Australia Celebrates 100 Years of Animation

This week ABC News took time to discuss 100 years of animation in Australia, perfectly coinciding with the Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF) where artists from all over the world can submit their work.

ABC News Breakfast invited MIAF’s director, Malcolm Turner, to discuss the beginnings of Australian Animation. He began by mentioning Harry Julius and his “cut-out” animation that began in 1915 before moving on to Eric Porter, who Turner affectionately calls the “Disney of Australia.” It was Porter’s animation that introduced color and made Australia’s first animated feature film Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon in 1972.

To celebrate the occasion Marco Polo Junior will show in full restoration at MIAF. Tuner called it the “most exciting” thing he’s seen in all of the 15 years at the festival. The festival runs June 21–28. Take a look at ABC Breakfast’s official clip about 100 years of Australian Animation here.

The strongest front runner for the festival is The Story of Percival Pilts, a stop-motion film made by Janette Goodey and John Lewis. The story follows the life of Percival. He declares as a child that he will never let his feet touch the ground again. Percival keeps to his word and makes stilts that make him more than “stand out” from the crowd. Turner expresses how impressed he is with this stop-motion short and claims it has “academy award nomination written all over it.” Check out the trailer below:

What do you think of Australian animation? Are you interested in watching ‘The Story of Percival Pilts’?

Edited by: Hannah Wilkes