It can be argued that Fantasmagoire by Emile Cohl (19dhdhd) is entirely experimental animation, as it represents animation in one of its earliest rudimentary ‘modern’ forms. It experiments with character movement, expression and emotions in ways that, while being a source of entertainment, provide a foundation for the basis of character animation as we have become to know it. While it has a narrative foundation, I feel there is a deeper element at play that could arguably define it further as experimentation.
Making reference to Paul Wells Understanding Animation, Wells states that experimental animation heavily involves abstraction that “redefines ‘the body’ or resists using it as an illustrative image” (1998, p.43). While Phantasmagoria clearly represents characterised human bodies, there is a metamorphic element that explores the ‘interpretive form’ of the characters that “reconstruct a different conception of narrative” that arguably “prioritises abstract forms in motion” over conventional and linear storytelling (Wells, 1998 pp. 43-44). I think its key explorative elements and its founding ideas of assisting in the definition of animation as an art form over entertainment in conception, are what stands out as an experimental piece of work. Wells expansion of the ‘presence of the artist’ is also prevalent in this piece of work, narratively and also psychically as he demonstrates at the start the direct relationship between craft and craftsman, showing Cohls hand directly influencing the draw figure (1998, p.45). I think what separates the work from more conventional animation in its formation is the ‘dream-like’ non-linear narrative provided in the piece that distances itself from relation and has its “ own abstract logic” such as decapitation and defiance of the laws of gravity (Wells, 1998, p.45). I feel this is also accentuated in its titles direct name ‘A fantasy’.
As a piece that is also argued as the first animated cartoon, it is created with intention to create and discover drawn motion and characterisation that distinctly gives it a purpose other than purely entertainment factor, which associates well with the ideaology of experimentation within film and the animated medium.
References
Wells, P. 1998. Understanding Animation. Routledge: Oxon, United Kingdom.