Danger Mouse and Toad star in animation exhibition
Skwigly
A cel set up from Danger Mouse, as well as puppets of Toad from The Wind in the Willows, Chorlton from Chorlton and the Wheelies, and a model of Toby from Toby’s Travelling Circus are amongst the items in a new exhibition on animation which opens this week at MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester).
Creating the Illusion: Animation in the North West is a small exhibition which explores the history of animation in the North West, from the development of Magic Lantern projectors in the Edwardian era to modern computer generated images. Highlights include puppets and imagery from popular series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films, such as Chorlton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse and The Wind in the Willows, and archives from the animator Paul Berry, who later went on to work on Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas and Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach.
A newly-restored statue of Igor from the series Count Duckula, which stood in the entrance to Cosgrove Hall, will greet visitors to the exhibition. Items have also been loaned from Mackinnon and Saunders in Altrincham, which still produces programmes, including Toby’s Travelling Circus.
Jan Hicks, curator for Creating The Illusion said: “We’re really excited to be launching the new Highlights Gallery with this exhibition. We want to show off some of MOSI’s wonderful collections that have rarely been seen before, and our animation collections seemed to be a good place to start. The North West is home to a significant number of animation companies, and they’re here because of Cosgrove Hall. Creating the Illusion celebrates animation in the North West and helps to tell an important story in the region’s history.”
Brian Cosgrove of the former Cosgrove Hall Films said: “Mark Hall and I set up our first studio in the 70’s and it grew from there. It is a history of which I am very proud. I think it is fair to say that what we started all those years ago has established the North of England as the centre of the country’s animation industry. The people we trained have set up their own businesses and have Hollywood directors coming over to hire their skills.”
Thames Television, who made the programme Rainbow, set up animators Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove as Cosgrove Hall Films in Chorlton, South Manchester in 1976, which led to the growth of the animation industry in Manchester and the North West. Their first series was Chorlton and the Wheelies, which featured Chorlton the Happiness Dragon in a Wheelie World terrorised by Fenella the Kettle Witch. The company went on to produce numerous other popular programmes, including Danger Mouse, one of the UK’s most popular drawn animations. At its height Cosgrove Hall Films was the largest animation studio in Europe.
Cosgrove Hall Films attracted a lot of talent, including Barry Purves, who was the first animator for the Toad puppet in Wind in the Willows. Barry went on to make his own internationally acclaimed films, and the exhibition includes a puppet from his most recent film – a biopic about Tchaikovsky made for Russian television.
Acclaimed animator Paul Berry also worked at Cosgrove Hall, and took over the job of animating Toad from Barry Purves. Mark Hall described Paul as the best model animator the company ever had. While he worked at Cosgrove Hall Paul was given time out to work with Ian Mackinnon on his short film The Sandman, which was nominated for an Oscar. MOSI’s exhibition features the thesis, student cards and photographs of Berry, who died in 2001 (age 40).
The exhibition draws on MOSI’s own collections, as well as loans from Brian Cosgrove, Barry Purves, ITV, and Altrincham-based Mackinnon and Saunders.
Creating the Illusion: Animation in the North West is the first exhibition in MOSI’s new Highlights Gallery programme and runs from 22 June to 2 November 2013.