Special program at the Mill Valley Film Festival

This weekend offers a rare glimpse at the work of the late Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy, among other legendary anime characters, and the “god of manga [the comic book].” This unusual collection showcases the master’s superb, seldom-seen non-anime work. The nonverbal short films creatively employ silence, sound and music. Legend of the Forest (1987), Tezuka-san’s masterpiece 10 years in the making, is his homage to animation from scratched-on film and pencil drawing to full-color, multidimensional images. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, the film also carries an environmental message. Also included are Jumping (1984), a view of the world through that activity, Broken Down Film (1985), a send-up of American cartoon technique, and a restored episode of the American TV version of Astro Boy (1963). Fred Ladd, Astro Boy’s American “godfather,” will speak after the screenings about the iconic character’s history and about a new Astro Boy movie to be released in 2009.

ASIFA-SF president Karl Cohen adds: "The biggest surprise among the three seldom-seen non-anime short films is Legend of the Forest, a 30-minute Fantasia-like film. It is a solid drama and without the typical Disney qualities that originally inspired the creator. It has solid content, the conflict of man against nature. Nature strikes back in this film. The first movement is a battle between animals and an evil woodsman with a chainsaw. The last movement pits hundreds of men with chainsaws, led by somebody who looks and acts like Hiltler. Along the way Dr. Tezuka shows his animators are as good as Hollywood’s."

"Part of the joy of this film is seeing how the director pays homage to great moments from animation’s past. There is a short take-off of Gertie the Dinosaur, a moment when we feel the scene was inspired by an early Silly Symphony, another moment when we see trees similar to Disney’s Flowers and Trees (1932) and yet another moment when Tezuka recreated Max Fleischer’s tabletop animation. The last sequence is a camera rotating around a tree trunk to reveal something shocking. Although Mill Valley is showing this and other animation programs as Sat. morning cartoon fare, this is not a show for kiddies."

Sat. Oct. 4, at noon at the Sequoia in Mill Valley or Sun. Oct. 5, at 10:30AM at the Rafael Film Center.Tickets are available thru the Mill Valley Film Festival website.