 |
|||
 |
|
|
|
| History |  |
||
|
|
 |
Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Films occupies a unique place in British cinema. The studio was formed in 1940 and produced films for the next fifty years. It was the country's largest and most influential producer of animated films from the early forties until the mid seventies. Throughout its history, it always strove to pioneer new styles and techniques from paper cut-out figures to computer animation. The studio was also renowned for discovering and nurturing new talent; indeed, a list of the artists who started their careers at Halas & Batchelor reads like a Who’s Who of British and European animation. Although Animal Farm remains the most famous of Halas & Batchelor's films, they produced over two thousand others, from entertainment films to documentaries, and TV series to experimental art movies. John Halas and Joy Batchelor met in Paris in 1932, and in 1939 on the brink of the Second World War, moved to London. There they initially made a living illustrating posters, books and magazines and later found work with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, which set them up in their film unit at Bush House, London. With the war came the need for information and propaganda films. John and Joy recognised that animation could play a major part in this field, and, with the encouragement of John Grierson, the founder of the documentary film movement, they founded Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films. The partnership was further cemented when they married, in 1940. By 1950 the studio had made over 100 films, two of which were features. Their unique ability to produce longer works, for an adult audience, created not only new genre of animation, but gave them the necessary experience for making Animal Farm, their best-known work. Adapted from George Orwell's classic book, Animal Farm was released in 1954, and won critical acclaim worldwide. Halas and Batchelor grew into one of the largest animation studios in Europe, producing all sorts of animated films, from commercials and television series, to art movies and experimental films. Over the years that John and Joy collaborated, Joy wrote literally hundreds of scripts, and was the driving force behind most of the work. Her feature film, Ruddigore, made in 1964, was the first animated operetta, perfectly capturing the tongue in cheek quality of its creators, Gilbert and Sullivan. After the death of Joy Batchelor in 1971, John Halas continued to experiment with new film techniques, notably computer animation, producing such films as Autobahn (1979) and Dilemma (1981). He also employed computer animation in his Great Masters series (1985), about the lives and work of great artists such as Da Vinci, Botticelli and Lautrec. |
The full history of the studio and its founders is comprehensively documented in Vivien Halas’ book that contains a DVD of some of the studio's short films
John Halas and Joy Batchelor with Animal Farm layouts
|
