1906 - Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Title: Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Release Date: 7 April 1906

Director: J. Stuart Blackton

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000554/

My Rating: (10/10) ★★★★★★★★★★

This is truly a remarkable find. Six years after his 90 second film The Enchanted Drawing, J. Stuart Blackton brings to the cinema a series of 500-600 drawings photographed in sequence to make up the world's first animated spectacular. Only three minutes long and shot in stop motion, Blackton draws figures on a chalkboard which not only seem to come to life but, through special cutouts he created, run amok and do unexpected things. Lots of surprise live action here too with the cutouts, but also lots of exciting, whimsical animation (that Blackton himself would later call juvenile). It seems funny that, long before Disney, the man considered to be the grandfather of American animation was a Brit. But that's how those guys do. Blackton died penniless in the 40's after being hit by a bus.

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces


The Enchanted Drawing (1900)


All in all, 1906 was a trippy year apparently. It seems that all the greatest movie makers must have been taking hallucinogenics otherwise how else could they explain the level of avant garde work they were producing. This was the year McCutcheon & Edwin Porter co directed the drug fueled Dream of a Rarebit Fiend and Georges Melies brought us The Merry Frolics of Satan, which was edgy even for Melies. Here are a few pictures...

The Merry Frolics of Satan (just listen to that title!)

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (which we will discuss when we get to 1921)