Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.
There’s nothing two-dimensional or flat about German director Lotte Reiniger’s characters, even though they’re paper cut-outs. Her Cinderella (Aschenputtel) animated short opens on a pair of scissors cutting out the title character, and thus begins a true motion picture work of art.
Silhouettes have been used by artists as far back as cave dwellers, peaking in popularity in the 18th century, and were a natural choice for subject matter from the gruesome and eternal Brothers Grimm. Reiniger’s particular style owes more to the 1700s than to 1922, when the film was created and released. The next year she followed it up with the world’s first animated feature film (sorry, Disney).
This GIF gives a taste of the delicate, feminine style which permeates the film. It’s collected 1,355 appreciative notes on the GIFs Ahoy! Tumblr.
