The first ANIMA Festival

The afternoon film show opened with THE SPIDER IN THE BATH by Tony Salmon. This is an amusing cartoon film set to the well known song of the title. THE SPONGE FAMILY by Arthur Roberts told a jolly tale. THE PRINCESS AND THE MUSICIAN by Tim Darlow is a cut-out film of intricate design. It has an Indian setting and much use is made of red and gold in the backgrounds and the figures in traditional Indian costume.

At this point Sheila Graber gave a talk on her style of animation. She opened by showing FACE TO FACE, a film drawn in pastels showing the stages of life from cradle to grave by a changing face. Also MOVING ON, a fast moving account of the history of transport. Sheila then spoke of the many ways of doing animation. She was full of enthusiasm for the medium. Artwork and cels of a ship and an aircraft were used to demon¬strate the possibilities.

The film show continued with THE CIRCLE AND THE SQUARE by Neil Carstairs. This has geometric style characters on a white background. It‘s striking for its crispness of design.

HANSEL AND GRETAL by Doreen wood told the familiar tale with puppets.

BUSBY by George Daniels proved to be the most popular of the films entered for the trophy put up by Arthur Roberts. A ballot of the audience put this film well ahead of the others. It is described by George as a tribute to Busby Berkley. The film opens with lush cinema colours but the bulk of the film is in black and white as were the films of Berkley’s day. The familiar dance routines are recreated using such symbols as violins and top hats.

TRILOGY by Fred Wells consists of three cut out films.

OLYMPICS 80 by Cohn Pain shows some fine pencil animation.

NOT ANOTHER BRONTOSAURUS by David Jefferson demonstrated lip-sync techniques.

AFTER THE BALL by David Coleman uses plasticine puppets to good effect.

PLANE CRAZY by Greame Isherwood is a fast moving pencil animation film.

IZZI KNOTT COCKY by John Guthrie is a polished cel animation film showing a chicken love story.

THE RUNAWAY TRAIN, is drawn on 16mm film by Derek Purslow. Sheila Graber’s comment on this one was that it had the zest of life.

BEACH BOY by Lew Cooper is a cel animation film packed with gags.

CALENDAR by Michael Salkeld showed a delicate style.

Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such a super day.

BUSBY by George Daniels.

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Originally printed in Animator’s newsletter Issue 7 (Winter 1983)