User Reviews

When you think of stop-motion animation, you probably think of Ray Harryhausen, with his dinosaurs and skeletons; or his mentor, Willis H. O'Brien who animated the dinosaurs in the silent version of THE LOST WORLD and the ape in KING KONG. Or perhaps you think of Henry Selick, whose recent version of CORALINE was so good, or Will Vinton's raisins singing "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" But there was also George Pal, a Hungarian émigré who started out in Britain, went to work for Paramount and later directed and produced such fantasy works as THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO. His stop animation work was infused with a much more cartoony sensibility than his contemporary, O'Brien. If anything, it suggests Bob Clampett's later work at Warner Brothers. And here, in this motion picture short meant to advertise Phillips radios, he gives full rein to his sensibilities. As we see orchestras, bands and singers animated from Britain to the far steppes of Russia, we get a very silly view of how music is produced. Very amusing and fascinating work.