Handling Ships

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Handling Ships
Alan Crick
Directed by
John Halas
Produced by John Halas
Alan Crick
Written by
John Halas
Music by Ernst Hermann Meyer
(British) Admiralty
Distributed by Halas and Batchelor
(training film, not formally released to theatres)
Release dates 1945
Running time 70 minutes
Country
United Kingdom
Language English
Handling Ships is a 1945 British stop motion animated film made by Halas and Batchelor. The 70minute film was created at the request of the British Admiralty, as a training aid for new navigators
joining the Royal Navy. Although never formally released to cinemas because of its small target
audience, Handling Ships was an "Official Selection" at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, and is
recognised as the first feature length work, and the first work in Technicolor, in British animation
history.

Contents

1 Background
2 Description
3 Significance
4 References
5 External links

Background
After independent careers in animation, John Halas and Joy Batchelor began working together in 1938,
and founded Halas and Batchelor in 1940 to create war information and propaganda films.[1][2]
Approximately 70 films were created for the Ministry of Information, the War Office, and the
Admiralty over the course of World War II; most of these were shorts intended to improve morale or
spur on increased contributions to the war effort, such as Dustbin Parade, about recycling, and Filling
the Gap, about gardening. Halas and Batchelor also created a series of anti-fascist cartoons intended for

viewing in the Middle East; starring an Arab boy named Abu, who was "enticed and misguided by the
forces of Hitler and Mussolini."[3][4] The heavy workload (at one point the studios were creating a
minute-long short every three weeks) and minimal budgets meant that simple animations with
economically driven stories were the norm.[3][5]

Description
Halas and Batchelor were approached by the Admiralty to create an instructional film for Royal Navy
navigation trainees; according to Halas, the intent was to "stop young people from driving a ship like it
was a car."[3][4] The film was not intended as a propaganda work, instead serving as a precise guide to
manoeuvring and navigating ships, along with aspects of general ship handling and control.[4][6]
For Handling Ships, Halas and Batchelor used stop motion animation of three-dimensional ship
models, along with schematic designs, to simplify the intricacies and vagaries of ship movement and
educate the viewer.[3][4] The film was shot in 35 mm and Technicolor.[7] Unlike previous animations
by the company, Handling Ships was feature length, running at 70 minutes: at the time, the longest stop
motion production made in the UK.[4] The film was never released to cinema chains, as Halas and
Batchelor felt it was too specialised for and of limited appeal to general audiences, and it had no
propaganda value.[3][4]

Significance
After the war, Handling Ships was entered in the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, where it was a short film
"Official Selection".[8][9][10]
The work proved the value of stop motion animation for instructional films, and the ability of the studio
of Halas and Batchelor at making them, as they were said to have "extended the medium to explain
complex ideas with clarity and humour".[11] In 1948, the Home Office commissioned a feature length
training film, Waterford Fire Fighting.[4][5] This was followed in 1949 by another film for the
Admiralty, Submarine Control, for submariner training.[4] Halas and Batchelor were responsible for
the animated feature film, Animal Farm.[2][3][4] first released in the UK in 1954,[12]

References
1.
"Biographies". Halas&Batchelor Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"History". Halas&Batchelor Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
Daniel J. Leab, Peter Davison (2007). Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal
Farm. Penn State Press. pp. 5051. ISBN 0-271-02978-1. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Movie Toons - Handling Ships". toonhoound.com. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
Jeff Lenburg (2006). Who's who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film &
Television's Award-winning and Legendary Animators. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 2425.
ISBN 1-55783-671-X. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Handling Ships - main". British Film Institute site. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Handling Ships - release information". British Film Institute site. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Awards". Halas&Batchelor Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Official Selection - Edition 1946". Festival de Cannes archive. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Halas & Batchelor Awards". University for the Creative Arts Halas&Batchelor Collection.

Retrieved 2008-12-20.
"Introduction". Halas&Batchelor Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-20.
12.Michael Brooke "Animal Farm (1954)", BFI screenonline

External links
Handling Ships at the Internet Movie Database
Handling Ships - Entering Harbour at the British Film Institute website. Possibly a predecessor
or partially completed version, released in 1944, same credits, also sponsored by the Admiralty
Handling Ships - Leaving the Jetty at the British Film Institute website. Possibly a predecessor
or partially completed version, released in 1944, same credits, also sponsored by the Admiralty
(as above)
Categories:

English-language films
1945 films
1945 animated films
1940s documentary films
Black-and-white documentary films
Animated documentary films
British animated films
British documentary films
British films
Documentary films about water transport
Stop-motion animated films