Early Animation and Billy Corgan's Head

This past week in class we were shown early forms of animation after a brief discussion regarding Edison and caricaturists. Edison, being more inventor than artist, didn't really pursue film outside of the basic development of the form. He may be considered a forefather of film, but didn't really try to expand its boundaries as Emile Cohl, one of the early caricaturists and the father of animated cartoons.

Watching Gertie the Dinosaur gave a few different thoughts. It was obviously dated and would be considered a dinosaur of a cartoon in more ways than one. While not very exciting to watch in modern times, It must have been riveting to first get a taste of the way drawings could be photographed and a dialogue could be developed with a human off camera.

Melies's "A Trip to the Moon" was easily the high point of the day for me. His sets were really impressive, especially because he painted and developed the sets himself. I definitely do recall the Smashing Pumpkins video that was inspired by this film. I was really happy to get a chance to see the film, after hearing about it before. I'm really looking forward to reading up on Melies work as our class progresses.

One last thing: Separated at birth?