Scrumtrulescent Short Animation

[Sven]

Eat glass? That's also not something most humans can do.

I don't say it is right or that I condone killing yourself rather than learning to live with your own shortcomings, but to be so segregated and unable to experience the joys like everyone else is a tough thing and I don't think we can really understand the stress it would have.

I'm sure most kiwis can't fly. Kiwis aren't segregated among each other. Kiwis are further away from flying birds than we are to gorillas. This little anthropomorphized kiwi is an obvious stand-in for a person (what's the point of having a short film that relates only to birds?). To take the metaphor of its species-related isolation to it's exclusion from all bird families, we would have to relate our human experience to a gorilla's.

So let's stop this convoluted metaphoring before it gets too out of control. Although, now that I think of it, I am kind of jealous that gorillas can scratch their feet without bending over... hmmm... maybe I'll make a short film...

Try this: A wheelchair bound guy, or a child born with polio, who wants to walk. If he invented a way to experience the sensation of walking that would likely result in his own death, I think people could understand the impulse.

Sure I understand the impulse, but I'm not going to applaud a short film extolling the virtue of the impulse. Because it's a really idiotic thing to do. The creator doesn't seem aware of its idiocy, nor does he mind considering the dangers of presenting a dream that can only conclude with self-annihilation.

The bottom line is you're taking this animation to be some sort of therapy tool for people who have disabilities or weaknesses. It is a three minute model of perseverance and determination to find a way to overcome all odds, even if it takes your life. You may scoff at the idea, but I think it is finely presented, and it is an impulse I sympathize with.

Nah. Rather, I'm taking the animation for what it is: a story about a bird that kills itself to accomplish the illusion of a dream. It would be inspiring if the kiwi had stomach cancer, but unfortunately, it's just sad and nothing else.

Okay, it's kind of cute too.

[Raiders]

This seems like a personal problem with people giving their lives for a dream, so I'm going to leave it alone. I mean, there isn't another character in the film. His entire life is this dream in the film's three-minute world. It is what consumes him, and the culmination of that dream is the culmination of his life.

You think he's idiotic. OK.

[Derek]

I thought it was implied that the kiwi had stomach cancer...

[Philosophe_rouge]

Kiwi!
Created by Dony Permedi, 2006



Link

Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking. But yes, this is among my favorite animated shorts. There is such wonderful simplicity to the production (it is a master's thesis after all), but the unexpected shift is brought about with amazing resonance for such an unassuming short. The film manages to make the kiwi such a cute, determined character in only about 90 seconds, and this inherent likability makes the sudden shift quite unexpectedly poignant. It is also a film brave enough to see the story through to its bitter conclusion. The moment his scrawny arms sprout out and his closes his eye and sheds a tear, there was a lump in my throat. Maybe I'm a sap, but it's just about perfection in three minutes.

Saw this for the first time this week, I had nearly the same reaction as you. I almost cried at the end. Heartwrenching stuff.

[Watashi]

Bunny > Kiwi

[Sven]

This seems like a personal problem with people giving their lives for a dream, so I'm going to leave it alone. I mean, there isn't another character in the film. His entire life is this dream in the film's three-minute world. It is what consumes him, and the culmination of that dream is the culmination of his life.

You think he's idiotic. OK.

Maybe I think the problem comes in when you're giving your life for the illusion of a dream. The little kiwi doesn't fly. He just pretends to, and then dies. Idiocy.

[Raiders]

Blinkity Blank
Created by Norman McLaren, 1955



Link

More or less a bizarre mating ritual (the excerpt says "a bird and its cage," but I think McLaren is more or less relating to embryonic love as a form of capture), this is a startling animation that, in typical McLaren fashion, is drawn directly on the film. I love the use of black, negative space. McLaren's flashes of animation are crude images at best, but he creates them like fireworks, going off in bright, brilliant streaks and burning into the retina and mind. There's a remarkable amount of action and energy to the animation, and I love how through all the chaos McLaren still finds time to add in a little slapstick mayhem as the bird continually tries to escape, only to be foiled again and again.

[Ivan Drago]

After finishing it for the first time, I'm adding Cycle to my growing list of favorite short animated films.

[D_Davis]

Hey Raiders, have you ever seen Will Vinton's 1974 claymation classic, Closed Mondays? Don't think I've ever heard anyone here mention it. One of my favorites.

This is really good. I love Vinton's work.

[Rowland]

I didn't get The Epic of Gilgamesh at all, it just bored the hell out of me. If I ever watch it again, I'll read a synopsis of the source material beforehand.

Kiwi is a lovely short. The argument in this thread essentially boiling down to it being taken too literally is rather amusing.

[Russ]

I hope it's ok to use this thread as a place to share with others some really great animation shorts found online...and here's a dandy: Zdenkó Gasparovich's 1978 masterpiece, Satiemania, with stunning animation all set the lovely music of Eric Satie. Enjoy.

(probably nsfw, some brief female nudity and violence)

[Mysterious Dude]

My favorite Russian animated film is Glass Harmonica, by Andrei Khrjanovsky. It's very artistic, but not very hard to understand.

Part 1
Part 2

[Raiders]

I don't have a problem with people posting films necessarily, although I was using this thread as something of a place to post my favorites, and if you post one of mine prior to my posting it, that would be of some inconvenience.

[Mysterious Dude]

I don't have a problem with people posting films necessarily, although I was using this thread as something of a place to post my favorites, and if you post one of mine prior to my posting it, that would be of some inconvenience.

Duly noted.

[Russ]

Duly noted.

Makes sense. I hope I haven't already done so.

[Raiders]

Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
Directed by Bob Clampett, 1941



Link

I'll uh, let you decide for yourself about this one*. I think it is brilliantly made and features some interesting angles to militarism during the early stages of WWII, but it sure could offend a great many people.

*does not apply to Spinal

[Spinal]

Yikes. Well, I wouldn't call it scrumtrulescent, but it was certainly something. Ah, the "good ol' days".

[Raiders]

Yikes. Well, I wouldn't call it scrumtrulescent, but it was certainly something. Ah, the "good ol' days".

I have a hard time calling something racist that was endorsed by relatively well known African Americans. I think at the time it was released, it was a product of a culture repressed by society, only coming out through the exaggerated stereotypes that managed to break through the oppression. I also find it fascinating to see how Clampett interpreted what he saw upon visiting many jazz clubs of the time (this film is a product of those excursions). Clampett himself loved jazz and it shows very much through this work. I love the sight of the African American dwarfs in soldiers' uniforms and the way the film incorporates its patriotism unassumingly. It very much equates these characters with Americana and patriotism, and though the mannerisms are strikingly stereotypical and in retrospect somewhat degrading, I think it is actually a unique and interesting perspective to take on not only the classic Disney story but the country as a whole on the verge of war.

[Spinal]

I have a hard time calling something racist that was endorsed by relatively well known African Americans.

They were probably glad to have any sort of representation, even if it was something like this. Interesting historical curiosity, but not something I find particularly watchable.

[Raiders]

I'm not trying to defend using these sort of stereotypical representations, but I still think this is a film that goes well beyond historical curiosity. I find it interesting that even in spite of political correctness, this was placed at #21 all time on the list of 50 greatest cartoons voted on by over 1000 animation professionals in 1994.

[Spinal]

I thought you said we could decide for ourselves.

[Raiders]

I thought you said we could decide for ourselves.

Clearly you didn't read my post thoroughly enough.

:twisted:

[Spinal]

Clearly you didn't read my post thoroughly enough.

:twisted:

Damn. Gotta read the fine print. :sad:

[Duncan]

Well, at least they'll kill the Japs for free. That's nice of them.

I dunno. Pretty well made, but also backwards on almost every level.

[Raiders]

The Lorax
Directed by Hawley Pratt, 1972



Link

Dr. Seuss' environmental warning is brought to the screen in a manner similar to its book origins. It is written, as most Seuss stories, as a long poem. The story here is of the lorax, a creature of the forest who speaks for the trees. Along comes the Once-ler, and upon discovering that the Truffula trees make great thneeds (clothing that can be whatever someone wants it to be), decides to set up shop and cut down every last truffula tree to make his thneeds (he even invents a machine to cut down four at a time). The Once-ler is not evil, simply greedy. He is also at the will of consumer demand, and upon the lorax's departure, the film makes it all too clear that it is not the Once-ler who can change the way of things, but you and "us."

Coming on the heels of the great ecological movement that started in the 60s (pinpointed particularly perhaps to Carson's Silent Spring), this is a film that feels more and more relevant all the time. Deforestation is a tragic event for all the animals who live there. Lumber companies attempt to deflect this fact by claiming to plant trees to replace the ones they cut down, but this ignores the fact that a large amount of the biodiversity has already been destroyed. This is perhaps The Lorax's greatest asset. The story and film make use of the color and the variance of life in the forest to contrast with the ultimate result of the Once-ler's greed. There is a great absence of anything resembling life or beauty in the end. I do not suggest we stop using lumber as I don't know what the alternative is, but that doesn't change that the end result could be a planet devoid of any resources and, even worse, any truffula trees.