Retro Thing

Learn Cut-Out Animation With Terry Gilliam

Before the Monty Python boys created their landmark show that changed comedy forever, they worked on other shows. We've written about "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and "At Last, the 1948 Show" before (what remains of both series is available on DVD). The guys all got together and agreed that they wanted to do something very different with comedy. They had tired of the conventional structure of setup-punchline, setup-punchline. They liked the idea of creating a premise without having to wrap it up in a neat bow every time.

"Do Not Adjust Your Set" showcased Gilliam's trademark cut-out animation. Partially this was a method to save on time and budget, but mostly it was a quirky style Gilliam made his own. Traditional animation is more or less set in stone long before the animator snaps the movie camera's shutter on the first frame, but with cut-out animation you have room to improvise your "performance" while clicking away. You're not simply recording sequential drawings as in conventional animation. You toddle little paper figures around before the lens, inviting you to make impromptu tweaks. The process is almost musical that way.

The Pythons credit Gilliam's unhinged animations with inspiring the freewheeling creativity at the core of the Monty Python show, and also with providing them with a method of segueing between sketches. Again, the animation is a mix of the artistic and the totally practical. Maybe it's this pragmatic yet freewheeling approach that continues to inspire animators today. What is South Park, and practically every Flash animation you've seen, if not an outcropping of Gilliam's work from (gulp) 40 years ago?

This video clip features Gilliam on Bob Godfrey's "Do It Yourself Film Animation Show" in 1974. Gilliam talk you through the steps he takes to created his demented animations, but notes that it's all about the story. My favorite quote:

“The whole point of animation to me is to tell a story, make a joke, express an idea. The technique itself doesn’t really matter. Whatever works is the thing to use.”

You know who gets this idea? Young animators and filmmakers on YouTube. While I rue the absence of classic cartoons on broadcast TV, YouTube offers such an amazing and inspiring collection of animation styles. You used to have to wait until an animation festival his the local artsy movie house to get a load of so many new visual ideas. Yes, there's sure a LOT of junk out there, but creative visual artists do get that it doesn't matter whether you create your project with a camera phone, Flash, or a 16mm Bolex, your piece is going to stand or fall on its story.

We've seen Gilliam give voice to his warped imagination through animation, acting, filmmaking (I decided to go to film school after seeing his film "Brazil"). It matters less how he says it, it just matters that he has something to say.

A side note: sadly I can't imagine a presentation as simple as this video clip on broadcast TV today. The "lesson" would be so dumbed down as to be useless, the segment would be 3 minutes at the most, and the "personality-driven" hosts would keep interrupting. When will today's TV producers realize that frenzied panic is not the best way to tell every story?

Early Japanese Animation: Tobor The 8th Man

TV kiddie animation today is dominated by cartoons made in Japan, as well as shows inspired by the look of Japanese anime. TV animation has always faced tight budgets and even tighter deadlines, so the efficient anime style is a good fit for rapid affordable production. Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy for the printed page, and then set out to find a way to bring his creations to life in cartoons. Disney cartoons were a huge influence on him, but Tezuka knew that he had to reduce the normally high cost of animation to make his projects financially feasible in 1960s Japan.

Tezuka simplified the Disney house (mouse?) style, and reduced the number of drawings per second of screen time. At first this was an expediency to keep budgets down, and to be able to deliver cartoons with an inexperienced staff. What started out as a budgeting and scheduling shortcut evolved over into a style and aesthetic all its own.

For most english-speaking audiences, their first contact with anime was with black and white series in the 60s. Astro Boy was first in 1964, and the show was a massive success. TV syndicator Fred Ladd bought up a number of other Japanese series to make up the second wave of anime with series like Gigantor, Kimba the White Lion, and Tobor the 8th Man. These early series were somewhat less stylized than the anime that came later.  At the time, these series were simply cheap imports to sell to local TV stations after a quick dubbing session.

8 Man started out in Japan as a comic (manga) before hitting the small screen with 56 episodes. In the US dub, the character was renamed "Tobor" ("robot" spelled backwards, donchaknow...). Other characters received similar kooky identities - Police Chief Fumblethumbs, Professor Genius... Also unusual is that the dubbed-in dialogue is a little irreverent at times, as if the voice artists had quickly become bored with the job. There are a few weird moments when characters come across on-screen text written in the original Japanese. I remember one episode in a museum, where characters complained that it would be a lot easier to find their way around "if all the signs weren't in 'Oriental'". Hmmm.

The premise of Tobor is a bit grim. Tobor is a detective run down in after an alley fight. Professor Genius picks up the dying detective, and conducts his 8th attempt to transfer the consciousness of a person into a robot body. The procedure works, and the super-powered Tobor goes back to work. His plastic skin can transform into any face, and when trouble strikes Tobor is able to convert to robot form. When he needs a little power boost, he has his "energy cigarettes". Ahem.

8th Man isn't as well remembered as some of those early shows, though fans still argue of Tobor's significance. I suppose there's some chance that Robocop was influenced by the show's premise. If you want to relive the thrills of Tobor, the series in is in the public domain so you can find episodes on YouTube. If you're a connoisseur, there's a DVD collection that's been "restored" from 16mm film prints, with audio remixed for Dolby (from the examples I've watched online, it seems that there are new sparkling sound effects layered over the old mono lo-fi recordings).

With fewer and fewer smokers these days, I wonder how long it'll be before Big Tobacco rolls out "Tobor Energy Cigarettes".

Help out Retro Thing when you pick up the restored 8th man on DVD from Amazon

8 Track Tape Rewind

That title is a joke, you see... Ya can't rewind 8 Tracks. That's just one of the things that makes 8 Track a format that's hard on music lovers, and yet there's an undeniable nostalgia about the format.

In the retro biz, you can't intone the number "8" without pretty much everyone remembering 8 track tapes. In fact whenever anyone asks me about Retro Thing's popularity, my pat answer is "who knew you could make a splash with a website about Ataris and 8 Tracks?"

8 Track was just one of several early attempts at a format for pre-recorded music. You can't really listen to a record in a moving car (not that a couple companies didn't try...). 8 Track was a reuse of the pro cartridges used in radio stations called the "Fidelipac CARtridge". It was designed for DJs to use for commercials, jingles, and even single songs. It was Bill Lear heading a consortium of electronics manufacturers who thought of putting more tape in the cart and offering 4 separate "programs" of 2 track stereo, hence the name "8 Track". As the man responsible for the luxury Lear Jet, Lear imagined the convenient cartridge format as being ideal for in-flight listening.

The cartridge was much simpler to load up than threading up reel to reel tape. By including the pinch roller inside the cart itself, the actual mechanism of the player could be simplified. The cart has a clever endless loop system where all of the tape is wound around a single reel inside, the downside being that rewinding is impossible. Overall it was a (sort of) hardy and affordable system that found its way to regular consumers. You didn't have to be a member of the jet set to enjoy music in your car.

"Enjoy" might be a strong word as the format was anathema to loving music. Songs were sometimes re-sequenced (or omitted!) from the original album to fit more songs on less tape. Sometimes songs were split across tracks, so right in the right in the middle of your tune... ka-chunk! While the format was a fairly efficient idea, in practice both players and tapes failed all the time. How many of us remember the sight of a shiny black spaghetti of 8 track tape discarded in the street?

Thankfully Philips was able to squeeze more fidelity out of the Compact Cassette which then became the mainstay of portable music listening for decades. 8 Track stuck around the US from the mid 60s to the early 80s, so there's a lot of history there. Misguided history. So it's no surprise that Retro Thing fans have given the following 8 Track posts a lot of love.

· In pop culture, 8 Tracks were a 70s staple, yet stubborn freaks for the format continued to get albums via mail order into the 80s. You could get Michael Jackson, Madonna, and even this 8 Track by Phil Collins.

· 8 Track players weren't just built into cars. You could find the format supported by literally tons (ever try to move one of those things?) of hideous console systems, but here's what must be the weirdest one. An 8 Track built into a fake fireplace.

· 2-XL is a little plastic toy robot. He's an interactive toy with a clever use of the beleaguered tape format. He doesn't run on bits and bytes (though here's an actual computer that reused the format... sorta...). He's a robot who runs on the power of 8 Tracks of garbled stereo sound.

· How about a crazy collision of 70s ideas? Just plug this gimmick into your 8 track player to turn it into a CB radio.

· Finally, a crowd favorite. A tongue-in-check feature comparison of a portable shiny white 8 track player versus a shiny white iPod. I'm still not sure which is better.