100 Greatest Animated Shorts / Moonbird / John and Faith Hubley
USA / 1959
John Hubley had met Faith Elliot while they were both working on the UPA sex education film ‘Of Human Growth’. Although they met in LA both had originated from New York, John Hubley from an artistic family of British descent, while Faith grew up in the tough ‘Hells Kitchen’ area of the city. Kindred spirits, they became life long collaborators on their experimental films and animation commissions and like Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker (See ‘Night on Bald Mountain’), the Hubleys were one of animations great love stories.
In his years at UPA Hubley had helped establish the company’s reputation, creating the successful character Mr Magoo and making acclaimed short films such as ‘Rooty Toot Toot’ (1952). The company came under pressure during the time of US right wing political persecution known as the ‘Macarthy Witchhunts’ for some of its artists associations with left wing politics. Rather than create difficulties for UPA, Hubley resigned. After moving to New York in 1955 the newly married Hubleys set to work fulfilling their wedding vow of making one independent film a year, while raising their four children.
Their short film Moonbird was funded by the Guggenheim Museum and was based on the improvised play of their young sons, Mark and Ray. The film’s soundtrack consists of the children’s natural recorded play talk, edited down to tell a loose, rambling story of an imaginary search for the “Moonbird.” This is a pioneering example of this kind of documentary sound use in animation, later famously used in films such as ‘Creature Comforts’.
Like their previous film The Adventures of an * (1957), Moonbird leaned toward abstract expressionist stylings. The Hubleys used experimental methods such as double exposures to overlay images and filming artwork half-exposed to make it semi transparent. Other techniques included coloring the image with wax crayon and black ink which resulted in the ink resisting the wax to give a wild, loose feel in keeping with the imaginary child’s world the film creates. The light naturalism of the voices and the soft hand crafted style creates an affectionate sense of family and innocent childhood imagination. This sense of warmth without sentimentality was a hallmark of the Hubleys work and Moonbird remains one of their best loved, acclaimed by critics worldwide and winning the animated short film Oscar for that year.
The couple combined professional and personal lives for the rest of their lives. John was hired as director on the British feature ‘Watership Down’ in 1975 but left the project after a year due to artistic differences with producer Martin Rosen, who took over directing the film. John Hubley tragically passed away soon after in 1977 during an operation while Faith continued to make films until her own death in 2001. Raised in this artistic environment, the Hubley children unsurprisingly had artistic leanings of their own, often working with their parents at the Hubley Studio. Daughter Georgia is also a member of acclaimed rock band Yo La Tengo while Emily Hubley is a successful animator and director in her own right.
Note: The 100 greatest animated shorts is an list of opinions and not an order of value from best to worst. All suggestions, comments and outrage are welcome but please don’t shoot us, it’s only a list!