Presented in Association with the UCLA Film Archives
“George (Georg) Pal was born in Cegled, not far from Budapest where his theatrical family's careers were based. His own career began with learning animation singlehandedly in Hungary, working with UFA in Berlin, and then on to Prague in 1933 when the Gestapo investigated him on the basis of his ‘suspicious' Hungarian origin. In Paris he made cartoons for Philips Radio of Holland. An offer from Paramount supported his move from Holland to Hollywood, where he opened his small studio that produced over forty of the famous Puppetoons for Paramount. In 1943 Pal received a special Academy Award for the animation techniques he had developed.
“As he wound down his short subject production, the challenge of feature films began to be met with The Great Rupert (1949), a family film with Jimmy Durante and a puppet squirrel. Destination Moon (1950) was the beginning of many outstanding and unique films, and a long list of Academy Award nominations. In addition to his science fiction and fantasy classics, he produced thrillers such as The Naked Jungle (1954), The Power (1968), and Doc Savage, The Man Of Bronze (1975).
“The passing of George Pal has left us with a cinematic landscape far richer, warmer and with a more daring imagination. There are few metteurs-en-scéne who proved masters at both the short film and the feature. He has, time after time, rolled up his sleeves to launch into projects whose goals and means were without precedent. In the wake of his hard-earned successes, many have gained in skills, working practice and expansion of genre expression.” --Anthony Reveaux
For details, please see film notes.
