Unca Timo's Cartoon Cabana

Aloha from Summerland!

Don't you think it's about time we enjoyed another cavalcade of cartoons?  Well I do, and it's my blogazine, so here it is!

I'd like to say that there's some sort of theme at work here, but there really isn't, other than that I find them all interesting in at least one way of not more.  At first there was a musical thread, but that kind of fizzled, so just dig it.

Get gnarly on these tasty 'toons, brah!

SHAKA!











This Land Is Mine - 2012
by Nina Paley

Nina is a fabulous and versatile animator producing top-drawer work with a fiercely independent vision.  Her masterful 2008 feature film Sita Sings the Blues challenged both Hindu scholars and American copyright law.  This short, This Land Is Mine was conceived as the final scene to a forthcoming feature, Seder-Masochism. 






Accidents Will Happen - 1979
Song by Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Directed by  Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel

Witness the birth of the 1980s.






Sesame Street: Capital I - 1972
Song by Steve Zuckerman

I was watching Sesame Street with my actual nephew (hence the "Unca" in "Unca Timo") yesterday and this came on.  Like many of the cartoons on Sesame Street, I instantly recalled this with startling clarity.  The prog-folk neo-minstrel tune always seemed to be telling a bigger story than "Hey, here's the capital letter 'I'."  Notice how they spend all day at hard labor, simply to keep the CAPITAL letter "I" polished?  They live "in the middle of the desert" because global warming and deforestation have left us in a bleak netherscape?  Could it be a parable about the human servitude inherent in self-centered Capitalism?  This one's on me, Fox News.






Arrow to the Sun - 1973
Designed & Directed by Gerald McDermott

Adapted from a classic Native American legend.  I'm pretty sure it tells the story of graphic designers going to the desert to do peyote.  I think it foretells the coming of Burning Man.






Mowgli's Brothers - 1976
From the Book by Rudyard Kipling
Adapted & Directed by Chuck Jones

A shorter but more faithful adaptation of Kipling's Jungle Book from master animator Chuck Jones.  You will notice a distinct familiarity about the "jackal" herein.






The Stork - 2002
by Nina Paley

And just because I still wanted to share this one, and just couldn't wait until the next time I post 'toons, here is another great cartoon from Nina Paley.  She is a mad genius, and I totally dig that about her.

Unca Timo's Car-tomb Spooktacular!

Fire... BAD.

Cartoons.... GOOD!

Monsters... bad?

Monster cartoons.... frequently awful. 

These selections, animated shorts... GOOD!
 
You enjoy!  Good, GOOD!

Come back... next week... enjoy feature article...

"The Monster Mash-Ups" ...GOOD!





Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions - 1991
by Henry Selick

Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Coraline, made this as a pilot for MTV.  Then he got the Nightmare gig and that was that.  We all win.

Bambi Meets Godzilla - 1969
by Marv Newland

Legen-- wait for it...

Lonesome Ghosts - 1937

Directed by Burt Gillett

This would appear to have been an influence on Scooby-Doo and Ghostbusters.  A short, silent cut of this was the pack-in movie with the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer sold in the 70s, so a lot of kids were exposed to it that way.  I am pretty sure I've also seen flipbooks that use frames from it. 

Sintel - 2010
Written by Esther Wouda & Martin Lodewijk

Directed by Colin Levy

This animated short was produced by the Blender Foundation to demonstrate its open-source animation software, and was published under an open Creative Commons license which allowed anyone to use it however they liked, even for profit, as long as it was attributed.  Then Sony comes along and claims ownership, temporarily getting it removed from YouTube.  This is just one of many examples of what is wrong with our utterly perverse and out-of-control copyright laws that ultimately favor the richest, most ruthless and exceedingly powerful.  Yes, in this collection of monster-themed cartoons, the real monsters walk among us.  Actually they don't so much walk as ride past us in limos, sneering with disdain.

Oh yeah, and the cartoon is really super-fantastic too.

Superman: The Arctic Giant - 1941
Created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Produced by Fleischer Studios

The Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons were made just a few years after the comic book debuted, so many of the things were presume about him now simply didn't exist yet.  These are beautifully animated and full of fun.  Superman didn't scale well to WWII, however, and the series was discontinued.  Nevertheless, they remained the best superhero cartoons made until the animated Batman of the 1990s.

This Way Up - 2008
Written & Directed by Smith & Foulkes

A very funny short about a very bad day for the operators of AT Shanks & Son funeral parlor.  It turns out this was Oscar nominated.  I don't actually seek them out that way.  They just find me!

Unca Timo's Good Time Cartoon Jamboree!

I, Unca Timo, promise to DO MY BEST,
to DO MY DUTY,
to brings you good animation,
uh... A-ROOTY-TOOT-TOOTY!


As it turns out, this is kind of a weird collection.  I can't imagine how that happened.  What kind of person is running this thing?






Oktapodi - 2007
See link for directing team

This is just wacky, unleashed mayhem as one octopus races to rescue his beloved from a knifey fate.  Recalls the energy of a Looney Toons cartoon from the good ol' days.  Oscar nominated; did not win... except our HEARTS, am I right, people?!!

I Miss You - 1997
Song by Bjork
Video by John Kricfalusi

Singer and patron of the video arts Bjork turned Ren & Stimpy creator John "John K" Kricfalusi loose on her song "I Miss You" and the results blow the lid off the pot of their creative stew.  Also featured: Jimmy the Boy Idiot and George Liquor from John K's Spumco Comic Book.

Parental Discretion may be advised.  By which I mean that it may not be suitable for all parents, but the kids will love it, even if you'd rather that they didn't.

The House of Small Cubes - 2008
Written & Directed by Kunio Kato

You like visual metaphors, kids?  I got yer visual metaphors right here!  Made by a Japanese animator.  Looks like French animation.  Won the American Academy Award for short subject animation.  Applicable to everyone.

Day & Night - 2010
Directed by Teddy Newton

This recent Pixar short really reminds me of animation and cartooning from the 1960s.  The spare design of Munro comes to mind.  It was Oscar nominated the year that The Lost Thing won.

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics - 1965
Written by Norton Juster
Directed by Chuck Jones & Maurice Noble

Now here's some of that 1960s animation.  Writer Norton Juster is also the author of The Phantom Tollbooth, which Chuck Jones would also go on to direct as a feature film.  Not sure what to make of the fickle nature of the Dot, but at least she made the right choice in the end.

Aeon Flux - 1991
Directed by Peter Chung

It's my understanding (and I could be wrong, because the stories around Aeon Flux have become as apocryphal as the stories IN it) that the first "season" of Aeon Flux was just intended as a series of shorts to stand alone.  After it became super-popular on MTV's Liquid Television, demand flowed from fans to network an Chung finally relented on continuing the show.  Then there was a live action movie and everyone decided they were over it.  This is the stand alone 12 minute first "season" that we all loved from the start.  Still just as stylish, kick-butt and bizarre as ever.

Unfortunately, I am unable to embed it here.  Click the link below the picture.

Original Aeon Flux

Okay, that's gonna have to be it for this time.  Things sure took off in their own direction.  I'll be back with more cartoon goodness next time.

You might consider bookmarking this article so you can pace your viewing, or better yet, subscribe to Media Bliss so you never miss one of the glistening blobs of genius I leave in my wake.

Unca Timo's Cartoon Fun Club!

And now for something completely different...

For your viewing pleasure, I present to you a selection of animated shorts.  Let thoughts be inspired, let the feels be felted, bathe in the beauty of spareness, of clutter, of unfettered creativity.  Behold and enjoy!

You may want to bookmark this one and come back to it rather than trying to watch them all at once.









The Man Who Had to Sing - 1971
Written by Nedeljko Dragic
Directed by Milan Blazekovic

This Yugoslavian cartoon managed to sneak out from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, which certainly goes a long way toward explaining its perspective.  That, however, should not be seen as an excuse for us to overlook how it's applicable to life in our society today.  I have described this cartoon and Chuck Jones' "One Froggy Evening" (sadly unavailable due to Warner Brothers' approach to digital rights management) as the 2 most important things that young people need to understand about our world before leaving school, and I was only kind of kidding.

Why Man Creates - 1968
Written by Saul Bass & Mayo Simon
Directed by Saul Bass

This film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1968.  It's from Saul Bass who created some of the most iconic posters and title sequences for film in the mid-20th century.  He was also largely responsible for designing the shower sequence in Hitchcock's "Psycho."  Why Man Creates reflects his mastery both as a creator, and as one who has spent a lot of time examining the very act of creation.

Paperman - 2012
Written by Clio Chang & Kendelle Hoyer
Directed by John Kahrs

Another Oscar winner.  That seems to be the mood I'm in.  Paperman really struck a chord with a lot of people, using the digital animation technology that we're used to seeing for 3D animation, but presented in a retro 2D style.  It's a sweet, simple boy-meets-girl tale that will make you wish it was really that sweet and simple.

Munro - 1961
Written By Jules Pfeiffer
Directed by Gene Deitch

Munro was Pfeiffer's reaction to his experience serving in the Army.  In it, a 4 year old by is drafted and trained as a soldier.  His protestations fall upon ears deafened by obedience to bureaucracy.  It won an Oscar for Animated Short.  Man I love those cartoonists from the 60s.

Balance - 1989
Directed by Christoph Lauenstein & Wolfgang Lauenstein

One of the things that animation does, perhaps better than any other format I can think of, is to present metaphors in motion.  Balance had that covered in spades.  Despite it's simplicity, it's universality and potency were clearly enough to win it an Oscar.  This should forever change the way you hear the phrase "fair and balanced."  Consider this added to the list of things that young people should know before leaving school.

Mr. Hublot - 2013
Written by Launrent Witz
Directed by Laurent Witz & Alexandre Espigares

Mr. Hublot is a quirky little fellow who has to turn the lights on and off a specific number of times before leaving his home in a dense urban landscape of crumbling machinery.  He clearly likes his life to be "just so."  So it comes as a bit of a surprise and a challenge when he decides to share his home with the stray he takes in off the street.  Beautiful stuff here, and yes, an Oscar winner.

The Lost Thing - 2010
Written by Shaun Tan
Directed by Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan

The Lost Thing is a fairly straight adaptation from Shaun Tan's book of the same name.  It tells a fairly straightforward tale of a bot who finds an unusual creature on the beach, then determines to help it find its home.  Okay, it serves metaphorical purposes too.  Yes, it won an Oscar, but I was already a fan of the book, so there; I'm not just picking Oscar winners for the sake of showing off.

Varmints - 2008
Written by Marc Craste from his Book with Helen Ward
Directed by Marc Craste


Another authorial adaptation of a brilliant book, Marc Craste's Varmints is a heartbreaking work of sheer beauty.  It's a powerful parable about industrialization, the loss of hope and nurturing nature; giving back the life that it gives to us.  It wasn't even nominated for an Oscar, which seems a real shame.  It's amazing.

Well that's about all the time we have today, kids!  Stay in drugs and don't do school!  We'll have to do this again sometime soon.  There are a whole lot more wonderful works of animation out there to share and discover!