You’ve almost certainly seen work that wouldn’t exist without the efforts of animation pioneer Will Vinton. But it’s just as likely that this is the first time you’ve ever heard his name. Director Marq Evans (thankfully)“The Glamour and the Squalor”) is determined to ensure that it won’t be the last.
In “Claydream,” Evans has made the tribute Vinton deserves – and the introduction most of us need.
Vinton was a Berkeley student in the 1960s and wanted to be an architect. But he found himself drawn to the sculptural works of Catalan visionary Antoni Gaudí, which in turn led to his own experiments with modelling clay. He began to invent the seemingly endless, but always tedious, genre of stop motion animation after combining his new love for film and this new interest.
Bob Gardiner was his artistic partner and he won an Oscar in the Claymation short film. “Closed Mondays”1975. Despite their messy split in 1975, Vinton had many more success stories over the years. He made many Oscar-nominated shorts and early music videos for film, as well as interstitial sequences that were suitable for television and film.
Most prominent, perhaps, were the California Raisins and Domino’s Noid ads, visions of which will spark instantaneous nostalgia in some (and bafflement at their erstwhile popularity in others). The M&Ms characters we still know today were born in Vinton’s Oregon studio, as was much of Eddie Murphy’s animated series “The PJs.”
Most important, to nearly every one of this film’s participants, was the studio itself. It was a utopian community that existed for many years. “felt like art school, plus vacation.”
Capitalism eventually took over like untrimmed vines. Within the studio, colleagues began to notice Vinton’s limits: his lack of business agility and his reluctance to share enough – credit, emotions, explanations – with the people around him.
To handle the growing workload, a new, more corporate-oriented CEO was appointed. Phil Knight, fellow Portlander and co-founder of Nike was chosen as an investor. Then came the conditions.
We learn first that Knight insists that Travis, his son (a rapper who went under the same name) be named Knight “Chilly Tee”) be offered a job. The two of them fought for greater control over the studio. Travis was elected to the board and Phil became the controlling shareholder. Vinton was then forced from the company that he had started.
This is, in other words, an allegory of good and evil – or art and commerce, if you’d rather – much like the ones Vinton himself liked to make. Vinton Studios was eventually transformed by the Knights into Laika Animation, which produced acclaimed animated features such as “Coraline,” “ParaNorman” and ” Missing Link” – all of which are, regardless of one’s sympathies, a long way from singing raisins.
Through copious clips of studio work and bittersweet interviews with Vinton, his former colleagues and his family members, we get a sense of both the artist’s strengths and weaknesses. Evans gives us an excellent view of how personal ambition can both inspire and hinder. Ultimately, though, he builds the case that Vinton Studios was a jewel box fantasy, proof of Vinton’s own belief in animation as “magic.”
“Claydream”After debuting in New York City last week, the film opens in Los Angeles on Friday.