from Siqi Song's "Sister"
2019 Nominee
Now, I don't watch the show and have only a passing interest in the winners. The only portion that I am interested in is the Animation Awards for Shorts and Features. Of this year's nomination, I have seen three of the shorts and four of the features. And tonight (17 Jan), I saw a likely candidate for the award next year, Makoto Shinkai's "Weathering With You."
So, this week, being the week the nominations came out, I thought it appropriate to view those films that did not reach the podium. So, let's begin with a list of the films that fit the category already seen.
It's a long list...
Films Seen:
A Wild Hare (1940)
Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941)
Superman (1941)
Swooner Crooner (1944)
Mouse Wreckers (1948)
Jerry's Cousin (1950)
Lambert, the Sheepish Lion (1951)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1953)
One Droopy Knight (1957)
Paul Bunyan (1958)
The Pink Blueprint (1966)
What on Earth! (1967)
The Selfish Giant (1971)
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too (1974)
The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin (1981)
The Snowman (1982)
The Big Snit (1985)
Your Face (1987)
The Cat Came Back (1988)
A Grand Day Out (1990)
Blackfly (1991)
The Chicken From Outer Space (1995)
Mike's New Car (2002)
9 (2005)
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005)
One Man Band (2005)
Lifted (2006)
Oktapodi (2008)
Presto (2008)
This Way Up (2008)
The Lady and the Reaper (2009)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (2009)
Let's Pollute (2010)
La Luna (2011)
Adam and Dog (2012)
Fresh Guacamole (2012)
Head over Heels (2012)
Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" (2012)
Feral (2013)
Get a Horse! (2013)
Blind Vaysha (2016)
Borrowed Time (2016)
Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016)
Pearl (2016)
Animal Behaviour (2018)
Late Afternoon (2018)
One Small Step (2018)
Weekends (2018)
Hair Love (2019)
Have I mentioned lately that I am a huge fan of Animation?
I will begin with an admission of guilt. I managed to see two other of this year's nominees (other than "Hair Love"). As they are currently nominees and not winners, I bent the rules a bit. They are "Sister", which may just win the award, and "Kitbull", a Pixar Sparkshort. All three nominees are excellent and still available online. I encourage you to see all three!!
For the most part, I aimed for films made from the 1930s to the 1950s.
George Pal
Many see Mr. Pal as the director of such films as "The Time Machine" and "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao." But he was also the creator of Puppetoons!! Each year, from 1941 to 1947, one of his Pupptoons was nominated. None of them won. The ones I was able to find and view were:
Tulips Shall Grow (1942)
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) Dr. Seuss!
And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1944) Dr. Seuss!
Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945)
His best know work, Tubby the Tuba (1947) was nowhere to be found.
Stephen Bosustow
Here's a name that few know, including your's truly. However, if you mention his most famous creation, Mr. Magoo, everyone knows who that is. He had nominations in almost every year from 1948 to 1957, landing on the podium thrice (1950, 1954 and 1956, where there were three films nominated, all by him). I managed to view six of his nominated films.
Rooty Toot Toot (1951)
Madeline (1952) Yes! That Madeline!
Pink and Blue Blues (1952) with Mr. Magoo
Christopher Crumpet (1953)
The Jay Walker (1956)
Gerald McBoing Boing on Planet Moo (1956)
Trees and Jamaica Daddy (1957)
Of these, The Jay Walker is one of the funniest ones out there. It's all about a man who becomes obsessed with jaywalking and the thrills he gets from it.
Max Fleischer
One of the early animators, Mr. Fleischer started out in Silents with Koko the Clown. He later brought to life the lovely, and often controversial, Betty Boop. Although he never won an Oscar, he did bring Superman to the cinema, making a number of his adventures during the 1940s. These are available online and on DVD. Viewed were:
Educated Fish (1937)
Hunky and Spunky (1938)
Walter Lantz
Mr. Lantz was part of the MGM stable of cartoonist, with people like Fred Quimby, who had such great success with Tom and Jerry. Walter was no slouch in this department. He creations included Andy Panda and, of course, Woody Woodpecker. Sadly, he usually lost to either Walt Disney or Fred Quimby (who won 7 times). Viewed were:
The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company C (1941) based on the song by The Andrews Sisters
The Dizzy Acrobat (1943) with Woody Woodpecker
Musical Moments with Chopin (1946) with Woody and Andy Panda, proving that Warner Brothers was not the only studio to make children listen to classic music.
There was a good deal of World War II themed animations that was viewed. George Pal's "Tulips Shall Grow" is about the invasion of Holland. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" takes place in a boot camp. Also viewed were:
Peace on Earth (1939) by Hugh Harman of Harman-Ising fame.
How War Came (1941) a cartoon aimed to explain war to children
Blitz Wolf (1942) from Tex Avery, who was working at MGM at the time.
Rounding out the week was a visit to Will Vinton, whose Claymation was dominant in the 1980s, with four nominations and one win. Viewed were:
The Creation (1981)
The Great Cognito (1982)
And others viewed were:
Imagination (1943)
History of the World in Three Minutes Flat (1980)
Second Class Mail (1985) from the UK
Gopher Broke (2004)
We Can't Live without Cosmos (2014) from Russia
Number Viewed: 28
Total Viewed : 57
443 to go!
Thanks to YouTube, Daily Motion, Internet Archive, and Vimeo, who are carrying many of these films. And thanks to Wikipedia for some of the stats and a list of winners and nominees.
Next Week: I celebrate German Unification (18 Jan 1871) and try to find German short films.
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