Surreal Art: Jan Svankmajer's "Alice" (1988) and the Auteur Theory

In this post we are going to look at a film that makes one of the greatest uses of stop motion animation. We are going to look at the 1988 film "Alice", directed (and written for the screen) by Czechoslovakian director, animator, story teller, and master surrealist Jan Svankmajer. This film was not the first time "Alice in Wonderland" had been adapted using a combination of live action and stop motion animation. This device had been used in 1949 by Lou Bunin in his film "Alice in Wonderland", not to be confused with the Disney film which was released in 1951, and featured only hand drawn animation. Even before that Walt Disney made extremely loose versions of "Alice in Wonderland" using live action and hand drawn animation in a series called the "Alice Comedies", which released it's first film "Alice's Wonderland" in 1923. However "Alice" (1988) is the best use of this device, and in my opinion the best film adaption of "Alice in Wonderland".

I pick this movie to talk about for 3 reasons:
1. It is a masterpiece
2. Too many people have not heard of it
3. I want to discuss how film theory and analysis can be very useful for discussing animated films as well as live action, and a Jan Svankmajer film is a great place to start such a discussion (despite that live action is also used, the animation in his films warrants serious discussion as much the live action).

"Alice" (1988) is a perfect film to use as proof for the auteur theory. The auteur theory was first proposed  (At least to the earliest we can trace it) in the French film magazine "Cahiers du Cinéma". This magazine had a huge influence on how film is looked at as an art form, and featured future great French live-action filmmakers such as François Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard as writers. The auteur theory is the belief that a film is the creative vision of the director and that the director is essentially the author of the film. An auteur director is a director whose distinctive style and personal themes can be seen in nearly all their work, and can not be mistaken for any other director. Jan Svankmajer is definitely an auteur director and "Alice" is defiantly proof of this.

Jan Svankmajer is know for (by the people he is known by) his surreal and odd ball stop-motion animation, borderline obsession with characters eating (you will know what I mean after you watch "Alice"), darkly hilarious sense of humor, exaggerated sound effects, and disturbing subconscious feel to many of his films. "Alice" contains all of these in abundance.  Svankmajer felt a film version of "Alice in Wonderland" should not be made as a fairy tale but rather as a subconscious dream. He stated "While a fairy tale has got an educational aspect – it works with the moral of the lifted forefinger (good overcomes evil), dream, as an expression of our unconscious, uncompromisingly pursues the realization of our most secret wishes without considering rational and moral inhibitions, because it is driven by the principle of pleasure. My Alice is a realized dream.". Therefore in this film Alice fully enters a Freudian dream, instead of the more fantasy based one as we have become accustomed to. Here is a very insightful interview with Jan Svankmajer to help further explain this point.

http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/06/14/interview-with-jan-352vankmajer/

Most of this is naturally shown through the directing. The imagery and the way it is presented is more disturbing than whimsical. The mixture of live-action and animation help to make this film feel much less real. This film in fact never attempts reality it instead in every visual way possible subverts it. This makes the film truly feel like our own subconscious dream, a feat rarely paralleled in film (animation, live action or a mixture of both). This is truly a director's film, and a master piece.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 3 release on August 12th

Rejoice follow cartoon lovers for on August 12th the 3rd volume of the "Looney Tunes Platinum Collection" will be released on Blu-ray and DVD. This will feature many more classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons including 4 that have never been released on DVD or Blue-ray. Those 4 are "Honey's Money", "Life with Feathers", "Tree for Two", and "Beep Prepared". The Blu-ray version will also include a brand new documentary called "That's All Folks! Tales From Termite Terrace". Of course these are only the tip of the iceberg for there are 46 more classic cartoons along with many more bonus features.

-Michael J. Ruhland

One Old Gray Hare: Happy 74th Birthday Bugs Bunny

On July 27th, 1940 a Tex Avery directed Merrie Melodies cartoon called "A Wild Hare" was released. This cartoon marked the birth of a certain wascally wabbit, Bugs Bunny. Even though Warner Brothers had been experimenting with a rabbit character since the 1938 Looney Tunes cartoon "Porky's Hare Hunt" directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (the wascally wabbit's name sake), and Cal Dalton. However Bugs himself didn't appear until "A Wild Hare". Tex Avery himself wasn't a fan of the cartoon, not because of the character, but because he didn't find it funny. And while I find it quite a good cartoon I do admit better Bugs cartoons would come down the line (Including some hilarious Bugs cartoons directed by Tex, himself) in the future. Despite Tex's criticism of his own work, this cartoon was a sensation, and more Bugs Bunny cartoons were demanded, and the rest is animation history.


To celebrate the superstars birthday and since I am sure most of you have seen many classic Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoons (and if you haven't what are you reading this for, when you could watch them now) I am going to share with you some great forgotten commercials made for The Bugs Bunny Show. These commercials like The Bugs Bunny Show itself were directed by classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon directors Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, and Robert McKimson, and featuring Bugs' original voice actor Mel Blanc. They also contain some of the great witty humor ,remarkable animation and classic characterizations that made Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies such great classics, like the rest of The Bugs Bunny Show. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX8xrnGJIUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7MYsB-YElk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97hVwBcSPa4
         
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xgwqi3SfxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9amHMfxDsmo

-Michael J. Ruhland

Cat and Mouse Games: The History of Tom and Jerry (Part 2)

Many of the early Tom and Jerry cartoons resembled the Harmon and Ising cartoons that preceded them. The pace was slow and the animation was more realistic than what it would become later. Tom looked and moved more like a real cat than a cartoon of a cat. This made his actions and reactions much less funny than what would come later. This along with MGM cartoons as a whole changed when Tex Avery moved to MGM. Even though Tex had never worked on a Tom and Jerry cartoon his importance to the series is unmistakable.

Tex Avery was one of the greatest animation directors to ever live. He had already helped change Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from the films Harmon and Ising had made at Warner Brothers (While many of those cartoons were entertaining they were very different from what would come later) to the more cartoony, anything for a laugh style that we know and love them for now. Tex's MGM cartoons were even faster paced and more cartoony than what he had done at Warner Brothers. In these cartoons nothing was impossible. If a joke was funny to Tex, he would throw out any sense of reality for the joke's sake.  Tex Avery's MGM cartoons remain some of the funniest cartoons ever made.

Inspired by Tex's cartoons Hanna and Barbera made a few changes to Tom and Jerry cartoons. The pace had been picked up. Animal characters were now anthropomorphic. Most of all though the cartoons were much funnier. Wild and impossible reactions, fast paced slapstick, and cartoony violence now became staples of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Also added was Tom's recognizable and quite funny scream (often times one of the few sounds to come out of his mouth in the cartoons). This scream was done by William Hanna himself.

Tom and Jerry cartoons were at the top of their game during these years. They quickly became favorites for both fans and film critics. The series even won 7 Oscars a feat only matched by (for series of animated short films) Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons. These great cartoons deserved all of the praise they received.

After 1955's "Good Will to Men" (a non-Tom and Jerry MGM cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera) producer Fred Quimby left MGM. To take over as the producers for all of the MGM animated short films were William Hanna and Joseph Babera. They not only produced the cartoons they directed, but also the cartoons of Tex Avery, Michael Lah, and others.

The budgets were now much smaller. This may have helped prepare the team for their future in television animation, where they would have to work on an even smaller budget. Even though most of the Tom and Jerry cartoons of this era were still very good (Muscle Beach Tom, Timid Tabby, Down Beat Bear, etc.), there were a few cartoons that showed that maybe it was getting harder to come up with new stories for the characters (Happy Go Ducky, Tot Watchers, Busy Buddies). After 1958's Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tot Watchers" MGM's animation studio had closed and Hanna and Barbera would go on to make some of the best animated TV shows of their era. It seemed as if this would be the end for Tom and Jerry, but it was far from it.

To Be Continued...

-Michael J. Ruhland

Cat and Mouse Games: The History of Tom and Jerry (Part 1)

After Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising left Warner Brothers (Where they played a huge part in making the first Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons), because of the small budgets they had to work on there, they moved very briefly to the Van Bueran Studio, only to leave after two cartoons(over a contract dispute), and then they settled at MGM. Here they taken over almost all the animated shorts from MGM. Like the MGM live-action features these shorts took an extremely elegant, and expensive looking visual atmosphere. This is just what they had always wanted to do at Warner Brothers. Harmon and Ising (have been former Disney employees) spent much of their career trying to compete with Disney. Therefore their Shorts had a very Disney like feel to them something the MGM shorts of later years would break heavily away from.

These shorts were perhaps too expensive looking, and too big of attempts to compete with Disney, because they often went way over budget. Due to this producer Fred Quimby decided to look for more directing units. This was filled by Friz Freling, who beirfly left Warner Brothers in 1937 only to come back later the same year. Freling was made to direct cartoons that were below his talent so he left soon. The next directing unit though stuck much better.

The position was filled by the team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Part of this may have been due to William Hanna having basically co- directed the Hugh Harmon cartoon "To Spring" (1936). Him and Joseph Barbera made a perfect team. Hanna was in charge of timing, and more technical aspects, while Barbera work on the creative part. Both were excellent at their respective parts.

The first cartoon they directed together was "Puss Gets the Boot" (1940). This cartoon stared Cat and Mouse team Jasper and Jinx. Jinx name was never used in the cartoon, but Hanna and Barbera would later reuse that name in a later series of cat and mouse cartoons (Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinx from "The Huckleberry Hound Show"). Unfortunately neither Hanna nor Barbera would receive any credit for the cartoon. The credit would all go to Rudolf Ising. Even though this cartoon was nominated for an Oscar, Hanna and Barbera were not encouraged to make more cat and mouse cartoons. Fred Quimby gave the reason for this as being that MGM should have a diverse profile and not count on this miracle happening again.

Lucky for us and animation history, Hanna and Barbera decided to make more cat and mouse cartoons. They would change the names of this cat and mouse to Tom and Jerry, and through 114 classic Tom and Jerry cartoons they would make animation history.

To Be Continued...

-Michael J Ruhland

Criterion Collection to Release "Watership Down" (1978)

Some of the greatest live action films from around the world have been released through the Criterion Collection. Thanks to them film fans have seen nearly perfectly restored movies with very informative bonus features. Now us animation fans have reason to rejoice, because now they are releasing animated films as well. They released "Fantastic Mr. Fox" on February 18, 2014, and now they have announced they will release the brilliant "Watership Down" (1978).

"Watership Down" is a brilliant and extremely original animated film from Britain, directed by Michael Rosen. It took many chances your average animated film wouldn't.  Not a movie for kids, it is complex, violent, and freighting. Most of all though it is a greatly compelling, and thought provoking work of art that all film fans should watch sometime in their life.

The classic movie will be available on ITunes on August 5th, and hopefully on dvd and Blu-ray not to long later. I'm exicted for this not just because I think "Watership Down" is one of the greatest movies ever made, but because hopefully more great animated works of art from around the world shall follow.

-Michael J. Ruhland

American Realese of "The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya"

Like I am sure many American fans of Studio Ghilbi are I am annoyed at having to wait longer for their films than I should have to since I have to wait for a dubbed version to be completed when I am perfectly satisfied with a subtitled version . This is nothing against people who prefer dubs. Great art should be enjoyed by anyone in the way they prefer to see it, and even though I prefer subtitles, I can still enjoy a dub. I am just impatient.

Anyway, on October 17 "The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya" will be released in America. This film is directed by Isao Takahata, who brought us the masterpiece "Grave of the Fireflies". The Dubbed version will be released though G-Kids, and feature the voices of James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt and Dean Cain.

-Michael J. Ruhland

The animated world of Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay is easily one of the most important, and most talented pioneers of animation. Contrary to some stories you might hear though he is not the first filmmaker to use animation (Emil Cohl, J. Stuart Blackton, Charles-Émile Reynaud, and Segundo de Chomón beat him to it).  However his importance to the history of animation can not be underestimated.

 Winsor McCay had already enjoyed much success before entering the field of animation, as creator and writer of the newspaper comic strips, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend. These comic strips were the highlight of the comics page back then. They transcended what comic strips had been know for through their abundance of imagination, and expert drawing style. It is only natural for a man who created this to be attracted to the art form of animation.

His first film was "Little Nemo" (Also called Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics) based off his own comic strip. Released in 1911, animation was still a novelty, and McCay took full advantage of that. This film in fact starts out in live action with McCay betting he can make drawings move (although he incorrectly credits himself as the first to do this), and his friends respond with laughter and disbelief. The live action segment of this film is very clever, and humorous. The highlight of the live action portion though is seeing McCay draw his characters before the animation starts. This is when you know you are watching a great talent at work. The animation segment itself is very well done and entertaining, but it is a little dated. It is obvious he had not yet figured out what to do with animation, and that leads to alack of understanding our characters, and therefore a lack of personal involvement. However this animation is expertly done. It is very appealing and still looks very good by today's standards. This entire segment was hand-drawn by one man, Winsor McCay himself. He drew four-thousand drawings all by himself for this one short segment of the film. The early color was achieved by hand painting the 35mm film itself after it was complete. this was also done only by McCay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f8tfSHIU_g

The most famous film Winsor McCay made is easily "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1914).  This film was actually a vaudeville act before it was in theaters. The act consisted of Winsor McCay talking to his animated dinosaur Gertie. He would tell her what to do and Gertie would do it (most of the time). This was translated to theaters by having an off screen narrator, who speaks through intertitles (since this was a silent film). This film has often times wrongly been called the first cartoon ever made. While this is not true (It isn't even McCay's first cartoon, it is his third), it's place in animation history is still extremely important. The reason for this is Gertie, Herself. She is one of the first animated characters that the audience was allowed to see think. Unlike the characters in "Little Nemo", Gertie does not seem like she is just moving drawings projected on a screen, but instead like a real character that we know and relate to over the course of the film. This was the beginning of character animation, and probably the first successful attempt at it. Like "Little Nemo" this film begins in live action. Winsor McCay bets his fellow cartoonists that he can make a dinosaur come to life and boy does he.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJuD4AlLINU

  Despite the great success of "Gertie", McCay decided to do something complete different with his next adventure into the world of animation. His next film was "The Sinking of the Lusitania"(1918). This was not only the first completely serious cartoon that Winsor McCay made, but also the first animated documentary. For a cartoon to approach such a serious event as the sinking of the Lusitania was unheard of at this time. For the animation McCay knew he needed to achieve much more realism in his animation. The amount of detail in the animation still remains an unbelievable feet. Due to this different style it took much more work and time than anything that had been before. Yet still the entire film was animated solely by Winsor McCay. This film remains a masterful and moving piece of patriotism and probably one of the greatest propaganda films ever made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPbmCYxPmA

-Michael J. Ruhland