Closed Mondays

The 1974 winner of Best Animated Short depicts a man looking at artwork that appears to come to life. I especially liked the malfunctioning computer. One might interpret Will Vinton's "Closed Mondays" as a look at the relationship between humanity and the art that we produce. There's even the question of how to define art. I wouldn't call this my favorite Will Vinton cartoon, but I enjoyed it. Personally I don't think that enough people get to see the nominated animated shorts. They tend to be far more interesting than the features voiced by the celebrities of the moment.

Anyway, this one is worth seeing. It's too bad that Phil Knight took over Will Vinton's studio and fired Vinton from it.

Let's be blunt. The 1960s and 70s were terrible times for good animation. The excellent artwork of Looney Tunes and MGM were history and Disney was a sleeping giant which wouldn't really come back to life until "The Little Mermaid". In the meantime, third-rate animation studios like Hanna-Barbera churned out crap---cartoons with very low cel-counts (making the characters move like robots) and terrible stories (think "Speed Buggy", "The Harlem Globetrotters" and "Scrappy Do"). As a child and teen during this period, I pretty much watched the old classics in reruns and lost interest in the newer stuff. Thank goodness for the resurgence of animation!! Fortunatley, despite the nadir of the 60s-70s, occasionally a really great cartoon was produced against the odds. In other words, if bad and cheap animation paid, how could you expect anyone to bother with the good? Well, in the case of "Closed Mondays", you do get an exceptional short--even back in 1974.

"Closed Mondays" is an early animation of the Will Vinton Studios--the same folks who wore out their welcome in the 1980s with those annoying dancing raisins. It wasn't that the raisins were badly made--they were GREAT claymation characters. But, they were shown to death--with tons of commercials and even a kids cartoon series!! Talk about overkill....though I can't blame Vinton and the rest, as it did pay handsomely. But, they were capable of far more interesting stuff back in the 70s--such as "Mountain Music" and this short. These were terrifically animated using lumps of various colored clay--and very active imaginations.

The short begins with a wonderfully awful old guy wandering about an art museum. He seems to hate everything--which made me laugh. Even when the artwork comes to life, he seems unimpressed. And, in the end, it all makes a bit more sense. As I said, the quality of the work was very nice, the story was lovely AND it made me happy. Apparently the Academy also was impressed and they awarded the film the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1975. See this one.

A charming parable about thin border between life and art. A drinken man in an art gallery in evening. His discoveries , his experiences and the truths front to it.

A wise and seductive crafted short animation , a simple story about illusions and reality and one of perfect ends.

But the precious gift is the final feeling, a mix of nostalgia and tenderness , flavors of childhood and feeling of be older, both working in interesting manner together.

A parable, many. Useful for fair status of experience profound unique.

The result is a kick to reflection about significant things defining the life.

It's been 25 years since Closed Mondays was released, and at least 20 since I've seen it... so my fond memories of this short are a testament to it's lasting impact. I too lament it's unavailability on video. I just saw the Wallace and Gromit series, and would love to see Closed Mondays again to remember all the little details.

I saw this film on video when I was about seven years old. It was on a tape of various animated shorts, including "Sundae in New York". This was the last film to play, and I have to say I was astounded. Even as a child, I admired the haunting beauty of the animation, and the simple but surreal plot line. I already was a fan of Wil Vinton's work in "Return to Oz", but this film showed a unique creativity that still affects me to this day. I think that it is a crime that it is not available on DVD, and should be offered alongside some of Jan Svankmajer's work. The end (which I will not reveal) still makes me wonder about the nature of the man in the museum.