Research Agenda

[beamjockey]

From last week's episode of Futurama, "Reincarnation:"

PROFESSOR FARNSWORTH: Why are the laws of physics what thay are, instead of some other laws? To find out, we'd have to re-create the conditions before the Big Bang-- it would take decades of work by thousands of scientists, and a particle accelerator powered by dump trucks of flaming grant money-- of course, there'd be no guarantee of success, and in any case, I'd never live to see it!

LEELA: I'm surprised you lived through that sentence!

The episode consisted of three stories, each animated in a style radically different from Futurama's usual style.

I particularly liked the first, a black-and-white outing resembling 1930s cartoons, particularly those of the Fleischer Studios (home of Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, and Popeye). Pie-cut pupils, check. Everybody bouncing up and down on spindly arms and legs, check. White four-fingered gloves, check. (But Bender, a robot with only three fingers on the ends of his arms, wore three-fingered gloves.) All these might be expected.

What wowed me was a very brief shot where Fry is hopping across the surface of a comet. The background and foreground of the landscape revolve past (with the help of computer-generated imagery, I'm sure) just as though they were three-dimensional objects... and exactly as though they had been created with the "stereo-optical" process Max Fleischer invented to combine animation cels with 3-D miniature sets. (See U. S. Patent 2,054,414 here.) This process was seen in such films as Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves and Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor.

The folks at Futurama know their animation history.

Comments

[planettom.livejournal.com]

I liked in the 1930s one, with everyone bouncing up and down, how the professor had a crank to make the telescope go up and down to time with Leela's motions while looking through the telescope.

For anyone who missed the episode, at least at the moment, you can view it here.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the Superman shorts. Those used the same fantastic animation technologies you mention for those two wonderful Popeye featurettes. Some of the finest animation ever made. When people move the wrinkles and shadows on their clothes change.

I was showing _Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor_ at MarCon many years ago, during a lull in the video room's scheduled programming. Someone walked in, stared for a moment, then proclaimed "That's a three-level shot! Only Disney could do a three-level shot!" then turned around and walked out in a huff.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Along these lines, here's something else from a few short years ago that's mighty impressive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxFyu_U2go

Directed by a couple of guys from "The Simpsons," apparently. The Cabbin' around bit at the beginning goes on a trifle long, and after that everything is just right. The Fleischer riffs, general and specific, fly hard and fast, and the wall of faces near the end is (imo) a tribute to the non-repeating background they panned over in the "St. James Infirmary Blues" part of "Snow-White."

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Matt Groening productions are remarkably sophisticated, under the shallow surface (a little like the best of The Onion.)
There is at least one entire web site devoted to Stanley Kubrick references in The Simpsons. Kubrick was a big Simpsons fan (your weird factoid for the day: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/1999/jul/16/stanleykubrick2).
http://www.simpsonsfolder.com/library/stanley_kubrick.html
http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id40.html (at the very bottom)
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-218204.html

other references from Tom Jones to The Ten Commandments to Psycho
http://www.joeydevilla.com/2007/09/22/simpsons-scenes-and-their-reference-movies/
http://www.snpp.com/guides/movie_refs.html
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=218204
http://animatedtv.about.com/cs/lists/a/movspoofs.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFHDIMLIWgg


During an argument over whether they ever enjoyed foreign films, Marge said, "Come on, Homer, you liked 'Rashomon' " -- and Homer replied, "That's not how I remember it."

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I was also very impressed by the Simpsons episode "Angry Dad: The Movie" in which the family goes to a bunch of awards ceremonies because Bart's short film is winning awards.
The Simpsons animation team did very credible clips from short films in the style of Pixar, Aardman Studios, and a few nods to other animation styles that I've seen before but don't know the name of.
It was cute when Lisa shook hands with Nick Park, his fingers came off, he stuck them back on and commented "No problem. I'm more clay than man now."

[planettom.livejournal.com]

Your post here made me hunt down the "Popeye Meets Sindbad" and "Popeye as Aladdin" cartoons, which I hadn't seen in years.

And the Sindbad one has 3 distinct parts that use that stereo-optical process, first where Sindbad is walking around his island, then the takeoff of the roc, then Popeye in the dark cave.

Then I watched the Popeye as Aladdin one, and was startled to find I couldn't find any use of the stereo-optical process. I must have missed it, I thought, so I watched it again. Nope. Still a good cartoon, of course.

Then I came back here to reread your post and noticed you didn't say Aladdin, you said Ali Baba! D'oh!