H&B at 75

This post continues Roger Manvell's history of Halas & Batchelor, written for the 40th anniversary of the studio and re-edited by Paul Wells for the book Halas & Batchelor Cartoons: An Animated History in 2012. If you missed part one and two then you will find them here and here. This part covers the start of the 1950s up to Animal Farm (1954). The studio was to continue making personal and commercial projects throughout their history. During the 1950s, BP (whose Public Relations officer, Ronald Tritton, had held a senior position in the Films Division of the Central Office of »

This post continues Roger Manvell's history of Halas & Batchelor, written for the 40th anniversary of the studio and re-edited by Paul Wells for the book Halas & Batchelor Cartoons: An Animated History in 2012. If you missed part one then you will find it here. This part covers the immediate post-war period up to the start of the end of the 1940s. The immediate postwar period led, as anticipated, into an extension of the unit's work into the instructional and public relations field. On behalf of the new Socialist government, Sir Stafford Cripps (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) personally »

On the 18th May 1961 the film industry magazine Kine Weekly celebrated the 21st birthday of Halas & Batchelor with a special supplement. Hamilton the Musical Elephant from the recently released cartoon was the cover star, with Charley, Napoleon, Foo Foo and the Murraymints Guardsman also appearing. Click on the page for a clearer image. »

This letter from György Ránki to John Halas from the 27th February 1940 gives an insight into the months before Halas & Batchelor was founded. Ránki was a Hungarian composer who had studied under Zoltán Kodály and was producing music for theatre and film in Budapest in the 1930s - presumably where he made contact with John. With anti-Jewish laws coming into effect in 1938 and the opportunity for work, Ránki spent some time in London between 1938 and 1939 before moving on to Paris. Whilst in Britain his relationship with Halas was renewed as this letter shows. Brave Little »

In 1980, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Halas & Batchelor, British film historian Roger Manvell wrote a contextual history of the studio for a celebratory book about the studio, Art and Animation. In 2012 when Vivien Halas and Paul Wells published a new history of the studio, Halas & Batchelor Cartoons: An Animated History, Paul re-edited and updated the text and in the coming weeks we will republish it here in sections. Where subsequent research has clarified or confused this version of events we have added some guidance notes. For the fully illustrated story, then Halas & »