The Birth of the Robot

Overview

This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive

Details

Status

Released

Release date

October 1, 1936

Original language

English

Countries

United Kingdom

Director

Len Lye

Writer

C.H. David

Cinematography

Alex Strasser

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

tt0027364