A Hatful of Dreams (1944)

A Hatful of Dreams (1944)
Producer: George Pal. Director: George Pal.

One of the wonderful Technicolor George Pal “Puppetoons,” a unique series of stop-motion shorts released by Paramount between 1941 and 1947. Animator Pal won a Special Academy Award for this series, for its “novel methods” of three-dimensional cartoon making — today known as “replacement animation,” a technique widely used in films such as Coraline and TV productions like Robot Chicken. Before Pal’s illustrious career as a live-action fantasy filmmaker (War of the Worlds, Tom Thumb, The Time Machine, among others), he produced Puppetoon shorts like this one, starring Rusty, a little boy with a big imagination. This short utilizes Paramount’s exclusive arrangement with National Periodicals (DC Comics) for its use of Superman, whom Rusty imagines himself to be in his daydream. The art direction and character designs, as well as the models, sets and the lighting, are dazzling — noteworthy for their originality.
—Jerry Beck, animation historian. More on our blog: ucla.in/3XsJBqk