It's no Hollywood blockbuster, but the special effects have everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing. That's because the film, discovered in a dusty tin that's over 100 years old, contains the world's first color movie.
The BBC has labeled the find a "breakthrough" in film history, as the previous record-holder dated back to 1909. These test videos are thought to have been shot in 1902, using a process patented by London's Edward Raymond Turner in 1899.
Prior to this discovery, historians had considered Turner's work a failure, writes the British Journal of Photography. He died in 1903 at the age of 29, putting an abrupt end to his life's work.
"We believe this will literally rewrite film history," said Paul Goodman, head of collections at England's National Media Museum, to The Guardian. "I don't think it is an overstatement. These are the world's first color moving images."
The videos are remarkable in their color reproduction, adds the museum's curator of cinematography, Michael Harvey. "The image of the goldfish was stunning: its colors were so lifelike and subtle," he told Sky News. "Then there was a macaw with brilliantly colored plumage, a brief glimpse of soldiers marching and, most interestingly, young children dressed in Edwardian finery."
WATCH the world's first color film, above. More film, and more detail on the process, in video below: