Watch Begone Dull Care For Free

Fantastic!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Begone Dull Care" is an 8-minute short film by Scottish animation filmmaker Norman McLaren. He made this one shortly before his Academy Award win for "Neighbors", also his most known work probably. McLaren was in his mid-30s here back in 1949. So this is an over 65-year-old film and it's an experimental piece. It certainly has a touch of Stan Brakhage to it, but I have to say it was not really a success for me in terms of the visual side. The audio was better, some nice music and obviously it was closely connected with the animation being on par with what we heard in this short film. However, the whole thing just stayed underwhelming for me and given the fact that the pretty talented Evelyn Lambart also worked on this one, I hoped for more. Not recommended.

This is a very important Canadian animated short in that many love it for its artistic style as well as all the tedious work that went into making it. Classical music is set to movement of scratches on film. None of the animation is anthropomorphic--instead all shapes and colors and scratches. Because of this, the film looks like something that you'd see in a modern art museum. However, it should also be pointed out that this is a very, very, very difficult film to watch nor is it particularly fun. Watching minute after minute of this is just a chore.Overall verdict: An interesting experiment that has little, if any, commercial appeal. Not particularly pleasant but I sure can respect the time that went into making it.

With the recent death of jazz great Oscar Peterson, Amid at Cartoon Brew showed his tribute by linking from YouTube two animated shorts scored by him. One was directed by John Hubley. This one, Begone Dull Care, was done by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart with the abstract paint done directly on film. Peterson provides three jazz pieces with the second one just played to white lines on black background and the other two mixed with that and various other colors, mostly red. Wonderful Jackson Pollock-like images that might have inspired many a trip during the '60s! What a great tribute to a recently departed music genius from Canada.

A masterpiece of hand-drawn & experimental cinema! McLaren & Lambert pulled out all the stops for the wonderful viewing experience that would become BEGONE DULL CARE, a film made directly by hand through painting, etching, drawing, and pattern- rolling onto clear 35 mm film stock. The phantasmagoria of colours, patterns, images and surreal optical trickery of perceived depth of field are blended together PERFECTLY with the rollicking Jazz soundtrack provided by Canadian Jazz-pianist extraordinaire, Oscar Peterson, and his band. Although this style of animation has been attempted many times, by countless others, both before and since, NONE have come close to Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambert's stunning accomplishment: BEGONE DULL CARE!10/10. A resounding visual triumph.........and just so much fun to watch!