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Destroy All Podcasts Episode 82 - Claymation Christmas CelebrationSubmitted by Destroy All Pod... on 24 December, 2008 - 03:00. Audio | Destroy All Podcasts DX
Hosts: Jeremy, Star This is about anthropomorphic bells hitting themselves in the face, topless big-breasted walrusses, chatty dinosaur hosts, butchering Christmas carols, and of course, the California Raisins. Click [HERE] to go a-waffling.
"Duuuhhhh... I saved Christmas!"
Well, the VHS copy is kind of bland but is at least representative.
The DVD's cover is awwwwful. Why didn't they just use the cover from the soundtrack?
That walrus is STACKED.
Christmas is depressing.
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 Uhm, I love Claymation. I suppose you prefer the lifeless, creepy eyes of CG people like in Polar Express? Yikes. -Jeremy  I prefer stop-motion too for what it is. I should point out though that the whole "Claymation" name is essentially a copyrighted trademark that Vinton had used to brand his own form of clay-animated productions. There has been clay animation made before his time but it was not called "claymation". Too often nowadays people tend to use the name indiscriminately as a generic term for this type of stop-motion puppet animation, regardless of whether clay was used in the process or not (other materials include foam, vinyl or wood).  Jesus Christ, NO! Where the hell did that come from? Polar Express is horrendous! You don't have to hurt a guy's feelings. I like stop-motion puppetry, but not necessarily when it's purely plasticine. There are other forms of armatures that use little to no plasticine at all, and they generally look a lot better. Clay animation is probably one of the least matured forms of animation. There are really only two clay animators of note, Will Vinton and Nick Park, and Nick Park is by far the superior. Will Vinton is...okay, but I never really found his work all that entertaining. Stuff like this was more of a novelty, for being above-average clay animation. Although, I will retract my putting him in the same league as Gumby. Now Gumby was just pure garbage. ~Neil ___________________________ Sorta thought I'd be the only one to bother commenting on this special alone, but it holds dear to my hear, from the very first time I saw it 21 years ago on CBS (right after the debut of A Garfield Christmas Special). It would be the first of a number of Claymation specials that Will Vinton Productions made and aired on the network from '87 to the early 90's (and I've seen them all). The two main guys in this, Rex and Herb, are themselves, meant to spoof the then famous movie critic duo Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (Ebert still being with us today). Their origins though go back to a film Vinton produced about Dinosaurs, where both characters were shown together to represent carnivores and herbivores. Here's a bit of that to show what I mean (sequence begins at 2:42). The pair was later redesigned and first showed up in an 1986 compilation video entitled "Festival of Claymation", highlighting a number of the studio's work from the 70's and 80's. Interesting tidbit on the guy behind The California Raisins. Up to the time this special aired, they were seen as those little guys that danced their way to our hearts with a classic Motown tune to get us all to buy them (and who could blame it, it was another mass-media blitz just itchin' for success, The Noid of course soon followed). A year after this special came out, a special for the raisins alone would be made, this time limiting it to four distinctive characters with their own personalities/names. This of course would later be adapted into a Saturday morning program that used cels over clay in it's production (and done by Murakami/Wolf/Swenson no less). Funny, I've see a lot of hot animal chicks in cartoons but those breasts never bothered me at all (saw something similar to that show up in a Pink Panther cartoon as well)! Interesting to see Jeremy hated the "Joy to the World" segment. I however liked it quite well, and thought it was the nice highlight of the entire show, but then, I'm into that sort of thing anyway (like the Cloud segment in Robot Carnival). The piece itself, while it might not have anything to do with the other pieces in this special, does still employ the clay medium in an interesting technique that was pioneered by Joan Gratz who worked for Vinton called "clay painting", which might resemble a process similar to manipulating oil paint on glass. Of course there's also the classic feature-length "The Adventure of Mark Twain", which contains one of the most creepiest sequences of all based on "The Mysterious Stranger". There, hopefully that should last for a good while through Christmas. Enjoy! |
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Oh wow, I haven't seen this since it originally aired back in 198_...um...well, it was the 80s, I know that. It was certainly the last time claymation would ever grace national television, before all of these characters, including the California Raisins, Gumby, and the Noid, were all mercifully shoved into a Pla-Doh shape-pumper, never to be seen or heard from again. And thank God!
~Neil
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