoria” (1908), authored by the Frenchman Emile Cohl. Unlike the cartoons described above, this one was a full-fledged hand-drawn cartoon in the usual sense, which is why it is considered to be the first animated cartoon in history.
"Phantasmagoria": history, plot
The action of the cartoon is quite simple. Initially, someone's hand draws Fantosh, who is hanging on the horizontal bar and then falls. In his place appears a new Fantosh wearing a hat and slightly fatter than the previous one. A lady in a hat with feathers sits in front of him, which blocks his view in front, so Fantosh plucks out all the feathers one by one.
This cartoon made a very good impression on the public. He took part in the "Night Show", which took place in 1915, as well as in International festival animation in 1977 and at an event called "The Century of Animation" organized in 2003.
Further development of animation
The very first cartoon in the world and in Russia, made in the form of three-dimensional animation, is “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of the Barbels with the Horned Horns.” It was created by Russian biologist Vladislav Starevich in 1910, and the premiere took place 2 years later, in 1912.
He became not only the creator of the first three-dimensional cartoon in the world, but also the founder of Russian animation as a whole, since no one before him Russian Empire did not work with this genre of art.
The very first cartoon in the world, which had a full meter, is “The Apostle” (1918), the creator of which was Quirini Cristiani, an Argentine animator and film director.
In 1928, two significant events occurred at once, both of which are associated with the name of Walt Disney. Firstly, this year the most famous animated character in the world was created - the mouse Mickey Mouse, and secondly, the first ever cartoon with sound, called "Steamboat Willie", was released.
And just 4 years later, in 1932, Walt Disney again revolutionized the world of animation by making the very first color cartoon in the world. It is called "Flowers and Trees" and was the first completely commercial product, and the technique used to create it was a three-color spectrum.
Contribution to culture
It's probably no secret that animation is at the peak of popularity today. Along with cinematography, it is in fact the most powerful element of modern mass culture.
And the triumphant ascent of animation to Olympus was started by the very first cartoon in the world, when it was shown to the first viewers. Who knows how the world would have developed if the first cartoons had not been accepted by the public in their time?
In any case, the very first cartoons in the world played a key role in the formation of an entire art form, which, although it has much in common with cinema, is a different genre that developed in parallel, and not together with cinema.
Conclusion
The very first cartoons in history were, of course, quite primitive by modern standards, but for their time they were the most advanced and progressive technologies. They demonstrated that the intellectual and technical resources of humanity have not yet been exhausted, but are only in their infancy.
Thanks to them, a new milestone began in the history of mankind, the era of high technology, mass art and culture, as well as globalization. Today, few people remember about the very first cartoons in the world, although they should not be forgotten, since this is a very important element not only modern culture, but also in the lives of most individuals, because there are practically no people in the world who have a negative attitude towards animation. And most people have an extremely positive attitude towards this type of art and are willing to watch new products from the multi-industry, as well as review old ones.
Your children have probably asked you this question: when did the world’s first cartoon come out and is it possible to watch it? Don't be upset if you couldn't answer. There is no exact answer; experts and historians have not yet decided which of the first films can be called animated.
American cartoonist and actor Stuart Blackton is considered to be a pioneer of the industry. He filmed The Humpty Dumpty Circus or Lilliputian Circus in 1898 with wooden puppets, and two years later The Enchanted Drawing with an artist who drew faces on paper sheets similar to modern flipcharts.
The technology of stop-motion animation, when one image follows another, was invented and used later by Blackton, and for the first time he shot something like a cartoon on film. The well-known Thomas Edison, an American businessman, scientist and inventor, is related to the film Humorous phases of funny faces. Blackton worked as an engineer at Edison's company and they created the first drawn strip together. The screen showed drawings with white chalk on a black board. The characters, which the artist began to draw in front of the audience, then acted and grimaced without his help. Of course, this amazed the first viewers of the film in France in April 1906. The plot development was a success, although there was no full-fledged plot in this cartoon.
Another experiment by Stuart Blackton can also claim the laurels of the first cartoon. This is The Haunted Hotel, the film was much more successful among viewers: special effects appeared here, inanimate objects moved in accordance with the laws of the genre. The kettle poured tea on its own, the knife cut the bread itself, towels flew and so on, but no one understood how it was all done. The effect was then called the “American movement.”
American director John Kenemaker is confident that it was Blackton who suggested the idea of filming mankind frame by frame while working on " magical drawing"for Edison's camera. But most experts believe that the American’s experiments cannot be called real cartoons; it was a commercial demonstration by engineer Blackton of the capabilities of the technologies of that time.
Then the very first real cartoon can be considered the short film by the Frenchman Emile Cohl Fantasmagorie (“Phantasmagoria”), which was presented to viewers in 1908. The author created more than 700 drawings on white paper for this film, so it turned out to be the first hand-drawn cartoon. The character of the film Fantosh finds himself in difficult and comical situations, for example, he conquers the horizontal bar, falls off it and after that appears before the audience more plump and powerful. Surprisingly, this one-and-a-half-minute cartoon still looks quite modern today, at least original.
If there are disputes about the very first world cartoon, then the author of the Russian cartoon, which became the first, is known for sure. This is research biologist Vladislav Starevich. He decided to make an educational film with a fight between stag beetles, but Starevich was not satisfied with the result. Then it occurred to him original idea: Starevich dissected the beetles, stuck the thinnest wires to them with wax, and by moving the beetles across the frames in 1912 he created a whole fairy tale story lasting more than ten minutes. Spectators around the world did not unravel Starevich’s technology and were delighted with how the scientist was able to “train” the beetles. And Vladislav Starevich himself, in addition to science, devoted himself to puppet animation.
