Festival of Preservation
Puppetoons Shorts
Directed by George Pal
Program I introduced by Arnold Leibovit, producer-director and Puppetoon historian
Hungarian-American filmmaker George Pal is perhaps best remembered today for producing several science fiction classics, including The War of the Worlds (1953), and for directing The Time Machine (1960), but prior to his feature-length genre work, Pal first made his cinematic mark with a series of animated short subjects called Puppetoons. Produced initially in Europe, and then later for Paramount in America, Puppetoons employed a novel stop motion technique pioneered by Pal called “replacement animation,” which involved swapping out an array of similar but distinct hand-carved puppets (or specific parts of them) for each individual frame, to simulate character movement and changes in expression. George Pal and his staff produced over sixty Puppetoons shorts between 1932 and 1947, seven of which were nominated for Academy Awards. The two Puppetoons programs showcased here demonstrate the breadth and depth of George Pal’s artistry across a selection of shorts.
Program I (55 mins)
Western Daze (1941, 9 mins)
Good Night Rusty (1943, 7 mins)
A Hatful of Dreams (1944, 10 mins)
The Gay Knighties (1941, 9 mins)
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943, 9 mins) Academy Award® nominated
Tubby the Tuba (1947, 10 mins) Academy Award® nominated
Program II (42 mins)
Rhythm in the Ranks (1941, 10 mins) Academy Award® nominated
Rhapsody in Wood (1947, 8 mins)
The Sky Princess (1941, 7 mins)
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1944, 10 mins) Academy Award® nominated
Together in the Weather (1946, 7 mins)
Restoration Credits:
Meticulously restored from their original 35mm Technicolor successive exposure negatives by Producer-Director Arnold Leibovit.
About Arnold Leibovit
Arnold Leibovit is a producer-director and preservationist whose decades-long work has been devoted to restoring and celebrating the legacy of Academy Award-winning producer-director George Pal. With the encouragement and participation of Mrs. George Pal, Leibovit produced and directed the acclaimed documentary The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, which premiered at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater. He later produced and directed The Puppetoon Movie, a feature-length tribute introducing new generations to Pal’s original Technicolor Puppetoons through restored prints and newly created stop-motion animation. Over the past several decades, Leibovit has continued to restore and preserve Pal’s surviving Puppetoon films from original elements, culminating in newly restored high-definition Blu-ray releases that make these historically significant works accessible to contemporary audiences. The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 won The Rondo Hatton Award for Best Blu-ray Collection of the Year.
His career includes Executive Producing The Time Machine (2002) with Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros., co-directing Rascal Dazzle on the Our Gang Comedies hosted by Jerry Lewis, producing a restoration of the original motion picture score for The Time Machine, directing several award-winning short films and other projects. Across his career, Leibovit has received eleven awards, including the George Pal Memorial Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, CINE Golden Eagles, Awards of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board and other International Festival Awards. He continues to develop new film projects inspired by Pal’s legacy of imagination and innovation and controls the Puppetoon™ trademark. For more than four decades, Arnold Leibovit’s work has ensured that George Pal’s Puppetoons—and the spirit of imagination they embody—continue to inspire new generations of audiences.
Showtimes
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Saturday, November 7
Sunday, November 8
Monday, November 9
Trailer not available at this time.
Festival of Preservation
Program I: 55 mins / Program II: 42 mins
DCP
George Pal