Daily post 27 Jul 2007 08:50 am
Smoking Simpsons & Animaland
– Disney reports that they’re going to eliminate smoking from all their family films. Universal reported that they had already eliminated smoking from their films, but hadn’t announced it until this past Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass, is spearheading a campaign to assure filmgoers that they won’t have to watch anyone smoking in films, and apparently his campaign is working. I always appreciate it when the government dictates artistic challenges.
It seems like we went through this last year when Tom and Jerry made headlines.
– The Simpsons Movie officially opens today. The marketing campaign couldn’t be much larger, and it’ll probably be effective over the weekend. I do wonder how many people will pay to see the film when the free tv show plays incessantly on local televisions.
It’s interesting that a large part of the campaign seems to be that this is a hand-drawn 2D animated film, and they put down cg animation. However, there seems to be cg in just about every scene I’ve seen in the ads. I’m sure the film will be funny, in that Simpsons sort of way. I won’t be able to see it until next Tuesday, and I’ll let you know what I think then. (Somehow I think I could probably write the review now.)
Fox has tried to keep reviews quiet, as if there’s a big secret in the plot. However, there are many reviews available now, and none of them seem to reveal any secrets – if there were any. Here are a couple of the local reviews:
- - A.O.Scott of the NYTimes says ““The Simpsons,†for all its mischief and iconoclasm, has become an institution, and that status has kept this film from taking too many chances. Why mess with the formula when you can extend the brand?”
-Elizabeth Weitzman of the NYDaily News says “It begins brilliantly and, eventually, loses some steam. But every time you check your watch, a genius gag whizzes by.”
-Newsday“s Jan Stuart says, “In politically repressive cultures, filmmakers often resort to allegory, magical realism and metaphor to sneak painful truths about their society past the government censorship machinery and penetrate the defenses of a populace cowed by fear.
In America, they use cartoons.”
Here’s a list of all the episodes in which the Simpsons smoked cigarettes.
For those unfamiliar with David Hand‘s Ginger Nutt series of shorts which he produced for Rank, TCM will air three of the episodes of these cartoons on Cartoon Alley, Saturday at 11:30 am. The shorts to air include: Ginger Nutt’s Bee-Bother (1949), Ginger Nutt’s Christmas Circus (1949) and Ginger Nutt’s Forest Dragon (1950).
John Miller provides extensive notes on this series at the TCM site. Look for Cartoon Alley #11. I can vouch that you’ll be safe from images of animals smoking during all of these cartoons.
This series can be bought on dvd (although TCM says no dvd is available.)
There’s an excellent interview with David Hand on Michael Barrier‘s site. This is an important read for anyone devoted to animation.
