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88-491: Postman Pat is a British stop motion animated children's television series first produced by Woodland Animations. The series follows the adventures of Pat Clifton, a postman who works for the Royal Mail postal service in the fictional village of Greendale (inspired by the real valley of Longsleddale near Kendal ). Postman Pat 's first 13-episode series was screened on BBC One in 1981. John Cunliffe wrote

176-480: A Guinea for which Bryant & May would supply soldiers with sufficient matches. No archival records are known that could proof that the film was indeed created in 1899 during the beginning of the Second Boer War . Others place it at 1914, during the beginning of World War I . Cooper created more Animated Matches scenes in the same setting. These are believed to also have been produced in 1899, while

264-459: A duck , who sits on top of the Ragdoll boat. He does not talk but can be heard quacking and flapping his wings when there are no humans around to let both Rosie and Jim know that the coast is clear. In some episodes, either Rosie or Jim give him a kiss. He is the only character to directly interact with all three presenters (as only Cunliffe directly addressed Rosie and Jim). Rosie and Jim's home

352-567: A British-American 3D computer-animated comedy children's feature film version of the British stop-motion animated children's television show, was theatrically released on 23 May 2014 in the United Kingdom. The film was distributed and produced by Lionsgate and Icon Productions and animated by Rubicon Group Holding . The story revolves around Pat entering a talent show audition which leads to robots taking over his postal service whilst he

440-596: A Muddle in April 2004, which contained three Series 2 episodes. While no further classic series releases were seen in the UK until 2011, Universal and Classic Media issued all four specials from 1991 to 1994 on the DVD Happy Birthday Postman Pat . On 3 February 2014, the first and second series were made available in their entirety for the first time in the UK, However, the titles are both season 2 with

528-477: A big impression in Paris, where it was released as L'hôtel hanté: fantasmagorie épouvantable . When Gaumont bought a copy to further distribute the film, it was carefully studied by some of their filmmakers to find out how it was made. Reportedly it was newcomer Émile Cohl who unraveled the mystery. Not long after, Cohl released his first film, Japon de fantaisie (June 1907), featuring his own imaginative use of

616-589: A big, busy village situated in the heart of the Cumbrian countryside. Running through the centre of the village is the High Street, home to Mrs Goggins's Post Office and shop, an unofficial meeting place for residents. Located on the edge of the village is the railway station, home to the Greendale Rocket. Nisha Bains runs a popular café there with Sara while her husband Ajay runs a regular schedule on

704-604: A feature animated film with a technique other than cel animation was produced in the US. The first was the stop motion adaptation of 19th century composer Engelbert Humperdinck 's opera Hänsel und Gretel as Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy . In 1955, Karel Zeman made his first feature film Journey to the Beginning of Time inspired by Jules Verne , featuring stop motion animation of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Art Clokey started his adventures in clay with

792-561: A freeform clay short film called Gumbasia (1955), which shortly thereafter propelled him into the production of his more structured TV series Gumby (1955–1989), with the iconic titular character. In partnership with the United Lutheran Church in America , he also produced Davey and Goliath (1960–2004). The theatrical feature Gumby: The Movie (1992, released in 1995) was a box-office bomb . On 22 November 1959,

880-573: A large close-up view of a table being set by itself baffled viewers; there were no visible wires or other noticeable well-known tricks. This inspired other filmmakers, including French animator Émile Cohl and Segundo de Chomón. De Chomón would release the similar The House of Ghosts ( La maison ensorcelée ) and Hôtel électrique in 1908, with the latter also containing some very early pixelation. The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1908, considered lost) by Blackton and his British-American Vitagraph partner Albert E. Smith showed an animated performance of

968-457: A machine or engine when something has gone wrong". Before the advent of chronophotography in 1878, a small number of picture sequences were photographed with subjects in separate poses. These can now be regarded as a form of stop motion or pixilation, but very few results were meant to be animated. Until celluloid film base was established in 1888 and set the standard for the moving image, animation could only be presented via mechanisms such as

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1056-399: A method of sticking needles in a stroboscopic disc so that it looked like one needle was being pushed in and out of the cardboard when animated. He realized that this method provided basically endless possibilities to make different 3D animations. He then introduced two methods to animate stereoscopic pairs of images, one was basically a stereo viewer using two stroboscopic discs and the other

1144-580: A number of episodes). A new version of the series was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films from 2003 to 2008 and expanded on many aspects of the original series. The show ended on 29 March 2017, after eight series and twelve specials. The Special Delivery Service spin-off is still being rerun on CBeebies on weekends, and the previous Cosgrove Hall series from the 2000s is being rerun on ITVBe 's children's block littleBe, starting from September 2023. The original two Ivor Wood series are available to watch on BritBox , Prime Video and on DVD. Each episode follows

1232-778: A presentation of the complete dance with a home cinema projector. Later on, he bought a movie camera and between 1906 and 1909 he made many short films, including puppet animations. As a dancer and choreographer, Shiryaev had a special talent to create motion in his animated films. According to animator Peter Lord his work was decades ahead of its time. Part of Shiryaev's animation work is featured in Viktor Bocharov's documentary Alexander Shiryaev: A Belated Premiere (2003). Polish-Russian Ladislas Starevich (1882–1965), started his film career around 1909 in Kaunas filming live insects. He wanted to document rutting stag beetles , but

1320-439: A project would take much time and careful effort, but would be well worth it because of the expected marvelous results. The plan was never executed, possibly because Plateau was almost completely blind by this time. In 1852, Jules Duboscq patented a "Stéréoscope-fantascope ou Bïoscope" (or abbreviated as stéréofantascope) stroboscopic disc . The only known extant disc contains stereoscopic photograph pairs of different phases of

1408-452: A release date of 1908 has also been given. The 1908 Animated Matches film by Émile Cohl may have caused more confusion about the release dates of Cooper's matchstick animations. It also raises the question whether Cohl may have been inspired by Melbourne-Cooper or vice versa. Melbourne-Cooper's lost films Dolly’s Toys (1901) and The Enchanted Toymaker (1904) may have included stop-motion animation. Dreams of Toyland (1908) features

1496-634: A rendition of the legend of the German scholar . Švankmajer's work has been highly influential on other artists, such as Terry Gilliam and the Quay brothers (although the latter claim to have only discovered Švankmajer's films after having developed their own similar style). French animator Serge Danot created The Magic Roundabout (1965) which played for many years on the BBC . Rosie and Jim Rosie and Jim (sometimes written as Rosie & Jim )

1584-415: A scene with many animated toys that lasts approximately three and a half minutes. As a means to plan his performances, ballet dancer and choreographer Alexander Shiryaev started making approximately 20- to 25-centimeter-tall puppets out of papier-mâché on poseable wire frames. He then sketched all the sequential movements on paper. When he arranged these vertically on a long strip, it was possible to give

1672-532: A sitting old lady. American film pioneer Edwin S. Porter filmed a single-shot "lightning sculpting" film with a baker molding faces from a patch of dough in Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902), considered as foreshadowing of clay animation. In 1905, Porter showed animated letters and very simple cutout animation of two hands in the intertitles in How Jones Lost His Roll . Porter experimented with

1760-476: A small bit of crude stop-motion animation in his trick film Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906). The "Teddy" Bears (2 March 1907), made in collaboration with Wallace McCutcheon Sr. , mainly shows people in bear costumes, but the short film also features a short stop-motion segment with small teddy bears. On 15 February 1908, Porter released the trick film A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream that featured clay molding itself into three complete busts. No copy of

1848-691: A string of Academy Award for Best Animated Short Films , including Rhythm in the Ranks (1941), Tulips Shall Grow (1942), Jasper and the Haunted House (1942), the Dr. Seuss penned The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1944), Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946), Jasper in a Jam (1946), and Tubby

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1936-637: A year later. Although the films and her technique received much attention of the press, it seems she did not continue making films after she returned to New York from managing a YMCA in Paris around 1918. None of her films have yet surfaced, but the extant magazine articles have provided several stills and approximately 20 poorly printed frames from two film strips. By 1920 Starewicz had settled in Paris, and started making new stop motion films. Dans les Griffes de L'araignée (finished 1920, released 1924) featured detailed hand-made insect puppets that could convey facial expressions with moving lips and eyelids. One of

2024-548: Is Snip and Snap (1960-1961) by John Halas in collaboration with Danish paper sculptor Thok Søndergaard (Thoki Yenn), featuring dog Snap, cut from a sheet of paper by pair of scissors Snip. Apart from their cutout animation series, British studio Smallfilms ( Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate ) produced several stop motion series with puppets, beginning with Pingwings (1961-1965) featuring penguin-like birds knitted by Peter's wife Joan and filmed on their farm (where most of their productions were filmed in an unused barn). It

2112-475: Is a British children's television programme which was produced by Ragdoll Productions and aired on the Children's ITV block on ITV from 3 September 1990 to 16 May 2000. The programme was then repeated periodically on CITV until 23 July 2004. Rosie and Jim are two rag dolls who live aboard a narrowboat called the Ragdoll . There, they sit with a concertina on their lap and come alive when no one

2200-434: Is a large, bustling, modern town located within easy commuting distance for the villagers of Greendale. Situated on the waterfront, Pencaster is a hive of activity, boasting a market square in the centre surrounded by shops, houses, a large railway station, state-of-the-art buildings, and a boat jetty. It bears some resemblance to Lancaster , the county town of Lancashire , which likewise is a short commute from Longsleddale ,

2288-418: Is also incomplete and often insufficient to properly date all extant films or even identify them if original titles are missing. Possible stop motion in lost films is even harder to trace. The principles of animation and other special effects were mostly kept a secret, not only to prevent use of such techniques by competitors, but also to keep audiences interested in the mystery of the magic tricks. Stop motion

2376-475: Is away. The film stars Stephen Mangan as the voice of Pat and also features Jim Broadbent , Rupert Grint , David Tennant , Ronan Keating (as Pat's singing voice), Susan Duerden , Sandra Teles, TJ Ramini and Peter Woodward . A CGI spin-off to the series was made called Guess with Jess which follows Pat's cat Jess, now with the ability to talk, and his adventures with the farm animals. The series debuted on 9 November 2009 and ended in 2013. Music for

2464-425: Is closely related to the stop trick , in which the camera is temporarily stopped during the recording of a scene to create a change before filming is continued (or for which the cause of the change is edited out of the film). In the resulting film, the change will be sudden and a logical cause of the change will be mysteriously absent or replaced with a fake cause that is suggested in the scene. The oldest known example

2552-401: Is looking to explore the world that they pass by on rivers and canals across England. They learn to experience things by following the Ragdoll ' s owner on his or her adventures, and secretly joining in with them. Usually, they end up causing trouble, but they are never detected because no adult ever sees them off the boat or come to life. Rosie (puppeteered and voiced by Rebecca Nagan) is

2640-502: Is the narrowboat Ragdoll . Throughout its run the boat was acquired by three owners, each one playing a role according to their real-life profession. An author who writes stories about Rosie and Jim based upon his own everyday outings. Cunliffe is the only presenter to break the fourth wall, delivering pieces to the camera and narration throughout every episode, which ended with a self-penned short cutout animated story done by Alan Rogers and Peter Lang (creators of Pigeon Street ). He

2728-470: Is the male rag doll. In their adventures, he can be seen carrying a notebook, in which he sometimes draws things that he has seen. He has short red hair and wears light brown trousers, a shirt with a red scarf, a white-with-red-stripes sock, brown boots and a brown waistcoat. The shade of his skin has changed slightly throughout the series. Duck (also voiced by Robin Stevens) is an animatronic wooden model of

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2816-406: Is the only presenter to directly address Rosie and Jim on-screen. An illustrator who creates pictures, gathering ideas from her adventures. Each episode would start with Pat finishing a drawing of Rosie and Jim and end with an illustration, again by Pat, based upon the episode. At the end of each episode, Duck would be hidden in the picture, with Rosie and Jim trying to find him. Pat also illustrated

2904-489: Is used for the beheading in Edison Manufacturing Company 's 1895 film The Execution of Mary Stuart . The technique of stop motion can be interpreted as repeatedly applying the stop trick. In 1917, clay animation pioneer Helena Smith-Dayton referred to the principle behind her work as "stop action", a synonym of "stop motion". French trick film pioneer Georges Méliès claimed to have invented

2992-470: The 1862 International Exhibition in London. Desvignes "employed models, insects and other objects, instead of pictures, with perfect success". In 1874, Jules Janssen made several practice discs for the recording of the passage of Venus with his series Passage de Vénus with his photographic revolver . He used a model of the planet and a light source standing in for the sun. While actual recordings of

3080-456: The zoetrope . In 1849, Joseph Plateau published a note about improvements for his Fantascope (a.k.a. phénakisticope ). A new translucent variation had improved picture quality and could be viewed with both eyes, by several people at the same time. Plateau stated that the illusion could be advanced even further with an idea communicated to him by Charles Wheatstone : a combination of the fantascope and Wheatstone's stereoscope . Plateau thought

3168-606: The 10-minute The Beautiful Leukanida (Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами) (March 1912), the two-minute Happy Scenes from Animal Life (Веселые сценки из жизни животных), the 12-minute The Cameraman's Revenge (Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами, October 1912) and the 5-minute The Grasshopper and the Ant (Стрекоза и муравей, 1913). Reportedly many viewers were impressed with how much could be achieved with trained insects, or at least wondered what tricks could have been used, since few people were familiar with

3256-457: The Greendale Rocket to the nearby town of Pencaster. In the second series of the show, which aired in 1996, the village at the centre of the series was briefly referred to as Garner Bridge, while Greendale was the name of the valley in which Garner Bridge was situated. In the episode Postman Pat and the Suit of Armour , Greendale Post Office is referred to as "Garner Bridge Post Office". Pencaster

3344-526: The Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915). Apart from the titular dinosaur and " missing link " ape, it featured several cavemen and an ostrich-like "desert quail", all relatively lifelike models made with clay. This led to a series of short animated comedies with a prehistoric theme for Edison Company, including Prehistoric Poultry (1916), R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. (1917), The Birth of a Flivver (1917) and Curious Pets of Our Ancestors (1917). O'Brien

3432-584: The Post Office, the Cliftons' house and the Greendale station. It also had a miniature model of Greendale. It was installed during the 1990s, was relocated during 2008 in preparation for a new animal area and was revamped a third time for 2013. The attraction was closed at the end of 2015 and was permanently removed in 2016. VHS and Betamax releases of Series 1 were originally released by Longman Video in

3520-475: The Reverend Timms; PC Selby, the police constable; Jeff Pringle, the school teacher; Peter Fogg, a farm hand; George Lancaster, a chicken farmer; Sam Waldron, a grocer with a mobile shop; Miss Hubbard, an upper-class woman; Julia Pottage, who runs Greendale Farm, and Ted Glen, the local handyman and inventor. Postman Pat is set in the fictional village of Greendale and the nearby town of Pencaster, on

3608-692: The Tuba (1947). Many of his puppetoon films were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . Willis O' Brien's expressive and emotionally convincing animation of the big ape in King Kong (1933) is widely regarded as a milestone in stop-motion animation and a highlight of Hollywood cinema in general. A 1940 promotional film for Autolite , an automotive parts supplier, featured stop-motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to

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3696-478: The UK and Australia in television advertisements for the company Specsavers . In the TV series Strange Hill High , Postman Pat himself makes a brief cameo in the episode Strange Hill Christmas . In the TV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office . A brief part of a Series 3 episode is shown on a TV, as the camera pans round to the window. Longleat Safari Park had an outdoor reproduction of Greendale village, including

3784-439: The adventures of Patrick Clifton, a friendly country postman, and his black and white cat Jess, as he delivers the post through the valley of Greendale. Although he initially concentrates on delivering his letters, he nearly always becomes distracted by a concern of one of the villagers and is always keen to help resolve their problems. Notable villagers include the postmistress , Mrs. Goggins; farmer couple Alf and Dorothy Thompson;

3872-511: The area used as the inspiration for Greendale. Ingledale is another large, busy town situated in the heart of the North Yorkshire countryside, only seen once in a special in 1991. Cunliffe, interviewed about the series, has said that he chose the character of a postman since he needed a character who could visit the countryside and interact with many different people. The inspiration for the post office itself comes from one located on

3960-508: The boat's redundancy from Ragdoll Productions , it is no longer on display to the public. ( Newspaper and Lullaby have not been readily available in any format since their initial broadcasts in 1998 and have been presumed missing) (A separate video made in association with British Waterways was also made in 1999, called Stay Safe Near Water with Rosie and Jim and Duck . In addition, Sailing Boat , Knitting Factory , Road Boat and Wallpaper have not been readily available since series 7

4048-421: The books and artwork for the video releases between 1995 and 1996. Hutchins is the only female presenter of the series. A singer and musician who plays the harmonica and the concertina. Neil would begin each episode looking for his harmonica followed by Rosie and Jim talking about and introducing him. Brewer would often end each episode with a song played on his concertina; prompted by Rosie and Jim who would leave

4136-400: The border between Cumbria and North Yorkshire . Greendale has a different character in the various Postman Pat series. In the original series (1 and 2), it was a small village with narrow, winding roads. The gentle pace of life allowed Pat plenty of time to enjoy the countryside as he passed through, or even stop on quiet days to have a picnic. In the more recent series, Greendale became

4224-475: The character and village was not based on any one place or person. He commented in 2015 that "I got maybe half a dozen people last year saying they were the inspiration." In Series 1, Ken Barrie voiced all the characters and narrated the series. In Series 2, Carole Boyd joined to voice all the female characters and child characters except Granny Dryden, who was still voiced by Barrie. In Series 3, Kulvinder Ghir , Janet James, and Archie Panjabi joined to voice

4312-411: The construction of a sequential set of stereoscopic image pairs would be the more difficult part of the plan than adapting two copies of his improved fantascope to be fitted with a stereoscope. Wheatstone had suggested using photographs on paper of a solid object, for instance a statuette. Plateau concluded that for this purpose 16 plaster models could be made with 16 regular modifications. He believed such

4400-649: The creatures wouldn't cooperate or would even die under the bright lamps needed for filming. He solved the problem by using wire for the limbs of dried beetles and then animating them in stop motion. The resulting short film, presumably 1 minute long, was probably titled by the Latin name for the species: Lucanus Cervus (Жук-олень, 1910, considered lost). After moving to Moscow, Starevich continued animating dead insects, but now as characters in imaginative stories with much dramatic complexity. He garnered much attention and international acclaim with these short films, including

4488-1039: The earliest clay animation films was Modelling Extraordinary , which impressed audiences in 1912. The early Italian feature film Cabiria (1914) featured some stop motion techniques. Starewicz finished the first feature stop motion film Le Roman de Renard (The Tale of the Fox) in 1930, but problems with its soundtrack delayed its release. In 1937 it was released with a German soundtrack and in 1941 with its French soundtrack. Hungarian-American filmmaker George Pal developed his own stop motion technique of replacing wooden dolls (or parts of them) with similar figures displaying changed poses and/or expressions. He called it Pal-Doll and used it for his Puppetoons films since 1932. The particular replacement animation method itself also became better known as puppetoon . In Europe he mainly worked on promotional films for companies such as Philips . Later Pal gained much success in Hollywood with

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4576-491: The early-1980s, before BBC Worldwide secured them, and later released the four TV specials and Series 2 on VHS. For Series 1, the original opening titles which featured Pat driving in the original version of his van with a generic crown logo (which was used until Pat's Thirsty Day) was replaced with an edited version of the shot for shot remake of the original intro (which had Pat driving the Royal Mail Van) as used when

4664-497: The female rag doll. During their adventures, she carries a bag that has her name written on it. She wears a yellow dress and has long shaggy black hair. She and Jim often refer to the boat driver as "fizzgog" ( John Cunliffe ), "loopy lobes" (or just "loopy"; Pat Hutchins ) and "tootle" ( Neil Brewer ). She sometimes calls Jim "Noggin". Her skin colour became a bit darker from series 2. Jim (puppeteered and voiced by Robin Stevens )

4752-480: The figures from a popular wooden toy set. Smith would later claim that this was "the first stop-motion picture in America". The inspiration would have come from seeing how puffs of smoke behaved in the interrupted recordings for a stop trick film they were making. Smith would have suggested to get a patent for the technique, but Blackton thought it wasn't that important. Smith's recollections are not considered to be very reliable. Blackton's The Haunted Hotel made

4840-575: The film Mighty Joe Young (1949). Harryhausen would go on to create many memorable stop motion effects for a string of successful fantasy films over the next three decades. These included The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Clash of the Titans (1981). It wasn't until 1954 before

4928-453: The film has yet been located. It was soon followed by the similar extant film The Sculptor's Nightmare (6 May 1908) by Wallace McCutcheon Sr. J. Stuart Blackton 's The Haunted Hotel (23 February 1907) featured a combination of live-action with practical special effects and stop motion animation of several objects, a puppet and a model of the haunted hotel. It was the first stop motion film to receive wide scale appreciation. Especially

5016-488: The first episode of Unser Sandmänchen (Our Little Sandman) was broadcast on DFF (East German television) . The 10-minute daily bedtime show for young children features the title character as an animated puppet, and other puppets in different segments. A very similar Sandmänchen series, possibly conceived earlier, ran on West German television from 1 December 1959 until the German reunification in 1989. The East German show

5104-610: The instrument for him to play, next to Duck. At the end of each episode, the rag dolls would often join in with the song, unknown to Neil. Brewer became the longest-serving owner of the boat and was the only one to star in a live theatre tour of the show in 1999 and 2000. Brewer is the only presenter to have starred in more than 2 series. He is also the last surviving presenter, following the death of Pat Hutchins in November 2017, and that of John Cunliffe in September 2018. Following

5192-441: The more than 300 short films produced between 1896 and 1915 by British film pioneer Arthur Melbourne-Cooper , an estimated 36 contained forms of animation. Based on later reports by Melbourne-Cooper and by his daughter Audrey Wadowska, some believe that Cooper's Matches: an Appeal was produced in 1899 and therefore the first stop-motion animation. The extant black-and-white film shows a matchstick figure writing an appeal to donate

5280-425: The motion of a machine. Due to the long exposure times necessary to capture an image with the photographic emulsions of the period, the sequence could not be recorded live and must have been assembled from separate photographs of the various positions of the machinery. In 1855, Johann Nepomuk Czermak published an article about his Stereophoroskop and other experiments aimed at stereoscopic moving images. He mentioned

5368-514: The nearby town of Pencaster where he collects his special deliveries from the Pencaster Mail Centre. Postman Pat now has a newer fleet of vehicles, including a bigger van, gyrocopter, 4x4 Jeep and motorbike, complete with sidecar for Jess. He has a new boss, Ben, who tends to give him instructions (whereas he was his own master before the "promotion"). Pat also seems to make more mistakes in his work since moving to SDS, largely because

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5456-501: The new characters and the child characters, while Boyd continued to voice the adult females, Charlie and Sarah, Melissa Sinden and Jimmy Hibbert also joined to perform the animal characters' vocal effects and Angela Griffin joined in Series 5 to voice a new character (Amy Wrigglsworth). In Series 6, Lewis MacLeod replaced Barrie as Pat. In Series 7, Barrie left the series completely, and MacLeod, Bradley Clarkson, and Dan Milne took over

5544-553: The new format is always based on one delivery, which has to go wrong somehow (thus often because of Pat's errors). The series features an expanded and diverse cast, a fleet of new vehicles, a world full of gadgets and the new town of Pencaster. Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service first screened on BBC Two on 29 September 2008. The new series was commissioned by the BBC and produced by Entertainment Rights and Cosgrove Hall Films . A new series aired in 2016. Postman Pat: The Movie ,

5632-933: The official selection of the 1946 Cannes Film Festival . The first Belgian animated feature was an adaptation of the Tintin comic The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947) with animated puppets. The first Czech animated feature was the package film The Czech Year (1947) with animated puppets by Jiří Trnka . The film won several awards at the Venice Film Festival and other international festivals. Trnka would make several more award-winning stop motion features including The Emperor's Nightingale (1949), Prince Bayaya (1950), Old Czech Legends (1953) or A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959). He also directed many short films and experimented with other forms of animation. Ray Harryhausen learned under O'Brien on

5720-427: The original 1981 series was by Bryan Daly, who wrote a number of songs including the well-known theme tune. For the 2003 series, pop writer Simon Woodgate scored the show and wrote new songs, including a new closing theme "Postman Pat (Can You Guess What's In His Bag?)". The theme tune "Postman Pat & His Black and White Cat" was sung by Ken Barrie for the original series in the 1980s and 1990s. An extended version of

5808-431: The original treatment and scripts for the series, which was directed by animator Ivor Wood , who also worked on The Magic Roundabout , The Wombles , Paddington , and The Herbs . Following the success of the first series, four TV specials and a second series of thirteen episodes were produced during the 1990s. In this series, Pat had a family shown on screen for the first time (though his wife had been mentioned in

5896-548: The passage of Venus have not been located, some practice discs survived and the images of one were turned into a short animated film decades after the development of cinematography . In 1887, Étienne-Jules Marey created a large zoetrope with a series of plaster models based on his chronophotographs of birds in flight. It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of all silent films are lost. Extant contemporary movie catalogs, reviews and other documentation can provide some details on lost films, but this kind of written documentation

5984-461: The rest of Barrie's characters. Joe Trill joined in Series 8 to voice a new character. In the spin-off series, Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service , Postman Pat has been promoted to Head of the SDS and is now called upon to deliver anything. Each episode follows Postman Pat on a Special Delivery mission, from rescuing a runaway cow to delivering a giant ice cube. In his new role, Postman Pat commutes to

6072-482: The season 3 theme which came under scrutiny from classic fans and also credits Carole Boyd as doing voices in series 1, despite it being only Ken Barrie at the time. DVD releases of classic Postman Pat were limited in availability in various regions, although the revival series is more common. In 2004, the entire original series was released on DVD in Spain, featuring both English and Spanish audio options. In Scotland,

6160-407: The secrets of stop motion animation. The Insects' Christmas (Рождество обитателей леса, 1913) featured other animated puppets, including Father Christmas and a frog. Starevich made several other stop motion films in the next two years, but mainly went on to direct live-action short and feature films before he fled from Russia in 1918. Willis O' Brien 's first stop motion film was The Dinosaur and

6248-610: The series was shown not only in English but also sometimes broadcast as Pàdraig Post , in Scottish Gaelic , on BBC Alba . "Slower-paced" and "faster-paced" episodes of Postman Pat were used in a 2021 research study on the effects of fast-paced television on children's cognitive and problem-solving abilities. The results of the study suggested that faster-paced television did not negatively impact children's attention spans, problem-solving, or comprehension. In 2006, Postman Pat

6336-649: The show aired in countries like France and Australia. The edits made to the intro on the DVD involved some shots being replaced by scenes from "Pat's Difficult Day", "Pat Takes A Message", and "Pat's Foggy Day". This edited intro was also used when CBeebies and BritBox reran the show. After the sale of Woodland Animations to Entertainment Rights , the company began releasing VHS and DVDs of the revival series through their video label Entertainment Rights and distributor Universal Pictures Home Entertaiment . Right released only one classic series volume on VHS and DVD - Postman Pat in

6424-526: The stop-motion technique. It was followed by the revolutionary hand-drawn Fantasmagorie (17 August 1908) and many more animated films by Cohl. Other notable stop-motion films by Cohl include Les allumettes animées (Animated Matches) (1908), and Mobilier fidèle (1910, in collaboration with Romeo Bosetti ). Mobilier fidèle is often confused with Bosetti's object animation tour de force Le garde-meubles automatique (The Automatic Moving Company) (1912). Both films feature furniture moving by itself. Of

6512-478: The stop-trick and popularized it by using it in many of his short films. He reportedly used stop-motion animation in 1899 to produce moving letterforms. Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón (1871–1929) made many trick films in France for Pathé . He has often been compared to Georges Méliès as he also made many fantasy films with stop tricks and other illusions (helped by his wife, Julienne Mathieu ). By 1906 Chomón

6600-508: The street in Kendal where Cunliffe lived when he was writing the original treatment. The post office, at 10 Greenside, closed in 2003. Cunliffe did not retain rights to the character and was critical of some of the tie-in media later released. He wrote the stories to the series Rosie and Jim , which he also presented, as a show which he could have more creative control over. While Cunliffe visited post offices for inspiration, he has said that

6688-589: The syndicated television series The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1960-1961). The Christmas TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been telecasted annually since 1964 and has become one of the most beloved holiday specials in the United States. They made three theatrical feature films Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965), The Daydreamer (1966, stop motion / live-action) and Mad Monster Party? (1966, released in 1967), and

6776-450: The television special Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966) before the collaboration ended. Rankin/Bass worked with other animators for more TV specials, with titles such as The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970) and Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971). British television has shown many stop motion series for young children since the 1960s. An early example

6864-501: The tune of Franz Schubert 's Military March . An abbreviated version of this sequence was later used in television ads for Autolite, especially those on the 1950s CBS program Suspense , which Autolite sponsored. The first British animated feature was the stop motion instruction film Handling Ships (1945) by Halas and Batchelor for the British Admiralty . It was not meant for general cinemas, but did become part of

6952-723: The tune was released as a single in the UK where it reached number 44 in the charts in July 1982. An album, titled Postman Pat: Songs and Music From the TV Series , was released by Post Music in 1982. The theme tune and songs for Postman Pat Special Delivery Service (including "Special Delivery Service, What's It Going to Be Today?"), was recorded by Simon Woodgate at Echobass Studios. In 2013, DreamWorks Classics released Postman Pat SDS series 2. The new 26-episode series retained Bryan Daly's original theme tune and Simon Woodgate's closing song, however new character themes and incidental music

7040-636: The war and stayed in China afterwards. Due to the scarcity of paint and film stock shortly after the war, Mochinaga decided to work with puppets and stop motion. His work helped popularize puppet animation in China, before he returned to Japan around 1953 where he continued working as animation director. In the 1960s, Mochinaga supervised the "Animagic" puppet animation for productions by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass ' Videocraft International, Ltd. (later called Rankin/Bass Productions , Inc.) and Dentsu , starting with

7128-538: Was composed by Sandy Nuttgens. The theme song has undergone several adaptations; from 1994 to 2006, the theme tune had additional instruments such as synthesised strings and a tambourine. A similar edit had already been made to the 1993 album version, which was an edit of the original 1982 album version. As of 2009, over twelve million books, including storybooks, integrated learning books, colouring books, and multi-character magazines, have been sold worldwide. The Postman Pat characters and setting have also been used in

7216-446: Was continued on other German networks when DFF ended in 1991, and is one of the longest running animated series in the world. The theatrical feature Das Sandmännchen – Abenteuer im Traumland (2010) was fully animated with stop motion puppets. Japanese puppet animator Tadahito Mochinaga started out as assistant animator in short anime (propaganda) films Arichan (1941) and Momotarō no Umiwashi (1943). He fled to Manchukuo during

7304-656: Was followed by Pogles' Wood (1965-1967), Clangers (1969-1972, 1974, revived in 2015), Bagpuss (1974) and Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House (1984). Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Švankmajer 's released his short artistic films since 1964, which usually contain much experimental stop motion. He started to gain much international recognition in the 1980s. Since 1988 he has mostly been directing feature films which feature much more live action than stop motion. These include Alice , an adaptation of Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , and Faust ,

7392-480: Was more or less similar to the later zoetrope . Czermak explained how suitable stereoscopic photographs could be made by recording a series of models, for instance to animate a growing pyramid. On 27 February 1860, Peter Hubert Desvignes received British patent no. 537 for 28 monocular and stereoscopic variations of cylindrical stroboscopic devices (much like the later zoetrope). Desvignes' Mimoscope , received an Honourable Mention "for ingenuity of construction" at

7480-519: Was nominated for "Best Pre-school Animation" at the BAFTA Children's Awards . Stop motion The term "stop motion", relating to the animation technique, is often spelled with a hyphen as "stop-motion"—either standalone or as a compound modifier . Both orthographical variants, with and without the hyphen, are correct, but the hyphenated one has a second meaning that is unrelated to animation or cinema: "a device for automatically stopping

7568-559: Was recognized as a technique to create lifelike creatures for adventure films. O' Brien further pioneered the technique with animated dinosaur sequences for the live-action feature The Lost World (1925). New York artist Helena Smith Dayton , possibly the first female animator, had much success with her "Caricatypes" clay statuettes before she began experimenting with clay animation. Some of her first resulting short films were screened on 25 March 1917. She released an adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet approximately half

7656-491: Was then hired by producer Herbert M. Dawley to direct, create effects, co-write and co-star with him for The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918). The collaborative film combined live-action with animated dinosaur models in a 45-minute film, but after the premiere it was cut down to approximately 12 minutes. Dawley did not give O'Brien credits for the visual effects, and instead claimed the animation process as his own invention and even applied for patents. O'Brien's stop motion work

7744-609: Was using stop motion animation. Le théâtre de Bob (April 1906) features over three minutes of stop motion animation with dolls and objects to represent a fictional automated theatre owned by Bob, played by a live-action child actor. It is the oldest extant film with proper stop motion and a definite release date. Segundo de Chomón 's Sculpteur moderne was released on 31 January 1908 and features heaps of clay molding itself into detailed sculptures that are capable of minor movements. The final sculpture depicts an old woman and walks around before it's picked up, squashed and molded back into

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