A review of Animation World Network via the internet could trace the history of
animation in the West. Before the turn of the century, the French conjurer and
filmmaker Georges Melies had demonstrated the possibilities of the stop-motion
photography, frame-by-frame technique by which animated films have generally been
produced. By 1907 J. Stuart Blackton in the United States had made an animated film,
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces; and a year later, in Paris, Emile Cohl embarked on
a series of witty cartoon films. Cohl’s successors in the silent period included such
distinguished animation artists as Robert Lortac, Benjamin Rabier, and Joseph Hemard.