This film is part of Free
Sea Dreams
Skilled artist Lancelot Speed brings his cartoons to life to mock the German navy at the start of WWI.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1914 6 mins Silent
Overview
Maintaining public confidence in Britain's naval prowess was a key propaganda priority in WWI. Here, celebrated illustrator Lancelot Speed conjures up images of Drake and Nelson to contrast with the more recent ambitions of the German navy. By a fortunate coincidence, the film was released just two days after Britain's victory at sea in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
Subjects
Related
Early Animation
A Pencil and Alick P.F. Ritchie
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1915 7 mins Silent
More chalk-talker than pencil-pusher, this popular artist recreates his cartoons for the screen with flashes of added animation.
Bully Boy
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1914 6 mins Silent
Lightning sketch propaganda stirs outrage about Reims bombing, and features a British bulldog eating the German sausage
Ever Been Had
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1917 9 mins Silent
Blackly comic cartoon portrait of an apocalyptic England, destroyed 50 years after signing a premature peace in WWI.
E13 Avenged
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1915 1 mins Silent
Pioneering visual graphics – with added cotton wool – recreate an incendiary WWI incident involving a stricken British submarine.
Peter's Picture Poems
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1917 3 mins Silent
A star-spangled sock on the nose for Kaiser Wilhelm, as this wordplay propaganda cartoon meets war crimes with pun-ishment
John Bull's Animated Sketch Book
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1916 10 mins Silent
The hand of the artist tweaks the nose of “Kaiser Bill” and friends in this episode from an early animated propaganda series
New
Bamboozled
Comedy 1919 35 mins Silent
A protective father masquerades as an automatic doll in this bonkers interwar comedy.
Spirit of Mayday
1937 11 mins Silent
May Day – a significant day for the labour movement – is covered by the cameras of the Film and Photograph League.
Cornelius Cardew 1936-1981
Performance 1986 55 mins
An exploration of the life and work of the controversial British composer.
Circulation
1935 9 mins
Let it bleed? This exemplary education film gets to the heart of the matter.
U.A.B. (Workers Newsreel No.3)
Non-Fiction 1935 12 mins Silent
Punchy political film capturing mass protests against unemployment.
The Merry Month of May
1937 15 mins Silent
A spirited satire on the coronation of George VI made by members of the Film and Photograph League.