Commentary &Daily post 01 Jan 2010 09:36 am
happy new year
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Here’s one of my favorite pieces. We did it for a home video of children’s poems.
It’s a piece by the brilliant Russell Hoban. The animation is by Mark Mayerson, and the design is by Jason McDonald. The music is by Caleb Sampson. I think all of these artists did brilliant work.
Click left side of the black bar to play.
Right side to watch single frame.
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- I’ve grown to know that I am too old for New Year’s Eve’s TV celebrations.
Watching a 40 year old mother, J-Lo, in a skin-tight nude outfit with sparkles, moving around the stage on all fours while lip-synching a generic song and two guys pretend to violate her – this does not have much to do with New Year’s Eve for me. As I said, I’m too old for this coarse crudity. Even reruns of Guy Lombardo in his tuxedo sounds better. Especially when you’ve drunk too much. Call me a prude, I don’t care; I’m all for dignity. We watched the Twilight Zone reruns on SYFY. All those great Bernard Herrman and Jerry Goldsmith scores.
You can start your New Year off with a bit of Art. The good news is that the IFC Center has extended the run of Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues through next Wednesday, Jan. 5. Get off the couch and go. Perhaps they’ll extend it another week.
See A.O. Scott‘s NYTimes review here. (It’s very positive and well written.) See the readers’ reviews (all positive) here.
Go to Elizabeth Weitzman‘s NYDaily News top ten pick of 2009 here. Anyone know of other 10 Best lists the film made it onto?
- I congratulate Sally Cruikshank on having her film Quasi at the Quackadero selected into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, but I have to admit I find it whacky that Rooty Toot Toot, Moonbird, The Old Mill, Peace On Earth and dozens of other true history-making shorts of U.S. animation haven’t been selected before this film. I can only assume they will get their just deserts next year.
on 01 Jan 2010 at 11:08 am 1.Liesje Kraai said …
Twilight Zone all the way.
on 01 Jan 2010 at 1:11 pm 2.Dan Caylor said …
Um…I don’t think you’re alone their. I think most of North America let out a collective, “What the hell is she wearing?” and “Why does Marc Anthony look so poor?”
on 01 Jan 2010 at 1:19 pm 3.Annotated Margins said …
Yes, my wife and I gave up J-Lo and that kind of stuff long ago, opting instead to rent movies (I love animation), pausing when the fireworks go off, and then going to bed when the movies are over.
I have been enjoying your blog.
on 01 Jan 2010 at 2:38 pm 4.Rudy Agresta said …
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you and the family, Michael. I agree with you about New Year’s Eve. So many inane performers and equally inane acts – all mindless drivel. I’m not denying that some of these “A-List” performers have some talent, but boy is it misdirected.
As far as reruns go, I have the complete DVD set of the Boris Karloff “Thriller” series that ran for two seasons in the early 60′s. I don’t believe Benny Herrman wrote for any of the episodes, but Goldsmith sure did. As a composer, I value the musical lessons I learn from analyzing the scores, and how they expertly married sound with image. These composers were brilliant musicians who were able to write and orchestrate (most TV budgets didn’t have room for an orchestrator, so the composer did it all) 50 minutes of music on the fly with sometimes no more than 2 weeks to deliver a recorded track – and a great one to boot! Now THAT’S what I call talent.
on 01 Jan 2010 at 10:25 pm 5.Heather said …
“I congratulate Sally Cruikshank on having her film Quasi at the Quackadero selected into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, but I have to admit I find it whacky that Rooty Toot Toot, Moonbird… haven’t been selected before this film.”
Perhaps they considered that one Hubley UPA-style cartoon was enough after selecting Gerald McBoing Boing. I agree that ‘Peace on Earth’ and ‘The Old Mill’ should be in the Film Registry as well.
Be that as it may, the psychological depth and richness of ‘Quasi at the Quackadero’ equals and even surpasses some of the films you’ve mentioned, especially ‘Rooty Toot Toot.’
on 02 Jan 2010 at 2:38 am 6.Michael said …
Heather, we disagree. Rooty Toot Toot, to me, was the best of all of UPA’s output. It pointed animation in the direction of the future. Adult, intelligent, masterfully designed and animated.
Quasi was a nice film, not brilliantly animated, but it recycled bits of the mood of “Bimbo’s Initiation” (1931) and the animation style of “In the Cartoon Studio” (1931). I don’t want to put this film down, but we are comparing.
Rooty Toot Toot gave us the story structure of Kurosawa’s Rashômon (only a year later) in the telling of the Frankie and Johnny story. It was also animated brilliantly by masters Art Babbitt and Grim Natwick.
One of the two films was pivotal in the history of animation, and it wasn’t Quasi at the Quackadero.
on 02 Jan 2010 at 11:31 am 7.Pierre said …
I’m certain there are other cartoons that may be better candidates for this honor, but I still remember Quasi very fondly.
Quasi showed that someone with time and talent could independently produce something entertaining. The fact that it was created by a woman showed that many sexist barriers were breaking down as well. I think that’s the real legacy of Quasi and that period of the 1970′s when woman were allowed to plot their own course, rather than be defined by the role of “housewife”.
If anyone has ever seen “Brandy and Mr. Whiskers” on the Disney Channel (which is basically their attempt at Spongebob), you can see Quasi written all over it, especially in the character designs. I’ve often wondered if Ms. Cruickshank was involved at all in this series.
on 02 Jan 2010 at 9:36 pm 8.Heather said …
Ms. Cruikshank’s ability to use surreal imagery to convey several subconscious messages in a single second is often overlooked, which I sadly see being the case here. Yes, there’s room for other worthy animated films in the National Film Registry, and UPA has already been honored.
on 03 Jan 2010 at 9:41 am 9.Michael said …
As I said in my original post, congratulations to Sally Cruikshank.
on 04 Jan 2010 at 2:01 am 10.Matt Jones said …
hah! Great eclectic bill at the IFC!