The Mascot

I think it's about time I mentioned The Mascot, a film I watched a year or so ago, shown to me by a friend. After watching it again recently I think there is definitely some influence to my current project. Namely, the act of showing of the creator pulling the creation to life, and also the mixture between live action and animation. I have seen puppets interacting with live actors (namely in the secret adventures of tom thumb) but it's usually via pixelation, which is nice but it's also refreshing to see a character react within a live set, environments and actors.

I really love The Mascot for it's technical achievements of the time. You watch some stop-motions in later years in comparison and they're actually quite clumsy. Starewicz had become a master animator by 1933, incorporating techniques never used before and rarely since, like moving the puppets during the actual exposure to create blurring for fast movement. Really only within the last 20 years stop-motion has made more of a technical jump in mainstream movies. But for some reason, I still refer the rawness of The Mascot.



The movie treats the characters more like toys that come to life; their expressions are extremely varied and you connect straight away with the characters because of this. The 30s were definitely a very expressive time in animation, everything is exaggerated and plots are governed more on the feeling that the director is trying to dismay. As a result most of the stories were nonsensical and more symbolic. I've always enjoyed the surreal like stories and plots and The Mascot is definitely one of them. The dog is trying to get an orange but in the process we are taken to strange worlds and see a multitude of strange and wonderful creatures. There is not much dialog in the movie either which makes it for the most part, an entirely visual and musical experience. My favourite animations are usually more sensory and seem to tap into something more inner, I find I can take more from something if less is said; where the visuals make up the story.



In relation to my work I think The Mascot has definitely been an influence in my test animations. The movement in the puppets is a little more jagged and I have always liked this affect of stop-motion; I do enjoy some contemporary stop-motion but sometimes I find they are too smooth and digitized with motion blur/airbrushing. Their is some motion blurring within this animation added by simply frantically moving the puppet in front of the camera, or through exposure, it's funny because it's a method I've used even before realizing The Mascot used it also.

In conclusion I find it quite sad that starewicz is so unknown even within the animation crowd; in my opinion it rivals disney, mccay, sullivan and other great animators of the time. Nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes.