The ninth day of Ralph Hulett's Christmas

© by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Here's another "wise men travelling to Bethlehem" card. From the early sixties.

Which leads to a story: In 1960, Ralph H. wrote, produced and painted a film on the birth of Christ titled A Light Shines In the Darkness. It was slightly less than twenty minutes, a film of artwork depicting events around the birth of Jesus. He used a similar style to the one seen here: Dramatic lighting and colors, varied angles.

He worked on the film after hours at Disney; a cameraman in the animation camera department shot it for him on film-reel ends so Dad could keep costs down. Ralph used a few limited-animation techniques, but the film was essentially camera moves with styled artwork.

When Dad finished the film, he showed it to Walt Disney, who said "Nice. What do you plan to do with it?" Which sort of took the wind out of Father's sails, since he was hoping Disney would maybe pick it up.

The picture was ultimately distributed by Cathedral Films. Here's another Christmas card (posted last year) which echoes the style of Light ...

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.