Early Animation

Relax and unwind in rewind with this trick film – if you haven’t cottoned on yet all is not as it seems…

Decades before Toy Story, a young boy’s toys come to life through animation

Ten boys discover that a good wash is step one on the road to health in this silent cartoon

Empire buying begins at home: John Bull gets a makeover in this cartoon promoting British farmed goods

Short animation of a comic duel between English batsman Patsy Hendren and Australian bowler Arthur Mailey at the Kennington Oval.

Rain may stop play, but never the British sense of humour.

Skilled artist Lancelot Speed brings his cartoons to life to mock the German navy at the start of WWI.

A bug’s life laid bare in this charming cut-out animated tale by pioneering film naturalist F. Percy Smith

Cartoon drawings come to life to haunt the German Emperor in a witty piece of WWI propaganda.

Lightning sketch propaganda stirs outrage about Reims bombing, and features a British bulldog eating the German sausage

An animated Moor of Venice brings comedy to Shakespeare’s tragedy, in this cut-out cartoon with some neat tricks up its sleeve

Mixing lightning sketches with animation, this propaganda cartoon comes to life in defence of the British fighting force of 1914.

I’ll have what he’s smoking! - US import Jesse “Vet” Anderson breathes life (and smoke) into the UK animation industry

An innovative animated appeal film for donations to send matches to troops in the First World War

Charming animated illustration of one of nature's wonders from Britain's most inventive pioneer of wildlife filmmaking.

Anson Dyer imagines the characters behind newspaper adverts and brings them to life in this Kine Komedy Kartoon

This WWI cartoon rouses the British lion, bringing to life the December 1914 German Naval raid on Scarborough with visual flourishes.

The hand of the artist tweaks the nose of “Kaiser Bill” and friends in this episode from an early animated propaganda series

A star-spangled sock on the nose for Kaiser Wilhelm, as this wordplay propaganda cartoon meets war crimes with pun-ishment

Pioneering visual graphics – with added cotton wool – recreate an incendiary WWI incident involving a stricken British submarine.

Blackly comic cartoon portrait of an apocalyptic England, destroyed 50 years after signing a premature peace in WWI.

More chalk-talker than pencil-pusher, this popular artist recreates his cartoons for the screen with flashes of added animation.

Animated WWI-era comic highlights from the innovative cartoonist George Studdy, creator of Bonzo the dog.

An edible bomb is cooked by the Kaiser in this fun WWI cartoon, which mixes propaganda with fantasy as a boy's dreams turn into nightmares.

Party-political hyperbole meets Wacky Races in this spirited cartoon produced for the Conservative Party.

Was the root of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s power his 'Imperial Moustache'?

Stripped-back wooden dolls put on the greatest show on Earth via the marvel of stop motion

Mr Nosey Parker visits farmer John Barleycorn to tell him how to do his job in this witty Conservative Party campaigning cartoon.

Witness the birth of motion graphics in news reporting amid the ongoing Gallipoli campaign during WWI.

Bringing cartoons to life to illustrate the innocence of British propaganda as it accuses the Kaiser’s propaganda of being deceitful.

A bedtime story for insects by a legend of natural history filmmaking