Joy Batchelor

Directing

Biography

Joy Ethel Batchelor (12 May 1914 – 14 May 1991) was an English animator, director, screenwriter, and producer. She married John Halas in 1940 and subsequently co-established Halas and Batchelor cartoons, whose best known production is the animated feature film Animal Farm (1954), which made her the first woman director of an animated feature since Lotte Reiniger. Together they created over 2000 shorts/films, and produced roughly 70 propaganda pieces during World War II for the British government. She helped co-write, write, animate, produce, and direct many of their productions. One of her projects as an art director was Cinerama Holiday (1955). Joy directed and wrote Ruddigore (1967), a television-film adaptation of W.S. Gilbert's opera of the same name, which became the first opera to be adapted into an animated film. She later worked in television, directing series, including animated shows like The Jackson 5ive (1971). Batchelor died on 14 May 1991, just two days after her 77th birthday.

Filmography Movies

Acting

MOVIE

Secrets of British Animation

6.0(0.0K)

BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.

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Secrets of British Animation

Self (archive Photos)

Ode to JoyMOVIE

MOVIE

Ode to Joy

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An introduction to the life and work of Joy Batchelor on the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Joy was a director, animator, producer and designer and one half of the Halas & Batchelor Cartoons Studio, which made the UKs first animated feature film, Animal Farm, in 1954. Although a crucial figure in British animation, she has for years been unfairly passed over for recognition. This short film made in her honour seeks to redress that balance and to introduce Joy's work to a wider audience. The film was produced by her daughter, Vivien Halas.

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Ode to Joy

Production

MOVIE

Animal Farm

7.1(0.5K)

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.

Animal Farm

7.1(0.5K)

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.

Animal Farm

7.1(0.5K)

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.

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Animal Farm

Director

The Moving SpiritMOVIE

MOVIE

The Moving Spirit

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A BAFTA award nominated animation tracing the development of the motor car from the original horseless carriage common in the late 19th century to the 1950s streamlined, massed produced, designs.

Down a Long Way

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A BAFTA award nominated animation looking at the development of oil prospecting techniques since the 19th century.

Ruddigore

7.3(0.0K)

The Baronet of Ruddigore, Sir Despard Murgatroyd, has inherited a family curse which forces him to commit a crime every day — or die in agony. He hates the curse, doing his heinous misdeeds as early as possible and good works for the rest of the day to compensate!

Ruddigore

R.A.F.: First Line of DefenceMOVIE

MOVIE

R.A.F.: First Line of Defence

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First Line of Defence is a short cartoon recruitment film for the RAF created in 1949 by animation duo Halas and Batchelor. The story follows a trainee pilot dreaming about the history of flight.

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R.A.F.: First Line of Defence

Director