Sobre el autor
Phil Mulloy is one of the UK’s most intriguing filmmakers despite being little known (another reason to applaud this release, only one of his films having previously been available on VHS, The Sound of Music on the BFI’s Animation on 4: Volume One tape). Initially working in live action, the director abandoned this approach owing to the frustrations of getting his works funded and has since worked exclusively in animation since the late eighties. What Extreme Animation allows for most pertinently is the ability to consider how Mulloy has developed over the years, from the simplistic series of Cowboys shorts to the more ambitious Intolerance and its sequel.
Cowboys (1991)
The six Cowboys films demonstrate how Mulloy had most of his technique in place from the beginning. Made in 1991, these shorts display both the style of animation and sardonic, irreverent humour that have changed little over the years. Visually, Mulloy’s style is best described as the equivalent of scruffy handwriting; he utilises simplistic stick figures and minimalist backgrounds in order to allow the viewer’s attentions to focus on the ideas his films present rather than provide simple pleasures. Indeed, Mulloy’s work is serious in the extreme as he tackles what he considers to be the major problems infecting society. The Cowboys films see the beginnings of this idea as he confronts issues of crowd mentality; The Conformist being the most blatant, dealing with, unsurprisingly, conformity.
Contiene:
Slim Pickin's
That's Nothin'
Murder!
The Conformist
Outrage!
eLink:
Phil Mulloy - Cowboys.avi 
The History of the World (1994)
The History Of The World (1994) is told in here in two parts, only, so far. There's The Invention Of Writing and The Discovery Of Language, both of which offer a ribald take on their subjects that Python-era Terry Gilliam would no doubt approve of.
Contiene:
The Invention of Writing
The Discovery of Language
eLink:Phil Mulloy - The History Of The World.avi The Ten Commandments (1994-1996)
Direct, witty and challenging, Mulloy's work stands as a model of satiric grotesque unparalleled in British animation. His Ten Commandments builds on this technique, allying the surreal to the social, and cleverly exposes a God who, by making man in His own image, effectively demonstrates His own flaws, pettiness, and indifference. This God is as inhumane as the humanity he has created.
Contiene:
Thou Shalt Not Adore False Gods
Thou Shalt Not Commit Blaphemy
Remember to Keep Holy the Sabbath Day
Honour thy Father and Mother
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
Thou Shalt Not Steal
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
Thou Shalt Not Covet thy Neighbours Goods
Thou Shalt Not Covet thy Neighbours Wife
eLink:Phil Mulloy - The Ten Commandments 1-5.avi Phil Mulloy - The Ten Commandments 6-10.avi Intolerance I & II (2000-2001)
Colour is used prominently in the second of Mulloy’s two genuine masterpieces: Intolerance (2000) and Intolerance II: The Invasion (2001). The humour returns tenfold as the director narrates two tales of alien invasion (using the sci-fi genre in much the same way as Cowboys used the western) to take pot-shots at, amongst other things, organised religion. These two shorts also see Mulloy returning to areas and characters previously featured in Cowboys and The Ten Commandments, and as such they genuinely feel like the films which the director has been working towards throughout his animation career.
Moreover, Intolerance II: The Invasion also sees Mulloy moving forwards technologically by utilising computer imagery to enhance his designs. The style is essentially the same, but this addition allows the director to provide his ideas in a far more manner, leaving more room for the comedic moments. Indeed, the two shorts are by far the funniest on the disc, though I won’t reveal the situation on which they revolve as it deserves to be seen with no forewarning. Needless to say, it provides further evidence for the Extreme Animation title.
eLink:Short Animation - Phil Mulloy (2000 & 2001) - Intolerance & Intolerance II.avi Otras Obras
The Wind of Changes from 1996 ignores the irreverent humour altogether to present a bleak portrait of life under political oppression. Based on the reminiscences of musician Alex Balanescu, who has composed the discordant accompaniment for many of Mulloy’s films, this short becomes all the more powerful by side-stepping the comic edges. Indeed, the biographical nature makes the absurdities on display all the more shocking.
1997’s The Chain similarly avoids comedy in order to focus on the futility of war. Learning from the narrative developments found in The History of the World and The Ten Commandments works, Mulloy paints an apocalyptic picture, one all the more affective considering how this developed storyline allows it to be grounded in its own reality. The Chain also sees Mulloy using colour to a greater extent than before, eschewing the usual black and white with occasional reds for a much darker palette.
The final shorts present are the disappointing The Sexlife of a Chair (1998), which breaks from Mulloy’s stick figure animation to present a series of cheap, uninspired gags, is by far the weakest short on the collection. The second, The Sound of Music (1992) is a more familiar piece, cataloguing a series of atrocities (mostly cannibalism of the homeless and new-born babies), and fits in more with the Cowboys series that preceded it rather than the later works. As with the other films not made under a themed umbrella, it’s a less humorous, more disturbing piece, though matches most of them in terms of quality. Indeed, with the one-off exception of The Sexlife of a Chair, the works collected here are almost entirely perfect.
Contiene:
The Wind of Changes (1996)
The Chain (1997)
The Sexlife of a Chair (1998)
The Sound of Music (1992)
eLink:Phil Mulloy - More Films.avi Más Info sobre Phil Mulloy:http://www.philmulloy.com/
http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/more/phi ... ticle.html
http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=5909
(A ver si alguien se anima con el dvd de Paul Driessen...)
