The Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans is a 2004 music video brickfilm by Joshua Leasure. It is set to the song of the same name as performed by Johnny Horton, and is about American combatants repelling the British Army at The Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

Plot
In December 1814, British forces led by Sir Edward Pakenham have landed at the lower Mississippi River, so the American colonel Andrew Jackson leads an outnumbered group to establish a defence in New Orleans. The British attack on the 8th of January, 1815, and the Americans fire guns and cannons at them, reducing their numbers. The British continue marching down the river, playing drums and bugles, and the Americans keep firing. Jackson advises to take the British by surprise by only firing when they are close enough to make eye contact with.

The number of British is severely depleted, and they begin to run away. The Americans' fire a cannon until the barrel melts down, so they put cannonballs in the mouth of an alligator and use that instead. The British run away down the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico, and have lost 2,036 men, while the Americans only lost 71.

Crew

 * Joshua Leasure - Director, Animator
 * James Jannicelli - Marching animation
 * Libby Clarke - Set and animation assistance
 * Esmerelda Buccaneer - Prop design

Production
The Battle of New Orleans was originally intended to be an entry to the BrickFest 2003 Music Video Animation Competition, and to be a co-production between Joshua Leasure and James Jannicelli. After Leasure and Jannicelli had collaborated on the marching animation as well as a small number of other scenes, it was continued primarily only by Leasure. The cotton bales were made by Libby "witchbaby" Clarke who also helped with a little of the animation, and the drums were made by Esmerelda Buccaneer, who also provided additional British soldier figures.

The film was half finished in the summer of 2003, but rather than getting it completed in time for the contest deadline, Leasure decided to focus his attention on developing the new version of Brickfilms.com. The film was later completed over the winter break, and released at the start of the new year on January 5, 2004.

References to Other Brickfilms
The film contains a number of references to other brickfilms, as confirmed by Leasure:
 * Monsieur Bigo and Mohammed Becker (the man with the turban) from Leasure's previous film Great Microbiologists appear fighting with the Americans.
 * The skeletons of the three time travellers from Out of Time by Chris Salt are seen in a cave, along with the monkey who captured them.
 * The samurai Igawa from Nate Burr's film Samuri appears in the background of one shot in a jungle. Also in this shot is an out-of-place werewolf that was thought to be a reference to Blood of the Wolf by Burr, but this was stated as not being intentional.
 * The British run through the bar from Diplomacy, a series of brickfilms created by James Jannicelli and Joshua Leasure.

Additionally, The Battle of New Orleans can be seen playing in the 2005 Brickfilms.com community project Cleaning Time, as part of a display in a history museum.