NB: This post refers to a key
point in the climax of the film The President's Analyst (1967).
There is an obscure sub-genre of
animated shorts that has the role of explaining a science-based plot
point in a major motion picture. In general it is considered bad
form to stop the action of a movie to explain something, but many
great movies have done this in spite of the low esteem with which
this technique is held. As a variation on this otherwise discredited
approach, filmmakers have occassionally used the animated short to do
the explaining for them.
An important example of this technique
in a major motion picture was Jurassic Park (1991) in which an
animated character is used to explain how DNA extracted from a drop
of blood preserved in amber can be used to create an entire franchise of films without ideas. This classic animation was done by Kurtz & Friends
Animation and they have a pencil test of their work online at this link.
Classically cute DNA Fragment
Another example is that fabulous but sadly overlooked film from the cold war, The President's Analyst (1967). In the climax of the film, the villain reveals himself to be the CEO of TPC, The Phone Company, and explains to our hero, James Coburn, the psychiatrist to the President of the United States, why they need his help to get legislation passed to require the implant of a new communication device in everyone's brain.
This sequence is more than just an explanation, although it is an explanation, it is also the climax of the movie, everything else is mere gun fights and denouement.
The Cerebrum Communicator happily does its thing.
In order to completely appreciate both
of these sequences there are two important things that the audience
should realize, and which will become more and more obscure as time
goes by. You see these shorts are more than mere animated
explanations with cute animated characters, they are in fact
double-barrelled nostalgia aimed directly at the baby-boomer
demographic, and thus as this demographic ages and then departs,
these nuances will be lost on all but the most informed audiences.
The first and overt nostalgia item are
the films themselves, which are clearly references to the Bell
Laboratories Science Films. Readers will recall that many years ago
there used to be a company called AT&T which had a state-enforced
monopoly on certain kinds of telephone service in this country. The
profits from this monopoly were so extraordinary that the company was
able to finance an important scientific laboratory known as Bell
Labs. This now defunct entity was responsible for many, many key
inventions in our daily lives before we turned R&D, and every
other vital function, over to the Red Chinese in a desire to be "more
efficient" and increase the profits of the rich.
But back in the day, and that day was
the late 1950s and early 60s, we were involved in something called
the Cold War, and the nation was concerned about having enough
scientists and engineers in order to build nuclear weapons and the
rockets to propel them, so there was an emphasis on science
education. And to help serve that need, Bell Labs created films for
young students to introduce them to important scientific concepts.
Thus, the Bell Labs science films such as Our Mr. Sun (1956) and Hemo the Magnificent (1957) to name two. As you might have
guessed by now, or recalled if you were there, these films featured a
combination of live action and 2D (hand-drawn animation) in a
dialogue with each other to explain some scientific concept.
Michael Sporn has an excellent discussion of this film on his blog at this location.
The Sun and Father Time have a few words
Michael Sporn has an excellent discussion of this film on his blog at this location.
But if we reach a little further we can
find yet another point of obscure nostalgia that these science films,
and hence our animated scientific explanations, appealed to. Back
when those of us who saw these films in their proper environment,
which was about 4th - 6th grade in elementary school, one
did not regularly see videos whenever one wanted. In fact, you did
not see video much at all, except on broadcast television and then
not in color unless you were rich or had a rich friend. Anything
that was video-like was actually projected on film, normally 16mm
film, with all the shades drawn to make the room dark. This was
a real treat for those of us in the early days of being educated.
What a relief this was compared to the normal curriculum!
Even more obscure, the films were shown
on the esteemed "multimedia" or "A/V" (as in
audio/visual) cart, a cart that contained a 16 mm projector, a slide
strip viewer, and an overhead projector, and was rolled from
classroom to classroom as needed.
The classic form of the A/V Cart
The Bell & Howell 16 mm Film Projector
All of this goes through the mind of
the baby boomer as he or she watches these animated explanations and
that is the subtext that will be lost as these films are viewed in
the future, assuming they are viewed in the future, that is.
We can only hope that there will be the
equivalent of liner notes to explain these critical issues to the audiences of that distant time that they might understand our culture and context a little better.
_________________________________________________________
Notes
Perhaps
the best known of the Bell Labs Science films is Our Mr. Sun,
directed by Frank Capra, staring Eddie Albert. It is one of the
first uses of front projection in narrative film.
You
can download Our Mr. Sun
from the following web site:
The sequence from The President's
Analyst (1967) can be viewed at
Kurtz & Friends Animation web page
on Jurassic Park
Our Mr. Sun (1956) on IMDB
Jurassic Park (1991) on
IMDB
The President's Analyst (1967) on
IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062153/
Bell Laboratory Science Films on
Wikipedia
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