It was a Facebook friend that first introduced me to the charming video Marcel The Shell with Shoes On. Marcel’s naive-childlike-voice immediately made me remember a 1950s arty children’s movie I’d seen long ago that had real children doing a random voice-over. My lame efforts to track it down — “1950s art film with real kids talking?” — got me zilch. I tried to forget about it, but the recent resurfacing of Marcel (most recently here and here) kept me scratching. I thought the filmmakers’ last name was something like Hubble or Hussey and that the wife was Ruth. That didn’t work, but I kept fiddling around and, hallelujah, today I found them and it!
It is MoonBird, the 1959 Academy Award winner for animation by John Hubley (who collaborated with his wife Faith —biblical, I got that at least). A good overview of the film by animator Michael Sporn is here and you can view the film itself below. I suppose it isn’t much like Marcel and could be considered a bit precious, but whatever — at least I’m not itching anymore.
educating alice 