Animated Aotearoa

A Showcase From the New Zealand Film Archive

Fred O’Neill at work in his studio with characters from Flight to Venus (1960).
© Stills Collection, New Zealand Film Archive Ngā Kaitiaki Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua

For a limited time, Auckland Museum presents a New Zealand animation showcase courtesy of the New Zealand Film Archive. The films date from the early 20th century to today, and employ animation techniques from claymation and puppetry to drawn animation and collage. The showcase promises to inspire and entertain and has been selected and compiled by NZ Film Archive Programmes Developer Paula Booker.

Films include; Colour Flight (1938), a Len Lye ‘direct’ film made without a camera, two films by Fred O'Neill, Plastimania (1958), the winner of special commendation by Amateur Cine World and Space Flight (1962), an animated claymation in rhyming prose about an astronaut who flies to Venus where he finds the locals addicted to cigarettes. There’s also a Margaret Mahy story about a boy named Norven, The Great White Man-Eating Shark (1991), Hairy Maclary’s Caterwaul Caper (1997) which features the toughest tomcat in town Scarface Claw, and Jill Kennedy and John Payne’s films, Canaries In Colour (2007), a nostalgic pastiche of found graphic material from AV learning programs of the 1970s and, New Educational Series: At Home with the Ants (2009), which makes reference to the forms and conventions of a school science project.

Last but not least two films from the Simmonds Brothers, Noise Control (2008), a film about a local pre-school's pet rooster which is shot by an animal control officer and, Pearl, Florrie and the Bull (2008), which brings the tale to life of two elderly Paekakariki twins who suddenly encounter a ropey bull.

Exhibition: Animated Aotearoa – A Showcase from the New Zealand Film Archive
Dates and times: Friday 21 March - Sunday 6 April 2014
Admission: Free with museum entry
Location: Special Exhibition Hall

www.aucklandmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/animated-aotearoa

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