Fantasmagorie and dozens of other influential early films can be found on Gaumont Treasures Vol. 2: 1908-1916, with over 10 hours of glorious raw material.

2. MÉLIÈS: THE PROLIFIC EGG (1902)

French filmmaker Georges Méliès is known as the first cinemagician for his early use of special effects in cinema. Between 1896 and 1914, he directed some 531 films, ranging from one to 40 minutes in length, usually featuring single in-camera effects throughout each entire film. In 1902, he appeared in one of his own films, l'oeuf du sorcier (The Prolific Egg)—a groundbreaking exploration of scale, multiplication, and transitions that truly sealed his reputation as a "cinemagician" and the father of special effects in film.

Méliès's seminal work can be found in Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), an outstanding five-disc collection of 173 rare and rediscovered Méliès gems alongside a beautifully illustrated booklet featuring essays by acclaimed National Film Board of Canada animator Norman McLaren, and its sequel, Méliès Encore: 26 Additional Rare and Original Films by the First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1911).

3. MCCAY: LITTLE NEMO (1911)

Cartoonist and artist Winsor McCay (1869-1964) is often considered one of the fathers of "true" animation.

His 1911 film, Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics, also referred to simply as Little Nemo and featured here last week, contains two minutes of pure animation at around 8:11, using sequential hand-illustration in a novel way not seen in previous films.

For more on McCay's work and legacy, look no further than the stunning and illuminating Winsor McCay: His Life and Art. There's also a wonderful Kickstarter project out to resurrect McCay's last film, The Flying House—join me in supporting it.

4. BLACKTON: THE ENCHANTED DRAWING (1900)

British filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton is credited with creating the first animation in America and was among the first in the world to use stop-motion as a storytelling technique. In 1896, Blackton, a reporter for the New York Evening World, was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his brand new Vitascope invention. In an age where wooing reporters was critical to success, Edison took Blackton to Black Maria, his studio-cabin, and created an impromptu film of Blackton doing a lightning sketch of Edison himself. Blackton became so infatuated with the technology that he soon founded the American Vitagraph Company and began producing films, debuting with The Enchanted Drawing in 1900.

In the film, previously featured here, Blackton sketches a face, cigars, and a bottle of wine, then "removes" these last drawings as real objects so that the face appears to react. Although the stop-motion sequence isn't considered "true" animation in technical terms the way Little Nemo, which Blackman co-directed with McCay, is, the technique offered an early glimpse of what animation could become.