Topology

Topology

A maths lesson is an excuse for an animator's tour de force

Whilst parts of this film might feel like maths homework, it is quickly apparent that the subject is just a playground for an animator at the top of his game. Produced at the mid-point of Harold Whitaker's four decades in British animation, his vivid, snappy line is evident throughout, but particularly in the section where a torus shape is inverted repeatedly. A comic character is even thrown in just to have an excuse to repeat this tricky technical drawing task.

Harold Whitaker began his animation career at the studio of Anson Dyer in 1940, picking it up again in 1946 after service in WWII. He joined the Halas & Batchelor studio in 1952 in the build up to Animal Farm, and he was one of five key animators on the film. He was the principal animator at the studio into the 1980s, working on everything from commercials to the sci-fi anthology feature Heavy Metal (1981).

Tags

From the collection

Animated Flipside

Animation at its most weird and wonderful

27 videos in this collection

Max Beeza and the City in the Sky

  • 1977

Superted

  • 1975

Bunty the Bouncing Bassoon

  • 1963

The Aeronauts

  • 1984

David Low Animation

  • 1936

The Family Holiday

  • 1975
Worst. Parents. Ever. But a lovely animated tale using cut-out animation designed by Sunniva Kellquist

Little Tom Thumb

  • 1967
Out with the old and in with the new – one of Britain’s leading animation companies pitches its new image with great humour

Animation Has Changed

  • 1971
A cartoon cautionary tale of a marriage turning sour, featuring real-life husband and wife Sam Wanamaker and Charlotte Holland

I Wanna Mink

  • 1959
This is one small step for The Moody Blues... It may not have led to any giant leaps, but it's a fun cartoon take on British space exploration

To Our Children's Children's Children

  • 1969
A nutty professor meets a very hungry caterpillar in this animated chase cartoon brimming with swinging 60s backdrops.

The Professor

  • 1967

Ersatz

  • 1978

Johann Sebastian Bach In Euro Deutschland

  • 1995

Custard

  • 1974

Pear-shaped Hill

  • 1970

Internet Story

  • 2011

A Date with an Enfield

  • Enfield
  • 2017

Boogie Rag Roll - Thunderclap Jones

  • 1955
A maths lesson is an excuse for an animator's tour de force

Topology

  • 1969
Meet the animated  sci-fi fixer from a strange atomic race who knows the value of Christmas.

Dodo in Christmas Adventure

  • 1965

Selwyn's Lucky Day

  • 2000
Witness the no-so-great train robbery in this post-war cartoon, produced "in glorious monochrome"

The Mail Goes Through

  • 1947
For Puck's sake watch this. Shakespeare's 'shrewd and knavish sprite' emerges in the C20th and takes on the modern obsession of television

Midsummer Nightmare

  • 1957

Noddy Goes to Toyland

  • 1963

Super Natural Gas

  • 1975
Who does he think he's kidding? This parodic day-in-the-life portrait of Mr Hitler is one of the very few British examples of comic cartoon propaganda from WW2.

Adolf's Busy Day

  • 1940

Experimental Animation 1933

  • 1933
View full collection