The first of a lost art

Stop-motion animation was at a certain point in history, a primary source of media for animation, whether in animated film or as a practical effect in live action media. For example, in the 1933 monster classic King Kong, a model was made using a metal skeleton coated with rabbit fur to make up a fully articulated stop-motion puppet animators would set in position and move frame by frame. The same concept is used in the animated shorts Wallace and Gromit; unlike in King Kong where the puppet was animated in correspondence to live actors, was fully animated, and allowed for more creative freedom.

Stop-motion animation in no way is a new form of media in today’s era. We rarely see it used in recent films. Aside from the animation company Laika that brought us films like Kubo and the Two Strings, or as an affect in Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, revealing a brief shot using stop-motion animation.

The question left to wonder is when this style of animation was first introduced as a new form of media. Multiple sources on Google points to an animated short titled The Humpty Dumpty Circus.  The film was made in 1897 by director J. Stuart Blackton along with Albert E. Smith. As the title suggests, it featured a circus with acrobats and animals which according to Smith, were actually his daughter’s circus dolls. There is no actual recording of the film to be found, nor are there any recorded details explaining what happened to the film. Only a few images of the film exist.

One other early example of stop motion animation heavily used in film, was the 1925 silent film The Lost World, animated by Willis O'Brien.