After bow-wowing audiences in New York world famous cartoon character returns to Wales
A Welsh cartoon dog who delighted screen audiences in silent days returns to Aberystwyth next month (August) for a free, Jazz-accompanied film show in The National Library's DRWM auditorium - after a triumphant revival of films not seen for the past eight decades. Episodes of Jerry the Tyke have proved huge successes at festivals and events in Italy and the Museum of Modern Art, New York taking movie experts by surprise, as the animation shorts have previously been largely ignored by historians.Jerry, an aggressive often-dishonest mutt offers a sharp contrast to the bland, cosy animation creatures featuring in so many animation films of the 1920s.
The Tyke, created by two Cardiff projectionists Sid Griffiths and Bert Bilby, was a fixture of Pathe Pictorial screen magazines shown in mainstream cinemas every week from mid 1925 to early 1927. The re-discovery of the films in the 1990s confirmed that Welsh animation didn't begin with SuperTed or Oscar nominated Joanna Quinn in the 1980s but almost six decades earlier, when silent cinema was in its pomp.
The Jerry revival began when the current Welsh Animation Group, including Oscar nominated Joanna Quinn adopted Jerry as mascot and logo and some of his shorts appeared with live musical accompaniment at the Celtic Film and Television Festival in Aberystwyth.
The Jerry films were highly unusual for their time with their blend of live action and animation, allowing some hilarious tetchy interplay on screen between Griffiths - now accepted as the father of Welsh animation - and the aggressive, sometimes bad-tempered mutt. It's this relationship, the sheer energy and humour of the cartoons and the quality of animation which appeals to modern audiences and has ensured the Tyke's success in Britain and much further afield.
He's proved a huge hit in two programmes devoted entirely to his films at the world's leading silent film festival at Sacile, Italy, and last year he played in an archive programme at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He has been booked for October 2004 screenings at the famous Paris Cinematheque.
Sid Griffiths hit on his winning formula when he studied the popular Felix the Cat American cartoons frame by frame before launching the Jerrys. Then he worked playful variations on the feline's adventures. More than 40 Jerry episodes were made - almost all survive - and there are more episodes of Jerry than of any other British animation creature in silent film history.
The films were effectively re-discovered in British Pathe vaults at Pinewood Studios in the 1990s by The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. Now the archive has a joint preservation programme with British Pathe to ensure the films can be shown to modern audiences in new prints. At least 10 more newly preserved Jerrys will play at the Italian festival, Sacile, this October.
The Jerry revival was capped when BBC Wales commissioned a soundtrack score from composer John Rea for 14 episodes. Nine have already been screened on BBC 2W, the Welsh digital channel - three of them in a documentary devoted to the inimitable pooch and fronted by actor Rhys Ifans.
The Programme at the Drwm, National library of Wales, Aberystwyth begins at 5.00pm on 13 August. The event is part of an open-evening at the Library and the screening is free of charge and open to everyone - the cartoons will delight children and adults alike. Book Now - 01970 632548.