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.