To Spring, a Happy Harmonies Cartoon from 1936
A tribute to the little old men in their underwear who fight the winter wind with vats of natural pigment from the depths of the earth, thus bringing spring to the land. Very pretty animation in this short film, entitled To Spring, from 1936.
Happy equinox, everybody.
Video courtesy of iToons, which has tons of nifty old animations.
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Consider me an underwear-clad old man. That was nice.
I wanted to find a book I have before I commented, but I couldn’t find it and my comment has been eating me anyway. I have somewhere an amazing book called Color, about where pigments are actually found. It was fascinating.
The part in the cartoon where the gnomes are ‘mining’ the multi-coloured stalactite reminded me of the source of Ultramarine. It is a mineral pigment found in only one place in the world, one mine in the world, in the mountains of Afghanistan.
I once saw a documentary film on the same subject, showing where pigments like rose madder and ultramarine come from, and also talking about how polluting the process of manufacturing and using dyes and pigments can be. Very interesting stuff.
The Winter vs Spring forces are hard at work here in Spokane. Thanks for the great nostalgic cartoon.
Yes, I heard it was quite cold over there. We had pouring rain for Easter, but enough sun for a quick egg hunt for the kids.