(The Birth of the Robot)

Content: This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive

Countries:

United Kingdom

Genres:

Animation

Runtime:

6 minutes

Year:

1936

Directors:

Len Lye

Actors:

Crews:

Director

Color Designer

Writer

Director of Photography

Prop Designer