The Animation List Discussion & Suggestions (Genre Project)

[matrixschmatrix]

Damn, I knew that would come up. I don't think the industrial clear cropping thing is important or particularly germane, and I don't think it really affects the movie as a whole- it just stuck out a bit as one of the last images in the movie. It's clearly just a sort of visual gag that's meant to represent progress, I just wonder if that's really a form of progress that's particularly desirable (as opposed to all of Flik's other innovations throughout the movie, which seem entirely positive.) I think also that I was rereading a discussion about Pixar a while ago, and Brian C had mentioned A Bug's Life as a movie in which they sort of unintentionally muddled the meaning at the end, so I was considering that while watching.

Obviously, though, it's a direction in which I am primed to think. Generally speaking, I feel as though the Pixar movies (moreso than the Disney ones) work well thematically and create worlds that I'm fairly happy with, but it seems as though with the early ones in particular, there are pieces of them that don't fit what they were going for- usually not in the unreconstructed replication of old ideology Disney sometimes does, but in creating new and interesting worlds that perhaps have fallout from their cosmology that haven't really been thought about. I think the intended meanings of these movies are certainly present- the value of friendship and cooperation and accepting risk and so forth, and a delightful focus on the creation of non-nuclear families that becomes more and more of a theme later (Up is really marvelous in that respect) but I may forget to talk about those ideas just because they seem clear and like something that was successfully written into the movie and communicated to the viewer. It's the parts that seem like accidents that seem particularly noticeable, and which seem worth debating if anyone has an alternate take on them.

[Mr Sausage]

Debating the merits of the industrial revolution because of five seconds (if that) of footage is kind of overkill, tho', right? Reminds me of professors who teach Mansfield Park by spending all of their lecture hours discussing slave labour in the West Indies because there's a sentence in that novel that says the family patriarch has business holdings in that area.

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, it's totally incidental in that case. I just thought it was kind of funny, not that it's the secret heart of the movie or anything, and it's not a movie that seemed to have all that much else to be said about it.

Though the whole representation of ants as a cowed people seems like a strange choice, dependent on taking away their mandibles and stingers- I always think of the ants from The Once and Future King, where they're sort of metaphorical fascists, highly aggressive and industrialized. Though the conformism is common to both versions. Has anyone seen Antz? Is that a similar read on what ants are like?

[knives]

Antz is a bit more anthropological in it's depiction. I actually prefer it over Pixar's Seven Samurai retread though both aren't even in my top thousand animated films so little thought is being paid from me.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'd say more Magnificent Seven than Seven Samurai, actually, since the bad guys live in some sort of Tijuana made from a sombrero (and there are a few quotes from Bernstein in the music.) I actually quite like the idea of a version of that story in which the focus and the majority of the defensive innovation is on a townsperson, which avoids the tricky sort of imperialism/paternalistic stuff that arose from the translation process of Magnificent Seven. Apparently, from the bonus materials in A Bug's Life, that improvement wasn't part of the original plan, as the main character had been one of the circus performers throughout the original conception of the film.

[Mr Sausage]

The ants in Antz (ugh) were a lot more militaristic, if I remember, and there was less of a sense of a "benign dictatorship" like you get in Bug's Life and more of a totalitarian structure (tho' it still isn't a patch on this, where the ants even form Roman cohorts at one point).

[knives]

If we're getting into specifics on what version of what the film is a less funny The Three Amigos is probably the most accurate.

[karmajuice]

Incidentally, the best film about ants is Phase IV. But that's a live-action film so I guess that's getting a little off-topic.

[bamwc2]

Incidentally, the best film about ants is Phase IV.

Wrong.

[life_boy]

I apologize for posting the latter half of this list first (I intend to cover all of Avery's earlier MGM shorts soon, 1941-1949) but I had already started/abandoned this project during the 1950's list and resuscitated it for this list/thread. I watched these in chronological order and re-watched a few earlier ones that I knew were being retread. Even though Avery's 1940's work generally seems more stocked with masterpieces, he maintains a high level across the 1950's, with the lowest moments being those most obvious retreads of previous (generally mediocre) cartoons and the frustratingly dull of Tomorrow series. But even the dullest of Avery cartoons usually can manage at least one solid gag or moment. I'm not sure when I'll get through the 40's shorts as I'm a little zanied out at the moment; hopefully I will finish it before the July 1 list due date.

My recommendations are in red.

Tex Avery at MGM, part 2 (1950-1957)
Ventriloquist Cat (1950)
A cute premise but ultimately kind of forgettable Avery. In fact, after I watched several Avery’s for this I had literally forgotten everything about this one. I had to reference it again just to remind myself of the cleverish cat-throwing-his-voice-for-the-dog premise, which is basically Bad Luck Blackie with a special whistle. It would go on to be completely remade 7 years later in CinemaScope as Cat’s Meow.

The Cuckoo Clock (1950)
I love the existential angst of the voice-over narration and then the ambiguous ending (did a cartoon finally bite it?). The little-guy-beats-up-big-guy theme was a favorite of Avery and would be seen a few times over (it’s basically what makes Droopy who he is), and even though it doesn’t offer me the same laughs-per-minute ratio as something like Magical Maestro, I am still really fond of this cartoon. The recurring motif of the injured appendage with that violin noise is gold.

Garden Gopher (1950)
Run-of-the-mill Avery with Spike the dog battling a belligerent gopher. A few laughs but very minor Avery.

The Chump Champ (1950)
Spike vs. Droopy in feats of strength. A common scenario but I have some fondness for this one because I think the gags are strong and then the reversal at the end is a nice payoff. It also gives Droopy one of his best punchlines.

The Peachy Cobbler (1950)
Just a collection of tiny-elves-fixing-shoes gags. It is actually surprisingly endearing and the running joke with the roller skate speeding by and splashing shoe polish on the nice dress shoe is classic. This one grows on you because it is so good-natured, a nice turn for Avery.

Cock-a-Doodle Dog (1951)
A run-of-the-mill Avery that steps above that just a bit for the reversal at the end. Even though Avery might play on the same theme in multiple shorts, he wasn’t afraid to flip the script on the trope.

Daredevil Droopy (1951)
This is Chump Champ in a circus. I just realized the one I saw had some "offensive" gags cut out so it works even less effectively and feels very much like a collection of barely associated vignettes.

Droopy’s Good Deed (1951)
Chump Champ in a boy scout camp. The dadaist anti-climax was pretty good, though.

Symphony in Slang (1951)
This is one of those cartoons that was absolutely inevitable, and it is quite fitting that Avery went there (presumably first, I don’t know and frankly, don’t care). The premise is a guy who gets to heaven and starts recalling his life but the gatekeeper can’t understand the guy because he’s speaking in slang. The whole movie then becomes a brilliant deconstruction of American lingo and a literal expression of common phrases, beginning with the more overt slang (“I couldn’t cut the mustard”) and then subtly gets into turns of phrase that everyone pretty much says (“I drank a cocktail”, “I carried on”, etc.). It sounds like a premise that would work better on paper than on-screen, but Avery keeps things moving and ends up stringing enough phrases together where you have no idea what is coming next or how he can keep it up. He doesn’t let anything slip through unnoticed and is able to build up a great post-modern treatise on the insanity of language.

Car of Tomorrow (1951)
Avery did a few of these "...of Tomorrow" cartoons; this one is really just a collection of literal puns related to automobiles. Symphony in Slang did it all better and is much funnier. I found this one to be a bit of a clunker.

Droopy’s Double Trouble (1951)
A one-joke short with Droopy and his twin, Drippy, as butlers in charge of watching over a mansion. Droopy’s sensitive side comes through in this as he tries to show compassion to the down-on-his-luck Spike, not knowing that Drippy has been given the task of keeping strangers off the property. So, Drippy basically punishes Spike for his existence every time he sees him. Spike goes insane at the end. Features a great gag with the twin Droopys and two adjoining doorways.

Magical Maestro (1952)
An absolute masterpiece and my favorite Tex Avery cartoon. Those who feign offense at old cartoons that make any play on ethnic or cultural signifiers conveniently forget that the whole premise of a cartoon like this is a dog singing opera. Equality is found under the spell of magic stereotyping. But beyond all that is the ratatat barrage of gags that build into a crescendo of chaos. The way the rabbits keep popping up; the Dadaist attack on class and culture (the opera patron happens to have an anvil in his box seat); the hair in the gate. It is all pitch-perfect. This one shreds me every time.

One Cab’s Family (1952)
There are plenty of clever gags in this one as it relates to the anthropomorphism of the automobile. I’ll take this over Pixar’s Cars any day of the week, both as entertainment and as social commentary. And it’s only 6 minutes long. Not top tier Avery but still very enjoyable.

Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952)
One of the Spike as hero cartoons where some unnamed dog forces Spike to volunteer for a job that gets him out of the pound. The whole scenario is built around this other dog torturing Spike to get the hibernating bear (who seems so sensitive to noise) to wake up and beat Spike up/fire him. In true Avery fashion, each gag is a way to bring pain and force Spike to shout out. The cartoon is funny by itself but it sort of becomes obsolete after watching the superior Deputy Droopy, which borrows the same basic structure (and even a couple of gags) but doubles the zaniness and hilarity. But, to its credit, Rock-a-Bye Bear does have a fantastic final reversal. Also, I love Spike jaunty snow-shoe walk up the driveway after he gets the job.

Little Johnny Jet (1953)
A little bit of a One Cab’s Family retread with airplanes instead of cars (hey Disney, there’s an idea!), with the kid being a jet instead of a hotrod. Apart from some light humor at the anthropomorphic airplane setup, this really doesn’t feel like an Avery comedy until the airplane race.

T.V. of Tomorrow (1953)
The only thing that keeps this from becoming a completely lifeless retread of Car of Tomorrow is Avery’s deep-seated annoyance at the proliferation of TV; this one has a much more cynical undertone than the other "...of Tomorrow" shorts. It still falls mostly flat for me, with the one exception being a fantastic joke with a character showing off the variety of channels (the same western TV show is playing on every channel) before going to a first run theater where the movie turns out to be the same western from TV. A great gag in a forgettable cartoon.

The Three Little Pups (1953)
More jokes on television as the 3 Little Pigs story gets revisited with Droopy housing the other dogs in his brick and steel home so they can watch TV. Run-of-the-mill but still pretty enjoyable.

Drag-a-Long Droopy (1954)
Western-themed Droopy cartoon where Droopy is a sheep-herder and the wolf is a cow herder and they battle over the land. Several clever gags keep this one moving along rapidly. I especially like the shootout.

Billy Boy (1954)
Avery has some fun with the animal-who-eats-anything premise: in this one, a goat who just lawnmows across the landscape to the chagrin of a stuttering farmer. The funniest image is the goat being tied inexplicably to a kite; the funniest gag is the goat being set in front of a railroad track to eat his way to California.

Homesteader Droopy (1954)
Another western-themed droopy that finds some pretty good laughs with an automatic homesteader kit and a mounted moose head. I enjoyed the anachronistic humor and the play on the western movie cliché “It’s the law of the west.” Also a great moment with the wagon circling itself and the Indians becoming merry-go-round riders.

The Farm of Tomorrow (1954)
A nice joke with the toaster-like incubator and a couple of good visual puns at the end can’t make up for a lifeless premise on its last legs. A total bore. Thankfully, this is the final of the “…of Tomorrow” cartoons.

The Flea Circus (1954)
A flea circus falls apart after a dog walks in. It is unique in Avery’s collection for being more strictly narrative-driven than a gag vehicle, though the narrative is still pretty thin. It is a cute little cartoon that doesn’t give much beyond a couple of light chuckles, though its good-natured charm is enough to keep it from being a total bore.

Dixieland Droopy (1954)
What begins as a fairly harmless and humorous story of a dog trying to play his Dixieland record while he pretends to conduct the band turns into a fascinating comment on musical stardom: Droopy gets all the credit while the real band, the fleas living on his rear, are unknown. It also features a hilarious gag with an unorthodox musical toupee. Not a great cartoon but a fun one with a nice conceptual catch at the end.

Field and Scream (1955)
Taking the same tired, vignetted structure of the “…of Tomorrow” shorts and making it only slightly more amusing, Field and Scream doesn’t improve upon the hunting jokes of Lucky Ducky or include any of its self-reflexive brilliance. There is a nice bit with an elephant gun, but it is mostly a misfire.

The First Bad Man (1955)
Avery dreams up what prehistoric Texas might have been like and gives us the story of the first outlaw, Dinosaur Dan. It is a decent premise that doesn’t get carried quite as far as it should.

Deputy Droopy (1955, co-driected with Michael Lah)
Going back to his roots a little bit, Avery gives us another great cartoon in the “don’t wake the sleeping character” premise of Rock-a-Bye Bear. But, he also improves on that short by having two characters tortured by Droopy’s string of zany assaults. The two would-be robbers play off of each other as they argue and repeat their own mistakes and even switch heads at one point. The whole thing is comic chaos and the ending (which was easy to spot) becomes subverted by Avery’s refusal to end the joke until Droopy gets the final punchline.

Cellbound (1955, co-directed with Michael Lah)
This was one of my favorites as a kid and it still works quite well. After spending twenty years digging his way out of prison one spoonful at a time, Spike accidentally takes refuge inside the TV the prison warden gets as an anniversary present to his wife. With his bag of costumes, Spike must act out all the programs the Warden tries to watch.

Millionaire Droopy (1956)
A shot-for-shot remake of Wags to Riches, this time in CinemaScope and produced by Hannah & Barbera. I’m not sure what the story is behind these two CinemaScope cartoons (contractual obligation, artistic burnout or both) but they don’t even look like Avery’s other MGM cartoons. The originals have a more delicate color scheme and interesting backgrounds while the CinemaScope shorts have bolder colors and the looser backgrounds that will become commonplace as American studio animation moves into the 60’s.

Cat’s Meow (1957)
Same as above: a shot-for-shot remake of Ventriloquist Cat, this time in CinemaScope and produced by Hannah & Barbera. It was already one of Avery’s weaker cartoons so this offered me nothing. It was actually pretty depressing and feels nowhere near as lively as the original even though the audio may be the exact same.


Tex Avery at Walter Lantz Productions (1954-1955)
Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1954)
Avery definitely takes a different stylistic approach with the character animation in this first Lantz short, adopting a much more angular rendering of his subjects. Absurdity is still rampant and even though the final reversal is pretty obvious, it was funny to see.

I’m Cold (1954)
Avery has a new character to play with and has some fun subverting his normal routine. Here, Chilly Willy (the cold penguin) is trying to sneak into a coat warehouse to steal furs while the knowing watchdog displays a restrained ability to undo everything Willy tries to accomplish. The fun of the cartoon is the power play dynamic between the dog and penguin and not the full on torture one inflicts on the other (as was Avery’s norm). A pleasant cartoon.

The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955)
What begins as a retread of Deputy Droopy with a mix of I’m Cold turns into a really funny expression of cartoon immutability. A guard dog is keeping watch over a supply of fish while a hungry polar bear must overcome the extra obstacles added by Chilly Willy to avoid having the dog bite him. Thankfully, Avery keeps things fresh by adding some wonderful gags, including a scorcher with a clarinet. The final reversal takes a surprisingly sentimental turn, as the dog and polar bear are not able to live without each other.

Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955)
A really brilliant premise for a cartoon, that basically takes the playful approach to loudness and silence from Rock-a-Bye Bear and Deputy Droopy and flips them with the character inside the room being unable to stop the noises outside. Here, the character has been traumatized by trombone music and his doctor sends him away to a special silent resort for peace and quiet. Naturally, his hotel neighbor turns out to be a trombone player who cannot be stopped despite the character’s best efforts that become more and more loud and always backfire. A fantastic twist at the end leads to the character’s literal disintegration. This is essentially Avery’s last cartoon (though imdb lists the two CinemaScopes as 1956 and 1957) and I find it to be wonderfully inventive, proof to me that had Avery continued animating shorts (even at Lantz), he would have still been able to produce quality cartoons with clever gags and premises.

[matrixschmatrix]

Ratatouille

I think that I would automatically find delightful any movie that manages to express so much about the importance of art and the function of criticism in the context of a children's movie, without ever losing the sense of pacing and movement that keeps children's movies so easy to watch- and Ratatouille certainly succeeds on that level. Everything that expressed how much great food could mean, and how much the quest for great food can drive someone with a real sense of artistry, worked pretty marvelously- particularly given that a.) I have a horribly un-refined palate and b.) it's trying to express something that seems fundamentally un-visual. Beyond that, it's a fleet movie, and though some of the action scenes seem at best tangentially related to the plot, they never drag on overmuch, and they do at least reinforce the sense of constant threat that faces Remy in trying to exist in a space designed to reject him.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with the message of the movie, as stated by Ego ("Not everyone can be a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere"), and it plays into an aspect of the movie that I didn't especially like, viz. that it sort of denies the collaborative nature of art- it shows us that the kitchen has many movie parts, each of whom is creative in their own right, but in terms of actually creating the great meals in the movie, every decision must be left to Remy or it will implicitly come out wrong- the reject of Collette's every suggestion rubs me a bit wrong, and it doesn't seem to be that the idea there is simply that she always wants to revert to Gusteau's' way of doing things, but that she simply doesn't have greatness in her and therefore can't contribute. The message is simultaneously populist and elitist, and I think the elitism is a bit troubling. I liked very much Collette's speech about how much the kitchen was designed to make it impossible for a woman to work there, and how difficult it was for her to create a place for herself, but it seemed as though that idea as it pertained specifically to her wasn't followed up upon. I think the idea with how she approaches cooking may be that part of her struggle has been that she has been pushed into absolute conformity- as expressed by her statement that one should follow Gusteau's recipes precisely, and horror when Linguini does not. If so, the fact that she is shut down continually, and that we never get a moment in which she actually does get to experiment and create something new on her own terms obscures that. The kitchen under Remy doesn't seem to be fundamentally different from the kitchen before him; he gives orders, and those orders are followed, and we don't get to see a place that encourages constant new ideas and experimentation (which, ironically, is very much what Pixar itself seems to have been as a studio for a long time.) I think I like Gusteau's expression of "everyone can be a chef" better, where he was genuinely encouraging the artistry in everyone- perhaps we're meant to understand that Ego still doesn't understand the motto.

I'm also genuinely not sure of what to make of the theme about how rats normally live by theft, and how that was not ok- if it's a representation of the idea that rats shouldn't be satisfied with their place in being downtrodden, and should carve out a space with the human world as Remy does, it's a bit of a muddy one, and if it's simply and flatly that living as rats do is wrong, it seems strangely judgmental (it seems perfectly just to rob people who are trying to murder you all the goddamn time.) But I think the reconciliation of the sort of Sons and Lovers theme of conflict between the working class father and the artistically driven son worked quite well, and I was happy that we don't see Remy simply casting off the world of rats and becoming effectively a small human.

I also really enjoyed the idea that, however much he may lack in great talent, Linguini is a worthwhile and important figure simply due to his willingness to trust a rat, his kindness, and his genuine displays of friendship towards him- the movie veers a bit towards what I would say are the expected beats for any Cyrano style story, in which the one being fed the lines becomes arrogant and forgets or begins to resent the source of his abilities, but it never commits to them far enough to detract from his essentially self-deprecating and lovable character, nor does it punish him for having been involved in deception. He is a decent man, and he deserves his happy ending.

[movielocke]

I don't know about S-h-h-h-h-h, as an introvert, it really freaked me out and I didn't find anything particularly fun about the cartoon zany-torture of a victim, which I usually have no problem with, but Shhhh seemed to be especially one sided, with the victim never being able to effectively retaliate nor defend themselves.

[knives]

I think that's a problem that Avery in his MGM period has in general. He's extraordinarily cruel for the sake of it ignoring any sense of cartoon fairness (this is also a problem that Jones fell into though he usually allowed the victim to be the one to tie the noose). That's probably why I love his inventions like Droopy which circumvent this issue so well while not removing any of the cartoon brilliance.

[movielocke]

I would say that I found "I'm Cold" to be the best of the Lantz/Avery output, brilliantly funny throughout.

[movielocke]

Finished Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection 1. High Diving Hare is definitely the best film of the disc with Bully for Bugs a close second, but not quite as great. The legendary films, Rabbit of Seville, Rabbit of Seville, Long Haired Hare, Rabbit Seasoning, Wabbit Twouble, are all good but not peak great films for LT, and I feel that there are better variations of some of these, if I recall correctly.

I think I'll probably try to bounce through all the GCs looking for the standout cartoons to try and finish more before the end of the month, anyone have any favorites from the GCs that they want to suggest?

[colinr0380]

Duck Amuck on volume 1 (aka the one where Daffy is tormented by the unseen animator), Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (volume 1) and Robin Hood Daffy on volume 3 (yoiks and away! *CRASH* yzoinks annd awaaayy *CRASH* yzzznks a-awy *CRASH*, etc) are high on my list, as is Feed The Kitty, also on volume 1.

What is the title of the one with Bugs and the Genie? Or Bugs playing a matador in a bullring? Both featuring Bugs lost on his way to various holiday destinations. Those are great too!

[movielocke]

Duck amuck will be my highest ranked LT.

Feed the kitty will also probably be on the list.

[Gregory]

...anyone have any favorites from the GCs that they want to suggest?

Far too many to list! My love of countless shorts (but relatively few animated features) makes this list incredibly tough if not impossible. For the Looney Tunes problem, I'm planning to stick mainly to my favorites by McKimson and Clampett, whose stand-out cartoons I just couldn't leave off, and then add a few more by Jones and others.

Since Bugs has come up, A Wild Hare (which leads off Vol. 2 of the Platinum Collection) is absolutely essential viewing. Directed by Avery but it's pure McKimson; Avery didn't even want to make another Bugs cartoon after this one but was forced to! One definitely can't rely on looking at who directed to see where the creativity came from. This period of 1940-43 was when Bob McKimson essentially developed the character we know as Bugs. Here's Bob's model sheet from 1943. It's worth studying these things to see how the characters and styles changed.
So much of the character and his interplay with adversaries like Elmer was established in A Wild Hare, obviously, and it eventually became such a well-worn template that one could easily overlook how much this one excels in nearly every moment. I love the early Bugs when he was still the crazy underdog, before he evolved to be so much about confident, aloof, lazy self-assuredness (I still like the cartoons featuring that version of Bugs, just not as much). It started to seem like they put Bugs in formulaic scenarios and then had him almost directly comment on that "routine" and create endless variations of it that had less enjoyable animation and writing compared to the older stuff.

And speaking of Jones, he did some great things with Bugs beyond the always-mentioned Duck Amuck (that's assuming that Bugs's personality was an inspiration for all the torments in DA, as revealed at the end). For example, check out Barbary Coast Bunny, an especially good later one, from 1956 (Platinum Collection Vol. 2, Disc 2) and Long-Haired Hare, from 1949 (Disc 1).

What is the title of the one with Bugs and the Genie?

You must mean A-Lad-in His Lamp, a great McKimson that has very good odds of making my list.

Or Bugs playing a matador in a bullring?

Bully for Bugs, a Chuck Jones one, which movielocke mentioned. This one is great as well.

[swo17]

George Grosz meets M.C. Escher on De Chirico Street: a couple of masterpieces by Georges Schwizgebel:

Fugue
Jeu

These were stunning. Is there perchance a DVD available of any of the director's work?

[zedz]

I wish there was, but not to my knowledge. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, though.

[Saturnome]

There is. I have "Les Films de Georges Schwizgebel" released by the NFB. It includes everything from 1974 to 2004. online store
There's one more recent Schwizgebel film included on a blu-ray compilation called "Animation Express".

[swo17]

Glad I asked, thanks! Are there any other good DVDs available exclusively from that site that you'd recommend getting in the same order? I see for example that they have the Best of the Best set that's OOP and quite expensive from Image.

[bamwc2]

Oh, thank God, Swo. I thought that you were saying that this classic was OOP.

[zedz]

Glad I asked, thanks! Are there any other good DVDs available exclusively from that site that you'd recommend getting in the same order? I see for example that they have the Best of the Best set that's OOP and quite expensive from Image.

Great! Another webstore that doesn't really want to be bothered with your custom! Can anybody find a way to get beyond the dozen or so new releases that come up when you enter the store? I remember when the McLaren set was first announced that the NFB was ill-equipped to deal with international orders, and times don't change.

Swo, if the Joyce Weiland box set is available from the NFB (it's actually issued by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre) you may want to consider that.

EDIT: I see what the problem is now: the top and side bars that you need to navigate the site only appear when you click on the institutional link. So yes, you can order DVDs from the NFB, but only if you're prepared to pay $200 a pop!

EDIT 2: Wow, this site is a nightmare! Although there's a tab for Animation, you can't get a list of all their animation titles. Instead, you get a page of a handful of 'Featured Titles'. You can also look at further vaguely themed selections of animation ('Animation for Children', 'Critical Thinking' and 'Fairy Tales'). In none of those groupings does the Schwizgebel disc appear - you have to search for it by name. Even their jewel in the crown, the huge Norman McLaren box set, isn't discoverable through the 'Animation' tab! In other words, good luck trying to figure out what they have that's worth ordering. I did stumble across 'Complete Pinscreen Works - Jacques Drouin', which sounds terrific.

If you aren't seeing the navigating sidebar, keep refreshing your page until it appears at random!

[swo17]

I'm able to add items to my cart in the $20-25 range.