Jerry The troublesome Tyke - Honesty Is The Best Policy - 1920's Animated Shorts
40 Jerry the Tyke films were created for the 'Pathé Pictorials' between 1925 and 1927 by Welsh animator Sid Griffiths, and cameraman Bert Bilby.
He's the lost hero of early animation and the films, thought lost, were doscivered in the Pathé archives by the late film historian Dave Berry.
To celebrate this, I was commissioned by the BBC and BBC National Orchetra Of Wales to score 12 of the shorts, and this is one of those films. A groundbreaking film, mixing live action with animation.
The music uses slapstick, and 'Mickey-Mousing' scoring techniques, made famous by composer and musical pioneer, Carl Stalling for the 'Loony Tunes', and early Disney 'Silly Symphonies' films.
The music draws on this tradtion, also the music of the 20's, in the use of Ragtime rhythms, and instrumentation such as the clarinet, the main instrument that plays Jerry's theme.