From WIkipedia:

"...Potterton was nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: as director on the National Film Board of Canada animated shorts My Financial Career and Christmas Cracker, and as producer for The Selfish Giant..."

Incredibly, NONE of the obits mentions his producing the 1974 short "The Little Mermaid"!

Aside from the fact that it's easily the most faithful version of the tragic Andersen story, it was narrated by Richard Chamberlain (now aged 88) and directed by Peter Sander, who, like Potterton, had Beatle connections - from 1965 to 1967, when he was
barely over 21, he designed the animated TV series: "The Beatles." Sander also directed "The Selfish Giant" and worked with director Potterton on "Cool McCool." I hope he's still around; I know that "The Little Mermaid" composer, Ron Goodwin, died in
2003.

I still remember seeing it on TV; I THINK the candy commercial, in between scenes, was for the "$100,000 Bar."

(The short is not to be confused with the better-known 68-minute Japanese 1975 version produced by Toei Animation, which also has songs and a bittersweet ending - but a slightly different ending. In that one, the mermaid's name is Marina and the dolphin
is Fritz.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Fb2VnNksY
(25:22 minutes; it was presented by Reader's Digest, but some say the animation style is Russian)

Oddly, while it gets an 8.2 rating at the IMDb, there's only one user review - and no critic reviews!

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/other-little-mermaids/
(details on "The Little Mermaid" - don't miss the comments at the bottom)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0693376/
(Potterton's filmography)

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/gerald-potterton-dead-heavy-metal-director-animator-1235349917/

Last paragraphs:

...Potterton also directed live-action films in the 1960s, such as “The Ride” in 1963 and “The Railrodder” in 1965. The latter featured Buster Keaton in one of his last starring roles.

“Gerald came to Canada and the NFB to be part of a new wave of storytelling, one that was fresh and irreverent, and he brought great wit and creativity to every project,” Claude Joli-Coeur, NFB chairperson and government film commissioner, said in a
statement. “He was also a builder, helping to lay the foundation for today’s independent Canadian animation industry with Potterton Productions. He was an exceptional artist and a truly nice man.”

https://www.awn.com/news/heavy-metal-director-gerald-potterton-dies-91
(this includes a photo of Potterton and Buster Keaton, plus a still from "Christmas Cracker")

Excerpts:

...He returned to England to work on the animated Beatles feature Yellow Submarine (1968), followed by a collaboration with Harold Pinter on the innovative NBC TV special Pinter People, during which he began a lifelong friendship and collaboration with
actor Donald Pleasence.

...In a 2015 interview for AWN about his work on Heavy Metal, Potterton shared, “When the producer, Ivan Reitman, and I first met, I knew about the ‘Heavy Metal’ magazine in France and I liked the drawings… some of the stuff. A lot of it was crap,
but there was some good drawing. You know – Moebius and people like that. I loved that stuff, but I couldn’t see doing a ninety-minute film just in one style. I really liked the idea of like five or six stories, different stuff, just like in the
magazine. That’s what makes it work. You jump around with different styles. They’re not all done in the same style. ‘Den’ is different from ‘So Beautiful and So Dangerous’ and ‘B-17’ and ‘Captain Sternn.’ They’re all different and I
like that.”

Just ask the folks at South Park how important his film was to a generation of young stoners, certain all ladies wanted us because we were determined to avoid achievement at all costs.

In later years, he took up painting and was known for his historically accurate aviation paintings and extraordinary skies. He remained active and prolific into the 21st century, continuing to develop film and TV projects as well as pursuing other
artistic endeavors from his farm in Knowlton, Quebec.

In 2020, he wrote and illustrated a popular children’s book about Joseph-Armand Bombardier (inventor of the snowmobile), L’homme des neiges, published by Éditions Québec Amérique....

https://www.thewrap.com/heavy-metal-gerald-potterton-director-animated-dies-dead-91/
(this includes the trailer for "Heavy Metal")

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gerald-potterton-dead-heavy-metal-director-1235205298/

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