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Brad Caslor & Christopher Hinton (1978)

An animated parable that deals with a familiar subject in an amusing way. We join in the business ventures of J.B. Edwards, an easterner who went west to create a fuel company called Consolidated Dragons. The company’s profits were sorely affected when the supply of dragons started to dry up. A solution had to be found–and was.

Directed by Brad Caslor & Christopher Hinton – 1978

Blowhard is a Canadian animated short film, directed by Brad Caslor and Christopher Hinton for the National Film Board of Canada in 1978. A satire of capitalism, the film centers on a businessman who moves to Blowhard, a town populated by dragons but without electrical power, and formulates a plan to profit and become rich by exploiting the dragons as a power source.

The film was made for the NFB’s Renewable Society series. It also served as a subtle comment on Western Canadian alienation, as businessman J. B. Edwards was “from the East” and the town of Blowhard was “in the West”. It was narrated by Maara Haas, and also featured Wayne Finucan as the voice of J. B. Edwards.

The film received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978 and it won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation at the Yorkton Film Festival.

It was later broadcast in the United States on Cartoon Network’s O Canada anthology series of NFB animated shorts.

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Brad Caslor (1985)

Get a Job is a 1985 comedic musical animated short by Brad Caslor, featuring a rendition of the song of the same name, made famous by The Silhouettes. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the project took Caslor seven years to complete, from conception to release. Caslor began the film as a social guidance film for the Canadian government, however, during production it evolved into a more comedic work, incorporating a wide range of classic animation characters and techniques, including the styles of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Al Simmons and Jay Brazeau performed the music in the film, which received the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Animated Short.
Fellow Winnipeg animator Cordell Barker did animation work on the film.