Daily post 21 Dec 2007 09:29 am
MoMA Shows In Jan.
- Today officially marks the anniversary of the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first US animated feature. Seventy years later, it’s still one of the finest. There’s an excellent article by Wade Sampson about the premiere. If you have the dvd, why not watch it again?
Though Snow White isn’t going to play in a theater soon, a number of other features will.
Here’s your chance to see some great and important animated features on a big screen.
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In January, the Museum of Modern Art will present a month of animation from its collection, ranging from early shorts (including three Dave Fleischer Popeye shorts from 1936, ’37 and ’39) to four features including 2005′s Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
The Popeye films and a 1948 Bunin/Bower Alice in Wonderland will both be projected on prints recently restored by the Museum. You can bet I’ll have a lot more to say about Alice as time gets closer.
Still Moving
The Museum continues its regular series derived exclusively from its film collections, featuring works that have been acquired and preserved by MoMA over the last seven decades.
Still Moving features animation, from traditional cel animation to puppets, clay, and CGI. Included are three Technicolor Popeye shorts from the Fleischer studio, recently restored by the Museum, as well as My Neighbors the Yamadas, a disarming chronicle of contemporary daily life by Japanese animation master Isao Takahata. MoMA’s restoration of Alice
in Wonderland, Lou Bunin and Dallas Bower’s deft melding of live actors and puppets, will be screened, as will the feature debut of Wallace and Gromit, and Pixar’s a bug’s life.
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor. 1936. USA. Directed by Dave Fleischer. 17 min.
Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves. 1937. USA. Directed by Dave Fleischer. 17 min.
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp. 1939. USA. Directed by Dave Fleischer. 22 min. Program 56 min. ________________
Tuesday, January 1, 2:00
(T2); Wednesday, January 9, 1:30 (T3); Thursday, January 10, 1:30 (T3)
(The image above thanks to Animation Backgrounds.)_
Alice in Wonderland. 1948. Great Britain/France. Directed by Lou Bunin, Dallas Bower. Screenplay by Henry Myers, Albert Lewin, Edward Eliscu.With Carol Marsh, Stephen Murray, Pamela Brown. 96 min.
Wednesday, January 2, 6:00 (T2); Friday, January 11, 1:30 (T3); Thursday, January 17, 1:30 (T3)
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. 2005. Great Britain. Directed by Steve Box, Nick Park. Screenplay by Box, Park, Bob Baker, Mark Burton. Acquired from Dreamworks Animation. 84 min.
Thursday, January 3, 6:00 (T2); Wednesday, January 16, 1:30 (T3); Friday, January 18, 1:30 (T3)
A Bug’s Life. 1998. USA. Directed by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton. Screenplay by Stanton, Don McEnery, Bob Shaw. 94 min.
Friday, January 4, 6:00 (T2); Wednesday, January 23, 1:30 (T3); Thursday, January 24, 1:30 (T3)
Hohokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun (My Neighbors the Yamadas). 1999. Japan. Written and directed by Isao Takahata. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.
Wednesday, January 30, 1:30 (T3); Thursday, January 31, 1:30 (T3)
(Image above thanks to Conversations With Ghibli _
on 22 Dec 2007 at 3:30 am 1.Larry Levine said …
I think the 3 Popeye two reelers are among the greatest animated cartoons ever made.
on 28 Dec 2007 at 4:33 pm 2.daniel thomas macinnes said …
I’m jealous. I wish we had screenings like these over here at the Mpls museums. At least we have a Frida Kahlo exhibit running at the Walker Art Center.
Great to see Yamada-kun in the original language. As much as I enjoyed Jim Belushi on the American DVD (no, really, he’s actually good), the original Japanese cast is perfect, and comedies are so dependent upon perfect timing. The battle over the tv remote is priceless; it’s like something the Marx Brothers would have pulled off.
If someone were ever to try a feature based on Calvin and Hobbes, or another Peanuts movie (I can only dream), I’d want it to be patterned after Yamadas.