I had the good fortune some fifteen years ago to catch a British television documentary (the name of which escapes me now) the subject matter of which was the pioneering years of animation. During the course of the programme were shown several frames from this early film. Whilst obviously jerky and completely devoid of modern animation techniques, I was particularly impressed by the innovation used here by Ed Porter.
Actually produced in 1906 and following on from the critical success of another chalk-board animation that same year, THE HUMOROUS PHASES OF FUNNY FACES, directed by Stuart Blackton, THE TEDDY BEARS was in fact a stop-frame production, using real stuffed teddy bears! In this respect, Porter was creating true "animation" but not a cartoon! It was in hindsight, the absolute ancestor of today's "Claymation." It took Ed Porter 56 hours work to complete just one minute of "moving" film.
Perhaps when viewing today such spectacular computer-generated animation as the recent DINOSAUR, the product of armies of programmers, artists and technical designers, you might spare a thought for pioneers like Ed Porter who sat alone in their studio crafting the framework for future generations with agonising slowness, but dedication.
