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Director: Paul Driessen
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Cat’s Cradle’ is an early film by Dutch animator Paul Driessen for the National Film Board of Canada.
This is one of Driessen’s most enigmatic films, in which the images seem to flow in a stream-of-consciousness-like fashion, bridged by a string spun by tiny spider. Somehow the tale, if there is one, has a retrograde character, but it’s hard to make head or tail of Driessen’s narrative in this short.
The background art again is very limited and made of monochromes, and Driessen’s typical morbid humor is very present. For example, the spider is handled by a man, who in turn turns out to hang at a gallows pole.
Watch ‘Cat’s Cradle’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Cat’s Cradle’ is available on the DVD ‘Des histoires pas comme les autres’
Director: Paul Driessen
Release date: 1972
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Air!’ was the first animated short Dutch animator Paul Driesen made for the National Film Board of Canada. In this very short film (it only takes two minutes) everything and everyone is gasping for air. Only at the very end we experience why.
Driessen makes the most of the barest background art: a monochrome background with a single horizontal line, which in each scene depicts something else. This is an early short by the Dutch master, but the film already showcases Driessen’s idiosyncratic animation style and morbid sense of humor.
Watch ‘Air!’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/air_fr/
‘Air’ is available on the DVD ‘Des histoires pas comme les autres’
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Release date: August 8, 1973
Rating: ★★
Review:
Ralph Bakshi arrived on the scene when American classic studio animation was in steady decline, reaching its low point in the 1970s and early 1980s. In this dry period, Bakshi tried to reinject classic animation with new energy, most notably by ripping it of its association with children. Now, in the golden age animation never had been solely associated with children, but due to the advent of the Saturday-morning cartoon in the mid-1960s American animation more and more became something just for kids.
Bakshi, on the other hand, saw the full potential of the medium, and enriched the animation world with several animated features aimed at adult audiences, thus bypassing the middle ground of the family film, which was Disney’s monopoly at the time, anyway. Thus, Bakshi is sometimes seen as the savior of animation during the medium’s dark ages, but I find it hard to subscribe to that opinion, and that’s because his films are sadly just not good.
Now, I will not talk about the abysmal ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (1977), which is a disgrace to the medium, but even ‘Heavy Traffic’, his supposed masterpiece, fails on several key features.
‘Heavy Traffic’ was written by Bakshi himself and has strong autobiographical elements. Set in New York the feature film tells of Michael Corleone, a young and aspiring underground cartoonist, who stills live with his quarreling parents (a Jewish mother and an Italian father), and who dates a black girl called Carole.
The film uses a voice over and the images of a pinball machine as bridging elements, but this cannot hide the fact that the film is a loose bag of scenes, and hardly goes anywhere. Sure, the film is depressing and draws a dark picture of the Big Apple, but its fourteen scenes have little to do with each other and are more about atmosphere than storytelling.
It certainly doesn’t help that none of the characters are remotely sympathetic. Even Michael himself, our supposed hero, is more of a self-centered jerk than anything else. For example, the comics he shows a publisher, wouldn’t interest anyone with a sane mind.
Worse, ‘Heavy Traffic’ falls for the misguided idea that making a film for an adult audience means it must contain sex and violence. ‘Heavy Traffic’ was not the first film to fall into this trap, and certainly not the last one (the unappealing ‘Sausage Party’ from 2016 comes to mind), but Bakshi clearly indulges in both, not only in this film, but also in ‘Fritz the Cat’ from the year before, ‘Wizards’ (1977) and ‘Cool World’ (1992), to name a few, which, to me, only proofs his immaturity. In ‘Heavy Traffic’, for example, bare breasts pop up from everywhere, with little other purpose than arousing the male audience.
Bakshi’s character designs are a mixed bag, sometimes reminiscent of the work of Mort Walker, as in the design of Michael’s father, at other times very cartoony, and reminiscent of DePatie-Freleng (e.g. the gay drag queen Snowflake), at other times quasi-realistic (Carole). Especially ill-conceived is Michael himself, whose quasi-realistic design is as mediocre as it is unappealing.
The background art too is a strange mix of drawings and photographs to a gritty effect. There are even some real live action footage elements from old films, like ‘Red Dust’ (1932) and ‘The Gang’s All Here’ (1943). In the end, the characters change into their live action counterparts, and suddenly one asks himself why this gritty film was not filmed in live action in the first place, as Bakshi’s animation adds surprisingly little.
Now, ‘Heavy Traffic’’s animator list features such illustrious names like Tom Ray, Carlo Vinci, Irv Spence, Manny Gould and Dave Tendlar, and it’s admirable that Bakshi kept these animation greats at work, but I doubt how many people watch ‘Heavy Traffic’ for its beautiful animation, for there’s hardly any. There’s manic animation, there’s outrageous animation, there’s fair animation, and there’s a lot of rotoscoping, but I’d prefer ‘Robin Hood’ from the same year anytime, even if that is the poorest of all classic Disney features.
For a supposed masterpiece, ‘Heavy Traffic’ feels like a sad affair, wasting a lot of animation talent on an egotistical document too heavy-handed for its own good, a film that is as depressing as it is boring and unappealing.
No, to me, Bakshi was more like the wrong guy at the right time: he could not save animation, for he lacked both the talent and the vision to do so. His films never transcend the dark ages, but are firmly rooted in them, and because of Bakshi’s limited view on what an adult film can be, the whole concept never really took off in the United States. This is an infinite pity, for this is one of the reasons we still must deal with the narrowminded view of animation being equal to family entertainment, today.
Watch the theatrical trailer for ‘Heavy Traffic yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Heavy Traffic’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD
Directors: André Leduc & Bernard Longpré
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★
Review:
Monsieur Pointu is a clown played by Paul Cormier, who also provides the short’s fiddle soundtrack. The clown tries to play the fiddle, but this turns out harder than it seems.
‘Monsieur Pointu’ consists of general clown routines, exaggerated and augmented by animation. André Leduc’s and Bernard Longpré’s pixilation animation is quite impressive, although the black screen also helps with all the tricks.
Unfortunately, their command of pixilation is much better than their comic timing, and literally none of the antics is funny. In fact, the action is very tiresome, and with its twelve minutes the short overstays its welcome extensively, especially if you don’t like clowns anyway, like me.
Watch ‘Monsieur Pointu’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Monsieur Pointu’ is available on the DVD ‘Best of the Best – Especially for Kids!’
Director: Caroline Leaf
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend’ was the first film acclaimed animator Caroline Leaf made for the National Film Board of Canada.
Done entirely in sand animation (in fact, Caroline Leaf was one of the very first animations to explore this technique for an entire film) the short tells about an owl, who marries a goose, but cannot follow her life style, with disastrous results. The legend is told and sung by real inuit, who also provide the goose’s and owl’s voices. As their Inuktitut language remains untranslated, one is lost in what is said, but luckily Leaf’s charming animation tells it all.
With its simple designs, effective animation and original soundtrack ‘The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend’ created quite a stir, and the film surely is one of the most Canadian the NFB ever made. After this film Leaf set off to a great career as one of the most interesting of independent animation film makers, creating such intriguing masterpieces like ‘The Street’ (1976) and ‘Two Sisters’ (1990).
Watch ‘The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend’ is available on the DVD ‘Best of the Best – Especially for Kids!’
Director: Michael Mills
Release date: 1971
Rating: ★★½
Review:
‘Evolution’ is Michael Mills’ cartoony take on the biological concept. The short features several fantasy creatures, starting with single cells in a pond (which all look like eye balls).
Mills depicts the origin of sex, the struggle of life, and the colonization of land, but none of his images are remotely serious, and most scenes consist of short gags. Unfortunately, the short is not too funny, and feels a little empty, ending quite abruptly and disappointingly.
Five years later Bruno Bozzetto did a much better job when depicting the same subject in his Boléro section of ‘Allegro non troppo’ (1976)
Watch ‘Evolution’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Evolution’ is available on the DVD ‘Best of the Best – Especially for Kids!’
Director: Zofia Oraczewska
Release date: 1976
Rating: ★★★
Review:
In ‘Banquet’ a bunch of waiters and chefs are preparing a huge banquet for a large number of guests. But when the guests arrive, the banquet turns out to be very different than expected.
‘Banquet’ has a mixed design: the waiters and chefs are rather classic cartoony figures, while the meals and the guests are collages partly made out of photo material.
Jan Skorża’s cut-out animation is fair, if not outstanding, and the whole film is a little too empty to be memorable. I guess the Polish film makers were less in their game when trying an attempt at humor.
Watch ‘Banquet’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Banquet’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’
Director: Zbginiew Rybczyński
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★★★
Review:
In ‘Soup’ avant-garde film maker Zbigniew Rybczyński shows his fondness of repetitive use of live action material to create startling new images.
Rybczyński would perfect this technique in 1980 with the Academy Award winning short ‘Tango’, but ‘Soup’ already is intriguing and hard to describe. Rybczyński has tinted his source material in stark, contrasting colors, with reds, greens, yellows and blues really popping out of the screen.
The images show the daily routines of a married couple, until it is suggested that the man dies in a train crash. At that point the film burns down. The daily routines are strangely juxtaposed to each other, and there are some very odd touches, like a fork taking a bite out of cheek.
The alienating effect is greatly enhanced by the soundtrack. For sound designer Mieczysław Janik and composer Eugeniusz Rudnik have provided a highly disturbing score full of ordinary sounds amplified to a grotesque effect. For example, when the man brushes his teeth, this rather sounds like a fork scratching on a plate.
I don’t think ‘Soup’ is for everyone, but this intriguing film shows both Rybczyński’s unique approach to film making and the sheer creativity that Communist Poland was in the graphic arts in the 1960s and 1970s.
Watch ‘Soup’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Soup’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’
Director: Mirosław Kijowicz
Release date: 1971
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘The Road’ is a simple little black and white film about a man walking a road, but then he faces a fork in the road.
According to IMDb this is a parable on how choices have consequences, and I can see something in that. Nevertheless the film may be a little too simple, making its message rather vague and puzzling. For example, we only see the man from the back, and only the second choice he has is clearly motivated, with help from a text balloon. Nevertheless, ‘The Road’ is a charming example of the experimental approach to animation in Poland.
Watch ‘The Road’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Road’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Anthology of Polish Animated Film’
Director: Joško Marušić
Release date: 1979
Rating: ★★★
Review:
This dark and surreal film starts with fishing villagers saying goodbye to their men who go out fishing on the sea. But when they’re gone, the fish suddenly come to the shore…
‘Fisheye’ is animated very well and knows a sickly color palette with its pale yellows, greens and blues on a black canvas. There’s some great moving perspective animation of the fishing village. The film contains a grim atmosphere, but in the end is too one-dimensional to make a lasting impression. The abrupt and inconclusive ending doesn’t help.
Watch ‘Fisheye’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Fisheye’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Zlatko Plavinic
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★
Review:
This is another very short gag cartoon from the Zagreb studio. In this short a man and a woman haggle for paid sex, or are they?
This cartoon features a monochrome ochre background, cartoonish designs, and dialogue in gibberish and loud nos. The single gag unfortunately is too lame for words.
‘Okay!’ is released on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Radivoje Gvozdanović
Release date: 1972
Rating: ★★★
Review:
This is a very short cartoon not clocking even one minute in which a man gets bunt at a stake. When the flames reach him he starts to pray…
This is a one gag cartoon that is over before you know it and a great example of the quirky humor that prevailed in the Zagreb Film studio.
Watch ‘Prayer’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Prayer’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Zlatko Grgić
Release date: 1971
Stars: Maxicat
Rating: ★★★
Review:
These are three very short episodes of the Maxicat series, which consisted of 24 episodes in total. These feature a very cartoony cat with a big nose experiencing Pink Panther-like adventures on a grey, featureless canvas.
In the first Maxicat finds a magical hat, in the second he eats spaghetti, and in the last he finds a flying broom. All three are short and classic gag cartoons with the dialogue-less action being accompanied by very jolly music. As these three episodes prove, Maxicat is an enjoyable series from the very creative Zagreb Film Studio from Yugoslavia.
Watch some Maxicat episodes yourself and tell me what you think:
These Maxicat episodes are available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Marcell Jankovics
Release date: May 27, 1977
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘The Struggle’ is as short as Jankovics’s previous film, ‘Sisyphus’ (1974), and again in black and white. This time Jankovics uses pencil on a white canvas to depict a sculptor sculpting a human figure. But then the sculpture itself starts sculpting back…
Jankovics’s design is very realistic, and his animation of the highest quality, but the film is less interesting to look at than ‘Sisyphus’ because this time Jankovics shows more than he suggests. Nevertheless, this is a clever little film that like ‘Sisyphus’ shows that Jankovics was one of the greatest and most interesting animators ever.
Watch ‘The Struggle’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Struggle’ is available on the Blu-Ray of ‘Son of the White Mare’
Director: Marcell Jankovics
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Sisyphus’ is a very short animation film, which is indeed about a man pushing a large rock up a steep hill.
The animation is done in black pen on white paper, and there’s no background art whatsoever. Most impressive is Jankovics’s animation: his command of the human form is formidable, and of the suggestion of muscles pushing up an enormous weight absolutely convincing. What’s even more wonderful is that the man is rendered in various variations of abstraction, from quite realistic to only suggestive splashes of ink. The soundtrack, with its very heavy breathing and growning, maybe a little too much, but this short is a wonderful example of the marvelous things animation can do.
Watch ‘Sisyphus’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Sisyphus’ is available on the Blu-Ray of ‘Son of the White Mare’
Director: Marcell Jankovics
Release date: 1968
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Dreams on Wings’ is an advertising film, but a most beautiful at that.
All the animation is done in watercolor paintings in very bold colors. Moreover, there’s a lot of metamorphosis, with images hardly staying static for more than a few frames. In one sequence, for example, an image of a galloping centaur changes into an arrow, which changes into a jet, which morphs into an airplane, which form the words Air India, etc.
Also the countries Air India flies to are depicted in the most poetic fashion. For example, Switzerland is depicted by mountains made of chocolate, and Egypt by a camel with a pyramid hump. The colorful images never seize to amaze, and the fun is enhanced further by a lively soundtrack by János Gyulai Gaál.
‘Dreams on Wings’ is available on the Blu-Ray of ‘Son of the White Mare’
Directors: John & Faith Hubley
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘Cockaboody’ John and Faith Hubley returned to the techniques and world of ‘Moonbird‘ (1959). Once again they recorded the voices of their own children, this time the toddlers Emily and Georgia, while playing. The soundtrack is thus by design completely improvised and as children’s conversations go, all over the place.
John and Faith Hubley illustrate the dialogue with delightful drawings that augment the fantasy of the two girls. For example, when Georgia goes into a tantrum, it takes the form of a green tiger threatening her older sister. Or when Georgia utters the original word ‘cockaboody’, which gives the film its title, it’s transformed into a mysterious duck-like creature.
The watercolor background art convincingly depicts the Hubley’s house as one big place to play in. Throughout the film, we remain with the two little girls, for one little scene in which we see the mother’s reaction to the loud noises the two toddlers produce.
‘Cockaboody’ may be a rather random film, starting and ending nowhere, but in between we have a lovely ride together with the two children.
Watch ‘Cockaboody’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Cockaboody’ was released on the DVD ‘Selected Films of John and Faith Hubley 1956-1973’, which came with the March/April 2014 issue of magazine ‘The Believer’
Director: Fyodor Khitruk
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘The Island’ is a short gag film in which a bearded castaway is stranded on a tiny island.
Khitruk explores this traditional cartoon setting, and brings it into new directions. The man longs to be rescued, but nobody helps him, though the ocean turns out to be very crowded, indeed. In fact, in the end, the man is far worse off than he was in the beginning.
Khitruk’s cell animation is effective, his designs are charming, and his timing is excellent. But the film is more than just a mere series of gags, as Khitruk satirizes man’s aggression, greed, emptiness and folly. It’s signifying that the only person helping the main protagonist, is one who has even less than the castaway he helps. Thus ‘Island’ is more than just a little gag film, it’s a humorous essay on the human condition, and it’s not an optimistic one.
Watch ‘The Island’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Island’ is available on the DVD ‘Masters of Russian Animation Volume 2’
Director: Yuri Norstein
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘Fox and Rabbit’ (actually Fox and Hare) Norstein retells a Russian folktale in which a fox chases a rabbit out of his own house. A wolf, a bear and a bull all three promise the rabbit to help him regain his house, but when threatened by the fox they run off. Only a small rooster at least tries it.
The story is told by a voice-over, and is illustrated in a very charming semi-folkloristic style, which striking and colorful supposedly wooden frames framing the action, as if were looking at paintings. M. Meyerovich’s, rather Stravinsky-like music only adds to the folkloristic character. Norstein’s cut-out animation, meanwhile, is of the highest order, and full of little subtleties, signifying the different characters.
‘Fox and Rabbit’ may be less famous than the later ‘Hedgehog in the fog’ (1975) or ‘Tale of Tales‘ (1979), the film already shows Norstein’s extraordinary talent and charming animation style. Fyodor Khitruk thought highly of the film, and was completely surprised that such commonplace material (Soyuzmultfilm had made fable films for several decades) turned into such an original, idiosyncratic film.
Watch ‘Fox and Rabbit’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Fox and Rabbit’ is available on the DVD ‘Masters of Russian Animation Volume 2’
Director: Andrei Khrzhanovsky
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★★
Review:
In ‘Butterfly’ a boy catches some butterflies, but after a nightmarish scene in which he himself is trapped, he releases them again.
The plot of ‘Butterfly’ is far from original, and rather predictive and boring, but Khrzhanovsky’s eclectic style is not. Part of the story is told in still oil paintings, but there’s also a little cell animation and cut-out animation.
The oil paintings are most interesting, with their rather high level of realism, and their painful contrast between colorful nature, and the dull, grey world of the modern city. Especially the scene inside the boy’s flat is most depressing, with only grey electronic robots to play with. Nevertheless, the most striking aspect of this film are not the animation nor the visuals, but the fascinating score by avant-garde composer Alfred Schnittke.
Watch ‘Butterfly’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Butterfly’ is available on the DVD ‘Masters of Russian Animation Volume 2’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 