George Dunning, the director of the Beatles Yellow Submarine, and the rest at TVC made the science fiction short Moon Rock in 1970. While the style is certainly recognizable, the tone is vastly different from its predecessor.
After a countdown and blast-off, our faceless astronaut lands on what appears to be the Moon, where a series of psychedelic characters are there to greet him, including a Blue Meanie-reminiscent slug-thing requesting chocolate and jelly. Interspersed with real video footage, the surreal subjects and austere setting make "Moon Rock" a product of its time without being dated. The trippy ambient music is from Ron Geesin, who also co-composed the "Atom Heart Mother" suite with Pink Floyd.
Apparently Dunning based the narrative on the notion of "lateral thinking," a creative problem-solving concept from New Agey self-help consultant, Edward de Bono. For some frame of reference on de Bono, in 2000 he recommended sending Marmite to Israel and Palestine because he believed an unleavened bread-related zinc deficiency was exacerbating aggression in the region. Crazy? Sure, but it makes for darn good animation!
6 сен 2024
