Puppetoons
George Pal's Puppetoons were a series of animated puppet films made in Europe in the 1930s and in the United States in the 1940s. They are memorable for their use of replacement animation: using a series of different hand-carved wooden puppets (or puppet heads or limbs) for each frame in which the puppet moves or changes expression, rather than moving a single puppet, as is the case with most stop motion puppet animation.

The series began when Pal made an advertising film using "dancing" cigarettes in 1932, which led to a series of theatrical advertising shorts for Philips Radio in the Netherlands. This was followed by a series for Horlicks Malted Milk in England. These shorts have an art deco design, often reducing characters to simple geometric shapes. A typical Puppetoon required 9,000 individually carved and machined wooden figures or parts.

Pal came to the U.S. in 1940, and produced dozens of Puppetoons for Paramount Pictures, eight of which received Academy Award nominations, including Rhythm in the Ranks (for the year 1941), Tulips Shall Grow (1942), Jasper and the Haunted House (1942), The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943), And To Think I Saw it On Mulberry Street (1944), Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945), John Henry and the Inky-Poo (1946), Jasper in a Jam (1946), and Tubby the Tuba (1947).  (Info source:  AMPAS Animated Short Film Oscar archives.)

The series ended due to rising production costs which had increased from $18,000 per short in 1939 to almost $50,000 following the war. Paramount Pictures, Pal's distributor, objected to the cost. Per their suggestion Pal went to produce sequences for feature films. In 1956, the Puppetoons as well as most of Paramount's shorts, were sold to television distributor U.M. & M. TV Corporation. National Telefilm Associates bought out U.M. & M. and continued to syndicate them in the 1950s and 1960s as "Madcap Models".

Pal also used the Puppetoon name and the general Puppetoon technique for miniature puppet characters in some of his live-action feature films, including The Great Rupert (1949), Tom Thumb (1958), and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1963). In these films, the individual wooden figures were billed as The Puppetoons.

In 1986, film producer-director-archivist Arnold Leibovit, a friend of George Pal, collected several Puppetoons and released them theatrically and to video as The Puppetoon Movie reintroducing them to contemporary audiences.  A feature-length documentary on the life and films of George Pal followed.

Jasper 
Some controversy exists in modern times, as the black character, Jasper, star of several Puppetoons in the 1940s, although innocently conceived at the time, is considered a stereotype today. Pal described Jasper as the Huckleberry Finn of American folklore. Already in 1946, an article of the Hollywood Quarterly protested that the Jasper shorts presented a "razor-totin', ghost-haunted, chicken-stealin' concept of the American Negro".

A 1947 article in Ebony pointed that George Pal was a European and not raised on racial prejudice. "To him there is nothing abusive about a Negro boy who likes to eat watermelons or gets scared when he goes past a haunted house". The article, though, pointed that this depiction touched on the stereotypes of Negroes being childish, eating nothing but molasses and watermelons, and being afraid of their own shadows.

Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved several of the Puppetoons in 2009, including Jasper and the Beanstalk, John Henry and the Inky Poo, and Rhythm In the Ranks.

Filmography
1932
Midnight

1934
Radio Valve Revolution (2D Animation) - Blu-ray Vol 2
Philips Cavalcade (a.k.a. Cavalcade of Music) - February 2, 1934
The Ship of the Ether - March 6, 1934 -  Blu-ray Vol 2

1935
The Magic Atlas - February 2, 1935
World's Greatest Show
In Lamp Light Land - Blu-ray Vol 2
Sinbad
Ali Baba - Blu-ray Vol 2

1936
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - February 2, 1936
Ether Symphony - June 17, 1936
Vier Asse
Charlie's World Cruise

On Parade!

1937
What Ho, She Bumps (a.k.a. Captain Kidding)
The Reddingsbrigade (aka resuce  Bridge)  - Blu-ray Vol 2
Jasper and the Choo Choo  - Blu-ray Vol 2

1938
Philips Broadcast of 1938 (a.k.a. The Big Broadcast of '38) - November 13, 1938
South Seas Sweethearts
The Ballet of Red Radio Valves
Sky Pirates  -  Blu-ray Vol 2
Love on the Range -  Blu-ray Vol 2
How An Advertising Poster Came About -  Blu-ray Vol 21939Sleeping Beauty1940Gooseberry Pie
Friend in Need1941Western Daze - January 7, 1941
Dipsy Gypsy - April 4, 1941 - Blu-ray Vol 2
Hoola Boola - June 27, 1941
The Gay Knighties - August 22, 1941 -  Blu-ray Vol 2
Rhythm in the Ranks - December 26, 19411942Jasper and the Watermelons - February 26, 1942
The Sky Princess - March 27, 1942
Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk - May 8, 1942
Tulips Shall Grow - June 26, 1942
Jasper and the Haunted House - October 23, 19421943Bravo, Mr. Strauss - February 26, 1943
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - April 30, 1943
Jasper's Music Lesson - May 21, 1943
The Truck That Flew - August 6, 1943
The Little Broadcast - September 25, 1943
Jasper Goes Fishing - October 8, 1943
Goodnight Rusty - December 3, 1943  -  Blu-ray Vol 2
Jasper Goes Hunting  -  Blu-ray Vol 2
Jasper Tell  -  Blu-ray Vol 21944Package for Jasper - January 28, 1944
A Hatful of Dreams - January 1944 - Blu-ray Vol 2
Say Ah, Jasper - March 10, 1944

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street - July 28, 1944
Jasper's Paradise - October 13, 1944
Two-Gun Rusty - December 1, 1944 -  Blu-ray Vol 2
 1945Jasper's Booby Traps - 1945
Hot Lips Jasper - January 5, 1945

Jasper's Minstrels - May 25, 1945
Jasper's Close Shave - September 28, 1945 -  Blu-ray Vol 2
Jasper and the Beanstalk - October 19, 1945
My Man Jasper - December 14, 19451946Jasper's Derby
Jasper in a Jam
Olio for Jasper - January 25, 1946
Together in the Weather - March 22, 1946
John Henry and the Inky-Poo - September 6, 1946
Wilbur the Lion  -  Blu-ray Vol 21947Shoe Shine Jasper - January 28, 1947

Tubby the Tuba - July 11, 1947
Romeow and Julicat (Shown in the film Variety Girl) - August 29, 1947
Date with Duke - October 31, 1947
Rhapsody in Wood - December 29, 19471948Sweet Pacific1971'The Tool Box Ballet (broadcast on Curiosity Shop) - September 2, 1971

See alsoThe Puppetoon Movie''