History of French animation

The history of French animation is one of the longest in the world, as France has created some of the earliest animated films dating back to the late 19th century, and invented many of the foundational technologies of early animation.

The first pictured movie was from Frenchman Émile Reynaud, who created the praxinoscope, an advanced successor to the zoetrope that could project animated films up to 16 frames long, and films of about 500~600 pictures, projected on its own Théâtre Optique at Musée Grévin in Paris, France, on 28 October 1892.

Émile Cohl created what is most likely the first real animated cartoon to be drawn on paper, Fantasmagorie in 1908. The film featured many morphing figures. He is also thought to have pioneered puppet animation in 1910, pixilation in 1911 and to have started the first animated series in 1916 with La journée de Flambeau (also known as Flambeau, chien perdu).