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.

The technicalities of puppet-making to me, are merely a means towards an end: they're the key to allow me to make the type of films I want.
– Animator Fred O'Neill, in 1965 TV programme Focus on Fred O'Neill Animator