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So much average

Powerful

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The 1992 winner of Best Animated Short features noted paintings morphing into each other. However, there was one scene in "Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase" that caught my attention in particular. At one point the sound of a commercial appears in the background. Author and political satirist Gore Vidal said of the so called War on Terrorism: "'War on terrorism' isn't a goal. It's a slogan designed for advertising, which is the only art form that the US ever created." Here we see art and advertising juxtaposed.Anyway, this is an interesting cartoon. I don't know of anything else that Joan C. Gratz did, but if she did I would like to see it. Worth seeing.

What a wonderful and beautifully made short. Personally, I couldn't think in any better tribute to the great masterpieces of art from different ages (Referencing several classic paintings, but also some works of modern art, and there is even a brief reference to comic books) than this, resulting in one of the most incredibly and fascinating animations ever made. This is absolutely beautiful, being a magnificent homage of the timeless artistic creations from different eras and places.A must see for everyone, not only the animation fans.The Academy Award was more than well deserved.

This is the sort of animation that would be best seen by artists and art history majors--though anyone can easily enjoy it. The creators of this Academy award winning short (Best Animated Short--1993) were able to recreate many great works of art and make them morph into other paintings again and again before morphing programs were available for computers. According to IMDb, believe it or not, this effect was achieved with clay and must have taken almost forever to complete! While not a funny or cartoony short, this is a great work of art that can be appreciated by anyone with a little patience and an appreciation for art. Lovely and one of a kind. It deserved to win--it was terrific.

My wife (an art major) and I saw this on PBS' series "The Territory", April 2006. As a hobbyist animator, I was very impressed by the "clay painting" technique (not really claymation, more 2D), and we both had fun trying to name the (many, many) iconic art works. Everything from Munch's "Scream" to Warhol's Marilyn.The technique involved more or less continuous "morphing" from one work to another, but artistically done rather than much of the mindless photographic morphing. It gives the impression of a "chain of thought" type dream tour through a really good modern art museum. Great stuff.