Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz

a very short flim about a girl and her boyfriend the log driver.after you see and hear this nfb treasure you will be humming the song for a bit yet that is allright. so if you can find this little flim anywhere do yourself a favour and watch it.you will glad you did.

Another little gem from the National Film Board of Canada. Too bad those short films are not better known. This one starts out as a real film, showing log drivers, doing there perilous job on the river. It suddenly turns into a cartoon. And a pretty good one too. Log driving is almost an art, and women love the log driver because he knows how to dance!

The song by Wade Hemsworth is entertaining, fun, lively. Great addition to the Canadian folklore. And it's well interpreted by Kate and Anna McGarrigle and the Mountain City Four. If you can, see this one.

Out of 100, I give it 85. That's good for ***½ out of ****.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on December 15th, 2002.

One of the best known NFB films, the movie mirthfully depicts a woman's decision to turn down chances to dance with doctors, lawyers and tycoons, and instead chooses to dance with a log driver. In this celebration of the men who for generations drove logs from northern forests to sawmills and pulp mills in the South - one of Canada's most important industries - the woman wants to dance with one of the men who scampers over the logs as they hurtle downstream, keeping them from jamming against the shoreline, because he can dance better than any man. This animation short is directed by John Weldon, one of the NFB's most prolific and skilled animators.

This three minute short packs a lot of Canadiana into a small package. The song is darn catchy. It is lots of fun and delivers on the intention of the NFB. It's about a girl who pines for her log driver and his dancing abilities. Not only are there log drivers, but there is a moose and a beaver. This and "The Hockey Sweater" are examples of great Canadian animated shorts that form the foundations of a country.

This is the type of short that would likely not be done without something like the National Film Board of Canada doing the funding, as it really isn't that financially viable. An independent studio would probably be happy to tackle something like it (and some have) if funds aren't a problem. The short is, to all intents and purposes, a music video for the folk song Log Driver's Waltz. It begins with a quite brief live action shot of a log driver at work and changes into animation for the remainder of its length. The music is great, the animation is cute and the whole package is quite charming. This shows periodically on O Canada, when that show is on the Cartoon Network's schedule. Well worth watching. Recommended.