Joy Batchelor

Joy Ethel Batchelor (12 May 1914 – 14 May 1991) was an English animator, director, screenwriter, and producer. She married John Halas in 1940 and subsequently co-established Halas and Batchelor cartoons, whose best known production is the animated feature film Animal Farm, which made her the first woman director of an animated feature since Lotte Reiniger. Together they created over 2000 shorts/films, and produced roughly 70 propaganda pieces during World War II for the British government. She helped co-write, write, animate, produce, and direct many of their productions.

One of Batchelor's projects as an art director was Cinerama Holiday (1955). She directed and wrote Ruddigore (1967), a television-film adaptation of W.S. Gilbert's opera of the same name, which became the first opera to be adapted into an animated film. to which she had won a scholarship. She was offered placement afterwards at the Slade School of Art, but did not continue schooling to help support her family financially. She worked as a commercial artist and assembly line worker.

Career Batchelor first began working in animation as an in-betweener for Dennis Connolly's projects. As part of her job as a commercial artist, she worked as a silk-screen printer and printed posters,

Halas and Batchelor

alt=A film part of the Charley series directed, produced, and written by Joy Batchelor. Your Very Good Health was released in 1948. During the first year of Halas and Batchelor, Batchelor and Halas continued to do commercial work to bolster their finances. In 1940, Halas and Batchelor was approached by J. Walter Thompson to produce advertising shorts. The first film she wrote for the Ministry of Health, was Modern Guide to Health (1946). The company's films were also part of the effort by the Economic Cooperation Administration to promote the Marshall Plan. To that end, Lothar Wolff, in charge of commissioning films for the ECA, asked Halas and Batchelor to animate The Shoemaker and the Hatter (1949). Wolff later introduced their films to Louis de Rochemont, who worked with them to create Animal Farm.

Halas and Batchelor produced only one more animated feature film after Animal Farm, an adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta, Ruddigore, written and directed by Batchelor herself. The 1966 film was the first animated adaptation of an opera.

Retirement and death Batchelor had to retire in the mid 1970s due to arthritis, and could no longer work. She taught well past retirement at the London Film School. She died 14 May 1991 in London from an unnamed illness, two days after her 77th birthday.

She is survived by her daughter Vivien Halas, who currently manages the Halas & Batchelor collection. possibly other roles Train Trouble 1940 Advertisement Director, Filling the Gap 1941 Short Modern Guide to Health 1946 Short Screenwriter Magic Canvas 1948 Short Producer Charley series 1948–49 Series Director, producer, character designer, screenwriter Fly About the House 1949 Short Director, producer, design The Shoemaker and the Hatter 1949 Short Screenwriter The Figurehead 1953 Short Director, producer, screenwriter, design The Adventures of Popeye 1956-68 Series Director, producer, screenwriter Foo Foo 1959–60 Series Director, producer, screenwriter Automania 2000 1963 Short Screenwriter, producer, storyboard artist Do Do - The Kid from Outer Space 1964 Series Director, producer, screenwriter Ruddigore 1967 Feature film Director, screenwriter Colombo Plan 1967 Short Director The Five 1970 Short Director, producer The Revolution of Pets 1972 Feature film Director, producer, character designer, screenwriter Contact 1973 Short Director Bee Tales 1982 Feature film Director, producer, character design