Abu and the Poisoned Well

1 Jan 1943
Sound
8m

Hitler as a snake and Mussolini as a toad feature in this British propaganda cartoon made for distribution in the Middle East

Ever seen a snake with a moustache? The Middle East was as much an ideological as a physical battleground in the Second World War. In the midst of the conflict Halas & Batchelor were commissioned by the British Government to make four cartoons featuring a young boy Abu and his mule. They were intended to demonstrate in simple visual terms that Britain was a stout friend and the Axis powers a pernicious evil.

The snake and the toad are easy to recognise for their real life counterparts of Hitler and Mussolini, but what on the surface is a simple childlike narrative obviously glosses over a complex reality. The poison is one of ideas that brainwashes Abu and others to fight against the British Tommy tank, although it also transforms them to gaunt skeletons for visual impact. Interestingly the films vary in how they handle the hero's salvation. Here Abu is cured and inspired by the vision of a horseback Arab warrior. This character also appears in Abu's Dungeon, which features no British intervention. In the other two films it is the British characters only who turn the tide.

This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.

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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.