Arthur Humberstone

Arthur Roland Humberstone (17 April 1912 – 31 December 1999) was a British animator, artist and director, whose credits included Animal Farm, Yellow Submarine and The BFG.

In 1946, Arthur was one of the trainee animators enlisted at J Arthur Rank's new studio being set up at Moor Hall in Cookham led by ex-Disney Director David Hand, where he animated several Animaland shorts.

He worked with Halas & Batchelor and as a senior animator with Martin Rosen on Watership Down and The Plague Dogs.

Arthur Humberstone's influence on the film Watership Down is discussed in the chapter "Revisiting the production of Watership Down through the Arthur Humberstone Animation Archive" in the book Watership Down: Perspectives On and Beyond Animated Violence.

An exhibition Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad, of materials from the Arthur Humberstone Animation Archive, was shown at The Horse Hospital 13th April - 5th May 2023.

An exhibition The Animated Life of Arthur Humberstone was shown at the Post Hall, Sheffield Hallam University 8th March - 5th April 2025.

Filmography

Year Title Notes Refs 1949 Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus 1950 Ginger Nutt's Forest Dragon 1968 Yellow Submarine 1972 The Osmonds 1973 The Addams Family unit director 1974 The Count of Monte Cristo 1978 Watership Down senior animator 1979 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe 1982 The Plague Dogs senior animator 1983 SuperTed layout artist, one episode 1989 The BFG key animator