The Clown and His Donkey

1910 AnimationComedy Directed by Charles Armstrong

About The Clown and His Donkey

Charles Armstrong's silhouette short puts a clown and a donkey on screen as shadow puppets. It is his third known film in that form, after The Sporting Mice and Votes for Women: A Caricature, both from 1909.

Cast & crew

More about The Clown and His Donkey

Armstrong wrote, directed, and produced. The Charles Urban Trading Company distributed this film and his other animated shorts. Wikidata lists the United Kingdom and 1910, with no running time.

Themes

Technique

The picture is silhouette animation, a filmed shadow play rather than drawn cels.

Preservation

Wikipedia says The Clown and His Donkey is the only Armstrong film that survives.

Notes

  • Wikipedia says this is Armstrong's only surviving film.
  • He kept directing animated films until 1915.
  • The catalog calls the short an early attempt to bring shadow puppetry into the cinema.
  • No cast is listed. The figures are the clown and the donkey.