This was an animation experiment I completed over a few days. I'd been looking at some of the first ever recorded animations as part of my studies, and I found Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl to be a really fun ride. I had this cheeky idea of making an unofficial sequel to the 1908 animated film, acting as a direct continuation.

Since Fantasmagorie isn't my film and because it's such a big part of animated history, I wanted to make sure I was respectful to the style and themes, and through my best efforts make something that I think Émile Cohl would have enjoyed. The original film is reflective of the incoherent art movement and uses straight-ahead animation for a stream-of-consciousness narrative. To keep with this style, I used straight-ahead animation, combined with some animated loops and boils, and improvised as I went along.

The original film follows a little clown character causing havok in several situations, and then he appears to die towards the end and ride away on a horse. Following this through, I thought it would be nice to give the little guy a taste of karma. He gets thrust into Hell and is provoked and tortured by all manner of things, bringing back some elements from the original film, and right at the end, he's served up on a platter for the Devil to snack on.