Tag: animation

Long Ago and Far Away: “Pegasus” (1991)

26 min. / English / Season 3, Episode 7 / dir. Marek Buchwald / Lightyear Entertainment

“Pegasus” appeared as an episode of the TV program Long Ago and Far Away, which was an anthology show that aired on PBS between 1989 and 1993. It featured fairy tales and short stories narrated by James Earl Jones in the first two seasons, and celebrity guests in later seasons. This episode was also packaged with five others from the series to create a VHS compilation called Stories to Remember, and was also paired later in the 2000s with an episode featuring a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” (also narrated by Mia Farrow) on a DVD.

In this short film, the life story of the winged horse Pegasus is told by famed actress Mia Farrow, who narrates the tale from the perspective of Urania, the Greek muse of astronomy and astrology, and the youngest of the Muses, who struggles to be as musical as her sisters.

The story begins with a recounting of Medusa and her death at Perseus’ hands. From her blood is born the winged horse, who is then captured by Athena and delivered to the Muses on Mount Helicon to be a playmate and companion. Athena stresses that Pegasus is a mortal, not a god, but one destined for greatness that she will return for in time.

Pegasus frolics with the Muses, who tell him that he will someday be a warrior’s steed and may even visit Olympus. Urania prophesizes by looking at her globe that he will actually ascend beyond Olympus someday — a nod to his future role as a constellation. That night, Pegasus takes Urania on a ride through the air on his back and stamps his foot on a rocky point on the mountain, creating a spring (likely the Hippocrene). Urania drinks the spring water and breaks into a song of gratitude.

The next morning, Pegasus is gone. Urania gazes on her globe and sees that Athena has taken Pegasus to Lycia, where the Chimera is terrorizing the people and their land. Athena appears to the hero Bellerophon in a dream (in black and white) and explains his destiny to him. She leaves him tokens – a bridle and a spear – and then Pegasus approaches him. Together they take on the Chimera, attacking its three heads, and finally defeat it by sending the lead spear down its throat. Bellerophon then marries the Lycian princesss and in time becomes king.

As he grows old, Bellerophon hungers for glory and restored youth. In a fit of hubris, he decides to ride Pegasus to Olympus and demand that the gods rejuvenate him. Zeus grows angry at this act and fashions a gadfly out of clay, which stings Pegasus and causes Bellerophon to fall to his death. Pegasus falls and is injured too, but Urania intervenes and, after she begs Zeus to drink from the spring, he is moved to heal the winged horse and to make him his thunder bearer. Pegasus lives a long life in service to Zeus, and when he grows old, the god transforms him into a constellation that can still be seen today.

Mia Farrow’s involvement in this project may very well have been inspired by her role as the voice of the unicorn turned into a human (Amalthea) in the 1982 animated film, The Last Unicorn, which is one of my all-time favorites! The animation in “Pegasus,” by the now defunct Studio Korumi in Tokyo, is not much to marvel at, but the music and writing is rather charming.

More: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15664056/

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The Feats of Hercules [Подвиги геракла] (2000)

13 min. / no dialog (Russian; for English subtitles, visit: https://www.animatsiya.net/film.php?filmid=1252) / dir. Sergei Ovcharov

This film combines live-action human actors with puppets and stop-motion animation techniques to tell the story of the life of Hercules in a comedic fashion. The film’s aesthetic hearkens back to the days of silent film and features Vaudevillian antics and a slapstick style, accompanied by classical music by Wagner, Offenbach and Saint-Saens. It was made as the second part of a series on “Myths” that Ovcharov undertook in 1999, though only four short films were completed (including one on another ancient topic entitled “Pharoah”).

The film utilizes the conceit of vase painting, a common trope in animation about ancient Greece, to situate the story of the hero and bring it to life. It begins with a showcase of somewhat random gods (e.g., Themis, Eros, Hephaestus, Cyclops, Poseidon, Sisyphus?, Dionysus, Asclepius) partaking in their quintessential activities, though in a silly or overblown fashion. We zoom out to see all of this taking place on a massive amphora with the word Olympos etched on it.

Next the screen goes black and the following words appear translated into various languages: “The thunderer Zeus sired the extramarital son Hercules. Zeus’ wife Hera jealously persecuted Hercules. Hercules’ life consisted of cruel violence and worthless feats.” The opening credits appear as well as an image of the hero on a vase, and as it turns we encounter a creepy Greek chorus, who begin to sing in a bombastic manner. Zeus and Hera cavort and watch from the clouds above as the cries of a baby signal the birth of the hero below. Hera gets upset at this turn of events and begins pantomime fighting with Zeus, which parallels the tussling of Alcmena and Amphitryon on earth below. Hera throws the snakes down from heaven and an already full-grown Hercules in a diaper successfully fights them off.

Next Eurystheus arrives and lures the hero to embark on his labors by offering him the club. Hercules pees on his cousin before taking up the club, much to Amphitryon’s delight. Eurystheus leads him onto another vase and to the Nemean lion, which he overcomes. A centaur appears and attacks Eurystheus’ men. A Centauromachy ensues that includes the Centaurs pooping in a projectile fashion toward their enemies. One captured centaur poops so voluminously that it fills the scene. Hercules washes it away with a vase, in a nod to the cleaning of the Augean stables. Scenes of Zeus, Hera, and the chorus observing all of these hijinks are interspersed in these labors.

Hera freezes Zeus in a cloud and conjures up a monster (the Hydra?) out of a storm cloud. After dispatching it handily, he is surrounded by a band of attacking Amazons. They battle but the Amazon queen becomes enamored with him. Eros shoots the unwilling hero with an arrow, and we next see him in women’s clothing, knitting indoors. This seems to be an allusion to the story of Omphale, the Lydian queen who enslaved Hercules and played at cross-dressing with him as a part of their sexual games. After the arrow in his shoulder is retrieved by Eros, he is restored to his old self and attacks the Amazons and some children, killing them all.

We segue to a final vase where the story of Deianeira and the Centaur Nessos plays out. He provides her with a belt that she offers to Hercules in her jealousy at his flirting with some other women. He puts it on and catches fire, then takes off like a rocket to the heavens as Deianeira kills herself in despair. The hero kisses his father Zeus and kisses Hera too, while back on earth we see people celebrating his apotheosis with drinking and dancing (Dionysus and Poseidon make another appearance here). The film ends with a Dionysian revel and a zoom out that shows all of this happening on the Olympos vase with which the film began.

In presenting the story of Hercules as a comedy, Ovcharov maintains a long tradition dating back to antiquity, where the hero was frequently depicted as figure of humorous excess.

More: https://www.animatsiya.net/film.php?filmid=1252

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Ciné Si: “Icare” [Cinema If: Icarus] (1989)

12 min; French (Chinese subtitles); dir. Michel Ocelot

[Note: This film can be viewed with English subtitles on the 2008 DVD, Les Trésors Cachés de Michel Ocelot, but it requires a region 2 DVD player]

Famed French animator Michel Ocelot’s episode “Icare” is one of eight from his 1989 TV anthology series Ciné Si (“Cinema If”) (sometimes also known as Princes et Princesses). It utilizes spare silhouette animation to tell the story of Icarus and his father’s flight of escape from King Minos. The myth is embedded in a larger frame story: every evening, an animated boy and a girl meet in an abandoned cinema to imagine new stories; with the help of an old projectionist and his pet owl, they use computers to choose a historical moment or piece of art as inspiration, then they define their characters, design costumes and music, and act out the stories as the main protagonists.

Ocelot depicts the myth in a positive light that celebrates the ideals of discovery, invention and transformation. Father and son formulate their plan to escape by using feathers to create wings, then make their escape from the labyrinth. Icarus proclaims he wants to be the first mortal to see the chariot of the sun as he flies, while his father pleads with him to save his strength and avoid being burned. After touching the chariot, he falls into the sea, but a dolphin rescues him and carries him to the shore! He then encounters two girls playing ball who resemble the famed Minoan “snake goddess” statuettes. In a scene very reminiscent of Odysseus’ encounter with Nausicaa in Odyssey 6, one girl runs away in fear but the other approaches the youth and welcomes him “to the shores of King Nikeas.” She identifies herself as Kallimera (modern Greek for “Good Morning”), a fish merchant’s daughter, and tells Icarus that she will believe his story of how he came to walk out of the sea if he tells it to her. The film ends with the two figures gazing at one another in profile as a triangular-shaped variation on the “iris out” technique encloses them and romantic music swells.

This romantic spin on the tale is wholly unique, and as the credits roll, a voiceover acknowledges that it is not that of the original. This choice may have softened the story for child audiences, or helped to incorporate a female element in the film.

More: https://web.archive.org/web/20080829185726/http://www.ghibliworld.com/michel_ocelot_interview.html#expand

https://www.michelocelot.fr/icare-en

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The Pink Panther: “Pinky and the Golden Fleece” (1994)

10 min.; Season 2, Episode 13; English

In 1993, MGM/UA rebooted the Pink Panther franchise with a new TV series that lasted two seasons. In this series, unlike in previous ones, the Panther was a speaking character, which was apparently a controversial change.

This episode blends quintessential elements from the epic stories of Jason, Odysseus, Theseus and Perseus to create a silly adventure for Pinky (the Pink Panther), a shepherd who is tending to two sheep, one white and one gold. A burly soldier who identifies himself as Jason appears when Pinky is grooming the pair. He demands the golden fleece for his wife, but is refused, as the sheep belongs to the king.

The two sheep participate in a fashion show and the queen demands that a stole be made for her from the golden fleece. Jason steals the fleece and flees but a strand of its wool leaves a clue, much like Ariadne’s ball of thread, for Pinky and his sheep sidekick to pursue.

Jason escapes by boat and throws food in the water to rouse a sea serpent who tries and fails to eat the pursuing pair. He then retreats to an island where he order some “babes on a half-shell” to sing and seduce his pursuers. These apparent Sirens do slow the two down, but they themselves are seduced by the false offer or a recording contract by Pinky in disguise. Next Pinky and the sheep are lured to a cave where a doofy Cyclops lives. He places them on a rotisserie, but they escape by distracting him with a Viewfinder (which he can’t figure out how to use). [A Cyclops also appears in the episode “Pinkus Pantherus” from the show’s first season.]

Finally they catch up to Jason as he reaches home, only to find that all of the golden sheep’s fleece has unraveled. Jason’s wife grows enraged at this and reveals herself as Medusa. She transforms various things to stone with her zapping gaze, including her husband. Pinky is able to avoid this fate by quickly weaving a wig from the golden fleece for her, which she welcomes with pleasure. He then returns home and tricks the queen by making her stole from his sidekick’s fleece and painting it gold.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pink_Panther_(TV_series)

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