In imagination and technique, from the 1960s until the collapse, avant-garde animation in the Soviet
In imagination and technique, from the 1960s until the collapse, avant-garde animation in the Soviet Union was nearly peerless. Produced during this time were Yuri Norstein’s Hedgehog in the Fog, Priit Pärn’s …And Plays Tricks and (many) other fantastic films. Japanese director-animators like Koji Yamamura, Kunio Kato and the rising Ryu Kato–and Europeans like Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier–continue to innovate and astound. Through it all, though, the United States has tended to lag. Despite America’s strong batting average in children’s animation, few of the country’s experimental auteurs have rivaled their foreign counterparts. Certainly, the technical ability is there; but, in actual content, too much of America’s underground animation is smug, self-involved and blandly vulgar–or simply uninspired. For these reasons, Matilda & Joe stands out doubly. Released in January after a successful Kickstarter campaign, this six-minute short dramatizes the survival story of the “tree lobster”–a species of walking stick native to Lord Howe Island, near New Zealand. (Presumed extinct after 1920, the insect was rediscovered on a volcanic spire near Lord Howe in 2001.) However, Matilda & Joe is no exercise in frigid nature reportage: rather it is a gentle, understated and deeply-felt fable. Its animation–handsomely rendered, and peppered with flickering colors akin to Ryan Larkin’s work–is brought to life by calm narration and a soothing score. The proceedings are so sincere, so untroubled by the specter of American irony, that they might affectionately be called square. This is to the credit of Nick Gibney, director and animator of Matilda & Joe. The son of documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Going Clear), Nick Gibney is an emerging figure in American animation–one whose foreign influences show. His first major short, Coyotes in 2012, was a work of uncommon sophistication and (again) sincerity. After Matilda & Joe, these achievements cannot be written off as flukes. Although Gibney is a product of the United States underground–indeed, he has called Ralph Bakshi a favorite–, this newest film, in particular, deviates sharply from that tradition. It reveals a refined sensibility and a taste for beauty, and an animator to watch. On that note, the superb Matilda & Joe may be found embedded after the break. Still Eating Oranges -- source link
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