To Our Children's Children's Children

1 Jan 1969
Sound
7m

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

Although apparently intended for your great-grandkids, I am sure you will enjoy this as well. Five albums in and prog rock pioneers The Moody Blues were heading into outer space, inspired by the moon landings of 1968. The album's opening track 'Higher and Higher' forms the backbone of this proto-music video, offering a (ironically) down to earth approach to space travel.

The film was produced by Halas & Batchelor, who fabricated the entire solar system through rostrum camera trickery. 2001 it isn't, but they were likely more reliant on their brains than any significant budget. The Moodies appear at the beginning of the film, but John Halas re-released the cartoon sequences as 'Skyrider' in 1976, minus the band, the ubiquitous random blonde model, and with a new soundtrack.

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From the collection

Halas & Batchelor

Celebrating the vital and varied work of the pioneering British animation studio

Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Films were a defining force in British animation for more than five decades. Founded in 1940 by the Hungarian-born John Halas and Watford-born Joy Batchelor, the company progressed from producing cinema advertisements to creating vital public information films during and after the Second World War, before producing Britain's first animated feature film, Animal Farm, in 1954.

Whether working in advertising, children's television or independent short films, Halas and Batchelor championed animation as both a commercial enterprise and an art form. Though more than the story of John and Joy, their vision, advocacy and innovation helped shape the careers of generations of artists and practitioners, while bringing a broad range animated storytelling to audiences on screens both large and small.