AFED #63: Bambi Meets Godzilla (US, 1969); Dir. Marv Newland

Um... the plan tonight was to fit in Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, but then I changed my mind. So instead here's one that, at ninety seconds, will surely be the shortest film of the year.


 The title says everything. No, really; check it out on Youtube and other online sources.

What else can one add? Very little, although it launched Marv Newland on quite a distinguished animation career and became regarded as a classic of sorts in cartoon circles. The irony is that, despite its brevity and crudeness of style, with today's technology nowadays you could put something together in a fraction of the time that looks infinitely more accomplished.

There are basically two gags; the opening and closing credits account for about eighty percent of the running time and it's all over very abruptly. I suppose in an era before micro films it must have seemed quite innovative.

Is it a clever critique of the spectacle-driven 'Cinema of Attractions'? No, it was a guy who'd screwed up the live action short he was making and threw something together at the last minute that was kind of clever.

Whatever.

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