The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

Documentary short on cartoonist Otto Messmer, co-creator of Felix the Cat

The life and career of the great cartoonist Winsor McCay is warmly recalled by his former film assistant, John Fitzsimmons, with clips of classic McCay animated films.

The film follows Wing Biddlebaum, a lonely former schoolteacher whose “hands” led to a scandal that drove him from his previous town and life’s calling.

The short takes as its inspiration Bottom's contemplation on the "dream" he has experienced in the middle acts of Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", in which his head is transformed into that of an ass and the Fairy Queen Titania is made to fall in love with him. Shakespeare's "Dream" has long been the most visually attractive play to adapt, and the transfer to animation opens up possibilities set designers could only dream of. Canemaker's mastery of the art and his immense creativity make this short quite a ride, exploring a few of the darker undertones in Shakespeare's text that are often excised or simply ignored.

In 1986, seventeen years after Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s animated conversation about love and six years after the beloved Beatle’s assassination, Ono commissioned independent animator John Canemaker to create a short animated film based on Lennon’s drawings, music, and interviews. Given her penchant for the intersection of art and philosophy, Lennon’s own quirky illustrations, and the odd fact that the couple’s love began in visual poetry long before they met, it was the perfect medium for commemoration.