Willie Comes to Life

1948
Sound
3m

See how Willie the white elephant is brought to life in an animation studio for a National Savings ad

Don't worry this is safe for work, honest! Willie the White Elephant was the star of a post WWII National Savings poster - 'If you don't need it - don't buy it!' - which was then brought to life in a Technicolor cartoon Willie Does His stuff (also on the Player). This short looks behind the scenes at the production of the animation at Julius Pinschewer's studio. Only the end title 'Finis' is a clue that the majority of the work actually took place in Switzerland, bar British animator Harold Mack who is seen animating alone in London.

Creatures Great and Small

Fur, feathers, bugs or beaks: from the start animators have cast the whole natural world in their human comedies and dramas

Would you know Mickey was a mouse if you didn’t know his surname? Many of the most famous animated characters are drawn from the animal kingdom, but they rarely behave quite as nature intended. Anthropomorphism has a long history in storytelling - going back to Aesop and beyond - and animation has imported it into film. But whether it's Bonzo the Dog or Charley the Cat, these characters are really studies in human nature.