PREFACE

My intention is for these pages to provide information on as many as possible of the practioners of animation in the UK during the 20th century, regardless of historical importance. That is, however, a tall order and, this being a work-in-progress, I may well never get anywhere near fulfilling it.

At the moment a small number of randomly selected individuals and studios have been listed in order to populate the index pages. These will be progressively added to - but this progress is bound to be SLOW! Please bear with me!

There is little original research involved on my part - I am merely trying to collate the available information in one place. Sources include Denis Gifford's British Animated Films, 1895-1985: A Filmography, Ken Clark's articles for Animator magazine, and the listings on the IMDb, BCDB and BFI websites. Where my entries differ from these sources I have reason to believe my versions are correct, based on information given in the text.

COMMENTS

2022
It has taken longer than I had hoped, but the history of Kine Komedy Kartoons is now complete and uploaded. The most interesting find was that Victor Hicks' A Geni and a Genius films were not made for KKK, as Gifford assumed, but in a separate deal with exporter Lionel Phillips, who had left his previous company Phillips Films before that company distributed the KKK cartoons in the Phillips Philm Phables series.

2019
For years information about the animators who worked on the Bonzo films (New Era, 1924-5) has been limited to that provided by Denis Gifford. It seems that he took their names from a set of autographs, but unfortunately he failed to decipher some of them accurately. I have been able to correct his errors and add a little information on some of the team of young artists who were recruited to help producer/animator William A Ward bring G E Studdy's famous dog to life.

2015
The most intriguing information so far is on Dennis Connelly's studio, which raises (at least) one question. Joy Batchelor is quoted as saying she was one of ten who worked there and "learned to animate after a fashion." Since most of Connelly's staff were young women, how many other female animators among those ten went on to have careers in the industry? Did any other women animators of the 40s - Spud Houston, Wally Crook, Vera Linnecar, Cynthia Whitby, Alice Fenyves - get their first experience at Connelly's studio?