Creation (lost American first feature animated film; 1916)

The film's title card.

Status: Lost

Creation is a 1916 American silent black-and-white animated film made by the Animated Film Corporation, an animation studio located in San Fransisco run by Angel Espoy, Byintong Ford, Tack Knight and Pinto Colvig (who would go on to be the first voice actor for the Disney characters Goofy and Pluto).

It is considered to be the very first feature length animated film, with El Apóstol (aka The Apostle), despite its status as the first of its kind, releasing a year later. However, no copies of the film survive, and very little information is known about it.

Plot

The film's synopsis remains unknown, although judging from what is available, its likely that it would've starred Pinto, Tack and Byintong as paper cut-outs with their real life faces, working at an animation studio, with them meeting cartoon characters along the way.

Availability

As it stands, the film remains completely lost, with only a few frames and some collages having resurfaced, it also remains unclear if the film ever released at all, with the Southern Historical Oregon Society (who own the surviving frames and collages from the film) stating in an Email that they were unable to find any mention of it in any San Francisco newspapers around the time.

They also stated that film's fate might have been alluded in Pinto's memoir, It's a Crazy Business, in a section where Pinto warns Walt Disney about what might happen to the negatives of his film Snow White, how they will be soaked off to reclaim their silver contents after it loses its popularity, which they suspect might've happen to Creation.

Videos

Ben Truwe, a member of the Southern Historical Oregon Society, discussing the subject and showcasing all the surviving frames and collages of the film (37:36).