Shining a light into the darkness…
Onto the dark memories of an obscure animated film of my childhood. Ah infinity, one of the many ideas that boggle my mind. This is an infinity mirror. They were fairly popular back in the 70's...this one is fabricated, I wish I had one though, I would love to stare into it. I actually just used a regular mirror here. The first encounter I had with the term was in an animated film called, "A mouse and his child", based on the book, written by Russell Hoban. It is quite a dark and impressionable movie which I grew up watching again and again because someone recorded it on VHS. I adored it, even though it was kind of traumatic at the same time. I never read the book, but the characters in the film stayed with me my whole life. In the film the toy wind-up mice sink into a pond after being thrown in the garbage, and at the bottom they are met by a frog that tells them a little about infinity, there is an empty dog food tin at the bottom in which the label on the can keeps falling in on itself as the frog talks about it. Anyways, I highly recommend it for adults and maybe less sensitive young adults. The movie is about unwanted toys, and the journey they take after being thrown away, and the predicaments they get themselves into.
The reason it was traumatic to me was because it gave the impression of toys being alive. One day I had been standing on a bridge with my mom where I was holding my favorite stuffed toy named Pony (yes he was a pony) over the railing. I didn’t mean to drop him but I accidentally lost grip from the wind, and he fell into the water, never to be seen again. I couldnt help but wonder if Pony was laying on the bottom of the river next to a dog food can and a talking frog.
This was just one of the obscure amazing movies of the 70's-80's that left a lasting impression. My favorite is "The Last Unicorn", from the book of the same name by Peter Beagle. My favorite animator, Hayao Miyazaki worked on this one pre-Studio Ghibli. Such beautiful work made me want to be an animator when I grew up. That all changed after finding out how much repeated linework was involved. Patience is my virtue, but I have to draw the line there. Too much repetition for my liking. I'm sure many have seen this one as it has quite a cult following, I'm their leader 😂, kidding 😬.
Other honorable mentions are Flight of Dragons, Secret of NIMH, The Hobbit, Watership Down, Banjo the Woodpile Cat, The Devil and Daniel Mouse, and a more recent animation I love is Destino.
So which films have you seen? Did they shape you? Traumatize you? Subscribe now to leave a comment.