The Smoke from Grand-pa's Pipe

1920
Silent
7m

I'll have what he's smoking! - US import Jesse 'Vet' Anderson breathes life (and smoke) into the UK animation industry

I'm not quite sure what's in Grand-pa's pipe, but it certainly fires the imagination. Jesse 'Vet' Anderson didn't come to Britain to animate, but after WWI brought him across the Atlantic he stuck around and brought his experience as a cartoonist, animator and art teacher to the London based Kine Komedy Kartoons. His example was significant in helping British animators move on from cut-out to cel animation. Sadly the surviving print of this film has faded badly, but the later scenes bring more clarity to his technique.

Anderson earned his nickname 'Vet' from a spell in the US military during the Spanish-American War. After building experience and reputation as a newspaper cartoonist he set up the Vet Anderson School of Illustrating as a correspondence course. By 1916 he drifted into animating at the Bowers-Barré studio working on Mutt and Jeff cartoons. His time in British animation was short, but after various adventures he was back in the US industry by the 1930s.

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.