''Hen Hop'' is a 1942

drawn-on-film animation Drawn-on-film animation, also known as direct animation or animation without camera, is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or ...

short created by

Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish-Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...

for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

. In it, a

hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen, HEN or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in R ...

gradually breaks apart into an abstract movement of lines as it dances to a

barn dance A barn dance is any kind of dance involving traditional or folk music with Folk dance, traditional dancing, occasionally held in a barn, but, these days, much more likely to be in any suitable building. The term “barn dance” is usually ...

. One of a number of drawn-on-film animated works created by McLaren, ''Hen Hop'' was animated by inking and scraping

film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent pl ...

, with colour added optically afterwards. To make ''Hen Hop'', McLaren spent days in a

chicken coop Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises poultry, domesticated birds such as chickens, Domestic duck, ducks, turkey (domesticated), turkeys and domesticated goose, geese to produce chicken meat, meat or Egg as food, eggs for ...

to capture what he called "the spirit of henliness".

Reception

''Hen Hop'' received a Special Award at the 1949 World Film Festival in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. Upon viewing it,

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

was reported to have exclaimed "at last something new". Dutch animator

Gerrit van Dijk Gerrit van Dijk (5 December 1938 – 4 December 2012) was a Dutch animator, film maker, actor and painter. Biography Gerrit van Dijk was born in a Catholic family in the village of Volkel, in the municipality of Uden. He studied as a fifteen- ...

, reproduces part of the film as well as quotes from McLaren about making ''Hen Hop'' his 1997 work, ''I Move, So I Am''.

References

External links

* * 1942 films 1942 animated short films 1940s Canadian animated films Drawn-on-film animated films Canadian animated short films Animated musical films Visual music Abstract animation National Film Board of Canada animated short films Animated films about chickens Animated films set on farms Animated films without speech Films directed by Norman McLaren {{short-animation-film-stub