This is one of Emile Cohl's early animation efforts, what we would call today stop-motion work -- but really, it was actually a variety of trick film: the difference is that Cohl was specializing in them as more than the pieces of stage magicianry that Melies and his competitors like Segundo de Chomon were: an effort to make of these effects not the point of these films, but the grammar of them.
And here is an early success as he puts the viewer in the mood of a little boy, playing with his toys, running them through the paces of his little circus. It's no more than that at this point, but it is moving forward.
