Editing Stop motion (section)

====Arthur Melbourne-Cooper====
Of the more than 300 short films produced between 1896 and 1915 by British film pioneer [[Arthur Melbourne-Cooper]], an estimated 36 contained forms of animation. Based on later reports by Melbourne-Cooper and by his daughter Audrey Wadowska, some believe that Cooper's ''Matches: an Appeal'' was produced in 1899 and therefore the first stop-motion animation. The extant black-and-white film shows a [[matchstick]] figure writing an appeal to donate a [[Guinea (coin)|Guinea]] for which [[Bryant & May]] would supply soldiers with sufficient matches. No archival records are known that could proof that the film was indeed created in 1899 during the beginning of the [[Second Boer War]]. Others place it at 1914, during the beginning of [[World War I]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/215258|title=East Anglian Film Archive: Matches Appeal, 1899|website=www.eafa.org.uk|access-date=2019-07-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6nWBD_raPKoC&pg=PA281|title="They Thought it was a Marvel": Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (1874-1961) : Pioneer of Puppet Animation|last1=Vries|first1=Tjitte de|last2=Mul|first2=Ati|date=2009|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=9789085550167|language=en}}</ref> Cooper created more ''Animated Matches'' scenes in the same setting. These are believed to also have been produced in 1899,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/2088|title=East Anglian Film Archive: Animated Matches Playing Cricket, 1899|website=www.eafa.org.uk}}</ref> while a release date of 1908 has also been given.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1254199/reference|title=Animated Matches (1908) - IMDb|via=www.imdb.com}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> The 1908 ''Animated Matches'' film by Émile Cohl may have caused more confusion about the release dates of Cooper's matchstick animations. It also raises the question whether Cohl may have been inspired by Melbourne-Cooper or vice versa.

Melbourne-Cooper's lost films ''[[Dolly’s Toys]]'' (1901) and ''[[The Enchanted Toymaker]]'' (1904) may have included stop-motion animation.<ref name=Cohl/> ''Dreams of Toyland'' (1908) features a scene with many animated toys that lasts approximately three and a half minutes.