Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

April. 05,1906      
Rating:
6.3
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A cartoonist draws faces and figures on a blackboard - and they come to life.

J. Stuart Blackton as  Cartoonist

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Reviews

Kattiera Nana
1906/04/05

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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BootDigest
1906/04/06

Such a frustrating disappointment

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Stometer
1906/04/07

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

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PiraBit
1906/04/08

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

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Michael_Elliott
1906/04/09

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)*** (out of 4)When viewing this animated short people must remember that it was made even before D.W. Griffith started making pictures! This three minute film basically has chalk drawings coming to life in front of our eyes. The animation technology certainly grew as time went along but I can't see how anyone could watch this and not be impressed with what they were doing. The trick photography is really impressive and I also thought the drawings were extremely good. I really liked the first man and woman and how the man's smoke was used to cover up the woman. This is certainly a very early use of animation and it looks extremely well.

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tavm
1906/04/10

I don't think there's anything more about this pioneering animation effort that hasn't already been said before by many of the other reviewers except maybe only the very young who haven't been exposed to cartoons previously would find this the most charming thing they have ever seen yet! Certainly we all recognize how primitive these chalk drawings are now having been exposed to Disney, The Simpsons, hell, even Beavis and Butthead is more sophisticated than this short Humorous Phases of Funny Faces! That said, anyone with an interest in animation's history should watch this at least once to see where it all began...

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Boba_Fett1138
1906/04/11

This is an historically little classic from early movie-maker J. Stuart Blackton.It's always interesting to watch a movie that is over- or near 100 years old. Movie-making obviously was still a profession yet in development which let to some many experimental little productions. This movie is one of those early experimental movies, that for one of the first times ever shows us a couple of fully moving animated characters, that also interact with each other.Of course nothing really happens in this movie. It's just merely used as a medium to show off the skills- and possibilities of this new genre. The movie features a couple of animated persons that get drawn by J. Stuart Blackton himself. The characters interact simply to each other. It doesn't make this movie very entertaining to watch, although the bit with the dog and clown was pretty amusingly done.The animations themselves are good and the speed is more than great. All of the movements feel right and natural. A real big accomplishment.It's hard to rate a thing like this. It obviously is a little piece of early movie history and is simply a must-see because its widely regarded as the first ever animated movie. But the movie itself is hardly interesting or amusing enough to watch. Nothing really happens and thank goodness that the movie doesn't run over 3 minutes. I therefor go with a safe six out of ten.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

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Lirazel
1906/04/12

The artist's hand and a blackboard..a quick sketch of a face..another face, a cigar, a cloud of smoke, and suddenly, a whole new art form is born. No genius here, absolutely terrible drawing, but it's the first one as far as we know, and deserves a bit of credit just for that..Melies did stop motion first, and there were hundreds of flip books using the persistence of vision to animate line drawings before this silly little strip of celluloid came along. Nonetheless, everyone who has ever enjoyed a Tex Avery or Disney cartoon should know the humble origins of the form, and this is one example.

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