Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Apple - George Dunning & Richard Williams (1963)

This British short film was produced in London and has the distinction of being animator, Richard Williams' [The Little Island, (1958) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)] second project. Williams is an interesting figure. His work is inspired and inspiring, but, like Charles James, the famous couturier, he's found it difficult to complete and let go of projects, most notably his masterpiece, The Thief and the Cobbler, which was seized from his control by the completion bond company two years after it was funded and 24 years after it was begun.

This short is rare and hard to find. It can be seen only online as far as I've been able to surmise. Above is the entire film, uploaded to YouTube by TheThiefArchive.

Obscurity factor: 9 (not on DVD, difficult to find, on YouTube)

8 comments:

  1. I had completely forgotten about this until half way through and then I remembered it. I saw itin a film class while a college, and the leturer spoke about comic timing and that this was an example of testing an audience's patience level , not in an exasperated way but in a "wait for it, wait for it" sort of way. ASIDE: your posts are getting further and further a apart. I hope this is only temporary or have you saved everything from Obscuirty already?

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  2. It is only temporary. I'm just really busy right now. I hope to have a new post up tomorrow. Thanks for everyone's patience!

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  3. whew! hang in there and I like the rest of your fans will be patinet. cheers.

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  4. That was cute. I remember this style of minimalist animation (popular in my early childhood) fondly.

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  5. Hey! That was pretty cool! I've been trying to find a similar short (don't know the name), possibly by this same illustrator.

    There's a guy living in a house, and every day a parade goes by and leaves a small pile of garbage in the street, which he has to clean up. He complains and complains, and at the end they move the parade to a street on a hill behind his house, and an enormous pile of refuse falls directly onto his house.

    Like this film, there's no actual dialogue, but there's a little ditty spoken to music as the parade goes by each time: "See King! Millionaire! General du Corps de Aire! Army! Navy! Department Sanitaire!" (cue garbage falling on the street)... then the guy comes out of his house with a push broom to clean up the mess, and you hear "Feeeeelthy! Deeeesgussssting!"

    If you ever find this, please post it! I've searched and searched and can't seem to locate it.

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  6. Whoooops. Nevermind. I just found it, and I had forgotten most of it. There was loads of dialogue, and a narrator too! Well, I was only five when I saw it, and that was forty years ago.... 8-) It's still a cool short, though - it's on YouTube, called "La Petite Parade Cartoon".

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  7. Cute short. Thanks for sharing it with us!

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