The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will revisit some of the magical works of a visionary filmmaker when it presents ‘George Pal: Discovering the Fantastic’ on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The centennial celebration will be hosted by director Joe Dante (Gremlins) and will feature a panel discussion with several Pal collaborators, as well as a screening of two Pal ‘Puppetoons’ and the 1953 vfx-driven epic The War of the Worlds in its entirety.
The panelists will include stop-motion animator Jim Danforth (The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao) Puppetoon animator Bob Baker and actors Barbara Eden (The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao), Ann Robinson (The War of the Worlds), Russ Tamblyn (Tom Thumb) and Alan Young (Tom Thumb, The Time Machine). The onstage discussion will follow screenings of new prints of Rhythm in the Ranks (1941) and John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946), which earned Pal two of his seven Oscar nominations in the Animated Short Subject category. The films were restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with the Academy Film Archive.
Pal’s career in Hollywood launched with Puppetoons, a series of animated shorts that featured wooden stop-motion replacement puppets to bring fairy tale worlds to life. He later branched out into live-action feature films that still inspire today’s blockbusters.
Tickets for ‘George Pal: Discovering the Fantastic’ may be purchased online at www.oscars.org, in person at the Academy box office or by mail. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and all seating is unreserved. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Calif. For more information on George Pal and his films, go to www.oscars.org/events.
