The Adventures of Mark Twain poster & wallpaper

Carol Edelman, Chris Ritchie, Gary Krug

Based on elements from the stories of Mark Twain, this feature-length Claymation fantasy follows the adventures of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn as they stowaway aboard the interplanetary ...( read more  read more... )balloon of Mark Twain. Twain, disgusted with the Human Race, is intent upon finding Halley's Comet and crashing into it, achieving his "destiny." It's up to Tom, Becky, and Huck to convince him hat his judgement is wrong, and that he still has much to offer humanity that might make a difference. Their efforts aren't just charitable; if they fail, they will share Twain's fate. Along the way, they use a magical time portal to get a detailed overview of the Twain philosophy, observing the "historical" events that inspired his works.

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219 ratings

G

Directed by: Will Vinton

Release Date: March 1, 1985

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DVD Release Date: January 31, 2006

Stats: 98 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (98)

  • franktowers
    October 15, 2009
    franktowers
    claymation ftw!
  • FangsFirst
    August 12, 2008
    FangsFirst
    At one point in time, all anyone had to do to get me to watch a movie was to say "stop-motion." I've always loved stop-motion animation, from the day I recall seeing an ad for a California Raisins special to the year (third grade, I believe? maybe fourth) that I convinced my moth...( read more)er to make me a costume of Ray Harryhausen's Venusian Ymir for Halloween. I had a Goodtimes-produced (you know, that abominable release company that does terrible prints of easily acquired--often public domain--films for prices so cheap you almost think maybe they justify what looks like a third generation VHS transferred to DVD?) collection of movie trailers (which I just discovered was released on DVD as well!) from the 50s, 60s and possibly 70s, called Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies. It included piles of Harryhausen's work--as well as the ultra-lame Journey to the Center of the Earth monitor lizards with cardboard Dimetrodon-style fins stapled to them*. Actually, that's the release that inspired my interest in the Ymir, making 20 Million Miles to Earth one of my earlier DVD purchases. I started hearing about this film when it showed up cheap at my usual source and discussions said it was more interesting than you might be led to believe, even more adult than its art suggested. A friend mentioned one particular clip was making the rounds online, even. I picked it up, discovering it was the first feature length film in ClaymationŽ--and that Claymation was a copyrighted term. Interestingly, producer and director Will Vinton is the creator of that process (specifically "Claymation," not clay animation in general, which is admittedly a pretty pointless delineation)--and the man responsible for, yes, the California Raisins.

    Huck Finn (voiced by Gary Krug), Tom Sawyer (by Chris Ritchie) and Becky Thatcher (voiced by Michele Mariana, who also voices the infamous Mysterious Stranger) are the audience's fourth wall-bending representation in the film, stealing onto a hot air balloon/zeppelin contraption built and manned by Mark Twain himself to catch up with Halley's comet, which first passed in the year of his birth, 1835, and is now passing again in the actual year of his death, 1910. The ship is peculiar, having a single portal of sorts that one walks through to reach any area of the ship, and that disappears in the process. One room has a switch that rotates a fixed door between, well, the works of Mark Twain. We see the famous white fence of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the menacing figure of Injun Joe and so on. Twain reads from "The Diary of Adam and Eve," another of his own actual works, and all of it is rendered in the same animation--much like the first story he tells in the movie, mentioning it as what gave him his start in writing. This story is, of course, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

    The whole film ends up being both about the adventures of this Claymation Mark Twain as he seeks out Halley's Comet and about the "adventure" that was his actual life, exploring his literary works as well as his philosophies and ideas--almost every line for the character is an actual Mark Twain quote, or at least a very large number of them were. Most impressively, this glut of quotes is made to sound perfectly natural by the actor behind the mound of clay (James Whitmore) and the clever writing that made me simply think, "Gee, that sounds rather like Twain, I wonder if it's an actual quote?" I researched many of them, and found indeed they were. But of course the writing--brilliant though it is when it hits Twain's own words--is a backseat to absolutely beautiful stop-motion animation. It's all fluid, with fabulously represented facial expression on all characters, such as Twain's brush of a moustache moving, contorting and bending around his lips with every spoken word. Many characters appear in many scenes, all animated in this same, clear way, with no real blemishes, beyond the inevitable light smudging of the composition of a part itself--the movements consistent throughout. The design of the segments based on Twain's diaries of Adam and Eve is brilliantly conceived, with modern touches designed to familiarize the events for children (and prevent them seeing nude adults), as well as simply fantastic and unusual flora and fauna populating it.

    Still, despite the animation's starring role, the film itself wouldn't be quite so good if the story, its intent, and Twain's words were not married so perfectly to it. Many find the adaptation of The Mysterious Stranger chilling, disturbing or even outright horrifying (I found it no such thing--thinking it seemed to represent things as they are in terms of philosophy), though there's a twinkle of amusement to my eye to think of the fact that many find the Stranger's identification of himself as "Satan" the truly horrifying element when hearing his beliefs about the meaningless of human lives--but when one takes these beliefs and compares them to the comments of Twain, one finds they are far more readily applied to his perception of God, not the devil--something that, by all rights, should be even more terrifying to those believing in either, but it manages to skip over and around these irreligious--or even antireligious--sentiments. It does so without stripping away or burying them, however, leaving them rather in plain sight for those who think in that manner instead.

    Quite a clever movie, and a shame it's so little known, and known only as much as it is primarily for its supposed "creepiness" and "inappropriate" nature for children--with which I readily disagree.

    *No, relax, not really stapled. I just find that the amusing way to phrase the technique, thanks to Scrooged.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    February 4, 2008
    YosemiteSamFan
    Great claymation effects, but I just didn't understand much of the story, which has Mark Twain taking some boys on a stellar journey through his legendary tales. I suppose it serves as a suitable introduction to Twain literature for youth, but I was only mildly intrigued by the p...( read more)remise.
  • donnarenee2006
    January 4, 2009
    donnarenee2006
    The clay animation is really amazing in this neat fantasy of Mark Twain and his characters of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Pretty awesome.
  • SadisticMinister
    November 29, 2008
    SadisticMinister
    Maybe not for the youngest.
  • mikecan2
    July 13, 2008
    mikecan2
    This is a very dark "kids" movie, it's great, but it's rendition of Satan is just plain creepy
  • cspoonhead
    January 15, 2008
    cspoonhead
    I know this as Comet Quest, and it's amazing. Really funny, aesthetically pleasing, and scary as hell in some places

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