Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From the National Film Board of Canada
Since its establishment in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada has  provided a place for artists to explore innovative styles, content, and media,  especially in animation. Leonard Maltin serves as the genial host of this  overview of the board's work, explaining some of the more recherché techniques  developed there. Jacques Drouin manipulated the shadows of thousands of tiny  steel pins to produce the gray, pointillist images in his striking "Mindscape."  Norman McLaren drew, painted, and scratched images onto the surface of 35mm  film stock as he sought to marry animation, the least spontaneous of art forms,  to the bright, improvisational music of the young Oscar Peterson. These elegant  experiments contrast sharply with the humor of John Weldon's "The Log Driver's  Waltz" and Sheldon Cohen's "The Sweater." "Log Driver's Waltz" is a nutty,  loose-limbed adaptation of a folk song in which a woman reflects that any  dancing partner seems flat-footed compared to a man who can skip over spinning  logs in a river. "The Sweater" presents a warmly nostalgic memoir of boyhood  hero-worship--with a slyly funny ending. As Maltin notes, the NFB has served as  a "kind of academy" that has enabled talented artists to pursue individual  visions of what an animated film can be--an academy that U.S. citizens can only  envy. Complete contents: 1. "Begone Dull Care," 2. "Mindscape," 3. "The Log  Driver's Waltz," 4. "The Cat Came Back," 5. "Getting Started," 6. "The Sweater,"  7. "The Street," 8. "Pas de Deux," 9. "Anniversary." These films are unrated and  suitable for ages 10 and older for some adult themes and unusual imagery.-- Charles Solomon