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Space Flight
Short Film (Full Length) – 1962
Galaxies away from images of tar-addled lungs on cigarette packets, this film offers an unusual public health message about smoking. Set to rhyming couplets, the plasticine hero tries out to see if he has the right stuff to fly a rocket to Venus. There he battles the demon Nicotine, and (long before Avatar’) convinces Venusians to destroy their tobacco trees. Shot in 35mm by pioneering animator Fred O’Neill, Space Flight was made for theatrical release. For reasons unknown the Health Department, who commissioned it, didn't want the film to go on general release.
Dive upward like inverted gannet / To settle on some other planet.– From the narration
Music
Music composed by David Farquhar and played by members of the National Orchestra (later renamed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra)
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