Unanticipated Consequences and Guilt

And so in a minor way I was involved in the internet and computer animation.  To have killed off newspapers and drawn animation to have been participated in that in any way is a horrible sin I can not be forgiven for.

Yellow Submarine (1968) and The Assyrian Winged God

Reviewing the movie Yellow Submarine and I came across this famous image.  But wait, I thought, is this not a homage to the ancient Assyrian Winged God?  The original did not have an ice cream cone, of course.

 

Incident in Westlake Village

So I am on my back, breathing nitrous oxide, while the dentist uses a hammer and chisel on my teeth, unable to talk, barely even mumble, and the assistants are discussing Halloween movies, and in particular Nightmare Before Christmas. I try to talk but the dentist / torturer tells me to lie still or I will regret it, and when it is over and I can almost talk although its more of a mumble I try to tell them that friends of mine worked on the movie, and that I consider the opening to be among the best openings of any film, animated or live, and how proud I was of them. And one of the assistants says that she was born the month the movie came out and I thought to myself, what should it be, pistols at dawn, or should I just commit ritual suicide right here. Pardon me, but could I borrow that very sharp knife? Thank you. Goodbye cruel world!

Suicide Squad and Behavioral Animation

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Behavioral animation in Suicide Squad.  Go rats, go!  Save the world!

Suicide Squad and Little Birdies

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If you look carefully, you will find little animated birdies in the scenes with Harley Quinn exterminating the soldiers of the presidential palace.

Its attention to the details that can make a film great.

Kinky Sex and the Dream of a Regional Film Community in SF Fulfilled

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Mythopolis

First animated film that I have seen in years that I loved.   A story of very appealing characters drawn from Greek mythology in daily life.

https://vimeo.com/137734846

Animation and Genre

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Apparently someone at the Academy Awards referred to animation as a genre and this provoked a large negative response from many of my friends of friends on Facebook who are animators or in the animation business. They all unanimously thought that animation was not a genre. The person who made this comment originally during award coverage may have been an actor.

Remember, before we begin, that the motion picture industry, like many other industries, feels perfectly entitled to take any word in any language and give it a new meaning when it is convenient. So what genre means to someone in the motion picture industry might be very different from what genre might mean to a film studies professor at the university.

In film criticism, a genre generally refers to similar story elements and conventions that are common between films which are said to be a genre. For example, most westerns have a climactic shootout in which good confronts evil and the matter is decided by a gunfight. In most spy movies with an evil genius, there is often a scene in which the evil genius explains to our hero their plan for world domination. In certain fantasy quest stories, the plot often contains a section in which the hero searches for a special weapon to use in fighting evil. Time Travel was considered to be a genre that had no commercial potential until Back to the Future became a hit series.

Genres are often mixed, many films today are likely to have a romantic subplot no matter what the genre.

Genres tend to bring with them advantages and disadvantages as both a commercial property and also creatively. It is generally easier to market a genre film than a film that has no overt genre or which cuts across genres. The disadvantage is that generally a genre has limitations and requirements that the audience expects and you can not easily violate these expectations except with great skill and risk. A famous counter-genre element is the ending of Shane in which the hero is wounded, possibly fatally, in the climactic shootout. Anyone who violates genre expectations runs the risk of displeasing a part of their audience.

Hollywood often screws up genre when it tries to cash in on a film that is successful. Everyone wants to be first to be second. Most of the original imitators of Star Wars were pathetic in their gross misunderstandings of what made that film successful. Its always important to remember that many of the top people in Hollywood are not too smart. That is why they get paid their small salaries in the low millions.

So is animation a genre?

The first thing to realize is that the person who made this comment was an actor. Actors have always hated animation. Why? Because what they want is more films to be made that star actors, of course. Voice over with celebrities is a new phenomena, and besides, its not the same thing. The politics of the situation means that they are in general opposed to animation. The same is true for writers, directors and producers, because generally speaking the people who write animation are drawn from a special list. People who direct animation rarely make the crossover to live action (a recent exception to this is Brad Bird). Same issue with producers, generally speaking. Jon Davison is famous for producing “pop corn” movies, but when he tried to produce films outside his “genre”, e.g. Robocop and Starship Troopers, he did not get the approvals and support he sought. Now Jon loves animation, it turns out, but many producers who produce live action most certainly do not.

This is also the same reason why it is extremely hard for an animated film to win best picture. The academy is made up of actors, directors, producers, etc, and most of them do not make animation. They dont understand it and they dont like it, so they dont vote for it.

But there are other reasons why animation could be considered a genre. Animation generally falls into two categories when it comes to marketing films in this country: one category is so-called family entertainment, and the other sometimes called kid-vid, or animation for very young children. Now this is a cultural issue, and does not necessarily apply to other countries. In Japan and the far east, there is another category of animation which we might call “young adult”. In this category, we can have much more violence and it is much closer to action adventure films. But animated films in this category have never done well among general audiences in this country, although there is a very loyal and committed set of fans here. They do not have the economic clout.

By far the most desirable of these categories in this country is “family entertainment”, which generally refers to films that are for the most part intended for young audiences but which can be enjoyed by adults as well. Thus the parent of a child or group of children can take them to see a movie and not be bored to tears or wait out in the lobby. In the case of more pure kid-vid, its the sort of thing one might want to rent from the video store, use it as a way of performing day care for the children, but go and do other things while they watch.

Generally speaking, a successful film that qualifies as family entertainment is going to contain elements that appeal to very young audiences as well as having a plot, or nuances of a plot, or of a character that can be entertaining to adults. Famously, on television, Rocky & Bullwinkle by the Jay Ward Studios was such a show.

In longer product, such as films, it was pointed out to me that films that are going to keep the attention of very young children are all musicals: it is the musical interlude in particular that appeals to young children and without that they get bored.  So I am told.

The Walt Disney Company made a film called Rescuers Down Under (1990). It did not contain any songs and was intended for a bit more of the young adult audience. It did not do well at the box office. Disney felt that they had learned a valuable lesson here. (Rescuers Down Under was also the first feature film made entirely with the CAPS system).

May discovers the "dust bunnies" in Totoro.  How could anyone not love this film?

One of my favorite films of all time happens to be an animated film, My Neighbor Totoro (1988). Now Totoro has no musical numbers, it is very long, and the protagonists are two little girls. Very little apparently happens in this film, Mai gets lost, Mai is found, the two little girls are able to visit their sick mother in the hospital and believe that she will get better. I suggested this film to a friend of mine with a 12 year old American boy and he HATED the film with a passion.  Troma, of all companies, attempted to give Totoro a theatrical release in this country, which is how I happened to see it at its premier at the Director's Guild.  But it didn't work, and this unbelievably wonderful film died at the American box office.  So did Akira.   Nevertheless, later films from Japan did get larger releases and have done well.   So it is not black and white.

Nevertheless, I doubt you could get American financing for an animated murder mystery.  Or an animated western with a climactic gunfight. Or a film noir. Because it is commonly believed that such films, if animated, have no chance of making their money back.

There have been independent animated films that break the mold. But again, these films although independent, are also intended to make money. Had they made a huge amount of money, then people would try to imitate them.  But unfortunately they did not, at least not to the best of my knowledge. Still there is no law that says it has to be that way.   Was Team America an animated film?   Did it do well?  It also had at least one musical number.

So, is animation a genre? Well, yes and no, genre may not be exactly the right word. But it is easy to see why some professionals in the motion picture industry would think that it was.

Film Genre on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre

Rocky and His Friends (1959 - 1964) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052507/

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096283/

Rescuers Down Under (1990) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100477/

Is the Giant Pangolin Evidence of Evolutionary Convergence in Cartoon Villains?

We are all aware of the controversies around the issue of whether or not evolution should be taught in our public schools and/or whether this "theory" should be augmented with other theories that may explain the world we see around us.  One theory in particular, the so-called "intelligent design" theory calls upon a particular hypothetical cosmic energy source that although invisible has caused the design of all the millions of existing types of creatures, not to mention the billions that no longer exist.  

I have recently come across a strange relationship between one of these existing creatures, the Giant Pangolin of central Africa, and a certain classic cartoon character archetype: the weasel. This relationship has the potential to break open the entire discussion of evolution vs intelligent design and extend it to the role that this potential cosmic energy source has had in the creation of genres of the cinema.   I think you will see from the discussion below that "intelligent design" may very well need to be added to the "auteur theory" in our film schools, except perhaps instead of "intelligent" this type of cosmic design might more properly be called "whimsical".  Yes, I propose that it is "whimsical design" that may need to be added to the discussion of theory in our centers of film education.

I was having a discussion with Professor Ken Perlin of NYU about how one properly categorizes an animal as a biped (which most humans are, at least after the age of about two except when very drunk) versus other animals with or without backbones that have legs, flippers and wings.   It turns out that this issue is more subtle than it might at first appear with criteria based on such things as how often and for what purpose a creature is believed to walk, hop, shuffle or otherwise proceed on two legs.   For example, birds on the ground stand and ambulate on two legs, but they can be said to more properly hop than walk.   Are they then bipeds?  

In researching this topic, I came across a type of animal I had never even heard of before, let alone had ever seen: the giant spiny anteater of central Africa, aka the Giant Pangolin.   This improbable creature is known to spend quite a bit of time walking on its two hind legs as it proceeds to terrorize the locals of Africa with its large size (over a meter) and its amazing and intimidating profile as it goes about its business decimating unlucky ant colonies in its ravenous path.

You dont see one of these every day in America, thank goodness.

Although the Giant Pangolin were entirely new to me, yet they seemed strangely familiar somehow.   It took me over a day to realize where I had seen something like this before.  The Pangolin reminded me of an important type of villain in the classic cartoon, the Weasel.    Most prominently known as the evil sidekicks in Roger Rabbit (1988), they have been around cartoons for many years before that.

Here is an example from 1955 called Poop Goes the Weasel.

Is this resemblance an accident?   An example of evolutionary convergence?  Or is it something else, something more important, proof of a divine and loving God who causes bizarre semi-bipeds in Central Africa to be styled after cartoon archetypes in a medium barely a hundred years old?   We may never know the answer to this burning question but it seems to me that this issue needs to be fairly and impartially presented to students in our public film institutions in order to give a balanced account of what we know about where our character archetypes used in film come from. This is a vital issue I think.   And how ironic if it turns out that Whimsical Design is accepted not in the science community but in the elite film communities. Its not very likely to happen, but it might, and we will just have to see.

For a discussion of whether or not an animal is biped or not, see this paper by Alexander.

The Subtext of the Animated Explanation in The President's Analyst (1967)

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.

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.

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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:

https://archive.org/details/our_mr_sun

The sequence from The President's Analyst (1967) can be viewed at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PebCB0IIANI

Kurtz & Friends Animation web page on Jurassic Park

http://kurtzanim.wordpress.com/entertainment/jurassic-park/

Our Mr. Sun (1956) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159620/

Jurassic Park (1991) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/

The President's Analyst (1967) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062153/

Bell Laboratory Science Films on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Laboratory_Science_Series

The Vicious and Unfair Attacks on Cap'n Crunch

America loves a scandal and the best scandals of all are when we can drag a respected public figure through the mud. Throughout history people have inflated their resume, have snuck around to have sex with someone they should probably not be having sex with, or otherwise have a skeleton in the closet.  Then at the proper moment, this dirt can be dragged out to destroy an otherwise virtuous scumbag and drag them down to his or her proper level.   This is as American as apple pie.

But sometimes an innocent cartoon figure is accused of villainry that we would otherwise only expect from a public servant.   Such is the case with the esteemed marketeer of sugary breakfast foods, Cap'n Crunch, whose character and background is being slandered by self-appointed guardians of public decency.

A fallen icon sacrificed to the bloodlust of a fickle American public?

The controversy has apparently been raging for some time, and it involves whether or not Cap'n Crunch is a real captain. The Wall Street Journal in a recent article, included below, has a discussion of anomalies in the Captain's uniform, the issue of Crunch's naval record, and the affectation of the Napoleonic-era hat.

When will America stop this self-destructive attacks on their cartoon characters? Cap'n Crunch is an icon of everything that is great about America: sugary breakfast foods, great animated commercials (by Jay Ward), appropriation of other culture's insignia, the use of the name by an underground phone phreak hero, and nostalgia for a happier time in our youth.

What could be more American than that?

I call on all Americans to stop this senseless and immoral attacks on a great animated public figure and support Cap'n Crunch.

_____________________________________________

The Wall Street Journal article can be found here:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/06/19/u-s-navy-no-record-of-capn-crunch-service/

WASHINGTON – A new scandal is consuming the U.S. Navy and one of the world’s most venerated captains: Cap’n Crunch.

The legendary cereal icon’s status as a captain has come under fire after eagle-eyed writers noticed that Cap’n Crunch only wears the bars of a Navy commander, not those of a captain. In the U.S. Navy, captains wear four bars on their uniforms, while commanders — one rank below captain – have three bars.

“The cheery Santa Claus in blue Napoleon hat is really just a big, fat LIAR,” wrote Charisma Madarang on Foodbeast, an online food news site.Gawker and other sites reported on the scandal as well.

Cap’n Crunch took to Twitter to defend his honor.

“All hearsay and misunderstandings!,” @realcapncrunch wrote.”I captain the S.S. Guppy with my crew – which makes an official Cap’n in any book!” And: “Of course I’m a Cap’n!” he wrote to anguished supporters searching for answers. “It’s the Crunch – not the clothes – that make a man. #PaidMyDues”

But his protests failed to tamp down the sense of betrayal and anger.

The controversy deepened on Wednesday when the Pentagon said it had no record of a Cap’n Crunch ever serving in the U.S. Navy.

“We have no Cap’n Crunch in the personnel records – and we checked,” said Lt. Commander Chris Servello, director of the U.S. Navy’s news desk at the Pentagon. “We have notified NCIS and we’re looking into whether or not he’s impersonating a naval officer – and that’s a serious offense.”

The Navy’s repudiation is fueling speculation the Cap’n Crunch, who wears a Napoleon-style hat, may actually be French.

According to official lore, Cap’n Crunch first set sail in 1963 when Quaker Oats Co. introduced the sweet children’s cereal.

According to his official biography, Cap’n Crunch, whose full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch, was born on Crunch Island in the Sea of Milk – “a magical place with talking trees, crazy creatures and a whole mountain (Mt. Crunchmore) made out of Cap’n Crunch cereal.”

It remains unclear if Crunch Island is part of the United States.

He took command of the S.S. Guppy and spent decades battling his arch-nemesis, the pirate known as Jean LaFoote.

The captain came to rule over a small empire of sugary cereals, from the original Cap’n Crunch to Mystery Volcano Crunch.

In 2011, Cap’n Crunch had to fend of rumors that he was being forced into retirement by health-conscious commanders at Quaker. “Food police kill Cap’n Crunch,” one headline proclaimed.

Cap’n Crunch survived. But the latest scandal – and a potential Navy investigation – could prove to be a bigger challenge. If tried and convicted of impersonating a military officer, he could face six months in jail.

A Cap’n Crunch publicist said she was “shocked” by the Navy’s allegations and she is investigating the matter.

“The Cap’n doing hard time? Gasp,” she said.

Rocky and Bullwinkle and the Cult of Personality

What we do today, darling? Kill Moose and Squirrel ?

                     -- Natasha Fatale

Why are people so fucking stupid? Why can't they be more intellligent, like me?

                    -- The Kim Jong-Il Character in Team America: World Police (2004)

Perhaps one of the greatest influences on the intellectual development of people of my generation was The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show by Jay Ward Studios. The four years that this show was on air and the billions of years that it showed on reruns was fundamental to the development of the ethics, intelligence, world view and appreciation of puns for people all over this country and the world.

The end of a very surrealistic sequence in which Rocky and Bullwinkle are reincarnated in plant form.

In this post we discuss the mystery of what the show was actually called, why the show is important, and its context in the period of the Cold War. Finally we discuss the origins of one of its greatest creations: the term "Fearless Leader".

According to IMDB, there were two shows that overlapped each other in time. Rocky and His Friends, which aired from 1959 to 1964 and The Bullwinkle Show from 1961 to 1964. But according to Wikipedia, the show was called Rocky and His Friends for the first two years and The Bullwinkle Show for the last two years. This confusion probably arises from the attempt by the network and Jay Ward to improve the ratings for the show which never did all that well. The show was shuffled from Prime Time to Saturday Morning in an effort to find its audience and improve ratings. Ultimately they failed and the show was cancelled after the fourth season.

But they did achieve the minimum number of episodes required for reruns in syndication, and the show lived on in various edited forms, for at least a decade longer and in 100 countries. There is now a complete boxed set on DVD which is highly recommended for those of us who appreciate higher culture.

The show was structured like a variety show of vaudeville (1). Each episode would begin and end with a Rocky and Bullwinkle segment that was part of a larger, multiple episode story. Between these two segments would be a variety of other acts including Mr. Peabody's Improbable History, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, and Mr. Know it All. The actors who contributed voices reads like a voice-over Hall of Fame including: June Foray, Bill Scott, Paul Frees, Hans Conreid, William Conrad, Edward Everett Horton and many others reknowned in the history of animation.

Mr. Peabody, Sherman and the Way Back Machine

My favorite pun of the entire show was the school that Bullwinkle attended as immortalized on a shirt he would wear:  Whatsamatta U.

Of course it is the villians who are among the most memorable of the characters. The two villians that we normally see in the show are Boris and Natasha, more formally Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. But they worked for a mysterious figure whom we knew as "Fearless Leader". Boris and Natasha, our archtypal Russian spies and saboteurs, were terrified of Fearless Leader.

Fearless Leader

The show, which took place in the Cold War, usually had plots that involved our villians Boris and Natasha, as directed by Fearless Leader, to do something evil and being thwarted by Rocky and Bullwinkle. What distinguished the Cold War from other conflicts was the relentless use of spies, conspiracies and secret plots. It was part and parcel of the Cold War that there would be masters of evil who led these conspiracies, from Ernst Blofeld, to Dr. No, to Joseph Stalin, to Kim Jung-Il.

Peerless Leader

Kim Jung-Il had many honorifics that were bestowed on him by his grateful people. Most people know that he was called "Dear Leader" by the people of N. Korea. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, in fact he had a great many of these, some used in special circumstances, some used more generally.

These honorifics included:

Superior Person, Beloved Father, Beloved and Respected General, Ever Victorious Iron Willed Commander, Great Man Who is a Man of Deeds, Mastermind of the Revolution, Invincible and Ever-Triumphant General, Dear Leader, Respected Leader, Wise Leader, Great Leader of Our Party and Our Nation, Sun of the Communist Future, Shining Star of Paektu Mountain, Peerless Leader, Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love, Bright Sun of Juche, Great Marshall and Dear Father.

Was Fearless Leader in fact named for the real life "Peerless Leader" of N. Korea? We may never know for sure. (2)  (3) But certainly we can say that if Kim Jung-Il had ever been called "Fearless Leader", that it would be right in line with his many other titles.

With that mystery hanging in the air, I want to end this post with a sad story about what happened when Jay Ward proposed a TV special based on Rocky and Bullwinkle.

For every Rocky and Bullwinkle, Ren and Stimpy or The Simpsons on television, we must wonder how many other interesting and important shows were destroyed by Network Stupidity. At June Foray's urging to reboot Rocky and Bullwinkle, Jay Ward pitched a Rocky and Bullwinkle special to a network, I think it was NBC.  In this proposed episode, Boris and Natasha would steal the Superbowl. The studio executive said something stupid like "Good Americans would never allow for the Superbowl to be stolen" and rejected the idea. Jay Ward figuratively threw his hands up in the air, said "I can not work with these morons" or words to that effect, and returned to doing Quisp Cereal commercials.

Quisp and his fellow breakfast cereal Quake

A Quisp commercial on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlUcIg3ccdc

We at Global Wahrman sincerely wish and hope that the so-called studio executive who rejected Jay Ward will rot in hell for all eternity. 

____________________________________________

1. In the UK, this was called a "Music Hall"

2. Since Kim Jong-il was about 20 years old at the time when Rocky and Bullwinkle first went on-air, it is extremely unlikely that Jay Ward was thinking of him as a model for Fearless Leader.  It is less clear if his father, Kim Il-Sung the Magnificent, was called these same glorious titles.  Perhaps Jay Ward was psychic as well as being brilliant, then he *could* have channeled Kim Jong-Il from the future.

3. In case you are not aware, the phrasing "Did so-and-so do such-and-such?  We may never know for sure ..." is the classic way you can make crazy assertions and not be sued.  "Did aliens from outer space build the fast food restaurants?  We may never know for sure ....".

Rocky and Bullwinkle on IMDB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_and_Bullwinkle

N. Korean Cult of Personality on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%27s_cult_of_personality

List of Rocky and Bullwinkle Episodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rocky_and_Bullwinkle_episodes

Quisp Cereal on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisp

Team America: World Police on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/

Variety Show, aka Music Hall, on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_show

Kim Jong-il on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il

Kim Il-Sung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung

The Inspirational Work of Sally Cruikshank and Quasi at the Quackadero

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was something called independent animation. To see it, a friend had to have the secret stash of 16 mm film or you had to go to a university screening, or a screening of an animation collection at a repertoire theatre. You couldn't just bring up a low quality version on Youtube but actually had to go somewhere to see it, on film at the correct frame rate and the actual colors.  At first you would have to see it on film, then later on as time passed, you could see it on video with weird interlace and wrong color, and then, finally, today, the lowest of the low, on the Internet.  In this way, the artform is degraded by the decadence of the society it is embedded in.

Oh well, quality doesn't matter, we all know that. Not when it comes to making money!

But making money was not the purpose of independent animation. Far from it. In fact, Gawd only knows what the point was, or is, or might be, but not money. A labor of love, perhaps? A struggle for acceptance amongst ones' biped peers? Perhaps just a hint of obsession or even obsessive compulsive behavior? There has to be some organic cause of the willingness to sit over a hot animation stand and draw frame after frame, each one just slightly different from the other, inflicting paper cuts and the smell of powdered graphite on your long-suffering body.

One day, perhaps at Filmex, perhaps at LACMA, I saw "Quasi at the Quackadero" by Sally Cruikshank.

I was stunned and amazed to see the Quackadero, some sort of deranged midway of amusements, with "Your Shining Moment", the "Hall of Time Mirrors", "Roll Back Time", "Think Blink Paints Pictures of Your Thoughts", "See Last Night's Dreams", "9 Lives 2 Live", and last but not least, "Time Holes"! Each of these would make a fabulous theme park / carnival attraction. And all of them drawn perfectly in Sally's very distinctive semi-psychedelic style.

Out on the town!

Our Master of Ceremonies

But as they say in another theme park attraction, "Its a small world after all, its a small, small world". A friend Rene Daalder, artist and filmmaker, introduced me to his friend, Jon Davison, a really nice man, graduate of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking, and the originator / producer of the Robocop movies. Jon, of all people, was married to none other than the lovely and talented Sally Cruikshank. For some reason they invited me to a benefit event at Jeff Bridges' house in the Palisades so I got to meet my hero, Sally. I don't remember what I said, I probably made a total fool of myself.

Recently I came across Sally's page on Youtube. Quasi was just as brilliant as I had remembered it, or more so. I wish the "youtube" quality was higher, but this is probably deliberate on her part.

I am out of touch with Jon and Sally but I hope they are doing very well.

Sally, your films are an inspiration.

Sally's page on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/laughingsal?feature=watch

Quasi at the Quackadero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH7LcVNusQE

Make Me Psychic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PWPoHg2cRA

Gallery
http://www.awn.com/cruikshank/gallery.html

Totoro and the Absence of Traditional Story Structure

As anyone who has tried to finance a film knows, Hollywood has very clear ideas about what sort of film is marketable in this country. And very, very clear ideas of what sort of ANIMATED film makes money in this country. And since they are very specifically in that business to make money, they attach a lot of importance to these rules.

Among the rules are these: (a) an animated film will have frequent breaks with music for the small children in the audience, (b) an animated film will not be over a certain length, and (c) an animated film will rarely if ever have a female protagonist, and if it does, she shares center stage with a male protagonist. From there, Hollywood goes on and applies a number of other rules and requirements about story structure, most of these ae applicable to other types of films as well, and includes certain things about the types of conflict in the film, the pacing, the reversals, the climax, etc. Hollywood has a strong opinion on these matters. It is one reason so many Hollywood films seem the same, one giant robot or alien invasion after another. That is because they are the same at one level of abstraction.

My favorite animated film however follows none of those rules. It has no happy songs, it is much longer than average, and the protagonists are two little girls, one about three years old. It goes on from there in its eccentricity. It is not clear that there is a villain in the film, except perhaps whatever it is that is making their mother sick such that she must stay in a hospital. There is one homage to standard story structure: the climax of the film involves the youngest girl running away to see her mother, and the effort to find her.  This could be seen as a classic 3rd act rescue mission.

What's up in the scary attic?

The film did not do well at first in the Far East, where it was made. But eventually the toys got marketed and that fed back to the film until it became successful there. The film found no distribution in this country (1) until, unusually, a firm with no experience in this genre picked it up, added English subtitles and tried a theatrical release in N. America. I believe it did not do well, and the film disappeared, except to the few who knew of it and loved it, until Disney, at John Lasseter's urging, picked up all the films of this director and started marketing them in this country.

The director of course is Hayao Miyizaki and the film is My Neighbor Totoro (1988).

This is my corn and you are not going to take it from me

The company that attempted the distribution was Troma, a firm better known for making and distributing films such as "Surf Nazis Must Die" and "The Toxic Avenger". But in this case, they spent their own money bringing Totoro to the notice of Americans and, I think, lost their money. I happened to see it because my friend Chris Casady, owner of Roto Efx of America, had worked for Troma in the past and was invited to the screening at the DGA and invited me along.

I have excerpted my favorite scene from this film and put it at Youtube.  Well, I had put it on Youtube but it seems that someone is blocking it.  So you will have to review the pictures below, or of course, rent the video, which is what they want you to do which is fine with me.

Its an umbrella

On another occassion we will discuss the issues of trying to make a 3D character from one designed for 2D and review all the reasons that is hard, using two characters from this movie: the dust spirits and Totoro himself. Here are some images of these characters which I hope will set you thinking about why doing them in some sense in 3D (as in modelled in geometry) would be very difficult if you wanted to keep the essence and charm of the characters. And if you would not want to keep their charm, then why oh why would you even bother?

My Neighbor Totoro on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096283/

Miyazaki on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

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1. Most animated films, indeed most films, made in the Far East never see formal distribution in this country or North America. There have been a few exceptions and some of them are quite notable, e.g. many Kurosawa films would find some independent distribution here. This is especially true for animation made in the Far East, where many of their best and most successful films traditionally never made it over here, except in a very limited form marketed directly to fans of the various genres.

By way of counterexample, Bruno Bozzetto's Allegro Non Troppo did get distribution of some sort in this country.  I am not sure how that happened, but that does show that it is possible.