| Barrie Nelson | |
| Birth Date: | 7 May 1933 |
| Birth Place: | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Death Place: | Haiku, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of Manitoba |
| Occupation: | Animator |
Barrie Nelson (May 7, 1933 – September 29, 2021) was a Canadian animator.[1] He was most noted as the director of the 1971 animated short film Propaganda Message,[2] and the "B-17" segment of the 1981 animated anthology film Heavy Metal.[3]
A native of Winnipeg, he studied fine art at the University of Manitoba.[1] He worked for Canadian animation studios for a number of years before moving to Hollywood, where he joined John Hubley's studio and was one of the animators of the Academy Award-winning A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature.[1] He had a number of other animation credits, both with Hubley and on various animated television series, before making Propaganda Message for the National Film Board of Canada in 1971; the film won a gold award at the first USA International Animation Film Festival in New York City in 1972.[4]
Nelson also worked on the 1978 animated adaptation of Watership Down and the 1990 TV special Garfield's Feline Fantasies.[5] [6]
Nelson also later made the short film Ten: The Magic Number, about the adoption of the metric system in Canada, for the NFB.[7] In the United States he continued to work on animated films and television series,[1] and made at least four short films that were submitted for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film consideration: Keep Cool (1971),[8] Twins (1974),[9] Opens Wednesday (1980),[10] [11] and You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks (1984).[12]
Nelson died in Haiku, Hawaii on September 29, 2021, at the age of 88.[13]