The skeleton became increasingly popular as a motive depicted to entertain the masses. Disney made use of it on several occasions later on and here French silent film pioneer gives us quite a show of a skeleton dancing, doing slapstick and never ever losing its drive even after its bones aren't fit exactly the way together they're supposed to be. This is the kind of short film you need to watch with a nice fast and catchy tune to get the most out of it. I'm truly curious how people back then perceived this short movie. Were they really scared by the protagonist or did they enjoy its funny aspects as much as I did? Did they think of it as the basis of out body or more of a cartoon character. Well, there was with very very few exceptions (Louis Reynaud) no animation present at this point, so they may have been quite confused about what was going on, especially as the film genre was still very early, even if especially 1896 had been a truly prolific year for movies.
Review of Le squelette joyeux
