Industrial Film: Penn Mutual

Description

Continuing our series of rare industrial films by the Paul Fennell Studios, here is an animated film about the history of insurance in America. Fennell was insured by Penn Mutual, and he pitched his agent with the idea of doing an animated film for their annual report to stockholders. The company liked the idea, so Fennell quickly set up a studio and hired Ed Benedict away from Disney to do design and layout. They continued to work together on commercials and industrial films until the late 1950s.

This film does a good job of turning technical subjects that could easily become tedious into interesting and entertaining film action. It displays Fennell’s experience producing instructional films for the government during WWII, and combined with Benedict’s clear, focused layouts, it is a perfect model of animation as an instructional medium.