A stroboscopic animation system with a handheld stroboscopic light with a light source that emits stroboscopic flashes, a manually rotatable top, and images to be animated retained on the upper surface of the top, such as on an animation disk. The frequency of the stroboscopic flashes can be varied, such as by a rotatable dial, with the “on” portions remaining constant and the “off” portions being adjusted. The flashes can have a lower limit of 10 to 20 flashes per second and an upper limit of 100 to 110 flashes per second, the “on” portions of the flashing sequence can be between one-900th and one-1100th of a second, and the luminous intensity of the light source can be between 65 and 130 foot candles. An orientation switch can automatically induce an “off” condition when the light is disposed outside a predetermined angular range of orientation.