This short, regarded as one of, if not the oldest animated short film ever made, has not aged that gracefully: the only importance it has these days is that of a historic one. To be fair this short does have this in its favor, taken as a history piece it is at the very least interesting to see just how far the art of animation has come since. That’s not to say that this short isn’t interesting in its own right, but its main draw is that of witnessing the birth of a new type of art.

Like many short films of the period, this was part of Blackton’s vaudeville act, a centerpiece to show to a probably stunned audience. Today it is a somewhat amusing short that is quite well animated for the time. The assembly product that animation would become was still years ahead, no-one knew where this new medium of film was going.

I don’t think anyone, even those early pioneers, had much of a clue about what the next ten or so years would bring, let alone where these experiments in film would be in a hundred. At least the novelty was there and the films bringing them were of a decent overall quality.

In the here and how this short may seem rather unspectacular, but in its day, I’d bet the audiences who came to Blackton’s vaudeville act were thrilled by what they saw. Today though, I am barely entertained by this historical curio and that is mostly due to its history.