The treasures to be seen on YouTube continue to astonish. For this lazy New Year’s weekend, we offer Émile Cohl‘s Fantasmagorie; created in 1908, one of the first animated films.

To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings… the characters in the film look as though they’ve been drawn on a chalkboard, but it’s an illusion. By filming black lines on paper and then printing in negative Cohl makes his animations appear to be chalk drawings.

It is charming, odd, fabulous and at the .47 second mark seems to be secretly giving a New Year’s message.

via OpenCulture

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teeny video: what having a new idea is like

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2 replies on “fantasmagorie for new year’s eve

  1. this is astonishingly wonderful!! as a cartoonist/artist i love seeing the absolute power of cartooning, i laughed and enjoyed this beautiful posting so much, thanks. and happy new year…i am the woman who wrote in about my cancer and for now i have a reprieve…in three months i will be tested again. for now no surgery, just a fun filled life…yea!!!! here’s sending special love to all cancer patients all over the world…part of how i got through these 7 months was knowing i was not alone, that millions of other people were going through what i was going through. happy new year and many blessings to you and thanks for your hard work and brilliance.

  2. Susy, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to hear your news: a big fat gift and blessing. Thank you for this and your many other illuminating comments, for ‘being there’, too.

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