Browse: Home / Life Itself Is Only a Vision: Will Vinton, 1947-2018

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc
  • Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)
  • What the F? Babalugats on SOLARIS

Life Itself Is Only a Vision: Will Vinton, 1947-2018

Posted By Gillianren on October 5, 2018 in News | 4 Responses

Claymation is a registered trademark. It didn’t get used as one much when I was a kid, but then, when I was a kid, pretty much the stop-motion we saw was Claymation, from Will Vinton Studios. Stop motion has always been more niche than cel animation, but there was a stretch when I was a kid where you saw it regularly—because Will Vinton had a contract with the California Raisin Advisory Board, and one with Domino’s Pizza, and one of the best Christmas specials. Not to mention a single feature film that doesn’t get talked about often enough.

Will Vinton was an Oregonian native, though he studied physics, architecture, and filmmaking at Berkeley. Starting in the ’70s, he developed techniques for stop-motion animation; his second short produced with then-collaborator Bob Gardiner, “Closed Mondays,” won the Best Animated Short Oscar for 1974. Vinton developed his Portland-based studio; he didn’t necessarily do his own animation for all the classics, but he still kept his hand in with design work as late as 2008. He even helped design the M&Ms mascots, after he’d started adding computer animation to the studio’s output.

It’s a little disappointing to me that he will probably be best remembered for the California Raisins. They were bizarrely successful—not a lot of mascots get primetime specials and successful albums, after all. But I even thought their segment of the Christmas special was so-so, and not just because I’m also not a huge fan of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” It is a tribute to Vinton that he managed to make a group of raisins cute; after all, raisins are not best known for their looks. But there it is, I suppose.

Better, I think, to remember the dinosaurs, Rex and Herb—created for an educational short about, what else, dinosaurs. Rex is a carnivore and Herb is an herbivore. They went on to host the Christmas special, and Rex’s disapproval of Herb is half the fun. There’s also his fairy tales. The incredible artistry of the “Joy to the World” sequence, wherein the animators paint with clay. Indeed, Vinton’s studio is believed to have developed the technique of working in actual clay as far as it could go, and they developed new techniques for working with foam instead.

And, yes, The Adventures of Mark Twain. An underrated, underseen film. Creepy as all get-out in places; the Mysterious Stranger is lifted from a Twain story I’ve not read, but the way he’s brought to life by the film is alarming and probably responsible for a lot of nightmares over the years. But there’s more to the movie than the Mysterious Stranger, and the rest of it is alternately funny and tender and thrilling. If it were all of Vinton’s legacy, it would be a legacy worth having.

Posted in News | Tagged obituary, Will Vinton

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

You Should Be a Hero to Yourself: Peter Tork, 1942-2019→

Sadly Temporary: James Frawley, 1936-2019→

I’m Terribly Shy, But Of Course No One Believes Me: Carol Channing, 1921-2019→

When I’m Working, I’m Obsessively Working: Penny Marshall, 1943-2018→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • r**********@gmail.com'
    Rosy Fingers on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)I actually struggled a bit…
  • r**********@gmail.com'
    Rosy Fingers on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)No, sorry.
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)Monaco?
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on Disney Byways: Archives MuseumI second all of these…
  • j*********@yandex.com'
    CineGain on Clytie's Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)There's an Canadian podcast that…
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    13573 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    11385 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    7110 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • Futurama + Pixels = Pixels

    6895 views / Posted March 18, 2015
  • The Problem with BOYHOOD (2014)

    6212 views / Posted September 3, 2014
  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum

    February 22, 2019 / Gillianren
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style

    February 22, 2019 / NerdInTheBasement
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc

    February 22, 2019 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • Clytie’s Recommended Entertainment Articles (February 15-21, 2019)

    February 22, 2019 / Clytie
  • Not even the protective suit could spare Clooney from the Cinemascore "F".

    What the F? Babalugats on SOLARIS

    February 21, 2019 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

  • Disney Byways: Archives Museum - https://t.co/Y5cHniqer3, 6 hours ago
  • How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Closes Out This Fantasy Trilogy In Style - https://t.co/FceMBjYTvx, 13 hours ago
  • Year of the Month: Jake Gittes on Harakiri and The Trial of Joan of Arc - https://t.co/Z2ptoETPm9, 17 hours ago

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!