3. Fantasmagorie (1908)
This is widely regarded to be one of the first (if not the first) animated movies ever. It has no story, but is instead a collection of drawings and scenarios, all of which morph into each other, based around the adventures of a small stick man. It might only be a minute long and one hundred and three years old, but it remains singularly impressive and really very adorable for a picture of a stickman morphing into various objects in his surroundings. Its important, because you could make the case that without it, the animated movie just wouldnt have happened. Drawn/directed by Parisian Emile Cohl, the film is either little more than a curio or a phenomenal artistic achievement depending on how you look at it, but Im firmly in the second camp. The film exudes a certain exciting charm- this was the first time anything like this had ever been done- and remains lovably innocent. The animation itself might not be Pixar quality, but for a work of its time it is remarkable; it has been describes as stream of consciousness animation, and this fits nicely. Its almost surreal, as images tumble in and out of each other, objects morph into other objects, which are used by the little stickman protagonist, who himself turns into another object which interacts with the surroundings, and so on. Its really best seen two or three times, which is lucky given the short length, as well as the fact that it is very easily found on Youtube. As a film, its adorable. As a document of one of the first examples of an artform, it is unmissable.