The Story of British Animation

Don’t tell the Spotty man but Superted has a new friend. A stop motion predecessor of the superhero teddy idea

Kenneth Williams as the voice of methane? It’s a gas! This British Gas sponsored short is the origin of cult kids TV classic Willo the Wisp

Military mind experiments, pacifists, Brighton beach and Billy Bunter in a bumper car – there is a lot going on in this fantastic animated short

No man is an island, but Charley represents his nation in this economical cartoon tale of Britain’s economics

The germs in this silent 1920s cartoon seem to have caught the Flapper bug

2 + 2 = BOOM! The apocalyptic danger of maths is explored in this computer animated cartoon from the mind of Stan Hayward

Who does he think he’s kidding? This parodic day-in-the-life portrait of Mr Hitler is one of the very few British examples of comic cartoon propaganda from WW2.

Nuclear nightmares realised in cartoon form by a Yorkshire women’s collective that advocates protest over pointless preparation

Charge into this slick amateur cartoon from the Grasshopper Group which was three years in the making

Out with the old and in with the new – one of Britain’s leading animation companies pitches its new image with great humour

Trust me – you will never look at custard the same way again

Carmen get your cartoon opera fix in this (very!) loose version of Bizet’s classic tale of romance and treachery.

Teddie, Piggie and Poll might not have gone down in history like Mickey Mouse, but here is a British answer to Disney’s Steamboat Willie

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

A British Steamboat Willie? This early British sound cartoon might not have been the first, but it’s a cracker

A line-drawing love story in a surreal land, made to advertise Empire Air Mail but withheld due to "Freudian" symbolism.

… as brought to you by Rolex, with the help of incredible model animation.

An animated Western mock-opera about Horlicks? Bring it on!

Do not adjust your set! This off-beat jukebox cartoon is definitely more freaky than footbally

If anyone can bring Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s sketchbooks to life, Geoff Dunbar can-can

Spoiler alert! The fox is always going to outsmart the hounds in this delightful, balletic cartoon that heads from the countryside into 1930s suburbia.

Even Clark Gable doesn’t live up to his image in this off-beat cartoon about a woman fed up with the attentions of little green men

Does your home suffer from BO? This gag filled pastiche of the ad industry is happy to nibble the hand that feeds it

An animated xmas with paper dog Snap

Meet Sammy, his dog Sausage and their creator, early British animator Joe Noble, whose inventive streak sees him chased by his own shadow

This trick film of magical transitions features some early animated flourishes that, for their time, were clearly at the cutting-edge

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

An abstract poetic tale that tells both one and a thousand stories of love and loss, by a designer on The Beatles Yellow Submarine film

This abstract animated short by Yellow Submarine director George Dunning reaches great heights.

An off-beat animated love story of sorts as Polonius meets his match in Agnes the art lecturer

Remember when Charlie Chaplin went into space? Reality is no obstacle in this endlessly inventive silent cinema cartoon of the 'Little Tramp'

No time to veg out – there's a war on. Get your vegetables out!

Do you know the golden rules of tea making? The Tea Bureau set out to put your cuppa straight in this progressively designed post-war cartoon

1920s canine icon Bonzo the Dog tests the Entente Cordiale to the limit in this silent British cartoon

Toy Story meets Fatal Attraction in this tale of an Edwardian childhood romance scuppered by poor finances and a stalking dolly

Bloody foreign cows coming over here and becoming our dinners

Roll up, roll up! Come witness staggering feats in what might be the earliest surviving animated film made in colour.

A pioneering effort in bringing shadow puppetry to the cinema

Toy Story meets biblical epic in this pioneering stop-motion short from Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

Hitler as a snake and Mussolini as a toad feature in this British propaganda cartoon made for distribution in the Middle East

A cinema advert for cocoa that apes American cartoons, from a little-known corner of British animation history.

A Peter Strausfeld animation, encouraging the public to use the telephone more sparingly in wartime.

Dangerously addicted to boring old movies? This is a case for Dr BFI, as demonstrated in this 1970s animated promo

Aardman turn the cinema screen into a mirror and offer this delightful portrait of the typical film festival audience

Washing day keeping you from a spin on your flying carpet? This quality cinema features a young apprentice genie learning a helpful solution.

Long before MTV, Len Lye crafted this antecedent of the music video with a cheeky monkey singing and dancing to Cuban hit 'Peanut Vendor'

Farting and swearing and violence – oh my! Albert Jarry’s controversial play translates beautifully to splattered inks in Geoff Dunbar’s award-winning animation.

Newlyweds meet a nuisance in an enjoyable mix of cartoon comedy and real-life actors, including Roobarb legend Bob Godfrey.

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

An animated recreation of the sinking of the Lusitania is the centrepiece of this pioneering mix of comedy, satire and outrage in cartoon propaganda.

Come on Steve! The 1930s comic strip carthorse both starts and stops a naval battle in this cartoon animated by Carl Giles

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

The “Bill Bailey” punchline might have lost its meaning over the years, but this comic gag short features some of Britain’s earliest animation

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