Choo Choo (c.1940)
Synopsis
An amateur film by Will and Harrie Owen which features the Spirit of Progress passenger train. It includes both documentary and dramatised footage.
Curator’s notes
Choo Choo is a delightful film which reveals the Owen Brothers’ love for their home city of Melbourne as well as their interest in public transport (see also Fez Please, c1935, about Melbourne’s cable trams). Will and Harrie Owen were Melbourne-based graphic artists, animators and amateur filmmakers who began making films for private viewing in the early 1930s. Their early experimental works were animations such as The Old Tree (c1938) and The Court of Old King Cole (c1939), but they also had an interest in live-action documentaries.
In the early 1940s the brothers formed their own company, Owen Brothers, which later became Owen Brothers Animated Films. They ventured into commercial work making a living animating segments of films for both private companies and government departments. During the Second World War the brothers made a series of animated propaganda films for the Department of Information including First Victory Home Loan: Squander Bug (1945), Road to Tokyo (c1941) and Australians Keep the Wheels of Industry Turning (c1943), as well as the Browning Machine Gun (c1940) army training film.
It is possible that Choo Choo was screened at the Owens’ local cinema in Belgrave, where Will was projectionist and manager.
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