John Halas was born János Halász into a Jewish-Catholic family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) in 1912. He immigrated to England in 1936 and settled in London where he co-founded, with his wife Joy Batchelor, Halas and Batchelor Animation Ltd., which became Britain's biggest and most influential cartoon film studio of the 20th century. Together they changed the face of the animation industry in the UK, making the first stereoscopic short cartoon, the first puppet film, England's first full-length colour feature cartoon, and the first fully digitised film.
Pioneering animator John Halas was born János Halász into a Jewish-Catholic family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) in 1912. He was educated in Hungary and Paris and, in 1927, began work as a commercial poster designer before commencing an apprenticeship with animator George Pal a year later (1928-1931). He also contributed designs to the popular magazine Az Est [The Evening]. After spending 18 months in Paris in the early 1930s he returned to Budapest and taught at the Atelier graphic design school. In 1932 he co-founded the first Hungarian animation studio, Coloriton, with Félix Kassowitz and Gyula Macskássy (an acquaintance from Sándor Bortnyik's Bauhaus art studio, Műhely). Coloriton operated for four years, producing high-quality promotion-oriented animations for television and cinema, including Boldog király kincse ('The Treasure of the Joyful King').
In 1936 Halas immigrated to England to further his pioneering methods of animation. The family he left behind in Hungary perished in the Holocaust. In 1940 he married Joy Batchelor, whom he had met while working on the film, Music Man (1938) and on 18 May 1940 they founded Halas and Batchelor Animation Ltd., together, which became Britain’s largest and most influential cartoon film studio of the 20th century. They made animated advertisements for clients of the renowned J. Walter Thompson agency, which included household brands, Kelloggs and Lux, and were subsequently invited by the Ministry of Information to produce 70 public information and propaganda short films addressing domestic, government and military issues. Dustbin Parade (1941), about re-cycling materials for munitions, and Filling the Gap (1941), concerning the effective deployment of garden space for growing vegetables and other foodstuffs, are two examples of the artful but highly engaging cartoon films made by the studio. Their work was immediately identifiable by its combination of Disney-style characters and Eastern European aesthetics (largely a product of Halas's training under former Bauhaus tutors, Alexander Bortnyik and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy). The studio was commissioned by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, to make a series of cartoons featuring the sourpuss 'Charley', a vociferous opponent of the proposed Welfare State reforms - self-evidently in the wrong. Similarly, The Shoemaker and the Hatter (1949) and Think for the Future (1949) were commissioned by the US government to promote Marshall Aid and post-war European co-operation.
Together Halas and Batchelor changed the face of the industry in the UK, making The Poet and the Painter for the 1951 Festival of Britain, the first stereoscopic short cartoon (The Owl and the Pussy Cat, 1953), and the first puppet film (The Figurehead, 1953). They directed and co-produced their greatest work in 1954, an animated version of George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, England’s first full-length colour feature cartoon. Other notable projects included The History of the Cinema (1956); Automania 2000 (1963) about the negative effects of consumerist society on the natural environment (reviewed in the Jewish Chronicle, 29 November 1963, p. 40); Dilemma (1982), the first fully digitised film; and more than 2,000 other animated films. They also produced a number of animated television series, including Foo Foo, and Snip and Snap (1960) and the famous music video Love Is All by Roger Glover. Many later cartoons, documentaries, and educational shorts were commissioned specifically for television. In his Great Masters series of short films Halas popularised the art of Toulouse Lautrec, Botticelli and Hieronymous Bosch, among others.
Halas's interest in advanced forms of animation technology resulted in his first computer production - a series of films on mathematics made in 1967 and the origination of his own computer language: HALAB. His later interests also included the investigation of hologram and laser techniques. He was president of the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA) from 1960-85 and in 1970 he was elected president of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. In 1972 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in 1975 he was made president of the International Animated Film Association and chairman of the Federation of Film Societies. In 1987 he published Masters of Animation (BBC Books) and in 1990 was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb. John Halas died on 21 January 1995 in Watford, England, aged 83. Most of the Halas archive (film, tapes and production materials such as scripts, storyboards and related materials) is on permanent loan to The Animation Research Centre (ARC) at University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey.