druid333-2

I just recently caught this mind blowing little short (and I do mean short..only 2 minutes)at a festival of Academy Award nominated short animated films. Despite the short running time, I laughed my a** off, big time. It's basically some kind of (very)surreal cooking show,where a pair of hands whips up a batch of Guacamole,using all kinds of household objects not associated with food. The results are pretty wacky (in a good way,of course). Veteran stop motion animator PES (who also did equal justice to cooking up a bowl of pasta in his earlier short, 'Western Spaghetti')weaves a few trippy moments of silliness (and also pulls down a cameo as the pair of hands) that some will get giggles from,others...probably not so (it depends on the grasp of surrealism). Not rated by the MPAA,but nothing to offend the staunchest of bluenoses

I just recently had the open window of opportunity to see this rather obscure MGM animated short which was obviously produced during World War 2 (references to donating rubber to the war effort are abundant here). A nameless donkey is dismayed to find that his neighbours have donated far more rubber than he,causes him to search out more rubber to donate. He finds an old tyre tube buried in the ground, but when he tries (over and over again)to dig it up,he finds the tube has a mind of it's own,and has a rather sadistic agenda to carry out on the hapless donkey. What follows is seven funny minutes of what MGM seemed to do best,produce a well animated (some brilliant animation,and use of Technicolor)short that must have had them rolling in the aisles,back in the day. Unfortunately,little is known of whom ever worked on this short (no animation supervisor/director,or screen writer listed...'tho Michael Lah,who worked with Tex Avery on some of his funniest work for his MGM era is listed as one of the animators). Don't let this throw you from enjoying a well produced short from an era that turned animation into an art form. Not rated by the MPAA (which,at the time was called The National Board Of Review),but perfect entertainment for the whole family (if you can find any youngsters that would have any relevant interest in the history of animation)

As much as I've always enjoyed the music of Neil Young (starting with his stint in Buffalo Springfield,thru C.S.N.Y & (most)of his solo out put, I found this curious little film a head scratcher. It seems to start out as a documentary about...well...um, Neil Young in various phases of his career. Starting with some blurry video footage of Buffalo Springfield,in a television appearance,thru some sparse footage of Crosby,Stills,Nash & Young (gee...who would have thought?). If this film had pretty much stuck to this premise,it would have made for a satisfactory documentary. The problem is that Neil opted to let his film go totally out of control,careening into some abstract episodes that even most midnight movie fans would have found utterly confusing (no matter how much Marijuana they're behind). Now,don't get me wrong. If you think I'm some typical old fart that can't deal with anything out of the ordinary (I list films such as Eraserhead & El Topo as personal head movie favourites),guess again. Part of the problem of personal vision films is that sometimes the vision is so personal, the only ones that could grasp the message is the artists themselves. I'm not saying 'Journey Through The Past' is unwatchable, it's just that there is a treasure trove of much better stuff out there. It's still worth at least one look (for those who were not born yet & want to get a better idea what the 1960's & 1970's Hippie counter culture was all about). Originally slapped with an R-rating by the MPAA,this film contains much pot smoking & salty language. Pretty tame by today's standards.