Un drame chez les fantoches (1908) Online

"A Love Affair in Toyland" (Un drame chez les fantoches ) is impossible to assign a numerical score to, as it's one of the very earliest animated films and it's so unique. After all, to what can you compare it?! Emile Cohl made this film. It is a very simple sort of animation--done in a less than simple manner. It consists of white childish drawings on a black background. But then it gets odd, the drawing CONSTANTLY morphs and changes in a strange stream of consciousness. While it's not something I'd want to watch for a long period of time, it is short as well as an interesting experiment. Worth seeing if you are an art student or an insane fan of animation (like me). Otherwise, it's one you can pass up and still lead a complete and full life! "The Puppet's Nightmare" is another by Cohl and is very, very similar--just a tad less violent.

"A Love Affair in Toyland" is a 3.5 minute short film from over 105 years ago. It is not only among the very first works by director Emile Cohl (even if he was already 50 here), but also among the very first animated film in history. There are some from France that were made even earlier, but especially in terms of English-language territories Cohl was quite a pioneer. Of course, you should expect no greatness here. Neither the story nor the style are of memorable quality, but you have to start somewhere right? I think this movie is only worth the watch for people with a great interest in the early years of cinema, especially animation. The rest does not really have to see it.

A Love Affair in Toyland (1908)

*** (out of 4)

As I go through the animated work of Emile Cohl there's no question that he had a rather dark sense of humor or perhaps just a dark vision. This film, as was the case with most of his work, doesn't have so much of a story but instead there are just various images with weird things going on. I think the lack of a story almost helps because you could watch this film a dozen times and probably see something different each time. There are pretty much four characters who come up and we see various chases and sometimes people are tied up. A love affair gone wrong? I guess that will be up to each viewer but the early animation is quite good.