Someone with their finger on the zeitgeist decided to digitally restore the 1995 Gumby: The Movie, a claymated feature-length romp down nostalgia lane. How good is this movie? There's a Star Wars homage, Groucho Marx as a music-video producer, two blockhead villains, a visit to King Arthur's court, a murderous Gumby robot and a dog that cries pearls.There's even a catchy theme song, sung by Gumby's would-be lover:
And it's all done by hand! The film seems almost a celebration of old-school animation and analogue culture – a camera used in shooting Gumby's hard-rocking band shoots film, not digital, phones operate with dials, not buttons and the computers seem to be running BASIC. I don't doubt that Pixar has deep affection for each and every digitally built frame it prints, but there's something about having your hands on clay, shooting it, tweaking it a bit, shooting it again, etc. etc. etc., that just oozes love. The restored Gumby, now showing in the kiddie section at the Tribeca Film Festival, really belongs in the midnight slot at your local arthouse theater.
