First animated movie

1. Early devices and the pre-film origins of "animation"

Before cinema, inventors built toys and machines that created the illusion of movement—phenakistoscopes, zoetropes and magic lanterns—which scholars cite as the long prehistory of animation and show how "movement from still images" predates motion pictures by centuries ^{[6] [1]}. Émile Reynaud’s hand-painted Théâtre Optique shows and public presentations in the 1890s are often flagged by historians as proto-animated shows because they used successive images to produce narrative motion for large audiences ^[1].

2. The first film-based animation contenders: Blackton, J.R. Bray, Cohl

Film-era claims begin with short, filmed tricks: J. Stuart Blackton’s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is frequently cited as one of the earliest film-based animations, using stop‑motion and drawn-on-film methods to produce moving drawings on screen ^[1]. Émile Cohl’s 1908 Fantasmagorie, made from roughly 700 drawings and assembled to give a "blackboard" look, is widely regarded by film historians as the first animated cartoon in the modern sense — hand-drawn images photographed frame-by-frame to create a continuous short film ^{[2] [7]}. Different sources emphasize one or the other depending on whether the standard is stop-motion, drawn-on-film tricks, or sustained hand-drawn sequential frames ^{[1] [2]}.

3. First "animated feature" is a separate debate: lost films, Reiniger, and Disney

When "movie" implies feature-length, the field splits again: some credit Quirino Cristiani’s Argentine features from the 1910s as earlier feature-length animated films, but those films are lost and cannot be examined directly, complicating claims ^[3]. Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed survives and is the oldest extant animated feature, noted for its silhouette-cutout technique and one‑hour-plus running time ^[3]. Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is often called the first American full-length cel-animated and widely distributed Hollywood-style feature and was the landmark that established full-color, studio-scale animated features in the U.S. ^{[5] [8] [9]}.

4. Definitions drive conclusions — technical method, length, survival, and distribution

Whether one points to 1906, 1908, 1926, or 1937 depends on the implicit criteria: earliest film-based animation (Blackton, 1906); first hand-drawn cartoon short to use filmed sequential drawings (Cohl, 1908); earliest surviving feature (Reiniger, 1926); or first widely released, full‑color, studio feature that set the industry template (Disney, 1937) ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}. Sources with different emphases — academic histories, studio narratives, popular encyclopedias — advance particular milestones for reasons that can include national pride, preservation status, and commercial legacy ^{[4] [7] [8]}.

5. Verdict and why it matters for the historical record

A precise, evidence‑based answer must say: for short-film animation often cited as the first modern cartoon, Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie is the canonical choice among film historians ^[2]; earlier experimental film tricks such as Blackton’s 1906 Humorous Phases of Funny Faces are valid contenders if stop‑motion or drawn-on-film methods are included ^[1]; for the first extant animated feature see Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed ^[3]; and for the first major American, full‑color, cel‑animated studio feature that shaped the industry, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remains the touchstone ^{[5] [8]}. Any definitive claim must therefore state the criteria up front, and readers should be wary of headlines that flatten these distinct milestones into a single "first" without clarifying which definition they mean ^{[4] [7]}.