Features:
Description:
The first volume of a three-disc survey of the films of the innovative Hubley Studio offers two of their best known shorts: the Academy Award-winning "Moonbird" (1959) and the Oscar-nominated "Windy Day" (1967). In these shorts, independent animators John and Faith Hubley explored new ways of presenting a child's world through film. They recorded their children's voices as they spun out fantasies to create a giggling, rambling soundtrack. In "Moonbird," two brothers prowl their backyard by night, seeking to capture the shy moonbird. Two sisters spend an summer afternoon at the seashore, playing games and speculating about what the future may hold for them in "Windy Day." The upbeat "People, People, People" (1975) examines the history of human habitation in North America, from 17,760 B.C. to A.D. 1976. Benny Carter's genially propulsive score helps the filmmakers present even unpleasant aspects of history with imagination and good humor. In "Enter Life" (1981), carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms assemble to form the molecules essential to all life in a series of chemical reactions that suggest a microcosmic dance. "Amazonia" (1989) draws on indigenous myths to present a plea to save the rapidly vanishing Brazilian rain forest. --Charles Solomon
| 
