Begone Dull Care

This film is one of the better works of abstract animation. McLaren succeeds at precisely timing his drawn-on-film animation to Peterson's music. Also, McLaren's mastery of depth in his painting is wonderful.

A masterpiece of hand-drawn & experimental cinema! McLaren & Lambert pulled out all the stops for the wonderful viewing experience that would become BEGONE DULL CARE, a film made directly by hand through painting, etching, drawing, and pattern- rolling onto clear 35 mm film stock. The phantasmagoria of colours, patterns, images and surreal optical trickery of perceived depth of field are blended together PERFECTLY with the rollicking Jazz soundtrack provided by Canadian Jazz-pianist extraordinaire, Oscar Peterson, and his band. Although this style of animation has been attempted many times, by countless others, both before and since, NONE have come close to Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambert's stunning accomplishment: BEGONE DULL CARE!

10/10. A resounding visual triumph.........and just so much fun to watch!

Well, this certainly was different. I doubt most people would like this, but being a fan of abstract art as well as someone who has dabbled in the genre, I thought this was pretty interesting.

It's almost three animated shorts in one, each played to a short piano piece by jazz great Oscar Peterson. The first and third numbers are upbeat and so are the graphics: one colorful image after after nothing bombarded at you as if you were looking through a kaleidoscope.

The middle segment gives us a breather with more just black-and-white and lines moving to the music. It gives the whole animated piece a welcome respite for a couple of minutes.

This is just pure abstract images drawn directly onto the film. This was done long before computers and I can't imagine the number of hours it took Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambert to produce this.

This short was part of the DVD "Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of Canada.

These abstractions are tuned to the piano work of Oscar Peterson. While they really have no intrinsic connection, they jump and jive with the music. The colors are vivid and enticing. One should not be too critical of this work because efforts to classify the art just don't go anywhere. Just experience it and enjoy.

This is a very important Canadian animated short in that many love it for its artistic style as well as all the tedious work that went into making it. Classical music is set to movement of scratches on film. None of the animation is anthropomorphic--instead all shapes and colors and scratches. Because of this, the film looks like something that you'd see in a modern art museum. However, it should also be pointed out that this is a very, very, very difficult film to watch nor is it particularly fun. Watching minute after minute of this is just a chore.

Overall verdict: An interesting experiment that has little, if any, commercial appeal. Not particularly pleasant but I sure can respect the time that went into making it.