"Red Tape" Farm

1927
Silent
8m

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

Mr Nosey Parker visits farmer John Barleycorn to tell him how to do his job in this pro-Tory cartoon. The sequence in which the officious Mr Parker instructs the chubby pigs in a vigorous exercise regime is particularly wittily drawn by the uncredited animators. Many of the Conservative films of this period were shown in mobile cinema vans which travelled the country in the election run-up.

Both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party made use of mobile cinema vans in the 1920s. These vans were quite a novelty and usually drew crowds. This film, together with Socialist Car of State (1930) and The Right Spirit (1931), is likely to have been created by animators Brian White and Sid Griffiths.

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.