Oddball Films Media
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Jul 22, 2014
Water (1961, color)
Animator Phillip Stapp delivers with this piece commissioned by the United Nations and approved by the World Health Organization. Another Journal Films Inc production, this documentary highlights Stapp’s interesting animation style combining and contrasting live-action footage and photographs with pointillist inspired drawing. These airy images depict the problem of water rights, water shortage, and the needs of our ever-growing world with snappy style. Stapp is well known for his work in animation with films like Boundary Lines (1946) which introduced his ‘evolving scroll’ efforts and work with music and lines. Water is a retro reminder of our problem with life’s juice that has not yet subsided. In a new world with 7 billion people, this film’s relevance is very contemporary to our time.
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Famed animators John and Faith Hubley’s film tells the tale of a wily farmer who matches wits with a runaway “city” on legs. Dramatizing the blight perpetuated by chaotic urban development, this animated film tells the story of an unassuming little farmer, symbolic of non-urban man, who is sitting amidst natural surroundings enjoying the flowers and bees. He is interrupted by the entrance of a personified city which chews into his charming landscape. The urban monster is rampant and uncontrollable but the farmer is intrigued by its mobility and dynamic excitement. With a hoppin’ jazz soundtrack by the great Benny Carter with Maynard Ferguson and Ray Brown.
The Litterbug (1961, color)
This short is a retro-riffic reminder how not to be a pig as we navigate the trappings of our modern world. Go along with D*nald D*ck on this Wa*t D*sney adventure of the campy underworld of a litterbug. This classic environmental short uses charming and rhyming patterns to “uncover” the darker side of the ignorant citizen.
Too Many People (1973, color)
Budding breeders of grade school age demonstrate the chilling effects of the projected population boom. Made in an era when 6th graders weren't reproducing in significant numbers, it's hard to fathom any cogent message in this Malthusian polemic other than "enjoy those hot dogs now".
Pollution (Color, 1969)
Brilliant song-satirist Tom Lehrer touches upon one of the city's largest environmental problems; Pollution. His hilarious song is used over a disturbing montage of archival footage, for one jazzy political statement!