John Weldon

John Weldon

John Felix Weldon, animator, director, composer, comic book artist (born at Belleville, Ont 11 May 1945). John Weldon was raised in Montréal and joined the NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA (NFB) in 1970 following studies in psychology and mathematics at McGill University. With the NFB for 33 years, he worked on more than 50 films and directed and animated more than 20. He retired in 2004 and devoted himself to songwriting and comic art.

In the animated world of John Weldon, average Canadians are confronted by absurd circumstances that tear away the fragile underpinnings of their lives. His Oscar-winning Special Delivery (1979), directed with Eunice MACAULEY, follows a postman, his wife and her lover as they work their way through a darkly humorous scenario of love, death, misunderstanding and exile. Questions of identity are played out in several of Weldon's films. In Spinnolio (1977; CANADIAN FILM AWARD for animated short), a computer replaces a lifeless but functional puppet. In his stylish Real Inside (1984), produced and directed with David Verrall and made before Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a Toon (cartoon creation) applies for a job because he wants to be human. To Be (1990) raises the ante on Hamlet's soliloquy by duplicating a scientist through a teleportation machine, and his madcap The Hungry Squid (2002) won the GENIE AWARD for animated short.

John Weldon's other films include Log Driver's Waltz (1979; based on a song by Wade Hemsworth and set to the music of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, it is one of the most popular and frequently downloaded NFB shorts), Elephantrio (1985), Of Dice and Men (1988), The Lump (1991; a Genie Award nominee for animated short), Scant Sanity (1997), Frank the Wrabbit (1998; another Genie nominee) and Home Security 2003.