{{Short description|Danish-Canadian animator (1927–2019)}} {{Infobox person | name = Kaj Pindal | birth_name = Kaj Gøtzsche Pindal | image = KajPindalPeepCreator.jpeg | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|12|1|}} | birth_place = Copenhagen, Denmark | death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|06|28|1927|12|1}} | death_place = Toronto, Canada | occupation = Animator, teacher | years_active = 1940s-2019 | known_for = Peep and the Big Wide World, What on Earth! | style =
}} '''Kaj Gøtzsche Pindal''' (December 1, 1927 – June 28, 2019) was a Danish-Canadian animator and animation educator who worked at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) beginning in 1957, and created such works as the Academy Award-nominated ''What on Earth!'' (1967, co-directed with Les Drew) and the 1988 NFB short ''Peep and the Big Wide World'' as well as the television series of the same name in 2004.<ref name="CFE">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Kaj Pindal | encyclopedia=Canadian Film Encyclopedia | publisher=Toronto International Film Festival | accessdate=June 9, 2012 | location=Toronto | url=http://tiff.net/CANADIANFILMENCYCLOPEDIA/content/bios/kaj-pindal | date= | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120409092848/http://tiff.net/CANADIANFILMENCYCLOPEDIA/content/bios/kaj-pindal | archivedate=April 9, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Biography== Pindal began his career as an underground cartoonist during the German occupation of Denmark, and was forced to flee his home city of Copenhagen when his series of anti-Hitler cartoons put his life in peril. After the Second World War, he made animated commercials in Sweden and at Denmark's Nordisk Film, and worked on UNESCO films and filmstrips. He immigrated to Canada in 1957 and joined the NFB the same year.<ref name="CFE"/>
In 1962, he created the NFB short ''The Peep Show'', which eventually spun-off to the short ''Peep and the Big Wide World'' in 1988 and became a television series of the same name in 2004. The series won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Animation Program in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tohana|first=Lindsay|date=2019-07-04|title=Kaj Pindal, 1927-2019|url=https://9story.com/kaj-pindal-1927-2019/|access-date=2021-06-17|website=9 Story Media Group|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/peep_show/ | title=The Peep Show }}</ref> His other NFB credits also include ''The City: Osaka'', created for Expo '70 in Osaka, and designed to give Japanese people a glimpse into Canadian life. This two-minute black-and-white film played during the world's fair on a screen composed of sixty thousand individual light bulbs. Pindal is the subject of a 1979 NFB documentary entitled ''Laugh Lines''.<ref name="amid">{{cite web | url=http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/the-city-osaka-by-kaj-pindal.html | title=Directors You Should Know: Kaj Pindal | work=Cartoon Brew | date=April 27, 2012 | accessdate=June 9, 2012 | author=Amidi, Amid | author-link=Amid Amidi | archive-date=July 3, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703015330/http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/the-city-osaka-by-kaj-pindal.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> In addition to his work at the NFB, Pindal returned to Denmark for a year in 1970 and spent several months in 1983 teaching in Denmark and Sweden. He remained an influence in Canadian animation through his involvement with Sheridan College, where he had taught from 1977 to 2019.<ref name="CFE"/> He often stated, "Life is too short for long films."<ref>Pindal, Kaj. History of Animation, 28 Sept. 1999, Sheridan College. Lecture.</ref>
Pindal died on June 28, 2019, at the age of 91.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.animationmagazine.net/people/peep-and-the-big-wide-world-creator-kaj-pindal-dies-at-91/|title='Peep and the Big Wide World' Creator Kaj Pindal Dies at 91|last=Zahed|first=Ramin|date=June 28, 2019|work=Animation Magazine|accessdate=June 28, 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://kajpindal.blogspot.ca/ Kaj Pindal's blog] *[https://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/pindal_kaj.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia article.] *[http://sheridananimationfaculty.blogspot.ca/2010/09/kaj-pindal-animation-history-4th-year.html Sheridan Animation Faculty biography] *{{IMDb name |0683927}} *[https://www.nfb.ca/directors/kaj-pindal/ Watch films by Kaj Pindal], National Film Board of Canada website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pindal, Kaj}} Category:1927 births Category:2019 deaths Category:Danish animators Category:Danish animated film directors Category:Danish comics artists Category:Danish editorial cartoonists Category:Danish resistance members Category:People from Copenhagen Category:Danish emigrants to Canada Category:National Film Board of Canada people Category:Academic staff of Sheridan College Category:Animation educators Category:Canadian film educators Category:Canadian editorial cartoonists Category:Canadian comics artists Category:Canadian animated film directors Category:Canadian people of Danish descent