Bob Godfrey (1921-2013)

So I've been sick and have been spending most of the past two days just trying to sleep it off. And when I woke up today I found out that some time during my slumber the animation world had lost one of their greatest contributors, and one we've seen several times in the past on this blog. Sadly, the Australian-born British animator Bob Godfrey had passed away at the age of 91. He is greatly remembered in England for his work in children's entertainment, such as the television series Roobarb, Henry's Cat, and Do-It Yourself Film Animation Show, which inspired a whole generation of animators, including 3-time Oscar winner Nick Park. Yet Godfrey's success with the Academy came with completely different types of films, ones that satirizes the British way of life, often with explicit sexual innuendo. His greatest triumph came with his 1975 masterpiece Great, the irreverent musical tribute to the life and career of Victorian-era British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Great captured the Best Animated Short Oscar in 1975, and was my second favorite nominated film between the years 1972-1981. He received three other nominations, including Kama Sutra Rides Again (1973), Dream Doll (1979, with Zlatko Grgic), and Small Talk (1993). Although those  nominations ended up losing, they helped him leave behind a style and legacy that will remain memorable to fans of animation for a long, long time.

Text of the article after the break.

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Module 12: Eastern Europe

Now we've moved to the other side of Europe, to Eastern Europe. This includes the countries of Russia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. I was less familiar with the films from Eastern Europe because only a handful of films had made their mark in the Best Animated Short category, and Alexander Petrov was responsible for four of them. However, the ones that were honored by the Academy is only the tip of a much larger iceberg. Not to mention the films of Eastern Europe are rich in meaning, possibly due to the impact of being behind the Iron Curtain for decades.

Not much to say here. Let's move on.

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Best Animated Short - 1979 (NSFW)

We have arrived in the 1970s in our trip through the Best Animated Short Oscar. The 1970s, as you know, are a decade full of crisis and turmoil. Another source of crisis and turmoil for this blog is our ever-lengthening introductions. Originally I had trouble putting enough substance in my intros, but for the past four reviews I've noticed that my introductions are getting longer than my reviews. This probably came about from when I started adding baseball stories for that particular year. I love baseball and have the tendency to ramble when it comes to baseball. And I can go off on Oscars stuff as well. Frankly I love doing these things more than coming up with historical events for that year, but if you have any suggestions as to what I should to please leave it in the comments. I've only gotten one comment so far, and it wasn't even in any of the reviews.

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