KLIK! and Cartoon Modern
This year’s KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival 2013 was guest curated by Amid Amidi, so it’s no surprise that the theme was Fabulous Fifties and the animation style of Cartoon Modern.
KLIK! was back for it’s sixth year in its new home of EYE, Amsterdam’s Film Institution, and by the sounds of it, it was one of the best. A jam-packed program doesn’t even come close to explaining how stacked full of talks, screenings and treats the festival was. Highlights included talks from Amid Amidi himself, director Paul Rudish (on the new Mickey Mouse shorts, Dexter’s Lab and Powerpuff Girls), LA’s Studio Buck and small Danish studio Tumblehead. As well as the usual animated short screenings from around the world, we were all treated to various Cartoon Modern selections covering the essentials, the future, the east and west approach, Dutch Cartoon Modern and obviously a nostalgic look at Cartoon Network originals. There were some real treats and exclusives that, for fans of the Cartoon Modern movement, were a must see.
The Cartoon Modern specific screenings were indeed a delight, with many studios covered including the renowned UPA. It was amazing to see those films up on the screen and fully restored. Of course there were the ones you’d expect – Gerald McBoing Boing, A Rooty Toot Toot and Disney’s Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom but it was the lesser-known films that really stood out for me. Check out Unicorn in the Garden, Symphony in Slang and my personal favourite Christopher Crumpet’s Playmate. A film that particularly took me by surprise and delighted me at the same time was John and Faith Hubley’s Tender Game. The film has only ever been shown a handful of times and only once before in Europe. When first exposed to Cartoon Modern you instantly think of the UPA’s thick lines, minimalist backgrounds and stylised concepts. Tender Game really changed my opinion, as it was stylised but in a very different way. The paint effects and character design choices were very abstract and even to this day stand out as something very contemporary. John and Faith were pushing the ideas of what animation could be and gloriously realised it with this film.
In the East meets West screening, introduced by American Amid Amidi and Croatian Vanja Hrastehi, experimentation really showed through. The idea of this section of the programme was to show Cartoon Modern as a global genre, from America to Eastern Europe; Two very contrasting societies and cultures, yet both pushing boundaries and breaking conventions in a time when animation festivals were not by any means global, if they existed at all. The Cartoon Modern programme was a real insight to what the movement actually was and what it meant to animators at the time. Starting small in the late 30s and going through to the 60s, it was all about breaking conventions, advertising and telling stories in a graphical way. It pushed art to the forefront of animation and changed the industry in a big way. A big hats off to Amid Amidi and Tunde Vollenbroek for such a great programme.
Stepping into more modern Cartoon Modern (if that’s even a genre) the highlight for most was the talk given by Paul Rudish, who had come all the way from Disney in LA to KLIK!, to give a talk on his recent (and ongoing) directing of the new Mickey Mouse shorts. Although not yet released here in the UK, if you’ve seen images and clips then you’ll see that the style is very much Cartoon Modern. Discussing the design of the new shorts and what to expect next, it appears that 20 more episodes are on the way! We were treated to five or six new episodes from the series, Paul describing his favourites and the style choices that went with them. A highlight had to be In Yodelburg, which was influenced heavily by the artwork of Mary Blair. Stay tuned to Skwigly for more insight into his career at Cartoon Network and more on Mickey Mouse in an upcoming interview.
KLIK! is a very intimate festival, but with it growing and growing every year, now is the time to attend. Having been sneakily informed of next year’s theme it looks to be one to look forward to (we can’t say anymore than that). Great job KLIK! and see you again next year.
Keep your eyes on Skwigly for an interview with the man himself, Amid Amidi.
[Images courtesy of KLIK! Amsterdam and Corneel de Wilde]