''The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' is a 1952

animated short Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

film made by 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 ...

. Part of the postwar ''

Canada Carries On ''Canada Carries On'' () was a series of short films by the National Film Board of Canada which ran from 1940 to 1959. The series was created as morale-boosting propaganda films during the Second World War. With the end of the war, the series los ...

'' series, it offers a humorous account of the history of

transportation in Canada Canada, the world's second-largest country in total area, is dedicated to having an efficient, high-capacity multimodal transportation spanning often vast distances between natural resource extraction sites, agricultural and urban areas. Cana ...

. The film was directed by Colin Low and produced by Tom Daly. ''The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' featured animation by

Wolf Koenig Wolf Koenig (October 17, 1927 – June 26, 2014) was a Canadian film director, producer, animator, cinematographer, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema at the National Film Board of Canada. Early life Born in Dresden, Germany, Koenig emigrated to C ...

and Robert Verrall and was narrated by Guy Glover.

Eldon Rathburn Eldon Davis Rathburn (21 April 1916 – 31 August 2008) was a Canadian film composer who scored over 250 films during his thirty-year tenure as a staff composer at the National Film Board of Canada. Known as "the dean of Canadian film composers",< ...

composed the film score. It was the first NFB animated film to be nominated abroad, and the first to be nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

in animation.

Synopsis

Throughout its history, transportation in Canada was fraught with difficulty especially looking at

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's vast distances and natural obstacles such as forest, mountains and rivers. Eventually these obstacles were met with unique solutions, beginning with Canada's

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

whose canoes allowed for transport over inland waterways. Early pioneers faced the same problems but with larger

bateau A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. ...

, cargo could be hauled over longer distances on water. On land, the use of ox-drawn carts became the means to cross rough terrain until stagecoaches were introduced. With the advent of steam power, and the construction of the Trans-Canada Railway finally the great distances of Canada were overcome. In the early 20th Century, the internal combustion engine then made the next step forward for modern travel with the proliferation of automobiles, aircraft, and even "flying saucers" to come.

Production

The film was a product of the NFB's Unit B production team.Ellis and McLane 2005, p. 167. ''The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' marked the NFB’s first major foray into industrial animation, influenced not by the auteur style of NFB animation studio founder

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 ...

, but by the

United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio and later distribution company founded in 1941 as Industrial Film and Poster Service by former Walt Disney Productions employees. Beginning with industrial a ...

(UPA) style."Romance of Transportation in Canada."
''Canadian Film Encyclopedia''. Retrieved: February 7, 2016.

Reception

''The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' was produced for television broadcast on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

. Individual films were distributed worldwide by the NFB and were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. A total of 199 films in the ''Canada Carries On'' series were produced before the series was canceled in 1959.Ohayon, Albert
"Propaganda cinema at the NFB".
''National Film Board of Canada'', July 13, 2009. Retrieved: February 7, 2016. Canadian film critic Dean Duncan reviewed ''The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' and considered it one of Colin Low's finest works. "Here, the title lettering is really cool, the ox is a great character, the snow sections are beautiful, you might even say authoritative. That overhead prairie shot looks real."

Awards

* 7th British Academy Film Awards, London: BAFTA Special Award, 1954 *

1953 Cannes Film Festival The 6th Cannes Film Festival took place from 15 to 29 April 1953. French writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau served as jury president for the main competition. The Grand Prize of the Festival was awarded, as the highest prize, to '' The Wages of F ...

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

: Award for Best Animation, 1953 *

5th Canadian Film Awards The 5th Canadian Film Awards were presented on April 30, 1953 to honour achievements in Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . pp. 21-23. Sixty ...

, Montreal: Honourable Mention, 1953 *

25th Academy Awards The 25th Academy Awards were held on March 19, 1953, at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the Majestic Theatre (Columbus Circle), NBC International Theatre in New York City, to honor the films of 1952 in film, 1 ...

, Los Angeles: Nominee, Best Short Subject, Cartoons, 1953Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1952, Cartoon Research
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References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. ''New History of Documentary Film''. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. . * Evsns, Gary. ''In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. . * Lenburg, Jeff. ''Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators''. New York: Applause Books, 2006. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Romance Of Transportation In Canada Canadian animated short films Films directed by Colin Low (filmmaker) Short Film Palme d'Or winners BAFTA winners (films) National Film Board of Canada animated short films Transport in Canada Transport films 1952 animated short films Canadian comedy short films Films scored by Eldon Rathburn Films produced by Tom Daly Canada Carries On 1950s English-language films 1950s Canadian animated films Canadian animated comedy films English-language documentary films English-language short films