George Pal

George Pal (born February 1, 1908, Cegléd, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]—died May 2, 1980, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was a Hungarian-born animator, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the science-fiction genre, especially noted for his work with special effects. He also created Puppetoons, a popular series of animated shorts.

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Pal studied architecture before becoming a set designer at the UFA studio in Berlin. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, he left Germany and lived in several European cities before settling in the United States in 1939. The following year he signed a contract with Paramount. Continuing the screen experiments he had begun with stop-motion animated puppets, Pal developed the Puppetoons series. The innovative short films eventually totaled more than 40 in number and included Rhythm in the Ranks (1941), Dr. Seuss’s The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943), and Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945). Pal received seven Academy Award nominations for the films, and in 1944 he was presented with a special Oscar for his work on the series.

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After the Puppetoons franchise was shuttered by Paramount in 1948 because of rising costs, Pal turned to feature-film work. He served as producer for Irving Pichel’s Destination Moon (1950), Rudolph Maté’s When Worlds Collide (1951), and Byron Haskin’s The War of the Worlds (1953). The films all won Oscars for special effects, with Pal’s production company receiving the award for Destination Moon. Accepting a deal to produce and design films for MGM, Pal made his feature-film directing debut with tom thumb (1958), a Disneyesque version of the famous children’s story, featuring dancer Russ Tamblyn in the title role. The movie, which included a Puppetoons sequence, won an Academy Award for special effects.

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The Time Machine (1960) was even more spectacular. Rod Taylor starred as H.G. Wells’s intrepid time traveler, and Yvette Mimieux was Weena, the inarticulate Eloi girl he saves from the monstrous Morlocks. The film was a major box-office success, and it also won an Oscar for special effects. After the disappointing Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961), Pal had another hit with The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), a Cinerama production starring Laurence Harvey and Claire Bloom. The latter film was codirected with Henry Levin, but Pal’s contributions are obvious, notably the many exotic dragons and other creatures as well as a fine Puppetoons sequence.

Pal’s last film, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), based on Charles G. Finney’s novel, was a fantasy set in the 19th-century American West. Tony Randall starred in the title role of a magician whose exotic traveling circus is capable of teaching many lessons to those willing to listen. Randall assumed the roles of Pan, Merlin, the Abominable Snowman, a dragon, and sundry other fantastic beings. His Puppetoon shorts became available to a new generation with the release of the 1987 compilation The Puppetoon Movie.