George Pal's PUPPETOONS averaged eight minutes in length, requiring some 30,000 single frames (pictures) and 9,000 individually hand-carved wood figures for each frame of film. Their production was similar to that of a two-dimensional drawn cartoon. With his writers, Pal would come up with the story, and dialogue if any. The production would be storyboarded, sketched out shot by shot and decisions would be made about set designing and music. Pal would render color drawings of the main characters and their movements in each sequence, completing the first, middle, and last drawing of the animation. The artists employed as in-betweeners, filled in the character's movements between these three extremes. The drawings were then photographed to test the smoothness of the action. In a sense, a two-dimensional cartoon, in rough artist sketches was first made for every Puppetoon. Then while sets and props were being constructed in miniature, there were weeks of careful carving of the characters from wood.

To animate a wooden face it was necessary to produce twenty-four or more slightly different changes of expression for each second of action. The expressions were general enough, at times, to allow for the repeating of action, but speaking dialogue or singing an operatic aria allowed for a few short-cuts. The bodies of Pal's puppets were also made from wood and covered with cloth and costume. The limbs were constructed of multi-stranded wire which could be bent many times and into an unlimited number of positions. For upright support, wire pegs were placed in the puppet's feet and made to fit holes drilled in the floor of the set.

Finally, the single-frame photography was accomplished under the guidance of an exposure sheet based on a pre-recorded sound track. Editing, synchronization, and other post-production work completed the process. When in full operation, Pal was turning out one Puppetoon film every forty-five days. The cost of this in today's dollars would probably place each 8 minute short at the cost of several million dollars a piece compared to tens of thousands in the 1940's.

The technique of the replacement figure puppet was really Pal's invention and stop motion animation was used in some form or another in every one of his films. There is stop motion in DESTINATION MOON, THE TIME MACHINE, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM. This technique is where it all started and the same basic process is the building block of all computer CGI today from JURASSIC PARK to TOY STORY.

David Pal, George Pal's son, animating Wah Chang's elves in "The Cobbler and The Elves" sequence from THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM.

These two photos above are very rare.

The War Of The World's Martian war machines were fashioned out of copper which gave them a reddish tint symbolic of their Martian origin. And it was the use of color, in almost every facet of their special effects, the colorfully yellow heat rays, the rainbow effect of the pulsing cobra neck, the green disintegrator beams, and later, the multi-colored Martian, that gave the finished film a distinctly alien feel. Lee Vasque worked on the electronic hardware that went into each machine which possessed thousands of dollars worth of intricate wiring and circuitry connecting motors and lights to power generators hidden in the rafters on the set.

A concept which was later abandoned as being too dangerous involved the use of electronic beams to simulate the war machines' means of support. The idea was to use a high voltage electrical discharge of one million volts, fed down into wires suspended from overhead generators to form leg-like electronic beams. Gordan Jennings, head of special effects who won an Oscar for his work on this film, tested the effect near his office on Stage 2 at Paramount Studios and it worked fine, however, the concept was later abandoned as Pal explains: "It would been too easy for the sparks to jump to any dust, metal or dirt on the large stage. It could have killed someone, perhaps set the studio on fire, so we reluctantly gave up the idea although a great deal of hard work had already been done."

The electrical experience was not entirely wasted as each vehicle was expertly attached to fifteen hair-fine piano wires that connected to a device on an overhead track. Electricity was fed through these wires to the operating mechanisms. Other wires later transported the machines across soundstages where effects cinematographer Wallace Kelly recorded them on film with his high speed cameras.

The machines were equipped with two distinct weapons: a fiery heat ray which was used in the destruction of the cities; and a skeleton beam that disintegrated man's conventional weapons. Although many matted effects were employed to overlay on the picture, Gordan Jennings used LIVE BURNING WELDING WIRE to simulate the fiery heat ray on the miniature stage. As the wire melted, a blower set up behind the machines forced sparks toward the camera.

Many similar miniature pyrotechnics are used today in such films as ID4, DEEP IMPACT, GODZILLA and a host of others.