So, Is Sullivan's Travels really the touchstone of good animation writing?
When I saw it for the first time at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco it was in the 1980's.
It was considered an epic to some and a schmaltzy reminiscince to others. Both seemed to be in the theatre when I saw it. As opposed to the Rockabillies and Rita Hayworth Fan Club when I saw Gilda accidentilly one night. Well, the people I went with knew where they were going, I was just going to the Sausage Factory and then a Movie. The Castro was definitely more of a sausage factory of the two...but I digress.
Throughout the film we are treated to people who might just be saints, might just be jerks except for the love of the main character, and some who might just be evil. We even have an Evil Hobo, who gets his comeuppance nearly at the same moment of his great sin. Evil Hobos, I didn't see another one of those until the unfortunately Hobo'ed-up Christopher Lloyd in Dennis the Menace.
Then after a concussion and a toss into a freight car leaves our hero in the deep south/somewhere where there are lots of swamps with chain gangs in them.
(The deep south must be not that far from LA) In the new place we are greeted by "reality" AKA "trouble" which is what the hero was seeking in the first place and if you were not following the play by play properly you'ld see God laughing and not know why. For Mr. S. is none other than the biblical Job.
He had already decided he didn't want any more trouble but he hadn't learned his lessons. Then a Disney Cartoon causes people of all races creeds and colors to forget their troubles for a few minutes and a clever confession of his own murder, and justice works its miracles, and our hero is presumably back to making the next Golddiggers of 193x. Just so the little people can have something to make their lives better.
Hmmmm...something tells me that The Golddiggers of 193x don't make it often out to Black Churches in the Bayou. But, you never know. So why does a dog cartoon make all races, creeds and colors get along?
Sitting in the dark with people laughing and crying has an effect like church. The dogs reactions are both universal and surprising. You do not have to think to react in a situation like that.
Everyone else is immediately reacting around you. The person with the most open personality rules the roost there. Unless they happen to be the kind of person who enjoys pain...then someone will call for a butterfly net....because there is no way to greater offend someone than to not follow along the song sheet that the god of cinema has laid out for you.
Pluto....and flypaper. Magic Flypaper....that declares a wrestling match with Pluto.
Makes it apparent that he isn't as smart as he thinks he is. ---Come-uppance.
Makes him fight against and do all sorts of contortions that rival Charlie Chaplin ---Strange against the Mundane.
The Flypaper at time seems to be mocking him with different positions. ---The fly in the ointment.
And anytime an animal does something cute that resembles a human activity, it gets bonus points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WxCMBk8qpssee what it all means 5:57 onwards.
Mickey, could've avoided this by training his dog in the first place, but he is so lovable and tries to be cool and is so forgiving. (This of course is long after his near "date rapist" antics of Plane Crazy from years before.) So Mickey, at the time could appeal to people who like dogs, people who hate dogs, people who train dogs, people who don't train their dogs, people who know and make fun of people who don't train their dogs.
Pluto has always been appealing because face it he is a dog, but the kind of dog we wish we had....if only trained a little better.
Sullivan's Travels used one of the most loved Disney Shorts to sell their idea of the universality of human feeling. They could have chosen much worse. A Mouse and a Dog. Nothing to "hate on" there. Nothing to get caught up with. Sullivan went back to Hollywood to make Entertainment.
He went back to keep being rich and not take on the evils of the world but apply a salve to the emotional hurt of the moment. Sometimes that is all one person can do.
In doing so the people who make films may push through to other important issues. Leaving little bombs in the subconscious of the young, and not so young, to go off in explosions of judgment....hopefully better than the previous generations.
There are others who make jingoistic action movies that think they are doing that....
Heck, maybe they are. I don't think so, but maybe I am wrong again.
Won't be the first time....definitely won't be the last.
So I would have to say... No, Sullivan's Travels is not the touchstone of good animation writing.
It is an entertaining movie that somewhat points the way.
To use a well worn piece of Asian wit. It's a finger pointing at the moon.....Not the thing to be attentive to. But the thing pointing to the thing to be attentive to.
One has to write a good movie that cannot be done with visual effects and live action actors.
And as far as the inner hayseed component. Well, we're trying to figure that one out.
Early indications are:
Universal Human Values....Expressed actively, and with the potential for humor, only after the point of view has been established as 'not better than', but instead, In reminiscence of shared experience or with empathy for a universal emotion express in a situation deserving pathos.
