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larstodson
Reviews
Why Man Creates (1968)
Where can I get a video copy of this remarkable film?
I have truly fond memories of this mind-bending, thought-provoking, imagination-challenging film, which I saw in third or fourth grade and again in seventh or eighth during two different school assemblies. I loved the initial animation sequence that expounded upon the history of creation from ancient times to the present in a Tower of Babel-like fantasy. The "Fooling Around" sequence was hilarious, when those party-goers' heads opened up, and an energetic young dancer had ice cream and milk thrown into her head so she would make a "milkshake" as she danced, and someone shouted "Hello down there!" into the skull of an air-headed woman who babbled on and on about nothing. I also remember a scene where people were trying to build something out of large blocks but the blocks kept moving around. And that ping-pong ball scene was a classic -- a metaphor for the above-the-ordinary maverick who doesn't "fit in" to the mainstream and is too gifted for his own good, "because ball was not meant to fly." The special effects in these and other scenes were ingenious for their time; since computer animation was almost nonexistent, I still wonder how Saul and Elaine Bass created that magic. (Perhaps they were that high-flying ping-pong ball!) That film will always stay with me, and if anyone knows where and/or how I can get a video copy of it at a reasonable price, please let me know. Thank you.