"A very flexible medium”: the Ministry of Information and animated propaganda films on the home front

This chapter examines the use of animation in Ministry of Information (MoI) propaganda films during the Second World War. It explores two very different animation styles: Halas and Batchelor’s short narrative-focused cartoons, and diagrammatic sequences designed by Francis Rodker in Shell Film Unit documentaries. Drawing on archival evidence of the MoI Films Division’s work and through an examination of the films themselves, the chapter highlights how the MoI’s animated films and the ways they were distributed were influenced by techniques in commercial advertising and prestige publicity, and is indicative of the intersecting functions of these films as propaganda, publicity and education.