WALT DISNEY'S RIVAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22262, 9 November 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

WALT DISNEY'S RIVAL

CLEVER BRITISH CARTOON "SAM AND THE MUSKET" " I do not really, want to stamp Mr. Anson Dyer as the ' English Walt Disney,' but I am afraid he will have tb fight hard to avoid the title," writes A. P. Luscombe Whyte in the Evening Standard, iLondon. » i Mr. Dyer is the creator of the new British colour cartoons. I hav© now bad an opportunity of seeing his first production, a screen version of that immortal tale "Sam and the Musket," with Stanley Holloway speaking the part. It is- both decorative and extremely funny. lit others of the series reach the same standard, Mickey and Minnie are in for a really hard battle. For gears Mi*. Dyer worked on diagrammatic film cartoons Illustrating mechanical and medical processes.' He often thought of making a series of comic cartoons for public release, but the lack of a suitable central character discouraged him. He had no wish to plagiarise Disney with yet * another animal " hero." But when the idea of using Stanley Holloway's sketches came into his mind, he knew he had found a winner. Here was humour, particularly British, tested and tried and calling out for the camera. He formed a company. ' ' ' * u * Anglia Films, Limited, took a w;hole floor of. a Jermyn Street office "and converted it into drawing rooms and studios, engaged a score of artists and

technicians, and Bet to work on his first film, " Sam." Disney's colour cartoons cost about £IO,OOO to £12,000 each to make, according to report. " Sam " cost between £2OOO and £2500. That does not mean it is skimped in any way. But a fortune was saved by economical working and by; using the Dunning twocolour process—which gives an astonishing range of tints—instead of an expensive three-colour method. Stanley Holloway has been signed up for 18 cartoons, which will be made at the rate of six a year. Anglia Films' studio space and staff will be doubled next month. - We shall soon be seeing another car-' toon from the same studio—a comic version, now nearly finished, of the opera " Carmen." I have seen some of the sketches for this production. I was shown into a room full of girls and littered with drawing paper and celluloid. The girls were working swiftly, colouring the thousands of outline drawings passed from the "animation " department whore the minute variations of position in each picture are determined. In all, 15,000 separate drawings are prepared and photographed separately to produce one cartoon. The " Carmen " sketches look pretty good to me. If they produce a success Mr. Dyer will probably get to work on other opera cartoons. , In " Sam and the Musket," the colour is pleasantly mellow, and the story —well, Mr. Dyer has even managed, to improve upon it. The Duke of Wellington —suspiciously Arlissine —is a Pretty piece of comedy, and, of course, Holloway's accent alone is worth the entertainment tax. • Here may well be the start or an important new side in the British film industry.