Love on the Range

1939
Sound
6m

An animated Western mock-opera about Horlicks? Bring it on!

When you see something billed as a 'Silly Billy Romance', how can you resist? George Pal produced five animated adverts for Horlicks in the late 1930s, and this last film might be the best. The mock-opera singing, the Western setting and the barn dance dénouement are a winning combination - even if you're not a fan of malted milk. Pal's 'Puppetoon' replacement animation technique brings expressive movement to the characters in perfect synchronisation with the music.

Puppet animation advertising film for Horlicks Malted Milk. Parodies opera films and westerns.

Animated Ads

British animation won great success as an entertainer, but it has long had a lucrative second career in sales

In cinemas and on TV, animated adverts have frequently outshone the main attraction. In the early days of the cinema, animated ads were often relative epics, with five-minute comic encounters leading to a pack-shot punchline. The arrival of commercial television in 1955 brought the animated ad down to bite-size, but if anything they packed an even harder punch. Advertisers found that animation could soften the edges of a hard sell approach, and bring cartoon brand characters to life.