Thud and Blunder in Knock off Time

1964
Sound
2m

Miners' safety training - marked by stylish animation and gallows humour.

Gallows humour and stylish graphics are the hallmarks of this animated training film. Hapless (i.e. bone stupid) miners Thud and Blunder starred in a whole series of cartoons produced for the National Coal Board's 1963-4 in-colliery safety campaign. In this episode, it's our heroes' misuse of underground conveyor belts that brings them grief.

The cartoons were produced for the NCB by production company TV Cartoons, headed by the artistically respected Canadian animator George Dunning. This item is typical of the company's Coal Board commissions: visually fluent, wordless, witty, basic and brief.

Animation Goes to Work

For those with an official message to get across, animation is the perfect messenger

Animation has an almost magical ability to charm and captivate. And those same qualities also make it a strikingly effective communication tool. It grabs attention, speaks to all ages, and can distil complex messages into simple and appealing visual metaphors. For government or other august bodies, cartoon antics have often been the perfect jam to sweeten the pill of official communications, whether to explain sweeping change or impart health and safety messages. And for the inventive animator, even the most utilitarian brief is no barrier to the most outlandish of treatments.