“Gertie the Dinosaur” and “Fantasmagorie” utilize hand-drawn black-and-white visuals and are silent films accompanied by live music. These animations were groundbreaking for their time, incorporating innovative storytelling elements.
“Gertie the Dinosaur” features smoother movements and a more detailed, static background. The drawings exhibit naturalism, and the storytelling is clear and concise, employing comedy for entertainment. Winsor McCay’s work on “Gertie the Dinosaur” introduced techniques such as keyframe animation and registration marks, ensuring consistent positioning of drawings. This allowed for more fluid and realistic character actions, bringing Gertie to life with a sense of weight and presence.
In contrast, “Fantasmagorie” presents more abstract drawings and a sketchy animation style. The background is simplistic and does not significantly contribute to the animation. Émile Cohl’s work on “Fantasmagorie” is characterized by continuous transformations, with characters and objects morphing fluidly into one another. The storytelling is experimental and less structured, relying on visual gags and the metamorphosis of shapes to create a whimsical and imaginative experience. Cohl’s innovative techniques laid the foundation for the development of the animation genre.
