UPA's "Man on the Land" industrial cartoon

From ASIFA:

We received a surprise in the mail today from Archive supporter James Tucker- a DVD of great fifties industrial films, including UPA's groundbreaking Man On The Land. This film includes animation by Pat Matthews, Grim Natwick and Art Babbitt, but animation isn't the primary attraction here. It's the drop dead brilliant layouts by Director Bill Hurtz, Associate Director Art Heinemann and background artists Bob Dranko, Boris Gorelick and Paul Julian (among others). Just about every setup in this film is strong enough to be an illustration in a book. Check out the depth and lighting in these backgrounds. They may be painted flat, but they sure aren't composed flat. If this sort of design sensibility was applied to a cartoon with vivid characters, humor and entertainment value, wouldn't it be incredible?

Link

[#1 posted by jeff.simmermon , March 16, 2008 9:27 PM]

Mark, are you intentionally making a sly wink to "The Incredibles" there, or is the awesomeness of that movie just seeping out of your subconscious?

[#2 posted by gadfly , March 17, 2008 12:05 AM]

those aren't mark's words, they're a quote from the blog post being linked. funny point though.

[#3 posted by footage , March 17, 2008 5:29 AM]

There's an incomplete but fully downloadable and unrestricted copy of this public domain film at the Internet Archive, at http://www.archive.org/details/ManOnTheLand. -- Rick P.

[#4 posted by arkizzle , March 17, 2008 6:06 AM]

#3

You included an extraneous "." in your url..

FIXED

[#5 posted by MarkM , March 17, 2008 11:49 AM]

The closing credits helps one understand this work:
Presented by:
Oil Industry Information Committee
of the
American Petroleum Institute