User Reviews

What makes man different from the animals? Talking, walking, using tools, and, of course, speech! Now we are not all Zeus, so as we started to need to communicate over greater distances we used everything from pigeons to drums then semaphore and in 1800-odd, we discover electricity and that enabled the telegraph, then the telephone - and now automatic networks enable hassle - and crackle - free conversations from one side of the world to the other. Meantime, Marconi was experimenting with the wireless in the 1890s and gradually that became indispensable as a means of quickly and efficiently informing folks of what's going on hither and tither and of even entertaining us. You can tell where we are heading now? Yep. We marry the fixed line methods of the telephone with the wire-free methods of the radio and guess what? Television, that's what! Information is quickly and easily shared the world over and even in 1957, it all looks like the world is shrinking fast! There's an engagingly mischievous Greek mythological theme to help tie the strands together and the animation is colourful and busy accompanied by the convivial commentary from Ted Archer. It's only ten minutes, and worth a watch.

Just saw this British animation short on Cartoon Brew. Pan-tele-tron is a pretty entertaining look at the way communication was achieved through the eras from wires to telephones to radio to television. Produced and sponsored by Phillips, this film has that wonderful '50s abstract look so common for this era. While you do see the Phillips logo at the beginning and end, there are no blatant product placements of their items anywhere in this animation short. Instead, you get a wonderful education of communications throughout the centuries and their inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Marconi. Well worth seeing for animation and history buffs.

Many years ago the only effective way to communicate was to physically go to the person you needed to communicate with. The rich could maybe afford messengers but only the gods could cover great distances quickly. The invention of code signals led to the invention of the telephone to the invention of exchangers to the invention of radio waves and so on. This film captures the growth of the telecommunications industry.

If a major corporation sponsors a film today, we'd all be on the look out for the hidden messages and product placement; however back in 1957, Phillips just came out and produced this animation that looks in an amusing fashion at the growth of the communications industry and, although they don't refer to their own products at any point, it is their logo that is right up there at the very start and finish. This only really smacks you at the end as the film finishes on a heavy-handed marketing line, but other than this it is all quite amusing and interesting. Looking back now from a world where such things as telephones are seen as normal essentials etc all the information in the film is very dated but the delivery is still quite enjoyable – rarely hilarious but colourful and energetic with some nice little touches.

Overall this is a nice little short from the nice people at Phillips; nothing fascinating or great about it but has novelty interest as a period piece and an example of corporation marketing in a sideways manner rather than direct selling.