{"id":78707,"date":"2023-03-29T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T07:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=78707"},"modified":"2023-03-26T20:07:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T03:07:08","slug":"we-robots-part-22-big-screens-for-big-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/we-robots-part-22-big-screens-for-big-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"We, Robots! (Part 22): Big Screens for Big Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n

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In our final phase upon the subject of automatons in animation, we move back to the silver screen, for a survey of robots\u2019 \u201cupgrade\u201d from the world of short subjects into feature films. The move wasn\u2019t a sudden phenomenon, nor even a recent one, occurring first in the films of foreign lands. Even there, it did not directly track the growth of the medium in either low budget live-action horror or sci-fi formats from Japan, nor in shorter Manga and anime form, but remained restricted to sporadic appearances, with shorter films discussed in prior pages of these articles far exceeding protracted screenplays in number. Perhaps the world wasn\u2019t considered quite ready to accept looming but unfeeling behemoths in larger doses. Or perhaps the problem was the tradition begun with Disney feature animation, of need to touch the heartstrings of the audience for lasting film appeal – a difficult task if your central figure, much as the Tin Woodman, is lacking an actual heart in the first place. Thus, many years would pass between rare instances where robots would take center stage in select scripts, and what appearances there were more likely cast them as unthinking warrior adversaries or as comic relief. Today\u2019s first installment of two, however, climaxes with a well-crafted instance where a mechanical man not only maintains central prominence throughout a film, but develops heart-felt sensitivity, and becomes a real hero. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird<\/strong> (1952) is a French feature known by at least half a dozen other names, including \u201cThe Shepardess and the Chimney Sweep\u201d. Taking only minimal inspiration from a story by Hans Christian Andersen, this convoluted tale deviates into a surreal view of a futuristic kingdom full of mechanized inventions and weaponry, ruled over by a despot king, which some have compared to the layout for a video-game scenario, while this author prefers to compare it to a non-stop nightmare. Its principal \u201chuman\u201d characters are indeed a question mark, placing the whole story at a level where it is impossible to discern between reality and dementia, as the Shepardess and Chimney Sweep are persona-less images somehow come to life off of paintings in the King\u2019s chambers, yet the supposed real-life King allegedly wants the Shepardess as his bride – presuming that there must be a real version of her somewhere who modeled for the painting. Yet, any real-life Shepardess or Chimney Sweep are never seen. To make things even stranger, the Shepardess is also lusted after by a painted version of the King himself, who also comes to life, and quickly disposes of the real king via a trap door leading to a fatal drop that the King himself installed to get rid of inwanted or unneeded members of his court and kingdom. The painted King takes over in place of the real King (who was nearly as bad anyway, so why the need for the substitution?), and so the entire remainder of the script is played out by doppelgangers out of a paintbrush! Sort of distances you from any feeling of relating to the characters\u2019 plights or foibles, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\"\"Wonderbird, an anthropomorphic talking crow, magpie, or whatever, seems to be the only real-life character remaining who matters to the rest of the picture, befriending the two escaping painted lovers for no apparent reason except hatred of the king, and rescuing them from every peril on the descent from the King\u2019s 1,999th floor apartment to the surface below, and even below that into underground dungeons and rivers. After what seems an endless stream-of-consciousness pursuit by the painted King and his troops and police, the Shepardess is finally captured and taken by the King aboard the head of a humongous metal robot who stands almost as tall as the King\u2019s apartment tower. he humanoid-shaped robot is modeled much in the manner of the uniform of a Roman gladiator, with a helmet-shaped head atop which rests a flat platform surrounded on three sides by small metal railings. Its limbs are manipulated from a separate control station at about neck level, where a member of the King\u2019s guard operates various complicated motors, levers, and gears for each movement. The King himself stands atop the flat platform with the Shepardess – an amazing feat, considering they wear no seat belt or restraint, suggesting outstanding developments in gyroscopic self-leveling and vibration control. In a final assault, Wonderbird takes over the control station of the robot, and begins randomly pulling levers and turning control wheels, claiming to be mechanically inclined. The robot\u2019s arms raise, and begin swatting at the platform where the King stands (taking no especial care to avoid blows to the Shepardess, and leaving the platform railings well bent). The King is temporarily jostled down stairs leading to the platform, while Wonderbird\u2019s further efforts cause the robot to smash wildly at every tower and spire in the kingdom, ultimately leveling them in a shot of collapse seen at a distance of miles away. There seems to be little concern for townsfolk of the kingdom seen in previous shots, who undoubtedly are being buried in the rubble below, only a few select principal characters seeming to be accounted for as having already escaped the kingdom\u2019s perimeters. The King somehow crawls back up the stairs, but the robot\u2019s hand finally hits its mark, picking the King up by the back of his royal trappings, and depositing him into the palm of one robotic hand. Then, the robot reveals from nowhere an added power. A beam of light from one eye focuses on the King. Then, a powerful fan begins to blow from behind the retina opening of the robot\u2019s eye, which simply blows the King away through the clouds and into the stratosphere. Bizarre! <\/p>\n