John Halas OBE was a pioneering British animator. Together with Gyula Macskássy, and Félix Kassowitz, Halász co-founded Hungary's first animation studio, Coloriton, in 1932. Coloriton existed for 4 years, producing animations for cinemas, including Boldog király kincse.
BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.
Release Date2018-11-19
Charactersd Self (archive Photos)
Vote Count1
The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.
Release Date1981-08-07
DepartmentCrew
JobSequence Supervisor
Vote Count803
Asterix and Obelix depart on an adventure to complete twelve impossible tasks to prove to Caesar that they are as strong as the Gods. You'll roar with laughter as they outwit, outrun, and generally outrage the very people who are trying to prove them "only human".
Release Date1976-06-26
DepartmentVisual Effects
JobAnimation
Vote Count1361
Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.
Release Date1954-12-28
DepartmentWriting
JobScreenplay
Vote Count557
DoDo, The Kid from Outer Space was an animated cartoon series that was syndicated to television from 1965-1970. DoDo was a young extraterrestrial from the planet Hena Hydro, who came to Earth in his flying saucer and had numerous adventures. Other cast members included Professor Fingers, an eccentric scientist who somewhat resembled the later Professor Utonium; Compy, DoDo's computer/duck hybrid pet; and Why and How, two Earth children. The characters speak in rhymes, either independently or playing off each other. "DoDo" was created by Lady Stearn Robinson and produced by British animators Halas and Batchelor. A total of 78 five-minute episodes were filmed.
Release Date1965-01-08
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count71
Vote Count1
The Tomfoolery Show is an American cartoon comedy television series made and first broadcast in 1970, based on the works of Edward Lear. The animation was done at the Halas and Batchelor Studios in London and Stroud. Though the works of other writers were also used, notably Lewis Carroll and Ogden Nash, Lear's works were the main source, and characters like The Yongy Bonghy Bo and The Umbrageous Umbrella Maker were all Lear creations. Some original material was also written based on characters created by Lear, although much of the material was a straight recital of poems and limericks or songs using Lear's poems set to music. A recurring joke had a delivery boy running around trying to deliver a large plant and shouting 'Plant for Mrs Discobolus!'. The series was produced by Rankin/Bass, who also made the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
Release Date1970-09-12
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count17
Vote Count2
Snip and Snap was a 1960 British animated series from Halas & Batchelor. It was directed by the Danish paper sculptor Thok Søndergaard and John Halas. It featured the exploits of a dog made of paper and pair of scissors.
Release Date1960-01-08
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count22
An animated film about the history and use of hot water.
Release Date1959-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1978-01-01
DepartmentArt
JobArt Direction
Vote Count1
D'Artagnan and his musketeer comrades must thwart the plans of Cardinal Richelieu to usurp King Louis XIII's power.
Release Date1974-01-02
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
Release Date1978-03-05
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count6
The story of three children who find themselves with a friendly monster that grows at an alarming rate.
Release Date1961-05-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count3
A poem of unrequited love: the studio's first puppet production. Based on a poem by Cosbie Garstin, the film tells the story of a carved wooden saint who is painted to look like a soldier and used as a figurehead on a sailing ship. The ship sinks and the figurehead is saved by a beautiful mermaid who falls in love with him. Her love is not returned because despite his dashing looks he has the wooden heart of a saint.
Release Date1952-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A light hearted look at the various instruments of the orchestra, based on the original cartoons of the late Gerard Hoffnung, satirising musical pomposity.
Release Date1965-09-09
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A lonely man living in a large city buys a life-size sex doll. His relationship with his dream doll causes a certain reaction in the community. A bizarre adaption of Le Ballon Rouge.
Release Date1979-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count11
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.
Release Date1943-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An animated, dark satire of America's automobile-obsessed, consumerist culture. An anonymous, brilliant scientist toils tirelessly in his ivory tower satisfying the public's ever-increasing demands for novelty and status consciousness, with predictable environmental consequences.
Release Date1964-06-12
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count13
A naïve father makes an embarrassing attempt to explain the facts of life to his son, but he becomes increasingly embarrassed to the point where his explanations are so vague as to be incomprehensible.
Release Date1965-12-31
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count3
This satirical animated short by the renowned Halas & Batchelor Studio asks the big Question. Can the meaning of life be found in religion or science? Patriotism or war? Money or self-discovery? Or none of the above?
Release Date1967-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A particularly vicious Father Time with a hit-list in his Book of Doom seeks to wipe out characters brought to life from fabric patterns. This neat concept for a cartoon washing powder commercial can be credited to Alexander Mackendrick, who worked at the J Walter Thompson advertising agency before making films at Ealing and then Hollywood.
Release Date1942-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
The Baronet of Ruddigore, Sir Despard Murgatroyd, has inherited a family curse which forces him to commit a crime every day — or die in agony. He hates the curse, doing his heinous misdeeds as early as possible and good works for the rest of the day to compensate!
Release Date1967-04-27
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count4
No man is an island, but Charley represents his nation in this economical cartoon tale of Britain’s economics.
Release Date1948-07-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
This a story of a violinist, pianist and cellist as they perform from place-to-place, under very unusual conditions. Every time they play, they remind someone of a lost love, so they are hired immediately hired by nightclub owners, ship captains and even a pirate... wherever circumstances take them.
Release Date1965-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Seville's most successful Matador has a secret, which his rival will use against him when he finds out.
Release Date1960-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Out with the old and in with the new – one of Britain’s leading animation companies pitches its new image with great humour.
Release Date1971-01-02
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Married to your television? This cartoon gives you an opportunity to re-evaluate your relationship with the gogglebox.
Release Date1961-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An animated cartoon on smoking and health. The villain, Old Nick O'Teen, disguises himself as an 18-year-old motorcyclist, the better to lure children into the cigarette habit. Fourteen-year-old Sam falls into the trap, but after awesome visions of his future, expert advice from a doctor, and straight talk from a friendly lorry-driver renounces the habit.
Release Date1967-07-06
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Set to Gilbert and Sullivan tunes, a musical cartoon attempts to describe the character of the British nation, with occasional interruptions by Prince Charles.
Release Date1994-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A colorful cartoon commercial for soap flakes seems the last place that the realities of wartime life should creep in. A clothes cupboard opens to reveal a fantasy world where figures on fabric patterns come to life, and a neglected clown is shunned until he bathes in Lux Flakes. But in a last-minute coda, the clown returns to break the animated fourth wall and tell the audience that the product will not be made again till the war is over.
Release Date1941-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
An illustrated version of Twa Corbies made as the BFI’s contribution to the Festival of Britain. Enlivened by the distinctive voice of John Laurie, and paired with Michael Rothenstein’s delightfully textured drawings. Followed by Shakespeare’s Spring and Winter, sung by Peter Pears, with illustrations by Meryn “Gormenghast” Peake.
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count2
A young girl rescues a wild bird. She takes it back to the forest, then finds crystals in the mountain...
Release Date1967-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An animated visual interpretation of the song "Autobahn," by German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. A fast-paced experimental film which proved to be a groundbreaking combination of electronic and manual animation. One of the first films produced specifically for video disk.
Release Date1979-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count7
Everyone knows that petroleum comes out of the earth, but the question is how did it get there, and what is it made of? The answer to these questions are given simply and accurately in this animated programme.
Release Date1950-07-15
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A short animated War Office commissioned health education film, showing the fate of each of the 6 jungle soldiers.
Release Date1945-11-15
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count3
Cartoon on the fly nuisance, showing the dangers of food contamination and how the dangers can be minimised by food-protection and cleanliness that was produced in the UK for the Ministry of Health.
Release Date1949-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Puck is introduced to the twentieth century and is as amused by the contemporary obsession with television as he was by the lovers' antics.
Release Date1964-08-10
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count1
Modern advice and old-fashioned values combine in this postwar animated health guide from the makers of Animal Farm.
Release Date1946-06-05
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A musically talented ape is captured in the jungle and taken back to civilisation. However, civilisation proves too uncouth for the cultured ape so he departs, philosophically pondering that "when the arts are out of date, the artist must withdraw and wait". A colourised version was released in 1980.
Release Date1959-08-30
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A humorous introduction to problem analysis and programming.
Release Date1967-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
Cartoon tennis match, with players based on Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.
Release Date1982-11-12
DepartmentProduction
JobProduction Manager
Vote Count1
Cartoon proof that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In this 1940s cinema advert, the tardiness of Signalman Squirrel's breakfast brings passengers to the brink of a major rail disaster every day. The solution is not setting his alarm earlier, finding an extra pair of hands for his long-suffering wife, or (heaven forbid) making his own breakfast. No, the answer lies in a home delivery mix-up of a familiar cereal box.
Release Date1946-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Popular animated character Charley explains the National Insurance Act, which was legislation that made health insurance available to all British citizens.
Release Date1948-01-02
DepartmentWriting
JobStory
Vote Count1
One of a humorous series of films devised to explain in graphic terms the concepts of basic mathematical functions.
Release Date1969-01-02
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Examines in detail Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting, 'Netherlandish Proverbs', which illustrates over 100 proverbs and allegorises a whole world of sin and folly as relevant today as in the 16th century.
Release Date1963-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date1970-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A candlemaker entrusts his young son with the task of making candles for their church on Christmas Eve.
Release Date1956-12-25
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count4
A humorously semi-factual account of the history of cinema.
Release Date1956-07-31
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count3
A BAFTA award nominated film made for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company charting the history of aviation from Daedalus to jets.
Release Date1953-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
A trip into a surreal winter garden, a voyage on a stormy sea, a grisly homecoming – there is something for everyone in this “experiment in words, music and paintings”. Four films were made in this series for the BFI’s Telekinema at the Festival of Britain, combining some of the best contemporary illustrators and artists with a diverse range of verse. The readers are also of some pedigree, with Michael Redgrave, Stanley Holloway and Eric Portman adding their names to the bill.
Release Date1951-10-15
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
Cartoon set to songs from The Moody Blues' titular album.
Release Date1969-12-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
The first British animated Technicolor film.
Release Date1938-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Hamilton the elephant loves playing music with his trunk. When he is fired from the circus he does odd jobs till he gets his big break.
Release Date1961-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Cartoon of chicken's adventures while being chased by woodland animal.
Release Date1950-12-16
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An animated short based on the cartoons of Gerard Hoffnung.
Release Date1964-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Release Date1943-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
Hamilton the elephant is being trained for the circus when he discovers his amazing musical ability; the ringmaster decides to exploit his new-found talent for jazz.
Release Date1961-04-12
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
This cartoon propaganda short by Halas & Batchelor sweetens the pill of post-war coal prices by promising jam tomorrow.
Release Date1949-10-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Hello darkness my old friend. The four-part “experiment in word, music and paintings” that was made by the BFI for the 1951 Festival of Britain did have more shade than light. But the mood in this episode is positively black. Thomas Nashe’s “In Time of Pestilence” is illustrated by Michael Ayrton, but star billing goes to Henry Moore who created some remarkable illustrations for Kathleen Raine’s The Pythoness.
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A soon-to-be born baby learns about the kinds of schools he will attending in the years following his birth.
Release Date1949-01-02
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
Joy Batchelor directed, produced, wrote and designed this short film for Brook Bond Tea: two girls compete for the affections of a Teddy Bear.
Release Date1947-04-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Animated short from Halas and Batchelor encouraging the British public to post early for Christmas.
Release Date1944-12-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
The cartoon is one of the Marshall Plan's most popular films. A clash between a shoemaker and a hat maker illustrates the contrasts between protectionism and free trade. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2003.
Release Date1950-01-01
DepartmentCrew
JobScript
If you haven’t already been diverted by the history of John Gilpin, or would like to venture that way again, you couldn’t find a better accompaniment than the drawings of Ronald Searle. The BFI commissioned four films from Halas & Bactchelor to be screened in the “Telekinema” for the Festival of Britain. Pitched as an experiment in combining verse with illustrations, this fourth and last edition was the only one that contained a single work, with plenty of room to breath.
Release Date1951-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A short animation based on the Edward Lear poem
Release Date1952-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count2
Documents the life and influence of the Bahaus artist, László Moholy-Nagy.
Release Date1990-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Animated satire of business practices
Release Date1975-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A fully digitized computer-animated film which shows the question whether man will use his inventive abilities for destruction or as the key to progressive creation.
Release Date1981-01-05
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count4
Charley, a mechanic, inherits a half-share in a farm run by his cousin and he soon has his dream of an idyllic country life rudely shattered by hard realities.
Release Date1949-07-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
An animated cartoon of drawings by young children, who imagine the motor car of today and of the future.
Release Date1970-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count2
The film is designed to encourage recycling - which was a key part of the war effort.
Release Date1942-01-01
DepartmentArt
JobArt Designer
Vote Count1
Meet Charley, your jovial cartoon guide to Britain’s changing towns and cities.
Release Date1948-01-01
DepartmentWriting
JobStory
Vote Count1
T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Release Date1959-12-24
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count8
This World War II propaganda short encourages British people to "dig for victory," by planting vegetable gardens.
Release Date1942-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
An updated version of Halas and Batchelor's short film, 'The Magic Canvas', with a new electronic score.
Release Date1980-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
In this film Charley demystifies the new state-funded National Health Service, detailing the benefits a free-at-point-of-delivery health service will offer to everyone in England.
Release Date1948-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
First Line of Defence is a short cartoon recruitment film for the RAF created in 1949 by animation duo Halas and Batchelor. The story follows a trainee pilot dreaming about the history of flight.
Release Date1949-07-18
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A dancing radio stops partying to transmit an announcement on fuel conservation in this WWII cartoon short.
Release Date1944-05-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Instructional cartoon for the Admiralty.
Release Date1945-06-22
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count2
A feature length instructional video for the Admiralty on coastal navigation and pilotage.
Release Date1952-03-02
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Vote Count1
The Maestro brings a world of emotions to life interpreted by the orchestra and the animation.
Release Date1965-09-22
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
A BAFTA award nominated animation tracing the development of the motor car from the original horseless carriage common in the late 19th century to the 1950s streamlined, massed produced, designs.
Release Date1953-01-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
A powerfully graphic piece of animation that best expresses John Halas' own feelings about mans universal quest for freedom.
Release Date1948-12-30
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count2
Feature-length instructional cartoon made for the Home Office and the Fire Brigade.
Release Date1948-01-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
A documentary essay about the unsung animation visionary, John Halas. An Animated Utopia explores his desire "to save the world using animation" and highlights his prescient and influential work in exploring new technologies. Though he, along with his wife Joy Batchelor, headed the longest-lasting and most successful British animation studio, he remains an enigma - his achievements, his influence, his success still unknown to so many. This is his story.
Release Date2012-01-01
A documentary about John Halas, the Hungarian-Jewish emigre who became the father of British Animation. John is a key figure in British cinema and his contribution goes far beyond making Animal Farm in 1954, Britain's first animated feature-film. He produced more than 2000 films between 1938 and 1995, launched the careers of hundreds of British animators and was a visionary who wanted to create a post-WWII utopia through Socialism, animation and international understanding. The film was commissioned and produced by his daughter Vivien Halas who runs the Halas & Batchelor archive.
Release Date2015-01-01
