A Year in Shorts Day 4: Gerald McBoing-Boing

Although he was never nominated himself, Dr. Seuss has a fairly long and interesting history with the Academy Awards. It all started in 1943, when George Pal turned Seuss's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street into one of his trademark, vaguely unsettling "Puppetoons." Pal was nominated for an Oscar, and would follow it up with another nomination the following year with The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.



(via imdb)


In the years that followed, several Seuss productions would be recognized by the Academy, from the award-winning post-war documentary Design for Death, to delightful pile of absurdity that is The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. They even gave an Oscar to Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, proving that no Academy Award is less indicative of a movie’s actual quality than the award for Makeup.


Never forget.

(via imdb)

Still, arguably his greatest success, both with the Academy and in the world of cinema in general, came with today's short, the 1950 film Gerald McBoing-Boing.



Directed by Robert Cannon and based on a children's record by Dr. Seuss, Gerald McBoing-Boing tells the story of a boy (named Gerald) who can only speak in sound effects. What follows is a cute, Rudolph type story told in pleasant Seussian rhymes. But the story isn't what makes Gerald McBoing-Boing, it's the visuals.

Despite its connection to one of the world's most beloved illustrators, Gerald McBoing-Boing doesn't try to match Seuss' art style. Instead, it adopts a pleasing minimalist aesthetic, filled with exaggerated characters and simplistic backgrounds. The colors are simple but evocative, and the creative use of perspective leads to some truly spectacular shots. The animation isn't terribly complex, but it's memorable, and its influence can be seen in cartoons such as Rocky and Bullwinkle or UPA's own Mister Magoo.

Gerald McBoing-Boing was a deliberate deviation from the style of Warner Brothers and Disney, whose art trended more towards realism, and it was a highly successful one at that. Also helping matters was the use of limited animation- instead of redrawing every frame from scratch, animators would reuse parts of frames to animate the scenes. This not only set it apart from their competitors, but it proved to be most cost effective.

While UPA might not be a household name like Warner Brothers and Disney, they still had a long and respectable career in the animation field, garnering another ten Oscar nominations, including one for another short featuring Gerald. Gerald McBoing-Boing was their first Oscar win, and in 1994 it would be voted as the ninth greatest cartoon of all time in a poll of one thousand animation professionals. The following year, the short would be officially preserved by the Library of Congress.

Not too shabby for a kid who doesn't speak words, but says boing boing instead.


Keep up with the Oscar baiting goodness by visiting our arbitrarily ranked list here on Letterboxd!


Disclaimer: This blog is a not-for-profit work of criticism. All images and videos herein are property of their respective owners and are protected under Fair Use.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Song of the Week #15: "Take My Breath Away"

Image
I’ll put myself on a consistent schedule for these things one day, I promise. In my defense, there are a lot of movies to catch up on, and isn’t that what Oscar Baiting is all about? For instance- until recently, I’d never seen the original Top Gun! But with Top Gun: Maverick holding its spot as the biggest hit of the year (probably only to be dethroned by Black Panther or Avatar ) and even potentially soaring into the obligatory crowd pleaser Best Picture slot, I figured it was time to see where things began. Because while the Oscars Top Gun: Maverick may win have yet to be decided, the first Top Gun only went home with one- for the love theme, “Take My Breath Away.” (via Wikipedia) Love themes for films have gone a bit out of style these days, although for a long time it seemed to be a surefire way to nab a Best Song nomination. Seriously, look through the Wikipedia article and count how many times you see "Title Seemingly Chosen at Random (Love Theme from Movie You Didn...
Read more

Song of the Week #6: "The Ballad of High Noon"

Image
I was finally able to catch Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast this weekend, and I have to say it certainly lived up to the hype. There’s a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, the exquisite performances from both the seasoned veterans and newcomers in the cast, to a script that’s brimming with heart and humor. But one aspect of the film I don’t see a lot of people mention is the way it incorporates footage from other films- most notably Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, using not only a scene from the movie itself but scoring two pivotal scenes with the film’s theme song, the aptly-named (and Oscar-winning) “The Ballad of High Noon.” It was a bold choice to be sure, but who could blame Branagh? It’s a great movie, and a great song- and the subject for today’s installment in Song of the Week. (via Wikipedia) For those of you haven't seen High Noon... well, you really should get on that, it's a classic! Aside from being a taut, tightly edited thril...
Read more

Song of the Week #14- "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"

Image
I was watching Belfast with my friend last week, and- like all great films- it raised a lot of questions. Questions like, “Hey, remember the last time I watched Belfast and was inspired to write a blog post because of it ?” and “Hey, why haven’t I written anything Oscar Bait related in a while?” Well, luckily for all of us “The Ballad of High Noon” wasn’t the only Oscar-nominated song featured in Belfast. Unluckily for us, that other song just happens to be “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” (via Wikipedia) Readers of this blog will hopefully remember that I love a good movie musical. Sadly, those were few and far between in the 1960s. Oh sure, movie musicals certainly had a brief resurgence in those days. Many of them were big hits, both critically and commercially. Hell, Best Picture went to a musical on four separate occasions in that decade! But how many of them were actually any good? Not a lot. Oh sure, The Music Man is great fun and Mary Poppins is a classic. But far too many mu...
Read more