A dark and stormy night in a drugstore. The druggist mixes a potion and falls asleep. The skull-and-crossbones on the bottle comes to life and drips the potion on the druggist.
02 Apr Bottles (1936)
A Mind Ajar
It seems that one major theology of animation concerns the animating (meaning coming to life) of normally inanimate objects.
It is one strain worth tracing, because with today’s film technologies, animals can easily be seen to talk and even wear clothes and such. Its the power to make objects and environments have agency that gives great animation its power. And if you trace the evolution of the idea, you’ll come through this. Its an unimaginative idea: a chemist/druggist mixes a poison, then dreams that it comes alive and evilly threatens him, together with all the other objects in the lab.
As with all early attempts with object life, some of the objects must be juvenile, and the centrepiece here are three baby bottle who whine because their diapers are dirty.
This was made toward the end of prohibition when use of opiates and marijuana became its great rise in popularity in the US, and that’s the not so subtle subtext here.
Unfortunately the animation itself isn’t any great advance.
Posted in 2006
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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