Pauvre Pierrot (1892) by Emile Reynaud is an early example of French animation, and a very early depiction of colour. Little details, such as having a shadow when the characters come through the walls, adds to the style, making it look a little better. However, I personally don't like this animation; I find it boring because it's hard to work out what's actually happening, and to be honest it's not actually that well animated. I also don't like the character design particularly.
Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908), which has already been posted previously in the blog, is another early example of French animation which has been greatly influential across many cultures. Emile Cohl's real name was Emile Eugene Jean Louis Courtet, and he was inspired by Blackton. He also invented the black-line technique in animation.
Le Roman de Renaud (The Tale of the Fox) by Ladislaw Starewicz, was made in 1930 and was the first French feature animation. It was originally silent so the sound was added later. It is a stop-motion animation but displays very smooth animation and accurate comic timing, especially for an animation of that time period. The characterisation also has a great deal of personality and the characters' appearances are very interesting. Overall it is actually a very entertaining film to watch and is a perfect example of why French animation is so well renowned.
The above animation is Barbe - Bleue (Blue Beard); a stop-motion made in 1935 by Jean Painleve. Although it is an early animation, it is not particularly well animated for the time, and the intention seems to be to use a weird storyline and a fairytale design to distract from the poor animation. I found this animation a bit boring because it's not easy to understand the storyline, and it looks a bit of a mess to me.
L'epouvantail (The Scarecrow) was made in 1943 by Paul Grimault. I like this animation because the storyline is easy to follow so you understand it even if you don't speak French. It is also a very similar style to that of Disney's early series of cartoons, Silly Symphonies. It Grimault has included an amount of subtle humour which keeps the audience interested and entertained.
La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste (The Lady and the Cellist) (1965) by Jean - Francois Laguionie has a very interesting style as it all looks as though the animation is taking place in a painting. It is a collage animation so is most likely made using cutouts. The music fits very well with the mood emitted by the ocean and goes along with the events of the storyline. Whilst I like the style, I found the storyline dragged on a little too much, but I do think it has a nice resolve.
Asterix le Gaulois (Asterix the Gaul) was made in 1967 by Ray Goossen, and is a cartoon adaptation of Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's comics. This movies is well-animated on the whole, and has a lot of humour, making it a fun movie to watch.
Les Tripletts des Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) (2003) by Sylvain Chomet contains very smooth and realistic animation, whilst the design of the characters are very surreal but believable. I find their design original but at the same time I find them quite creepy, especially the waiter. However, the amazing animation and interesting storyline make up for this and is, overall, a great film. The animation technique is also very interesting as a mixture of 2D and 3D is used.
Persepolis (2007) is a feature animation by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. It follows Marjane's life through the Iranian revolution. I watched this film all the way through and I loved it. The animation and style is so simple but effective, and works really well with the film being mostly in black and white. I also really like the story because it has its emotional moments, as it's so believeable due to it being a true story, but also has a lot of humour so is really fun to watch.
Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist (2010) is one of the most well-animated film I have ever seen. The attention to detail is incredibly accurate, and the storyline is believeable and interesting to watch. I also really like the desgin because it contains a lot of detail and accuracy, but in a cartoony way. The colours are also really nice, because they are bright, but at the same time they are subtle and classy.
