Oddball Films presents The Toys are Alive!, an imaginative, inspiring, and slightly creepy program of 16mm short films and animation full of antique playthings come to life. From the miniature circus of Alexander Calder to stop-motion animation and bizarre educational films, rediscover your early obsession with sentient toys. Marvel at the childlike wonder instilled in legendary artist Alexander Calder as he plays with his miniature kinetic sculptures in Calder’s Circus (1963). Grant Munro's anti-war short Toys (1966) brings to life your GI Joes, but as it turns out, that's not a good thing. Everyone's favorite little green buddy, Gumby gets into shenanigans with toy trucks in the original 1957 short Toy Fun. Fall in love with Ivo Caprino's enchanting stop-motion interpretation of Hans Christian Anderson's Steadfast Tin Soldier (1955) in gorgeous Technicolor. The whole attic comes alive with discarded dolls and tchotchkes having a grand old time in the Friz Freleng cartoon The Miller's Daughter (1934). Watch out for that creepy clown puppet, because he might turn you invisible to answer the question Parents: Who Needs Them? (1973), a bizarro mental hygiene primer with terrible dubbing. Plus, two of Lajos Szabo's hilarious Lego Sports Shorts; Figure Skating (1986) featuring a rowdy ensemble of dancing penguins and the skiing bear of Downhill Skiing (1986) and a smattering of snippets and secret surprises all highlighting re-animated antique toys, dolls and playthings.
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Highlights Include:
Before his rise to fame as the artist to popularize the mobile, kinetic sculptor Alexander Calder created and travelled with a miniature moving circus out of wire, wood and cloth. In 1963, filmmaker Carlos Vilardebo filmed the icon performing his circus. As Calder exhibits the piece, we watch as Calder blurs the line between presentation and play. This remarkable circus comes to life, sometimes on it’s own, sometimes in conjunction with other elements and always in an astonishing manner.
Everybody’s favorite little green shape shifter, Gumby and his B.F.F. Pokey head into the toy box in this rare original short by Claymation Master, Art Clokey.
Grant Munro, frequent Norman McLaren collaborator, directed this clever anti-war toy short using the stop-motion technique. It all starts innocently enough with kids coveting the toys in a store window with a groovy soundtrack. But then the war toys come to life and the ensuing violence is quite less than playful.
A hilarious new find from Hungary and part of a series of olympic sports acted out by Legos. The couple on the ice are at the top of their game as they disintegrate into separate blocks, rebuild in different costumes, let out a swarm of penguins and skate out legos hearts, but is it enough showmanship to win the gold?
Downhill Skiing (Color, 1986, Lajos Szabo)
Another Lego sports short! It's time for the downhill skiing competition and one bear is determined to make the grade. Both shorts are in beautiful color and win the gold in comedy!
It’s really very simple: the ball wants to play! As he bounces around a quiet English village, he tries to coax the toys he encounters to come out and have some fun. All prove to be completely uninterested, even a frisky pup! Is there any relief for this frustrated orange sphere?
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.