JOHN HALAS

John Halas (Budapest, 6 April 1912) is a Hungarian animator.
He moved to Great Britain in 1936, where in 1940, together with his wife Joy Batchelor, he founded a studio, the Halas and Batchelor.
The study focuses first on anti-fascist propaganda films, then, after the war, focuses on both popular and entertainment productions. But the quantum leap is made by producing in 1954, The Animal Farm, an adaptation of the famous novel by George Orwell.
Although the starting point might seem ideological, Halas and Batchelor decided to make a film for everyone. Stylistically the animals are far from the anthropomorphic features typical of the Disney school and retain their own dignified animality. There was much criticism about the change in finals, which, unlike Orwell's pessimism, ended in a happy ending, but the two artists justified the change as a sign of openness and optimism towards the future. The film saw the light in 1954, and was the first British animated feature film.