Many thanks to Fritzi over at Movies, Silently for suggesting this film when I wanted a wedding-themed silent. I was unfamiliar with Charley Case before viewing this film, and look forward to seeing more. It’s quite funny. Enjoy!
I only recently discovered the works of Segundo de Chomon. He seems a worthy Spanish counterpart to Georges Méliès. This is a presentational, magic style of silent film implementing many invisible cuts, but it is very enjoyable.
This is a selection that is fitting not only in light of Mickey Rooney‘s recent passing, but it also plays into my Poverty Row April theme.
This is purportedly the last of the series of Mickey McGuire shorts (back when Rooney was credited as such) that he starred in while not signed with a major studio. The story is simple escapist fare and fairly humorous. It’s more noteworthy because I had not yet seen one of these shorts. Enjoy!
View the film here.
Yes, this is an advertisement, and a webtoon at that, however, even in advertising there is room for creativity. Also, as I have discussed before with Disney animated shorts there is room for advancement without neglecting the past. Here to introduce Disney’s then-new online check-in for their cruise lines the animators/storytellers use a 1940s approach from Goofy’s string of how-to videos to introduce the new system humorosly. Enjoy!
Whether one is fully aware of it or not, foreign Disney branches and the foreign Disney parks do contribute to the canon. Here is a short Holiday (Christmas) themed greeting featuring Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit (Walt’s first creation), and his girl Ortensia.
It’s interesting for both those aspects: a foreign contribution, and an animated incarnation of an early character outside the video game world.
If there was something I wanted to shout from the rooftops after having seeing Get a Horse! was “Thank God for Disney (as a company) not completely forgetting Mickey Mouse’s roots but also fighting to keep him relevant and update his image.” Of course, I knew that there were new age shorts that started debuting on the Disney Channel last fall. However, I had not yet seen any of them.
I have to say I am pleased at least upon first impression. Yes, it does take time getting accustomed to a more Ren & Stimpy kind of aesthetic for the visuals, but the humor though goofier (for all not jut Goofy) still keeps in line with the characters. Here Goofy misunderstands and gets in Mickey’s way on his date, Mickey doesn’t want to be overly-assertive until he has to. There was a harder edge to Mickey in the beginning than became the norm/stereotype and this is a good balance. It will take more examples for me to be convinced the new direction will consistently work, but with Disney as a company conglomorating more cultural icons and characters it’s good to see them not ignoring their own.
While I feel it’s a bit thematically similar to last year’s Paperman there’s no doubt that The Blue Umbrella is another very strong Disney/Pixar short. It’s especially impressive in its animation technique, which looks nearly photo-realistic at times, and is, of course, visually solid as there is no dialogue.
Enjoy the opening here. The entire film is available on the Monsters University DVD and/or Blu-ray.
In my intermittent posts on the blog lately I have neglected to mention this year’s Oscar-nominated shorts. If you’d like to see the films either ahead of, or just after tomorrow’s Academy Award ceremonies. You can find information on a number of streaming/on demand options here.
This was a film I saw shortly after watching Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine. It’s a funny little short about a man and his chair who don’t understand one another (you’ll see what I mean). Also noteworthy is the score by Ravi Shankar.
After a bit of an unexpected hiatus we are officially back with Short Film Saturday. I return with a a short made by a Twitter compatriot of mine Alex Hunt. It’s a quick glimpse into a moment in a teacher’s life and her ruminating on incidences in her class with a problematic student. With documentaries like Waiting for ‘Superman’ the institutional issues are examined, and even then it can be easy to lose sight of the individual and what they attempt to do. This is a short tale that reflects a moment where doubt creeps in and a teacher wonders whether she did all she can for a student, one that is a “problem child” and it’s quite well done.
The Movie Rat 