The Tale Of The Amp Lion is an advert for Amplion, an old brand of speaker for record players and radios. It was directed by the illustrator William Heath Robinson in what was his only foray into animation.
In this short cartoon, two cartoon Amplion speakers transform themselves into various things (including, yes, a lion), before eventually reforming into a photograph of an actual Amplion speaker right at the end (so you know exactly what it is you want to buy). The animation is pretty simple, but also delightful, and some of the transformations/transitions are pretty funny too (not least the swan laying a big tower of eggs, which made me laugh more than it should have done, probably).
Considering I never knew until I found this that William Heath Robinson had ever made a cartoon, now I’m suddenly quite sad that he never made anymore.
(I also like the way the final advertising slogan has an entirely different meaning, product wise, 100 years later than it did at the time, although that has nothing to do with the cartoon itself, obviously.)
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Notes
1. I watched this on the BFI Player
2. Which has stopped working for me on safari for some reason, but still seems to work on chrome.
3. Just in case you’re also having trouble with it.
4. William Heath Robinson is probably best known to most for his Heath Robinson machines.
5. (Not to be confused with the Heath Robinson machine, obviously)
5. And if not that then for his fairy tale illustrations (which are equally wonderful).
6. Especially this spectacularly unimpressed cat from The Ugly Duckling (I think)
7. Heath Robinson’s brother Charles Robinson’s fairy tale illustrations are also just as good.
8. There was also a third Robinson brother who was an illustrator but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a single one of his pictures so who knows if he’s real or not.
9. And I’m not about to check.
10. Sorry
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Film Information
Title: The Tale Of The Amp Lion
Year: 1925
Director: W. Heath Robinson
Duration: 2 minutes
Watch: BFI Player
Further Reading: The Heath Robinson Museum; A selection of William Heath Robinson illustrations