Animation &Animation Artifacts &Independent Animation 12 Oct 2010 07:37 am
Animal Farm cast
I had some communication with Chris Rushworthy, an enormous fan of Halas and Batchelor’s Animal Farm. I had just watched the DVD again and wondered if Chris, who has an large collection of art from the film and has a website to showcase it – AnimalFarmWorld, had ever seen a set of drafts for the film. Which animator animated which scenes?
He didn’t have one, but that didn’t stop him from contacting Harold Whitaker, who was a key animator – not only on Animal Farm but for Halas & Batchelor – to ask if he had one. Whitaker responded with a signed card of people who had worked on the film. Interestingly enough, only three people who signed the card actually got screen credit, so I guess that many of the signers were from the Ink & Paint department. Whitaker is the only animator I recognize, to have signed the document.
Here’s the card, and alongside it I tried to identify the names – however, it isn’t easy reading all the signatures. Those that I’m sure I’ve got wrong, I’ve added question marks (????) to the names. If you’re confident of any of the names, please feel free to let me know.
.
Bunnie Harvey
Wynn F. Stewart
Eve Lewis
P. Knowles
Jay Pope
M. O. Smith
Pat Neal
W. M. Smith
J.E.Grundy ???
Ty F. Young (Mrs. Muir)
Kay Coroline
Pat Williams
David A. Hancock
Mike Western
Helena F. Evans
Anthony M. Gray
B.D.Salway ???
Harold Whitaker - animator
D.F.Kniley ???
Sid Griffiths - camera
Mary G. Bennett
John M. Gurr – Camera
Doris Reis
Pam Shipway
Jay Graves
Jo May
Dorothy S. Jones
Hazel Box – (Mrs. Gray)
Beryl Wall
Elizabeth N. Syed
C. L. Newman
D. Coombes
J. Davis
Joan Rissik
Elizabeth Taylor
Mollie Shipway
Ceinwen Fowler
.
The film’s credits don’t offer a hell of a lot more. The names are few and they’re written in script. No first names – just a letter. H. Whittaker – yes, two “t”s even though the card above has just the one “t”. IMDB offers a few additional credits.
One not on IMDB is Gerald Potterton; he told me it was his first position as an inbetweener.
Chris Rushworthy also gave me a preview of a beautiful new setup he recently bought to add to the collection. This is it.
Boxer, Benjamin and duckling
Check out his site to see plenty of other cel setups and drawings.
on 18 Oct 2010 at 5:13 am 1.Jez said …
The majority of animators on Animal Farm were based in London, Harold was the only key animator who worked on the film based in Stroud, about 90 mins from London by train. Whilst Animal Farm was in pre-production Halas & Batchelor took over Anson Dyer’s old company, which had been moved there during the war, including most of the staff. I think you are right, the majority of these names are ink and paint. However, “Anthony M. Gray” should by “Anthony M. Guy”, better known as Tony Guy – another Anson Dyer graduate animator who also worked at Halas & Batchelor for many years. There are almost certainly other inbetweeners and background painters in that list.
Animation on the film was generally handed out by character, rather than by scene. The ones i know are: Harold animated Farmer Jones and Napoleon; Edric (Eddie) Radage did Old Major; Arthur Humberstone did Boxer and Benjamin.
on 18 Oct 2010 at 6:28 am 2.Jez said …
Another one…
“D.F.Kniley ???” is Len Kirley: studio manager at Anson Dyer’s company, and the man resposible for bringing it together with Halas & Batchelor on Dyer’s retirement.
Hazel Box would be Mrs Guy, not Mrs Gray.
on 18 Oct 2010 at 7:44 am 3.Michael said …
Jez, I can’t thank you enough for your contribution.
on 20 Oct 2010 at 7:08 pm 4.Chris said …
Yes, thank you very much Jez. Forgive my ignorance, but who might you be? I don’t travel in animation circles, I just love the remarkable achievement which Animal Farm is.
on 20 Nov 2010 at 10:29 am 5.Andrew Knowles-Baker said …
Hi delighted to have come across this this.
P Knowles is Pamela Knowles who in 1961 became Pamela Baker (wife of Don Baker- Animator at H & B both in Stroud & London but, surprisingly, not on this list). Don left H & B in 1963 to become Graphic Designer at Westward TV and then at TSW until his retirement.Pam was my mother and Don my stepfather- both worked on Animal Farm and onwards. Tony Guy was a family friend often visiting us in Cheltenham, Harold Whittaker was a regular correspondent with my Mother up to her death and we last visited him in Stroud in 2006.
I have a number of original cells and 2 ceramic figures from Animal Farm which form part of Mothers’ estate (sadly Don passed away in 2004 and Pam in 2008).
My brother and I would like to sell these to someone who would really appreciate them rather than put them on on open market.
Naturally we would be very interested to hear from anyone with memories of Pam or Don and,of course, if anyone would be interested in the Memorabilia.
Andrew Knowles-Baker
on 09 Feb 2011 at 4:35 pm 6.Michael Smith said …
Like Andrew, I’ve also found this an interesting article. Pam Knowles was my grandfather’s first wife and he also worked at the studio.
I’d be interested in finding out more information about the work H&B did and anything my Grandfather may have worked on.
Unfortunately I only took an interest in animation and it’s history after my Grandfather passed away, so was unable to ask him about it.
on 09 Mar 2012 at 6:48 pm 7.Ayla said …
Kristina Dezo and I loved this movie and we both watched it for the first time.Even though Snowball’s exile will always be mine and Kristina’s favorite sad moment from the film