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University Daily Kansan / Friday, November 8, 1991
Cartoon Invasion
British Animation Invasion delights campus with fantasy and critical views
By M. Olsen
Special to the Kansan
Come on admit it: You still watch cartoons.
What's more, you probably like them a whole lot more now than you did as a child.
But with the increasingly highgloss, low-skill commercials being passed off as Saturday morning fare, it's getting harder and harder to find interesting, imaginative and challenging animation.
Thankfully, since 1984, Expanded Entertainment has been doing all it can to fill the animation gap. Having previously produced the annual Animation Celebration and 'Tourne of Beauty' in 2005, British Animation Invasion, a collection of independently produced British animation films.
The film will be shown at day 7 and
9 p.m., tomorrow at 4, 7 and 3:0 p.m.
and Sunday at 2 p.m. at woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Animation often has been incorrectly pigeon-holed as a medium solely for children. Chuck Jones, director of
many classic "Tom and Jerry" cartoons and several Warner Brothers cartoon shorts, always has maintained that his films were created for adult sensibilities. The same holds true for the films in the British Animation Invasion. This is not to say that they aren't a rolling good time but merely that they aren't overly simplistic. A few of the films deal with serious issues, such as the unintended side effects of nuclear power.
Two films in the collection actually use nuclear power as their subject; David Stone's "Jollity Farm" and Paul Vester's "Pliocic."
All seems normal down at Jollity Farm until the animal's behavior takes a turn for the unusual because the farm is next to a nuclear power plant. The film's crudely drawn cell animation and jaunty, music hall tune are in contrast to the somber fate that has befallen the farm's inhabitants.
In "Picnic," Paul Vester uses still photographs from around the world as the backdrop to his abstracted depiction of a nuclear accident.
Another stand-out film, Ian Andrew's "Dolphins," is an evocative
journey into an undersea world in which beauty is destroyed by greed. Combining vividly animated watercolors with the ambient music of Brian Eno (music guru and one of rock's reigning egheads) and Harold Budd, the film allows us to enter the world of the dolphins and creates a sense of serenity that is not only beautiful but is net "Dolphins" has been used by the environmental group Greenpeace as part of its campaign to protect sea life.
Although many people might recognize Charlie Fletcher Watson's animation style from the station ID he's has created for MTV, his work there isn't nearly as powerful as his entry here, "Bluefields Express."
The film begins by describing the bombing of the Bluefields Express, a passenger boat that was the only link between two villages in Nicaragua. The film's focus slowly shifts, and becomes a startling and incisive comic portrait of the Sandistas, the Contras and the United States government. Played underneath the film's credits are a series of chilling on-the-street interviews with
U. S. citizens that underscore the disinformation fed to most of the public.
This is not to say that the British Animation Invasion is completely dour and depressing. Even the most serious of the films are a joy to watch. The animators take full advantage of the freedom animation allows. They are not confined by the laws of nature and reality as conventional film makers are. The creators delight in defying those laws.
Such films as David Anderson's "Door" plunge the viewer into a separate universe, where logic and convention are discarded. The British Animation Invasion also features a 1990 Academy Award winner, Nick Park's "Creature Comforts."
One of the best things about all of Expanded Entertainment's animated releases is that if one does 't like a certain feature, it's only a short and will be off the screen in a matter of minutes.
But one is usually hard-pressed to find any true duds from such animated collections and this is certainly true of the British Animation Invasion.
Clay animation is featured in the British Animation Invasion.
File photo
Silver-screen snafus
Last year was a good year for finding film flubs, as 14 of the top 20 grosses had boo-booed of some kind. These are some of the mistakes picked out by "Der Flubmeister," Bill Givens.
"The Gritters:" A boom mike dips into a scene where Anjelica Huston and John Cusack are talking in his apartment living room.
"Presumed Innocent." When the vindicated Harrison Ford leaves the courtroom after murder charges are thrown out, a member of the media horde outside thrusts a tape recorder in his face. But there's no tape in the recorder.
"Godfather III:" A newspaper story
announcing the appointment of Pope John Paul I is dated March 27, 1980; the pope was selected on Aug. 28, 1978.
"Home Alone:" Macaucaly Culkin's mom, rushing back from France to rescue him, departs Paris in an American Airlines 767 and arrives in the United States on an American Airlines 757.
"Three Men and a Little Lady." A freshly frosted cake appears in the next scene minus itsicing.
Oprah for all ages
Oprah Winfrey will produce all four of next season's "ABC Afterschool Specials."
Harpo Productions Inc., which produces Winfree's talk show, will make a drama, a doc
umentary and two reality-based shows, ABC said Tuesday. Winfrey will serve as host of the documentary and moderator of the latter two shows.
ABC did not say what Harpo Productions would be paid.
Hill honored by Glamour
Anita Hill, whose allegations of sexual harassment nearly derailed Clarence Thomas' nomination to the U.S.' Supreme
Oprah Winfrey
Court, was among 10 women Glamour Magazine praised Monday as 1991's bright spots. The magazine said it chose women who were "beacons of integrity, humor, guts and grace in an often gracious and cold-blooded world. Hill, a University of Oklahoma law professor, was named for sacrificing her privacy to speak out for women.
Hill attended the magazine's awards ceremony Monday. She told reporters she was happy to have given the world a chance to respond to the issue of sexual harassment. She said she hoped interest in the issue will not end overnight.
The magazine also recognized Rep. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College in Atlanta; Washington
Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon; actress and director Jodie Foster; video producer Callie Khouri; New York Times columnist Anna Quindlien; Texas Gov. Ann Richards; broadcast correspondent Cokie Roberts; and breast cancer video creator Lilly Tarkitoff.
It gave a special commemoration to Army Maj. Marie T. Rossi, an Operation Desert Storm pilot who died when her helicopter struck a darkened microwave tower in bad weather.
The women, chosen by a panel of 29 distinguished women and the editors of the magazine, will be featured in Glamour's December issue.
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