Sundae in New York

This claymation short reminded me of a silly impersonation I sometimes do of a nebbish, hedging Woody Allen reciting the incongruously hostile lyrics of LImp Bizkit: "I don't really know why, but I just want to justify, you know, maybe ripping someone's head off, I dunno..." I usually leave it at that.

This short is the same joke, with really nothing else on top of it, stretched out for over four minutes. It's very much a product of its time. I'm not sure if the filmmakers were criticizing Ed Koch, honoring him, or just being silly in imitating him (I get the sense it's the first option?), but whatever they were attempting, what they produced certainly doesn't transcend the political moment of 1983.

Have you ever watched an old Johnny Carson or Dave Letterman monologue--or something along those lines--from a late night talk show twenty or thirty years old? And they're riffing on the headlines from that morning, the current water cooler buzz from that very particular moment? Like, they're talking about Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and gout and the Ayatollah Khomeini and you more or less get what the point is but the context is completely missing and you're not sure exactly what the key word in the punchline is?

Well, that's what this is. How this won an Oscar, I have no idea.

Did you ever see Frank Sinatra singing a spontaneous duet with Liza Minnelli when neither of them could quite get onto the other's key as they belted out "New York, New York"? Well a fellow who does look at a lot like 1980s mayor Ed Koch takes on a similarly tonally challenged rendition of that song here as this proficient stop-motion clay work takes us on a whistle stop tour of that city. With it's famous landmarks and equally diverse and vibrant citizenry featured, it squeezes quite a lot in for three and a bit minutes: enjoyably if you are an innocent tourist, but maybe less so if you're a local or a bit less sold on it's somewhat stereotypical and dry depiction of the place. It is a well crafted film, just nothing much to write home about.

A diminutive Mayor Ed Koch finally gets his SUNDAE IN NEW YORK after spending the day extolling the joys of the Big Apple.

Jimmy Picker's short (less than 5 minutes) claymated film is both fast moving & very enjoyable. Look sharp to catch all the amusing cameos. Vocal characterizations are by Scott Record, who sings `New York, New York.'

Winner of the 1983 Oscar for Best Animated Short.

I just watched this Oscar-winning animated short on YouTube. It has a clay-figure resembling then-New York Mayor Ed Koch singing his own version of "Theme from New York, New York" while various celebrities and city landmarks also made of clay are jump-cut during the whole thing that lasts little more than 3 minutes. The person who voices the "Mayor", Scott Record, also does Rodney Dangerfield and Groucho Marx here. Another celebrity I recognized was Alfred E. Newman! And, of course, there's The Chairman of the Board himself, Frank Sinatra, to wink at us at the end. Loved when I first saw this Jimmy Picker short on HBO some 25 years ago and still love it now! Well worth a look for fans of animation and all things Oscar.

Sundae in New York, a great short, using the stop-motion technique, despite being short, it certainly must have been a huge job to produce it, just like Gromit and Wallace who uses Play-Doh to build the films, is memorable available to the producers in 1983 (when they didn't have editing software or super computers) to complete this project.