STRANGE TOONS: Émile Cohl's FANTASMAGORIE

Émile Cohl is largely forgotten today, but he was an animation pioneer and his disorientingly odd cartoons deserve to be remembered.

His 1908 short Fantasmagorie is generally regarded as the first entirely animated film. It was shot with black lines on white paper and then the film contrast was reversed, giving the animation an interesting look, sort of like glow-in-the-dark chalk drawings.

With its fast-paced, stream of consciousness non-plot and weird visuals, it actual looks a lot like artsy animation from the '80s. Doesn't this clip look like a video for Tom Tom Club?





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