Louis Bunin (28 March 1904 ? 17 February 1994) was an American puppeteer , artist, and pioneer of stop-motion animation best known for his 1949 adaption of Alice in Wonderland .

Early works [ edit ]

While working as a mural artist under Diego Rivera in Mexico City in 1926, Bunin created political puppet shows using marionettes including a production of Eugene O'Neill 's The Hairy Ape . Photographer Tina Modotti took many pictures of Bunin and his puppets, including her renowned work, "The Hands of the Puppeteer." ^[1]

Career [ edit ]

On his return to the United States, Bunin created animated three-dimensional puppets to appear in the 1939 New York World's Fair in New York City . His 1943 political stop-motion satire, Bury the Axis , is well known. Later Bunin landed a job with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he created the stop-motion Prologue to the famed film, Ziegfeld Follies . He was subsequently fired as a casualty of McCarthyism . ^[2]

Alice in Wonderland (1949) [ edit ]

Bunin went on to create a feature-length stop-motion animation film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1949, starring Carol Marsh as a live-action Alice. A lawsuit from Walt Disney prevented it from being widely released in the U.S., ^[3] so that it would not compete with Disney's forthcoming 1951 animated version . ^[1] Further, the film was kept out of Britain as his representation of the Queen of Hearts was seen as too close and too unkind to Queen Victoria. ^[4] The film was restored with 12 additional minutes and shown at museums around the US, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. ^[5]

Death [ edit ]

Creator of the popular Talking Utica Club Beer Mugs and a plethora of memorable short films, Bunin died of a stroke on 17 February 1994 at age 89 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA. ^[1]

References [ edit ]

Further reading [ edit ]