Cheap The World's Greatest Animation (DVD) (Julie Sedgewick) (Nick Park) Price

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Customer Reviews of The World's Greatest Animation

They are: CREATURE COMFORTS (Nick Park - winner, 1990); BALANCE (Lauenstein - winner, 1989); TECHNOLOGICAL THREAT (Kroyer - nominee, 1988); THE CAT CAME BACK (Barker - nominee, 1988); YOUR FACE (Plympton - nominee, 1987); A GREEK TRAGEDY (Van Goethem - winner, 1986); ANNA & BELLA (Ring - winner, 1985); THE BIG SNIT (Condie - nominee, 1985); CHARADE (Minnis - winner, 1984); SUNDAE IN NEW YORK - (Picker - winner, 1983); THE GREAT COGNITO (Vinton - nominee, 1982); TANGO (Rybczynski - winner, 1982); THE FLY (Rofuscz - winner, 1980); CRAC! (Back - winner, 1981); EVERY CHILD (Fedorenco and Lamb - winner, 1979); SPECIAL DELIVERY (Wheldon and Macaulay - winner, 1978).

A thoroughly delightful collection!

Hardly the world¿s greatest ¿ but it has some real gems
The Film Board of Canada picked a pretentious title for this DVD; quite often it justifies itself, but of course not at all times. This is, of course, not 'the world's greatest animation'; it's a collection of animation shorts that were nominated for an Academy Award between 1978 and 1990 - predominantly Canadian. Many of the films are Oscar winners, but from some years only a nominee was included, which makes you wonder who exactly made the selection.

Still, 'The World's Greatest Animation' does indeed boast some masterpiece works. The first one that comes to mind is the celebrated 'Creature Comforts' (1990), a fantastic, hilarious masterpiece of claymotion that set Nick Park (of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run fame) on the road to success. It's not, however, the only creation worthy of notice on the DVD. 'The Cat Came Back' (Cordell Barker, 1988) is a personal favorite of mine; it has a wonderfully stylish, nervous animation style, and great, creative character design (though only two active characters), not to mention hilarious slapstick and a brilliantly catchy title tune. 'Your Face' (1987) is a great musical number by the grand master Bill Plympton ('I Married A Strange Person', 'The Tune' and many others, as well as many of MTV's wonderful animation sequences of the late 80's), and like all of Plympton's work it's devilishly inventive and gloriously naughty; though I wouldn't call it Bill's best (I liked '25 Ways To Quit Smoking'), his animation is always a pleasure and 'Your Face' is a great showcase of his unique talent for those who are not familiar. And 'Charade' (MinVintonis, 1984) is hardly an animation masterpiece, but it's brilliantly, brilliantly funny.

Then, there's the grim, serious stuff. 'Tango' (Rybczynski, 1982) is absolutely ingenious; it put me in a complete trance for a full eight minutes. It's a stroke of creative genius that has to be seen to believed. Then there's 'Balance' (Lauenstein, 1989), which, like many other reviewers noted, can be seen either as an important statement or as pretentious pseudo-philosophy. Whichever way you look at it, it's still visually stunning and very original; and even if you'll find it superficial and pretentious, you won't be able to resist a little smile of amusement at the end of it. Other interesting, thought-provoking works include 'Crac!' (Back, 1981) and 'The Fly' (Rofuscz, 1980).

The collection weakness is that so many of the others seem like fillers. Most of them are amusing and enjoyable, many are very well-made visually, or well written; but in the end, they are very forgettable, and hardly unique. 'A Greek Tragedy' (Van Goethem, 1986), 'Special Delivery' (Wheldon and Macaulay, 1978), 'Sundae In New York' (Picker, 1983), 'Every Child' (Fedorenco and Lamb, 1979) and 'The Big Snit' (Condie, 1985) all fall into that category. On the other hand, 'Anna & Bella' (Ring, 1985) and 'The Great Cognito' (Vinton, 1985) are delightfully original and beautiful, but have absolutely nothing to say. 'Technological Threat' (Koyer, 1988) is so mediocre I can't understand how it made its way into the collection.

For the art and animation student or simply enthusiast, 'The World's Greatest Animation' does contain some must-see material (although many of the best ones can be obtained elsewhere: 'Creature Comforts' can be found on its own self-titled collection of Nick Park shorts, and 'Your Face' can be found on Plympton's collection DVD titled 'Plymptoons'), and is well worth owning. Much of the material, though is not essential, and is good for one watch.

Ideal for the Art/Film Student
Allot of people are confused by the title "The World's Greatest Animation" and think that it is suitible for children or familiy audiences. It is, infact, a collection of astounding and award winning peices filmed world wide. Scenes like "Creature Comforts", "Balance" and "Tango" are visually thrilling and wonderful and those alone are worth the purchase of the DVD/VHS. I would recomend this for any aspiring artist, film maker and professional as it is an ecclectic visual wonder. Again, for those looking for good clean family entertainment...enter in a Disney title or something...