Dick Arnall

Animation producer, 1944 to 2007.

Dick Arnall in a striped shirt, mid-conversation with a hand raised

Dick Arnall devoted his life to artists. Not an artist himself, he was a selfless enthusiast for the work of others, with extraordinary taste, firm opinions, and a rare ability to inspire and cajole film-makers into their best work. He cared about artistic expression above all, and about image-making pushed past its boundaries, beyond animation, towards what he called the extended moving image.

He was born in Sunderland on and died in London on . He worked on Yellow Submarine, was assistant managing director at Halas and Batchelor, produced ten multi-award-winning independent animations, and from 1990 was production adviser to animate!, the commissioning scheme set up with the Arts Council and Channel 4.

Dick Arnall greeting Alfred Hitchcock beside a car in a Cambridge street, 1966
Dick greets Alfred Hitchcock, arriving to address the Cambridge University Film Society, 1966. From an Anglia Television news report, East Anglian Film Archive. Christopher Frayling remembered the visit in the Guardian. *
Dick Arnall and Alfred Hitchcock smiling on a lawn, with King's College Chapel and college buildings behind them
Dick with Alfred Hitchcock at the Cambridge Film Society, 3 May 1966. Photograph from Marjut Rimminen's collection.

Early years

The son of a design engineer and a domestic science teacher, Arnall was educated at Monkwearmouth Grammar School and studied metallurgy at Queens' College, Cambridge. There he ran a film society and devised Britain's first animation festival, held in 1965, 1967 and 1968. The Times called it “the brainchild of its director, Richard Arnall”, and in 1968 he wrote for the paper on the Zagreb cartoon studio. The festival brought an international experimentalism to British filmgoing, showing Len Lye among many others, and was revived in 1979 with Arnall's unpaid support.

Dick Arnall standing beside a typewriter, with a festival poster and film photographs on the wall behind him
Dick at the Cambridge animation festival he was running, 1965. Photograph from Marjut Rimminen's collection.
“By far the most original, exciting and creative film festival ever staged in the British Isles.” The International Film Guide, 1968

Yellow Submarine and Halas and Batchelor

He worked on George Dunning's Yellow Submarine (1968), the first animated British feature for 14 years. From 1969 to 1972 he was assistant managing director at Halas and Batchelor, where he produced the first films by Paul Vester, Geoff Dunbar and Gillian Lacey, and managed the studio's Jackson Five and Osmond Brothers series for ABC-TV, The Osmonds in 30-minute episodes (IMDb).

Dick Arnall in a brown jacket and patterned scarf speaking to visitors at a stand displaying film photographs and a small Union Jack
Dick presenting Halas & Batchelor Animation at the Cannes festival in 1971. Photo Alfieri. Photograph from Marjut Rimminen's collection.

Independent production

Arnall travelled to festivals across Europe. At the Mamaia festival in Romania he was held up by armed bandits, and met his wife, the Finnish animator Marjut Rimminen.

Dick Arnall, Geoff Dunbar and John Perkins standing with an unidentified woman in a patterned dress at Mamaia
Dick Arnall, Geoff Dunbar and John Perkins at the Mamaia animation festival, Romania, 1970. 'This is where Dick and I met.' Marjut Rimminen. Photograph from Marjut Rimminen's collection.

He returned to independent production with Rimminen's I'm Not a Feminist, But... (1986), the first of ten multi-award-winning animations made over the following 15 years. They included Tim Webb's A is for Autism (1992), Ruth Lingford's Death and the Mother (1997, made on an Amiga home computer) and Robert Bradbrook's Home Road Movies (2001).

A is for Autism screened at Edinburgh in August 1992 and at Ottawa and Chicago that October, winning Best New British Animation at Edinburgh, Best Educational Production at Ottawa and the Silver Hugo for Best Short Film at Chicago (IMDb).

He produced Ruth Lingford's Pleasures of War (1998), nominated for the Grand Prize of the City of Portimão at the Algarve International Film Festival in 1999. It screened at Göteborg on 29 January 2000 and at the Pelikula at Lipunan Film Festival in the Philippines on 22 February 2005 (IMDb).

He was executive producer of Simon Pummell's Ray-Gun Fun (1998), which screened at Locarno in August 1998, at Annecy on 5 June 1999 and in Chemnitz on 25 May 2001 (IMDb).

Home Road Movies was nominated for the Golden Star for Best Short Film at Marrakech in 2002 and screened at Cleveland on 23 March 2003 (IMDb).

He produced No Experience Necessary (2002), with Finetake Productions and Channel 4 Television Corporation as production companies.

He also produced Lizzie Oxby's Extn. 21 (2003), which won the 2004 British Animation Award for Best Music. In 2003 it won Best of Session in Melbourne's 'Best of Next' International programme and Best Animation at Portobello, with a special mention for Best Digital Video, Short in Arcipelago's eMovie/Digital Stories Award. In 2004 it won Best Debut at Bimini, Best First Film at Tirana and the Illyes Foundation Prize at Alter-Native, and in 2005 Best European Short Film at Maremetraggio. It screened at the Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival on 4 June 2003 and at Aubagne on 6 October 2004 (IMDb).

Dick Arnall in a striped shirt telling a story in the kitchen, one hand raised, pans and glass-fronted cupboards behind him
Telling a story in the kitchen.

Death to animation

In 1967 Arnall had chosen the word ‘animation’ as an act of defiance: the Cambridge Animation Festival was named against the presumption that the form meant funny cartoons for children.

“Animation is not, and never has been, exclusively driven by frame-by-frame process but by notions of synthesis. Animation can be image re-presentation through spatial or timeline manipulation – or anything that could not be directly recorded in front of a live-action camera.”

By 2005 the word had flipped, and animation meant exactly the character-driven family entertainment he had set it against, leaving the artists and experimental film-makers without a term for their work. So after forty years in the medium, Arnall published a polemic on the animate! website.

“‘animation’ really is not a helpful label any more. Let’s return to ‘cartoon’ to describe regular character-based storytelling, whether it’s The Simpsons, Wallace & Gromit or Toy Story. Death to ‘animation’. It’s time to find a new word for ‘the extended moving image’.” Dick Arnall, Death to Animation, 2005

His argument was that animation is anything that cannot be recorded directly in front of a live-action camera. Woodcuts, 3D CGI, stop motion, compositing, multiplane, drawing, models, cut-outs, time-slice, time-lapse, projection mapping, optical printing, generative models, depth maps.

He loved cartoons, and called Pixar’s Knick Knack one of the most perfectly formed short films of all time. The polemic was never against the work, only the word.

The extended moving image. A selection of clips from the eighteen years of Dick’s animate! commissions.

He was as enamoured by the 9×6 pixel as by the micro-edited reconstructions of Martin Arnold, and he saw no border between them. Anything could carry an idea: game engines, voiceover, the techniques of mainstream film and television, pure light, movement, colour and material. He wanted the work in front of the broadest possible audience, challenging what it expected.

A lemming from the game Lemmings walking on the spot, eight frames, hugely enlarged

The origins of Lemmings, DMA Design, 1991.

animate!

From 1990 to 1998 he was independent production adviser to animate!, the commissioning scheme set up by David Curtis, Keith Griffiths and Clare Kitson with the Arts Council and Channel 4, steering 35 films to completion. In 1999 Creation magazine voted him top producer in its 50 Hottest Names in British Animation.

Five people gathered around film-editing equipment, with a ponytailed person seen from behind
Editing Karen Kelly's Animate film with Tony Fish. David Curtis also present. Photograph from Marjut Rimminen's collection.

From 2000 he ran animate! through his own company, Finetake, expanding it with an international artists' award and the online archive animateonline.org, now restored at animate.org.uk.

A founding member of Blacks in Soho in 1993, he was always distinctive in his Marimekko shirts. His nurturing and defence of film-makers, especially emergent talents, ran through all he did.

Dick Arnall at his desk at night, lit by a green anglepoise lamp, papers and a monitor around him
At his desk by the front door of the house, where he perched, available to artists at any hour of the day or night.

Tributes and archives

“He was simply one of the most decent and generous people that those who met him have known.” Gareth Evans, The Guardian, 18 April 2007

Read the full obituary, by Gareth Evans, The Guardian, .

“Dick Arnall was a maverick producer who championed the kinds of animation which challenge the audience.” Christopher Frayling, in Aurora 2007: Possible Worlds, Norwich, 2007
“Dick gave the best quality attention of anyone I have ever met.” Ruth Lingford, in the same catalogue

That year the Aurora festival in Norwich dedicated itself to him in perpetuity and set up the Dick Arnall Award “for rogue vision in the manipulated moving image”.

In November 2024 the London International Animation Festival held a tribute screening, Magic in Marimekko, and published an appreciation by Gareth Evans.

Dick Arnall in a striped shirt, mid-conversation, both hands raised, a cigarette between his fingers
Making the case, cigarette in hand.

The animate! collection is held at animateprojectsarchive.org; Animate Projects continued the scheme after his death. His own working archive survives as the Dick Arnall Animation Archive at the University for the Creative Arts: thirty-three boxes tracing artist-made animation in Britain and Europe from the 1960s to the late 2000s.

He is survived by his wife, Marjut Rimminen, and his son, Timo Arnall.

Dick Arnall smiling at the front door of the house, in a bright red and orange striped Marimekko shirt
At the front door, in Marimekko.

Credits

Every production Dick worked on, oldest first, with his role on each.

  1. Alan Kitching's poster for the British Animation Festival, Cambridge, 1965

    British Animation Festival, 1965

    1965

    Founder and organiser

  2. Festival guests standing in a row in front of curtains, Cambridge Animation Festival, 1967

    Cambridge Animation Festival, 1967

    1967

    Festival director

  3. Dick Arnall beneath the lettering 'ANIMATION FESTIVAL 68' above the entrance steps

    Cambridge Animation Festival, 1968

    1968

    Festival director

  4. Multiscreen Festival, London, 1968

    1968

    Organiser

  5. Still from Yellow Submarine directed by George Dunning: a red-haired figure in profile in Heinz Edelmann's flat colours

    Yellow Submarine

    1968, feature film, George Dunning

    Production adviser

  6. World Festival of Animation Cinema, Cambridge, 1969

    1969

    Festival director

  7. Still from Football Freaks by Paul Vester: two pen-drawn women with red lips

    Football Freaks

    1971, Paul Vester

    Producer

  8. Still from Quartet by Tony White: three lumpy grey figures on classical columns, one puzzling over a question mark, one writing in a book, one shouting with an arm raised

    Quartet

    1971, Tony White

    Producer

  9. Still from The Jackson 5ive: the brothers in a car outside a record studio, stopped by a policeman

    The Jackson 5ive

    1971, series, Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass

    Managed the series at Halas and Batchelor

  10. Still from The Osmonds: five cartoon brothers dancing in bright flared suits

    The Osmonds

    1972, series, Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.

    Managed the series at Halas and Batchelor

  11. Cambridge Animation Festival, 1979

    1979

    Adviser to the revival

  12. Still from I'm Not a Feminist, But... by Marjut Rimminen: a woman in a blue polka-dot dress reading a letter in an armchair

    I'm not a Feminist, but…

    1986, Marjut Rimminen

    Producer

  13. Still from Cowboys by Phil Mulloy

    Cowboys

    1991, Phil Mulloy

    Production adviser

  14. Still from The Stain by Marjut Rimminen and Christine Roche: pale puppet figures around a white-clothed dining table under a hanging lamp

    The Stain

    1991, Marjut Rimminen and Christine Roche

    Set construction and electrician

  15. Still from A Is for Autism by Tim Webb: a child's crayon drawing of a house, a dog and a sister

    A Is for Autism

    1992, Tim Webb

    Producer

  16. Still from Cage of Flame by Kayla Parker

    Cage of Flame

    1992, Kayla Parker

    Production adviser

  17. Still from Naked by Yasmine Ramli

    Naked

    1992, Yasmine Ramli

    Production adviser

  18. Still from Soho Square by Mario Cavalli

    Soho Square

    1992, Mario Cavalli

    Production adviser

  19. Still from Spirit of Place by Oliver Harrison

    Spirit of Place

    1992, Oliver Harrison

    Production adviser

  20. Still from Biogenesis by William Latham

    Biogenesis

    1993, William Latham

    Production adviser

  21. Still from Museum of Stolen Souls by Chris Elliott

    Museum of Stolen Souls

    1993, Chris Elliott

    Production adviser

  22. Still from Winter Trees by Sarah Downes

    Winter Trees

    1993, Sarah Downes

    Production adviser

  23. Still from End of Restriction by Robert Bradbrook

    End of Restriction

    1994, Robert Bradbrook

    Production adviser

  24. Still from His Comedy by Paul Bush

    His Comedy

    1994, Paul Bush

    Production adviser

  25. Still from Jukebox by Run Wrake

    Jukebox

    1994, Run Wrake

    Production adviser

  26. Still from Jumping Joan by Petra Freeman

    Jumping Joan

    1994, Petra Freeman

    Production adviser

  27. Still from Save Me by Stuart Hilton

    Save Me

    1994, Stuart Hilton

    Production adviser

  28. Still from Stressed by Karen Kelly

    Stressed

    1994, Karen Kelly

    Production adviser

  29. Still from What She Wants by Ruth Lingford

    What She Wants

    1994, Ruth Lingford

    Production adviser

  30. Still from Within/Without by Benita Raphan

    Within/Without

    1994, Benita Raphan

    Production adviser

  31. Still from 15th February by Tim Webb

    15th February

    1995, Tim Webb and Janice Biggs

    Production adviser

  32. Still from Heliocentrum by Jason White & Richard Wright

    Heliocentrum

    1995, Jason White and Richard Wright

    Production adviser

  33. Still from Scrutiny by Ian Cross

    Scrutiny

    1995, Ian Cross

    Thanks

  34. Still from Crimplene by Michelle Salamon

    Crimplene

    1996, Michelle Salamon

    Production adviser

  35. Still from Go West Young Man by Keith Piper

    Go West Young Man

    1996, Keith Piper

    Production adviser

  36. Still from Sunset Strip by Kayla Parker

    Sunset Strip

    1996, Kayla Parker

    Production adviser

  37. Still from 3 Ways to Go by Sarah Cox

    3 Ways to Go

    1997, Sarah Cox

    Production adviser

  38. Still from Body Projections by Tony Donoghue

    Body Projections

    1997, Tony Donoghue

    Production adviser

  39. Still from Death and the Mother by Ruth Lingford: a black and white woodcut figure behind a branch of red roses

    Death and the Mother

    1997, Ruth Lingford

    Producer

  40. Still from Feeling My Way by Jonathan Hodgson

    Feeling My Way

    1997, Jonathan Hodgson

    Production adviser

  41. Still from Miles from Anywhere by Gary Carpenter

    Miles from Anywhere

    1997, Gary Carpenter

    Production adviser

  42. Still from SKZCP by Riccardo Iacono

    SKZCP

    1997, Riccardo Iacono

    Production adviser

  43. Still from Withdrawal by George Barber

    Withdrawal

    1997, George Barber

    Production adviser

  44. Still from How to Get Rid of Information by Damian Gascoigne

    How to Get Rid of Information

    1998, Damian Gascoigne

    Production adviser

  45. Still from LMX Spiral by Richard Wright

    LMX Spiral

    1998, Richard Wright

    Production adviser

  46. Still from Pleasures of War by Ruth Lingford: Judith holding Holofernes' head

    Pleasures of War

    1998, Ruth Lingford

    Producer

  47. Still from Ray-Gun Fun by Simon Pummell: a child with a pink ray-gun trail across his face

    Ray-Gun Fun

    1998, Simon Pummell

    Executive producer

  48. Still from Salvage by John Parry

    Salvage

    1998, John Parry

    Production adviser

  49. Still from Expelling the Demon by Devlin Crow

    Expelling the Demon

    1999, Devlin Crow

    Production adviser

  50. Still from Ferment by Tim Macmillan

    Ferment

    1999, Tim Macmillan

    Production adviser

  51. Still from Furniture Poetry by Paul Bush

    Furniture Poetry

    1999, Paul Bush

    Production adviser

  52. Still from Kingdom Protista by Andrew Kötting

    Kingdom Protista

    1999, Andrew Kötting

    Production adviser

  53. Still from Love Is All by Oliver Harrison

    Love Is All

    1999, Oliver Harrison

    Production adviser

  54. Still from Season's Greetings by Phil Mulloy

    Seasons Greetings

    1999, Phil Mulloy

    Production adviser

  55. Still from An Anatomy of Melancholy by Jo Ann Kaplan

    An Anatomy of Melancholy

    2000, Jo Ann Kaplan

    Producer

  56. Still from Blinded by Light by Simon Pummell

    Blinded by Light

    2000, Simon Pummell

    Production adviser

  57. Still from Hotel Central by Matt Hulse

    Hotel Central

    2000, Matt Hulse

    Production adviser

  58. Still from Summer with Monika by Corrina Askin

    Summer with Monika

    2000, Corrina Askin

    Production adviser

  59. Still from Camouflage by Jonathan Hodgson

    Camouflage

    2001, Jonathan Hodgson

    Executive producer

  60. Still from Dear Nelson by Sarah Cox

    Dear Nelson

    2001, Sarah Cox

    Executive producer

  61. Still from Emperor by Elizabeth Hobbs

    Emperor

    2001, Elizabeth Hobbs

    Executive producer

  62. Still from Film by Katy Shepherd

    Film

    2001, Katy Shepherd

    Executive producer

  63. Still from Home Road Movies by Robert Bradbrook: a blue estate car on a tree-lined road, signposts to Paris and Calais

    Home Road Movies

    2001, Robert Bradbrook

    Producer

  64. Still from Hypnomart by Joe Magee & Alistair Gentry

    Hypnomart

    2001, Joe Magee and Alistair Gentry

    Executive producer

  65. Still from Postcards of Belief by Lesley Adams

    Postcards of Belief

    2001, Lesley Adams

    Executive producer

  66. Still from Room Service by Sylvie Bringas

    Room Service

    2001, Sylvie Bringas

    Executive producer

  67. Still from Dad’s Dead by Chris Shepherd

    Dad’s Dead

    2002, Chris Shepherd

    Executive producer

  68. Still from Hooked by Vera Neubauer

    Hooked

    2002, Vera Neubauer

    Executive producer

  69. No Experience Necessary

    2002, Steve Loveridge

    Producer

  70. Still from Rotting Artist by Ann Course & Paul Clark

    Rotting Artist

    2002, Ann Course and Paul Clark

    Executive producer

  71. Still from The Nuclear Train by Daniel Saul

    The Nuclear Train

    2002, Daniel Saul

    Executive producer

  72. Still from The Old Fools by Ruth Lingford

    The Old Fools

    2002, Ruth Lingford

    Executive producer

  73. Still from Tulips at Dawn by Rosie Pedlow

    Tulips at Dawn

    2002, Rosie Pedlow

    Executive producer

  74. Still from Animal Tragic by Tim Macmillan

    Animal Tragic

    2003, Tim Macmillan

    Executive producer

  75. Still from Black, White & Green – the way of pie by Ian Bourn

    Black White & Green – the way of pie

    2003, Ian Bourn

    Executive producer

  76. Still from Exposure by Peter Collis

    Exposure

    2003, Peter Collis

    Executive producer

  77. Still from Extn. 21 by Lizzie Oxby: a giant rotary telephone dial on the wall of a tiled underground room

    Extn. 21

    2003, Lizzie Oxby

    Producer

  78. Still from Safety Tips for Kids by Roz Mortimer

    Safety Tips for Kids

    2003, Roz Mortimer

    Executive producer

  79. Still from Sucked Up by Karl Cresser

    Sucked Up

    2003, Karl Cresser

    Executive producer

  80. Still from The Phantom Museum by the Quay Brothers

    The Phantom Museum

    2003, Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay

    Executive producer

  81. Still from 13 by Simon Faithfull

    13

    2004, Simon Faithfull

    Executive producer

  82. Still from doubled up by Samantha Moore

    doubled up

    2004, Samantha Moore

    Executive producer

  83. Still from Half Life by Matt Hulse

    Half Life

    2004, Matt Hulse

    Executive producer

  84. Still from Minema Cinema by Tim Hope

    Minema Cinema

    2004, Tim Hope and Sue Green

    Executive producer

  85. Still from Mr Price by Tim Webb

    Mr. Price

    2004, Tim Webb

    Executive producer

  86. Still from Perpetual Motion in the Land of Milk and Honey by AL + AL

    Perpetual Motion in the Land of Milk and Honey

    2004, AL + AL

    Executive producer

  87. The animate! title on scuffed paper, from the programme's Channel 4 title sequence

    Animate! TV

    2005, Paul Bernays

    Executive producer

  88. Still from As the Crow Flies by Carolina Melis & Susanne Flender

    As the Crow Flies

    2005, Carolina Melis and Susanne Flender

    Executive producer

  89. Still from Careful by Damian Gascoigne

    Careful

    2005, Damian Gascoigne

    Executive producer

  90. Still from Flight by Dryden Goodwin

    Flight

    2005, Dryden Goodwin

    Thanks

  91. Still from Rabbit by Run Wrake

    Rabbit

    2005, Run Wrake

    Executive producer

  92. Still from Sweet Salt by Katerina Athanasopoulou

    Sweet Salt

    2005, Katerina Athanasopoulou

    Executive producer

  93. Still from Who I Am and What I Want by David Shrigley & Chris Shepherd

    Who I Am and What I Want

    2005, David Shrigley and Chris Shepherd

    Executive producer

  94. Still from From Nose to Mouth by Joji Koyama

    From Nose to Mouth

    2006, Joji Koyama

    Executive producer

  95. Still from Interstellar Stella by AL + AL

    Interstellar Stella

    2006, AL + AL

    Executive producer

  96. Still from Proximity by Inger Lise Hansen

    Proximity

    2006, Inger Lise Hansen

    Executive producer

  97. Still from Purple Grey by Sebastian Buerkner

    Purple Grey

    2006, Sebastian Buerkner

    Executive producer

  98. The animate! Book open at a spread of film stills in rows

    The animate! Book: Rethinking Animation

    2006, book

    Writer

  99. Still from We Believe in Happy Endings by Monika Forsberg & Susie Sparrow

    We Believe in Happy Endings

    2006, Monika Forsberg and Susie Sparrow

    Executive producer

  100. Still from Yours Truly by Osbert Parker

    Yours Truly

    2006, Osbert Parker

    Executive producer

  101. Still from End of the Street by Andy Martin

    End of the Street

    2007, Andy Martin

    Production adviser

  102. Still from Francis by Let Me Feel Your Finger First

    Francis

    2007, Richard Squires

    Production adviser

  103. Still from Magnetic Movie by Semiconductor

    Magnetic Movie

    2007, Semiconductor

    Production adviser

  104. Still from Round-Up by Mark Simon Hewis

    The Life Size Zoetrope

    2007, Mark Simon Hewis

    Production adviser

Stills from the animate! archive at animate.org.uk, Marjut Rimminen’s site, the 2002 Finetake site and a copy of Death and the Mother. Festival photographs from Marjut Rimminen’s collection; the 1965 poster © Alan Kitching, CC BY-SA 3.0.

* The photographer Dick hired to cover the visit, Peter Dunne, photographed Hitchcock in the cloisters that day. His portrait, Alfred in the Arches, later appeared in Apple's Think Different campaign.