Revisiting Childhood Influences
My niece is now two an a half, and, while her parents are working from home, she is finding a host of entertainment to get fixated on - some things run in the family, it would seem. I am regularly updated on what her new 'thing' is, and it's been making me think about when I was that age, and older, and what I latched onto.
I grew up in the 80s, and while there was a lot that was unconventional about my childhood (quite a lot of Victorian literature, for example) I got the same dose of kids' movies that most of my generation did. It was the best of times and worst of times in animation - Disney was slogging through its worst crisis on the way to a renaissance, but Don Bluth's studio was providing stronger competition than had ever existed before, and with the advent of outsourcing there was a lot more animation on TV than previous generations had enjoyed.
80s kids' movies are quite something to look back on: The Secret of NIMH, about artificially enhanced lab rats and the eradication of a family from their home, was probably my favourite; there was also Land Before Time about climate refugees separated from their parents; An American Tail about pogroms and the New York underclass; Oliver and Company, also about the New York underclass, albeit several decades later; and of course that most beloved of live-action children's movies, Amadeus, which starts with the attempted suicide of a classical composer and ends with the death and burial in a mass grave of another classical composer. (No, it's not a kids' movie. But I grew up on it anyway.)
So far, so generational-touchstoney. Somehow, though, I crossed paths with some unusual stuff. My very favourite cartoon when I was my niece's age was David the Gnome, about a family of tiny forest-dwelling humanoids living in harmony with nature, based on a pseudo naturalist's notebook for grown-ups by a Dutch writer and illustrator.
Another anomalous childhood influence was Danger Mouse, a British cartoon about a James Bond-like mouse with an eyepatch and a bumbling sidekick, who lives in a pillarbox in Westminster. This probably gave me a taste for British comedy and surrealism.
Both of these were completely unknown to any of my peers - in fact, it wasn't until animation school that I got corroboration that Danger Mouse even existed - but I had strong enough memories of them to know what I saw and to be able to look it up later. There was one film, though, which I remember remembering more than in itself, about a painter who fell asleep under a magic tree in a magic forest and there was an evil king and the evil king's assistant was going to be executed by a big scary machine. I thought the title was 'Under the Enchanted Oak Tree' but that never turned up anything. Well, thanks to the power of the modern internet, I have found it at last, and it's on YouTube:
The Elm-Chanted Forest
Out of duty to my younger self, and curiosity about my subconscious, I have been watching it again, but can only manage a couple of sequences at a time because it is horrible. Not only is the animation awful, but the storytelling is so scattershot as to be almost nonexistent. It's pretty much an example of How Not To Make An Animated Film, but at the same time it casts light on some off-key pitches I've seen in my day, from seasoned pros I'd expect to know better: they were embarking on their careers when this sort of thing was actually getting produced.
I'm not even halfway through the movie but it feels like it's been about three hours long already. I am determined to watch it to the end, though. Will I make it? What shape will I be in when I get there? Will I unlock some arcane subconscious secrets along the way? We can only suffer along and see.
22:15
I made it. Somehow. There was a scene with blackface mushrooms doing what I can only guess was a 'rap'. I was expecting to be surprised but not by that. Wow. Please don't bother to watch it, that is an hour and a half you will never get back ...
I grew up in the 80s, and while there was a lot that was unconventional about my childhood (quite a lot of Victorian literature, for example) I got the same dose of kids' movies that most of my generation did. It was the best of times and worst of times in animation - Disney was slogging through its worst crisis on the way to a renaissance, but Don Bluth's studio was providing stronger competition than had ever existed before, and with the advent of outsourcing there was a lot more animation on TV than previous generations had enjoyed.
80s kids' movies are quite something to look back on: The Secret of NIMH, about artificially enhanced lab rats and the eradication of a family from their home, was probably my favourite; there was also Land Before Time about climate refugees separated from their parents; An American Tail about pogroms and the New York underclass; Oliver and Company, also about the New York underclass, albeit several decades later; and of course that most beloved of live-action children's movies, Amadeus, which starts with the attempted suicide of a classical composer and ends with the death and burial in a mass grave of another classical composer. (No, it's not a kids' movie. But I grew up on it anyway.)
So far, so generational-touchstoney. Somehow, though, I crossed paths with some unusual stuff. My very favourite cartoon when I was my niece's age was David the Gnome, about a family of tiny forest-dwelling humanoids living in harmony with nature, based on a pseudo naturalist's notebook for grown-ups by a Dutch writer and illustrator.
Another anomalous childhood influence was Danger Mouse, a British cartoon about a James Bond-like mouse with an eyepatch and a bumbling sidekick, who lives in a pillarbox in Westminster. This probably gave me a taste for British comedy and surrealism.
Both of these were completely unknown to any of my peers - in fact, it wasn't until animation school that I got corroboration that Danger Mouse even existed - but I had strong enough memories of them to know what I saw and to be able to look it up later. There was one film, though, which I remember remembering more than in itself, about a painter who fell asleep under a magic tree in a magic forest and there was an evil king and the evil king's assistant was going to be executed by a big scary machine. I thought the title was 'Under the Enchanted Oak Tree' but that never turned up anything. Well, thanks to the power of the modern internet, I have found it at last, and it's on YouTube:
The Elm-Chanted Forest
Out of duty to my younger self, and curiosity about my subconscious, I have been watching it again, but can only manage a couple of sequences at a time because it is horrible. Not only is the animation awful, but the storytelling is so scattershot as to be almost nonexistent. It's pretty much an example of How Not To Make An Animated Film, but at the same time it casts light on some off-key pitches I've seen in my day, from seasoned pros I'd expect to know better: they were embarking on their careers when this sort of thing was actually getting produced.
I'm not even halfway through the movie but it feels like it's been about three hours long already. I am determined to watch it to the end, though. Will I make it? What shape will I be in when I get there? Will I unlock some arcane subconscious secrets along the way? We can only suffer along and see.
22:15
I made it. Somehow. There was a scene with blackface mushrooms doing what I can only guess was a 'rap'. I was expecting to be surprised but not by that. Wow. Please don't bother to watch it, that is an hour and a half you will never get back ...