Manipulation

A drawing of a little man is discarded, but continues to move about blank pages. The artist begins to push him, squeeze him, stretch him, every time he tries for some independence. This leads to some really funny visuals which work well, even though the whole thing is simple in nature.

MANIPULATION is a very simple cartoon with the simplest of animations and a rather straight forward story. Like some of the old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts, there is an animator (in gloves) who spends the short manipulating a simple little stick figure man. Eventually, the stick man jumps off the paper and this is when the cartoon started to get interesting--at about the same time it ended.

While this was decent enough entertainment, the 1991 Oscars didn't seem to have a clear winner when I watched all three nominees one after the other. While all showed merit, none seemed all that distinguished--though of the three, MANIPULATION was actually my least favorite. Not a great year for the genre.

UPDATE 9/09--I just saw one of director Daniel Greaves' other films, FLAT WORLD. It was absolutely brilliant! Oddly, despite being one of the best and most creative animated films I've ever seen, it did NOT get an Oscar!! So, MANIPULATION did and the infinitely superior didn't! What sort of message is this?! See FLAT WORLD!! It is truly Greaves at his finest.

This short won the Academy Award and faced some stiff competition from two shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Any of the three could have won, but it's easy to see why Manipulation did. It's a simply drawn short, but the animation is incredible! The interaction here is great and is also very funny and fun to watch. This was on Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation Volume 2 and is well worth hunting for. Most Highly Recommended.