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Winsor McCay - The Master Edition
Winsor McCay - The Master Edition
Actors: Winsor McCay, John Bunny, George McManus, Roy L. McCardell, Thomas A. 'Tad' Dorgan
Directors: Winsor McCay, J. Stuart Blackton
Genres: Comedy, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Animation
NR     2004     1hr 45min

DVD Bonus Features: — 1) "Remembering Winsor McCay" -- the life and career of the great cartoonist Winsor McCay is warmly recalled by his former film assistant, John Fitzsimmons, with clips of classic McCay animated films. ...  more »

     
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Movie Details

Actors: Winsor McCay, John Bunny, George McManus, Roy L. McCardell, Thomas A. 'Tad' Dorgan
Directors: Winsor McCay, J. Stuart Blackton
Creators: Winsor McCay, Walter Arthur
Genres: Comedy, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Animation
Sub-Genres: Animation, Animation, Comedy, Animation, Animation
Studio: Image Entertainment
Format: DVD - Black and White,Color,Full Screen - Closed-captioned
DVD Release Date: 06/01/2004
Original Release Date: 04/08/1911
Theatrical Release Date: 04/08/1911
Release Year: 2004
Run Time: 1hr 45min
Screens: Black and White,Color,Full Screen
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 2
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English

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Movie Reviews

The Best Incarnation Yet Of A One-Of- A -Kind Artist.
Chip Kaufmann | Asheville, N.C. United States | 06/17/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the third time around for the animated shorts of Winsor McCay on video and this is the best version by far. Those of you familiar with the previous Lumivision and Slingshot editions will find the same films as before only this time the source prints are better (for the most part), the piano music by Gabriel Thibaudeaux suits the material better, and the optional commentary from animator John Canemaker gives the necessary background on McCay and his films. For those of you not familiar with Winsor McCay (1867-1934), he was a celebrated comic strip artist whose principal strips LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND and DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND (that's Welsh Rarebit) were mainstays in the Hearst papers during the first decade of the 20th Century. The astonishing quality of the artwork and the imaginative scenarios employed were and still are a marvel to behold.

Between 1911 and 1921 McCay made a series of animated shorts almost entirely drawn by him. The most famous is GERTIE THE DINOSAUR from 1914 presented here for the first time in a copy made from a 35mm print. The initial offering LITTLE NEMO from 1911 was not only drawn by McCay (on rice paper!) but hand-colored by him as well. The propaganda film THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA (1918) remains one of the great achievements in animation history. While the quality of the animation is beyond reproach, some people may be surprised by the dark and disturbing nature of the Rarebit shorts THE PET and THE FLYING HOUSE (both 1921) and HOW A MOSQUITO OPERATES (1912). McCay saw animation as an artform and not as a vehicle for popular entertainment. This ultimately forced him to give it up once the likes of FELIX THE CAT took over in the early 20's.

As such these are not cartoons for children but serious films made with adults in mind and they still play better to them today (although my children were quite taken with them). If you have the previous editions you will want to acquire this one for the quality of the prints and the bonus materials. If you don't have them then buy this DVD now and introduce yourself to a true original whose influence on those who followed (especially Walt Disney) can be seen to this day. Winsor McCay was much more than a comic strip creator and an animation pioneer. He was truly a one-of-a-kind artist whose works like those of any great artist will continue to be an endless source of fascination for generations to come. If you get the chance, check out John Canemaker's coffee table book on McCay or any book that reproduces some of his comic strips. They will help to give you a more fully rounded picture of this unique talent."
Still some of the great animation ever made
Simon Wiley | San Francisco, CA | 07/24/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dispite some obvious technical advances, this still ranks as some of the best animation ever done. It is simple to see how it influenced everyone from Miyazaki to Disney. In particular, the "centaurs" feels very much like a scene from Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. This film also has scenes of Windsor drawing his figures confidently, which is nice to see. Some of the footage in between the cartoons gets a little corny, but educational nevertheless. It is also easy to see that from the start, animation had elements for adults, and elements that appealed more to kids. "The way a mosquito operates" almost looks like a classical Picasso drawing in motion, except with Windsor's quirky sense of humor which is really always present. If you are interested in animation, check out this dvd. Even if you're dissappointed you will definitely feel you've witnessed the foundation of it all."
MAJESTIC ANIMATION; not just for its "history"...
Mr. Eddie | New York, NY | 02/01/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is almost sad to read the review below, and hear someone condescending the work of Winsor McKay as a curiosity from the dawn of animation. I am here to say nothing is further from the truth; this animation is some of the finest ever created, vastly outstripping the likes of anything you will see in the cineplex in 2006.

The first time I saw his dramatic rendering of the sinking of the Lusitania, it was an old 16mm print, projected in a private screening room. I was BLOWN AWAY. When the U-boat surfaces, the rippling waves and silhouettes of the soldiers on deck where hauntingly realistic. This film involved me emotionally in the Special FX more than anything in Return of the King to say nothing of most any other Hollywood tripe of late.

So, let's just bring this a little back to reality. Winsor McKay was nothing short of a genius. His portion of the "Masters of the American Comic Book" exhibit here in Los Angeles was hypnotic. No wonder the newest reproduction of his newspaper work is now sold out and selling for 250% of its retail cost on Amazon. If only there were more artists like him around now..."
An animation pioneer rediscovered
Anyechka | Rensselaer, NY United States | 02/07/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This wonderful disc brings together all of Winsor McCay's known surviving films, made between 1911 and 1921, although some of them, such as 'The Centaurs,' are just fragments, and some of the dates they were made is unknown. Though Mr. McCay actually was not the inventor of animated cartoons, as was often claimed in his day, he was still one of the very first cartoonists to bring drawings to life, and was the father of the personality cartoon, creating cartoon characters such as Gertie the Dinosaur and the Rarebit Fiend whom the viewer gets to know and feel for, much like Disney began doing with their cartoons in the Thirties.

'Little Nemo' (1911) is also available on 'Landmarks of Early Film, Volume One,' but this version is slightly different, particularly in that much of the animation is hand-colored. This one is also notable for being one of the few known surviving films the largely forgotten popular comedian John Bunny appeared in. John is the white-haired and somewhat rotund gentleman. It's followed by 'How a Mosquito Operates' (1912), which may disturb the more squeamish, even though it really gives this bothersome bloodsucker a personality and shows that he's intelligent. The next short on the disc is McCay's best-known cartoon, 'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1914), which is also widely considered his masterpiece. Gertie is so cute, sweet, and charming, like a big lumbering dinosaur who nevertheless has the mind of an impish little kid. The fourth short is the blatantly propagandistic 'The Sinking of the Lusitania' (1918). Although the actual sinking of the ship and the carnage that follows is very realistic and historically accurate, today we no longer have such a simplistic view on why the ship was sunk. For example, there were warnings that such a thing might happen, the American and British governments were at just as much fault in ignoring warnings as the German government was in firing the torpedo, the Lusitania was carrying some pretty hefty ammunition and wasn't just some innocent ship on an innocent trip to England (and therefore made it a legit target under the rules of warfare), and the second explosion was not from another German torpedo but rather from an explosion somewhere on the ship. I'm also glad to know I'm not alone in finding the final title card to be distasteful, urging the public to hate the German people instead of just their government or the person responsible for the attack (though race-based propaganda in wartime seems inevitable), and in how the deaths of some millionaires and celebrities (whom I'd never even heard of) are the ones being eulogised, as though their deaths were more worthy of being mourned that of all of the people down in steerage, esp. considering McCay seemed to have been rather progressive in his social and political outlook.

The rest of the cartoons are 'The Centaurs,' 'Gertie's on Tour' (sadly only survives in a short fragment, thus depriving Gertie of much of her original charm and personality), 'Flip's Circus,' and three cartoons based on McCay's very popular 'Dream of a Rarebit Fiend' comic strip, 'Bug Vaudeville,' 'The Pet,' and 'The Flying House.' Extras are a brief 1976 featurette, 'Remembering Winsor McCay,' audio commentary by historian John Canemaker, and a quite large gallery of stills, comic strips, pictures, letters, and other memorabilia. Although it might not interest a more casual viewer, it's an invaluable treasure-trove of early film, particularly early animation. It might not be as technically advanced or well-known as the films made by Disney, but these characters have a lot of personality and charm, and the plots are so interesting. People in the Teens and early Twenties wouldn't have cared that these examples of animation weren't technically very complex, since they didn't have any examples from decades later to unfairly compare them against."