Moonbird

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.

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.

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)

I had all I could do to make it through the cacophony of those voices as these two brothers stomp around in the woods. The little one is quite insufferable and before long he is joined by the bigger, older one in this woeful wail. I'm sure that one could say it is cute, and I am not an old crab, but I failed to see the point.