The winds of change continued to blow through the Hollywood animation establishment. But it wasn’t a Hubley independent Windy Day that took home an Oscar this year – it was a Disney Blustery Day instead. The shock of Walt Disney’s passing in December 1966 was too close to previous award season to really sink in. I firmly believe the Academy gave this year’s Oscar to Winnie The Pooh and The Blustery Day as a symbolic “thank you” – and “goodbye” – for his lifetime of work.
How else to explain this win? The first Pooh short – a more innovative affair – was not even nominated. The other nominees this year reflected more progressive thinking and helped nudge the art form in several directions. Yes – the win for Blustery Day was a nod to the man and to the company for which this category was established.
Perhaps if Walt were still among us, the Hubley’s might have won again, the National Film Board might have claimed their first (in this category) or Chuck Swenson could have continued a Muramkami-Wolf sweep. Instead, Winnie The Pooh scored a win for the home team – leaving the likes of Nudnik, Roland and Rattfink and Bunny and Claude in the rear-view mirror.
This week: 1968
The actual nominees were:
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT (National Film Board of Canada) Ron Tunis [View]
THE MAGIC PEAR TREE (Murakami-Wolf) Charles Swenson [View]
WINDY DAY (Paramount/Storyboard) John and Faith Hubley [View]
And the Oscar went to:
WINNIE THE POOH AND THE BLUSTERY DAY (Disney) Wolfgang Reitherman, director. [View]
On April 14th, 1969 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, presenters Tony Curtis and special animation of “The Pink Panther” handed the Oscar to director Wolfgang Reitherman (dig his Nehru Tuxedo). Here’s a video of that presentation:
And so we continue our weekly research into what other cartoons were submitted to the Academy for Oscar consideration but failed to make the cut. In 1968, there were 14 entries. Submitted, screened, but NOT nominated were:
BUNNY AND CLAUDE (Warner Bros.) Robert McKimson
KONCERTISSIMO Jozsef Gemes
THE WACKEY WORLD OF NUMBURRS Steve Clark
THE POWER OF DESTINY Jiří Brdečka
K-9000: A SPACE ODDITY Robert Mitchell, Robert Swarthe
GOOD NEIGHBOR NUDNIK (Rembrandt-Paramount) Gene Deitch
AN AMERICAN TIME CAPSULE Chuck Braverman
THE FLY (Zagreb) Vladimir Jutrisa, Aleksandar Marks
HURTS AND FLOWERS (UA/DePatie-Freleng) Hawley Pratt
POLLUTION (Astrafilms)
Here’s the documentation:
With these posts we ask that you put yourself in their place – which films would you have nominated? Which cartoon should have won? For your edification and viewing pleasure, here are the cartoons the Academy screened which didn’t make the cut (unfortunately not all of them are online – and with so many entered, my comments this week will be brief). Enjoy the show!
BUNNY AND CLAUDE (Warner Bros.) Robert McKimson
Parody of Warner Bros. popular crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – with the leads played by rabbits. Sad cartoon from the final days of Warner Bros. theatrical animation. Sadder yet that Robert Mckimson directed it, Mel Blanc does voices – even Bob Givens and Cal Howard had seen better days.
The studio must have had high hopes for this – they even made a sequel that was released about month after the first. I do like the theme song by Wrecking Crew veteran Billy Strange. Embed below has a slightly altered soundtrack, but it doesn’t ruin the cartoon – in fact, it might improve it.
KONCERTISSIMO Jozsef Gemes
Koncertissimo is a great little anti-war film from Hungary’s Pannonia Studio. Director Jozsef Gemes went on to direct on such Hungarian features as Hugo The Hippo and The Princess and The Goblin.
THE WACKEY WORLD OF NUMBURRS (Bosustow Productions) Steven Clark
Based on book by Sheldon Wasserman, with music by Shorty Rogers, I’d really like to see this Stephen Bosustow production. Cartoonist and animation story artist Sam Henderson wrote about the original book here. Can anyone locate the whereabouts of this short?
UPDATE: Reader Henry Schmidt sent me a 16mm print which I have now embed below.
It’s a Laugh-In style spot gag comedy using numbers and their shapes as the basis of the comedy. June Foray does the female voices. I like it!
THE POWER OF DESTINY Jiří Brdečka
Another film from the Czech director of Why Do You Smile, Mona Lisa? (1967) – and another film I know nothing about. Moc Osudu is a mystery, beyond this vague description I found on the web:
An ironic anecdote is about whether a person writes fate forward. The film reflects its skeptical attitude towards divination and mysticism.
Any further info – or the film itself – would be gratefully accepted.
K-9000: A SPACE ODDITY (The Haboush Company) Robert Mitchell, Robert Swarthe
2001 meets Zap Comix. This is a classic of the midnight show and college campus circuit – and, of course, one of the inaugural films included in Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation in 1977.
Robert Mitchell got involved with animation after college, doing pre-production art on Yellow Submarine. He then joined the Haboush Company as an animator. In 1971, Mitchell received an Academy Award nomination for The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam: Part Two, which we will discuss in two weeks. He passed away in 1985.
After making K-9000, Robert Swarthe founded his own animation studio, Robert Swarthe Productions, where he produced Kick Me, which was nominated in 1976. Swarthe next moved on to Graphics Film, where he devoted himself to working in visual effects – including making major contributions to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
GOOD NEIGHBOR NUDNIK (Rembrandt-Paramount) Gene Deitch
One of the last of Gene Deitch’s Nudnik series. This time Nudnik wakes up in his junkyard abode, situated at the end of a fancy middle class neighborhood street. He goes about preparing for his busy day of unemployment (which includes the bloodiest shaving gag you’ve ever seen) and then goes about ringing doorbells offering his services as a handyman. An attempt to paint his neighbor’s house leads him to the home’s basement where, after a series of mishaps, he ends up blowing up the entire neighborhood!
Enjoy!
AN AMERICAN TIME CAPSULE Chuck Braverman
This is a very well-known film for anyone who watched TV in 1968 – it was run several times on The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour back then. It’s composed of hundreds of short clips of art and photos depicting 200 years of American history in two and a half minutes, set to a recording of “The Charge” from the album Beat That #?!* Drum by drummer Sandy Nelson.
Charles “Chuck” Dell Braverman (born March 3, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is a film & television director, documentary filmmaker and producer.
THE FLY (aka Muha) (Zagreb) Vladimir Jutrisa, Aleksandar Marks
A psychological horror film of sorts, probably the best known short from Zagreb duo Jutrisa and Marks – the first of many film collaborations they made.
A man is standing in the scene when a fly arrives and begins to irritate him. He tries to swat the fly, but it keeps growing bigger to the point where it shatters the scene. Eventually, the man and the fly decide to negotiate.
HURTS AND FLOWERS (UA/DePatie-Freleng) Hawley Pratt
I love this cartoon. Oscar-worthy? Not sure, but DePatie-Freleng still had a little gas in the engine and this was worthy submission. Whenever I see this cartoon, I try to figure out which side the filmmakers are on – is Roland a “good guy” or are they making fun of hippies? Is Rattfink a “villain” or representing “the establishment”, and the older generation? Freleng and Pratt were too old to relate to the hippie movement, and so they take a few digs here at flower power generation. They even let Rattfink get the last gag over on Roland. Good Guy? Bad Guy? You decide!
“Man, like he had a bad trip!”
POLLUTION (Astrafilms)
Some background on this piece via Mark D. Catlin (off You Tube):
This song and film came just a few years before the first Earth Day in 1970. Tom Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs dealing with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show “That Was The Week That Was”.
This short film of POLLUTION, featuring a cartoon of a bird playing a piano at a dump, combined with real scenes of industrial excess from across America, was made in 1966 and 1967 by Astrafilms for the U.S. Communicable Disease Center. A first cut in 1966 featured the live recording of “Pollution” from the LP, but this version of the film was not used. It was then redone in 1967, using more drastic scenes to really drive home the message. Tom and the producers agreed that it would be better to use a studio recording of the song without the audience, so he re-recorded it for the second version. It was then distributed by the National Medical Audio-Visual Center.
The earlier posts in this series: 1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967.
(Thanks Henry Schmidt, Libby Wertin and Chris Sobieniak)
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of Cal Arts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
I’m surprised the distributed-by-but-not-made-by-WB ‘The Door’ wasn’t submitted when shorts like ‘American Time Capsule’ and ‘Pollution’ were.
I rather like the Bunny & Claude cartoons. They’re not perfect but they are fun.
That IS a surprise!
Moc Osudu/The Power of Destiny is readily available on the DVD boxset linked below. I do have a copy but never got around to watching all the shorts on it yet.
http://nfa.cz/en/e-shop/films/?a=6924
Fantastic! Thanks for locating this.
I, for once, prefer the Winnie short. It was, probably, the best of the three in terms of stories selected and music: the introduction of Tigger (and his song The wonderful about tiggers) has some of the best character animation, the entire Heffalumps and Woozles sequence is great, and the song he Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down… some of the best work of the sherman brothers.
And the work on tigger’s animation alone is enough for me 😛 Never cared too much for the upa/post-upa style so that explains a lot.
For being a second outing “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” certainly had a lot going for it in terms of story, music and characterization especially with Tigger’s introduction.
Despite all four Pooh featurettes being some of my all-time favorite animated films, I have to agree that the second Pooh film deserved the Oscar win, even though the first one still remains my top favorite. (Don’t ask me why–I hardly know myself.)
And regarding the animation of Tigger, we owe it all to Milt Kahl. There’s a great post on Andreas Deja’s blog that takes an exhaustive look at Milt’s work at bringing this “Tigger-iffic” character to the screen. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Speaking of which, T-T-F-N!
Koncertissimo is a great little anti-war film from Hungary’s Pannonia Studio. Director Jozsef Gemes went on to direct on such Hungarian features as Hugo The Hippo and The Princess and The Goblin.
Also the director behind “Willy The Sparrow” and “Tiny Heroes”, for anyone who may have seen those tapes at least once in their childhoods and never again! 😉
Of course a more interesting film for Gemes was his 1983 feature “Heroic Times”.
You are so right, Chris. I should have mentioned Heroic Times above. That one’s a masterpiece.
Glad to help. I noticed there was this interview program of sorts he was on that showed some clips of his work, though of course this is all in Hungarian anyway but I just wanted to throw it out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXMzSdcxnrg
BTW, that version of Koncertissimo you included isn’t complete, Jerry. It’s missing the final minute, but you can see what happens next on this video site!
https://ok.ru/video/39282739802
What? No TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE PINK? Was the Academy lost in space with HAL and Keir Dullea?
I guess we should also mention the animated cartoon that won Best Documentary Short this year too: Saul Bass’ WHY MAN CREATES, although it also had live-action scenes. It was excerpted on 60 MINUTES in September before wide release late in the year. Apparently a young George Lucas was involved in some of the camera work.
Also Norman McLaren’s PAS-DE-DEUX (DUO) was nominated in the Live Action Short Category although it often gets mentioned in animation books since McLaren was a famous animator with the NFBC and the optical printing effects were “animated” in a way.
Thanks for mentioning McLaren’s Pas-De-Deux. These posts are focused on the Best Animated Short category, but shout-outs to animated films in other categories always welcome.
And on Why Man Creates, the now would’ve been 100, June Foray does her trademark Rocky voice for a cowboy’s mother offscreen as I’ve oft-mentioned…
I was thinking, as indie Pyramid films distributed it, that if,say, WB instead had picked it up, they might have submitted this unusual cartoon for an Oscar, (same if their Norman Normal or picked up The Door had). I prefer the Blustery Pooh film over the first one myself.:)
JLEWIS said…
Either that or they were still contemplating what the heck was going on in YELLOW SUBMARINE! Of course that film’s influence will take shape as the years go on!
JERRY BECK said…
Reminded Leonard Maltin included that along with McLaren’s BEGONE DULL CARE in his “Animation Favorites from the National Film Board of Canada” special that aired on A&E. An excellent primer for anyone interesting in what the NFB has produced.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/leonard_maltins_animation_favorites/
SCARRAS wrote:
Though I don’t know what sort of theatrical plans Pyramid had at the time, they’re mostly known for non-theatrical releases such as films distributed to schools, libraries and other institutions. Being that “Why Man Creates” is a documentary, I see it only fitting that it was included in that category instead. I did notice though this film was presented by Kaiser Aluminum, that was a surprise (we’ve covered ads for them previously here).
http://www.pyramidmedia.com/homepage/search-by-title/academy-awards/why-man-creates-detail.html
HI,
I have a 16MM print of “Wacky World of Numbers” but it’s turning pink – as a matter of fact I watch it yesterday.
HS
I shall send you a private email message – I’d like to borrow that print, transfer it and post it here.
Regarding the Oscar clip above, was the Pink Panther presentation the first animation made for the TV show or were there earlier ones I have been too stupid to notice? Later we got Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Belle & the Beast, the Pixar stars and many others on these shows. These were the key moments when the viewing audience suddenly woke up from the lumbering speeches. Sometime we need a special post here cataloguing all of the Oscar cartoon guests.
I think this was the first awards ceremony to commission a new piece of animation to announce the nominees for Best Cartoon Short.
Of course, Disney created a new piece of animation for the Oscar ceremonies in 1932:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PoSjUf1j7k
Yes, I remember that one.
Also, during the 1950 Oscars, Pepe Le Pew was commented as appearing by the radio commentator. Can’t remember where I heard it, but you can check here: https://archive.org/details/AcademyAwardsCeremonies
OK… listened to it again. I goofed with my faulty memory. Found it in Part 1 of the 22nd Academy Awards, same section with animator Willis O’Brien giving his brief thank you for MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. John Hodiak and Ann Baxter present the short subject awards. “You probably remember it, about the little skunk? The winner is very happy accepting the ward”, so says Eve Arden. I think she is referring to Ed Selzer instead of Pepe.
Did Warners Broadway produce an animated acceptance speech for Knighty Knight Bugs for the 1959 Academy Awards show, featuring Bugs (and Daffy trying to wrest it from him )? Of course, this wasn’t a presentation, and it may have been produced later.
I think this was the first awards ceremony to commission a new piece of animation to announce the nominees for Best Cartoon Short.
For an early attempt at least for TV, it wasn’t too bad though it is very apparent when they had to show that flickering screen!
I reminded myself earlier this year I wanted to see one done featuring Nick and Judy from Zootopia presenting the award for Best Animated Short Film but I guess that didn’t happen. I had a clever idea how I wanted that to go with the guys walking out to the podium, realize how tall it is and had to ask for assistance by the host or whoever to get down on his hands and knees for them to step on top of him for the duration. That would’ve been so perfect too with today’s digital tech., but either it wasn’t in someone’s mind at the time or wasn’t feasible, who could say.
Very interesting. I find it difficult to argue with the overall quality of the four shorts that were nominated, but I’m a little surprised that POLLUTION failed to get a nod back in the day. I had no idea that K-9000 was even submitted for Oscar consideration! I wonder how that played at the Academy screening; there were a lot of different kinds of films being considered that year, but K-9000 was really… different.
In terms of animated shorts about flies, I prefer “The Fly” from 1980.
“Bunny and Claude” actually had potential as a series had WB kept their cartoon open, unlike “Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!”, which just felt tired.
In terms of animated shorts about flies, I prefer “The Fly” from 1980.
That one’s certainly a keeper if only for being a unique entry at its time. The guy behind that one has also done some interesting work afterwards both in Hungary and his stay in Canada.
“Bunny and Claude” actually had potential as a series had WB kept their cartoon open, unlike “Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!”, which just felt tired.
There was certainly potential in B&C had they continued coming up with different ways a heist by them could be carried out and how the sheriff bungles it up each time. Of course I suppose even if TV was an option to continue these new characters, it certainly wasn’t in WB’s wheelhouse, when they still had older material to sell for years to come to the small screen.
I’m wondering how far was The Blustery Day into production at the time of Walt’s passing?
It’s likely that the Oscar went to this Pooh short, not just as a final tribute to Walt himself, but also as a makeup for a failed attempt to get The Jungle Book nominated for Best Picture.
Walt probably saw storyboards. However some Disney reference book (can’t remember which one off hand) stated that “major” production began in September 1967. It was completed and registered for copyright by August 27, 1968.
I must apologize here by saying that I always liked BLUSTERY DAY more than HONEY TREE. Not that I don’t like HONEY TREE too! There is just so much MORE going on in the sequel: Piglet, Tigger, Huffalumps & Woozles all included. Yes, I fully understand that some of it may have been uninspired with a bit too much “pink elephants on parade” referencing. No doubt the YELLOW SUBMARINE crowd was drawing squares in the air when viewing it. Yet I absolutely love how the storm drowns out all of the words in the book. Also the dialogue is so much funnier than HONEY TREE (apart from Rabbit’s scenes that steal the show in that film). Owl’s “I say… someone has pasted Piglet on my windoooow” gets me every time.
I will probably be in JLEWIS’ camp in stating that I liked the second film as well. The first one’s ending always felt rather weak to me, but maybe because it’s pooh being stuck in another sticky situation, of course he doesn’t mind where he is this time. Of course I watched all three of the original Pooh featurettes as part of the 1977 feature compilation so I didn’t notice that abruptness quite so much given how they bridge each story Pooh having a little chat with the narrator in between.
A couple more silly comments of mine and then I will shove the sock back in my trap.
Again, we all fussed a couple posts back about THE HONEY TREE not getting nominated, but you must consider how much muscle power film critics had in the post- “new wave” sixties, the golden age of Pauline Kael and Bosley Crowther. Back then, the Academy members were certainly being influenced. THE HONEY TREE got some favorable reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere, but you do notice more nitpicking than usual when you dig up other contemporary comments. While most agreed it was better than the feature it often supported, THE UGLY DACHSHUND, the Disney brand was getting roasted quite often during this post-MARY POPPINS “backlash” period. (To be fair, the same period also blessed us all with THE MONKEY’S UNCLE and LT. ROBIN CRUSOE U.S.N.) From what I gather, some of the harshest criticism for THE HONEY TREE came from London’s DAILY MAIL and I do see some similarities to how ALICE IN WONDERLAND was equally disliked earlier by the Brits.
What I think at least partly happened here with THE BLUSTERY DAY is that the Academy recognized that the studio took all of their criticism seriously and made some corrections to please both sides of the Atlantic. The two biggest issues were the following:
1.) 9 year old Bruce Reitherman sounded too American to voice Christopher in the former film. This was not his fault, of course. Yet a British-American actor who was great with different accents, Jon Walmsley (the future Jason in THE WALTONS), took over for the second. In THE MANY ADVENTURES OF feature, some re-dubbing was needed to make the voices a little more consistent.
2.) The omission of Piglet and the addition of a North American gopher in THE HONEY TREE, mistaken for a beaver in the New York Times review (an easy mistake since he did resemble the one in LADY AND THE TRAMP), got a lot of press attention at the time. It is interesting that not only is Piglet the key star in the second film, but Gopher only makes a brief cameo… only to be pushed down his hole as if he was Jar Jar Binks! Oh I am sure the Disney staff was demonstrating just how they felt for that poor character.
Also the second film is much meatier in its production values, including animated storms, a creative dream sequence, all-new personality animation of the new characters (Tigger and Piglet) and, most importantly, so much genuine emotion in the final scenes with Pooh getting Piglet to live with him for the sake of Eeyore’s boo-boo. Those scenes especially gave the film “heart” and, yes, it was all “traditional Disney” in the same way as Snow White getting “revived” by her prince, Pinocchio getting rescued by the Blue Fairy after the “storm” of Monstro, songs of Dalmatian Plantation, King Triton giving up Ariel to the mortal she loves, etc. etc. etc.
After all, this was the year OLIVER! and FUNNY GIRL overtook 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. After a year of revolution in the streets and the Production Code scrapped in favor of Russ Meyer’s VIXEN!, I guess the Old Guard still wanted one last trip down memory lane before MIDNIGHT COWBOY, Z and EASY RIDER… and that oddball NON-traditional Disney effort by Ward Kimball… all made their invasions.
Of course, I have to agree that “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” deserved to win, probably for the reason that it was more fully fledged. But just so that we’re on the same page here, I will say that to me, it doesn’t matter whether it won on its own merits or just to pay tribute to Walt. It’s still a very well-deserved win, just the same.
But despite all four featurettes being some of my all-time favorite animated films, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” still remains my top favorite of the four. (For one thing, I think I have always gotten past the inconsistencies of Christopher Robin’s voice actors.) I still think it would’ve been nice if the first film just got even nominated. At least “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” also got a nomination.
Hurts and Flowers was one of the funniest of the Roland and Rattfink cartoons and should have been considered for the nomination of the Oscar for best animated short.
With the excellent use of Mel Blanc (uncredited) voice over SFX as Roland’s screams of agony (including the one reused from the Warner Bros. cartoon Boston Quackie starring Daffy Duck) and Roland’s sneeze. Another fun fact is the scene where Roland the Flower Child was having a jam session with his fellow Hippies, the rhythm that Roland was playing was possibly the inspiration for Fleetwood Mac for the drum intro for thier mega hit Tusk.
Just wondering about the scene where Rattfink the Weed blew himself up after trying to stop Roland’s jam session – where one of the hippies said “Man he was having a bad trip” – if the voice of the hippie was Marvin Miller who would take over Paul Frees as the voice of The Chief in The Inspector cartoon series?
I enjoy the Bunny and Claude cartoons, too. I love the moment in the 2nd one which alludes to the tangled sexual tension in “Bonnie & Clyde.” Bunny whispers something in Claude’s ear, and he replies, “Is that all you think about??? Carrots?”
Me too. I loved the look and style of the Seven Arts/W.B. cartoons when I was a kid.
DFE resurrected the “bad trip” line for one of the Ant and the Aardvark shorts, Technology, Phooey (1969).
Also worth noting – for some of us – that airing opposite this Oscar telecast (essentially buried by NBC) was the Monkees special, 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, the final time all four members would appear together until the mid-1980s.
The end of K-2000: A Paramount/Fox/MGM mash-up!
What’s up with the alternate credits (Dongwoo Animation, etc.) on Bunny and Claude?
Of the shorts shown here, Nudnik and Ronald and Rattfink were the funniest. Don’t know why Pollution was submitted as an animated short, since only the first ten seconds or so were animated. Song was funny, though.
“Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” deserved the Oscar. It’s the best of the Pooh featurettes (although my personal favorite is “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too”) in terms of story, songs, animation and characters. I love Tigger’s dialogue when he looks at himself in the mirror. “Look at those beady little eyes, and that perposterous chin, and those rickey-diculous striped pajamas!”
I can’t believe that “Bunny and Claude” was considered for an Oscar. It’s far from perfect.
In what way was the first Pooh short “a more innovative affair” than this one? Personally I think “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” is more fully realized than its predecessor, with the added benefit of Milne characters like Tigger and Piglet getting their chance to shine. I find it a better film and a better representation of the Pooh universe than “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree”.
I’m not denying Winnie The Pooh and The Blustery Day its due. It’s a good film, all things considered.
But Winnie the Pooh And The Honey Tree invented the “Pooh” film – it initiated the Disney version of the character and his universe (with concepts like Sabastian Cabot’s narrator and the storybook setting). Honey Tree “innovated” as it was an original take on the material.
All that was in place for Blustery Day – which I admit takes the “Pooh-nervise” a bit farther. I’m still surprised the Academy snubbed the first film – and am sure Blustery won less for its merits and more as a fitting tribute to Mr. Disney
I wouldn’t doubt you there, Jerry, if the second film’s win were merely a make-up for the mistake earlier by the Academy. The first film certainly established the Pooh we know and love today, while still feeling it’s way with the characters and setting.
You asked for ‘The Power of Destiny’ by Jiří Brdečka, so here it is 🙂
https://youtu.be/Z__socKTW_o
I did come across this while searching for Jerry earlier, I wasn’t sure if it was the right film as it’s run time is much longer than 7 minutes, unless it’s US release was trimmed down. The title of the movie doesn’t seem like it matches closely with “The Power of Destiny” either unless that was a different title used by the distributor.
I’m sure this is the wrong film anyway.
Glad you introduced me to Chuck Braverman, but I’m glad Pooh Bear won 😉
When are you going to finish submissions list from 1971 onwards?
Since these are a nice list of choices they submitted for approval here(Warner’s Bunnie and Claude,DePatie-Freleng’s Hurt and Flowers,and Paramount’s Good Neighbor Nudnik)here are some cartoons from 1968 I consider good enough that should’ve been submitted and qualified for an Acadamy Award:
-Chimp and Zee(Warner Bros.)-William Hendricks,Alex Lovy
-Skyscaper Caper(Warner Bros.)-William Hendricks,Alex Lovy
-The Ant and The Aardvark(DePatie-Freleng-UA)-David H. DePatie,Friz Freleng
-The Ruby Eye of The Monkey God(Terrytoons-20th Century Fox)-Fred Calvert,Bill Weiss
-Pink Pest Control(DePatie-Freleng-UA)-Gerry Chiniquy,David H. DePatie,Friz Freleng
FYI, The Magic Pear Tree was distributed by 20th Century Fox and The House That Jack Built and The Wacky World of Numbers were both distributed by Columbia