The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) User Reviews

Release Date may be 1898

[MovieResearch · 20 June 2011]

In other sources, the release date for Humpty Dumpty Circus is normally listed as 1898. The IMDb entry is the only one which asserts 1908. Smith and Blackton were making much more sophisticated stop-motion films by 1908, so that makes the 1898 date more plausible.

There seem to be no existing prints of the film, and non-internet references are not available.

Until someone can find more definite references about the film, the release date remains a mystery. One wonders where Guiness Book of World Records got their information about the content of the film (they go with the 1898 date).

Milestone short for both animation and stop-motion

[jake-98 · 24 February 2000]

Considered one if not THE first stop-motion picture of all time. J.S. Blackton simply moves his sons toys around 1 frame at a time so that they appear to move around without anyone person physically moving them on camera. Film has for some time been lost and cannot be found, only information about the film exists.

How these pictures are made

[deickemeyer · 23 February 2014]

It may interest some of our readers to know how these pictures are made, where inanimate articles are seemingly given life. The figures are posed in front of the camera, one picture exposed, then they are moved slightly and another picture exposed, and so on, the photographer being careful not to move the figures or their limbs too far at one time or else a jerky movement is presented. When we consider that there are twelve pictures to a foot of film and that there are 885 feet in the "Humpty Dumpty" subject we begin to realize the magnitude of the task. We are not surprised to learn that the producer worked for several months on the negative, almost without intermission. The negative was made for the Kalem Company by F. E. Dobson, an adept at this kind of work, who was for many years with the Biograph Company. The cost to the Kalem Company far exceeded that of some of their most pretentious dramatic productions, in which large companies of actors are employed. On the standing order basis they expect to just come out about even, but it is a film that should bring many re-orders, as it will be especially popular during the holiday season. -- The Moving Picture World, October 30, 1908