The Animation Freak. Adventures of Mark Twain.

 

                                   The Animation Freak. 

                               Adventures of Mark Twain.

When I heard about this film years ago when I was young I really wanted to watch it but getting a copy of it was really hard to find and it wasn't being shown on T.V. cause after it aired people complained about it being to creepy and yes I can see that but it was a historical Stop-motion film and very ground breaking, Will Vinton did an his team did a amazing job with working out of a basement of a barbershop, he has always been one of those filmmakers that couldn't make a bad film, I think this film was a homerun. I got to sit down and watch it the other night and seeing it as an adult makes it that more meaningful cause I am a huge Stop-motion fan, from Rankin/Bass, Laika Studios and every other production company that makes them. Not all Stop-motion films are great but the work that goes into making them is a feet in it's self. Adventures of Mark Twain was really well made for what year it was filmed in and every part of this film makes you think and appreciate everyone who worked their butts off to bring it to us. The story was amazing and if you know me the story and the animation have to go together or it wont work, this one put every effort into making that happen and they did. So, if you are looking for a Stop-motion film to watch that you haven't seen I implore you to find a copy of this one and watch it for your self cause you are going to love it if your an animation fan like me. 

Thank you for joining me. I know I haven't been posting reviews, it's been a few hard months with getting Covid twice and having breathing treatments bit I will be posting more now that I have more time to. Thanks again for joining me and I will see you in the next one. Take care. Oh if you like please leave a comment and a like and retweet on my twitter. 

I have left the plot of this film below if you want to read about it before you decide to watch it and of course the trailer above. 

The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain's works, built around a plot that features Twain's attempts to keep his "appointment" with Halley's Comet. Twain and three children, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher, travel on an airship between various adventures.

It is a 1985 American stop motion claymation fantasy film directed by the legendary Will Vinton and starring James Whitmore. It received a limited theatrical release in May 1985.

Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer sneak aboard an airship piloted by Mark Twain in an attempt to become famous aeronauts. After having a bout of one-upmanship, Becky Thatcher follows them to call their bluff. The balloon takes off and the stowaways are soon discovered but are surprised to learn Mark Twain already knows their names. Upon seeing the frog the boys had caught outside of town, Twain relates his first popular short story: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

They find that he intends to pilot the airship to meet Halley's Comet, and are worried this goal will end in all their deaths. The boys stumble across the Index-o-Vator, a strange elevator that can take them to any part of the vessel, or into any of Twain’s writing, and meet up with Twain and Becky. She’s intrigued by a coin-operated automaton of Adam and Eve, and Twain takes the chance to begin their tale, based on Eve's Diary and Extracts From Adam's Diary. The story comes to a halt when just as storm clouds fill the Garden of Eden, a real storm surrounds the airship. Twain quickly coaches the kids on how to pilot to ship, but they fail to avoid smashing into a mountain and losing a chunk of the hull.

Dejected, the trio head back to the Index-o-Vator, where the door opens to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck and Becky are excited at the opportunity to get home, but Tom only cares about avoiding Aunt Betty’s chores and changes the floor before the others can protest. Out of the open void emerges Mark Twain, now dressed in a black suit instead of his usual white one, who changes the floor and encourages the kids to go into a scene from The Chronicles of Young Satan.

Tom fills Huck and Becky in on his plan, and the three conspire to sabotage the suicidal voyage and take control of the ship. They lay low as Twain teaches them how to fly the vessel, and Tom senses an opportunity in the central power panel. They follow Twain into his office to tie him up when he falls asleep, but much to their surprise the writer greets them again on the deck. The kids ask if there’s another life waiting for them after they collide with the comet, and Twain relates the story of Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.

With their plan in place, the kids wait anxiously as Twain continues the story of Adam and Eve, the designs of the old couple looking much like Mark Twain and his wife, Olivia, with Twain saying “wherever she was, there was Eden.” He laments on her death and wishes to see her again when he meets the comet. The children discover the truth behind Twain's journey: he believes he is destined to die with the return of the comet and this journey is his way of accepting his fate, leaving the kids behind unharmed. It’s too late however, and Tom’s contraption goes off, destroying the main power and trapping them below decks. Huck’s frog saves the day, leaping from the porthole to land on the back-up power button.

The crew head off, the kids now piloting the ship expertly with Twain in command. They enter the comet, and finally come face to face with the strange figure who has been haunting the ship: Mark Twain’s double. Twain explains that the double is his darker side, who is as much an important part of him as the lighthearted humorist they're familiar with. The two give the kids several pieces of advice, all real Mark Twain quotes, and muse on whether or not there’s another life waiting for them. They merge and disappear into dust. Twain’s face appears in the comet’s clouds, and when asked where he's going answers "back to Eden".

The airship is blown out of the comet by Twain, and the kids decide to write up their journey in a book called, "The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huck Finn".

The concept was inspired by a famous quote by the author:

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."

Twain died on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet reached perihelion in 1910.

This animated film, which tested well with teens and college students before it was labeled with a G rating which hurt their box office chances, was shot in Portland, Oregon and when he was asked about the rumors of this film being made by a 17-person crew, Vinton stated:

Well it’s all true, though that’s probably exaggerating a bit. Seventeen or so represents the full-time staff and then freelance people came and went, plus you have musical talent and writing talent and things that go beyond that number. We shot the film in a converted house that had a barbershop in front of it, so we called it the Barbershop Studio. The bedrooms and things were editing rooms and offices. The high-ceiling basement was conveniently connected to a four thousand square foot studio that we built in the back, and that basement was where the animators and sculptors worked on the characters. So, yes, we spent a lot of time in the basement!