Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) dir. Robert Cannon

Winner of the short subject animation Oscar in 1950, though probably its best-known pedigree it its origin as a story by Dr. Suess. This story was original performed as a radio play before this animated version by UPA (United Productions of America), maybe best known now for their character Mr. Magoo, and maybe slightly less now for their wartime cautionary character Private Snafu.

Despite its limitless flexibility as a medium, animation has often operated under tyrannical rules imposed by live action film. There’s no reason animation needs to do straight cuts from shot to shot. Scenes can transition one to another while keeping characters in the frame. Characters can take on the same hue as their backgrounds or exist only as outlines. They can hold stiller than real people and they can move with impossible liquidity. UPA was founded by ex-Disney animators in part to push against a narrower vision of how to use animation, and ironically it was their refusal to worry about fidelity to real life that gave them the freedom to feature human characters, a rarity in an animation era where anthropomorphized animals reigned.

And so Gerald can smoothly transition from a kitchen stool to a scooter in the park without relinquishing a frame and can climb an impossible German Expressionist staircase without effort. He’s blue when it’s cold and occasionally yellow when he’s not. He also has a delightful skip (boing) upwards every few steps when he walks. The animation is strikingly fluid and subtle when it wants to be (such as his mother’s swoon after reading the note he brings home from school). But who wants to be these things all the time?

For bonus watching, there’s the delightful follow-up “Gerald McBoing Boing’s Symphony,” the plottier but still fun “How Now Boing Boing“, and finally “Gerald McBoing Boing on Planet Moo” for completionists. Apparently there was also a cartoon series featuring Gerald on the Cartoon Network in the early 2000s, but once I learned the character has a dog that communicates through burps I lost interest.