Abstract

In the 1930s, the majority of British animators worked in advertising, with only a few involved in the production of entertainment films. Anson Dyer returned to animation after some years of activity with live-action cinema and documentaries. In 1935, he founded Anglia Film, hoping to compete against American predominance in the area of cartoons. After a first attempt to animate musical works (such as Carmen, in 1935, which was released in 1936), he turned to a character already familiar to the English public: Sam Small, a foolish little soldier, who often served as a scapegoat for other snappish characters, and whose first adventures had been told by comedian Stanley Holloway on the stages of music halls and, later, on the radio.