Vera Linnecar

The story of married animators, John Halas and Joy Batchelor. A Jewish emigre from Hungary and a working class woman from Watford, England, John and Joy fell in love, created cartoons that helped the allies to win the war, and produced the first feature-length animation in British cinema history, Animal Farm (1954).

Are you a dog or a cat person? If you favour the felines then this animated meditation on cats of all shapes and sizes is for you. The film grew out of industry veteran Vera Linnecar's play with applying mottled coloured paints directly onto animation cels. Paired with the piano music these scenes are a playful experiment, mixing abstraction with careful observation of cat behaviour. Vera started her animation career at the Halas & Batchelor studio in 1940, as did Elizabeth Horn, who also worked on this film. Moving from tracing, to inbetweening, to animating, Vera became one the company's principle artists. In the late 1940s she moved to the Larkins studio which better suited her experimental spirit. In 1957, along with Nancy Hanna, she joined Bob Godfrey and Keith Learner at Biographic, and continued innovating there until she retired in 1983, after four decades in the business.

Animated short. A man runs and runs.

Samantha, beloved by Spring, is captured by a butterfly hunter.

Samantha, beloved by Spring, is captured by a butterfly hunter.

Samantha, beloved by Spring, is captured by a butterfly hunter.

A BAFTA award nominated animated Industrial safety film featuring a clumsy fruit porter who learns the error of his ways, told as a mini-operetta.

A surreal mix of advertising tropes from the 1960s is very funny but has a neat anti-capitalist undertow.

Comic cartoon for BP.

Comic cartoon for BP.

A BAFTA award nominated animation advertising "Time" magazine.

An animated short that summarizes the manufacture of steel and a humorous look at a world without it.

An animated short that summarizes the manufacture of steel and a humorous look at a world without it.

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

The film is designed to encourage recycling - which was a key part of the war effort.