Experimental Animation (Peanut Vendor), 1934

Experimental Animation (Peanut Vendor), 1934, 3 mins

Lye experimented with puppet animation. Because cartoon animation had come to be dominated by Walt Disney, many European film-makers turned to puppets as an alternative. Lye made this whimsical little film as an experiment in 1934, hoping to use it to raise money for a series. Unfortunately he failed to find a sponsor for the series, though he was able to return to puppet animation in 1936 in The Birth of the Robot. His choice of music here was “Peanut Vendor”, a popular jazz number by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. Lye slightly re-edited this film in the 1950s, and it has recently been restored by Sarah Davy of the NZ Film Archive.