Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films

Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.

The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.

This a story of a violinist, pianist and cellist as they perform from place-to-place, under very unusual conditions. Every time they play, they remind someone of a lost love, so they are hired immediately hired by nightclub owners, ship captains and even a pirate... wherever circumstances take them.

For centuries, the Murgatroyd family, the Baronets of Ruddigore, have been under a witch's curse — commit a crime every day, or die in agony. Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the rightful heir, has run away to live as innocent peasant Robin Oakapple in the Cornish village of Rederring, sticking his brother Despard with the curse. But on the very day that "Robin" is to marry sweet, beautiful Rose Maybud, it all falls apart. Can Sir Ruthven outwit a picture gallery full of his ancestors' ghosts to save the day?

Hamilton the elephant loves playing music with his trunk. When he is fired from the circus he does odd jobs till he gets his big break.

This satirical animated short by the renowned Halas & Batchelor Studio asks the big Question. Can the meaning of life be found in religion or science? Patriotism or war? Money or self-discovery? Or none of the above?

Ever seen a snake with a moustache? The Middle East was as much an ideological as a physical battleground in the Second World War. In the midst of the conflict Halas & Batchelor were commissioned by the British Government to make four cartoons featuring a young boy Abu and his mule. They were intended to demonstrate in simple visual terms that Britain was a stout friend and the Axis powers a pernicious evil.

Roger Glover puts on a star-studded concert at the Royal Albert Hall for his concept album "The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast".

Modern advice and old-fashioned values combine in this postwar animated health guide from the makers of Animal Farm.

A colorful cartoon commercial for soap flakes seems the last place that the realities of wartime life should creep in. A clothes cupboard opens to reveal a fantasy world where figures on fabric patterns come to life, and a neglected clown is shunned until he bathes in Lux Flakes. But in a last-minute coda, the clown returns to break the animated fourth wall and tell the audience that the product will not be made again till the war is over.

An animated, dark satire of America's automobile-obsessed, consumerist culture. An anonymous, brilliant scientist toils tirelessly in his ivory tower satisfying the public's ever-increasing demands for novelty and status consciousness, with predictable environmental consequences.

Joy Batchelor directed, produced, wrote and designed this short film for Brook Bond Tea: two girls compete for the affections of a Teddy Bear.

A lonely man living in a large city buys a life-size sex doll. His relationship with his dream doll causes a certain reaction in the community. A bizarre adaption of Le Ballon Rouge.

Instructional cartoon for the Admiralty.

An updated version of Halas and Batchelor's short film, 'The Magic Canvas', with a new electronic score.

Hamilton the elephant is being trained for the circus when he discovers his amazing musical ability; the ringmaster decides to exploit his new-found talent for jazz.

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

An animated cartoon on smoking and health. The villain, Old Nick O'Teen, disguises himself as an 18-year-old motorcyclist, the better to lure children into the cigarette habit. Fourteen-year-old Sam falls into the trap, but after awesome visions of his future, expert advice from a doctor, and straight talk from a friendly lorry-driver renounces the habit.

A poem of unrequited love: the studio's first puppet production. Based on a poem by Cosbie Garstin, the film tells the story of a carved wooden saint who is painted to look like a soldier and used as a figurehead on a sailing ship. The ship sinks and the figurehead is saved by a beautiful mermaid who falls in love with him. Her love is not returned because despite his dashing looks he has the wooden heart of a saint.

A project assembled to musically support William Plomer's (1903-73) book of poems called 'The Butterfly Ball and Grasshoppers Feast'; in which Alan Aldridge had provided the illustrations. British Lion had secured the rights, and commissioned Glover, through Tony Edwards (the Deep Purple manager), to add the musical dimension that it required if it were to be made into a 26-part animated cartoon series, suitable for TV. (Discogs) This is the music video for the song Love Is All, performed by Ronnie James Dio.