World Animation

World Animation 1950-1965

Yugoslavia
Duga Film Studio
Duga created the first Yugoslavian cartoon called 'The Big Meeting' in 1951. This cartoon was made to celebrate the Yugoslavian identity at the time.

UK
Halas & Batcher
Halas & Batcher created the first British animated feature to  get a general release. The feature film was called 'Animal farm' released in 1954. This film was based on the George Orwell Novel. Although aimed for an adult audience, it stated that is was a good film for children to watch, when it wasn't. The story is basically retelling the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of an animal farm.

Bob Godfrey
Godfrey created the 'Do It Yourself Cartoon Kit' in 1961. This cutout animation featuring strange surrealist humour, a similar style later adopted by Terry Gilliam in the TV series 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' in 1970's. The animation in Godfrey's film can be referred to as lo-fi animation and a subversion of animation tradition that refuses to take itself seriously.






Hungary / USA
George Pal
Pal worked in Hollywood to produce and direct the film 'tom thumb' in 1958. This film used a mixture of giant sets, superimposition, and stop-frame animation. The film was well made for it's time and won an Oscar for best special effects in 1959.




Czech Republic
Karel Zeman
Zeman created the film 'The Fabulous World of Jules Verne' in 1958. This was a spectacular film with (for it's time) pretty amazing special effects with combining both stop-frame creatures and live action.

Japan
Taiji Yabushita
Yabushita made the first Japanese full-length animated feature in colour, the film called 'Legend of the White Snake' in 1958. This film was produced faster than Western animated film and was based more on spectacle and special effects rather than character animation, later copied by other companies.

Osamu Tezuka
In 1952, Tezuka created the manga comic called 'Astro Boy'. He later developed the comic into a TV series in 1963. This story was inspired by Disney's Pinocchio. The film displayed a particular style of cartoon to the world. This style later became the style of anime.

China
Wan Laiming
Laiming created the two part film 'Havoc in Heaven'. Part one was completed and released to the public in 1961, later followed by part two in 1964. The two parts were edited together and screened in 1965. The film is based on a traditional Buddhist tale about the Monkey King.

Canada
Norman McLaren
McLaren created the short film 'Neighbours' in 1952. This film used a lot of different types of special effects including stop-frame animation. When submitted to the Oscars, some scenes were edited out. The film did win an Oscar, although in the documentary category.

Croatia
Zagreb Film
Zagreb created the short film 'Samac (Alone)' in 1958. This film began a wave of wave of existential films, questioning on the human condition and way of living. The film also won a prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Dusan Vukotic & Zagreb Film
Vukotic & Zagreb created the short film 'Surogat' in 1961. This film was the first animated short film to win an Oscar that was not made in the USA. This film is considered to be a modernist short that takes a simplified design to the extreme. The story is about a man showing off his gadgets at the beach.

Russia
Fyodor Khitruck
Khitruck created the short film 'Story of One Crime' in 1962. This film had a modernist style of animation about a character driven to his wit's end by human noise pollution in his neighborhood. The film caused concern among the Russian Communist Party officials who saw it as an attack on the government housing policies. The film did open a new door for new a generation of Russian animator to create modern, grownup films, containing irony, social satire and original ideas to light.