raymondo1960

A Cantinflan-esquire hero named 'Pepito' woos a Latina beauty, but learns that one must be careful what they ask for, since they just might receive it! I saw a rough print (sadly, all that survives) thanks to historian Jerry Beck's Cartoon Brew. I'm stunned at the quality of this delightful stop motion short (made using replacement figures; IE: a separate figure or limb for each frame of movement) which gives the animation a rubbery quality that's absent from techniques which use jointed figures. Scored by Disney composer Paul Smith, miniature sets designed by Bernyce Polifk (whose minimalist designs grace many later WB cartoons) figure work was carried out by veterans of Disney and George Pal's Puppetoons, I can't recommend this film highly enough.

Outstanding experimental animated short. First a few words explaining this film's technique. Ito took a series of still photographs in a gymnasium setting up his camera incrementally in a circle. He then took photos of those photos mounted on stands in the same gymnasium (again in a circle) He then photographed these onto film in stop motion. The striking (and somewhat unnerving) effect is that you are flying into an infinite array of photos within photos. When I saw this as part of a program of avant garde Japanese film, one viewer brought their toddler, who immediately began to wail uncontrollably at the vertiginous display. If you ever get a chance to view this, please do, but don't sit too close to the screen or you may get motion sickness!

I was entranced by this film when I saw it a kiddie matinee in the 60s, and upon repeat viewings it is truly wonderful. I just don't understand why this film has not been given a proper treatment in the west. I've seen three english versions; the original US release with Art Linkletter was what I saw in the theater. A few years ago I chanced upon a strange version with the original elf narration restored, but with portions of the score dropped out to make way for horrible contemporary pop songs. Thirdly there was a version shown on PBS sans Linkletter, but with an entirely new soundtrack, which fared better than the pop version I mentioned (though not much better) Still the imagery is fabulous regardless of which botched presentation it is, and I would go out of my way to see an unadulterated version even without the benefit of translation.