Moonbird

The first time I saw this movie, it had me cracking up. I have a two year old so I could really identify with the baby in the movie. Everything about the baby reminded me of my son; the way he talked, his mannerisms, and when he cried to dig the hole.. HAH. I couldn't stop laughing. This movie is absolutely adorable and I would recommend it for all ages, especially children or people with children or grandchildren. I have never seen a cartoon so cute, and endearing. I honestly can say I've never watched a better one. The animation is a little different, but I think the artists did that on purpose to put the viewer in a more childlike mindset.

The older brother in this video reminded me a lot of the kids I used to babysit where the older sister would always boss the little brother around, but in a nice way. It was cute that the older brother was helping his brother and was very tolerant and patient with him. Definitely a must see movie. I found it on a DVD my son got for his birthday, on a Pop Eye DVD w/ various other old cartoons on it. They're sold at Walmart for 1 buck! Who can beat that? It's better than watching the same thing over and over and over.. lol.

This cartoon deservedly won an Oscar for Animated Short in 1959. It came about in an intriguing way-John and Faith Hubley taped their two sons at play and structured the animation around the conversation between the two. Fascinating though this is (and the animation is excellent), toward the lattr part of the short, the dialogue starte to become tedious and distracting, at least to me. This technique would be used again to quite good effect in later shorts. Still an excellent short and most recommended.

Moonbird (1959), The Hole (1962), & A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature (1966), the married director duo John and Faith Hubley's three Academy Award Best Animated Short winners, are very similar in intention and execution.

They are all unscripted- a conversation between their two children, an improvised conversation, and two already established songs, respectively. In this sense, the animation was an afterthought; secondary and (at least initially) separate from the source. The animation style is simple; childlike and rudimentary looking, flat and two dimensional. By no means is this type of animation inferior to more technologically advanced three dimensional styles; when used effectively, it can be as good or even better. Last but not least, music plays an important role in each short.

The first two shorts make it painfully evident that this is not the most advisable or easiest modus operandi to find source material for an animated short. The third shows us that it is possible, however, to make it work when done correctly!

"Moonbird", as mentioned, is a conversation between two young boys. The directors secretly recorded their sons, Mark and Ray, as they told each other stories before bedtime, as many young children are likely to do. This particular occasion was about something they called a "Moonbird", that was supposedly following them around, and their attempts to capture or otherwise trap it. The brothers imagine crawling out their window into the night on this very important quest. For whatever reason, this is the conversation their parents decided would work as the base for their short animation film. What a sweet way to honor and memorialize their sons' childhood years! Unfortunately, like a stream of consciousness, the nonlinear thoughts and things said that likely made sense only to the speaker resulted in a confusing, uninteresting narrative. One can hardly be surprised, as the animation was made to order- it was created to match their sons' story and not the other way around!

"The Hole" features Dizzy Gillespie and George Mathews as two construction workers at work in the bottom of a hole on a construction site discussing nuclear war. That is the premise, anyhow. Turns out to be uncompelling nonsense regarding the possibility for nuclear war and the surrounding anxieties and fears. The voice over does not really match or flow smoothly with the animation.

This husband and wife team's final Academy Awards winner was, by far, the most successful of the three. It is no coincidence that it is also the shortest by far, at only a few seconds over the 5 minutes mark- and actually a "double feature", telling two separate stories! Essentially a narrative music video, using songs from the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album "Going Places", it features two catchy and mellifluous numbers: "Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi". Maybe in order to keep up the pace with the festive brass band numbers, this short was funny, quick, and avoided all the pitfalls in "Moonbird" and "The Hole"- namely an arbitrary plot, insipid dialogue, and unnecessary length.

All in all, this talented duo won three Academy Awards for their shorts that may not have been deserved every time, but there is little doubt that the Hubleys were innovative pioneers in animation.

Two little boys go for a secret nighttime adventure and have an encounter with a MOONBIRD.

This absolutely charming little film is based on the (apparently) unscripted dialogue between two young brothers, Mark & Hampy Hubley. Created & designed by their parents, John & Faith Hubley, the effervescent quality of the conversation is matched by the limited-animation format which takes the simple story into flights of fancy.

Winner of the 1959 Oscar for Best Animated Short.

While the style of this cartoon was unique (enough to help it get the Oscar for Best Animated Short), this cartoon signaled to me the death of animation. It wasn't until the 1980s that a resurrected respect for decent animation occurred and fortunately today animation is once again respectable. In the interim, studios like Hannah-Barbera, Trans-Lux and Lou Scheimer reveled in horridly low frame-rates, cheap repetitive backgrounds and simplistic animation. Heck, to call some of this animation is a joke--it was more like a fast slide show since the frame rates of 24 fps were reduced in half or worse! While I can't blame MOONBIRD completely (after all, Columbia studios, Creston Studios and others produced cheap animation well before MOONBIRD), it is shocking when you compare the ultra-simple Eric Carle-style cartoon here with gorgeous MGM or Looney Toons cartoons in their heyday.

However, MOONBIRD manages to do something these other hack studios didn't. In this film they basically let two toddlers prattle non-stop and they animated it. The problem is that 2 and 3 year-olds aren't that interesting--at least not for 10 minutes straight!! Watching this film is like being locked in a room with an obnoxious small child who has always been told by his parents that he/she is the next Judy Garland or Marlon Brando. To me, this was about as welcome as a year-long migraine. Do yourself a favor and don't watch this film.