If I were you, I'd hide my face · 3:54am Apr 16th, 2013
Last week been something to say the least. Disney recently laid off a number of their hand-drawn animators (not too unsurprising given the company's attitude towards hand-drawn animation). This combined with the shutdown of Lucasarts (which hasn't produced anything worth playing since Grim Fandango ), only confirm to those of us paying attention to what Disney has become, a buyer of creative works that is introduced in milking them till the go dry. Perhaps if copyright and trademark laws were less to their liking, they might actually be try and spend money to create new moneymakers. Combined with layoffs at Dreamworks, Mark Mayerson has pretty much figured it out. As for me, Hollywood American animation is, like the newspaper comic, a dead art. These events combined with the huge amount of sequels and formula based features that flood the market, have only strengthen my resolve. I was on EQD, and Seth was saying on a story update post that it was a bunch of sequels and the writers should just on to something new. That was one the rare moments when I found myself heartily concur with him, I wish more writers here would move on to different stories once they finished the first one.
Sometimes I find myself tempted to turn more of this blog into a poltical one. There's a lot of news that should get attention such as North Korea, the elections (and riots as a result) in Venezuela, the various workings in congress, and just today, the Boston Marathon Massacre , but honestly, I should avoid it. Posting too much news and politics would inevitably lead me to comment on it, and while that might be a great (if cynical) way to get more attention here, it's something that shouldn't be the focus on any of our blogs here (not to mention the debates would give me a headache). News about animation (and ponies) are one thing, but everything else should be a no go.
Cartoons below for all people, friends and non-friends.
Pecos Pest - 1955 – MGM – Hanna & Barbera
Again, I’m not a fan of Tom and Jerry. While I somewhat understand why they have fans (they transfer easily to other parts of the world given their mostly silent nature, for one), I find the cat and mouse formula to overdone, and severely lacking in funny gags. So its bit of a surprise I like this cartoon, given that it’s not one of the best, and I would rightfully get stares for liking more than some other ones.
For one, the character of Uncle Pecos more or less destroys the formula given that he talks for one (which is why the fact the others don’t is strange and rather detrimental), and two, Jerry plays a very secondary role. That’s probably why I enjoy it, though. The idea of a cat being afraid of a bull-headed mouse that will stop at nothing to get a string for his guitar is amusing enough for me to enjoy despite its problems (it takes far too long for it to setup, for one).
Hell-bent for Election – 1944 – UPA – Jones
Although I marked this down as UPA, that’s technically inaccurate and so first some history. In 1944, the United Auto Workers, back at a time unions actually had power in the United States, approached John Hubley into making a film for the Roosevelt campaign. From there, Hubley and Bill Hurtz drew the storyboard and got its approval from the union’s board. There it went to Industrial film (after Schlesinger said he didn’t want to make such a political film), and the film was made by people who had jobs elsewhere but worked on it overnight such as Chuck Jones the director and a few his animators at Schlesinger’s studio like Robert Cannon and Ben Washam, although there were people such as Steve Bosutow and Zachery Schwartz who were fully part of Industrial film. It was around the completion of the film that Industrial film changed its name to United Film Productions, and this would eventually become United Productions of America (UPA). So in a sense, Hell-bent is the first UPA film, but its before the UPA studio officially got its name, and way before it would start making non-political or educational cartoons.
As for the film, it’s not much as entertainment, but I still find it interesting. Joe Worker is informed by telegraph operator Sam (based on you know who) that he will sidetrack the “Defeatist limited” (representing the Dewey campaign) in favor of the “Win the War Special” (representing Roosevelt) because only one can go to Washington. However, a southern politician (based on his accent) tries to knock Joe out and keep from doing his duty. Like I said, it’s not much as entertainment, its slow for one and could be shorter in some ways (thirteen minutes is rather long for a film without much comedy or drama), but it still an interesting time capsule. You may not get all the references (Smith-Connally was an act passed by congress to stop labor strikes, but I don’t know what “Phillne Buster” (if that’s how it’s spelled) is supposed to be), but there is still quite a bit that’s relevant today. And of course it was meant to get union workers to vote for the pro-labor Roosevelt ticket.
Clown of the Jungle – 1947 – Disney – Hannah
Donald Duck heads to the jungle to photograph the birds there. Sadly, his attempts are constantly messed up by the one bird he doesn’t want to photograph, the Aracuan (pronounced “Araquan”). It's a fun little cartoon, with some surprisingly dark moments (the Aracuan is quick to turn to suicide if he's not loved). The Aracuan actually first appeared in “The Three Caballeros” where he broke the fourth wall both in the film and the film itself. He’s kind of like Disney’s version of the Dodo bird, although less malicious. I can't guarantee everyone will like this, after all, the Aracuan, not Donald, is the instigator in this chase.
Goofy Gymnastics – 1949 – Disney – Kinney
This might be the most famous of all the Kinney goofy cartoons. Not wanting to be a “spineless, weak-kneed, no good nincompoop”, Goofy (or more accurately someone with Goofy’s design) orders a set of exercise equipment and sets out to train to be a he-man. However, things don’t goes as planned for Goofy as his equipment might actually be the one working out on him. It’s fast-paced, very violent, and of course funny.
A Ham in the Role – 1949 – Warner Bros. – Davis
Tired of playing lowbrow cartoon comedy, an unnamed dog does its time to set his sights higher, and goes to study, who else, but “The immortal Bard.” However, his temper causes him to interrupt the sleep of two gophers, who decide to have a little fun with the dog as he rehearses. A jab at all things pretentious and pretty much everyone who aims highbrow snobbery, and whether or not you like Shakespeare, you’ll still be able to enjoy the many ways his most famous lines are messed with.
Snow White – 1933 – Fleischers – Crandall
It’s rather strange, but the Snow White fairy tale has led itself to some the best cartoons. Not only did give rise to Walt Disney’s feature film with the fascinating dwarfs or Bob Clampett’s Coal Black with its amazing animation, it also served as a template for what was probably one of the best Fleischer cartoons of all time, starring Betty Boop in the title role. This film, animated entirely by Roland Crandall over six-months, is one of the classic animated shorts of Golden age Hollywood.
For this film, you need to come in with a different mindset than you would with Disney or the Looney Tunes. You aren’t going to watch it for story or character (when I said the fairy tale serves a template, I was serious, things like the apple or the prince are flat out missing, it’s only because we’re familiar with the tale do we understand why certain things are there like the dwarfs, who play pretty much no role). Instead, everything from the random gags, like the queen’s head turning into a frying pan or Bimbo using his underpants as cloak to cover the ground where Betty walks, to the wholly weird bit where Koko the clown, rotoscoped from Cab Calloway, starts singing “St. James Infirmary” and does a dance while the queen is after Betty creates a surreal atmosphere, where everyone’s motives are either incredibly simple or nonexistent. The constant motion of the animation, and its accompanying slowness, (when the queen as a witch follows Betty, her arms move as if she was swimming, and she rocks back and forth as if waves were pushing against her), only contribute to the dreamlike atmosphere. This isn’t an easy cartoon to get, and thus be entertained by, but if you do get, you’ll find this to be a pretty interesting cartoon.
On Diary of an Evil Pony by The BrianJ
Although it carries with it negative connotations for most, I think that “predictable” isn’t always a bad thing. Preferably, stories shouldn’t be, but I think it’s important to differentiate between in what ways stories are predictable. I don’t think being predictable hurts any number of comedies such as the Looney Tunes or for any number of fantasies, and that’s because what’s predictable about them (what happens at the end, the fact that the Coyote will continue to be the universe’s chew toy, and good will triumph over evil) isn’t really the focus of the story. On the other hand, having an easy to guess culprit is dangerous for a mystery, and its often problematic for stories mainly about a character’s growth. The former is easy to see why for, but the latter needs some explanation. When you grow up in life (and even after), you don’t know how you’re going to change and what events are going to be the reasons for such transformation. As such a certain moment that can be foreseen can cause the audience to start seeing the characters as vehicles, the manipulations of the creator, and cliché nature of the tale. There are of course exceptions; backstories for defined characters come to mind (you definitely know how they end). Having said that, because “Diary of an Evil Pony” isn’t about a defined character, the lack of predictability is unfortunately. By the time I finished the first entry, I knew how things were going to end, and that sadly made me more resistant to accepting Fleur’s growth as natural or that of a something other than a fairy tale.
Diary is told, as its title suggests, through a diary kept by Fleur (and thankfully, BrianJ includes dates with the entries, so any time jumps we are informed about). Diary writing is always tricky, not only what is written down matters, but also who is writing it. I don’t question Rarity in Somber’s Simply Rarity to having a diary given the fact she’s a young girl. But for a gold digger such as Fleur, a diary seems like a particularly strange thing to have and write down one’s plans (see “Marge vs. the Monorail” for consequences of this). Probably more bothersome is some of the writing in the entries themselves. Moments of self-reflection and criticism are bound to pop up in any diary based story where the character is supposed to grow, but when a character screams (as far as diary writing goes) that she’s evil (a word I felt was too strong), it earns at best a snort. There is a break from the diary writing in the story, where Fancy Pants discovers Fleur’s diary and quite frankly, I found the results hard to believe. Betrayal of any kind, even if its obviously been pushed aside by more positive, isn’t something we ignore.
Characterization and plot are essentially one and the same. Fleur is a gold digger, who is slowly brought over by the sincerity of the person she intends to con. She displays moments of contempt early on to her victim about easy he will be to cheat, and eventually her words soften (included are the strikethroughs to a number of sentences that show her softening). Fancy’s characterization is better, expect at the climax.
There is a scattering of delights in the passages. I grinned when Fleur, having finished describing a party she was at where one of the guests lost a bracelet, causally wonders how much it would fetch on the black market. But these moments don’t change the fact that I was mostly bored with this work. I found it too predictable, and ultimately, too trite to enjoy.
Nice choices.