The Sinking of the Lusitania - 1918

Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Winsor McCay
Writer: Winsor McCay
Release Date: 20 July 1918 (USA)
Production Co: Universal Film Manufacturing Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Ship | Lusitania | Torpedo | U Boat | Sinking | Propaganda | Ocean Liner | Tragedy | Statue Of Liberty | Ship Wreck
Genres: Animation | Short
An animated depiction of the sinking of the Lusitania: In May 1915, the liner leaves the United States, headed for Liverpool with over 2000 passengers on board. As the ship nears its destination, she is struck and severely damaged by a torpedo from a German U-boat. Even as frantic efforts to evacuate the ship are underway, another torpedo strikes the ship, leading quickly to disaster.

Keeping Up with the Joneses - 1915

Country: USA
Release Date: 13 September 1915 (USA)
Also Known As: Keeping Up with the Joneses (Women's Styles)
Production Co: Gaumont American
Runtime: 3 min (22 fps)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
From a series begun in September 1915 based on the Keeping Up with the Joneses newspaper comic by "Pop" Momand. The films begin with "out of the inkwell" drawings of the sort seen in Winsor McCay films and later elaborated by Max Fleischer. Like other comic strips and animated films of the era, notably Bringing Up Father (published from 1912; filmed 1916-18), Keeping Up with the Joneses features a husband oppressed by a wife’s obsession with high society and consumer fashion. The series ended abruptly in February 1916 after its animator, Harry S. Palmer, lost a patent infringement suit brought by John Randolph Bray over the use of transparent celluloid sheets."--Library of Congress.

Doubles for Darwin - 1924

American movie. A famished Felix reads an advertisement telling of a large reward for anyone that can give proof for the theory of evolution. He hurries to South Africa via Transatlantic Cable and interacts with the local animals. He angers a troop of monkeys by telling them why he's there (they're offended he would suggest they could be related to humans) and they chase him back through the cable to America.
Felix is starving to death when he notices a newspaper ad offering a large reward for anyone who can prove Darwin's theory that man comes from monkeys. When Felix heads off to find the answer in South Africa I kept waiting for something racial to happen but it never did, which was pretty shocking considering when this film was made. On the whole, there really isn't too many laughs here and in fact not too much happens throughout the running time. The best scene in the film is one where Felix finds a "family tree" of monkeys and asks them if they are related to humans. The old style animation might be tough for some viewers to take but I've always found it quite charming.

Felix the Cat in Hollywood - 1923

American movie. Felix the Cat was the first animated superstar, and these early shorts reveal the source of the character's phenomenal popularity. Animator Otto Messmer created Felix for "Feline Follies," a one-shot cartoon designed to fill a gap in an installment of the Paramount Screen Magazine. Messmer had learned how to use mime and expressions by studying the films of Charlie Chaplin, and even in his relatively crude debut film, Felix seems alive.
Felix decides to make his way to Hollywood, but has no money. The owner of a failing shoe store promises Felix $500 if he can help bring in new business, which Felix ingeniously manages to do, but the owner stiffs him out of the money. Felix finds a way to get to Hollywood, anyway, and while there meets up with the famous stars of the day, like Charlie Chaplin and Ben Turpin.
Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan's Felix the Cat was the first widely popular cartoon character in film history. In this one, there's a gag involving gum and shoes at the beginning, and Felix transforms himself into the likeness of handbag to travel to Hollywood, which is rather representative of the fantastic nature of the Felix cartoons. In Hollywood, Felix meets his peers, including Charlie Chaplin, who some say is the basis for much of Felix, and who Messmer caricaturized in another animation series. Felix also meets caricatures of Ben Turpin, William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille and President of the Motion Picture Association of America, Will Hays, who others say was the basis for the next big cartoon star, Mickey Mouse. 'Felix in Hollywood' is one of the earliest screen efforts at caricaturizing live-action movie stars, something Looney Tunes are now famous for. Additionally, as Disney would similarly capitalize on later creations, the image of Felix was marketed extensively, appearing on merchandise and in newspaper comic strips.

Dream Of A Rarebit Fiend - 1906

Winsor Mccay - Dream Of A Rarebit Fiend 1906

The Hasher's Delirium - 1910

The Hasher's Delirium - 1910

Alice's Day at Sea - 1924 - Part 2

This was Walt Disney's second Alice cartoon, and the first to be contracted by M.J. Winkler, released first on March 1st, 1924.

Alice's Day at Sea - 1924 - Part 1

This was Walt Disney's second Alice cartoon, and the first to be contracted by M.J. Winkler, released first on March 1st, 1924.

Alice's Spooky Adventure - 1924

This was Walt Disney's Third Alice cartoon, released first on April 1st, 1924.

Alice and the Three Bears - 1924

This was Walt Disney's Tenth Alice cartoon, released first on December 1st, 1924.

Alice and the Dog Catcher - 1924 - Part 1

This was Walt Disney's sixth Alice cartoon, released first on July 1st, 1924.

The tantalizing fly out of the inkwell - 1919

The tantalizing fly out of the inkwell. Max Fleischer 1919

Fantasmagorie - 1908

Émile Cohl created Fantasmagorie in 1908.
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. In 1908, chalkboard caricaturists were common vaudeville attractions and 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.

Little Nemo- 1911- Winsor McCay

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Little Nemo - 1911 - Drawing room