TWICE UPON A TIME
A film review by Shane R. Burridge
Copyright 1997 Shane R. Burridge
Twice Upon a Time (1983) 77m.
Inventive animated tale produced by George Lucas and directed by John Korty and Charles Swenson. The minds of sleeping Rushers (humans) are being influenced by the dream-dispensing land of Frivoli and the nightmare-inducing Murkworks. The key to their power struggle is the mainspring from the Cosmic clock, which controls all time. Fast, witty story isn't for all children, especially those who won't have patience for its unique look and flippant, incidental storyline. Visually, film is a combination of rainbow-hued watercolors, pen and ink, live action, and still photographs. Its endearingly scrappy look is matched by its throwaway dialogue - I can imagine this being the kind of cartoon Robert Altman might produce.
Hip characters provide many laughs, especially overenthusiastic superhero Rod Rescueman (James Crenna), and a nonchalant fairy godmother (Judith Kahan Kampmann). There's also the nominal lead character Ralph, a thing that looks like an extra from YELLOW SUBMARINE (voice actor Lorenzo Music). Film's main basis for characterization is to play against stereotype - an idea we're overly familiar with now, but don't mind in this case because the whole production has such an easygoing feel about it. The animators slip in many visual gags, mostly to do with film and television - one of the characters is an aspiring actress, another an aspiring writer, another an aspiring heroic lead. Consequently, story treats the manufacture of dreams and nightmares as being akin to the movie-making industry. Most interesting visual effects occur when we see a nightmare activated in the world of the Rushers.
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