Definitely NOT Disney! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bright Eyes

The story concerns a warren of rabbits who decide to leave their home and find somewhere safer to live. The heroes are Hazel and Fiver, and their adventures include encounters with humans and battles with other rabbits, as well as friendship with a seagull.

The movie was made in the UK and financed by a British consortium. 'Bright Eyes' was a No.1 hit in the UK in 1979, selling more than 1.2 million copies.

Answer: Blue Meanies

The plot tells how the Beatles are recruited by Captain Fred, who managed to escape from the Blue Meanies in his Yellow Submarine, to try to free Pepperland which has become a barren wasteland. The Beatles agree to help, and after many adventures on the way they finally arrive. They decide to dress up as Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and use their music as a means to make the Blue Meanies retreat. They succeed and there is a huge party to celebrate. At the end of the movie the Beatles appear as themselves, back in Liverpool, showing off their souvenirs.

The movie was made in London and distributed by United Artists. The Beatles originally intended to use their own voices throughout the movie, but the voices of other actors were used except for in the closing scene.
John Lennon was voiced by John Clive, Paul McCartney by Geoff Hughes, George Harrison by Peter Batten and Ringo Starr by Paul Angelis.

Answer: Simon Callow

'A Christmas Carol' is probably Dickens' most famous ghost story, and tells how the miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley, as well as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. Being shown visions of how his life was, is and may be in the future causes Scrooge to change his ways.

Simon Callow narrates the story in the character of Dickens, and voices that of Scrooge. Nicolas Cage voices Jacob Marley.

Famous for his roles in movies such as 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' Callow has somewhat made Dickens his own property. He has acted in Peter Ackroyd's one-man show 'The Mystery of Charles Dickens', in which he plays 49 different Dickens characters, and has played Scrooge in a one-man adaptation of 'A Christmas' Carol' on stage.

Answer: Mel Gibson

Rocky Rhodes, as he is known, crashes into the chicken farm owned by Mr and Mrs Tweedy. Rocky has escaped from a circus, and a series of events leads to him organising a mass breakout of chickens from the farm. Nick Parks and Peter Lord wrote the original story for this very funny film, which bears more than a slight resemblance to 'The Great Escape'.

Voices for other characters are provided by such stars as Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks and Timothy Spall.

Mel Gibson has starred in many other movies, notably the 'Mad Max' series. The movie 'Braveheart', which he directed and in which he played William Wallace, won five Oscars, including 'Best Picture' and Best Director.

Answer: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

With a screenplay by Nick Park and a cast including Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes, the movie achieved huge acclaim. Starring Peter Sallis as Wallace the inventor and Gromit, his silent-but-more-intelligent pet dog, the plot centres on attempts by the duo to capture the fearsome Were-Rabbit that is terrorising the gardens and allotments of the neighbourhood. Operating as 'Anti-Pesto', their new humane pest-removal service, Wallace and Gromit attempt to remove all the rabbits and other pests busily ravaging the area prior to a major gardening competition.

The sight of rabbits being vacuumed out of their holes is just one of the many joys of this movie.

Answer: Arthur Christmas

'Arthur', voiced by James McAvoy, is Santa's clumsy but well-meaning son. Needless to say, his clumsiness adds to the fun.
His grandfather is voiced by Bill Nighy, and Santa himself by Jim Broadbent.

Answer: Animal Farm

Released in 1954, 'Animal Farm' was the first British animated feature film to be released. There had been an earlier Royal Navy training film, but this was never released in cinemas.

'Animal Farm' was funded by the CIA as part of the USA's Cold War propaganda, but it is doubtful that any of the animators who worked on it knew where the money had come from. The CIA funded Louis de Rochemont to make the film, and he, in turn, hired Halas and Batchelor, a London animation company. They had done a lot of work on British war time propaganda films. The film was well received and much was made of it being a British production, not a product of Hollywood.

The plot of 'Animal Farm' concerns the way that run-down 'Manor Farm', owned by Mr Jones, is taken over by the animals. At first all is run fairly, with the slogan ' All animals are equal', but over time the pigs, led by Napoleon, gain control and tyrannise the other animals with their greed and excess.

Eventually the other animals rebel and kill the pigs. This is, of course, a satire on Stalin and Soviet Russia.

Answer: The Water Babies

The story of 'The Water Babies' concerns the adventures of a chimney sweep called Tom whose miserable life as the 'climbing boy' of Mr Grimes, the chimney sweep, ends when he drowns. He becomes a Water Baby and his dirty skin sloughs off as his moral re-education begins. His teachers are fairies called Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid. The story is ultimately about Christian redemption, but also addresses the many abuses of child labour prevalent in Charles Kingsley's day.

Directed by Lionel Jeffries, who is known for his acting appearances in movies such as 'The Colditz Story' (1955) and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' (1968), 'The Water Babies' featured the voices of many well known British actors. James Mason was Mr Grimes/Killer Shark, Bernard Cribbens was Masterman/Eel, David Tomlinson voiced Sir John and Jon Pertwee was Salmon/Kraken. There are several creatures, such as Terence the seahorse and Jock the terrier that do not appear in the original book. The film was made entirely in England, with location scenes being done in York.

Answer: Monty Python's Flying Circus

Graham Chapman was the pipe-smoking Python who died in 1989. Other members of the team whose voices feature in this movie are John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Some of the surreal comedy they made back in the 1960s and '70s hasn't passed the test of time, but sketches such as 'The Dead Parrot' will probably still be making people laugh in a hundred years.

The movie has three directors and 14 animators, which might be described as some sort of circus in its own right.

Answer: Jackboots on Whitehall

'Supermarionation' was the invention of Gerry Anderson, who used it in his made-for-TV programmes such as 'Fireball XL5'.

'Jackboots on Whitehall' tells how the Nazis tunnel their way under the English Channel and emerge in Whitehall. There is a call to arms from Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall), and the Resistance gathers at Hadrian's Wall, led by Chris (Ewan McGregor). Britain's saviours emerge from the Highlands of Scotland. The movie received very mixed reviews.