George Pal

Among the legends of Hollywood, George Pal takes his place as a true visionary, an innovator and a showman who profoundly shaped the art of motion pictures. A peer of Walt Disney, Pal pioneered stop motion animation and went on to virtually invent the modern science fiction and fantasy film genres. Pal's extraordinary genius molded a dazzling array of films, which earned an incredible total of eight Academy Awards and left a cinematic legacy that served as formative inspiration for the movies of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Gene Roddenberry.

Open details →

The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.

Open details →

Keith Hetherington and Dorothy Gardiner travel to a different and unannounced location of interest every week, the program here presents a "live," behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of the 1950 George Pal film "Destination Moon".

Open details →

In the Fabulous Thirties, Doc Savage and his five Amazing Adventurers are sucked into the mystery of Doc's father disappearing in the wilds of South America. The maniacal Captain Seas tries to thwart them at every turn as they travel to the country of Hidalgo to investigate Doc's father's death and uncover a vast horde of Incan gold.

Open details →

George Pal, known for his science-fiction films in the 1950s and 60s, was also known for making a series of animated shorts called Puppetoons in the 1930s and 40s. This short was made for Chuck Jones children's series THE CURIOSITY SHOP and later fell into the 16mm market. By that time, everyone from Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass to Jim Henson, said that they were influenced and inspired by George Pal's Puppetoons. After making a series of great films that turned out to be box-office flops, such as ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT (1961), THE 7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964), and THE POWER (1968), all of which had stop-motion scenes, perhaps it was time to go back to his roots. Directed by Gene Warren and animated by Harry Walton.

Open details →

One by one members of a special project team are being killed by telekinesis - the ability to move things with the power of the mind alone. The race is on to determine which of the remaining team members is the murderer and to stop them.

Open details →

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.

Open details →

The Grimm brothers Wilhelm and Jacob, known for their literary works in the nineteenth century, have their lives dramatized. Wilhelm fights to write something entertaining amongst the sea of dry, non-fiction books they write and he sets about collecting oral-tradition fairy tales to put into print. Their life story is countered with reenactments of three of their stories including "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone."

Open details →

A Greek Fisherman brings an Atlantean Princess back to her homeland which is the mythical city of Atlantis. He is enslaved for his trouble. The King is being manipulated by an evil sorcerer who is bent on using a natural resource of Atlantis to take over the world. The Atlanteans, or rather the slaves of Atlantis, are forced to mine a crystalline material which absorbs the suns rays. These crystals can then be used for warmth. The misuse of science has created weapons out of the crystals that can fire a heat ray to destroy whatever it touches.

Open details →

A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.

Open details →

A boy, no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves determined to make a fortune from him.

Open details →

The first of a series of 12 compilation features (number 1-12)made for theatres to use as a Saturday Matinee offering aimed strictly at children. Marian Stafford, folk-singer Jared Reed, and The Bunin Puppets appear before and after each cartoon short. All of the cartoon shorts were originally released by Paramount, and included "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943)" - Betty Boop's "Crazy Town (1932)" - "The Silly Goose/Dumme Ganslein, Der (1945)" - "The Busy Little Bears (1939)" - "Toys Will Be Toys (1949)", and other Paramount cartoons, shorts and a couple of the audience-participation Screen Song singalong shorts. Strictly sold on a "Park-the-kids-and-go-shopping" or "Cheap Baby-Sitting" basis, and, since it was geared toward the kids, there was also a bath-room break intermission about halfway through the film. New footage and some of the cartoons in Technicolor, but a few of the cartoons were black-and-white.

Open details →

A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars, but the captain's religious beliefs may get in the way.

Open details →

The Leiningen South American cocoa plantation is threatened by a 2-mile-wide, 20-mile-long column of army ants.

Open details →

By the early 1900s, the extraordinary Houdini earned an international reputation for his theatrical tricks and daring feats of extrication from shackles, ropes, handcuffs and... Scotland Yard's jails.

Open details →

The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.

Open details →

When a group of astronomers calculate a star is on a course to slam into Earth, a few days before, it's accompanying planet will first pass close enough to the Earth to cause havoc on land and sea. They set about building a rocket so a few selected individuals can escape to the planet.

Open details →

A team composed of an aerospace scientist, an ex-Air Force general, and an industrialist conceives an ambitious plan to land Americans on the moon. From their base in the Mojave Desert, they construct and successfully launch a spacecraft named "Luna" that contains a cargo of four astronauts. But a critical miscalculation of needed power to escape the moon's gravitational pull may put the astronauts' lives in danger.

Open details →

Shortly before Christmas, a family moves into an apartment where Rupert the squirrel lives in the attic rafters. Just as it seems that the holiday will come and go without so much as a Christmas tree, Rupert acts as the family's guardian angel - not only saving Christmas, but changing their lives forever.

Open details →

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), Tubby the Tuba is disappointed that his sound limits what he's permitted to do in an orchestra of self-playing instruments that, unlike him, get to play pretty melodies. A chance meeting with a bullfrog changes everything.

Open details →

In this entertaining Puppetoon animated short film, a young boy, Jasper, gets trapped inside a pawnshop at midnight. All the musical instruments come to life and play jazz. A whooping wooden Indian chief self-animates as well, and goes on the warpath.

Open details →

In this Puppetoon animated short film, Judy, an enticing blonde, lives across the way from Punchy and uses all her feminine wiles to try to snare him.

Open details →

All-puppet animation tells the story of how oil is formed through ages of geological change, how it is found, extracted and put to use by man.

Open details →

George Pal’s stop motion Puppetoons were peopled with all types of characters. Two of his most popular were a pair of lovestruck kids named Punchy and Judy. Here, down-on-his-luck Punchy obtains a magical straw hat from a plucky talking horse and transforms himself into Aladdin and, with the official permission of DC Comics, Superman. Hoping to impress Judy, Punchy’s delusions of grandeur only land him in jail. The talking horse is a witness at Punchy’s trial and cajoles the judge, arresting Officer Moriarty and members of the jury to test the hat, causing their secret selves to emerge inbound, a hilarious spectacle as their unfettered dreams and desire hold sway.

Open details →

Jasper goes to heaven in this George Pal Puppetoon.

Open details →

Jasper is hunting in the jungle with his friend the Scarecrow. Along the way, they run into Bugs Bunny, making a rare cameo in a non-Warner Bros. production.

Open details →

Jasper goes to the dentist.

Open details →

A Puppetoon by George Pal.

Open details →

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), a young Dutch couple find their idyllic countryside being overrun by unfeeling, unthinking mechanical men and machines that lay waste to everything in their path. In 1997 this film, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Open details →

Animated cinema advertisement produced for Horlick's by George Pal.

Open details →

Animated cinema advertisement produced for Horlick's by George Pal.

Open details →

George Pal animation short of the fable of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.

Open details →

Centuries ago in the past, the witch, who doesn't like Beauty, puts her to sleep, then flies throughout the castle spreading sleep powder, placing all into slumber. Eventually we flash forward to present time: A young hepcat in a convertible tries awakening Sleeping Beauty, and everyone in the castle, with some Big Band music. Will it work? A Puppetoon animated short film.

Open details →

In this Puppetoon animated short film, a variety of music styles are heard as, in various locations, characters dance or sing.

Open details →