George Dunning

Directing

George Dunning

Born — Died

1920-11-17 — 1979-02-15

Place of birth

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Known for

Directing

Credits

27 titles

George Garnett Dunning was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is known for animating and directing the 1968 film inspired by the Beatles, Yellow Submarine. Dunning was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and studied in at the Ontario College of Art, and soon found freelance work as an illustrator. Dunning joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1943, where he worked with Norman McLare and contributed to several episodes of the Chants Populaires series. From 1944 to 1947 Dunning created many original short films and developed his skills animating articulated, painted, metal cut-outs. In 1948, he spent a year working for UNESCO in Paris under the mentorship of Czech-born animator Bertho…

Known for

Yellow Submarine poster
7.2

The wicked Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, eliminating all color and music. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and journeys to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.

Yellow Submarine

1968

Camera Three poster
7.7

Camera Three is an American variety show devoted to the arts. It ran on CBS from January 22, 1956 to January 21, 1979, and moved to PBS in its final year to make way for the then-new CBS News Sunday Morning. The PBS version ran from October 4, 1979 to July 10, 1980. Camera Three featured programs showcasing drama, ballet, art, music, anything involving fine arts. One of its most notable presentations was a condensation of Marc Blitzstein's leftist opera The Cradle Will Rock. Presented on November 29, 1964, it was a dramatic demonstration of how far television had come since its early days, in its willingness to present a work that surely would have been banned from the airwaves during the era of Joseph McCarthy.

Camera Three

The Beatles Mod Odyssey poster
7.0

Short documentary on the making of 'Yellow Submarine'

The Beatles Mod Odyssey

1968

Family Tree poster
7.5

The story of the settlement of Canada, illustrated with cheerful animated cartoons. The arrival of Jacques Cartier, the fishing and fur trades which followed, and the rival colonization by the French and British, climaxed by the battle of the Plains of Abraham, are depicted. The coming of the United Empire Loyalists is seen; then the west-coast gold rush and the completion of the transcontinental railway. New branches were added to the family tree when many European settlers came to fill the great spaces of the Prairies. Finally, we see the whole country matured into a nation, its traditions enriched by those of many peoples.

Family Tree

1950

The Wardrobe poster
NR

Cartoon: a man takes off his shoes and climbs into a wardrobe, Another man appears, tries to communicate, and finally steps into a wardrobe; noises; the first man climbs out wearing another pair of shoes, leaving the second man with the old pair.

The Wardrobe

1958

The Apple poster
5.0

A man's repeated attempts to retrieve an apple off a high tree branch all prove fruitless. What does he want the apple for? That would be telling.

The Apple

1963

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Yellow Submarine poster
7.2

The wicked Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, eliminating all color and music. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and journeys to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.

Yellow Submarine

1968

Family Tree poster
7.5

The story of the settlement of Canada, illustrated with cheerful animated cartoons. The arrival of Jacques Cartier, the fishing and fur trades which followed, and the rival colonization by the French and British, climaxed by the battle of the Plains of Abraham, are depicted. The coming of the United Empire Loyalists is seen; then the west-coast gold rush and the completion of the transcontinental railway. New branches were added to the family tree when many European settlers came to fill the great spaces of the Prairies. Finally, we see the whole country matured into a nation, its traditions enriched by those of many peoples.

Family Tree

1950

The Wardrobe poster
NR

Cartoon: a man takes off his shoes and climbs into a wardrobe, Another man appears, tries to communicate, and finally steps into a wardrobe; noises; the first man climbs out wearing another pair of shoes, leaving the second man with the old pair.

The Wardrobe

1958

The Wardrobe poster
NR

Cartoon: a man takes off his shoes and climbs into a wardrobe, Another man appears, tries to communicate, and finally steps into a wardrobe; noises; the first man climbs out wearing another pair of shoes, leaving the second man with the old pair.

The Wardrobe

1958

The Apple poster
5.0

A man's repeated attempts to retrieve an apple off a high tree branch all prove fruitless. What does he want the apple for? That would be telling.

The Apple

1963

Hands, Knees and Bumps a Daisy poster
5.0

Part of BFI's "National Coal Board Collection".

Hands, Knees and Bumps a Daisy

1969

No artwork available
NR

An animated short made for Ford.

The Ever-Changing Motor Car

1963

The Ladder poster
NR

The eternal human comedy in the free and lyrical manner of the author of "The Flying Man".

The Ladder

1967

No artwork available
10.0

Charley has the knack of turning into any conceiv­able thing, and he does this all the time to keep his pet cat amused.

Charley

1965

Chants populaires nº 4 poster
10.0

We illustrated "Filez, filez, ô mon navire" in charcoal and "J'ai tant dansé, j'ai tant sauté" with cartoons on celluloid plates, using Walt Disney's technique.

Chants populaires nº 4

1946

The Flying Man poster
4.6

A man undresses and takes to flight, while another man and his dog witness him.

The Flying Man

1962

Thud and Blunder in "Knock-Off Time" poster
NR

Thud and Blunder learn what not to do while in a coal mine.

Thud and Blunder in "Knock-Off Time"

1964

Chants populaires nº 2 poster
8.0

We illustrated "Envoions d'l'avant nos gens" with a set of puppets dressed in local fabric and "Auprès de ma blonde" with gouache drawings.

Chants populaires nº 2

Cadet Rousselle poster
7.5

Colourful puppets illustrate the old French song about Cadet Rousselle, who falls down a ladder, who trips on battlements, and whose dogs will not obey him. The animated figures carry our hero through his predicaments with colour and verve.

Cadet Rousselle

1947

Chants populaires nº 3 poster
10.0

"Là-bas sur ces montagnes" was illustrated using photographed drawings presented in an old frame and "Meunier tu dors" with cut-out paper puppets with interchangeable limbs.

Chants populaires nº 3

1943

The Maggot poster
NR

Anti-drug film set in Harlem.

The Maggot

1973

Moon Rock poster
NR

A short film inspired by lateral thinking that sees an astronaut explore "the monsters of mass society and mass media."

Moon Rock

1970

Moon Rock poster
NR

A short film inspired by lateral thinking that sees an astronaut explore "the monsters of mass society and mass media."

Moon Rock

1970

Damon the Mower poster
5.5

Inspired by an Andrew Marvell poem, George Dunning sketched short phrases of animated movement on index cards, which were then stuck to a table top and filmed. Animation bared to the bone, and still extraordinary.

Damon the Mower

1972

Damon the Mower poster
5.5

Inspired by an Andrew Marvell poem, George Dunning sketched short phrases of animated movement on index cards, which were then stuck to a table top and filmed. Animation bared to the bone, and still extraordinary.

Damon the Mower

1972

No artwork available
5.3

An animated safety film adapts the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice" into a song where the mice are factory workers who disregard safety rules and wind up injuring themselves.

The Three Blind Mice

1945

Grim Pastures poster
8.0

A humorous depiction of farm animals' need for proper fodder, Grim Pastures shows a horse and a cow both racing for the same bit of grass. The distracted beasts end up with sandwich boards with slogans imploring farmers to raise more fodder.

Grim Pastures

1944

No artwork available
NR

This triple screen animated short was one of the films screened at the revolving theatre in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. This was later shown at the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square in London. The theatre's projectors had to be unbolted from the floor and moved to properly screen the film. The Canadian Pavilion at HemisFair '68, in San Antonio, Texas, also featured this film. It presents Canada’s English, Scottish and French colonial settler heritages, but notably excludes any Indigenous participation in the formation of the nation. Each identity is enacted through an upright piano engaged in a discordant, dueling piano cacophony.

Canada Is My Piano

1967

No artwork available
NR

This triple screen animated short was one of the films screened at the revolving theatre in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. This was later shown at the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square in London. The theatre's projectors had to be unbolted from the floor and moved to properly screen the film. The Canadian Pavilion at HemisFair '68, in San Antonio, Texas, also featured this film. It presents Canada’s English, Scottish and French colonial settler heritages, but notably excludes any Indigenous participation in the formation of the nation. Each identity is enacted through an upright piano engaged in a discordant, dueling piano cacophony.

Canada Is My Piano

1967

No artwork available
NR

This triple screen animated short was one of the films screened at the revolving theatre in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. This was later shown at the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square in London. The theatre's projectors had to be unbolted from the floor and moved to properly screen the film. The Canadian Pavilion at HemisFair '68, in San Antonio, Texas, also featured this film. It presents Canada’s English, Scottish and French colonial settler heritages, but notably excludes any Indigenous participation in the formation of the nation. Each identity is enacted through an upright piano engaged in a discordant, dueling piano cacophony.

Canada Is My Piano

1967