Sundae in New York

This short won the Academy Award for Animated Short and probably deserved to win. It shows an Ed Koch figure taking the viewer on a somewhat bizarre, often funny, tour of New York, peppered with familiar faces all done in clay and to the tune, "New York, New York". Glad to see it still available on World's Greatest Animation (excellent compilation-I recommend it highly). Most recommended.

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.

Just a year before SUNDAE IN NEW YORK won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, another claymation short was nominated (THE GREAT COGNITO). And while I hated THE GREAT COGNITO though respected it artistically, I felt much more satisfied when I watched SUNDAE IN NEW YORK. You see, it isn't that I hate all claymation--just the horribly fast pace and "in your face manner" of the previous film. So what was better about SUNDAE? Well, the speed was slower and more leisurely--encouraging the viewer to take in all the cute backgrounds and characters (such as Alfred E. Newman standing in a group of New Yorkers). The gentleness of this film was pretty infectious and was significantly more interesting that the standard style of animation that dominated in the early 80s (which was usually very cheap--with a very low cel count). The only negative wasn't even related to the animation and that was the sound of the guy singing "New York, New York"--his voice wasn't close enough to Ed Koch's (who he was obviously imitating) and it was also pretty hard on the ears! Still, a nice effort and a film that is a standout in quality.

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.

You know how some awards are won just because the other contestants served as no real challenge? Well, that's how this one made me feel. It is about a wacky looking character taking a tour around New York while "singing" to the song of the same name. This claymation has not aged terribly well considering its length of 4 minutes and not having much to offer besides some celebrity appearances and a cheap laugh that was more of a smirk instead at a point where you won't even remember.

Watch it if you find it only to see how the academy has screwed up on the occasions they have otherwise avoid it. There really isn't much to offer in this round.