Weird 3d NFB animated short(any canadians in here?)

[Mike D]

A while ago I saw an animated short on late night CBC. It was computer
animated, but still VERY NFB looking. It starts out with him shooting a cow
from cannon into a painting. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen!
Towards the end he starts singing opera stuff and it's a "room inside a box
inside a room inside a box" sort of thing. Does any have ANY idea what I'm
talking about? Any info? Artists? name of the short? ANYTHING?

Thanks

[Chris Sobieniak]

That was "La Salla." It was animated by Richard Condie, who also
produced the academy nominated The Big Snit in '83, The Aprentice in
'91, and several other shorts for the NFB's "Prairie" studios in
Winnipeg.

La Salla was nonimated for an Oscar in '96. Unless your Canadian, you
may be able to find it on video somewhere up there. Here in the US, it
has been seen on Cartoon Network's "O Canada" program (shown Sunday
Nights at 12:30 AM EST).

Chris S.
-An American in love with the NFB aniamtions. If only there were more
videos of them around here.

[Mike D]

Thanks for the Info! It's all coming back to me now. I remember the title
now that you mention it.

Isn't it the funniest thing you've ever seen?! hehe

I'm sure it will be on CBC again sometime soon. They've been playing a load
of NFB shorts lately, only about half of them have been animated stuff
though (most of the live action NFB stuff creeps me out!)

I see them on PBS from time to time too. I guess NFB stuff makes good
"filler" for some stations. Though I'd love to see an NFB channel! ALL
SHORTS! ALL THE TIME!! How cool would that be? I could watch the black flies
and cat came back ones a trillion times in a row and still love them.

[Chris Sobieniak]

Dear Mike,

On rec.arts.animation, you wrote:
<<Thanks for the Info! It's all coming back to me now. I remember the
title now that you mention it.>>

Funny how well I can help anyone with my knowlege of animation. Around
here in Toledo, there's not a lot of anime nuts as I am.

<<Isn't it the funniest thing you've ever seen?! hehe>>

The only part I'd never understand was how the subtitles come on a bit
delayed from the character singing them. Reminds me of getting a poorly
done fansub (any cool anime) and finding that happen.

<<I'm sure it will be on CBC again sometime soon. They've been playing a
load of NFB shorts lately, only about half of them have been animated
stuff though (most of the live action NFB stuff creeps me out!)>>

The only one that sticks out of mind has being a bit weird was the 1967
Academy Award Winner, "Paddle to the Sea." I've watched this many years
ago in grade school, but haven't figured out premise of this film till a
friend of mine gave me a faded 16mm copy of it. Basically, the story was
about a boy in Winsconsin, or Minnesota, who builds a wooden boat with
an Indian on top, and named it "Paddle". He melted some iron to make it
stay up and printed words on it saying "please put me back in the
water." He then places it on top of a hill, where he left it, thikning
it'll eventually float out to sea. In time, the boat had gradually done
so, moving with the flow of the water to a stream, then to a river, than
lakes (including stopping off at Detroit's International Freedom
Festival, passing though ships carrying cargo up the St. Lawrence
Seaway, then lies on the shores in the Atlantic (forget which provience
that is). A man there finds the boat and fixes it back up, giving it a
new paint job, and notices the message printed on the bottom of it. He
then figured what would happen if it was let go again, and thinks about
it sailing though the fijords of Sweeden, or Norway (I forgot that
part), so he send it out on it's way don the Atlantic. The weird part of
this film was finding out that it took three years for the boat to make
it out to sea, and htat the secret is only know to us (the viewers), and
the little boy who made him years ago (I bet he's not really thinking
about it by then).

Recently, I've seen a recent NFB documentary on the life of Mary Alice
Blanche, the first female filmmaker, called "The Secret Garden" or
something like that. I seen it while in a film class, and could've help
but notice a name of a particular group that helped the NFB at this, I
thought I'd spotted my public library's name in it. They used to had a
good collection of NFB films on 16mm, unfortunatly, they've sold most of
them now (I have a few short ones).

<<I see them on PBS from time to time too. I guess NFB stuff makes good
"filler" for some stations. Though I'd love to see an NFB channel! ALL
SHORTS! ALL THE TIME!! How cool would that be? I could watch the black
flies and cat came back ones a trillion times in a row and still love
them.>>

The closest CBC station in my area (that comes on cable) is CBET ch. 9
in Windsor. In the past, I used to watch that channel a lot, possibly
since they've aired Sesame Street, and my dad used to watch the movies
they ran on weekends. Years ago, the channel was one owned by RKO
General, and was originally know as CKLW. They used to been more of a
Detroit channel, as they had showed a lot of American programs, aside
from being the CBC affiliate. Then, due to new laws by the CRTC
(decreasing foreign ownership of radio and tv stations to a limited
percentage), RKO had to sell the station, which was eventually owned by
the CBC, and started to change itself a bit in the eighties. They don't
hardly play a lot of American programs (aside from an ocassion film or
two), and pre-emptions on numerous American series and specials they air
on the national feed (I wonder if they'll air the Hitchock movie
marathon, than pre-empting it with National Geographic specials).

My PBS channel used to play some, but I hardly seen them anymore.
Showtime used to play them years ago too. That's were I saw a lot of
cool independent animation on. Too bad there's not an NFB channel out
there, though I wonder just how long will it take for people to get
tired of the same animations and documentarys they play. Several films
that the NFB stills owns (shcokingly) are a few produced by the Walt
Disney studios, which were produced during the WWII era, and mostly told
viewers to buy war bonds. Those toons are pretty rare here in America,
and have been somewhat public dormain, but the NFB still seems to own
them, while Disney seems to have also (there's a bootlegged video of
shorts taht were tranferred from their collection featuring these
NFB-released films).

Recently, I've heard of a special short they produced for their 60th
anniversary, I wonder if they would air that around here? On the NFB's
site, they do give a listing of an US distributor they've set up that
handles sales and rentals of their films and videos. Though I haven't
figured on asking them about how I would go about buying anything from
them, as much of their business is for commercial and educational uses.
I'd probaly ask them how much would getting a 16mm film of a paritcular
animated short would run about, then to see how much would a video be as
well, though I know I would not be able to afford it. I probably just
stick to tape trading and find someone in Canada that may help me there.

Thanks for your comments,
Chris S.