Zozor ruine la réputation de sa famille (He Ruins His Family’s Reputation)
R: Émile Cohl. B: George McManus (comic strip ‘The Newlyweds’). P: Eclair American. USA 1912
Print: La cinémathèque française

“And now our funny little friend, Snookums, has started real trouble for his poor Dada. A few of the neighbors and Dada were having a nice quiet little game when the door-bell rang and when Snookums’ beautiful mother went to the door, she found the minister. Well, the “gang” made a hurried attempt to hide things, and the chips, cards, etc., were stuffed under the couch, before the Reverend Sir was admitted. Dada and his friends then tried to keep the minister’s attention concentrated on other things, and planned to get rid of him before he suspected anything. But poor little Snookums was rather inquisitive about this hurried hiding of those nice little chips and so he secured the minister’s hat and proceeded to dig out the chips from under the couch and fill the hat with them. When the minister finally decided to go, to the great relief of everyone, the big scandal came out. When he lifted his high hat to place it on his head, there was a shower of little white, blue and red “chips” …”
Moving Picture World synopsis
IMDb

“Zozor ruine la réputation de sa famille (…) provides a glimpse into how some of Cohl‘s American animation sought to bridge his own disjointed fantasy with the more linear, narrative comic strip traditions of the United States market. (…) One of the most striking aspects in the film is the dominance of dialogue over motion. Many of the frames are nearly covered with words, as if a static frame from a McManus comic strip, while a animated motion comes in bits and pieces between the important statements. It is as if the blank space between comic strip panels were replaced by tiny, moving cartoons.”
Richard Neupert: French Animation History. John Wiley & Sons 2011

>>> Émile Cohl – the Pathé Period