‘Claydream’ Review – Portrait Of A Pioneer Is A Must-Watch For Animation Junkies

Does the name Will Vinton ring a bell? Probably not, unless you grew up in the 1980s flipping through channels on your parents’ old CRT TV and seeing The California Raisins. The fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group that went on to become an icon of its time. The Emmy Award-winning Claymation went on to make TV commercials and animated specials. When we think of animation legends, we usually think of Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, or even Max Fleischer, but do we ever consider Will Vinton? Probably not, and that’s what this film, Claydream, does. It goes behind-the-scenes of the man himself, who probably should be remembered as a legend, and the impact he had on the industry and the entire art form.

Director Marq Evans does a wonderful job of introducing Vinton to those who may not be too familiar with his work, while also taking the audience on the journey of Vinton’s career as just a little outsider in the art community. Vinton went on to establish his studio in Portland, Oregon rather than be with the bigwigs in Hollywood. His partner at the time, Bob Gardiner, went on to win an Oscar for their claymation short, Closed Mondays, in 1975. Despite their nasty split up, Vinton still continued to press forward, and it brought him loads of success. He went on to make more Oscar-nominated shorts, music videos, and advertisements for television.

The film begins by teasing the audience with the legal battle between Vinton and Nike founder Phil Knight, who would ultimately go on to force Vinton out of his own studio, Will Vinton Studios, in 2003. The film is structured as your typical career-highlight, which could be very familiar to documentary lovers, but what Evans does with Claydream, with its extensive interviews with Vinton and many of his associates, and the fact that claymation is a really engaging subject matter, is where this film shines best. It would not be the same if you just read a history book on his life. The film benefits greatly from the early shorts Vinton made, or hearing the old answering messages for Vinton, even one from Michael Jackson, who went on to play a raisin.

Although the structure of the film has its perks, at the same time, I can’t help feeling things were missing. Sure, Evans does a wonderful job compressing everything together, but taking roughly four decades of history and slamming it into a runtime of 96 minutes, one must imagine things were missing that you could have explored. Vinton’s home life is mentioned, but it disappears just as fast as it appeared. What about his plans to build a Disneyland-style park? Or any other of his ambitions? One would imagine he must have gone through some kind of mental illness as well as having to go through all that he did, but nothing is shown of that.

Some things just feel out of place and not needed; when Knight’s son (Travis Knight, who went on to be the head guy at LAIKA and director of films like Kubo and the Two Strings) just shoots in out of nowhere and starts rapping about his genitals, I found my attention span drifting into the void. The scene is unnecessary and serves no purpose for what is being said. 

Perhaps some of the film is pretty crowded; a lot is painted on a canvas here, and things may seem all over the place, but Evans does a good job of painting a picture of Vinton’s life and gets the main subject to the surface pretty damn well. It outlines Vinton’s path and places his career in a context that explains both his success and how it all fell apart. Evans has ensured that the man who popularized the artform will be remembered, and rightly so. This is a very well-edited, insightful, and captivating story of a man who, quite honestly, should have had more recognition. A blast from the past, a must-watch for animation junkies.

Claydream is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHih7X-io4]