Walt Disney Mettoy Viewer c. 1960
The first Movie Viewer was made in the USA in 1973 by Fisher Price. The British version was made by the Mettoy company. The viewer used Super 8 film and the actual clips were short pieces from real cartoon films. No technology was required to operate the viewer, not even batteries. The hand crank enabled the operator to view the film at any speed with the ability to go forwards or backwards at will.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 70,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued since the 1940s. As a result, some items and their descriptions may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.