BFI gets Halas & Batchelor animation archive

Murray Mints TV ad and Animal Farm film among Halas & Batchelor gems given to institute

Different generations will have different memories: the only feature-length animation of Animal Farm, perhaps, or the first Murray Mints TV ad. Then there was Foo Foo from the 1960s, Jackson Five and Asterix cartoons from the 1970s, numerous education films screened in schools or one of the first pop videos featuring downright weird and trippy animation that accompanied Kraftwerk's Autobahn in 1979. All of the above were from one of the most important British animation studios there has ever been – the husband and wife-run Halas & Batchelor, sometimes called the British Disney – which for more than 50 years produced adverts, public information pieces, feature films, TV cartoons and serious award-winning animation respected the world over.

Today, 15 years after the studio's last release, the British Film Institute will announce that it has been given the Halas & Batchelor archive, including film prints, stills, scripts, correspondence and original cells. It is the largest ever single donation of British animation and was welcomed as "an extraordinarily rich gift" by the BFI director, Amanda Nevill. "We look forward to working on ensuring these films and artefacts are enjoyed by the widest possible group of people in years to come," she said.

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