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-“The Owl Who Married a Goose”
-Caroline Leaf
-NFB, Canada
-7:41 minutes
-narration of an Inuit legend about the marriage between an owl & a goose, which ends tragically due to their different natural habitats
-narration in the Inuit language Inuktitut
-collaboration between Caroline Leaf & six elderly Inuit women for the soundtrack (through their production of traditional Inuit geese & owl calls)
-through the unusual technique of sand on lightboard animation (with the result similar to silhouette animation; albeit allowing for more gradations through-thickness & thinness of sand layer in light & shadow) |
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-“Lumaaq”
-Co Hoedeman & David Alasua Amittu
-NFB Canada/1975
-third of Co Hoedeman’s sequence of 4 films in collaboration with Inuit artists from the Iqaluit and Povungnituk communities)
-a blind boy who is mistreated by his cruel stepmother, despite his providing sustenance for his family through hunting
-Loons magically heal his blindness and provide him with their keen eyesight through dipping him deep into the ocean.
-on their next hunt, his stepmother is caught in the line and dragged to the bottom of the sea
-According to the legend, her cries can still be heard in the howling winds
-Inuit did not physically punish their children but instead explained appropriate behavior and modeled it through their actions
-The moral of the story is to treat children well, and the fate of the stepmother is her karma for her violation of Inuit morales
-David Alasua Amittu was a famed Inuit artist, both in the Inuit and in the European Canadian communities. His 1950s carvings and 1960s prints often were inspired by Inuit mythology
-Other Inuit print-makers also used his verbal accounts of Inuit legends for inspiration. His wife, sons, brother, nephew, and a first cousin are also print-makers and sculptors
-David Alasua Amittu creates the backgrounds and the paper puppets for this animation
-Co Hoedeman animated these designs. |
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-“I Am But a Little Woman”
-Gyu Oh and Daniel Gies for NFB/Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, 2010
– poetic narrative demonstrates the passing on of Inuit traditions as a young girl watches her mother create a tapestry incorporating Arctic wildlife & a self-portrait
-theme derives from a 1927 Inuit poem Kivkarjuk’s Song “I am but a little woman/Very willing to toil/Very willing and happy/To work and slave/And in my eagerness/To Be of Use/I pluck the furry buds of willow/Buds like the beard of wolf/I love to go walking far and far away/And my soles are worn through/As I pluck the buds of willow/That is furry like the great wolf’s beard”(Padlermiut or “Willow-Folk” Inuit)(living inland on the tundra, primary food source – caribou herds) |
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-Street of Crocodiles excerpt” from “Street of Crocodiles.”
-Brothers Quay for BBCTV-4, 1986
-4:43
–thematic basis in Bruno Schulz’s Cinnamon Shops autobiographical (but magical realist) collection of short stories (titled Street of Crocodiles in its English translation, for its animism or its vitalism
–concept of an object with a soul or a force of their own
-combination of a steam-punk and an eerie horror aesthetic (with its puppets in late 19th or early 20th century attire, with automatons of metal & light bulbs, with its rusting & Victorian setting in combination with inanimate objects -e.g. screws
-falling from the sky & moving independently, with automatons suddenly turning on, with its puppets of with eyeless dolls heads) for its animism or its vitalism
–the concept of an object with a soul or a force of their own
-automatons suddenly turning on, with its puppets of with eyeless dolls heads) |
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-“Sober” (Music Video)
-Adam Jones & Fred Stuhr for Tool, Album Undertow/Zoo Entertainment, 1993
-a song about substance abuse, basis in the experience of a mutual friend of the Tool band members, puppets & some animation by Adam Jones (who worked at various Hollywood special effects workshops, most notably that of Stan Winston)
-video deliberately eschewed featuring the band members (to differentiate it from other music videos from the early 1990s)
-use of Quay Brothers imagery – single individual puppet searching through a grungy environment with diverse automatons
-references to flesh & biological processes (puppet examining the material in the pipe)
-possible decease of puppet at the end of the video
-first exposure of Quay Brother’s style to large audiences (through showings on MTV, especially its Beavis & Butthead, winner 1994 Billboard award for best video by a new artist
-Kurt Cobain criticized the videos |
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-“Tulips Shall Grow”
-George Pal for Paramount Pictures, 1942
-7:14 minutes)
-use of replacement animation (i.e., each puppet had interchangeable heads, hands, fingers, etcetera)
-message of support for the allies in their fight against Nazism, reference to the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, use of traditionally-garbed figures and popular conceptions of the Dutch landscape – e.g., windmills, tulips) |
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-Mad Monster Party
-Jules Bass for Rankin/Bass Productions
-Mochinaga Tadahita’s MOM Studios)
-production of the puppets & animation of the figures there (with animators often sleeping by their sets)
-involvement of MAD magazine staff (Harvey Kurtzman for the script, Jack Davis for the character designs)
-use of monsters from the Universal Studios 1930s horror films
-use of famous actors (Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller for voices) and a then-popular singer Gale Garnett for the songs/heroine’s voice
-similarity of puppets to historical horror movie actors (& in Gale Garnett’s case to her appearance)” For its look, see “Mad Monster Party – The Party Escalates – 2:53 minutes) |
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-“Vincent” (Tim Burton for Disney Studios, 1982)
-combination of puppet & cel animation
-influence of Dr. Seuss in its rhyming narration, Edward Gorey/Charles Addams in its visuals
-the impact of German Expressionist cinema for its strong contrasting shadows; for the narration by Vincent Price
-autobiographical element (e.g., puppet similar in appearance to Tim Burton, Tim Burton’s childhood in California with interest in B-horror movies & the macabre) |
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-The Nightmare Before Christmas
-Tim Burton & Henry Selick for Touchstone Pictures, 1993
-basis in Tim Burton’s 1982 poem (later book)
–derived from Dr. Seuss (for its rhyme) & Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”
-inspiration from Bass & Rankin Christmas specials (e.g., Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)
-use of replacement animation (e.g., Jack Skellington – 400 heads, Sally 10 different faces)
-extensive use of puppets (227 ones)
-use of Danny Elfman’s score
-inspiration from Tim Burton’s childhood fascination with the Halloween & Christmas holidays |
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-“Carmelo”
-Jorge R. Gutierrez for California Institute of the Arts, 2001
-8:13 minutes
-use of Softimage computer animation to simulate Mexican wooden puppets
-themes & imagery from Mexican Day of the Dead & torero traditions |
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