| A Political Cartoon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James K. Morrow Joe Adamson |
| Written by | James K. Morrow Joe Adamson |
| Produced by | James K. Morrow Joe Adamson David E. Stone |
| Starring | Alex Krakower Liam Smith Marshall Anker Allen Lieb George Stapleford Bob Kingsley Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Harry Buch |
Production company | Odradek Productions |
| Distributed by | The Creative Film Society |
Release date |
|
Running time | 22 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
A Political Cartoon is a 1974 Americansatiric independent short film produced byJames K. Morrow,Joe Adamson andDavid E. Stone. Combininglive-action and animation, the short follows a political campaign manager and a cartoonist who decide to run an animated character for President of the United States.[1] It was distributed by The Creative Film Society.[2]
The short won awards and prizes at many film festivals;[3] it was exhibited at theOrson Welles Cinema,[1] was nominated for a Gold Hugo for Best Short Film at the Chicago International Film Festival,[4] and won the Francis Scott Key Award at the Baltimore Film Festival,[5] the Judge's Prize at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the Jury's Prize at the Columbus Film Festival,[6] and the Audience Prize at the Midwest Film Festival.[7][8][6] In 1996, the short was released onVHS byKino Video as a part ofCartoongate!, a compilation of politics-themed animated shorts.[9][1]
An unemployed cartoonist, Bernie Wibble, and a political activist, Lance Mungo, devise a scheme to embrace the absurdity of modern elections. Lance enlists Bernie's aid in creating a cartoon character named Peter President and running him for President of the United States. After Peter's election, people begin to have negative reactions to cartoons because of him. During a meeting with the Consolidated Commerce Conglomeration, Peter unexpectedly takes a firm stand against them, refusing their offer to use his likeness on their products. The conglomerate responds by sending all the India Ink back to India, rendering him catatonic. Lance and Bernie attempt to revive Peter by transporting ink through a tube, only for the result to turn out unsuccessful. They decide to reuse Bernie's animation of Peter for his next press conference. Later, the CCC hires two 1930s gangsters to kill Bernie. Bernie runs into a printing factory in order to escape them, but ends up getting turned into a comic book, so Lance replaces him with a puppet master.
James K. Morrow, Joe Adamson, and David E. Stone were young filmmakers who collaborated on each other's films (some of which won awards) atAbington High School inPhiladelphia,[1] such asIt's an Out of its Mind World andThe Man Who Owned America.[10][11][12] In 1972-1973, the three reunited to createA Political Cartoon under the name "Odradek Productions",[13][3][14][15][16] which Morrow referred to as "another satiric sally against the American republic".[12] The short was made in theBoston suburbs duringRichard Nixon's second inauguration, and stars Alex Krakower, Liam Smith, Marshall Anker, Allen Lieb, George Stapleford, and Bob Kingsley,[1] with Adamson, Morrow,Lindsay Doran, and other crew members portraying additional uncredited roles. Morrow, Adamson and Stone shot principal photography (all the Lance and Bernie scenes and the CCC) and the Panacea commercial atDrew University and inMadison, New Jersey. The living marionette at the end and the press conference were the only scenes shot in Boston environments.[1] The marionette was played by a young girl, with the effect where it manipulates its own strings achieved with the use of a giant pinewood chair.[17][8] Other pickups such as aerial image animation were done inNew York City and inState College, Pennsylvania.[1] The scenes with the 1930s gangsters were achieved using ablack-and-white reversal original, a scratched dupe negative, a positive copy with dust on theA-and-B rolls, a filtered voice track (with Adamson dubbing the second gangster's voice), and a hissing crackle supplied by an old78 record.[18][8]
Peter President and the other cartoon characters were designed and animated by Stone.[16] The astronauts werestop motion models filmed against ablue screen in a video transmission.[18][8] The short features two cameo appearances fromBugs Bunny; one at the beginning where he campaigns on behalf of equal rights for cartoon characters everywhere, and another in which he is interviewed at a pet store, where he is on sale as an "Easter Rabbit".[18][17][7][8] The scenes were animated by Mark Kausler, with the cels inked by Manon Washburn. He was only paid around $400.00 for the work. Kausler received criticism on his animation of Bugs fromLooney Tunes directorsChuck Jones andRobert McKimson, even though he used an old McKimson model sheet.[19] The original version of the script had Bugs as an old rabbit at a retirement home for cartoon characters, similar to Jebediah Leland inCitizen Kane. At one point Bugs would ask for a couple of carrots and for them to be wrapped up to look like cigars. However,Warner Bros. did not want Bugs to be shown as old,[17][8][19][20] so a new scene was written where Bugs was paintingEaster eggs in the Bugs Bunny Easter Egg Factory. Warner Bros. was finally agreeable to this scene, but Kausler objected and refused to animate it. The scenes in which Bugs campaigns on behalf of equal rights for cartoon characters and is interviewed at the pet store were written and submitted to Warner Bros., and were included in the final version of the film.[17][7][8]Mel Blanc recorded the voice while in hospital with a broken leg.[16][19]
At one point during production, Stone and Adamson were in the editing room when the time came to cut the sound effects track for the scene where Lance and Bernie improvise an ink transfusion for Peter. Stone came up with the idea to use existing sound from outtakes, adding that to the sync production sound.[21]
The Kodak Teen-age Movie Award Winners... Where Are They Now?: When Joe Adamson won a second prize in the 1964 Kodak Teenage Movie Awards, he remembers that he had just "given up" film making at the tender age of 18. Ten years later, he has studied, taught and written about film professionally. And together with two fellow teen movie graduates—Jim Morrow and Dave Stone—who worked with him on his '64 winner, he recently completed the combination animation-live action film,A Political Cartoon, being distributed by The Creative Film Society. Adamson, who says his teen award "sort of convinced me I could do things," came out of his early retirement from film to attend UCLA whereIn the Mist of Life, one of the "slew" of films he made as a student, was rated "film poetry of the highest order" by the Los Angeles Free Press.
Joe Adamson is the author of a current book on the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo) and a forthcoming book on Tex Avery, as well as being a prize-winning filmmaker (A Political Cartoon).
Seven years later, Joe, Dave, and I collaborated on another satiric sally against the American republic,A Political Cartoon, a 16mm short presently available on home video (Kino on Video), and in retrospect I see it as a ritualized attempt to rekindle our oldMan Who Owned America collaboration and maybe get it right this time.
A POLITICAL CARTOON 22 min., color, apply sale, $ 20.00 rental, Prod. 1973, Rel. 1974. Director: James Morrow and Joe Adamson. Distributor: Creative Film Society. Producer: Morrow & Adamson. Writer: Morrow & Adamson. Camera: John O'Connor. Music: Harry Buch.
In 1972, three able young filmmakers went about creating a short film about what would happen if the American public elected a cartoon character for president. This idea was concocted during a tumultuous time in our history, and these young lads were inventive and playful. The result wasA Political Cartoon, written and directed by Joseph Adamson and Jim Morrow. David Stone was an aspiring animator who was responsible for designing the character Peter President, as well as other sundry cartoon characters. The filmmakers got permission for Bugs Bunny to appear in the film, and Mel Blanc graciously added his voice. The film was self-produced and minimally financed, and there was a sparse amount of sound effects added. Certainly, there was no Foley. The young men had probably not ever heard the termFoley at that point. The sound effects added were basic and supported the humor of the piece.
The notion of a decrepit-looking Bugs persisting into the year 2000 would likely have been amusing to the artists who producedThe Old Grey Hare, a film that was made in the 1940s when the rabbit was (in cinematic terms) just a few years old and by no means assured of such a legacy. Over time, however, Warner Bros. has become increasingly cautious about such humor. For instance, the co-directors of the independent filmA Political Cartoon (1974) note that, even in the 1970s, there were already concerns about addressing the potential repercussions of Bugs's longevity: "One of our favorite gags was the idea of a well-known cartoon character behind the scenes... [gazing] skyward with wrinkled eyes and [reminiscing] about the old days... Our first script had... a withered and weathered Bugs, wheezing in an old chair [like Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland inCitizen Kane (1941)], peering over his dark glasses and prodding his febrile memory for recollections of tranquility: "Sometimes I see our old films on the TV.... I like to see us, so young and everything.... It's hard to remember back that far." Although Bugs does appear briefly in the finished version—a rare example of a post-studio-era production that managed to get the star on a loan-out—the directors note that their plans for the above scene were politely, but firmly, denied. The New York Warner Bros. office "sent us a very nice letter informing us that they could not allow 'an ageless Bugs Bunny aged' in a movie that children might see".
After college, we collaborated again onA Political Cartoon (1974), a short film shot in 16mm, which I co-directed with Jim Morrow. Dave and I were in the editing room when the time came to cut the sound effects track for a crucial scene: An animated cartoon character had been deprived of his vital India Ink. He was catatonic, and as close to death as a cartoon character could be, so his desperate creators had to improvise anink transfusion. It was Dave's idea to begin the process simply, by dropping in existing sound from outtakes, adding that to the sync production sound, which never would have occurred to me. While working as an inbetweener at a Hollywood animation studio, Hanna-Barbera, Dave got involved professionally with sound editing and became a different kind of artist, creating funny combinations of sounds.
