editors
JERRY BECK (LA)
AMID AMIDI (NY)
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:

In 1974 I was taking time out from my studio in London and working on a film in Portland for an entity that I think was called the Energy Institute of New York. We got paid for the first two weeks and then the money dried up. For some reason we believed the promises we were given, and we all kept working on the film and did finish it, and were rewarded at the end of the job with all our back pay. I drove down to LA and rented a quarter of a small house on Cabrillo in Venice, which was very cheap then, and started work on a comic strip (unfinished) called the “Non Adventures of Nellie Nada.” I also did a lot of drawings and took many photographs of Venice. Sunbeam comes out of this period of my life.

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Emmett Goodman says:
11/18/08  11:12am

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.

 
Mark H. says:
11/18/08  11:31am

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.

 
Bob89 says:
11/18/08  11:32am
 
corey says:
11/18/08  1:01pm

Very cool! Looks like an animator’s film, lots of silliness that just looks fun to draw! Reminds me a bit of International Rocketship!

 
Saturnome says:
11/18/08  3:15pm

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.

 
Chris Knox says:
11/18/08  3:18pm

Lovely! I now feel nostalgic for early ’80s nostalgia for the ’30s!

 
Mike Rauch says:
11/18/08  6:10pm

The artistry here is pretty phenomenal. Was the song performed specifically for this animation?

 
Mike Rauch says:
11/18/08  6:13pm

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?

 
BobJinx says:
11/18/08  6:33pm

Pure animation candy! The kind of thing that wants you want to get up and get animating. Thanks, Cartoon Brew!

 
joecab says:
11/18/08  7:20pm

WOW I haven’t seen this in 20 years and it immediately came flooding back. I forgot how much I loved it.

 
jules says:
11/18/08  7:57pm

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.

 
Rob T. says:
11/18/08  8:49pm

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!

 
rhinotonight says:
11/18/08  11:19pm

that was wonderful. i wish i alive when it was shown on the big screen!

i don;t know what to say. honestly.

 
Taylor J. says:
11/18/08  11:23pm

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.

 
Matt Jones says:
11/19/08  5:38am

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.

 
Mike Wolf says:
11/19/08  10:39am

If you liked this, check out Seaside Woman. You can find it on youtube.

 
Dominic Bisignano says:
11/19/08  12:55pm

Congrats paul! Awesome to see this here; now I am just a click away from getting to see this any time I want :)

 
Thomas M. says:
11/19/08  1:03pm

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.

 
Tim Rauch says:
11/19/08  1:17pm

I agree with my brother, this is easily one of my favorite “Brew TV” episodes. Very nice work, a real pleasure to watch!

 
Steve Segal says:
11/19/08  5:31pm

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.

 
Tony says:
11/20/08  1:31am

When Flash looks this good I’ll consider it the better format. But for now, this is beauty only cells can accomplish.

 
Nina Paley says:
11/21/08  12:15pm

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.

 
Nina Paley says:
11/21/08  12:53pm

Tournee. I meant Tournee.

 
Diana says:
11/21/08  10:26pm

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.

 
Bob K. says:
11/27/08  9:11am

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

 
Ron A. Zajac says:
03/5/10  7:10am

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!

 
Ron A. Zajac says:
03/5/10  7:18am

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”.

 
CdC says:
03/10/10  8:56pm

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.

 
Dave Arnold says:
03/12/10  11:40am

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!

 
John Constantine says:
06/18/10  1:34am

Vicky Silva is the singer. Haven’t found anything on her.

 
John Constantine says:
06/18/10  1:53am

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.

 
Reed Kirk says:
08/5/10  6:55pm

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…

 
Reed Kirk says:
08/6/10  3:02pm

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.

 
David Drake says:
12/31/11  9:32pm

Thank you so much for posting this wonderful memory from my childhood.

 
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