Animation, as awesome as it is, can be weird sometimes. Films of the medium can be so weird that nobody would want to remember them. So, I wanted to make a thread dedicated to these oddities. I should start with sharing one of my discoveries, Rock & Rule, a 1983 Canadian film made by the famous studio, Nelvana. It was quite an adult and dark departure from the family-oriented TV specials the studio made prior to the film's production. Story: mutated animals are the only survivors of WWIII and an old rocker is trying to crack a code that could unlock a doorway to "another dimension" (most likely Hell since he wants to release a demon of some sort). However, he needs a singing voice powerful enough to open such a doorway. He soon finds this voice from a young female singer of a local band, later kidnaps her and her boyfriend and fellow bandmates have to save her. The film had pretty good animation and soundtrack that included Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, and Lou Reed. The film was a massive flop due to there being little to no marketing but it finally got a proper DVD and Blu-Ray release a while ago. Any other ones you'd like to share?
Check out the work of Norman McLaren. Not sure how obscure he is but by now most people in Canada probably do not know who he is. Really though he is a pioneer of animation coming out of post WWII thanks to the National Film Board. They allowed him to push the domains of animation and storytelling through stop motion animation and other approaches. One of his efforts was painting directly on film and creating the audio by painting it on the audio track. Another style among many was pinpoint animation. For a pure experimenter he was also a popular and highly exposed artist in our country. This could only be because his work was so visually interesting on a pure level and when he told a story his work wasn't weak. He had a strong sense of structure. As an example, watch Pas de Deux, or Neighbours. Neighbours is an internationally famous piece if I recall (doing this by memory) These two are my favourites but I have seen many examples over and over. As a kid growing up in Canada you couldn't avoid his work. It blew my little mind with what he was doing and influenced much of my art later in my 30s. His work was distributed for many years in Canada if you are of a certain baby boomer age. You could see his work before some movies, you could see it in school and universities (I did at the age of 8) and you could see it as a buffer between tv shows. The idea of the NFB was brilliant for a budding country and provided a breeding ground for a brilliant artist such as Norman McLaren. You can probably find all his work now on Youtube but here are the two I mentioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WopqmACy5XI
One movie I'd like to see released on DVD/Blu-Ray is Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. The movie was produced by Filmation (the same company responsible for many Saturday Morning Animated series, including Archie, and Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids and also He-Man). It's an unofficial sequel to Disney's Pinocchio and it features some fairly good animation and an interesting story (in this movie, Pinocchio struggles to remain a real boy). The movie features one scene that is as disturbing as the donkey-transformation scene in Pinocchio. The movie was released on both VHS and laserdisc, but as far as I know it hasn't been re-released since then.
Art Clokey's Gumbasia has a pretty intense jazz soundtrack - it usually looks faded/crappy, but this copy has been restored and looks great:
I figured here would be a good place to ask: Have the guys who did the movie "9" done anything else since?
