Where economy met style
Early this year, Ebert added three cartoons to his list of great movies. Guess which three he picked?
To be honest, I would have substituted Rabbit of Seville for one of them. I'm not sure which. But let's not pick nits.
Though not in the same league, this Flash update of Duck Amuck is worth at least a chuckle.
posted by Undersecretary to the Deputy Commissariat at 10:52 PM
1 Comments:
These were all excellent cartoons, of course, but they came along fairly late in the game, after the studio cheaped up the place, and I'd have to say the animation of the 40's was superior: much more fluid, anarchic, and rich.
And, to continue the comedy theory theme for no good reason, anarchy is a key ingredient of comedy. I cite several examples:
The moral, comic (and eventually tragic) battle, first of wit then of action, of Falstaff and Harry in Henry IV I is between anarchy and authority.
The end of every Muppets sketch on Sesame Street, where eveyone just starts running around in total chaos (nicely echoed by one of the best "funniest videos", a missed pinata strike that sets off the sprinkler on a roomful of four year olds).
Python: every episode was a relentless attack on all forms of authority, including comedy conventions themselves, the orderly narrative, the "gagginess" of gags.
Bugs was America's leading anarchist for decades. He assaulted class, property, privilege - recall the key detail that his character is by accent and practice uneducated but optimistic, confident, insanely smart and curious. He can, however, be wounded, outsmarted. He lost that edge, interestingly, in the sixties.
Great comedy is anarchy plus whimsy plus tragedy, buried deep or close to the surface.
Even the children running from the fire sprinkler, we laugh because we know their fear is baseless, yet there is still a taste of death escaped.
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