What's up Gregor?
John Sekerka
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Run Wrake's disturbing dissection of children's books in Rabbit
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Brazil's Desirella and more at this year's Animation Festival
Chuck Jones claims ownership. Many point to Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. Perhaps Tex Avery. But it may have been Bob Clampett. Just who actually came up with cartoon staple Bugs Bunny, everyone's favourite wascally wabbit, is a debate for the ages, one that gets fresh fuel in the excellent Bob Clampett Retrospective. It's just one of the many highlights in the always wide-ranging Ottawa Animation Festival that kicked off on Wednesday, September 20.ONE OF THE MOST RACIALLY TABOO CARTOONS EVER
Working in a pigsty room in the backlot on the early Warners' cartoon set, Clampett created that studio's first big star, Porky Pig - that much is a fact - and along with the stuttering antics of Mel Blanc started an animation revolution to rival the Disney dynasty. Even if he didn't create Bugs (a point of contention for both Jones and Clampett, who despised each other and have laid their claims in print but are no longer around to continue their duel), Clampett introduced a crazed, character-stretching style that is the Looney Toones trademark to this day. The retrospective shows off 10 rarely seen, mostly war-era films, starting with the Marx Brothers-style zaniness of Daffy Doc (1938) and ending with The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946), showing the evolution of Daffy Duck from his jumpy black-and-white beginnings to the colourful saliva-spraying fowl we all know (and love) today.
Yet the clear highlight from the Clampett back catalogue is the hush-hush controversial Coal Black
and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943). This vibrant black musical revamped the tepid Snow White story to unforgettable levels. It may rival Disney's swept-under-the-carpet Song of the South as one of the most infamous racially taboo cartoons ever, but where the former is a sweet-meaning Uncle Tom story, the latter is a smoking hot, raunchy tale full of carnal jazz beats, female curves, lusting gents and sexual innuendo. It literally explodes off the screen, where sadly it has seldom been displayed. Ren and Stimpy creator and local boy made good John Kricfalusi calls it the greatest cartoon ever made. You can ask him about it when Kricfalusi presents the Clampett retrospective, or when he hosts the lost episodes of his infamous cat and mouse escapades. That's the beauty of this festival: Many of the creators are on hand, mingling with the crowds, in what is really a communal spirit. You can meet the filmmakers at the, uh, "Meet the Filmmakers" festivities, or let that budding animation germ inside flourish in one of the many workshops to be had.
The Clampett Restrospective: Friday, September 22, 10 a.m., at the Bytowne Cinema; and Saturday, September 23, 7 p.m., at NAC/Southam Hall.
John Kricfalusi Presents: Ren and Stimpy and Lost John K Cartoons: Saturday, September 23, 9 p.m., Barrymore's Music Hall, 19+.
JESUS LIKES KISS
One of the more anticipated features of the fest, Contemporary Brazilian Animation, may not have the same charge as that country's adventurous cinema and music industries, but there is enough in the grab bag of selections presented to indicate Brazil's animation will have a strong presence in the near future on a worldwide scale. Programming ranges from toddler-friendly fare to a series of inspired beer commercials (starting a wily soccer-crazy turtle and some cheeky crabs) to the computer overgenerated but strangely alluring tale of Desirella (the XPress cover girl). One of the best clips is the hilarious son and father therapy session toon God the Father, where Jesus (in a KISS T-shirt) and the Almighty air out their issues. Among the duds is the silly food-goes-bad story Killer Lasagna - a great idea that drags on too long. Fortunately that misstep is quickly redeemed by the keeper of the bunch.
Terminal is a stark, haunting black-and-white mystery about mortality that borrows heavily from Frank Miller's angular, choppy graphic style in Sin City. It creates an ominous, oppressive, spell-binding world of creeping shadows that seems to ambiguously meander about until the clever ending brings it all into focus.
Contemporary Brazilian Animation: Friday, September 22, 9 p.m., and
Saturday, September 23, 7 p.m. - both at National Gallery/Auditorium.
Though filled with great retrospectives, feature films, showcases, workshops and parties, the heart of the festival comes with the competitions - a mishmash of films ranging from very rough high school projects to inspired drawing sequences to extravagant studio productions, all with one common bond: imagination. Each night you can witness a wide range of films and have the senses reeling for weeks.
Each festival brings along a crowd-pleasing ace, peppered throughout the competitions. This year it's The Brothers Pistov - a couple of misguided, square-jawed mutts speaking in knee-slapping Russian-accented broken English, and partaking in physical slapstick misadventures. Prepare for raucous crowd cheers as Anton and Gregor pop up on screen and engage in witty banter like, "Anton, sound of rubber toy is driving me to crazy." Trust me, you'll be howling.
A QUICK RUNDOWN ON THE NEXT FOUR DAYS
The editor poo-pooed a rundown of the four days of screenings (something about space limitations), so here are a few highlights. Rabbit is a rather discomforting tale set to a trippy soundtrack, presented in a warm retro children's book format, where words appear next to the pretty colourful pictures to help the little ones read. First there's rabbit, then there's knife, and uh, well, the tykes best avert their eyes.
Best known for her bears and toilet paper commercials, Joanna Quinn takes it up a raunchy notch in a saucy look at a very British wedding careening out of control. An ill-fitting dress, too much drink and a nosy pooch spells trouble, and it's all captured with home video-style angles, featuring beautifully flowing coloured pencil sketches that accentuate every gob-smacking detail.
A segment in Never Like the First Time looks like an Ikea commercial come to life, but it is but one of a series of poignant, blunt vignettes set to interviews about, you know, the first time. Some sad, some funny, some horrific - but always engrossing, and all presented in a radically different visual style, proving that, yes, animation does work in the documentary format, even when subtitles are involved.
One sure to bring gasps and guffaws is Luis Nieto's Carlitopolis; and ingenious live action take on a science project presentation involving a mouse and a nerdy but game student interested in the torture of his hapless subject. Oh those French!
Perhaps the oddest film in the festival comes with the breezy Topor et moi, the story of the legendary softcore star of Emmanuel, directed by Sylvia Krystel herself. Her portrayal of a struggling actress trying to shed her ingrained typecasting and eventual development into a respected painter is surprisingly touching.
Okay, maybe not the oddest. How about a Japanese team taking on Russians in Perestroika : Mushy Room. Three starving roommates wind up devouring mushrooms that have sprouted from socks.
As for penmanship, the striking woodcut feel of the ink sketches in Tragic Story With a Happy Ending is truly magical. The marriage of art and story working so well together as it does here is a rare occurrence - it's a moment when animation towers above all other mediums and it really is the reason to celebrate the art form. Which is what this festival, the largest in North America, is all about.
For a full schedule, visit www.ottawa.awn.com for more information, or call (613) 232-8769. Ticket prices vary.
| Bob Clampett Retrospective Was Wonderful! |
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Even though there were no passes up for XPress auction this year, I made sure to get out to at least one event for the 2006 festival -- the Bob Clampett retrospective. I also bought one of those $ 12 programmes with all the great notes & stills in it to show my support. The essay on Bob Clampett was very enlightening. I don't think I would have otherwise noticed that Clampett's versions of Bugs Bunny & Tweety Bird could me more provocative & deliberately malicious than the more "acting in self defence" style of Chuck Jones & others who came after Clampett after Clampett left Warner Brothers in 1946.
Also a big thanks to Marc Langer, the honourary president of the 2006 Ottawa Animation Festival, for his personal anecdote he shared about meeting Bob Clampett in person while he organized a Bob Clampett retrospective down in New York back in the 1970s. (This was at the Bytowne showing on Friday at 10 AM, for which I took a half-day of vacation leave to attend. I trust Mr. Langer told the same amusing story for the alternative presentation on Saturday night at NAC's Southam Hall.)
So even though I only managed to attend one event, I very much enjoyed it. Congratulations to the organizers, & thanks big time to all the sponsors & volunteers! This is truly a festival of which to be proud in this city! I'm glad it became so popular that it is now an annual event.
And you never know which animator, whose work you'll see at one of these festivals, may go on to "make it big time"! I went to the first Vancouver animation festival back in 1984, & one of my favourite films in that was a darkly humourous black & white film called "Vincent", about Vincent Malloy, a 7-year old boy who wants to become Vincent Price (& Vincent Price narrates it).
The animator was Tim Burton. And I was thrilled to find that "Vincent" was included on my special collector's edition of "The Nightmare Before Christmas"!
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Brad Thomas
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{15 votes}
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| Film Review 101/Behold, the 6th Annual International Animation Festival! |
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All I really needed to hear were the words 'animation' and 'festival', after that I pretty much zoned out in utter bliss. How many lousy film festivals have I sat through this year? How many animated works have I had the pleasure of taking in this year? The answer to those questions are too many and too few, that's how many. If you've got a weakness for animation domestic or foreign, crisp or fuzzy, long or short, it doesn't matter because odds are that you'll find something you'll like. I say this from personal experience. I've been to so many animation filmfests over the years I've lost count. I doubt I'll be able to make this one but if you're smart you won't miss it. Look at the line-up and tell me you aren't even the teensiest bit tempted...
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Pedro Eggers
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{3 votes}
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| Promising Animation Fest ! |
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The Animation Fest seems to have this year, and one more time, a nice range of short films, and even though I'm not really a profound animation films lover, I would definitely like to see Contemporary Brazilian Animation which sounds quite promising. When I read that Brazilian animation will have a strong presence in the near future on a worldwide scale, I think also that the least I can do is paid them respect, by going to see their work!
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Valerie Augier
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{8 votes}
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