Oddball Films presents Tunes and Toons: Animated Adventures in Musicland, a night of charming, ridiculous, stunning, and vibrant animation from the 30s through the 80s - all about making beautiful music and all on 16mm film from the archive. From the classic to the crazy with cartoon orchestras, beatniks, hippies, dancing rutabagas, Gumby, Bugs Bunny and more, it's going to be an eye-popping and knee-tapping night. Di$ney's Symposium on Popular Songs (1962) takes you through the first half of the 20th century of popular music through a mixture of cell-animation, stop-motion and paper cutouts, in gorgeous color (try not to lose your head when rutabagas start dancing!). A banjo-strumming Bugs Bunny gets back at an obtrusive opera singer in the Chuck Jones classic Long-Haired Hare (1949). Oscar-winner Ernie Pintoff brings us the hairy tale of Harry, a man willing to suffer (and stink) for his music in The Violinist (1959) with the voice talent of Carl Reiner. One orchestra is full of dogs, pigs, donkeys, and one grumpy conductor in Friz Freleng's The Mad Maestro (1939). Halas and Bachelor studios brings us Hoffnung's Music Academy (1965) featuring the strangest music school you've ever seen with yo yo violins, bicycle-wheel harps and pool playing pianos. Gumby gets into a surreal battle of wits with a shape-shifting piano in the zippy Gumby Concerto (1957). The brilliant Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto gives us a sexual, political and absurd revue of Opera (1973). From Sofia Films in Bulgaria comes Caw! (1982), a quirky tale of birds, music and (dis)harmony. Plus, a beatnik teases a Calypso Singer (1966), Will "California Raisins" Vinton directs the psychedelic claymation rock concert, Mountain Music (1975), the dazzling Blame it on the Samba (1948) and a surprise pre-show! Whether you're a musician, an animation enthusiast, or just in need of a bit of fun, Oddball's got the tune for you.
Opera (Color, 1973)
The brilliant Bruno Bozzetto (Allegro Non Troppo) takes Opera to the most insane, surreal, political, and hilarious place you could ever imagine. Morbid and sexual with rips on fascism, sexism, racism and pollution, this over-the-top survey of opera features some of the most eye-popping imagery in animation history including the Statue of Liberty wearing a gas mask and Hitler with a new-wave hair cut! Safety glasses are recommended to keep your eyeballs in your skull!
Paul Glickman’s animated version of legendary hipster Stan Freberg's parody of Harry Belafonte's top ten hit “Day-O” (The Banana Boat Song). Here a beatnik bongo player berates a Calypso singer for his high decibel delivery. Freeberg was famous for his early rock and roll parodies and went on to win over 20 Clio awards in the field of advertising for his wacky takes on pop culture. Hilariously weird Oddball audience favorite.
Mountain Music (Color, 1975)
A hilarious and simple tale of a persistent interloper – a crow -- who insists on joining a choral group.
Curator’s Biography
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.