The first public performance of Reynaud's Théâtre Optique took place at the Grevin Museum in
Paris on October 28, 1892. The show included three cartoons, the first of which was a 15-minute
animation,
Pauvre Pierrot, made from 500 hand-painted images, which was the first ever presentation of projected moving images to an audience.
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A performance of Pauvre Pierrot as imagined by Louis Poyet
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Émile Reynaud’s animated
film was a development of his praxinoscope which used a strip of pictures spinning around the inside of a cylinder.
In 1895 The Lumière brothers patented their combination movie camera and projector, the Cinématographe, which quickly outshone Reynaud's invention, driving him to bankruptcy. However, his public performance of animation entered history as shortly predating the camera-made movies.
International Animation Day on October 28 is an international observance, which was first proclaimed in 2002 by the ASIFA as the main global event to celebrate the art of animation. This day commemorates the first public performance of Charles-Émile Reynaud's Théâtre Optique in Paris.
