Kaj Gøtzsche Pindal (December 1, 1927–June 28, 2019) was an animator and animation educator who worked at the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB) beginning in 1957, and created such works as the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated '' What on Earth!'' (1967, co-directed with Les Drew) and the 1988 NFB short ''

Peep and the Big Wide World ''Peep and the Big Wide World'' (''PATBWW'') is an animated children's television series created by Danish-Canadian animator Kaj Pindal. It revolves around the lives of Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as viewers discover, investigate, and explore the w ...

'' as well as the television series of the same name in 2004.

Biography

Kaj Pindal began his career as an underground cartoonist during the

German occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...

, and was forced to flee his home city of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

when his series of anti-Hitler cartoons put his life in peril. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he made animated commercials in Sweden and at Denmark's

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanus ...

, and worked on

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

films and filmstrips. He immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1957 and joined the NFB the same year. His NFB credits also include ''The City: Osaka'', created for

Expo '70 The or Expo 70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan between March 15 and September 13, 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

in Osaka, and designed to give Japanese people a glimpse into Canadian life. This two-minute black-and-white film played during the world's fair on a screen composed of sixty thousand individual light bulbs. Pindal is the subject of a 1979 NFB documentary entitled ''Laugh Lines''. In addition to his work at the NFB, Pindal returned to Denmark for a year in 1970 and spent several months in 1983 teaching in Denmark and Sweden. He remained an influence in Canadian animation through his involvement with

Sheridan College Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology) is a public polytechnic institute of technology located in the west- Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. Founded i ...

, where he had taught from 1977 to 2019. He often stated, "Life is too short for long films." In 2004, he created Peep and the Big Wide World, which won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Animation Program in 2005. Pindal died on June 28, 2019, at the age of 91.

References

External links

Kaj Pindal's blog
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Watch films by Kaj Pindal
National Film Board of Canada website 1927 births 2019 deaths Danish animators Danish animated film directors Danish comics artists Danish cartoonists Danish resistance members People from Copenhagen Danish emigrants to Canada National Film Board of Canada people Sheridan College faculty Animation educators Canadian cartoonists Canadian comics artists Canadian animators Canadian animated film directors Canadian people of Danish descent {{Denmark-artist-stub