I have tried to preserve in my relationship to the film the same closeness and intimacy that exists between a painter and his canvas.

As of 1942 McLaren could no longer keep up with the demands for animation at the fast-growing NFB and he was asked by Grierson to recruit art students and create a small animation team—a task made more difficult because many young students had gone off to fight in the war. See also
McLaren's Negatives
René Jodoin
Motion graphics. McLaren founds recruits for his fledgling animation unit at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Ontario College of Art including René Jodoin George Dunning Jim McKay Grant Munro and his future collaborator Evelyn Lambart.

His awards included an Oscar for the Best Documentary in 1952 for Neighbours a Silver Bear for best short documentary at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival Rythmetic and a 1969 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film for Pas de deux. Norman McLaren CC CQ (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).