Flatpack

Dir: George Pal

Total running time: 70 mins approx.

 

Born in Hungary, George Pal grew up in a theatrical family and combined his knack for cartooning and carpentry when he began to make films. The puppets in his animated shorts were made from replaceable wooden parts which enabled them to move in all sorts of crazy ways; ‘cartoons in 3D,’ as Pal put it. Today we have a feast of his ground-breaking shorts from the 30s and 40s, starting off in Europe with wonderful promos for Philips Radio and then on to Hollywood for classic Puppetoons including Tubby the Tuba and anti-Hitler parable Tulips Shall Grow (pictured). Tubby was Pal’s last Puppetoon, and he went on to build a successful movie career with 50s sci-fi like Destination Moon and War of the Worlds.

 

Image courtesy of Lobster Films.