Gene Deitch has spent the last two thirds of a century as the angry young man of animation. From his first directorial effort, WINGS FOR ROGER WINDSOCK, through his time at CBS-Terrytoons, through today, he has had great ideas about how cartoons should not be realistic and has struggled with inadequate budgets and people who knew better. He has had to produce a lot of things he hated -- like the awful Tom and Jerry cartoons in the early 1960s, which he skewered brilliantly for their assembly-line story-telling in THE TOM AND JERRY CARTOON KIT through today, he has worked hard to make his point. Very occasionally he succeeds.
Here's one where it almost works: he tells the simple story of the son of a fireworks-maker who loves and admires his father, and chooses the completely appropriate visual style of a small boy. It's an intelligent attempt to force the viewer into a point of view.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough in the story to sustain six minutes and the end result is just okay.
Here's one where it almost works: he tells the simple story of the son of a fireworks-maker who loves and admires his father, and chooses the completely appropriate visual style of a small boy. It's an intelligent attempt to force the viewer into a point of view.
Unfortunately, there isn't enough in the story to sustain six minutes and the end result is just okay.
