Charley Says: Falling in the Water

Charley Says: Falling in the Water (Charley Says)

1973
Sound
1m

Kids don't always listen to their parents. But in the 70s they certainly listened to a giant ginger tabby cat...

Poor Charley - full of good advice, but all too often he fell into trouble himself. Public information films often use shock tactics, but this series used the cat as a surrogate in the accidents. Although the sight of a child drowning would certainly have packed a punch, it was felt that the fantasy friendship between a boy and a cat meant the message resonated more with young children when the cat was put in peril instead.

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.