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Norman McLaren's HEN HOP

Hen Hop (1942/49, sound, color, 35mm, 4 min.)

Production: National Film Board of Canada

Animator: Norman McLaren

 (Frame from NFB.ca)


 Clocking in at just under four minutes, Hen Hop is alive with Norman McLaren’s irrepressible kinetic energy and wild imagination as a hen (sometimes part, sometimes whole, and sometimes still an egg) dances to barn dance music. McLaren animated the movie by drawing directly onto the 35mm film stock. Originally released in 1942, the film was re-released in 1949 with an additional international opening title sequence, and it is this version that we will be screening. In 2009, McLaren's 1952 film Neighbors was inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World, which referred to him as “the most influential animator in the history of the art of animation.” His influence can be seen in Helen Hill’s Scratch and Crow (1995), shown on the same program.


Watch the 1949 version (with electronic music added to the opening) 

National Film Board of Canada’s www.nfb.ca/playlists/mclaren/viewing/Hen_Hop/#panel2

There documentarian David McWilliams says of Norman McLaren:

the frequency of birds, chickens, and chickens’ feet in his films was no accident. He identified with birds, particularly chickens.... McLaren’s animation of chicken movements and behavior had much in common with his own movements and behavior. Knowing he was a hen made it easier to work with him.
 
Helen Hill's nickname as a child in South Carolina was "Chicken," for her love of animals. Like McLaren, Hill used birds as a motif in much of her work. More particularly, one can find chickens' feet cleverly added to objects with her animated worlds. She also became a Canadian citizen and, like McLaren again, worked for the animation division of the NFB. 

Resources:

William E. Jordan. “Norman McLaren: His Career and Techniques.” Quarterly of Film Radio and Television vol. 8, no. 1 (Autumn 1953): 1-14.

Robert Koehler. “Some Aspects of Norman McLaren.” CinemaScope 28,  www.cinema-scope.com/cs28/spot_koehler_mclaren_canadian.html

Bill Schaffer. “The Riddle of the Chicken: The Work of Norman McLaren.” Senses of Cinema 35 (April-June 2005), http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/35/norman_mclaren.html

UNESCO’s Memory of the World. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26905&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

 

Holdings: National Film Board of Canada.  Available on DVD from NFB. As early as 1943, 16mm copies were sold via the International Film Bureau in Chicago. Hence, the New York Public Library and other institutions have prints of Hen Hop.