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Pre-World War II Animation

Started by Small Man Big Horse, January 22, 2022, 10:03:52 PM

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Small Man Big Horse

I watched The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) tonight and loved it, but I'm not sure how much mileage there is in a thread about the film alone, so thought I'd expand it in to covering anything made before the second world war.

Achmed's the oldest surviving feature length animated film apparently, a German fairy tale that uses a silhouette animation technique that the director Lotte Reiniger invented and it looks pretty stunning throughout, and is packed with memorable imagery, though for spoiler reasons I've only included a couple of screengrabs.





The story's a fun one too, combining a couple of tales from One Thousand and One Nights where an evil sorcerer with a magic horse tricks the Caliph in to exchanging it for his daughter, only for her brother to end up flying off on the horse and the sorcerer is imprisoned, and that's only the start with it becoming increasingly mad as it goes on, and it's something that I loved a great deal. 8.2/10

So does anyone have any other recommendations of early feature length animation? I've already downloaded The Tale of the Fox (1930) as I saw it praised elsewhere, but otherwise it's an area I no very little about.

Small Man Big Horse

The New Gulliver (1935) - This is a Russian children's film which is reportedly the first film to be mostly stop motion, though there's live action footage at the start and end. Essentially it's a fairly simplistic re-telling of Gulliver's Travels with a pro communism theme, where after a scout leader starts to read the novel teenager Petya (Vladimir Konstantinov, with one of the worst haircuts in cinema history) falls asleep and starts dreaming that he's part of the story, and about 16 minutes in it becomes mostly stop motion animation. It meanders slightly in the middle as Petya has a nice meal while everyone parties around him, but the ending is strong, and though the animation is simplistic the models of the rich and powerful are nicely grotesque, and there's some surprisingly inventive and funny moments throughout. 7.1/10








Rizla

Saw a presentation of this a few years ago with a live improvised soundtrack, it was lovely.

(There was a much-simplified 10 minute version released for US TV in 1954 under the title "The Magic Horse", with a soundtrack by classical guitarist Freddie Phillips, who would later provide the music for Trumpton, Camberwick Green and other Gordon Murray stuff.)

Replies From View

Before World War II isn't even a "new" Gulliver.  I hope they feel quite stupid about that one.

Crenners

Some great looking stuff there, SMBH. I especially like the vibe of Prince Achmed. I'll have a look for that.

Replies From View

They look incredible and I'm looking forward to diving into them myself, as well as reading about them.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Rizla on January 24, 2022, 07:51:51 PMSaw a presentation of this a few years ago with a live improvised soundtrack, it was lovely.

That sounds fantastic, I'd have loved to attend that and would be intrigued as to how it effects a viewing of the film. The version I saw was accompanied by a piece of classical music (though I'm not sure if it was specifically composed to match the film) which I really loved, but could imagine that a different soundtrack could have created a quite different atmosphere.

Quote from: Crenners on January 24, 2022, 08:25:37 PMSome great looking stuff there, SMBH. I especially like the vibe of Prince Achmed. I'll have a look for that.

Quote from: Replies From View on January 24, 2022, 08:34:21 PMThey look incredible and I'm looking forward to diving into them myself, as well as reading about them.

I hope you both enjoy it, I meant to mention in the opening post that it's available for free here https://archive.org/details/the.-adventures.-of.-prince.-achmed.-1926.720p.-blu-ray.x-264-public-hd

Small Man Big Horse

Le Roman De Renard (1930/7) - French stop motion animation that was technically finished in 1930 but didn't get a release (complete with an additional soundtrack in German) until 1937. It's fantastic too, a weird and eccentric tale about Renard the Fox tricking various other animals in to giving him food,
Spoiler alert
or even seducing and the murdering them in the case of one poor chicken, and though the lion king sends animals to arrest Renard, and even tries to do so himself, they fail each time
[close]
. It's beautifully animated and contains some really inventive sequences, and is oddly adult too (including a brief shot of the fox breast feeding it's offspring), and I loved the look of it and the way half the animals are flea bitten and appear to be about twenty years old, and its sense of humour in general is delightful. A real gem of a movie, and it's an enormous shame it was the only feature length movie directors Irene and Wladyslaw Starewicz ever made. 8.5/10

It's up on youtube for free here, complete with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dCvmEY_9fo

And here's a few of my favourite moments:








idunnosomename

An American studio did a Snow White adaption I think. Maybe worth tracking down?

Nah but it is worth looking at early Disney in context with these. Fleischers' rather patchy Gulliver's Travels (1939) too of course

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: idunnosomename on February 16, 2022, 07:09:32 PMAn American studio did a Snow White adaption I think. Maybe worth tracking down?

Nah but it is worth looking at early Disney in context with these. Fleischers' rather patchy Gulliver's Travels (1939) too of course

I watched and enjoyed Snow White last year as I caught up with every Disney film I'd either not seen or hadn't watched since I was young, and did really rate it, Disney's fare is a little mixed in the thirties / forties but I thought Snow White, Dumbo and Melody Time were all great.

And I've obtained Gulliver's Travels and plan to watch it soon, though will go in with suitably lowered expectations.

Fan of the thread and looking forward to watching Achmed and Renard. I watched this ten minute film from 1929 called Kobu Tori (The Stolen Lump) based on an old Japanese folk tale.




QuoteOnce there were two old men with lumps, Tarobei and Jirobei. Tarobei, honest and hardworking, had a lump on his left cheek, while Jirobei, greedy and lazy, had a lump on his right cheek. One day, Tarobei goes to a mountain to collect firewood and gets caught in a sudden storm. While taking shelter in the hollow of a tree, Tarobei falls asleep. When he wakes up, he hears music played on flutes and drums in the moonlight. Tarobei is lured by the music to a festive party of long-nosed goblins. Requested by the great goblin, Tarobei performs a comical dance in front of the goblins. Tarobei is offered a cup of sake by the great goblin and is invited to another moonlight party. To make sure that he comes, the great goblin takes away his "treasure" (lump). Actually happy about this, Tarobei tells Jirobei the following morning about the goblins' party. Jirobei asks Tarobei to allow him to go to the party instead of Tarobei to obtain a reward for his stick dance. On that night, the long-nosed goblins get displeased at the self-centered dance performed by Jirobei. They get angry at Jirobei who was looking for a chance to steal their treasure, the goblin throws the lump taken from Tarobei on the previous night at Jirobei. Now with lumps on both of his cheeks, Jirobei is blown away by the great goblin's fan.
https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/works/view/66988

There's a longer 1958 puppet version here that I haven't got round to.



Gonna watch The Tale of Crab Temple next:




It's a shame that István Kató-Kiszly's Beetle Orpheum from 1932 didn't survive (stupid question: is that a surviving image from the film or promotional image?).


QuoteThe protagonists of this short film are anthropomorphized beetles performing spectacular juggling stunts. The film seeks to exploit to the full the audio possibilities, for example, the beetles play in an ensemble. The style strives for Realism, thus the finely crafted, flat figures cut out of black paper can be seen in continuous motion.

Kató-Kiszly created the complex compositions of the film by moving several layers in front of the painted background, which in their overall effect evoke silhouette animations related to his contemporary, the German Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981). However, unlike the classical technique applied by Reiniger, Kató-Kiszly resolved the background using graphics and not with paper cut-outs, and accordingly, lighting of his compositions is frontal.
https://filmarchiv.hu/en/120/projects/hungarica-research/sound-films/bogarorfeum-1

The landscape looks post-impressionist in that picture, like Cezanne's mountains.

There's a bit about early Hungarian animation in this article: https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/notebook-primer-hungarian-animation-1915-1989 (which mentions that most of Kató-Kiszly's hundreds of animated films were lost during the Siege of Budapest in 1945).

idunnosomename

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on February 16, 2022, 07:21:38 PMAnd I've obtained Gulliver's Travels and plan to watch it soon, though will go in with suitably lowered expectations.
it's not a masterpiece by any stretch. the rotoscoping on Gulliver I think is a bit uncanny and distracting? even though Fleischer invented the technique it's used more seamlessly by Disney on Snow White herself.

The Fleischer Popeyes are just tremendous though. The two-reelers Sindbad [sic] (1936) and the Forty Thieves ('37) especially so, and very funny too

Ignatius_S

Ladislas Starevich, Russian animator, who often used dead insects and animals for his films - such as The Cameraman's Revenge, which lust, infidelity, jealousy - and yes, revenge - on glorious stop-motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__5B3PGoBoI. He also made Le Roman De Renard, as mentioned above.

George Pal, Hungarian-American filmmaker, who made a number of 'Puppetoons' - his five films advertising Horlick's (yes, really) in the 1930s are extraordinary, such South Sea Sweethearts: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-south-sea-sweethearts-1938-online and Love on the Range: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-love-on-the-range-1939-online. Pal also directed a number of live-action films like Tom Thumb and War of the Worlds.

Ignatius_S

Charley Bowers, a pioneer of live action combined with animation,  a lot of his work has lost but some been discovered in France, where he was more popular than his native America. His work was, perhaps a little too bizarre and unsettling for America and there's a certain coldness - in one film, cats grow gradually from a pussy-willow bush, culminating in live cats leaping from it; I saw Pete Lord from Aardman discuss Bowers and he says that, although he has a few ideas how Bowers might have achieved this, he really doesn't know but would love to!

There it is (1928) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdM44FwPxXs
It's a Bird (1930): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z-0SAOcFEI

Small Man Big Horse

Thanks for all of the above, I look forward to checking out all of them.

Quote from: Smeraldina Rima on February 16, 2022, 08:01:40 PMI watched this ten minute film from 1929 called Kobu Tori (The Stolen Lump) based on an old Japanese folk tale.



https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/works/view/66988

Ha, that was great, it's a nicely odd story and beautifully animated.

zomgmouse

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on February 16, 2022, 06:49:34 PMLe Roman De Renard (1930/7) - French stop motion animation that was technically finished in 1930 but didn't get a release (complete with an additional soundtrack in German) until 1937. It's fantastic too, a weird and eccentric tale about Renard the Fox tricking various other animals in to giving him food,
Spoiler alert
or even seducing and the murdering them in the case of one poor chicken, and though the lion king sends animals to arrest Renard, and even tries to do so himself, they fail each time
[close]
. It's beautifully animated and contains some really inventive sequences, and is oddly adult too (including a brief shot of the fox breast feeding it's offspring), and I loved the look of it and the way half the animals are flea bitten and appear to be about twenty years old, and its sense of humour in general is delightful. A real gem of a movie, and it's an enormous shame it was the only feature length movie directors Irene and Wladyslaw Starewicz ever made. 8.5/10

It's up on youtube for free here, complete with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dCvmEY_9fo

Quote from: Ignatius_S on February 16, 2022, 09:50:15 PMLadislas Starevich, Russian animator, who often used dead insects and animals for his films - such as The Cameraman's Revenge, which lust, infidelity, jealousy - and yes, revenge - on glorious stop-motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__5B3PGoBoI. He also made Le Roman De Renard, as mentioned above.

I watched The Tale of the Fox today as well and was very much entertained, particularly impressive stop motion. The siege sequence at the end was a highlight.

Up until this the only Starewicz film I had seen was the short "The Mascot", a mostly silent, often cute yet often creepy short following a toy that gets lost and then found again, including a sojourn with the devil. Also available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbShVaftSQ
Although it looks like this version is a recent upload which is an extended and restored cut which wouldn't have been the one I saw but the quality looks great!

The animal stop motion reminds me heavily of Švankmajer who must certainly have been inspired by Starewicz.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: zomgmouse on February 20, 2022, 11:43:49 PMI watched The Tale of the Fox today as well and was very much entertained, particularly impressive stop motion. The siege sequence at the end was a highlight.

Up until this the only Starewicz film I had seen was the short "The Mascot", a mostly silent, often cute yet often creepy short following a toy that gets lost and then found again, including a sojourn with the devil. Also available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbShVaftSQ
Although it looks like this version is a recent upload which is an extended and restored cut which wouldn't have been the one I saw but the quality looks great!

The animal stop motion reminds me heavily of Švankmajer who must certainly have been inspired by Starewicz.

Glad you enjoyed The Tale Of The Fox, and thanks for the link for The Mascot, I'll check that out soon.

Quote from: idunnosomename on February 16, 2022, 07:09:32 PMFleischers' rather patchy Gulliver's Travels (1939) too of course

Quote from: idunnosomename on February 16, 2022, 08:47:28 PMit's not a masterpiece by any stretch. the rotoscoping on Gulliver I think is a bit uncanny and distracting? even though Fleischer invented the technique it's used more seamlessly by Disney on Snow White herself.

I watched this last night and felt it was patchy too, parts of it felt a bunch of sketches clunkily edited together, and while I didn't mind the animation of Gulliver (possibly as he reminded me of Peter Serafinowicz doing his Terry Wogan impression!) I was surprised that the quality varies elsewhere, it's fine most of the time but I was distracted by how poorly I felt the prince and princess were animated, I've posted three pictures below and think the first two look great, while the third is something they dashed off in their lunch hour and couldn't be arsed giving much detail.







And this is the short review I posted on letterboxd:

Gulliver's Travels (1939) - An early American animation produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave, this takes Swift's famous tale, removes most of the satire and replaces it with slapstick and song. It has its moments and in places I was fond of it, but there's a painful amount of filler (the discovery and tying up of Gulliver goes on for an age, as does a sequence where they make him clothes and give him a haircut) and while there's nothing terribly wrong with it I can't say I found it that engaging. 5.4/10


Brundle-Fly

The Cobweb Hotel (1936). Gen-Xers (ie: me) are always banging on about how creepy 1960s/70s viewing was but you can't hold a candle to the 1920s/30s cinema.


Early Days of Anime Shorts Programme 1917-1946

QuoteTotal running time 101min

This collection of rarely seen anime shorts is an opportunity to look at the way the form evolved over the early, formative days of cinema and features different styles and genres.

The Dull Sword (1917)
Dir Junichi Kouchi

The Story of Tobacco (1926)
Dir Noburo Ofuji

The Lump (1929)
Dir Yasuji Murata

Nonsense Story Vol 1: The Monkey Island (1930)
Dir Kenzo Masaoka

Spring Song (1931)
Dir Noburo Ofuji

Propagate (1935)
Dir Shigeji Ogino

Arichan the Ant (1941)
Dir Mitsuyo Seo

La Surprise de Fuku-Chan (1942)
Dir Kenzo Masaoka

The Spider's Thread (1946)
Dir Noburo Ofuji

The Spider and the Tulip (1946)
Dir Kenzo Masaoka

Contains imagery of blackface.

The earlier films in this programme will have live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne.

The screening on Tuesday 29 March 18:00 will be introduced by Helen McCarthy, founder of Anime UK (later Anime FX).

This is part of an anime season at the BFI in London which also includes Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors. There are screenings of the short films on 29 March and 11 April. It might also just be a handy list of short films. Apparently Lotte Reiniger's silhouettes inspired The Spider's Thread (1946):

QuoteOfuji had shown interest in overseas silhouette animation from his early years such as The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), a masterpiece by Lotte Reiniger. But it was only when WW2 was about to break out that he started to commit to it. Just about that time, Kazugoro Arai and other distinguished silhouette animation artists began to appear in Japan.

[...]

A German silhouette film, The Caliph Stork (released in Japan in 1924), that Ofuji encountered in his early years, and The Adventures of Prince Achmed left a deep impression on Ofuji. Particularly the latter, which was more technically advanced, greatly inspired him as he was about to shift his focus to silhouette films. It is believed that Ofuji created a replica of the Aladdin doll that appeared in The Adventures of Prince Achmed by himself to learn the technique employed in the work.
https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/oofuji2_01.html






A Lotte Reiniger special with a few short fairy tales has been added to the French MUBI: https://mubi.com/specials/reiniger

Small Man Big Horse

Thanks for that, annoyingly I can't make the screening on Tuesday as I don't finish until 6pm, but hopefully the one on April 11th shouldn't be an issue.

Dex Sawash


Have any of these been a factor in causing WW2?

Dayraven

QuoteHave any of these been a factor in causing WW2?
There really were Japanese cartoons which were propaganda for war with the US before it actually began, so just a little, yes.

Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors is a sequel to Momotaro's Sea Eagles, which was a celebration of the attack on Pearl Harbor.