The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

I remember watching this as a young child. It was a real treat to be able to see it, since it wasn't like the other programs I'd watch. Although there was only one Dot and the Line, it was better than the Rugrats. The Dot and the Line will remain a part of what defined my childhood. When I told my friends about this great cartoon, they didn't understand what made it so interesting or funny. The art style alone is enough to try and find this film. The last time I saw it was back in 2000. Flash forward a few years. I'm walking through SF when I find myself at a small sidewalk sale. I take particular interest in one book. The title seems familiar. It's a reprint of Norton Juster's book. If you can find it, the book is just as good.

This opens with Cupid shooting at Dot and missing. Dot is not having Line who is way too straight. Dot is much more interested in having fun with Squiggle. The Line works to prove his worthiness. The big name here is legendary animator Chuck Jones who is the co-director. The narrator is noted actor Robert Morley. I think I remember seeing this some time in my childhood. It has the experimental style of the 60's. It's fun. I do have an idea for an extra scene. Line and Squiggle can have a shape-off. Like bodybuilders, they could pose into various shapes to entice Dot. That would be a great finale.

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.

We don't always get the same narration so I rarely mention it, but here Robert Morley provides a lovely tone to his alliterative narration depicting this most unlikely of love stories. The straight line, dependable and steady, loves the dot. The dot, suitably dotty, fancies the innovative and lively squiggle. This neglect attracts the attention of his fellow lines, but try as they might to make him see sense, he remains wistfully obsessed. Now he just spends him time imagining himself as a much more active and noble creation, but in the end - a line, is a line, is a line... This self deception is no good. Maybe he might as well just admit defeat? He will never be squiggle. Maybe he can be an angle, though? A series of the things? Might dot like this new talent? Well he'd best practice til he can make an infinite number of shapes and even curves. This is all empty though - he needs dot to join in. Can he dazzle her? This is cheerily scored with the subject matter providing Chuck Jones with a veritable myriad of shapes, colours and sizes and though it's maybe a bit repetitive it's still quite a good fun watch and personally, had I'd be line or squiggle I'd have told the fickle dot to get lost!

This short won an Academy Award and justly so. While others have said the scripted narration is not terribly good, I disagree. There are one or two excessively florid points, but Robert Morley's marvellous reading covers those and overall, the scripted narration is good. The animation succeeds in part because of the narration. Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble have every right to be well pleased with this cartoon. Why it isn't in print, I don't understand. Highly Recommended.