The only surviving film from animation's forgotten pioneer — a monkey, some birds, and cinematic immortality.
El Mono relojero is a 1938 Argentine animated short film directed by Quirino Cristiani. It is the only film from this director that exists up to this day, since all his other productions (including the first two animated feature films, El Apóstol (1917) and Sin dejar rastros (1918), as well as the first animated film with sound, Peludópolis (1931)) were lost in a series of fires at the facilities where the negatives and copies were stored.
Direction
Cristiani's economy of motion — every second counts.
Practical Effects
Hand-drawn anarchy before Disney codified the rules.
Director
Quirino Cristiani
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cristiani directed the world's first animated feature 'El Apóstol' (1917), a political satire about a corrupt Buenos Aires mayor — 22 years before Disney's 'Snow White'. It burned in 1926.
'Peludópolis' (1931), his lost sound film, was the first animated feature WITH synchronized dialogue — and premiered with a live orchestra because the projectionist couldn't sync sound properly. Still lost to a 1961 fire.
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