msa-3 Reviews

The Soldier's Tale (1984)

A brilliantly animated take on Stravinsky's ballet.

[17 August 2000]

This is a brilliantly animated take on Stravinsky's ballet.

Tissa David's animation gives the show a solidity, character and a presence that takes it above others. Fred Burns' animation gives it a lyricism that can't be matched. And Fred Mogubgub's animation gives it an abstraction and a surrealism that takes it beyond the world of the imagination and gives it a life of its own. It's a beautiful film. Though a bit confusing in its storytelling it's thrilling to watch just for the graphics and the music. Deservedly won its EMMY Award in 1977. Kudos to R.O. Blechaman for initiating it and pulling it all together.

The Four Poster (1952)

The animation makes it brilliant.

[16 July 2000]

This filmed version of the theatrical, 2-person play was brought to life by the animation. The stunt behind the play was that a married couple entered a bedroom with a four poster bed. Through a number of scenes, they live out their entire married life. The film cleverly used animation by John Hubley to open up the play and go out into the world. The animation was profound and moving (perhaps even more so than the live action), its design was new and brilliant, and its execution was superior to almost anything on the animation circuit at the time. (So superior was it, that some animators in Zagreb, Yugoslavia confiscated a print circulating there and studied it for weeks, running the animation sequences over and over. The end result was the creation of the Zagreb animation studio.) The film is out of circulation. You can't get it on video and you don't see it in retrospective screenings. Perhaps someone will get a print on the market. If they do, animation lovers should see it for historical context. They should also see it to learn what animators did with animation 50 years ago and are not doing now.

The Aristo-Cat (1943)

Superb Chuck Jones film with brilliant work by John McGrew.

[10/10 · 22 January 2000]

THE ARISTOCATS is a brilliant film by Chuck Jones which utilizes ingenious backgrounds and dynamic cutting, via John McGrew's extraordinary layout, to create a new kind of animation. The Jones and McGrew partnership in design extablished a new rhythm of stylization that certainly led to the modern UPA work.