Moonbird

Short animation about the adventure of two boys sneaking out in the middle of the night to try and catch the mythic Moonbird and bring it home. The two characters' voices are actually rambles of directors John and Faith Hubley's sons (Mark and "Hampy") that were secretly recorded during an imaginary backyard safari before going to sleep in the darkness of their room. Storyline and visuals may not be above par, but given that the concept was pieced together by chance through the imagination of two little boys definitely makes it worth 10 minutes. Animated by Robert Cannon and Ed Smith, and won an Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons) in 1959.

**½ (out of four)

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.

I viewed a screening of this animation last night at the "OSCARS IN ANIMATION: THE MOVIES" as part of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 75th year celebration of on-going events of films that became standards of performance over those same years. The chatter and banter of two boys in their surrealistic evening hunt to capture a bird was indeed original, creative and lead the viewers back to their own childhood. The animation floated in a very minimalist manner, forcing one to focus on the dialogue between two boys caught up in their simple vocabulary, misspoken words, sibling dueling while pretending to be adult, and pure fun. And I am sure the bird won all of those issues in the closing moments. This short film was well worth the 10minutes of its existence on the screen.

The animated short films of John and Faith Hubley (here credited as Faith Elliott) have an air of improvisation about them. While some, like 'The Hole (1962)' and 'Voyage to Next (1974),' were nonetheless structured around a central theme, the husband-and-wife pair were not averse to simply recording the conversations of their own children and animating whatever flights of fantasy happened to transpire. Of this type of film, 'Windy Day (1968),' in which the Hubleys' daughters make surprisingly profound observations on the nature of love and death, is the most impressive I've seen. 'Moonbird (1959)' won John Hubley the first of his three Oscars (also the first of seven nominations), a victory that signalled the wider acceptance of a more experimental, minimalist style of animated film, as opposed to the vibrant cartoons of Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. With 'Moonbird,' the Hubleys animate the improvised late-night adventure of their two sons, Mark and Ray, in which the pair exchange ideas for capturing a giant "moonbird" in their backyard.

The film has a rough, somewhat scrappy, animation style that isn't necessarily aesthetically attractive, but nonetheless complements the nature of the story – which is that of a hastily-scrawled flight of imagination, a spontaneous improvisation of fantasy. The two main characters appear transparent, as though having been artificially transplanted into their dreamworld. This idea sits at the film's heart. Above all else, 'Moonbird' stands as a tribute to the power of imagination, which is most extraordinarily powerful in one's younger, impressionable years; when Santa Claus was an annual visitor, and one's toys each had a distinct personality. The film does perhaps run a few minutes overlong. The Hubley sons say less of interest than their female siblings a decade later, and, rather than wondering aloud about their emotions and ambitions, instead engage in a charming kind of power-play in which the older son issues orders to his rebellious younger brother. All in all, this is a delightful animated short, and a good introduction to the work of the Hubleys.

A young boy and his baby brother find their bird has escaped and so in the middle of the night, the take their bag of bait into the garden where they hope to lure it back into it's cage. The snag is that the younger sibling is a bit noisy. He speaks loudly. He cries loudly. He walks loudly. He is to stealth what Herod was to childcare. Speaking of that gentleman, I did find the extremely accurate imitation of the baby speech - especially the eye-watering rendition of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" did get under my fingernails to the point where I'd have readily summoned one of his soldiers. The animation, though, is creative using the darkness and shade as well as a ghostly style to represent the two children quite effectively as the colourful, ostrich style (and size), bird arrives on the scene and the bairn has to try to be quiet. Well good luck with that! The last scene is quite funny, but...