Elf with 16 Faces created by George Pal for Animation: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This elf puppet without a face was created by George Pal and used in early animation. Elf costume is red and brown. There is an accompanying wooden box contains 16 faces, two eyes, and one pair of hands.

George Pal was one of the pioneers of stop-frame puppet animation, a painstaking process achieved by moving figures and shooting each change on a single frame of motion picture film in a series of progressive steps. At each frame shot, the head, arms, and legs of a character were changed according to the motions needed. This creates the illusion of fluid motion when the film is viewed at normal speed. Pal was also the first producer-director to combine animated puppets with human actors.

Pal was contracted by Paramount Studios in 1940 to produce a series of short-subject puppet cartoons which he had created in Europe, called Puppetoons. The Puppetoons adressed a wide variety of subject matters, such as fairy tales and jazz themes. George Pal was also popular for his work in feature films and had won eight Academy Awards.

Materials, dates and provenance

• maker; producer: Pal, George
• user: Walter Lantz Productions
• maker: Pal, George
• Object Name: figure set, animation (22) w/ box
• Object Name: puppet
• Physical Description: rubber (overall material)
• Physical Description: vinyl (overall material)
• Physical Description: fabric (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: wax (overall material)
• place made: United States: California, Los Angeles
• general subject association: Motion Pictures
• Subject: Animation
• Subject: Puppetry
• ID Number: 1983.0361.11
• accession number: 1983.0361
• catalog number: 1983.0361.11
• Credit Line: Elisabeth Pal
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.