Published between 1982 and 1995
My introduction to David Hand was about thirty years ago when I used to possess a Gingernut Annual, writes April Spencer. As far as I can remember the cover was m full colour, but I believe the inside illustrations were just in two colours, black and orange. The images were very strong and also the … Read more
Brian Sibley has been reading the two recently published biographies of Walt Disney. Two biographies of Walt Disney? Published in the same week? What can be so fascinating about the man? Well, to begin with, he is the greatest dream-merchant of this, or any, age: the creator of a pantheon of cartoon gods and goddesses … Read more
Trifling errors all, if they weren’t so numerous and if they didn’t cast serious doubt on the thoroughness of Mosley’s research. Since they are (Disney archivist David R. Smith has listed over 100 of them) and since they do, one is left wondering how accurate are the central claims of his book – such as … Read more
Ken Clark pieces together a portrait of George Pal – in his ealy days – as seen through the eyes of a number of star witnesses. The 1947/48 edition of the American Motion Picture Almanac says of George Pal… “he devised the production system for his Puppetoons in London.” Even Bruce Holman, in his excellent … Read more
Our biggest problem with puppet film making was the lighting. This required a great deal more attention than live action filming because the little wooden figures were round, with painted eyes (sometimes mere dots), mouths were probably no more than straight lines. These were the factors which conveyed character and personality. A villain might have … Read more
KC.: You were with J. Walter Thompson at that time, weren’t you? G.H.: That’s right. I never worked for George Pal. When we made the Horlicks films in Eindhoven I was a Walter Thompson employee and had set up a films division within the organisation, a film-making and distributing division. The distribution half of it … Read more
Brian Sibly recalls the veteran Disney animator, Wolfgang Reitherman, who died earlier this year (1985). It is a great many years ago now that I played truant from school and sneaked into my local cinema to see Walt Disney’s Fantasia for the first time, yet I recall the occasion as if it were yesterday. Since, … Read more
Two years later saw the emergence of a very different style of animation in 101 Dalmations, co-directed by Reitherman with Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi. Many of the elaborate techniques and artistic embellishments, which had been a feature of every animated film since Snow White, were now abandoned; but the revolutionary Xerox system of transferring … Read more
On 22nd March 1985 Biographic Studios closed their doors for the last time. Ken Clark went along to pay his last respects and talk over old times. In the beginning, Bob Godfrey, Keith Learner, Vera Linnecar and Nancy Hanna were all working at W. H. Larkins studios. In company with other larger units they were … Read more
Although editing became more sophisticated it did not benefit Biographic, they lost money on the final series of “Square World”. But the charisma of being on the top TV comedy programme each week with a credit on screen and in the Radio Times was a blessing in disguise. This form of advertising was infinitely more … Read more