The Puppetoon Movie

The Puppetoon Movie is a tribute to the genius of special-effects maven George Pal. Long before assembling such dynamite feature films as The War of the Worlds, tom thumb and The Time Machine, Pal was top man in the field of stop-motion photography. Utilizing as many a five thousand separate wooden figures for each of his short subjects (variously titled Puppetoons and Merry Madcaps), Pal turned out such gems as Tubby the Tuba and John Henry and the Inky Poo. This compilation contains nine shorts, some produced while Pal was still working in the Netherlands (he barely escaped Hitler's deadly wrath after producing a potent anti-Nazi parable), others while he was releasing his films through the facilities of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. The Puppetoon Movie is hosted by a star who can truly say that he owes his very existence to the standards set by George Pal: Art Clokey's whimsical eraser boy Gumby.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide