Gumbasia

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Gumbasia
Gumbasia, the first stop-motion clay animation film by Art Clokey
Directed by Art Clokey
Written byArt Clokey
Produced byArt Clokey
Cinematography Clokey Productions
Edited byArt Clokey
Music by"Don-Que-Dee" by Mel Powell
Distributed byClokey Inc.
Release date
  • September 2, 1953 (1953-09-02)
Running time
3 minutes
CountryUnited States

Gumbasia is a 3-minute short film released on September 2, 1953, the first clay animation produced by Art Clokey. He used the same technique to create the classic characters Gumby and Davey and Goliath . [1]

Contents

Production

Clokey created Gumbasia while a student at the University of Southern California under the direction of Slavko Vorkapić. In his father's garage, he worked the clay on a ping-pong table. [2] The film is a surreal short of pulsating shapes and lumps of clay set to jazz music in a homage of Walt Disney's Fantasia . [3]

Gumbasia was created in a style Vorkapić taught, called Kinesthetic Film Principles and described as "massaging of the eye cells". Based on camera movements and stop-motion editing, this provides much of the look and feel of Gumby films. [4]

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References

  1. Beck, Jerry (January 8, 2010). "Art Clokey 1921-2010". Cartoon Brew.
  2. "Gumbasia". KQED. March 15, 2007.
  3. "For Art Clokey's birthday, five great stop-motion shorts". Christian Science Monitor. October 12, 2011 via Christian Science Monitor.
  4. "Art Clokey, article at KQED". Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2008.