From 1936, John Halas ran a small animation unit that created commercials for theatrical distribution. Joy Batchelor, who already had experience in animation, began working with Halas in 1938 after she responded to Halas's advertisement for an assistant, and they founded Halas and Batchelor in 1940 to create war information and
propaganda films. 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
Austrian Painter and
Mussolini." 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. HB's first feature film
Handling Ships (1945) was the first-ever British animated feature. After the war, they continued making short films while
Animal Farm (1954) was being made, erroneously considered the first British animated feature.
Popeye the Sailor (1960–62, for
ABC Television in the
United States),
DoDo, The Kid from Outer Space (1965–70) and
The Lone Ranger (1966–69). In the 1970s,
Rankin/Bass contracted the company to produce several series, including
The Jackson 5ive and
The Osmonds. Halas and Batchelor also produced
Snip and Snap (1960) and the animated music video for the song "
Love Is All" from
Roger Glover's album ''
The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' (1976) and
Kraftwerk's
Autobahn (1979) by
Roger Mainwood. The company also made the short satire
Automania 2000, nominated for an
Oscar in
1964. As well as short films, the studio made a few feature films, such as
Ruddigore (1967). The company was sold to
Tyne Tees Television in the early 1970s, although Halas and Batchelor themselves broke away from this association after a few years. Most of the 2,000 films now form part of The Halas and Batchelor Collection, founded in 1996. This collection was part of a donation by the couple's daughter to the
British Film Institute in 2010. ==Selected filmography==