The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Directors:

Chuck Jones
Maurice Noble (co-director)

Writer:

Norton Juster (original story and screenplay)

Release Date:

31 December 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Comedy | Family | Romance

Plot:

A simple line attempts to woo his true love, a dot, away from the unkempt squiggle she prefers. But...

Plot Keywords:

Line | Dot | Squiggle | Surrealism | Abstract Film

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Robert Morley

...

Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

The Dot and the Line (Australia)
The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

Runtime:

10 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | USA:Approved

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

To give the squiggle an unkempt appearance, the animation drawings were inked on rice paper. The ink bled, creating a textured line that was then Xeroxed onto cel.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Once upon a time there was a sensible, straight line, who was hopelessly in love, with a dot.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Great Performances: Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation (#29.4)" (2000)

Overcoming Odds/Abstract Animation

I truly have to admire the works of Chuck Jones. He made a name for himself directing Bugs Bunny shorts for Warner Brothers starting in the 1940's (although he directed many other animated shorts during that era,including animated training films for the U.S. government,some of which featured scripts written by Theodore S.Geisel,later to be known & loved by generations as Dr.Suess),moving on to creating The Road Runner in the 1950's,and moving on even further to working on directing animated programs for television in the 1960's,to animated feature fare in the 1970's. Every now & again, he would surprise us with something different & left of centre. 'The Dot And The Line:A Romance In Lower Mathematics',a short he directed for M-G-M in 1965 is a shining example of this. The story (read by veteran British actor,Robert Morley)is simple:a straight line is madly in love with a dot,who only cares for an abstract squiggle line. This causes the line to re-evaluate his position on things. The concept of abstract animation is by no means a new idea, but Jones (with assistance from co-director/co-writer Maurice Noble)manage to pull it off nicely (the idea for animating abstract images actually hearkens back to silent films in the 1920's,and later augmented by classical music in the 1930's & beyond). Well worth seeking out if you're idea of animation is something that is exclusively for children.