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Road Hogs in Toyland

1911

Cat no. 215265

A stop-motion animated film by Hertfordshire film pioneer Arthur Melbourne-Cooper.

The inhabitants of Toyland are terrorized by a group of 'road hogs' intent on taking their racing cars from city streets, through villages and down country lanes. Returning to the stop-motion animation technique, and sense of reckless abandon, with which he had created 'Dream of Toyland' four years earlier, Arthur Melbourne-Cooper delivers another farcical tale of toys brought to vivid life. With the residents of Toyland engaged in their usual joyous melee, a quartet of men assemble at an inn for a quick drink before jumping into their sports cars and setting off on a race. Their arrival at many scenic locations is prefaced with typically farcical encounters, where couples kiss in the street only to be beaten and robbed, a horse and his owner have an almighty brawl and a policeman narrowly avoids being hit by the road hogs only to cause an accident. As the race continues, the group run over animals at a farm, use a giant to help reattach a wheel and bully a much smaller car, before the race finally comes to an end with a calamitous accident.

Keywords

Comedy; Early cinema; Sports cars; Toys

Background Information

ROAD HOGS IN TOYLAND was Arthur Melbourne-Cooper's first picture for Butcher's Empire Pictures. "The titles of the copy from the Audrey and Jan Wadowski estate were, most probably, made for the screening of this film at the Cambridge Animation Film Festival in September 1979. Title: "ROAD HOG IN TOYLAND - Made by ARTHUR MELBORNE-COOPER - 1911" [sic]. After this title there are still some frames of the original title left. Surviving film does not have the complete final sequence of the rescue by an aeroplane." [SOURCE: Tjitte de Vries & Ati Mul, 'They Thought It Was A Marvel' (p. 417)]

  • Maker : Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

  • Distributor : W. Butcher & Sons Ltd

  • Production company : Butcher's Empire Pictures

  • Producer : Frank Butcher

  • Animator : Henry Maynard (assistant animator)

Manifestations

Road Hogs in Toyland

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