Northwest Film Forum

American film animator John Hubley began his career working on classics like Bambi and Fantasia at Disney. In the late ‘40s, Hubley created the character of Mr. Magoo; in the ‘50s, he founded Storyboard Studios, where he worked on Sesame Street and directed classic shorts like Moonbird. We present a program of newly restored 35mm prints of some of the most beloved of John Hubley’s works, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

"He portrayed human characters lost in an irrational world that was ill at ease with itself. He channeled Picasso, Klee, and Matisse; and he conjured coteries of aesthetic and philosophical –isms. . .synthesizing them all into potent commentaries on culture and society. It was social realism through artistic abstractionism." —Indiewire

PROGRAM

Adventures of an Asterisk (1956, 11 min)

A joyful, humanistic rumination on the value of art in modern life, set to an original score by jazz legend Benny Carter.

Moonbird (1959, 10 min)

Against an enchanted nocturnal backdrop, two young brothers set out on an adventure to recapture a lost pet bird.

The Hat (1964, 18 min)

By John and Faith Hubley

Built on the improvised collaboration—both verbal and musical—of actors Dizzy Gillespie and Dudley Moore, this meditation on world history and the folly of war tells the story of two soldiers patrolling a cold and forlorn border, deep in a nuclear winter.

Urbanissimo (1967, 6 min)   

A charming parable about issues of urban design and global thinking, set to a playful composition by longtime Hubley collaborator Benny Carter.

Eggs (1970, 10 min)

Mother Nature bickers with Death over control of humankind, before a fateful decision is made. Music by Quincy Jones.

Of Men and Demons (1968, 9 min)   

By John and Faith Hubley

A simple fisherman faces the challenges posed by climate and modernity, personified by three resourceful demons, in this spirited and painterly fable. Music by Quincy Jones. 

Windy Day (1968, 9 min)  

By John and Faith Hubley

Two young sisters share a languid summer day—playing, squabbling and parsing life, love and mortality—all along the shoreline of looming adolescence.

Tender Game (1958, 6 min)   

This visually resplendent reading of an age-old story, Boy meets Girl in Central Park, draws deep emotion from its extraordinary musical score (Ella Fitzgerald and the Oscar Peterson Trio performing "Tenderly"), along with unmistakable elements of self-portraiture.