The world has lost an animation legend. The National Film Board of Canada announced that Gerald Potterton passed away at the age of 91. Potterton was known for his long animation career, contributing to films like Yellow Submarine and directing the cult favorite, Heavy Metal. Claude Joli-Coeur, NFB Chairperson and Government Film Commissioner, expressed below in a statement.
“Gerald came to Canada and the NFB to be part of a new wave of storytelling, one that was fresh and irreverent, and he brought great wit and creativity to every project. He was also a builder, helping to lay the foundation for today’s independent Canadian animation industry with Potterton Productions…He was an exceptional artist and a truly nice man.”
Potterton was born in 1931 in London. He attended the Hammersmith Art School, then moved to Canada in 1955. He joined the NFB and started his career working on shorts in the 1960’s. Two of his short films at the time were nominated for Oscars. 1962’s My Financial Career, which he directed, and 1963’s Christmas Cracker, which he co-directed with Norman McLaren, Grant Munro, and Jeff Hale. Shortly after, Potterton started up his own studio, Potterton Productions, in 1967. Though his career as an artist still continued. A good friend, George Dunning, invited him back to England to contribute to a film starring The Beatles titled Yellow Submarine. Potterton’s work would involve layout for the beloved “Liverpool” scene, set to the song “Elanor Rigby.”
Onward To Heavy Metal
In 1981, Heavy Metal came into the world. Directed by Potterton and released via Columbia Pictures, the film is an anthology based on several short stories from the genre magazine of the same name. The film boasted an impressive soundtrack packed with popular bands of the time and was filled to the brim with graphic imagery, both violent and sexual. The film had a mixed reception by audiences but managed a modest success at the box office. Since its release, through home media and word of mouth, the film has gained a strong cult following.
Potterton would continue producing, directing, and animating throughout the ’70s and ’80s. One of his notable contributions would be to Sesame Street. He would create the George the Farmer sequences. The shorts were shot in a manner that mimicked stop motion and taught the definition of various phrases, such as “over” and “under”, “near” and “far”, and “beginning” and “end.”
Other notable credits include producing the academy award nominated 1971 short, The Selfish Giant, based on the Oscar Wilde story of the same name. Potterton would follow the short with 1974’s The Happy Prince, also based on the Oscar Wilde story, then 1975’s The Little Mermaid, based on the Hans Christian Anderson story. Several of Potterton’s shorts, including his award-winning works, can be viewed on the NFB’s official website. There is also a documentary of his life on Kickstarter (started several years ago) titled The Flying Animator: a Documentary on Gerald Potterton. The film managed to pull in $10,377 of its $10,000 goal, which the team last updated in November 2021.