Is el apostol the first animated movie?

1. The claim: “first animated movie” often means “first animated feature”

Most modern descriptions of El Apóstol describe it specifically as the first feature-length animated film, not the first animated moving image; short animated experiments existed decades earlier (Émile Cohl’s work influenced Cristiani) and are distinct from feature-length productions, and key sources repeat the phrasing “first animated feature film” when talking about El Apóstol ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

2. What contemporary and later sources say about El Apóstol’s production and release

Primary reporting summarized in film histories states El Apóstol was released in Buenos Aires in November 1917 as a roughly 70–80 minute cutout-animation political satire targeting President Hipólito Yrigoyen, made by Cristiani with producer Federico Valle, and received favorable local reviews on release — accounts vary about running time and production length but converge on its 1917 premiere and feature length ^{[1] [2] [5]}.

3. Why scholars single it out as the first animated feature

Scholars who trace feature-length animation point to El Apóstol’s running time and ambition: contemporary sources and later historians credit it with a runtime long enough to qualify as a feature and with production methods (tens of thousands of frames or cutout figures) that distinguish it from short films, leading film historians to place it before later well-known features such as Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed and Disney’s Snow White ^{[5] [6] [7]}.

4. The problem of the lost film and contested details

All known prints of El Apóstol were destroyed in a studio fire in 1926 and no copies are known to survive, creating deep evidentiary limits; as a result, many claims rest on contemporary reviews, production notes, and later recollections, and there are disputes about exact length, the precise animation technique and who did what on the production — issues film historians explicitly note when reconstructing Cristiani’s work ^{[3] [2] [6]}.

5. Alternative viewpoints and implicit agendas in the record

While most authoritative summaries call El Apóstol the first animated feature, some narratives overreach by implying it is the first animated movie of any kind; nationalist pride, retrospective prestige, and gaps in documentation have all shaped the story — filmographies produced by Argentine sources and producer-centered accounts sometimes emphasize Valle’s primacy or embellish technical firsts (for example, later claims about early synchronized sound), and scholars warn against treating those claims as settled without surviving footage ^{[6] [5] [3]}.

6. Bottom line: accurate answer to the question

If the question asks “Is El Apóstol the first animated movie?” the precise, evidence-backed answer is: El Apóstol is widely considered the world’s first animated feature film (i.e., the first feature-length animated movie), but it is not the first animated movie ever (shorter animated films predate it), and because the film is lost and some production details are disputed, the claim applies specifically to its status as the earliest known feature-length animated work according to historians and multiple reference sources ^{[1] [2] [5] [3]}.