Begone Dull Care

Backed by a lively score from the Oscar Peterson trio, Evelyn Lambert and Norman McLaren draw a series of random images directly on to the film. Some of these images look recognisable - I'm sure I saw a shovel, castle and an amoeba in there. Others appear more like your are unsuccessfully trying to tune in your television set. Whilst mostly haphazard sequence, there are some symmetries to be seen, too. The piece is split into three sections, each scored to a different tempo and illustrated accordingly at the same pace. There's less going on in the middle one, but the third is an inspired marriage of syncopation and artistry. Definitely one of their better offerings.

This film is one of the better works of abstract animation. McLaren succeeds at precisely timing his drawn-on-film animation to Peterson's music. Also, McLaren's mastery of depth in his painting is wonderful.

These abstractions are tuned to the piano work of Oscar Peterson. While they really have no intrinsic connection, they jump and jive with the music. The colors are vivid and enticing. One should not be too critical of this work because efforts to classify the art just don't go anywhere. Just experience it and enjoy.

With the recent death of jazz great Oscar Peterson, Amid at Cartoon Brew showed his tribute by linking from YouTube two animated shorts scored by him. One was directed by John Hubley. This one, Begone Dull Care, was done by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart with the abstract paint done directly on film. Peterson provides three jazz pieces with the second one just played to white lines on black background and the other two mixed with that and various other colors, mostly red. Wonderful Jackson Pollock-like images that might have inspired many a trip during the '60s! What a great tribute to a recently departed music genius from Canada.

Well, this certainly was different. I doubt most people would like this, but being a fan of abstract art as well as someone who has dabbled in the genre, I thought this was pretty interesting.

It's almost three animated shorts in one, each played to a short piano piece by jazz great Oscar Peterson. The first and third numbers are upbeat and so are the graphics: one colorful image after after nothing bombarded at you as if you were looking through a kaleidoscope.

The middle segment gives us a breather with more just black-and-white and lines moving to the music. It gives the whole animated piece a welcome respite for a couple of minutes.

This is just pure abstract images drawn directly onto the film. This was done long before computers and I can't imagine the number of hours it took Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambert to produce this.

This short was part of the DVD "Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of Canada.