A snappy animation by South Shields-born artist Sheila Graber traces the history of transport through the ages on land, sea and in the air. The film emerged from the jazzed-up version of 'Eine Kleine Nacht Musik' by Waldo de los Rios. A caveman and woman emerge from puddles of water onto dry land. A young boy floats down from the sky, a bird in hand. All three turn. The woman begins to run across land. The caveman tries to swim in his puddle. The boy tries to mimic the bird in...

A snappy animation by South Shields-born artist Sheila Graber traces the history of transport through the ages on land, sea and in the air. The film emerged from the jazzed-up version of 'Eine Kleine Nacht Musik' by Waldo de los Rios. A caveman and woman emerge from puddles of water onto dry land. A young boy floats down from the sky, a bird in hand. All three turn. The woman begins to run across land. The caveman tries to swim in his puddle. The boy tries to mimic the bird in flight. Title: Moving On … by Sheila Graber [titles over animation] The cavewoman trips on a log and surfs on it down a mountainside. The caveman appears, smiling, paddling a log canoe. He tries to ride rapids in the canoe. The cavewoman is overrun by a rolling log, which she treads rapidly along until it evolves into the wheels of a chariot with horses driven by an Egyptian. She looks back. The caveman is attaching a rudder to his boat, angrily.  He then pulls up a sail. The cavewoman has evolved into a Roman soldier driving a chariot with a brace of horses. She is pulled up short by a Viking boat. Meanwhile, the boy is leaping from a rock with no chance of taking flight like his companion, the bird. He mooches on the beach and sees the departure of Christian Crusaders in a ship. The cavewoman’s costume evolves through various military guises as she drives her chariot. The boy has fashioned a pair of wings with bird feathers like Icarus and dances to a ledge to fling himself off. He flaps his wings a few times but tumbles to the ground as the wings disintegrate, landing on the back of a regal horse-drawn carriage. The carriage crosses a bridge as the Crusaders return in their ship. The ship grows an enormous sail, which splits the bridge in two, and casts the King from his carriage. The 17th century ship now carries a cargo of tea, which the caveman flings from the deck in a tea chest. It splits open to reveal a giant tea pot. An English gent hugs the spout. The tea pot spout evolves into the chimney of Robert and George Stephenson’s Rocket, an early steam locomotive designed and built in the early 19th century. The cavewoman-like Stephenson rides the Rocket pulling a truck of coal, taking a cup of tea with her feet up, blackened by steam as the engine travels through a tunnel, and across a viaduct. The engine comes a cropper as it tries to climb a steep slope. The Rocket tumbles down, pieces landing on a ship, which then transform from sail to paddle steamer, speeding across the ocean. The cavewoman waves back from the cabin of a powerful steam locomotive at the steam ship belching thick black smoke. They point to the skies. The boy appears in a balloon basket. Its ropes are suddenly severed by an eagle in flight. The balloon tumbles to the ground rapidly. The caveman throws a life ring to the boy. The bird companion tows him back to land. Undeterred, the boy tries to take to the skies clinging to an early bi-plane flying machine, only to have it shattered by the arrival of motor cars and a motor bus, its sign declaring ‘It’s better by bus’. His bird companion arrives with a cockpit, motor and propeller, and the boy becomes a dapper aviator. He swoops upon an Edwardian gent riding a penny farthing bicycle. The caveman peers through binoculars from a U47 submarine. He salutes as a Spitfire buzzes him from the air. The submarine dives under water. The caveman and woman look to the skies, annoyed. Boy is now an airline pilot, with his bird companion a co-pilot. A supersonic Concorde speeds through the air. A rocket takes off into space. The astronaut boy and his bird companion wave from the window. Title: The End? The cave family shrug.