Mickey Mouse was celebrating his sixtieth birthday when this issue was published in 1988. He gave a rare interview to Brian Sibley where he spoke about his life in films and at Disneyland.

Mickey Mouse – The Mouse’s Tale
Mickey Mouse celebrates his sixtieth birthday on 18th November. He grants a rare interview to Brian Sibley.

The International Trickfilm Festival Stuttgart ‘88
David Jefferson went along as an official guest and reports on what he found.

Bob Godfrey workshop lecture
This article is based on a workshop lecture given by Bob Godfrey at the Stuttgart Animation Festival.

A great entrepreneur
Graham Clutterbuck, founder and managing director of FilmFair, was responsible for many popular animation series.

Jiri Barta and The Pied Piper
Czechoslovakian filmmaker Jiri Barta is finding wide recognition outside his own country.

The Animator’s Bookshelf
Our reviewers look at some of the recently published books by film historians.

Perspective for Animators
In part two George Collin looks at movement in perspective.

Cartoons, Computers and Antics
There are many mis-conceptions about what computer animation can and cannot do. Alan Kitching attempts to clarify things.

Oscar Grillo and Ted Rockley of Klactoveesedstene Animations are featured in this issue. Oscar tells how he got started in animation and the things that have influenced his work.

Klacto – Oscar Grillo and Ted Rockley
Ken Clark visits Klactoveesedstene Animations and chats with Oscar Grillo and Ted Rockley.

The Bristol Animation Festival 1987
The Animation Festival was held in Bristol for the first time. David Jefferson reports.

The Great Animation Debate
A debate about merchandising held at the Bristol Animation Festival. Report by David Jefferson.

Owning part of your dream
Father Robert Murphy tells of his interest in collecting animation art.

Stowaways on the Ark
The production of a feature length cartoon in Germany. Animator Harald Kraut talks about it.

The Best of British Animation programme
Part of the London Film Festival held in London. David Jefferson reports.

Breakfast with a Blob
Paul Couvella outlines the background to the production of two amateur films.

Animating in Turkey
You really have to love your job to take all this punishment, writes Tahsin Ozaur.

Perspective for animators
In drawn animation one of the most difficult things to create is a sense of depth, writes George Collin.

Animated Pictures at an Exhibition
Pat Raine Webb takes a humorous look at an exhibition from the exhibitor’s angle.

Joanna Quinn writes about how she got started in animation and tells how she produced her award winning film “Girl’s night out”. There are also  three background articles on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” including an interview with Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White.

Girl’s night out – Joanna Quinn
Girls Night Out won three awards at Annecy ‘87. Joanna Quinn tells the story behind the film.

The fairest film of all – Snow White reassessed
The cinema shifted course when the first American animated feature film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was released, writes Robin Allan.

With a smile and a song – Adriana Caselotti
Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White, talks to Brian Sibley.

Snow White meets Giovanni Morelli
A case study of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Barry Salt.

Studio report
Animation Stroud closes, The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball, Scratch animation complete BAM, Trekkin’ across the universe.

The animation cel story
Brian Clark of Film Sales Ltd directs our attention to a basic material many of us take for granted.

Annecy Festival 1987
In part two David Jefferson reports on more of the film-makers who attended the biannual International Animated Film Festival held in Annecy, France.

Fine Art Babbitt
Brian Sibley reviews Channel 4’s documentary about veteran Disney animator, Art Babbitt.

An American Tail
Jeremy Clark examines the plot structure and finds resonances from Shakespeare, Hitchcock, King Kong and Disney.

What makes Brian Borthwick tick?
Ken Clark on animator Brian Borthwick.

Tate and Aardman Animations are running hundreds of production workshops across the UK from the Tate Movie Truck, a state of the art mobile learning space where children can explore art and animation as well as generate ideas and drawings for the film.

Galleries nationwide are also hosting workshops. You can find out if there’s a workshop near you by looking on the Tate Movie Project website.

The Tate Movie Project is an ambitious project using artworks to inspire 5-13 year olds nationwide to contribute their ideas to an animated movie. The result will be an animated film made by and for children.

Children will create every aspect of the film, from the hand-drawn characters and plot twists, costumes and comic sound effects. The Tate Movie Project website is a virtual film studio that forms the hub of the online community. Children can upload their pictures and ideas as well as voting on those already on the site. They can have a go at animation and be kept up to date on the progress of the movie.

A professional team will animate the children’s drawings using “2D Flash” in a 3D “After Effects” world. This will take place at Aardman Animations in Bristol.

The resulting movie will be screened across the UK in 2011 and it is hoped that up to a million children will be involved in the project as a whole.

More information from the Tate Movie Project website.

Disney’s first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, was fifty years old the year this issue was published. To mark the event Brian Sibley told the story behind the making of the film and Richard Holliss looked at the innovation that went on behind the scenes.

Behind the Magic Mirror
It took 750 artists three years to produce Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Richard Holliss looks at the innovation that went on behind the scenes.

Disney‘s fabulous folly
Brian Sibley tells the story behind the making of Walt Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

DRAW, DRAW, DRAW
Malcolm McGookin is an animator and a part-time cartoon strip artist. He offers some useful advice to the aspiring cartoonist.

My Top Ten animated films
Godfrey Jones tells us about his favourite animated films plus a few pet hates.

Annecy Animated Film Festival 1987
The biannual International Animated Film Festival, held in June in Annecy, France. David Jefferson reports.

Pondles join pre-school market
Stock animation and merchandising are important for TV series. David Jefferson discusses these points with film producer Terry Ward.

When the Wind Blows is the main feature of issue 19. Model sets and drawn animation were skilfully combined to add an extra dimension to the Raymond Briggs story. A process that would be straight forward with today’s computer technology involved many thousands of photographic prints that were combined with cartoon animation on a rostrum camera. We went to the studio where the model sets were shot and spoke to the production personnel involved.

Blowing in the wind
Brian Sibley has been to see the British feature length cartoon When The Wind Blows.

The making of When the Wind Blows
David Jefferson and Geoffrey Mackrill have been behind the scenes of TVC’s feature production When The Wind Blows, to reveal the process that enabled model background sets to be combined with drawn animation.

My Favourite Shorts
Dr. Scratch (Paul Thomas of Tiger Trax Animation) gives us his top-ten short film choice.

Tribute to Norman McLaren
Internationally renowned animator Norman McLaren firmly believed in the efficacy of a limited budget to stimulate the imagination, writes Ken Clark.

Memories of Norman McLaren
Canadian High Commission in London pays tribute to Norman McLaren, one of the world’s great animators. Report by Brian Sibley.

A Guiding Hand
April Spencer looks at the career of David Hand, an American who influenced a generation of British animators.

GBA – A Great British Achievement
Ken Clark takes a detailed look at the animation studio where many top British animators got their start.

Make Mine Disney or the forgotten years of Disney
Robin Allan gives his reassessment of the rarely shown Disney feature length cartoon Make Mine Music.

Computer animation, special effects and film editing are covered in this issue as we speak to the professional studios involved. You can wonder at the ingenuity that was used 23 years ago to get results with what today would be regarded as relatively low power computers.

Visit to Rushes Postproduction Ltd in London
Rushes specialise in video editing and computer animation. David Jefferson met Chairman, Godfrey Pye at their London premises.

Visit to Camera Effects Ltd in London
Camera Effects Limited is an optical house dealing in special effects. David Jefferson went along to their Soho, London studio and met Director Gary Pearlman.

Sean Lenihan on Editing Animated Films
Sean Lenihan tells David Jefferson what is involved in preparing a sound- track and combining it with pictures to give a polished result.

David Hall’s Wonderland – book review
Robin Allan has been reading a newly published edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It contains previously unpublished illustrations from the Disney archives by David Hall.

The Masters of Animation collection
John Halas talks about a series of programmes which form a world-wide survey of animation. Interview by David Jefferson.

Whatever happened to Signal Film Unit?
Ken Clark has been finding out about a puppet animation unit that followed in the footsteps of George Pal.

The Video-of-the-Film-of-the-Book
Brian Sibley reviews animated film versions of three modern classics as they are released on video.

David Hand (1900— 1986)
Reminiscence by April Spencer.

Paul Thomas was interviewed in Animator Issue number 11 in 1984. At the time he was running the Tiger Trax animation studio, situated in a block of flats just off the Old Kent Road.

Paul Thomas now.

Paul began his animation career at Bob Godfrey’s studio and at the time of the interview, was doing sequences for Tony Hart’s BBC TV programme “Take Hart” and design work for the Kate Bush fan club magazine. He also contributed a regular cartoon strip to Animator mag under the pen name of Dr Scratch, featuring a rather droll dog called Scratch.

Paul recently discovered the Animator mag web site whilst searching the Internet and dropped me an email with his latest news.

He has left the concrete jungle of London for the green and pleasant land of Salisbury, Wiltshire. Paul is now the director and writer for a children’s puppet performance group called Tin Harlequin. He told me that forming the group “was a dream come true”. Their first show, Different Worlds, has hit the road performing in rural communities and at festivals throughout the SouthWest of England. It features six original tales that Paul has written with characters he has created. Paul says, “I bring a ‘pagan rock & roll surrealism’ to my work”. They are at the Totnes Festival on the 12 September 2010, as the opening act on that final day.

Newspaper cutting about the Tin Harlequin children's puppet performance group.

The Scratch cartoon strip, first published in Animator mag , lives on. It has appeared weekly in the Salisbury Journal for the past two and a half years, with the 135th episode published this week.

A Scratch cartoon strip from Animator mag Summer 1987.

You can read more about Paul’s Tin Harlequin group on his myspace page where he has also assembled a gallery of pictures from his long and interesting career as an animator, writer and designer.

Cosgrove Hall Productions is the main focus of this issue. In 1986 it was at the top of its game, producing such animation films as The BFG, Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula. A series of in-depth articles tell what it was like to work in this powerhouse of a studio.

Brian Cosgrove co-founder of Cosgrove Hall
In ten years Cosgrove Hall Productions grew from a small studio to a major animation centre, writes David Jefferson.

The design team at Cosgrove Hall
The Design Team prepare layouts and experiment with light, shade and colour. Ken Clark investigates.

Chris Randall
Chris Randall, Senior Producer/Director on future drawn production series chats with Ken Clark.

Dan Whitworth
Dan Whitworth worked on development for the Count Duckula series at Cosgrove Hall. He chats with Ken Clark.

Painting the cels at Cosgrove Hall
Lorraine Thomas, Supervisor of Paint and Trace and Roy Huckerby, Airbrushing artist talk with Ken Clark.

Rostrum camera and post-production
There are four rostrum cameras in use at Cosgrove Hall, writes David Jefferson.

Mark Hall
Mark Hall is a co-founder of Cosgrove Hall Productions. Interview by Ken Clark.

The puppet workshop at Cosgrove Hall
They can produce anything from a miniature suit of armour to a two foot high model giant, writes David Jefferson.

Nigel Cornford puppet costume maker at Cosgrove Hall
Interview by Ken Clark in the puppet workshop.

Christine Walker model shop supervisor at Cosgrove Hall
Interview by Ken Clark.

Jackie Cockle
The Director of Wind in the Willows at Cosgrove Hall chats with Ken Clark.

Francis Vose, director
Francis Vose is a puppet animation director at Cosgrove Hall. David Jefferson spoke to him on the set of Creepy Crawlies.

John Hambley Chief Executive Cosgrove Hall
Interview by Ken Clark.

Great Mouse – Great Movie
Brian Sibley reviews Disney’s animated feature, Basil – The Great Mouse Detective.

Now in its seventh year, the London International Animation Festival will run from 27 August to 5 September 2010. The statistics are impressive, in ten days the festival will show 250 films in 26 programs selected from over 2,000 entries from 30 countries.

A statement on the LIAF website tells us “the LIAF aims to challenge and inspire audiences with thematic, visual and technical diversity from award winners, outstanding industry veterans and those wonderful newcomers who are exploring their talent on screen for the very first time”.

One of the most popular programmes features the best of recently released British animated shorts. Before the screening, some of the filmmakers who created the films will talk about their work. Among the films are:

Cooked
Jens Blank
2010, 6’45
The story of an unlikely love triangle that springs between a walrus a seal and a lobster in an arctic sauna.

The Grand Easter Egg Hunt
Linda McCarthy
2010, 8’20
It is Easter at Small Birds Singing and the Unbelievable family are looking forward to their traditional Grand Egg Hunt.

Speechless
Daniel Greaves
2009, 7’00
A family of six sits down for a microwave meal. They communicate using technology but one of them is determined for a return to a traditional supper; good food and real conversation.

The nine International programmes have the best recently released films selected from 2000+ entries received from all over the world. These screenings are the backbone of the festival line-up and will give a current overview of the incredibly diverse, eclectic and vibrant independent animation scene. Here are some entries from the digital section:

Logorama
H5
France, 2009, 16’15
Academy Award-winner produced by Autour de Minuit. An over-marketed world built of logotypes. A dramatic taking of hostages by a corporate symbol gone rogue. A giant Californian earthquake. A shaky world built on simple symbols with complex connotations.

The Kinematograph
Tomek Baginski
Poland, 2009, 12’10
Francis, a humble clerk and a self-taught inventor, had it all, it seemed: a big house in a small town, a lot of free time and a loving wife. But…

The Trembling Veil of Bones
Matthew Talbot-Kelly
Canada, 2010, 12’42
Live-action and computer-generated imagery are combined to tell the story of a solitary clockmaker forced to confront his past in a densely layered world of intrigue and revelation.

Visit the LIAF website for more information.