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Cartoon Brew TV #10: Sunbeam
 November 18, 2008 10:11 am
This week on Cartoon Brew TV, we’re reaching back to 1980 and rediscovering Paul Vester’s animated short Sunbeam. The independent short, which is an homage to early cel animation, was released in UK theaters with the feature film Chariots of Fire. It was produced at Vester’s commercial studio Speedy Films inbetween commercial gigs. Paul Vester, currently a Guggenheim Fellow, is working on a new short film, In the Woods. He is also repped for commercial work by DUCK Studios and teaches in the Experimental Animation department at CalArts. Here is a bit of background about Sunbeam from Vester:
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EVENTSParamount Cartoons RECENT BREW TV EPISODES By Sitji Chou. A man tries to understand the futility of creating human connections when they’ve been impeded by the microcosmic void between material particles.  By Nikolas Ilic. A story of a Scottish sheep farmer who shears his sheep and tosses them cliff side…  By Dylan Hayes. Lesson 1: Everyone gambles, not everyone loses. Lesson 2: The world is full of traps. Lesson 3: You cannot win if you don’t take risks.  By Jean Yi. A personal and humorous exploration of being the ‘Nice Girl’ and coming to terms with the label and all its different meanings.  By Ferg Brennan. A lonely fisherman catches an unusual fish, which he decides to keep as a pet. |
Magnificent. I have never heard of this, so thank you Cartoon Brew for posting this. I would love to see parts of this frame by frame.
Wonderful! This is what animation has the potential to be. Better not let Jessie Jackson see it, he’ll slap a lawsuit on them so fast, their heads will spin.
awesome
Very cool! Looks like an animator’s film, lots of silliness that just looks fun to draw! Reminds me a bit of International Rocketship!
I love the colors, very comic-book. There’s something extra with the bit of abstract Kandinsky-like details, with old-fashioned characters. It’s all very lovely, it taste candy I’m sure.
Lovely! I now feel nostalgic for early ’80s nostalgia for the ’30s!
The artistry here is pretty phenomenal. Was the song performed specifically for this animation?
By the way, this is probably my favorite Brew TV episode yet. I would DEFINITELY pay for a hi-res copy of this or buy a DVD, etc. if this were on it. Don’t suppose it’s available in such format, is it?
Pure animation candy! The kind of thing that wants you want to get up and get animating. Thanks, Cartoon Brew!
WOW I haven’t seen this in 20 years and it immediately came flooding back. I forgot how much I loved it.
When I first saw this as an animation student I was dazzled. Now i see what i loved about it then. It’s a film which captures the spirit of pure joy.
Wow! I remember this from the “Animation Celebration” film and video series, and am amazed that no one had put this film online before. (I’d pay good money for DVD’s of the “Animation Celebration” and “International Tournee of Animation” series, if anyone would put them out legally!)
Looking at Sunbeam again for the first time in years, I’m fascinated by Vester’s use of the classic Messmer/Avery strategy of reminding viewers that they’re watching moving drawings, especially how he heightens it by adding detail and texture so that it’s like watching moving blobs of paint freshly squeezed from a tube. Thanks for putting this up; I really enjoyed watching it again!
that was wonderful. i wish i alive when it was shown on the big screen!
i don;t know what to say. honestly.
I love this thing’s gooey joy. It’s rather ostentatious about the technique, isn’t it? Right down to leaving in the frame numbers between the dancers… I have this on VHS as part of the Animation Celebration series (volume 1, 1992) and, fellahs, I’m happy to say that your online copy looks better! I second the move for a Cartoon Brew DVD imprint.
What a treat! The commercial output of Vester’s Speedy Films is somewhat overshadowed by that of Dick Williams, Klacto & Pizazz but the studio produced really innovative work.
If you liked this, check out Seaside Woman. You can find it on youtube.
Congrats paul! Awesome to see this here; now I am just a click away from getting to see this any time I want :)
I remember this from my beautiful Super 8mm print back in the 1980s.
I always thought that cable TV would show all the wierd stuff that used to be in my film collection. But it did not. However, the internet is another story, with a happier ending…so far.
I agree with my brother, this is easily one of my favorite “Brew TV” episodes. Very nice work, a real pleasure to watch!
Mike Wolf:
I agree about Oscar Grillo’s Seaside Woman. I saw both of these at the same animation festival in Ottawa. Paul Vester told me he found a book tiled “Songs That Won the War” and set up a recording session to sound like it was from the 40’s. At the time he had a commercial studio in London called Speedy Cartoons, it was right across the street from Richard Williams’ studio.
When Flash looks this good I’ll consider it the better format. But for now, this is beauty only cells can accomplish.
I saw this when I was 18 or 19 at the University of Illinois. It was part of a touring animation festival (the Tounee?), the only chance I had in those days to see art animation.
It blew my mind back then. I remember crying because it was so beautiful, and crying afterwards just thinking about it. I just watched it again and have tears in my eyes now. Such love and beauty comes through in that piece. It’s not selling anything; it’s just talent used in the service of inspiration and beauty. That people come together and cooperate to make something like this makes my cynicism evaporate for a while. It really moves me.
Tournee. I meant Tournee.
Agreed, delighted to see this again. Does anyone have any tips for downloading this onto a Mac? the download button seems to just launch the Quicktime. Any help would be appreciated.
If you want a video version, it’s on Expanded Entetainment’s first “Animation Celebration” VHS. These do show up on Amazon Marketplace and EBay occasionally.
To download to a Mac, you can use Real Player Downloader which is free. WIll save as an .flv file which plays in Real Player, but there are also plenty of good conversion programs. I use iSkysoft Video Converter
After seeing this on the big screen in the early ’90s, I learned to play the tune on guitar and sang it.
What a charming-as-hell nugget of classic animation!
Nina! Love your work! So nice to see you here!
And so nice to know we have a common bond, which is an undying love for that beautiful labor of love called “Sunbeam”.
Great movie….for the colors, movement, etc. But I’ve always wondered why Paul chose those demeaning black caricatures to aid his aesthetic. Now that’s what’s always bugged me about this work.
I remember seeing this on Showtime back in the late 80s. They played it between features. It play all the time. I have always loved it but could never find it again until I found it here. Great Thanks!
Vicky Silva is the singer. Haven’t found anything on her.
Songwriters Hugh Charles and Sonny Williams seemed to have written quite a bit back in the WWII era, but I can’t find anything about this song nor any biographical information.
I remember seeing this in an Tournee, and loved it.
But the image that has remained in my mind is the final one–the door shutting.
I always got the feeling that the part about the Golden Stairs, and the characters frantically climbing, only to find a closed door at the top, gave this an extra edge. Sunbeam to me was about the wonderful fantasy of Hollywood, that we imagine in the movies, but rarely achieve in real life.
Or I could be reading WAY more into it than is necessary…
I’ve been trying to find out more about this song.
Is it possible that it is a wonderful prank? That Vester found a couple of guys who wrote songs in WWII, and attributed this song to them?
We’re all smart folks here. Is there some reason we can’t find anything out about this song?
Delightful puzzle.
And I think this great cartoon has a lot in common with Dennis Potter’s “Pennies From Heaven.”
My 2 cents. So to speak.
Thank you so much for posting this wonderful memory from my childhood.