Anijam

In the middle of the 20th Century, it was fashionable for mystery writers to write round robin novels. Ten to fifteen writers would each write one chapter, and the result was always a chaotic mess. Well, Marv Newland recruited over twenty animators to make a cartoon. Each animated one scene, and apart from the requirement that the character Foska appear at the beginning and end, content was not stipulated; indeed, none of the animators knew what the others were doing. The result will hold your interest, but the whole very definitely is not greater than the sum of the parts.

I first watched this very unusual animated short on the VHS tape called "The International Tournee of Animation, Vol. 1". Produced and directed by Marv Newland of Bambi Meets Godzilla fame, it stars a funny-looking character named Foska who-courtesy of 22 different looking drawn sequences made by 22 animators from around the world-goes through various adventures and is very hard to describe here. Needless to say, this Foska certainly goes through the ringer every time! I've now just seen two different uploads of this on YouTube so it's there if what I just told you whetted your curiosity. Maybe if you make it up to the credits of those animators at the end, you'll want to look at many of their work there too! Okay, I've filled the requisite 10 lines so that's all I've got to say...

This animated short features the work of 22 independent animators from around the world. I'm using "independent" here both in the sense of "independent film" and "working separately."

Each animator created his or her own segment with no knowledge of what any of the others had done, seeing only the last frame of the previous segment.

There is an enormous variety of animation in this film (both in style and subject matter) and it is probable that not all of it will appeal to any one person. But I liked almost all of it a lot and the sections I liked less made a nice contrast. This is definitely not kiddie fodder, however. Keep youngsters out of the room. But, if you like animation for adults and variety in your animation, this is for you.

You can find this film in "The International Tournee of Animation, Volume 1' on VHS tape. It's out of print but worth looking for used.