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Early Animation

The dawn of a new celluloid art: Britain's animation pioneers at peace and war

When you're creating a new art form, everything is experimental. The pioneers of animation in Britain cast a range of subjects as the stars of their films - the toys of an Edwardian child; insects and animals; Kaiser Bill and John Bull. But even the richest of fantasies on display here offer a window into the turbulent era in which they were made. When the nation went to war, animation was conscripted to meet its propaganda needs. In peacetime, the industry sought success as an entertainer, but found a career in sales.

 

42 videos in this collection

1

Giro the Germ Episode 1

  • 1927
2

The Latest News

  • 1904
An animated recreation of the sinking of the Lusitania is the centrepiece of this pioneering mix of comedy, satire and outrage in cartoon propaganda.
3

John Bull's Animated Sketchbook No. 4

  • 1915
4

Animated Putty

  • 1911
To bob, or not to bob? That is the question for Ophelia in this early animated Hamlet, starring a far from gloomy Dane
5

Oh'phelia A Cartoon Burlesque

  • 1919
Don't judge a book by its cover but do judge a political party by its garage in this Conservative cartoon from the height of the depression.
6

The Right Spirit

  • 1931
7

Animated Cotton

  • 1909
8

Dreams of Toyland

  • 1908
Ten boys discover that a good wash is step one on the road to health in this silent cartoon
9

Ten Little Dirty Boys

  • 1929
Empire buying begins at home: John Bull gets a makeover in this cartoon promoting British farmed goods
10

House That John Built

  • 1928
Short animation of a comic duel between English batsman Patsy Hendren and Australian bowler Arthur Mailey at the Kennington Oval.
11

Cartoons by Hiscocks

  • Oval, The
  • 1926
Rain may stop play, but never the British sense of humour.
12

Cricket Notes 1924

  • 1924-09
Skilled artist Lancelot Speed brings his cartoons to life to mock the German navy at the start of WWI.
13

Sea Dreams

  • 1914
14

Tale of a Tendril

  • 1925
15

Sleepless

  • 1914
Lightning sketch propaganda stirs outrage about Reims bombing, and features a British bulldog eating the German sausage
16

Bully Boy

  • 1914
17

Othello

  • 1920
18

The Smoke from Grand-pa's Pipe

  • 1920
19

Matches: An Appeal

  • 1914
20

To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly

  • 1909
Anson Dyer imagines the characters behind newspaper adverts and brings them to life in this Kine Komedy Kartoon
21

Agitated Adverts

  • 1917
This WWI cartoon rouses the British lion, bringing to life the December 1914 German Naval raid on Scarborough with visual flourishes.
22

John Bull's Sketch Book

  • Scarborough
  • 1915
The hand of the artist tweaks the nose of “Kaiser Bill” and friends in this episode from an early animated propaganda series
23

John Bull's Animated Sketch Book

  • 1916
A star-spangled sock on the nose for Kaiser Wilhelm, as this wordplay propaganda cartoon meets war crimes with pun-ishment
24

Peter's Picture Poems

  • 1917
Pioneering visual graphics – with added cotton wool – recreate an incendiary WWI incident involving a stricken British submarine.
25

The E13 Avenged

  • 1915
Blackly comic cartoon portrait of an apocalyptic England, destroyed 50 years after signing a premature peace in WWI.
26

Ever Been Had?

  • 1917
More chalk-talker than pencil-pusher, this popular artist recreates his cartoons for the screen with flashes of added animation.
27

A Pencil and Alick P.F. Ritchie

  • 1915
Animated WWI-era comic highlights from the innovative cartoonist George Studdy, creator of Bonzo the dog.
28

Studdy's War Cartoons Compilation Film

  • 1915
An edible bomb is cooked by the Kaiser in this fun WWI cartoon, which mixes propaganda with fantasy as a boy's dreams turn into nightmares.
29

Dicky Dee's Cartoons No.3

  • 1915
Party-political hyperbole meets Wacky Races in this spirited cartoon produced for the Conservative Party.
30

Socialist Car of State

  • 1930
Was the root of Kaiser Wilhelm II's power his 'Imperial Moustache'?
31

His Birthday Present

  • 1915
32

The Wooden Athletes

  • 1912
Mr Nosey Parker visits farmer John Barleycorn to tell him how to do his job in this witty Conservative Party campaigning cartoon.
33

"Red Tape" Farm

  • 1927
Witness the birth of motion graphics in news reporting amid the ongoing Gallipoli campaign during WWI.
34

Fight for the Dardanelles

  • 1915
35

Bertie's Cave

  • 1925
36

Tropical Breezes

  • 1930
37

Artistic Creation

  • 1901
38

Shadows!

  • 1928
39

The Sorcerer's Scissors

  • 1907
40

A Geni and a Genius (Series 1)

  • 1919
41

The Jealous Doll, Or, The Frustrated Elopement

  • 1909-12
42

Animated Doll and Toy Town Circus

  • 1912
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