This was certainly news to me, and maybe to you, too. On this date in 1908, the very first animated cartoon was created. Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courte was the animator who released his work Fantasmagorie. For this two-minute work, he produced about 700 chalkboard drawings. The title means “dream-like,” and this fit the cartoon well since there was no real story. He made each drawing on a glass plate and then traced over them with minor shifts. Early animation always amazes me, but I had no idea it went back so far in history. I would say that animation today owes this original a great deal of gratitude.
For more information:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000682/
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/fantasmagorie-2008-5759.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasmagorie_(1908_film)#cite_note-Beckerman2003-1
http://mubi.com/films/fantasmagorie
http://famousdaily.com/history/first-animated-cartoon-fantasmagorie-cohl.html