The First Circus

This was a pretty poor cartoon--even by the standards of the day. Instead of a traditionally animated story, the animation looks much like Japanese shadow puppets. In fact, all the animation is done through silhouettes and seems lacking artistically.

The story itself seems pretty disjointed as well--perhaps parts of the short cartoon have been lost--it sure looked that way. The beginning has a segment where they talk about Darwin and show a bunch of monkey shadow puppets and in the next segment they show a dinosaur that is a circus act. Neither scene is particularly well-defined or interesting. This film is more important as a historical curio than for its entertainment value.

The First Circus (1921)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This early animated short is rather interesting if not all together good. The first section talks about Darwin and then we see a couple monkeys playing. The second chapter deals with the first circus and we see various animals marching alone before seeing how they were during Stonehendge. I'm really not sure what the stories of these were supposed to mean or why they're connected together but each one runs a couple minutes so obviously the film is short enough to where you can enjoy it without being bored. The silhouette animation for the most part is good but there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here. I enjoyed it more than most people have but it's certainly not something you must see.

Charming and engaging cartoon, done in silhouettes on a a circular composition. The images are amusing -- monkeys getting drunk, then a prehistoric circus at Stonehenge, featuring a dinosaur -- but the execution of this piece shows that less than full animation can be well done.